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Just as a heads-up, we're preparing a new version to be released next week - probably on March 1st or 2nd.

Posting a consolidated list of all of my uploaded scenarios. Will continue to update as I upload new content. Operation Talon Strike: A five-mission single player operation (LEO2A4, Pizzaro). Operation Golden Eagle: A small SP/COOP scenario with British forces fighting in desert terrain. (Shotkal) Clearing Kandahar: A company from a US Stryker Brigade clears the Taliban from Kandahar. (Piranha V, Centauro) Clearing Kandahar: CANFOR: A Canadian forces adaption of the same mission (LAV III, Leo1A5) Operation Cold Call: A Heavy US Company/Team attacks to seize an enemy airfield in a European setting (M1A2, M2 ODS) Operation Dragon Hunter: A Belgian mixed combat team fights African rebels being supported by foreign combat advisors (LEO2A4, DF30, DF90) The Attack on OBJ Bear: A company from a US Stryker Brigade attacks elements of an enemy mechanized brigade in a European setting. (Piranha V, Centuro) Operation Charger: A 3-mission series where you take command of an armored Company/Team fighting against an enemy mechanized brigade in a European setting. (M1A2, DF30) Baghlan Blues: A Finnish combat-team clears insurgents from a village-stronghold. (T-72, BMP-2, Patria AMV) Predator Strike: A Danish Combat Team is called to seize a critical river crossing in a daring spoiling attack (LEO2A6, CV9030DK) A Time to Fight: A Swedish Combat Team leads an attack against a Mechanized Infantry Battalion to seize a river crossing (STRV-122, CV9040, AMV-360) Dragoon Blaze. A Stryker Reconnaissance Troop attacks a mechanized infantry company to support an attack on a logistics node (DF30, Centauro, M1A2) Clash At Amallah: A phased operation where the player must delicately dismantle enemy assets before launching an armored attack on an enemy held town (ASLAV, Centauro, M1A2, UAV) Opening The Gate: A German COY attacks to clear an enemy mechanized force from key terrain along Highway 65. (LEO2A4, MARDER 1A3) Guardian Angels: A British Tank Squadron attacks to seize the flanks to protect their parent brigade in the attack. (Challenger 2, Ulan) Plug the Gap: A CANFOR air reaction force holds the line until armored reinforcements arrive (LEO1A5, LAV, Infantry) Operation Pathfinder: UK forces attack to seize a road junction from an enemy MECH Company. (Challenger 2, Pizzaro) Ice Burn: A US Stryker Recon Troop takes on an enemy mechanized company in winter conditions (DF30, Centauro, M1A2) Day of Decision: An Atropian Tank Company holds the line against the Donovian onslaught! Operation Bronze Hammer: A US Armored Battalion lands a shore and expands the beachhead. Cooperative, Large. (M1A2, CV9030, Centauro, LAV) Operation Behemoth: A single player scenario where the player takes the role of a M1A2 tank platoon leader conducing a company operation. (M1A2) Welcome to the Jungle: A mixed Company attacks to seize a jungle clearing as part of a Division clearing operation. (M60A3TTS, M113, M113 RCL) Desert Strike Utilize a small combined arms team to defend against insurgent forces then counter-attack. (M1A2, NZLAV, AH64) Movement to Contact A small cooperative scenario where US forces conduct a movement to regain contact with an enemy force, then seize a river crossing (M1A2, M2) Stryker Ambush [REDUX] A remake of the original mission - now with 100% more Strykers. (Piranha V, Centauro) Counterattack At Al Miram US Forces defend against an insurgent attack and then counterattack into a defended village (M1A2, Eagle IV, NZLAV)

To be released before the weekend, here's the austere version of the Release Notes. SBProPE_4-379_RN_austere_version.pdf

White smoke, August 5 it shall be.

On one hand I'd say that we're making progress about as quick as I expected and we're not lagging much behind the optimistic projections. On the other, for PE users it will still take at least three more years before there's a realistic chance for a release, and there's a non-zero chance that it'll take longer. There will be at least one more major V4 release, possibly two, before we can offer a version 5 to the general public.

enjoy PS. before I forget This map will be released for 4.3 as a Alpha/beta depending on how you see it, and this does include custom built stuff for this specific map.. and please do not work on it once released.. Cause I'd like to do that my self. which

We have a Release Candidate. It's being tested as I'm writing this.

Three years later and I'm nowhere near releasing this project. 2022 - I've hand-placed every object on this map. I've also done a TON of height management work (thanks to the latest tools) - things like creating actual streams with height depictions and ditches. And hand placement of Custom Line Objects to add the finer details of foliage and trees.

