The Tactical Art of Combat

[jomni]

I got this in my inbox.

The following is an e-mail sent to you by an administrator of "CSO CLOSE
COMBAT THE HOME OF TACTICAL REAL TIME WARGAMING  Since 1997". If this
message is spam, contains abusive or other comments you find offensive
please contact the webmaster of the board at the following address:

sulla@closecombat.org

Include this full e-mail (particularly the headers).

Message sent to you follows:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Art of Combat – New Tactical Real Time Simulation Wargame in Development
From Developers Who Worked on CC.

Hi,
This is a quick message about Art of Combat a new Tactical Simulation that
is being developed, by the Developers who brought you the CC Rebuilds
worked with the US and British military developing CC as a training
simulation.  We are now developing a brand new Tactical Game with an new
engine.

The game will have many brand new features and is being built with a new
Engine. The Tactical Art of Combat is to be a new type of game.  It will be
the true successor to the old Close Combat Series by Atomic, but will
differ from those titles in many ways.  What we as developers are aiming to
do, is to create a new wargame, with new features. About all it will have
in common with past games is that it will be an RTTS [Real Time Tactical
Simulation]. The aim is to build a game that will eventually cover many
time periods, not just WW2. The game will have a host of features, such as
civilians who can become insurgents/partisans, booby traps, the ability to
realistically model many differing types of tactical warfare from WW2 to
Asymmetric, insurgent based warfare.

                 We have a great team, many have worked on various military
versions of Close Combat, Games  [CC:RAF Rgt, CC:CCM, CC:AT, CC:JTAC] other
games such as Squad Assault, Call of Duty, Europe in Flames, Warhawk,
Decisive Battles of World War II, WW2: Time of Wrath to name a few. The
Team have worked for studios as varied as TalonSoft, Atomic Games, Freedom
Games, Simtek, Treyarch, Matrix Games, Janus Studios as well as numerous
military and serious games projects.

Game Forums:
http://www.tacticalartofcombat.com/ARTCOM/index.php

Early Feature List:
• Theatre of the game is Italy [Provisional]
• Unlike all previous games THE TACTICAL ART OF COMBAT will cover different
eras covering most of the 20th century: WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam,
Iraq in different future iterations of the title.• Force selection between
battles
• Simplicity of use
• Reinforcements in battle
• Easy to Mod – Modding Interface
• Stacking Units
• Real Attacks on Op Layer / Real Counter Attacks
• Intuitive Interface – GUI
• Realistic Battlefield simulation
• Improved AI on both SAI/TAI
• Multiplayer (up to 5-10 per side) [Provisional]
• Civilians – Asymmetric Warfare [WW2 Partisans]
• Larger Strategic Area allowing real movement
• Top Down & Isometric Camera View [Options]
• Zoomed Views allowing for accurate height judgement [Options]
• Scalable Soldier Size
• Role playing aspect. [Medals / Promotions etc]
• Tracers and canon fire in game. [NOT LASERS!]
• Unit Stacking on Strat Map
• Triggers [Booby Traps/Mines/Insurgents/Partisans]
• Pre-deployment of pill-boxes, sandbagged mg/mortar positions.
• Importing of Real World Map data [Mission Planning for Military]
• Options for most things, camera angle, game speed, historical, random,
importing own map data, importing unit data, changing units loadout,
• Strat map supports, supply, logistics, harbours, railroads, docks,
airfields, bridges, Minefields, commands, roads, cutting supply,
communications to artillery, air support, Military Manoeuvre, flanking etc
• Night movement? [Almost a must for Germans!]
• Realistic Water – River Crossings Etc
• Command HQ has radius and effect on Strat Map
• Possible Modular AI [?]
• Cross Platform

We have Game Forums, Website, many screens of the game in progress. We have
great talented team and are aiming to bring you the tactical Game you have
waited over 15 years for.  As a company we firmly believe in modding and
options, also that you as gamers, the community have a vital role to play.
We recently added several versions of GUI, like everything in the game,
where we can, we would like your opinions on these.  We very much want you
the community involved in the process of developing the game.

Art Of Combat Screenshot Gallery:
http://www.tacticalartofcombat.com/ARTCOM/gallery/album.php?album_id=2

Company Website:
http://www.tackom.com/

Tactical Art of Combat On CSO

http://www.closecombat.org/csoforums/viewforum.php?f=286&sid=ec821d135af2f18e5b7f9949a43c7fac


We are very excited to be developing the game and aim to bring you the best
tactical wargame ever made.

Best Regards  - Shaun Wallace [aka Sulla]



--
Thanks, CSO [www.closecombat.org]

[Staggerwing]

Interesting email. I can't say that I am too excited after seeing the screenshots at the link. I have a strong dislike of seeing realistic terrain and vehicle/personnel models that are way out of proportion to each other, as in' the Attack of the 50-foot GIs'. Hopefully one of the mods available will be to replace the giant models with some kind of counter or other abstract representation of a unit and leave the models for when the action is zoomed in to each individual pixeltrooper in said unit.

[panzerde]

Well, the graphics certainly do a great job of conveying the terrain. I like that a great deal. I agree with Stagger though on the units. Land of the Giants would not be my preferred approach in a game like this.

[panzerde]

Looks like this might be the current look:



which is not bad at all. Definitely worth watching, I think.

[jomni]

Interesting email. I can't say that I am too excited after seeing the screenshots at the link. I have a strong dislike of seeing realistic terrain and vehicle/personnel models that are way out of proportion to each other, as in' the Attack of the 50-foot GIs'. Hopefully one of the mods available will be to replace the giant models with some kind of counter or other abstract representation of a unit and leave the models for when the action is zoomed in to each individual pixeltrooper in said unit.

The map with 50-foot GI's is the operational layer.  The tactical layer is the one shown by Panzerde.

[Staggerwing]

Interesting email. I can't say that I am too excited after seeing the screenshots at the link. I have a strong dislike of seeing realistic terrain and vehicle/personnel models that are way out of proportion to each other, as in' the Attack of the 50-foot GIs'. Hopefully one of the mods available will be to replace the giant models with some kind of counter or other abstract representation of a unit and leave the models for when the action is zoomed in to each individual pixeltrooper in said unit.

The map with 50-foot GI's is the operational layer.  The tactical layer is the one shown by Panzerde.

Yes, I figured as much. Hence the wish to mod the Giant GI JOEs with NATO counters or blocks or flags or silhouettes or something else that doesn't remind me of the concert scene in Spinal Tap where the dwarf nearly crushes Stonehenge.

[Skoop]

Sounds great, it looks they are doing what I wish the CM series would do....hope it comes to fruition.

[panzerde]

Yes, I figured as much. Hence the wish to mod the Giant GI JOEs with NATO counters or blocks or flags or silhouettes or something else that doesn't remind me of the concert scene in Spinal Tap where the dwarf nearly crushes Stonehenge.

Wait...why would you not want to be reminded of that?  ;D

[Staggerwing]

Uh... now that you mention it...  *starts checking Netflix*

[JasonPratt]

The map with 50-foot GI's is the operational layer.  The tactical layer is the one shown by Panzerde.

I'm okay with the figures being 'figureines' at the operational layer.