Gaming News! | Combat Mission Acquired by Slitherine!
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- Опубліковано 17 вер 2024
- Battlefront is Acquired by Slitherine: www.matrixgame...
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Today I discuss Battlefront.com the owner and developers behind the Combat Mission series, being acquired by wargame publisher Slitherine, and what that might mean for the series future.
#History #Wargame #StrategyGame
As a former military officer, i can confirm CM PE is being utilized by the Army as a teaching tool, as had TACOPS 3-4 years ago, though that was in a more adhoc manner….PE is licensed and in use. We’ve always used COTS options as we found them…some software went in reverse ie: professional use to commercial gaming and example being Jim Lunsfords “Decisive Action” which we used quite heavily….later its was marketed commercially…so talking “Grognardish” that was hard planning and logistics tool turned into a game! 😂 CM was being used already and articles were written about its application in training at places like Ft Knox/Benning…the games limitations in commercial format drive requirements/changes that you see in CM PE options (mainly ability to further draft and refine the custom scenarios)
I remember when CM came out. I was active at The Blitz wargaming club and it was a huge hit with the community. It definitely needs a facelift.
I was 13 and I was so excited lol... I remember playing it a ton, I played the hell outta the two demo scenarios because I couldn't afford the game for a bit.
This is good news! Fingers crossed we get an updated CM.
Perhaps we will see a new CM in the Unity engine. Modernizing it would be a big step forward. Very excited about all of this!
I really hope any new game adopts some kind of campaign system. Operations are cool but I want to see linked battles, with linked logistics, over more than just a single map. Let me tell a story!
Unity...not ...unreal.
@@cmdkaboom Unity is a bit off, and it's net code trashy.
played them all since overlord and put a good deal of hours in Black Sea. Yeah, it is a pretty niche game, but I am not sure if any other games can simulate tactical ww2 and modern combat to the degree CM does. Would be great if they can get some new games and a new engine.
I'd be happy if they just reissued remastered versions of Combat Mission.
Could we, perhaps, just perhaps....
GET A NEW GAME ENGINE AND STOP USING GAME ENGINE FROM 2000, 24 years ago ? One that would not lag NASA computers in medium sized battles? Pretty please?
If they just upgrade the UI to make moving around the battlefield and giving commands easier and more intuitive, I would definitely dive back in.
Making the game run at a higher resolution without slideshow levels of performance on maps using more than 10 squads would also be a good step.
@@serch3ster Yup, my two biggest gripes. The graphics are totally fine, just make it perform properly guys. And make the UI scalable and improve it a bit. I'm not asking for much!
Everything feels like it's in slow-motion in combat mission, that and the user interface is confusing as all get out. I tried playing these but gave up after frustration. I mostly play wargame Steel Division, Warno As they feel better as a game. I would love to play these, but reality sets in once I try lol
I think the UI is ok, but the performance is unforgivable. The graphics really are very dated, not that they look bad, but they really haven't changed much since I first played Combat Mission: Shock Force on my mom's Windows XP machine with an Athlon 64 and 512MB of RAM... and Ironically, I think it might have ran faster on that PC back then.
I loved this game for many, many years...and then I despised it. I couldn't play it anymore. And it wasn't about the graphics. It was the large amount of bugs that Battlefront refused to solve (as well as a shitty AI on the attack). Remember the bridge bug where your vehicles wouldn't cross? Remember the guys riding in the APCs who would get sniped continually, yet the guys in the jeeps seemed relatively unscathed? Remember when you spent a lot of time planning the defence, siting in your MGs and ATGs very carefully, then pressed the "GO" button and suddenly they didn't have LOS, screwing your entire plan? Remember ordering your guys to enter a house from the "friendly" side, but instead they ran around the house to enter from the enemy side and got mown down by MG fire? Remember trying to play with bocage? Remember trying to "bandage" your troops, but because of the weird alignment of the "hexes" on the ground, you couldn't match them up so that this could take place? Oh man, I'm getting trauma just remembering this stuff and there are so many more. FIX IT! Oh yeah, one last thing, bring back multiplayer campaigns!!!! Remember the original CMBO and CMBB where you could actually play a campaign with your friends? Then came CMBN et al, and suddenly we lost the ability to do this! How was it possible for a later engine to be LESS capable than the first one? OK I'm done. Sorry if I caused some angst there....hopefully just my own. If Slitherine fixes these things, then I'm back in full force. If not, adios!
