The Wargamer has a chance to interview Battlefront about the upcoming Combat Mission: Fortress Italy!

Because it has received much attention here in the forums, and seems to be much anticipated, we're letting the community ask the questions this time!

We are looking for no less than eight questions. Members can suggest one, or all eight! We will pick the best questions from the ones suggested and will send them on over to Battlefront. We may also add-in a few questions ourselves, if we think anything has been left out. Then, we will post an article on the result!

Ask away!

HERE is the thread about Fortress Italy in our forums.

More info on Combat Mission: Fortress Italy can be found HERE

The deadline for questions is July 20th.

Just quickly for now;

* Will Normandy terrain be getting revised with regard to the map tile and hedge graphics. I find them hard to look at. Fortress Italy looks   a lot better in this regard but then is much more arid?

* Will it be possible to mod North Afrika from Fortress Europe?

* How many allied nations will be represented and who are they? Polish, French Moroccans, New Zealanders, Gurkhas?

* What nations will feature in the campaigns?

* Will their be cavalry, Donkeys and mountain troops

* How will the Italians swapping sides be represented?

* Will the Germans be able to win or will it just be a case of holding up the advance as in Normandy?

* With such open terrain will maps be large enough to allow the room needed to flank and carry out the wider sweeping tactical maneovers needed?

* Will the Salerno\Anzio\Operation Huskey landings have beach maps?

* Will sound effects get a make over for this one?

* Will the strategic map finally be like close combat\Theatre of War Korea or are their any plans to do so? This just adds so much more for the player in terms of depth and a level of care and understanding for your troops?

* Have the camera controls been refined? I always found this aspect of the game very clunky and a major flaw in the game.

* Will the new tweaks to the engine utilise multi-core CPU systems better?

* Will their be multiplayer COOP vs the AI or is this planned at all?

* Has "touch" been a big hit, will this be continued? My hope is not and that when I get a win8 tablet the game will be a joy to play.

* Will the game support windows8 which is due out in October or so this year?

* Have explosive effects been improved?

* I love the pausable realtime multiplayer feature, thanks for this.

* How does target briefly work. I assume this is a way to conserve ammo?

* Can tank turrets now target independently from the bow gun?

* Love the mixed soldier uniforms, squads will now have a less "parade ground" look.

* Can we check to see if the Elefant\Ferdinand and German Paras made it in? Will Monte Casino and Anzio feature?

* Will Abbeys and Rail Guns feature on any maps?

* Will their be any amphibious actions\River Crossings?

* Will their be a better after action report given during the campaign? One thats similar to close combat with regard to soldier stats.

* Will their be an option to set no time limit in campaigns? I have a mate who hates being timed on missions, AI or no AI limitations.

Quite the list.

I guess you're looking for official answers but some I can answer which will be in bold

Originally Posted By destraex (10 JUL 2012 6:34am)

Just quickly for now;

 

* Will Normandy terrain be getting revised with regard to the map tile and hedge graphics. I find them hard to look at. Fortress Italy looks   a lot better in this regard but then is much more arid? the next release of normandy, technically a completely different game, will feature revised land tile options to meet the requirements of Dutch landscapes and I suppose areas along the Sigfried Line.

* Will it be possible to mod North Afrika from Fortress Europe? You can't mod units other than graphics. You can't mod OOBs, so no.

* How many allied nations will be represented and who are they? Polish, French Moroccans, New Zealanders, Gurkhas? See LINK to units in the first installment of CMFI. Since the first installment of CMFI will only cover the Americans in Scicily, you wont see these units. They may be included in future modules of CMFI.

* What nations will feature in the campaigns? See previous answer.

* Will their be cavalry, Donkeys and mountain troops

See previous previous answer

* How will the Italians swapping sides be represented? You can already play blue on blue or red on red battles in CMBN. So it will be possible to put Italians vs Germans.

* Will the Germans be able to win or will it just be a case of holding up the advance as in Normandy? The Germans have always had to win any particular battle or campaign. The scope of Combat Mission has never been on the operational level, so I'm not sure why you ask this.

* With such open terrain will maps be large enough to allow the room needed to flank and carry out the wider sweeping tactical maneovers needed?

* Will the Salerno\Anzio\Operation Huskey landings have beach maps? I'm sure they'll be made by users if not included in future modules. I don't recall any mention of amphibious craft though.

* Will sound effects get a make over for this one? Probably not, the user community has made and posted dozens of sounnd mod packs that are quite excellent.

* Will the strategic map finally be like close combat\Theatre of War Korea or are their any plans to do so? This just adds so much more for the player in terms of depth and a level of care and understanding for your troops? Again, the scope of CM games is not the operational level. Never has been and never will be. I agree that Close Combat's strategic map adds a fun factor to the whole campaign experience but it's hardly realistic.

* Have the camera controls been refined? I always found this aspect of the game very clunky and a major flaw in the game. Pan, tilt, elevate with the mouse controls is smooth as butter. Keyboard controls could be slicker like RUSE but I don't they they plan to change anything along this line.

* Will the new tweaks to the engine utilise multi-core CPU systems better? Good question but I don't know.

