Well folks, what a
massive update. The backlog of gaming fun just got bigger ... No complains, though. :)
Plenty of new goodies. Main attractions for me: 3D infantry and ... wait for it ... a crewable T-72!
Come on in and grab a chair. I have screenshots.
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| A Bradley IFV deploys its troops in the desert. |
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| Iraqi infantrymen moving to contact. |
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| Russian soldiers catching up with their BMP-2. |
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| The T72M1's gunners position and its fully detailed 3D amenities. |
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| Engaging targets with the T72M1 is a bit more involved than with the western tanks. Some M1A1s are moving in and we are in deep caca now. Note to self: press "V" (activate autoloader). |
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| The thermal imaging system of the T72M1 is barely enough to drive around. In this screenshot, a BMP-2 as viewed from the IR sight. It is only available at night. |
Cheers,
17 comments:
You can always tell when a developer has a real passion for what they're doing.Beautiful game.
Grr, makes me wish I'd bought this. :)
Buy it now then... still the same price as when originally released, with the latest update included.
is there a demo anywhere?
No, but you are encouraged to download the installer, and (politely) request a temporary license on the SB forum, or in teamspeak - a user with at least one (spare) license on his CM stick can share this across a network.
Not sure of the exact procedures - some prefer a Hamachi connection if I read correctly, while others can/will just share using their external IP address.
If you do try, can you report back on how you got on?
It looks good, but I'm going to wait until they can do some improvement to the infantry AI.
New 3-d models, but same AI.
I've had this 'discussion' on the SB forums with developers, who constantly fall back on the excuse that it's a VEHICLE oriented simulation.
I don't understand why they can't just devote a patch to infantry AI improvements and then have a GOOD all ground-combat simulator.
The map and mission editors are already top notch, in any game i've ever played.
The mission editor, especially, has a great system that makes mission creation easy.
Lieste, you've convinced me. :) Seems it's on sale or something, since I got it for $100, so I kinda saved $50!
Mike, thats my sentiments exactly.
Ive drooled over this since it came out, however the lack of decent infantry AI representation kills it for me.
All the online videos with clans/communities playing it seems like an AI killing fest. Im not quite sure what they get out of it, though I suspect its just the fetish for controlling the machines realistically, not so much for potential realistic combat.
Kylania, welcome to the ranks. Let us know how it is working for you.
Mike, regarding infantry. eSim is one of those rare companies who are brutally honest on why they do or don't do something. Infantry is not paid by any of the military customers, then no infantry. If you want to play an infantry sim you will have to play ArmA. Oh, wait, you don't like ArmA either ... :)
Olav, as any other simulator you can play this in any way you want. I've seen my share of "tank doom" videos with Steel Beasts ProPE. But there are groups of people who play realistic scenarios with authentic armor drills.
Cheers,
Thanks JC! Looking forward to it, should be getting my usb key tomorrow or Friday I hope.
Also contemplating picking up VBS2 1.5. Seems owners of the PE of that will get VBS2 2.0 for free. Basically ArmA2 engine with VBS2 content. The perfect game? :) Sooo expensive though.
@ Olav,
Yes, I've seen that posted by them many times. It's sad really, because Steel Beasts has such high potential.
I don't understand why they wouldn't want to take the extra step from being a good VEHICLE COMBAT SIMULATOR to a good GROUND COMBAT SIMULATOR. It makes no sense to me.
Mike, almost all we get is paid for by military customers. The latest T72 thing is an interesting exception, though.
JC,
I understand that. I am a military man. I think they have a good thing going, but they've pigeonholed themselves with limiting their simulation to vehicle combat only.
I see the SB engine, while outdated, and not as pretty, outperforming the ArmA engine any day.
As a combined arms commander I would easily choose SB for my younger leaders, over any other simulator if they could just take the inf functionality from, say, Combat Mission and add it into SB.
Ground Combat Simulator > Vehicle Combat Simulator
They could get so much more out of their contracts
@Mike
Pidgeon holed themselves? LOL...no way. Spoken like someone whose never even played the game...oops...simulation. The infantry is downright deadly in their proper element. Forest, hilly terrain with excellent defilades, urban settings. All depend on mission designer and how he scripts AI routing for troops. Probably the most in depth modern armor simulation out there...nothing touches it in terms of replayability, map sizes, crewable vehicle choices, ability to make maps from anywhere in the world. Well worth the cash...time to jump in fellows.
RedBravo65
@ RedBravo65
I'm going to disagree with you in regards to the infantry AI.
I think the developers devoted very little time to advancing the infantry AI. I'm too lazy to go searching through the hundreds of pages, but I'm almost positive that they've admitted it on their forums, using the excuse that the focus of Steel Beasts is armored combat and not infantry or combined arms.
The good news is that the developers realize that the 'sim' is much better in the combined arms role, and I THINK they'll be working on improvements to infantry AI.
I'm going to say that IF/WHEN the infantry play in SB ever come close to that of Shock Force, then it'll be a great sim.
I have a multiplayer question: Is it possible for players to play in the same tank? For example: Player1 = Commander; Player2 = Gunner; Player3 = Driver?
Thank you!
It sure is Anon! This weekend was my first time playing and I had a blast. One of the more experienced players was in my tank as commander and he was able to slew the turret over onto a target then I was able to lase and fire at it as gunner.
It's a very interesting command method. You can either be "observer" and leave the driving and gunnery to the AI while you just plot waypoints. Or you can hop into any of the slots (observer, commander, driver or gunner) leaving the AI to the rest. Also from any of those positions you can manually drive the tank with WASD essentially overriding whatever route you'd planned. Very immersive and complex and rewarding.
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