Agree, plus horrible biased Hollywood like "balancing" in modern titles.
It's both "could be" great news and bad news.. if they change it too much like the close combat games then it's dead in the water.. if they keep it to its core, release more content and modules etc and add good improvements etc.. while upgrading it to use more hardware then yeah. Fantastic. But it's a big if.
The low performance of their games is the reason I don't play as much as I want to. I want to buy and play all of the CM games, but I know I will get a headache from the low performance.
I hope that changes.
It would be awesome to get a new engine for the whole series, but IMO they are well worth it as is. As far as I know, one of the main technical problems at the moment is the engine can't utilize multicore processors and threads properly. There are some option tweaks to minimize the results of this, and I have managed a pretty constant 60 FPS with my ~5 years old rig without feeling I sacrifice much as the graphics are bare bones anyway.
Thats a good thing, unfortunatelly Battlefront was only caring to supporting their "Professional" military market while forgotting the civillian one, Slitherine in other hand like we saw with Command: Modern Operations can make our stuff sideways as the Pro versions
I like the Combat Mission games (though I played the BO and BB more than the modern ones), but the technical issues are very frustrating. I recently picked up the modern WW2 games now that they were finally on Steam. Personally, I have zero issues with the graphics, I think they're more than good enough. But the fact that the engine runs at such a low fps, the constantly glitching out trees, and the complete absence of a scalable UI (which is just awful on high resolution displays) is pretty sad.
If they could just make the engine's renderer perform well (and accurately), and make some quick wins to the UI in terms of scalability and accessibility, that would go a very long way for me. And some more robust boot camp missions in each entry couldn't hurt either.
I'm both a little scared and skeptical of bringing the entire thing over to Unity, but any effort to improve the technical state of the series is welcome at this point.
I bought all of them almost immediately after they became available in Steam, in hopes of encouraging the publishing this kind of niche games on a mainstream DRM platform. I believe Slitherine acquiring CM's is the most promising sign I could wish for. After all, despite of all the sluggishness caused by the archaic engine, there really aren't many alternatives for realistic tactical level combat simulations out there.
Loved the battle sounds in Beyond Overlord, love Beyond Overlord... STILL.
Man i've been wanting to get one of those for so long BUT, 1. they are so much expensive compared to other similar games 2. the engine looks like 20 years ago without any QOL. Hopefully they work some magic with it, although, slitherine does not shy away from paradox-dlc tactics.
ive never found a game similiar to cm
This is honestly really good news. Battlefront was being run by absolute dinosaurs who refused to innovate in any way shape or form. Hopefully we get a new game, with a new engine.
Battlefront did what they wanted to and ignored the fans, and the franchise stagnated.
Yup, they had a great product and never innovated. I'm really excited for this aquisition. I hope it brings us some awesome updates to the engine and the minimum.
I wonder how much was due to them having a huge hit with their first two games, and then when they tried to modernize the game with the CMx2 engine, their first game kinda flopped (Shock Force) and then they never really had another game that got to the popularity that BO and BB did, so it made them very cautious about major investments because its very possible the audience wasn't there to support a major technical investment.
@@thehistoricalgamer Charging for patches didn't help.
@@thehistoricalgamer They coasted for twenty years.
Agree on the charging for patches being a bad call, at least from a community pov ... no idea if their financials were dire enough to be the only way to keep the lights on.
I be happy to see a return to the North African Front. I LOVE the CM titles. I don't care if the graphics are dated as the game play is challenging at times.
Graphics are one thing, but the UI scaling & Resolutions are pretty bad for modern monitors.
Back in 2000, Beyond Overlord was my first online game purchase ever. The CD came in the mail.
CMBB needs a re release with graphics update. Most intense Eastern slog. Loved it!!
Recently became associated with the CM games and I’ve quickly fallen in love. Played Normandy, SF2, and BS so far and love them. Whenever I play though, I think to myself what if these games had the graphics of Call to Arms Gates of Hell graphics and the same realism these games are known for. It would be amazing. But we’ll have to see. And good on Slithern for getting them to put these games on sale. They are WAY too expensive for what they offer.
I’d love to see those gov’t contracts go away, but those are honestly Slitherine’s main motivation in the acquisition.
I’m not sure it’s the “main” motivation for Slitherine buying them, but it might have been the main motivation for BF selling. If that makes sense. Most of Slitherine’s work is still non govt contracts.
