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Intro and quick question


T9FURY

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Hi all, I just thought I would pop on and introduce myself. I'm Mick from the UK and I just purchased SB Pro PE 4 about 4 days ago. I'm 44, I had the fortune of serving with HM Forces as a reservist in the 7 Royal Anglian for a couple of years, then served in the armoured corps (medium recce), albeit only for just over 3 years, I joined too late :(, so I was too set in my ways for them to break and mould me, lol. I'm still on the reserves list for another 4 years, but not in any active way. Other than that I'm just a regular Joe doing a regular job.

Hobbies are gaming and photography. I would class myself as a semi hardcore gamer, as in; I game a lot but not seriously competetive. I go by the name T9FURY, everyone just calls me T9 or FURY. I'm a bit of an all rounder when it comes to games, Sim City, Tropico, Company of Heroes, Assault Squad, World of Tanks, Warthunder, blah blah.

Although I do love my World of Tanks and similar games they just lack the realism and cooperation I am after. I did spot SB Pro a few months back, but thought it was a gamble for the price tag. Anyway, after watching a few vids on how some of you guys play I thought I would take the plunge.

 

Anyway, enough putting everyone to sleep, I've been going through all the tutorials, well .......... the challi 2 ones and the Abrams and thought I would have a bash at the Challenger  instant action mission, gees I got mashed up big time, I thought I am going to be totally crap at this. When I looked at the briefing again it says you are not expected to survive. So my question is, how far do you guys get in this mission? I mean I was dying after killing a couple of tanks, first I was just sitting there just to familiarize myself with everything, then I was trying tactical as in finding hull down positions, but all I get is a face full of shells. So am I doing something wrong or is it just designed to be unwinnable?

 

Cheers

T9

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Hi Mick,

 

Rather than push one VU can I suggest you have a read here:

 

It includes a link to a "starter pack" and should help you get acquainted.

 

It also lists the various Virtual Units around the place and then you can mark a decision as to which is most convenient to you.

 

As to the question you asked, not its not "winnable" but to quote an old tank movie there are many ways to "win".

 

The longer you last, the better you are doing.

 

You are basically constrained to a very small manoeuvre box with minefields all around and you have to destroy as many of the oncoming horde as you can before you are overwhelmed.

 

Ideally you do it after the tutorials but eventually you will expend you ammunition and they will still be coming.

 

Edited by Gibsonm
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52 minutes ago, Gibsonm said:

Hi Mick,

 

Rather than push one VU can I suggest you have a read here:

 

It includes a link to a "starter pack" and should help you get acquainted.

 

It also lists the various Virtual Units around the place and then you can mark a decision as to which is most convenient to you.

 

As to the question you asked, not its not "winnable" but to quote an old tank movie there are many ways to "win".

 

The longer you last, the better you are doing.

 

You are basically constrained to a very small manoeuvre box with minefields all around and you have to destroy as many of the oncoming horde as you can before you are overwhelmed.

 

Ideally you do it after the tutorials but eventually you will expend you ammunition and they will still be coming.

 

 

Mark before you critisie others posting with community links and call them "Rather than push one VU can I suggest you have a read here:" you should click the links and look at them they where links to all the VUs and the multiplayer forum thread.

 

Quote

We will even help you by doing some training with you if you want most of the VUs do that

 

 (as in plural more then one VU)

 

Quote

We also have a lot of fellow brits in our games

 

We play totally open games and almost every time we have brits from 3 or more VUs participating.

 

And nowhere did i mention which VU i am from so please stop with the politicking please it don't fit you.

 

MD

 

Edited by Major duck
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I wasn't criticising any one.

 

If that's what you took from it, I'm sorry.

 

I was just trying to give the new person a single place to look at.

 

I was asked to write the Starter Pack for just that purpose so there wouldn't be multiple locations and people pushing their own barrows.

 

We keep banging on about a Community but everybody pushes their own sub section of the "community"

 

If no one it going to use it I might as well just delete the page and then new people can be overwhelmed by a pack of 2nd hand car salesmen saying "pick me".

 

Edited by Gibsonm
Critical typo
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I realise you're not reading this GibsonM/Mark, but, for what it's worth, I found the material you posted for download of great use in getting to grips with what were often new concepts to me. Basically, if it had your name on it, it was well worth reading. I am sorry if my capacity for arcane discussion and desire to clarify things to the nth degree annoyed you. You wouldn't be the only one - it's austism of course, but it's not like I don't have any control over it and I know I should wind it in. Anyway, thank you for your help; it was and continues to be greatly appreciated.

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2 hours ago, Grenny said:

Instant action has enemy comming till you're dead...so indeed unwinable.

 

Note quite true. There is an upper limit at about 160 tanks or so which we once considered enough, but there were a handful of cases in the last 15 years where people managed to neutralize all of them, mostly by shooting up the first tanks on a few choke points that a thorought terrain analysis (or a sufficient number of retries) will revel. Not all tanks would in those cases actually be killed by gunfire but rather immobilized.

