Combat Mission Game Engine 4 Released!

[Asid]

Combat Mission Game Engine 4 Released!



At long last, Combat Mission moves from Game Engine 3 to Game Engine 4!  In the Store you will find Upgrades for CMBN, CMRT, CMBS, and CMFB.  CMFI's needs a little more time in the oven, but it will be along shortly.

After we have a little time to recover there will be a central page of information about Game Engine 4.  For now just visit one of the supported CM Families in the Battlefront Store and look for the various Upgrade options.  The details are there for your viewing pleasure.

We offer a bunch of different purchase options, including product specific Upgrade 4 installers, specials for both Upgrade 3 and Upgrade 4 (where applicable), and the Upgrade mega pack with all 5 Families covered (including CMFI).  It was a last minute rush of minutia to get them out to you, so enjoy!

Also know that CMBN, CMRT, CMBS, and CMFB Base Games and Base Game Bundles are all using Game Engine 4 now.  CMFI, once we get some details ironed out, will also be at Game Engine 4.

 Happy Holidays!
Last Updated ( Saturday, 24 December 2016 )



The Upgrade 4 Big Bundle transforms all five supported Combat Mission games to the new Game Engine 4 standard.  If you have three or more Combat Mission game Families this is definitley the way to go! A bonus of purchasing this way is the convience of having one license key keep track of for all five games.
 
Upgrade 4 Features

GAMEPLAY
•   HULLDOWN COMMAND: Vehicles have access to a new movement command called Hulldown. This command allows a vehicle to move forward until only the turret is exposed to a specified target, and then the vehicle stops moving.
•   IMPROVED INFANTRY SPACING: Infantry on the move will now respect each other's personal space! While moving, squad and team members will maintain a few meters of distance between each other. Soldiers will also spread out laterally on the move when possible (some terrain may necessitate column movement, such as paths through rough terrain).
•   PEEKING AROUND BUILDING CORNERS: Infantry units positioned adjacent to building corners will now automatically post some soldiers at the corners to observe and fire around the obstacle
•   AI PROACTIVELY AVOIDS HIGH-EXPLOSIVE FIRE: The TacAI that runs soldiers and vehicles will more proactively, and reactively, attempt to avoid incoming HE fire. Two classic examples are that the AI will attempt to avoid being wiped out by incoming artillery barrages and direct tank fire.
•   COMBINE SQUAD COMMAND: Combine Squad is a new Admin Command for squads. This command is useful for squads that have suffered major losses and need to consolidate their remaining personnel into larger teams!

USER INTERFACE
•   EXPANDED WAYPOINT DESCRIPTIVE TEXT: More special unit commands (such as Hide and Deploy Weapon) will now be marked with white floating text above the waypoint they are assigned to.
•   CAMPAIGN BRIEFING: The overall campaign briefing is now viewable during any campaign mission by going to the Menu Options Panel and selecting "Campaign".
•   FORWARD OBSERVER KILL CREDITS: Finally, time to see how effective your artillery really is! Forward Observers now get credit on the AAR for any casualties caused by off-map fire missions called in by them.
•   SCREEN EDGE PAN TOGGLE: Tired of trying to fine tune a camera position and then messing it up by touching the edge of the screen with the cursor? Using the hotkey ALT-E you can disable camera panning by touching the screen edge with the mouse cursor.

EDITOR
•   AI AREA FIRE ORDERS: The AI can now be scripted to use Area Fire! Each AI Order can have a target zone designated.
•   AI FACING ORDERS: Each AI Order can be given a location for it to Face towards.
•   AI WITHDRAW ORDERS: AI Groups can be ordered to Withdraw towards their movement destination. Vehicles will move in Reverse to the destination, while infantry will leapfrog back while turning around to face behind them.
•   CAMPAIGN RESUPPLY: Personnel replacements and ammunition levels are now more uniformly resupplied across all core units between campaign missions, as opposed to the all-or-nothing check on each unit done previously.
•   3D FLAVOR OBJECT CLONE TOOL: Flavor object can be cloned within the 3D view without having to go back to the 2D view.
•   32 ORDER AI PLANS: Each AI Group can now have up to 32 Orders, increased from 16.
•   STREAM TERRAIN: Small streams can now be placed on battle maps.

GRAPHICS
•   New tracer and muzzle flash effects.

[panzerde]

Some nice improvements in this is seems, particularly the infantry stuff. Upgrade purchased but not yet applied.

[Stardog765]

Upgraded like the proper addict I am 

[panzerde]

All upgraded here too, no issues.
 

[Asid]

Good news that Battlefront got this sorted before Christmas.

[panzerde]

Good news that Battlefront got this sorted before Christmas.

Yeah, I'm not sure what the supposed issue was, or if there was any, but I had no problems. I would observe that some people seem to have software and upgrade issues with everything... 

[Asid]

They did have an issue. Something to do with the licensing. Fixed now

[Pipe]

OK so is this a great game or what. May buy it if you give a good review..lol

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

[Stardog765]

Ya there was an issue when they created the upgrade exe but that has been sorted now. I upgraded all my modules no problem.

Panzer you are also correct some people seem to have issues with everything too even when its not broken

Pipe man all I can tell you is I have been addicted to Combat Missions games since the first one came out like 100 years ago.
Just something about it and the WeGo system and being able to play by email. Its a very classic tactical wargame that has never been equaled for me.
Now obviously all I can tell you is that I love it and the community but some dislike them for various reasons and I leave that to them to say why.

For me its the wargames that I always do and will come back to.
There is a really good demo for the new Final Blitzkrieg Battle of the Bulge Combat Mission. I would recommend you download it and play through the scenario December Morning that comes with it. Its a great scenario and a really cool map.  That will give you a good idea of how the games are.  There is also a demo for the Eastern Front game Red Thunder.

Check them out and see what you think. 

[panzerde]

I completely agree with Stardog - the CM games are not to be missed. These are games that require real tactics to win. The WEGO system and PBEM have also always been a big deal to me. These are games that never leave my hard drive and that I almost always have a PBEM game going with.

The games can get a little bit on the micromanagement side at times. You do have to give your units a lot of oversight and a lot of direction. This can seem a chore at first, but once you get used to the UI and shortcuts, it becomes second nature.

It's also tough to beat the breadth of theaters and time periods covered by this series.

[Pipe]

Update 4 would not come with purchase of base game? Looks like I would need to purchase update 3 and 4 to be current

[Stardog765]

It depends on which game you buy.
The older games Normandy and Italy are 2.0 game engine so would need to be updated IF you want to.

Red Thunder and Final Blitz are already 3.0 I believe but would have to look at the store page to see how they are doing it.

They might be selling all of them at 4.0 now for all I know. I have not checked.

[Stardog765]

Pipe it looks like from the store page all Normandy purchases now are already upgraded to 4.0 hence they are back at full price. The 4.0 upgrade is not available for Italy yet for any of us but I would assume once its available later in Jan that will work the same way.

I am getting clarification on Red Thunder and Final Blitz.

[Pipe]

Thanks for looking into that for me. I'm leaning towards Black Sea, says its currently game engine 3

[Stardog765]

Ya I think that is correct. I think Black Sea comes as 3.0.