Long post to Ssnake and everyone else that is intrested

[netjens]

Hi Ssnake

First I just want to say that I am grateful that you take time to communicate to the members that play this sim, to few big computer softwares companies dont answer in the messageboard. Well I have a few questions for you...here we go

1. As I remember I read a long time ago in the old messageboard that you where going to re-use a lot of code from the laste game, for example AI, and I seen a few screenshots of the game (Looks good) that must mean that you have finishded the engine. Is the big work now the graphics in the game?

2. Are the tanks going to be animated this time, by this I mea for example if the tank are moving, are we going to see the tracks moving as welll. Now, this may not be the most important in the game, I just wanted to know :-)

3. Is the 'waves' removed in this engine, as I noticed in the SB, when you move and have zoomed mode, there is big waves moving across the hills

4. I must way that I am VERY impressed with the sound, I have actually been playing this game on and off since it came out, and I am as impressed now, as I was then, but, are you planning to change any sounds?

5. Are you going to implement the M1A2 with the electronic map and the hmm..what it is called, the screen for the tank commander so he can scan for target at the same time

6. Are you going to put in a driver station in SB2?

7. You said it was a goal with night battles, is it hard to do? As I understand it lightning and flashes are built in in direct x and G-force cars?

8. What kind of resulutions are there going to be? Why havent havent you released a patch for the current game for a higher resulution? Is it a engine problem, if that is the case, I guess there isnt much you can do about it :(

9. In the current SB, you can use Leopard 1 and M1A1, anything more coming up? I guess I dont need more, but fun to know :)

10. There been talk about when SB2 is going to be released, as I understand it, it would be somewhere around the summer, I know it it very hard to set a date or even a month, even the BIG companies have problem with that, but, do you estemate (not promise) that the release is going to be around the summer? If that is the case, when do you think we all would have the pleasure to play a demo of it?

11. are then planning map going to look anything different then it is now?

12. One thing I dont like, is when I get hit in SB, like I loose a track, the tank just sitts there, crew having coffe, reading a book or whatever they do, are there going to be change in this in SB2? like you have an option to order the crew out and repair the tank. I mean, under fire ofcourse not, but when there is not enemy around, why not?

13. In a big battle, there a is a lot of radiocalls, I can not keep track of what is happening to who, when I do, it is to late, they ar dead. One importat one is when they say that my unit have enganged an enemy, and as me if it is ok to retreat, for me it is says that hey are in big trouble, and must retreat, so ofcourse you hit F11 and hope to get there, but lets say that you are in the gunner position and can for the moment not leave the station, what then? Or you hear that radiocall form 3 units almost at the same time, when I press F11, I come to the last unit that had that distressed radiocall, now..where was first one, and you look, there in more radiocalls "we lost a tank" "we lost another tank" all of this is overwhelming (spelling error? hihi from sweden so...) all of this radiocall, I cant handle them, even if I am only at the map, I cant keep up. How about a option that said "if a unit request to retreat, let it do so" or something like that. what do you think?

14. I remember reading in the old forum somewhere that there is 'hot smoke' that cant crew can see what is on the other side of that smoke, the reason to put up smoke, is not to be seen so you can escape or whatever you are going to do. This does not work in the current SB, well, you can hide the infatary, but not the tanks, smoke is useless in that situation.

15. Are soldier going to be able to throw a grandade, I mean like against other Infatary OR an Jeep or APC, would have a good effect or? Maybe a granade wont kill a tank, but it isnt good for it either.

16. Are there going to be weather changes SB2? I dont mean rain and sun flares (but it would be nice) more like fogg and clouds

Well that is about those thing I had in mind now. I must say that the team that made SB2 are very good, you must consider the speed that grapics and prestanda of computer games have delevoped, but SB still is an outstanding game, extremly good physics I must say...wasnt it an engineer that did the game physics? very good anyway. Keep up the good work Ssnake, I will get the game as soon as it comes out out. Thanks for taking time to read and answer this post
Jens Rappholdt :D

[Hell_Hound]

First I just want to say that I am grateful that you take time to communicate to the members that play this sim, to few big computer softwares companies dont answer in the messageboard. Well I have a few questions for you...here we go

Ah, the new guy FAQ. We get these questions about three times a month. :D
Note: I'm not on the team or anything, just regurgitating as many answers as I've seen on this forum in the past.