 

We considered upping the limit, but in the end we figured that if the player manages to stop 160 tanks he actually deserved to beat his chest on a smoking heap of armor rubble. So... keep trying!

:D

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4 hours ago, T9FURY said:

Anyway, enough putting everyone to sleep, I've been going through all the tutorials, well .......... the challi 2 ones and the Abrams and thought I would have a bash at the Challenger  instant action mission, gees I got mashed up big time, I thought I am going to be totally crap at this. When I looked at the briefing again it says you are not expected to survive. So my question is, how far do you guys get in this mission? I mean I was dying after killing a couple of tanks, first I was just sitting there just to familiarize myself with everything, then I was trying tactical as in finding hull down positions, but all I get is a face full of shells. So am I doing something wrong or is it just designed to be unwinnable?

 

Cheers

T9

Welcome.

 

I've always thought of the Instant Action missions as the next step after completing the tutorials for a vehicle.  it's really the first opportunity you get to put together all the gunnery skills you learned, against an opponent who shoots back (well, actually, IIRC, one of the last tutorial missions is simple a movement and combat exercise, but the Instant Actions are just loads of targets conveniently served up for you).  The best I've ever done is about 90 kills in the M1A2 SEP, and I think I got around 60 in a Chally once (and probably also a Leo 2E).  But I think of the IA missions as just a quick gateway kind of experience before you move onto "real" missions and (especially) online play.  So, I wouldn't worry too much about winning it.  IMO, to get the most out of Steel Beasts, you have to play it online with and against real humans.  And once you've done a set of tutorials and then used the IA missions to solidify what you learned (about shooting, at least; not so much maneuver), then you're ready to take it online.

Edited by MDF
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Welcome!

 

Definitely check out the Starter Pack as posted by Gibsonm; it has lots of good information, especially on Self-Paced Study. Be sure, if nothing else, to try the two Scenarios mentioned there (Tanks! Again, and Camp Hornfelt.) Once you are fairly comfortable at playing Instant Action, I recommend looking at the Gun Runner series of scenarios to help train on shooting on the move, and Advanced Gunnery/Malfunction Handling to get proficient at engaging targets while degraded. 

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20 hours ago, Gibsonm said:

I wasn't criticising any one.

 

If that's what you took from it, I'm sorry.

 

I was just trying to give the new person a single place to look at.

 

I was asked to write the Starter Pack for just that purpose so there wouldn't be multiple locations and people pushing their own barrows.

 

We keep banging on about a Community but everybody pushes their own sub section of the "community"

 

If no one it going to use it I might as well just delete the page and then new people can be overwhelmed by a pack of 2nd hand car salesmen saying "pick me".

 

 

On the matter of the Starter Pack, your Virtual Units link is broken, probably because the forum was upgraded - maybe an excellent chance to re-create it and update it. Just thought I'd let you know

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1 hour ago, DrHat said:

 

On the matter of the Starter Pack, your Virtual Units link is broken, probably because the forum was upgraded - maybe an excellent chance to re-create it and update it. Just thought I'd let you know

 

??? Which of the X links in the section?

 

The first one "http://www.steelbeasts.com/online_play.html/" works.

 

If one of the VU links no longer works then that VU needs to tell me as I have no idea what it may have been changed to.

 

Edited by Gibsonm
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27 minutes ago, Gibsonm said:

 

??? Which of the X links in the section?

 

The first one "http://www.steelbeasts.com/online_play.html/" works.

 

If one of the VU links no longer works then that VU needs to tell me as I have no idea what it may have been changed to.

 

 

Fixing the link and then looking at me confused is a strange thing to do. I still have the HTML loaded into my browser and the link for VU's in general in the Starter Pack is: http://www.steelbeasts.com/virtual_units until you just changed it. 

 

To see what I mean, simple google: http://www.steelbeasts.com/sbwiki/index.php?title=Starter_Pack

 

Click the small arrow next to the top link and select "Cached", which will show you the page before you just changed it.

Alternative check this link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:XZT58vLep5YJ:www.steelbeasts.com/sbwiki/index.php%3Ftitle%3DStarter_Pack

 

But good thing that you fixed it in any case.

Edited by DrHat
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Just now, DrHat said:

 

Fixing the link and then looking at me confused is a strange thing to do. I still have the HTML loaded into my browser and the link for VU's in general in the Starter Pack is: http://www.steelbeasts.com/virtual_units until you just changed it. 

 

But good thing that you fixed it in any case.

 

That's my point, I didn't do anything.

 

I tried that link and came back here to find out which one you meant - since that one worked (and hasn't been edited for 12 months).

 

Anyway one of life's little mysteries.

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1 minute ago, Gibsonm said:

 

That's my point, I didn't do anything.

 

I tried that link and came back here to find out which one you meant - since that one worked (and hasn't been edited for 12 months).

 

Anyway one of life's little mysteries.