* Will their be multiplayer COOP vs the AI or is this planned at all? I'm not sure how this fits into the scope of CM. This isn't an RTS.

* Has "touch" been a big hit, will this be continued? My hope is not and that when I get a win8 tablet the game will be a joy to play. ??? Totally confusing statement. Anyway, they just released an Adroid Version.

* Will the game support windows8 which is due out in October or so this year? Don't know but also don't care.

* Have explosive effects been improved? Do you mean visual effects or their lethality. I think they're pretty darn lethal as is.

* I love the pausable realtime multiplayer feature, thanks for this.

* How does target briefly work. I assume this is a way to conserve ammo? IIRC, I think it will target for 10 seconds, yes to conserve ammo mainly.

* Can tank turrets now target independently from the bow gun? I never was aware that they couldn't, it would be Tac AI targeting only.

* Love the mixed soldier uniforms, squads will now have a less "parade ground" look.

* Can we check to see if the Elefant\Ferdinand and German Paras made it in? Will Monte Casino and Anzio feature?

* Will Abbeys and Rail Guns feature on any maps?

* Will their be any amphibious actions\River Crossings?

* Will their be a better after action report given during the campaign? One thats similar to close combat with regard to soldier stats.

* Will their be an option to set no time limit in campaigns? I have a mate who hates being timed on missions, AI or no AI limitations.

Will answer you in full soon PAK40... my quick list was unfortunately off the top of my head in a spurt of pure inspiration.

As you can tell by a lot of the questions being doubles or closely related.

The touch question was more of a nudge to the devs to concentrate on full game and full powered tablet "touch". I'm not a fan of watering down the game to play on low powered devices or the development time it takes away from the real game if thats the case.

As for the camera controls I want a fully developed RTS camera in game much like wargame EE camera. I find the CM camera primitive and clunky at best. You try getting down low and positioning the camera where you want for a screenshot? It usually involves a lot of reversing and adjustment.

If your not doing that then your probably just hovering up in the air without really utilising the camera controls fully.

Re: Touch. I don't have CM Touch yet but I'm all for having this tablet version. It'd be great for those hours when you stuck in an airport with nothing better to do than to kill some Germans

While technically your right, CM Touch is taking some time away from the development team, they really seem to be speeding up rather than slowing down. With the announcement of CMFI, Battlefront released a statemen that within the next year they will be releasing the following titles:

CMFI (new game)

CMBN (3rd module - Market Garden +, also will release ver 2 of CMBN engine which add many features)

CM East Front (new game - the first of the CMx2 east front titles)

CM Shock Force 2 (new game - Revisiting the modern warfare - Western forces vs Russian in the Ukraine)

Although they didn't say it I also think they'll release at least 1 CMFI module during that time also. Of course, whether or not they can meet their own deadline is another story. But they do claim that all of these titles are currently under development.

Re: Controls

Yes the developers of RUSE and EE have made very smooth and slick pan/zoom tools and I agree it would be nice if CM (and many RTS games) had navigation this pretty but current controls are adequete. Still I hope that BF does refine them for future releases.

# are fires  -started by flame-weapons, randomly started by non-flame weapons, and spreading- somewhere down the road on your roadmap of new modules for Italy / CMBN,  or future new stand alone releases ? 

# how about NVIDIA 3D Vision® compatibility?

# even more exotic, some older idea from me:  how about TrackIR support for the camera?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UiYPB-QjH0   {action starts at 1:15}

(...it's just a dll library function call away, isn't it?)

# POV camera view ?  -still immersive without Tracker hardware-

Now where the graphic is even more improved, i thought about a immerse mode where the camera point of view can be switched to a 'Through the eyes of the leader' of the selected group.  (NO, i don't want to turn it into a mindless FPS game! ;-) ) who can turn his head of course too (not shown in-game by the soldiers figurine).

There could be even an über-Iron/Elite/.. mode, where in addition the player is after the setup-phase restricted to give his orders to direct the battle from POV only. 

PS: when in 'Lock Camera to Unit'-mode, a key that toggles between either 'Pivoting around the unit' and
just 'turning around the moving camera attached to the unit' would already be an helpfull workaround-POV.

Yes, good question Mike. Are fire and flame weapons in the game? I don't think they are, otherwise they would have listed it - that's a pretty major feature that's lacking. If they're not in CMFI when do they plan to add it?

Will there ever be a campaign mode that links all the modules together in a series of battles likened to Steel Panthers series or Panzer Command: Osfront?

Originally Posted By Pak40 (11 JUL 2012 8:04am)

Re: Touch. I don't have CM Touch yet but I'm all for having this tablet version. It'd be great for those hours when you stuck in an airport with nothing better to do than to kill some Germans

 

While technically your right, CM Touch is taking some time away from the development team, they really seem to be speeding up rather than slowing down. With the announcement of CMFI, Battlefront released a statemen that within the next year they will be releasing the following titles:

 

CMFI (new game)

 

CMBN (3rd module - Market Garden +, also will release ver 2 of CMBN engine which add many features)

 

CM East Front (new game - the first of the CMx2 east front titles)

 

CM Shock Force 2 (new game - Revisiting the modern warfare - Western forces vs Russian in the Ukraine)

 

Although they didn't say it I also think they'll release at least 1 CMFI module during that time also. Of course, whether or not they can meet their own deadline is another story. But they do claim that all of these titles are currently under development.

