Ssnake

By and large it's an ill-defined marketing buzzword. But yeah, the idea is that there's two independently operated sights, and that the commander can override the gunner if he spots a target, rather than talking the gunner into the target. If this minimal definition is applied, the T-72 and the Leopard 1 have "hunter-killer" capability too. Some people say, "ah, but it must be two independently stabilized optics" so they can rule out those two examples; others say that the commander must be capable of aiming and firing the gun as well, but then there's that even sillier buzzword "killer-killer capability", by which metric even the earliest Leopard 2 and M1s are also "killer-killer" capable even though the M1's commander before the A2 version actually had no independent, stabilized sight (but he could override, aim with the sight extension, and shoot). So, I'm using these phrases only with caution.

I'm sorry, it doesn't work like that. But if we found something and managed to fix it, it will be included in the coming upgrade (~end of Q1, 2019).

Chances are, it's still the original version 2.251 or so. The license on your CM stick is valid up until version 2.4. If you're planning to perform an upgrade (more on that below), please contact me. There will be the need for some preventive maintenance to make the upgrade process a smooth experience; as you noted, what you have is 11 years old. Operating systems have come, and went, drivers (well, the Runtime software) changed numberous times, there are firmware updates to apply. My email address is my forum name @eSimGames (.com). I don't remember; the oldest SB Pro user manual that I could find in my library is from 2009, and I can't rule out that some changes were made between 2006 (the date of creation of your DVD) and version 2.483 (for which the 2009 manual was written). "Probably not". Today's installer lets you choose the program file directory, but even then map and scenario data would still go on C:\ (some of that will change with the next version 4.1 or higher) If by writing "best" you mean to say that the infantry modeling was refined over time, your assumption is valid. Without knowing your metrics however, I cannot guarantee that the latest is also the greatest for you (but it is for us, and probably for most users too) Your old CodeMeter stick can still be used. However, it must undergo some maintenance cycle, and for the latest version a license upgrade must be applied. I'll be happy to render assistance. For you, only the "old upgrade" option will work ($80.- in our web shop, here). Alternatively you could consider buying a one-year license at $39.50. The one-year license is valid for both version 3.0 and 4.0, and will also be valid for the coming upgrade. So for the price of an "old upgrade" you would get the equivalent of two one-year licenses. While they expire, they may still be an attractive option for some. If you don't plan to play for more than the next two years, this is the more cost-effective solution. The downside is that the license is tied to your computer and current Windows installation; the CM stick gives you more flexibility. But if you don't need that flexibility, there's a savings option.

Is now Bug #6734.

I'd definitely like to see it fixed for good, eventually. I also want us to work on a number of other things.

I wrote about this in depth before. The rub is in striking the balance between firing illumination too much, and too little for AI units. You would want to fire illumination if you SUSPECT enemy presence in your sector. Humans can act on gut feeling. But we need to find a binary rule for this. This is really hard. A convoy situation is much easier to handle. If the first ship blows up, you start firing flares. That's pretty simple. And our AI will do that as soon as we have land convoys under threat of land subs. Okay, maybe that's needlessly sarkastic. I'm just saying here, the situation isn't comparable. There's illumination available only in limited quantity. AI can't shoot it all night; besides, that would announce their locations very well. Assuming that AI units will each have illumination for their sector for 15 minutes in total per day/night cycle and the time between last and first light is four hours, we need to weed out at least 94% of all false alarms. That's the target. If you're under fire already, well, that's absolute certainty that you're in contact. Fire the illumination at will. But that means ceding the moment of surprise completely to the side with better night vision equipment, IOW a losing proposal for classic WP forces. We need something better. And about three to six months of development time without interruptions. I'm not saying that it's impossible to do. I'm just saying, it's nothing that you do on the side. The shader magic etc. isn't easy (you can't have too many dynamic light sources without overtaxing the graphics card) but it's probably the easiest part of the whole thing. The underlying high level AI is the real challenge. Officially, Steel Beasts doesn't support night combat, only extended twilight scenarios. For most training situations that's good enough. We haven't done nothing in the last years about this, but I want us to do it right, so I'm not rushing this job.

At least there's a workaround.

No.

This is now filed under bug #6722 (even though it isn't a bug, technically speaking, but an enhancement/new feature request).

I briefly considered the addition of WW1 tanks for a possible historical expansion around 1999/2000/2001, but the reality is that these tanks wouldn't be much fun to begin with, and require a huge effort with very little gain (aside satisfying the military history nerds in us). You'd need deep mud, elaborate trench networks, ideally in the historical locations, you'd NEED multiplayer to switch gears, you'd have unstabilized views (but you wouldn't see much anyway), the master volume level should only allow the settings "maximum" and "infernal" you'd need to play hours in real-time to just cover a handful of miles you couldn't coordinate your actions with infantry, artillery, or other tanks for that matter you wouldn't really know where you were, or whether your assault was effective until you ran out of fuel, or ammo, or luck You might call it the grand post-modernist experience - but neither from an entertainment not a training & education point of view it would offer much, to be honest. We're not an art studio, eSim Games is a training company.

...and then there's field modifications, yay...!

Ah, the 3D artwork. I suppose in our desire to make the T-55 playable we may have taken a shortcut. But maybe there's a deeper truth behind it; I'm just not qualified to answer this. If you lose sleep over this, I'll alert the 3D modellers for their explanation.

Every binocular has two eypieces, yet when you look through them you see a single circular field of view. The magic of optics. Most Hollywood movies and many games show two partially overlapping circles to better fit the wide screen. The magic of entertainment to suspend disbelief.

If they manage to create game mechanics that encourage player cooperation rather than yet another "everybody fights for himself and is out to murder you" DayZ, who knows? It might be worth it. Not that I'm holding my breath.

I don't think it's necessary to start a full-on cage fight over this.