Battlefront a annoncé il y a quelques jours que la quatrième version du moteur graphique de Combat Mission est disponible pour Mac et PC pour ses principaux jeux, soit CM Battle for Normandy, Red Thunder (voir cet AAR), Black Sea, Final Blitzkrieg et prochainement Fortress Italy, pour lequel de derniers ajustements techniques sont nécessaires.
Cette mise à jour améliore un peu l’interface, ajoute différentes fonctionnalités au gameplay (par exemple une escouade d’infanterie au coin d’un bâtiment disposera quelques soldats en position de tir – voir screenshot en en-tête) ou à l’éditeur de scénarios, puis selon le studio corrige aussi quelques bugs mineurs. Voyez la liste ci-après pour plus de détails. L’update 4 coûte 10 $ si vous le prenez pour un seul jeu de la série, ou il est sinon disponible en lot à 25 $ pour les cinq jeux.
Au passage, l’éditeur confirme aussi dans son forum qu’en plus de divers changements et autres optimisations à la série, ainsi qu’une légère augmentation des prix, de nouveaux modules sont bien prévus pour 2017. Voyez l’annonce suivante pour quelques précisions.
Communiqués
Happy Holidays!
As yet another year draws to a close, it’s time to send our thanks out to all of you for keeping us around for so long. Next year will mark 20 years since Battlefront was created (on paper) and 17 years since going public. It’s been a wild ride, to say the least :) And to prove it’s not over, you might want to check the Battlefront Store’s various Combat Mission sections for Upgrade 4. Our elves were hard at work getting them ready for you ahead of the Holidays. They’re a good bunch of lads, that’s for sure!
We had planned on getting the Upgrades out sooner, however trying to handle 5 Base games and 5 separate Upgrades all at once proved to be a lot more challenging than we anticipated. Live and learn, right? A complicating factor is we had to rewire our store to handle the complexities of all the new products and our new way of selling products. Here’s the benefits of the new system:
- we’ve improved cross platform licensing support. This includes links to both Windows and MacOS versions when you go to download.
- all Combat Mission Families now use the CMBN « one installer » concept which makes managing additional products much easier.
- as a result many of the Modules/Packs don’t have downloads any more, just license keys. This will come into play more in 2017 as we release additional additional product for CMFI, CMBS, CMRT, and CMFB
- the ability to offer a massive 5 CM Family Upgrade 4 Bundle at a significant discount. With this you can have « one key to rule them all » instead of 5 individual Upgrade 4 keys to lose track of. We weren’t sure the site infrastructure could handle the complex licensing issues, but it does!
- If you want a physical copy you can have it, but you now also get the download option with your purchase for $5 instead of the old $10. The $5 difference goes towards the increased costs of physical goods as the number of people interested in them continues to decline.
- CMBN Big Bundle now includes both Modules and both Packs. One stop shopping is always a good thing!
Those of you who are good at math will notice we’ve increased our pricing of the Base Games by $5. This is the first price increase we’ve done in about 10 years. Go to Google and look for an inflation calculator if you’re wondering why we did this ;) In fact, if you put in $55 for 2007 you might wonder why we didn’t increase our prices earlier or higher than just $5. The reason is we’ve kept in mind that a lot of you purchase many things from us over time and keeping pricing down helps everybody. With that in mind we kept the serious discounts on Bundles and didn’t increase the prices on any of the Modules, Packs, or Upgrades. We feel that’s a fair approach, we hope you do as well.
Thanks again for all your support over these many years! Enjoy the new stuff!
Battlefront
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 )
CM Normandy – UPGRADE 4 (Windows)
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.