**updated 8/21/2023** Download latest release (v0.2.0): INSTALLER or ZIP (also requires Microsoft .NET Desktop Runtime 7 x64) + Steel Beasts Test Scenario for Calibration Are you a Fennek fiend? A Scimitar simp? Do you love driving tanks with hand-cranked turrets, but hate mashing arrow keys? Well, mash no more! It's MouseCrank, a free utility that uses your mouse input to generate arrow-key presses for manually-traversed turrets. Features Toggle on and off with a configurable keybind Runs in the background, minimizes to tray, and sleeps when not in use for next-to-zero performance impact User-configurable sensitivity and curve settings, saved between sessions Sounds to indicate toggle state Sends keys exclusively to the Steel Beasts application — no errant key presses! DPI-aware Free and open source! (https://github.com/musurca/MouseCrank) How do I use it? Install MouseCrank. (If you see a security warning, please refer to the Q&A section below.) Run MouseCrank, either from the Windows Start menu, or by directly running the .exe. (Note that MouseCrank also requires the .NET Desktop Runtime 7 x64, which you'll be prompted to install if you haven't done so already.) Set your Toggle Key (default is Caps Lock) and Toggle Volume. (I've set the Calibration settings to a decent default — I recommend not messing with them until you've tried them.) Minimize MouseCrank, then start Steel Beasts. Load a scenario featuring a tank with a hand-cranked turret, such as the Fennek, Warrior, Scimitar, or BMP-2. (Or use this calibration scenario.) Switch to the gunner's GPS, and tap your Toggle Key. If you kept the Toggle Volume up, you should hear a clicking sound. You can now traverse the turret by moving the mouse around the center of the screen, in the same way that you would traverse a powered turret. When you've aimed at your target, tap the Toggle Key again to stop using the mouse for traversal. You can alt-tab over to MouseCrank and adjust the Calibration more to your liking as you play. When you close MouseCrank, your settings will be saved for your next session. Q&A Q: What's the deal with the Microsoft Defender SmartScreen security warning that pops up when I install it? A: Dealing with paranoid warnings is one of the unfortunate realities of developing software for Windows without an expensive code-signing subscription. To bypass this warning, click "More Info..." and then the "Run Anyway" button (and if you don't see the "More Info..." option, this article will show you how to fix it). If you have security concerns, I've provided the full source code for you to audit, which I distribute through my account on GitHub using my real name. You can even build this app from scratch with Visual Studio 2022 if you don't want to use my installer. Q: Will MouseCrank give me an unfair advantage in PvP multiplayer? A: Not really. MouseCrank will not allow you to traverse a hand-cranked turret any faster than you could with the arrow keys, nor would that be possible given the hard limits of the physical simulation in Steel Beasts. It's a tool to reduce fatigue, increase enjoyment, and open up a class of hand-cranked tanks to users with accessibility issues. Q: Why won't MouseCrank work if I run Steel Beasts with admin privileges? A: MouseCrank can only send keypresses to applications with the same privilege level—so if you're running Steel Beast as an administrator, you'll also have to do the same for MouseCrank. To do this, right-click on MouseCrank.exe (in C:\Program Files (x86)\MouseCrank by default if you used the installer), go to Properties -> Compatibility, check "Run this program as an administrator," then click OK. Caveats, Fine Print, etc. This software is an unofficial add-on for Steel Beasts Pro PE and is not a product of eSim Games. Please do not ask eSim to provide support for MouseCrank. I'd like to avoid any discussion of whether mouse input for hand-cranked turrets is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing, whether or not it should be built-in, etc etc.; there's a different forum thread for that. This thread is best used for comments, suggestions, and bug reports from MouseCrank enthusiasts and the MouseCrank-curious. Beyond that, enjoy crankin'! And please let me know if you find any weird issues, or have any suggestions for additional features. (If you're a developer and would like to contribute to the project, please feel free to make a pull request via GitHub.)