 

Seems the explanation is very simple: http://www.steelbeasts.com/sbwiki/index.php?title=Starter_Pack&diff=12595&oldid=11799

 

Thanks Sean! :)

Edited by DrHat
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Thanks for the welcome everyone. Talking about getting my ass served in IA, it was literally straight after I did the Chally tuts, I wasn't expecting to kick or anything, I think really it just shows there is more to a mil sim than just moving around and using your LMB. I'm working through ALL the tuts from all vehicles so I have a good grasp of them all.

I'll definitely look at the starter pack when I am ready for it, thanks for the link.

 

As for units, again........ when I'm ready for it I will check out some of the units, don't really want to look a twat on the first outing, lol. A couple of questions of the VU's though. As I am based in the UK my timings will be GMT so i was looking at maybe UK Armour, Kanium EU or maybe Dogs of War for the co-op, these seem more viable timewise. Are UK Armour and Kanium the same group by any chance? The wording seems / description seems similar to a certain extent?

 

Anyway, can't wait to get online and have a few.

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8 minutes ago, T9FURY said:

Thanks for the welcome everyone. Talking about getting my ass served in IA, it was literally straight after I did the Chally tuts, I wasn't expecting to kick or anything, I think really it just shows there is more to a mil sim than just moving around and using your LMB. I'm working through ALL the tuts from all vehicles so I have a good grasp of them all.

I'll definitely look at the starter pack when I am ready for it, thanks for the link.

 

As for units, again........ when I'm ready for it I will check out some of the units, don't really want to look a twat on the first outing, lol. A couple of questions of the VU's though. As I am based in the UK my timings will be GMT so i was looking at maybe UK Armour, Kanium EU or maybe Dogs of War for the co-op, these seem more viable timewise. Are UK Armour and Kanium the same group by any chance? The wording seems / description seems similar to a certain extent?

 

Anyway, can't wait to get online and have a few.

UK-armour has been inactive for a while (anyone correct me if I'm wrong).

Kanium and D.O.W. would be good places to a "fight" a GMT friendly hours in english language.

 

I'd recommend a sunday game with Kanium. We usualy have 1-2 new starters at the sunday games. IMHO this is the best way to get started by beeing the wingman of one of the more experienced players....steepest learning courve possible in this game :-)

We are very welcoming...and noone will call you a twat unless you realy deserve it ;-)

 

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Well BG ANZAC does 0900 GMT on Thursdays - up to your judgement as to whether its "GMT friendly" or not but at least the Sun is up. :)

 

But again we are starting down the "pick me" road.

 

Pretty much all the VUs are welcoming, you just need to determine which is the best time from your POV (maybe you work nights or something, who knows).

 

Edited by Gibsonm
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Hi

 

But do try both and find the style that fits you and yes UKarmor and Kanium normally work together on the same TS but the guys leading it is on summer vacation flying remote controlled airplanes so when the weather gets bad you will prolly see him at our games again.

DOW also play a crazy free for all on Wednesdays called Midweek madness those are very relaxed games just for fun whereas both VUs Sunday games are a bit more serious.

We also sometimes play together on Sundays.

 

MD

 

 

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Welcome T9FURY! I got into SB fairly recently myself, and was also enticed by watching youtube videos of TGIF gameplay. I strongly recommend TGIF for some multiplayer goodness, the vehicles in use vary from week to week so you get a good understanding of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the kit (you can download the scenario from the TGIF forum thread in advance and see what vehicles a side has, and do some familiarisation beforehand if you like).  Hope to see you online :)

 Cheers

 

-Also- do check out the WIKI, there is some gold in there!

 

 

Edited by Bond_Villian
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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the abundance of info. I haven't been on it in the last week due to other matters, however spent all Friday night and Saturday on it. I have visited that starter wiki and downloaded the Camp Hornfelt missions and also the Tanks Again mission. To be honest I found them a tad overwhelming. Move to do with the fact that it's taken me a while to remember all the keys, especially the commanders for telling the gunner what to fire at. Also, in real life you have multiple crew members spotting, so when I used to drive the old Scimitars it would have been the commander or gunner who in most cases spots a contact first, the gunner is then already slewing the gun round. So in game I start in the TC's position, sometimes with scope and sometimes without. Then once I find a contact I start panicking as to which position to settle in. I started out staying in the TC position but forgot how to assign targets, lol, yes ......... I know now, hold the friggin' P key or use the arrow keys to scan. But then I tried going into the gunners seat, but often I could not even see a target, so I tried moving but would get immobilised before I can re-position.

 

Anyway, what I have decided to do is create some basic missions, one with static low threat targets just so I can practice manoeuvring onto enemy positions and actually spotting them and quickly changing positions for the contact. Then another mission with mid range threats the higher end threats. Then a couple of missions with moving threats. Not sure how that will go. I think ultimately being a wingman in a co-op mission might be the best bet.

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Another quick question, is there a quick method of making the gunner align the main gun with what the commander is seeing while in bino view? Similar to how you align the commanders view to the gun with the up arrow. I am scouting for the enemy as the commander in zoomed in (N), spot a contact, then I try to get into the gunners seat as quick as pos but find the gun is facing totally the wrong way, so I try to slew it and scan for the target but it keeps taking me out too fast. I try this both from the commanders position and gunners position.

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