 

Re: Controls

Yes the developers of RUSE and EE have made very smooth and slick pan/zoom tools and I agree it would be nice if CM (and many RTS games) had navigation this pretty but current controls are adequete. Still I hope that BF does refine them for future releases.

Do you agree though that Ruse and EE may be up the top, but in addition almost all RTS games are still superior in their camera control.

For some reason they went with the same system that Jutland by SES uses. The edges of the screen are split into sections that do different things. It means say that once your mouse hits the left hand side of the screen their are three directions the camera may fly off in according to what part of the side you hit. This means if you miss its frustrating. It feels un-natural. Additionally most RTS games camera will pan left or right  or head forwards diagonally if you move the mouse into a corner, in CM the game will move the camera up or to the side. Their is no slowing or speeding up according to how fast you are pushing the mouse. Which again makes seems to make it harder to get to where you want to go.

Also feels un-natural as the mouse is not that smooth on my system and it can take time to get to the edges.

The solution could be that instead of enjoying the camera movement as I do in other games that I start using keys and mouse to try to aim for where I want to go like I am playing an FPS. However I do not have to do this in other RTS games and the workload is many times less and its much more relaxing to play because of this. I find that other FPS games like total war are very easy to manipulate with mouse only. Which leaves a hand free to do other things.

IMHO they just got it wrong, its an immature system or they just don't have the resources due to staff or memory requirements to get it right.

It may be a lot easier when I get a better rig. May be a resource thing. But really other games seem to allow you to use the mouse really well even when the game is stuttering. Like they give the mouse the highest priority for resources.

My rig is getting on but exceeds the SUGGESTED (not minimum) system requirements to play the game smoothly.

Q6600

6gig ram

gt460 video card

win7 pro 64bit

Originally Posted By destraex (16 JUL 2012 3:58pm)

 

Do you agree though that Ruse and EE may be up the top, but in addition almost all RTS games are still superior in their camera control.

For some reason they went with the same system that Jutland by SES uses. The edges of the screen are split into sections that do different things. It means say that once your mouse hits the left hand side of the screen their are three directions the camera may fly off in according to what part of the side you hit. This means if you miss its frustrating. It feels un-natural. Additionally most RTS games camera will pan left or right  or head forwards diagonally if you move the mouse into a corner, in CM the game will move the camera up or to the side. Their is no slowing or speeding up according to how fast you are pushing the mouse. Which again makes seems to make it harder to get to where you want to go.

Also feels un-natural as the mouse is not that smooth on my system and it can take time to get to the edges.

The solution could be that instead of enjoying the camera movement as I do in other games that I start using keys and mouse to try to aim for where I want to go like I am playing an FPS. However I do not have to do this in other RTS games and the workload is many times less and its much more relaxing to play because of this. I find that other FPS games like total war are very easy to manipulate with mouse only. Which leaves a hand free to do other things.

 

IMHO they just got it wrong, its an immature system or they just don't have the resources due to staff or memory requirements to get it right.

 

It may be a lot easier when I get a better rig. May be a resource thing. But really other games seem to allow you to use the mouse really well even when the game is stuttering. Like they give the mouse the highest priority for resources.

 

My rig is getting on but exceeds the SUGGESTED (not minimum) system requirements to play the game smoothly.

Q6600

6gig ram

gt460 video card

win7 pro 64bit

Let's stay on topic please.

I'd like to know how they see the current state and the future of wargaming in general? Because releasing three separate CM ww2 titles, Normandy, Italy and East Front, plus all their add-on modules sounds quite a lot, will there be enough players for every title? Are the markets growing or or do the guys in Battlefront believe that the old player/customer base is enough and that old CM players are willing to put their money on all of the upcoming releases?

This thread will be closed midnight PST.

Questions Chosen to be sent to Battlefront

Curtis Szmania

Why was the battle for Italy chosen as the next addition to the Combat Mission series?

destraux

What will be the scope of Combat Mission: Fortess Italy? Will it feature the battles for Sicily, Monte Cassino and/or Anzio?

What nations' armed forces will be represented in the game? How will the Italians swapping sides be represented?

Considering the terrain in which the game is focused, will there be cavalry, donkey, and mountain troops?

Will amphibious landings or river crossings be implemented? Will "Anzio Annie" or Goliath tracked mines be represented?

Has mutliplayer been enhanced? Will there be COOP gameplay available against the AI?

MikeGER

Will there be NVIDIA 3D Vision® compatibility?

Will there be TrackIR support for the camera? How about a point-of-view camera?

Will fire and flame weapons be in this addition?

Tinkershuffle

What does Battlefront see in the future for the wargaming market in which their games are targeted? Are their games focused on keeping the old customer base, or bringing in new customers?

Wolverine101

Is Battlefront interested in linking all the Combat Mission World War 2 games into one grand campaign?

Curtis Szmania

What shall we see the Combat Mission series taking on next?