2024 is still young, I got some time....so lets write down my personal wishlist of things I'd like to see in the next update(s), and give the reason why I want them. Priority from highest to lowest.... 1. Player control of rifle team weapons especially the AT Weapons ->It is a part still lacking to make SB closer to a combined arms game ->more obvious now with trenches, as an effective way to clear those is missing ->will easy A LOT of player frustation becasue of the uncontrolable and sometimes wonky behaviour of rifle team -> will make use of terrain much more interessting for players -> much more fun for the mechinf players 2. Trenches useable for Crew served weapons -> these currently need to be places "outside", wich frankly riddicules the purpose of that trench....simples 3. Ability to select firing unit or at least caliber when calling Arty fire mission -> currently when calling a FM, the "AI" picks and available firing unit of the same "class" (mortars, howitzer or MRLS) so for Mortars you have no way to select between 60mm or 120mm rounds...which might have a notable difference in the effect the FM has -> this option enable the players to put different fire support units of the same type in the game and use them sensably and not kind of "random" as it is now 4. A playble Helicopter...at least some sights and trigger -> same as with 1. // gets SB closer to a combined arms game....and enables LOTS of interessting missions and playstyles 5. Yeah, of course, if we have 4., we need acountermeasure! A playable AD vehicle -> Yeah we have the RBS70, but we need something that can manouvre with the mechanized units... Even some technical where we can stick the RBS70 to...would be a starter 6. Camoflage netting on BPs/vehicle dugouts -> UAS become a more important factor on the field, so do countermeasures vs them. some (fixed) camoflage net "garages" to hide you vehicles below would be a great addition in that sense. As part of a vehicle dugout/battle position or as simple hiding spot. 7. Lowerst prio but my pet feature: Useable ATGM(MILAN and SPIKE) of the Marder -> the old iron-pig is just not complete without it, and lack an important tactical option it would have IRL Like if you agree ;-)....or comment where I'm wrong

So I've been working on this map for…I can hardly remember now, about 2 years on and off. It's not complete, might never be. However, I’m going to push this out there shortly as is. This was an attempt at a North Taiwan map, way too ambitious, naturally, as I wanted to get the feel right. It's a very complex close terrain, difficult for large maneuver units. This was made with PLA invasions in mind. This is why I wanted the northwest coastal region, just north of Taipei. These are possible landing beaches closest to Taipei, including the Taipei Port and Tamsui Estuary. I'm using the Granada height map for the high-ground around Taipei as I don’t have any height map info for Taiwan. The rest of the high-ground and coast west was built using the editor. Everything else was guided by Google Earth. As such it's an approximation of North Taiwan. The distances are roughly correct between major features. Currently, these include the Port of Taipei and Bali, Taoyuan International airport, Zhuwei Fishing Harbor, the northern sections of Luzhu District, Dayuan District. Recognizable major industry, power plants, fuel storage, Golf courses, rivers, etc, and of cause all the regional roads. The road systems in Taiwan are really challenging to recreate in SB. I've done the best I can to replicate the kind of obstacles these complex road systems would represent. I've built-in from the coast as this is really about whether or not the PLA can establish a beachhead to allow for follow-on forces. If they cannot it's doubtful they will accomplish the mission. If they can it's pretty much end-game for Taiwan. So it's primarily a fight for control of the coastal areas. I will continue to add to the map over time. However, I think it's good enough to publish at this point or it never will. So a little more work to polish up and it should be done shortly.

The quiet before the storm.

So here we go... Part 2.. hope not too boring

Here:

...and the next update, coming February, will bring a revision.

I made 3 new Skins for the old Jaguar 1A3 2x for the german Bundeswehr ("de" & "de1980" ) and 1 for the austrian Bundesheer ("at"). Available for Woodland/Autumn & Winter. you can download them here on our 911-Forum. https://forum.steelbeasts.org/downloads/file/130-jaguar-1a3-pack/

Realistically, first week of July. We'll start offering 4.3 licenses next week in the web shop, so that you can start immediately after downloading. Also, first official videos next week.

Get the release notes and download links here: https://www.esimgames.com/downloads/ Many thanks to the developers and beta testers that put this together!

All the installers are posted in the downloads area at esimgames.com. The bundle installer will patch the previous version (4.357). Thanks to the programmers and testers for their hard work! Be sure to read the release notes for all the details.

Still not quite safe for a final verdict, but so far no blocker-type bug has been reported.

Wishes Get rid of Port Forwarding Add an actual in-progress join that doesn't require pause and total disruption of the game.

Here is a little fun picture from the integration phase... Such a cute little car right there... wish we could keep one like this. Was a perfect recce car..