1. As I remember I read a long time ago in the old messageboard that you where going to re-use a lot of code from the laste game, for example AI, and I seen a few screenshots of the game (Looks good) that must mean that you have finishded the engine. Is the big work now the graphics in the game?
One of many things getting an overhaul. And don't be thinking the engine is finished - those screenshots represent an alpha-ish version whose purpose is just to get tanks moving around on the screen so other stuff can be tested. The real knock-your-socks-off engine will have texturing, light sourcing, shadowing and all kinds of other good shit.

2. Are the tanks going to be animated this time, by this I mea for example if the tank are moving, are we going to see the tracks moving as welll. Now, this may not be the most important in the game, I just wanted to know :-)
I don't know if this has been answered. The SB team is scrupulous about not commenting on these matters until the feature in question is finalized. Until then, about the strongest statement you'll get is "that is a high priority for us" or words to that effect.
3. Is the 'waves' removed in this engine, as I noticed in the SB, when you move and have zoomed mode, there is big waves moving across the hills
? I know the effect you mean, very pronounced on the maps with a "boundary ditch". Al Delaney wrote the terrain rendering engine before he'd even considered making a tank game out of it, and its ability to represent contours from a flat angle is one of the strengths of the game. I'll be interested to learn if it had to be redesigned to work with hardware 3-D acceleration.

4. I must way that I am VERY impressed with the sound, I have actually been playing this game on and off since it came out, and I am as impressed now, as I was then, but, are you planning to change any sounds?
We all love the sounds. Volcano Man would know if any of them are being redone, but he's rarely on here and might be overseas in harm's way at the moment.

5. Are you going to implement the M1A2 with the electronic map and the hmm..what it is called, the screen for the tank commander so he can scan for target at the same time
The map called IVIS, the screen is the CITV (Commander's Independent Thermal Viewer) and not immediately. Implementing the IVIS system is going to be a bitch, and there are some tricky issues to resolve. Of course, the M1A2 won't appear until they figure out a way to model the IVIS well.

6. Are you going to put in a driver station in SB2?
I don't think they're doing this...
7. You said it was a goal with night battles, is it hard to do? As I understand it lightning and flashes are built in in direct x and G-force cars?
No idea.
8. What kind of resulutions are there going to be? Why havent havent you released a patch for the current game for a higher resulution? Is it a engine problem, if that is the case, I guess there isnt much you can do about it :(
Time spent spiffing up SB1 is better spent making SB2 orgasmically mighty.

9. In the current SB, you can use Leopard 1 and M1A1, anything more coming up? I guess I dont need more, but fun to know :)
Leopard 1A5/DK (Denmark's variant) has been confirmed. The M2 Bradley has been confirmed, I think. They really really want to include either T-72 or T-80, but I don't think they have confirmed that one yet.

10. There been talk about when SB2 is going to be released, as I understand it, it would be somewhere around the summer, I know it it very hard to set a date or even a month, even the BIG companies have problem with that, but, do you estemate (not promise) that the release is going to be around the summer? If that is the case, when do you think we all would have the pleasure to play a demo of it?
Go get the north wind in a bag, the roots of a mountain, a cat's footfall and the breath of a fish, and with them you can make an enchanted potion that will allow you to get a release date out of Ssnake. They've said "summer-ish", they've said "when it's ready", and Ssnake once said "fixed, firm release dates are for the weak, and for marketing suits." :D
11. are then planning map going to look anything different then it is now?

12. One thing I dont like, is when I get hit in SB, like I loose a track, the tank just sitts there, crew having coffe, reading a book or whatever they do, are there going to be change in this in SB2? like you have an option to order the crew out and repair the tank. I mean, under fire ofcourse not, but when there is not enemy around, why not?
They will fix this, but you gotta shut down the engine. Hit shift-backspace and give 'em 20-40 minutes, and they'll sort the track out.

