I had a dream this Christmas morning...

[Denixen]

Of me playing a game which combined commands game engine and wargame red dragons graphics engine. It was glorious. That's all I wanted to say.

[LuckyJim1010]

Ah yes the Holy Grail of Computer Wargaming
Being able to control the Big Picture and then zoom right in and see the units in action.

[Dimitris]

My biggest problem with the 3D views on most strategy titles is that they emphasize unit-level glitz ("Look! The gun turret on that ship actually rotates to aim, and the barrel recoils when firing! AWESOME!") instead of providing meaningful tactical visual information.

It's not like we haven't seen it envisioned or even implemented before:

[tommo8993]

What are those screenshots from?

[hellfish6]

The ill-fated Harpoon 4 for the top one, at least.

I'm probably a little weird about this, but I'd prefer to have my 3D, should it arrive, as simple eye candy. I'd still fight the battle on a map with icons, but I'd love to watch my Des Moines-class heavy cruisers firing full broadsides or follow an AS-4 into a carrier.

[AdmiralSteve]

ORIGINAL: hellfish6

The ill-fated Harpoon 4 for the top one, at least.

I'm probably a little weird about this, but I'd prefer to have my 3D, should it arrive, as simple eye candy. I'd still fight the battle on a map with icons, but I'd love to watch my Des Moines-class heavy cruisers firing full broadsides or follow an AS-4 into a carrier.

I'll always be a "nuts and bolts" player. I played the MS-DOS version of Harpoon and loved it. I never liked 1st person shooters like MW3 but when the graphics become sooo intense and sharp that you can practically see the shell striations, it makes you wonder how close we are from simplifying game code and making consumer priced hardware to run such a behemoth of a program such as a 3D version of CMANO.
My "mortgage the house for this game" desire would to have an AI with more of a human response such as reacting to whats known as "Fog of War". CMANO seems to get close but I think as humans we individually react differently to immediate dangers. Could you imagine a game that reacts accordingly to the threat i.e., reacting to a platoon size threat with small arms vs. a battalion with heavy artillery or a side that can determine lack of survivability and retreat or surrender?

[SSN754planker]

No to a 3d CMANO. I am 100 percent for improvements in the game engine and leaving the 3d stuff out of this sim. What graphical improvements we should (and probably will) see in the future is an more detailed map and map graphics. Maybe add some bling to the UI and menu system.

Great things are coming guys. Much as id love to see a high res depiction of a CVBG launching an alpha strike, I think the best way to see that is in my mind right now.

[Pergite!]

Another solution is to link simulators together through an API. For example partner up with DCS simulation that has the looks and flow, but lacks the finer details when it comes to certain aspects of weapon and sensor simulations. They have their Combined Arms addon that adds a command layer for the ground. But by linking limited aspects of CMANO it would certainly add the air and sea as well. COMMAND would also serve as an excellent campaign and mission generator for DCS. Limit the scope to for example the upcoming gulf theatre for DCS would also reduce the development needed.

In other words, keep the current crisp C2 UI, but maybe consider to export data to other simulations for the "looks".
There are of course military C2 systems that do 3D rendering, but I believe CMANO has to have even more details and fidility before it adds to the actuall "gameplay".