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone in the SB community. It's been a month and a half since I bought the sim and joined. Since then I have switched my licensing check over to my Codemeter stick for permanent SB goodness. I've learned the ins and outs of both the M1A1 and M1A2 and am relatively comfortable in most versions of the Leopard. It's funny that I am now seeing features on one tank that I wish was in another model. I have played four multiplayer Sunday Kanium battles and a couple different multicrew missions with other SB enthusiasts and community members. I am truly awed at how welcoming and helpful everyone in this community has been and how easy it is for new players (that are willing to learn and take the time to get into the game and work with others) to be a part of the bigger picture. I am so impressed by the knowledge and experience all of you have and bring to the table. And I am blown away at how incredible and realistic these battles are in progress. I feel like I am really in a Steel Beast and part of something bigger. I love watching the pieces and parts come together in the overall battle plan. It really changes your perspective on what actual tankers experience in the field and gives you a hit of what they actually experience. There is no equal to that, imho. SB has become an immediate favorite and a new addiction and I don't see myself ever getting tired of it. Very few games have that kind of draw and longevity for me. So thanks! SB is awesome!! Truly, there is nothing like it.

Submitting it to the downloads section just now.

Request: Artillery - more detailed status information! For example: Waiting For Approval (No tubes in range) Waiting For Approval (No smoke ammo remaining) Waiting For Approval (off map battery repositioning -03:56) This could reduce a lot of frustration! Also be good for troubleshooting when mortars refuse to fire etc.

Gee, thanks for letting us all know, I had no idea! 🙄 Seriously, you're harping that point for a good while now, and it's not like I pretend that everything is fine the way it is. So then, what's the point of repeating the same thing over and over when I'm telling you - like I did before - that we're on it. It's begun to remind me of a petulant child. Keep going like that, and people will start treating you accordingly. All that this extra drama will accomplish is to poison the atmosphere not just between you and me, but also other people here. It's not going to accelerate the development. The work on it has begun months ago, it's scheduled to go on for more months between other jobs for which we have contractual obligations, and we'll introduce 1st person RPG shooting once that it's in presentable shape. We're not delaying with deliberation, but we're also not going to rush it. I have on numerous occasions explained what our development priorities are, and why (and these priorities are not up for public debate). First come contractual obligations, because they help us to finance all other work. 2nd priority is work on the new engine, because only with a new engine can we maintain a viable product and, long-term, add new features. 3rd come high priority bugs. 4th, new feature development for version 4 (1st person RPGs are somewhere here, among other things), 5th are medium priority bugs, followed by, 6th, low priority bugs. If you can't accept that 1st person RPG shooting is somewhere in the middle of the heap, I'm sorry, but then we probably have to agree to disagree about this point because I have a responsibility for the long-term development of the whole company and its primary product. Steel Beasts was never intended as a 1st person shooter. We are adding more and more infantry-related features - 1st person ATGMs, MGs, 40mm AGL, all the work on pathfinding, 3D characters, animation system - but the lowest command level of Steel Beasts is the team leader, and even that was possible only with some contortions in the code. See, you're so far left on the Dunning Kruger scale, you don't even have the slightest idea how wrong it is to apply military leadership phrases to a software project that has legacy code of 25 years and which is intended to be kept working for at least another two decades. I'm well aware that in combat command paralysis can occur as a result of too much analysis. But software development is not combat. It's pretty much the opposite of it. You can't brute force a solution by throwing wave after wave of programmers at a problem. Typically, assigning more programmers to a task actually slows down progress. You can make certain hacks to accelerate a development, but hacks are effectively drawing a credit. If the project goes on for long enough, you have to pay back, typically with interest, every corner that you decided to cut years ago. Insufficient analysis will result in paralysis later because you get entangled in co-dependencies that result in unexpected side effects that you then need to fix, and then you might need a fix for the fix, and very quickly you're down a recursive rabbit hole where you might not even have a remotely adequate estimate of how deep it might be. I have said everything there is to say on my end as far as this matter is concerned. I hope you can accept it. The whole picture is a bit bigger than the field of view of an RPG sight.

I decided to create a series of scenarios designed to familiarize new Steel Beasts players with basic Offense and Defense tasks executed by a Tank Platoon. This series will use US Army Doctrine as a basis, and aims to present the Tank Platoon's role when operating as part of an Armor Company. This series will also has a focus on introducing concepts within the game to the player, while maintaining a low level of difficulty to reduce frustration during the learning process. The following tasks are planned to be covered. Offense: - Movement to Contact - Attack - Pursuit - Exploitation Defense: - Area Defense - Mobile Defense - Retrograde Feel free to provide feedback or requests for future missions below.

There'll be a patch/minor update later this year, maybe late spring. There'll be at least one major V4 upgrade, probably 2025-ish.

Hi all This thread is for release updates and feedback on my scenarios Individual files here: https://www.steelbeasts.com/profile/1165-ben/content/?type=downloads_file All scenarios bundle download:

Wow, that didn't take long. I created a test scenario that reproduces the issue reliably (two impotent Centauros firing at each other while you sit in another vehicle somewhere else). The sound plays each time the gun fires. I have been tracking this issue down for several months, but hadn't made the connection with the Centauro (because I knew the Centauro didn't utilize that sound, so I was only looking at vehicles that did use the sound). Many thanks for that clue! It should be easy to fix now that it can be reliably reproduced. Edit/update: This should now be fixed for the next patch.