I wonder how much collaboration or asset sharing, if any, will take place between slitherine’s broken arrow and CM teams going forward. seems like models and animations, etc. would make sense just based on overlap in genre, period, and scale
My wishlist:
Online WEGO mode (simultaneous like in the CM1 games)
Real time gameplay with replays.
Larger maps, procedurally generated too.
Operations like in the CM1 games. Or even some operation phase overlay, like Graviteam Mius Front uses.
Multiplayer for more than two players. It would be so cool with the C2 system the game uses.
If they could just keep the basic core of the game in place but go with a new graphics engine it could be awesome. Especially if they started remaking some of their old ones. Combat Mission: Afghanistan was a ton of fun to play, and I can only imagine how much better that game could be with a move to a new graphics engine and then an updated core engine for the combat itself.
Bring back the fun. Each title past CMBB the fun factor dropped more and more... YMMV
And they are starting to release games on GOG, which is fantastic for those that care for DRM-Free games!
I played this 15 years ago and the graphics havent changed. 😊
One of the best features of CM was the modding.
I owned the first 3 on CD, I remember beyond overlord had a ton of mods on the disc with the game. Lost hours and hours in those games, even joined a forum to play by email multiplayer.
I just discovered Combat Mission a few years ago and I love every game in the series old and new. When they got on steam i bought them up at every sale. I dont think they are outdated at all. Its a war sim not COD.
Loved CM PBEM with a buddy of mine circa 2000
new engine + the pacific theatre would be nice.
Hopfully some innovation will becoming to C9mbat Missions as the devs did jack squat over the past 10 years...
I've spent thousands of hours playing CM2 WWII titles by PBEM and love the game. But i haven't played in years due to the lack of game changing updates. If Slitherine could bring out a CM3 engine I'd be back in
slithering feels like a small company as most of their games fall into a small niche
Slitherine is a small company. Larger than Battlefront mind you, but no wargame company is “large”.
Imagine the eastern front.....and no house catches fire during intense combat? I never understood why CM2 never implemented this. I lost interest in this series because of this. I think it a good decision to put it in the hands of slitherine. Hopefully CM is updated!
I first played the original demo, downloaded by dial-up lol, still love the game its mods it community, this will be a good business deal.
This may be the best thing for CM, given that the CM devs have obviously been stretched too thin these days. Lets hope this leads to some much needed changes and improvements....and content! Give us the WW2 North African theater!!!
Look at armour Brigade 2 to see where theses games are heading too.
Armored Brigade 2 is something I’m excited about but it also is a bit more of a zoomed out view of the battlefield than I expect from whatever CM becomes.
@@thehistoricalgamer Well I was hoping for a Broken Arrow GUI update... lol but yea like that will happen on each of the Combat Mission Games.. but I can wish...
A shame they canned all Black Sea DLC though, would love to see updates UA forces.
thanks for the update.
If they just clone CMBB and CMAK but with Steel Division 2 graphics (and maybe add horses) I'll immediately slap down the money and be in heaven...
Yeah, that's not going to happen.
Very glad this happened. Ive had a love hate relationship with BF especially when I needed to re-register my games after PC upgrades which were always clumsy to do. I liked when it came to Steam but for the longest time there were arguments against it on their forums
Yeah I flat out refused to buy the games directly from BF. I only picked em back up once they came to Steam. I'm all about supporting a small niche developer but if they insist on making it tough for the customer I'm just not going to bother.
Finally pheraps they will have more resource to make a new graphical engine on par with the hardware developments.
None of the titles run on my newer (2022) laptop.I bought all of them years ago and have tried everything to get them to run.Asked on Matrix forums and crickets.
AWESOME !!!
If they make a good job of upgrading or new version I will buy all of it. I played CM from it's first release and it's my favorite strategy game and everything I play in the same genre I compare with CM.
One day, developments in AI will make video games as moddable as boardgames currently are. Then we won't have to put up with corporations meddling with our hobby.
There was a DLC for CM:CW in development to add the British, which was supposedly quite close to completion. I was really looking forward to seeing British units with the SLR rifle. I fear this may now be canned.
They’ve said they’ll still be doing content for the cm2 games so I assume any CW DLC isn’t being cancelled unless otherwise said.
We know that it's still in the works, and that's been confirmed by developers on their forum.
@@EvilTwinn That's great news! I love the pre-SA80 Brits.
