However what the engine could and can support was not matched mechanics and gameplay-wise. The game felt excessively manual most of the times, with the player having to issue orders for every squad to fire, something that could've been solved simply by implementing a "fire on range" option that would allow a player to trigger autofire as soon as the enemy entered a specific area of the squad's range of fire. Cavalry could also use a bit of realism for the sake of balancing. They're generally too fast and could use an acceleration/braking cooldown so it could be harder to manage and maneuver. Cannons also tend to perform poorly. I remember some pretty hilarious bugs that sometimes caused bullets to get stuck between depressions because of the ricochet physics. Ideally the cannon role should be similar to the role of the batteries on games like Blitzkrieg, allowing the bombardment of very distant positions rather than focusing on mid/close range targeting.

As for more engine related issues, I always wondered why the engine has compatibility issues with recent OS, and right was indeed hoping you could answer me that question, given that you are in possession of the code, and if such flaws would be possible to fix in a not-so-distant future.

The problem is not the engine, its those versions with starforce drivers that give problems on Vista/Windows 7. Lucky I have versions without these messed up protection drivers. As I said before, I never had compability issues on any operating system.

Nice. Static models or animated models aswell?

Now, as for your suggestions on your initial post. I believe most are doable. They are very similar to the 'battle' type of maps we have now (no peasants, capture zones,...)
Its not hard to implement a new game mode, I'v already done so, added a random map mode besides the already existing battle & skirmish map mode.
As for rewarding players with units/formations based on zones captured, well there is something very similar already present in game. It's a reward system based on experience, though it lacks an interface. It's carried over from Alexander and would require some tweaking to change the experience gained by killing to a system of experience (or points as you say) by capturing zones.This would have to be done in the engine... but for the rest...all very doable.

Perhaps then you should release the necessary files to create a small patch. I don't believe that to be an illegal procedure.

Did some characters but never tried animation

Lost my interest in HOAE. It's a conceptually poor game.

Alternatively one could simply use a resource, such as gold and simply rename it. The player wouldn't be "rewarded" but free to spend the points on whichever units he wanted. I've elaborated a very rough map schematic so it will be more explicit.

This simple capture and conquer method keeps the battle raging throughout the game without focusing too much on economic management, leaving the players free to concentrate on pure warfare and field tactics.

And if you allow me another question, considering you have access to the engine source, wouldn't it then be possible to increase the max limitations of map size?

I will only release stuff with my mod for which I have permission from both gsc & cdv. I will not start releasing fixes for every single problem a player might or might not encounter. I cannot provide support for anything other then my own mod. Not that I dont want to, it's just I already got enough on my hands as it is now.

True

Ofcourse, but it's not just a simple matter of increasing the size which is set to 16512 now and yank it up to lets say 33024 and done. It also involves AI pathfinding issues and probably other things I haven't thought about.

Silly as this question may be, how do I discern a starforce version from a version without it? As far as I noticed the 3 CD edition o C2 and BFE contains Starforce. Are the DVD versions (if there are any) starforce free?

Understood. Still good to know it's possible.

It depends on the publisher. I have both a cd & dvd version of NW for example which comes directly from cdv AG Germany and neither has starforce on it. The cdv Usa version on the other hand does have it. So do the gold editions I believe. And there are more publishers ( white label,...)

I do not know all the specs on the different publishers and whether they used starforce or not.

Lol

On my pc

Nah, seriously now, I don't publish stuff that is subect to change for 2 reasons: its a waste of time for me and I dont want to dissapoint people when things do change.

But if you really want to know you can always add me to your msn.

It is quite interesting questions, but maybe put these posts in another thread about suggestions to modding C2. I think it will be more visible for users.

And now, my two cents to this discussion.