I've attached the release notes. Enjoy. SBProPE_4-377_RN.pdf

That being said, we're pretty confident in the Steel Beasts side of things. What's left to do is to update the CodeMeter side of things and to test that; there's a good chance that the fix will be ready by next weekend.

I dont think anyone has wished for a crewable Chieftain in a while, so.... i wish we had a crewable Chieftain Also PT76 & BMP1 & Scorpion A man can wish.

Next week, sorry. Last minute blocker bug. Terrible fix. Unfixed. Fixed differently, needs more testing, some new network issues - in short, no dice.

Soooo... there's one last bug that seems to be blocking a release. Assuming that it can be addressed today or tomorrow, then verified by the day after, we'd have a candidate release for 4.3 Not a perfect candidate maybe, but a decent one that's going to give you something new to explore and tinker with, the one or other visual improvement we haven't even mentioned yet. Failing a release by Friday might still allow for a release on August 5th (Plan F, or something), but I'd rather avoid that delay.

Nike will love this one:

Expect a video every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from now on, and then some extras in between. I'm going to try out the Youtube "#shorts" format which dictates vertical video. Please bear with me - but maybe it's going to attract a few new players, who knows. At least, those videos will be short. Also, some content simply clashes with our inner verticality, so don't abandon all hope, yet.

Hi Gladiator, As Gibsonm pointed out, the map is being worked on. It's actually a massive update that includes adding roads and buildings to Hannover Mitte and the surrounding areas. I'm trying to make it as close to realistic as possible within the constraints of the limited building models but it will look a lot more like the actual cities. I've also been connecting roads, adding some cities to the Northwest and East, fixing railroads, moving buildings off of roads, fixing bridges, cleaning up strange artifacts, and so on. I'm trying to get it done by the end of this month or middle of June at the latest, but it's been a huge amount of work. I've been spending about 4 hours a day of and on working on it since the beginning of December. It's just a lot of picky tedious work so hang in there as it is coming. By the way, there will still be some areas of the map that will be incomplete. There are just way too many actual map object and areas in real life and it would take a lifetime to fill all that in. I'm focusing on the most important populated areas and some of the smaller towns. The map can always be added to in the future but it will be a much better starting point. The reason the map is so goofed up currently is that it's been converted many times and some of the original objects were substituted in those conversions. So I've had to splice roads in a lot of cases and then use the bridge tool to make the proper one. There are many rivers so it's time consuming. I'm about 80% to 90% done I think. Here are some shots of the work in progress. (notes on the map are for my reference only)

Unless this has been implemented whilst I was away, I would like artillery fire to leave some trace on the ground where it impacts that stays there for the rest of the game. This would better allow fire correction as well as help with immersion.

Here's a zoom-around the map video to give you an idea of how it looks at this time.

Yeah, I guess a similar, sadder, more boring German variation could be made of this. Maybe a talented screen writer can discover comedy gold in this. The problem with the German MOD is, it's happening everywhere. MRLS surplus rockets: They decommissioned the LARS in the early 1990s. They were too stingy to have the rockets disassembled, so they paid millions for an in-bore device to fire the 110mm rockets from the MLRS 227mm tubes. But they never actually fired the rockets - because, reasons. So they kept them in storage. Some time between mid 2000s and early 2010s someone wrote a report that they were past their storage limit, and that Bad Things(TM) would happen if they weren't being decommissioned pronto. And, to the surprise of exactly nobody, nothing happened. Last year they discovered that nitroglycerine is seeping from the old clunkers, sleeping in their storage racks in five ammo depots. So they can no longer be safely removed. Since nobody knows what to do now - well, we keep 'em there and wait for the day that they blow themselves up with the next earthquake or whatever. NH90: The interior couldn't withstand soldier boots with soldiers in them. WHich is pretty rich, given that it's supposed to be an army transport helicopter. The whole Uboat flotilla was out of service at some point, because they couldn't cannibalize spare parts for the last operative boat from the remaining ones like they did before, because someone thought that cannibalism was the future, or something. My opinion on all this ... would violate the terms of this forum.

Trying to create maps with a more detailed and textured feel. Playing around, there is lots that can be done with the map editor that gives a very earthy gritty feel to the maps. The feeling of immersion jumps by an order of magnitude.

And an option to turn it off.