13. In a big battle, there a is a lot of radiocalls, I can not keep track of what is happening to who, when I do, it is to late, they ar dead. One importat one is when they say that my unit have enganged an enemy, and as me if it is ok to retreat, for me it is says that hey are in big trouble, and must retreat, so ofcourse you hit F11 and hope to get there, but lets say that you are in the gunner position and can for the moment not leave the station, what then? Or you hear that radiocall form 3 units almost at the same time, when I press F11, I come to the last unit that had that distressed radiocall, now..where was first one, and you look, there in more radiocalls "we lost a tank" "we lost another tank" all of this is overwhelming (spelling error? hihi from sweden so...) all of this radiocall, I cant handle them, even if I am only at the map, I cant keep up. How about a option that said "if a unit request to retreat, let it do so" or something like that. what do you think?
Use the tactics available with your checkpoints. A tank at a checkpoint with Guard orders will fight until it comes under fire, then immediately retreat. If you want them a little more gung-ho, use Defend orders and they'll fight until they sustain "moderate losses". Guard tactics are your friend.

14. I remember reading in the old forum somewhere that there is 'hot smoke' that cant crew can see what is on the other side of that smoke, the reason to put up smoke, is not to be seen so you can escape or whatever you are going to do. This does not work in the current SB, well, you can hide the infatary, but not the tanks, smoke is useless in that situation.
Smoke isn't as ineffective as you think; as long as it's dense enough it will cause lasers to scatter and bloom, giving inaccurate range readings. If you try to lase a target and get strange readings, check your day sight; chances are your target is behind a big cloud of smoke.

15. Are soldier going to be able to throw a grandade, I mean like against other Infatary OR an Jeep or APC, would have a good effect or? Maybe a granade wont kill a tank, but it isnt good for it either.
Dunno.
16. Are there going to be weather changes SB2? I dont mean rain and sun flares (but it would be nice) more like fogg and clouds
All kinds of weird and wonderful weather is on The List. Night, fog, snow, rain, ice, mud and twilight have all been discussed.

Well that is about those thing I had in mind now. I must say that the team that made SB2 are very good, you must consider the speed that grapics and prestanda of computer games have delevoped, but SB still is an outstanding game, extremly good physics I must say...wasnt it an engineer that did the game physics? very good anyway. Keep up the good work Ssnake, I will get the game as soon as it comes out out. Thanks for taking time to read and answer this post

Even worse - the programmer and tech director are engineers. Now are you surprised that the ballistics are accurately modelled? :D

[Ssnake]

I'm about to leave for a business trip, so I can't comment on this before the weekend. Hellhound's answers (at least those that I read) are pretty reasonable, I'll give the official answer in a couple days. Maybe we can add all these to the SB2 FAQ on this site (did you read that, Jens ?)

[Koen]

We all love the sounds.
Volcano Man would know if any of them are being redone, but he's rarely on here and might be overseas in harm's way at the moment.

[Hell_Hound]

Any one got news about V. Man or other SB-ers who might be over there now ?

I hope they're OK and wish them and their comrades all the best.

Koen.

[netjens]

Hi
Thanks for the reply red hound. I will be looking forward of replies of you Ssnake :-) Yes I have now takes a look at the official FAQ, but I only found one question there. Sure you can add my questions there, the more peple knows ther better :-)
Jens

[Ssnake]

OK, here we go as promised. Sean, you may want to add these questions and my asnwers to the FAQ as you see fit.
As I remember I read a long time ago in the old messageboard that you where going to re-use a lot of code from the laste game, for example AI, and I seen a few screenshots of the game (Looks good) that must mean that you have finishded the engine. Is the big work now the graphics in the game?We have currently four artists working on the artwork - Curtis Ratica for the special effects and some textures, Mekhazzio and Phoenix for most of the vehicles, and Dejawolf is working on some special ultimate close-up models. Completed elements get integrated as they appear, special effects will get added in one big session that's still ahead of us.
While the engine is significantly improved over SB1, we still don't consider it complete, and still add a lot of functionality to it. This is a result of verious customization packages prepared for Steel Beasts Professional which we sell to armies. Additions to this will in parts get recycled for SB2 as well, and it is this work that pays a lot for the ongoing development.