I own all the games and all the DLCs. Just shut up and take my money Slitherine.
I enjoyed CM back in the day, but there are plenty of games out today that do it much better. I can't imagine them devoting the resources to make this old series competitive with Gates of Hell or SD2.
If you want a realistic battlefield simulation, I don't think anything available today comes close to Combat Mission. CM's age does make it painful to play, but it survives in its niche because it is (somehow) the only game that does what it does.
Yeah, like @wmouse said, there honestly is nothing like it. I'm a fan of Gates of Hell and SD2, but those games really aren't similar to CM.
@@robinmattheussen2395 I love Gates of Hell but I sure do get tired of tanks being able to shoot me through smoke because some random conscript got vision of me from the side.
would be amazing to see the USMC and VDV come into black sea, i thought there was a thing about that and then it got cancelled after the ukraine war but they said they would drop it out but it’s been a little more than a year now? :(
Yep would be grate, meanwhile real massacre in Syrian didn't stop them from creating second part and DLCs for shock force. So why stop content for black sea. For me it is the best part for CM
@@Parsecter yes, VDV would be the best thing ever in my opinion
Waterloo is pronounced "Vuhter-low" (in English too).
Maybe I'm misreading your phonetic spelling but that's not how you pronounce it in either Dutch of French.
@@robinmattheussen2395 I wrote that to anglophone readers who primarily see letter A as an ei sound. Otherwise I'd phonetically spell is as a va-ter-lo.
Is there any hope of adding replay to the game engine?
Im still angry I cant buy Afghanistan anymore and they didnt warn us it was the last time we would be able to buy it.
If combat mission games had better gfx and animations it would be so good. I played the one set in Syria and play it real time like traditional RTS with pause. I love the realistic ranges and ballistics buy the gfx and animation are just not that great.
If they’re not revisiting Ukraine with CM 3 then they hate money.
Whatever happend to the Theater of war games ?
I think that stopped making them, I never played them though so idk why. Presumably they didn’t sell well. I think 1C actually made them though not Battlefront. Battlefront might have published them for a time.
@@thehistoricalgamer That suprises me they look like a game you would have enjoyed!
i want evry thing new in Combat Mission 3 General map Operations Regiments even Bigger new Animation abatter looking game ineed evry thing am sorry lol
Have all the CM games and they are still really fun and challenging despite the dated graphics. Updated graphics would be cool...
Its not about the graphics but the outdated clumsy clunky engine
@@arquebusier1995 Runs fine on my PC
yeah, it wasn't about the graphics....it was about the huge amount of bugs, shitty AI and complete inability to play a multiplayer campaign game!!!
@@markc8401 Never have problems with the games and I have them all. I do NOT do multiplayer though. I enjoy the games to this day, too bad your experience is not the same.
@@WysteriaGuitar I honestly think you might be the only one then. These games all run absolutely terribly on modern systems. The performance is unacceptable.
Are engine updates going to be free now?😂
I assume patches will be free since they are with all Slitherine’s other gamwsz
@@thehistoricalgamer without a doubt. Battlefront was awful. Good riddance.
Please update the game engine, OpenGL is just a slog.
Nothing wrong with OpenGL (despite being a legacy API, it works just fine). It's just that the renderer was written (poorly) somewhere in 2005 I imagine.
Please satan, engine update. Its impossible to play with my amd gpu.
Personally I never get the whole it's a dated game etc. if you look at most of the type of games slitherine sell. Some don't even have 3d models lol. It's just the wargaming genre. It isn't about the latest graphics.
its not just that it looks dated its that it also runs horribly.. if the gfx remained the same but the UI scaled properly and the game used at least some of the modern hardware people would probably be ok
@@awakeandwatching953 again, I don't see an issue with the UI But it does really need to use more hardware, it's engine it was designed with has memory usage limits which if fixed would help it hugely. Especially with city battles and the fps
@@awakeandwatching953 what is it that is not liked about the ui
For one when you go into the resolution settings it doesn’t “natively” support modern monitors and the settings and menus are wonky small in part because of those.
@@thehistoricalgamer i've always had it set to "desktop"...unsure how to confirm if it does match the resolution of my monitor tho. but i've not really had any trouble with that.
No gaming company can improve this PoS title.
It is so dull, unoptimized, infested with bugs & above all boring to play.... this title will never have a player base other than some who love torturing their mind
its a fun game youre being silly