Combat Mission Upgrade 4 (Game Engine)

[para bellum]

Battlefront has released new Upgrade (Engine 4.0) for CMBN, CMRT, CMFB and CMFI (CMFI Upgrade slight delay).

You can buy it at battlefront.com.


Upgrade 4 Features (quote battlefront.com):

 "  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
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
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
Graphics

• New tracer and muzzle flash effects. "
  

(Edit: news icon added)

[pontaeus]

Battlefront has released new Upgrade (Engine 4.0) for CMBN, CMRT, CMFB and CMFI (CMFI Upgrade slight delay).

You can buy it at battlefront.com.
Are you aware of any issues with upgrading in mid-game?
Thanks,
Pont

Upgrade 4 Features (quote battlefront.com):

 "  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
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
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
Graphics

• New tracer and muzzle flash effects. "
  

(Edit: news icon added)

Are you aware of any issues with upgrading in mid-game? 
Thanks,
Pont

[para bellum]

Hello,

I had only a few graphic bugs (smoke, explosions) in old savegames which disappeared after one our two turns.

All my h2h matches work fine after both upgraded to Engine 4.0.

All of the mods I use (more than 100) are also working with 4.0. Only the fantastic mod "Vin's animated text" does not work without an update.

Regards

[A Canadian Cat]

Yep, same here. The issue with the smoke looking strange is due to, I speculate, the wrong graphic being used to draw the smoke. So, any smoke from the previous game continues to be drawn with the wrong graphic and any new smoke that starts under the v4 engine gets drawn with the correct graphic. Very short term problem and not a big deal either. So, far I have not seen any reports of failures.

[Jobu88]

Yep, same here. The issue with the smoke looking strange is due to, I speculate, the wrong graphic being used to draw the smoke. So, any smoke from the previous game continues to be drawn with the wrong graphic and any new smoke that starts under the v4 engine gets drawn with the correct graphic. Very short term problem and not a big deal either. So, far I have not seen any reports of failures.

The smoke will revert to normal white color after a couple turns. 

My only gripe is the tracers,  I will definitely be looking for a mod to replace them.  

My favorite new feature is squads peeking around building corners.

[Panzer Lehr]

I had the smoke that looked like giant gas flame balls! All cleared up now and normal smoke has returned.