So, as you can see, it's a rather complicated dance to get all the stuff done simultaneously.Are the tanks going to be animated this time, by this I mea for example if the tank are moving, are we going to see the tracks moving as well.While I don't want to comment on details, it is obvious that with four 3D artwork specialists at work the eye candy department does get a lot of attention. The leading design principles for us are that we want to attract not only everybody who bought SB1, but also players of neighboring genres like tactical action games, real time strategy, and other simulation games. For all these we need better looks, and that will include animated vehicle suspension, yes.Is the 'waves' removed in this engine, as I noticed in the SB, when you move and have zoomed mode, there is big waves moving across the hillsYes. This was a result of the special proprietary rendering engine in SB1. With our move into the world ofpolygon based environment, we replace this one artifact with other artifacts ;), e.g. adaptive tesselation of the terrain. You can't do without simplifications, but we intend to hide them well from your view. :)I must way that I am VERY impressed with the sound, I have actually been playing this game on and off since it came out, and I am as impressed now, as I was then, but, are you planning to change any sounds?Naturally. I think Volcano has now like 150MBytes of sound samples prepared already, and it's not going to be less when we're finally done. We know that the sound effects are one of the biggest assets to build immersion in SB1, and we're not going to neglect that area in SB2.Are you going to implement the M1A2 with the electronic map and the hmm..what it is called, the screen for the tank commander so he can scan for target at the same timeWhile I don't want to comment on the exact list of modeled vehicles in SB2, the current map view already is better than what "FBCB2" offers today. The SB map view practically is what the M1A2 SEP is supposed to have one day.
Feel free to print out the map in an attempt to raise your realism level, and avoid hitting F5 in SB. Keep track of the battle progress with manual map updates. ;)
In other words, becoming more realistic would inevitably result in a loss of convenience in general handling, and I doubt that this would be a smart move for a consumer game that's supposed to entertain. Steel Beasts Professional (our other product branch) allows to disable map usage, map updates, and/or the chat function.Are you going to put in a driver station in SB2?No. We want to concentrate on the tactically relevant positions, and the driver's station in essence is integrated into both the TC's and Gunner's place.You said it was a goal with night battles, is it hard to do? As I understand it lightning and flashes are built in in DirectX and GeForce cards?It's not just the issue of special effects and dynamic lighting. That certainly is a part of it, but not the crucial part.
You can't just set the visibility to 100m and shift the color palette to dark colors. First, because you can see anything that emits light for several kilometers (hey, the Moon's more than 385,000 kilometers away, and the stars even billions of kilometers). That means, all light emitting objects must remain visible for both the player and computer controlled units. Second, the computer controlled units must be trained to interpret what they see and hear if they are not equipped with thermal imagers. Armies of the 70s called for artillery support with star shells to light up positions of suspected enemy presence. That means, we need to find a balance where the computer will competently ask for target illumination before they have a clear ID of vehicle presence in that area. Then we have to work in the proper techniques of search light employment etc., and let's not forget passive image intensifiers, vehicles at ambient temperature that per definition will be invisible in the thermal imagers, or the blinding effect of large heat sources (like a burning oil filled trench) on thermal imagers.

This was the primary reason why we did not include night combat in SB1. It was less on an artwork issue - the existing NightMod by Rockape proves that the engine is basically capable to handle it. We just didn't find the time to adjust the computer control logic accordingly.What kind of resulutions are there going to be?Any your graphics card can render, and your monitor can display. I have had SB2 at 2500x1900 something on my 22" monitor (needless to say that the framerate was abysmal), so there's no longer a fixed and forced resolution.Why havent havent you released a patch for the current game for a higher resulution? Is it a engine problem, if that is the case, I guess there isnt much you can do about it :(It would have required a major overhaul for an obsolete engine - a waste of time.In the current SB, you can use Leopard 1 and M1A1, anything more coming up?Yes, but at this point we're not going to tell you which.There been talk about when SB2 is going to be released, as I understand it, it would be somewhere around the summerMore precisely, "not before summer but before the end of the year".
Quality over speed, but we're not going to be the sequel to Duke Nukem Forever either.When do you think we all would have the pleasure to play a demo of it?We will release a demo when all relevant artwork has been integrated, and the gameplay provides a competent insight of the final product. In other words, short before the actual release.
The demo will be downloaded by hundreds of thousands of people, and we intend to attract people with what they see and not to scare them away with a premature show.Are then planning map going to look anything different then it is now?Yes, there will be differences, but you will still find it similar to what you're accustomed to. After all, the map is supposed to represent a 1:50,000 scale standard topographical map, so for obvious reasons we can't deviate too much from these established standards.One thing I dont like, is when I get hit in SB, like I loose a track, the tank just sitts there, crew having coffe, reading a book or whatever they do, are there going to be change in this in SB2? like you have an option to order the crew out and repair the tank. I mean, under fire ofcourse not, but when there is not enemy around, why not?I think it has been answered already - the crew does attempt to repair the tracks, but a repair time of 20-30 minutes like we have in SB is a rather optimistic estimate. In reality, it can often be an hour or half a day, depending on the amount of damage.In a big battle, there a is a lot of radiocalls, I can not keep track of what is happening to who, when I do, it is to late, they ar dead. One importat one is when they say that my unit have enganged an enemy, and as me if it is ok to retreat, for me it is says that hey are in big trouble, and must retreat, so ofcourse you hit F11 and hope to get there, but lets say that you are in the gunner position and can for the moment not leave the station, what then? Or you hear that radiocall form 3 units almost at the same time, when I press F11, I come to the last unit that had that distressed radiocall, now..where was first one, and you look, there in more radiocalls "we lost a tank" "we lost another tank" all of this is overwhelming (spelling error? hihi from sweden so...) all of this radiocall, I cant handle them, even if I am only at the map, I cant keep up. How about a option that said "if a unit request to retreat, let it do so" or something like that. what do you think?Well, if you attach a retreat route to every battle position in advance, most of the problems you described should go away. The "Permission to retreat"/"Beantrage Ausweichen, sofort!" is a message indicating that the original orders included a permission to retreat (e.g. Defense of Guard tactics), but that there is no route to take.
So you're (rightfully) suffering from a lack of proper planning on your side. I suggest that you take the planning phase more seriously, identify all promising battle positions before hitting the start button, and to mark every BP with a checkpoint and set defense orders. Then define a retreate route for each battle position into a safe area where the enemy cannot see the unit after it left a battle position. As a fail safe issue for you, you can add a "Retreat if..." condition to these retreat routes that makes them go back to the original battle position if they have reached the safe area and not received new orders after a couple minutes.

Only planning can help you to reduce the stress and information overflow in a complex and intense battle. It's like giving orders in advance. Planning is the key to successful action since your local platoon usually requires 80-90% of your attention and one tends to neglect the other platoons.I remember reading in the old forum somewhere that there is 'hot smoke' that cant crew can see what is on the other side of that smoke, the reason to put up smoke, is not to be seen so you can escape or whatever you are going to do. This does not work in the current SB, well, you can hide the infatary, but not the tanks, smoke is useless in that situation.Multispectral smoke still is not the standard smoke in most (if any) army. We may make it optional in future versions of SB, but I can't comment when that will be.Are soldier going to be able to throw a grandade, I mean like against other Infatary OR an Jeep or APC, would have a good effect or? Maybe a granade wont kill a tank, but it isnt good for it either.We do intend to increase the tactical versatility of infantry. This may include the employment of hand grenades, although I can't commit to a specific date/version number that will introduce this feature.Are there going to be weather changes SB2?Yes, we have every intention to include weather effects that affect both visibility and mobility.