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2016 payware upgrade?


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We definitely WANT to have a new version ready by June 2016. The feature set is still a bit unclear however (we intend to nail it down early in the 1st quarter, and then to start with the internal beta test).

The full feature disclosure will usually begin six to eight weeks prior to the anticipated release date. I have however already announced a few things on prior occasions, particularly the new terrain engine. We've been working on that almost since the release day of SB Pro 3.002. It will allow us to do new things in the future, not all of which we can implement initially, but it's an essential project for a number of future core features. What I can say is that it'll allow us to bring leveled roads to mountain slopes, and generally smoothed roads. It'll allow us to create hairpin curves on very steep slopes which is actually something that not many real-time simulations do at all, or do well, so we're actually quite proud of that (even though the practical application in Steel Beasts maps may be rare).

One consequence of this new terrain is that it will absolutely require 64 bit, so we can no longer support X86 mode. Another is that height maps will require substantially more disk space. I will post more on that in a separate thread some time in the new year.

Expect new playable vehicles. Which ones will remain undisclosed, of course, until shortly before the release date. But you'll love 'em.

Also, we'll include the particle system that we had hoped to have in SB Pro PE 3.0, but we seriously underestimated the amount of work that had to be invested, both into the particle system itself as well as into the artwork, or the shader effects. But I've seen some amazing eye candy in early development previews (at least "amazing" to me, a dinosaur who started home computing in the mid 1980s). The days of eternal sunshine in Steel Beasts are definitely coming to an end. Bad weather may never have been so good.

We've invested a substantial amount into the infantry field, above all, the user interface, so that small scale infantry scenarios will become much more practical to play.

Another hopefully welcome feature of practical value will be "force templates", allowing you to configure the equipment of each mech infantry team so you can have, say, multiple variations of infantry platoons for the same nation but different tables of organization and equipment across decades of doctrinal changes. You'll be able to save company and even battalion force templates, which you can then share with the community so you can create your scenarios much faster without having to put together everything from scratch, every time.

There's so much more, but for now this will have to do. We will post more information in the coming months

best birthday/christmas present ever cheers guys and gals from Esim :luxhello:

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  • 3 weeks later...

We've invested a substantial amount into the infantry field, above all, the user interface, so that small scale infantry scenarios will become much more practical to play.

Another hopefully welcome feature of practical value will be "force templates", allowing you to configure the equipment of each mech infantry team so you can have, say, multiple variations of infantry platoons for the same nation but different tables of organization and equipment across decades of doctrinal changes.

Cool. Sounds like additional infantry weapon types. Here's to hoping!

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Cool. Sounds like additional infantry weapon types. Here's to hoping!

No idea what will or will not come across from the Mil Spec version to the Commercial version but yes these have been worthwhile improvements.

Also a bunch of other stuff that looks pretty good too (but again no idea what comes across).

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No idea what will or will not come across from the Mil Spec version to the Commercial version but yes these have been worthwhile improvements.

Also a bunch of other stuff that looks pretty good too (but again no idea what comes across).

Well, I know SB is a tank sim, but recently I was playing around with the Uijongbu, Korea map, which I imagined would involve a lot of infantry, and I couldn't help but wonder what it would've been like to have more specific weaponry (modeled and rendered).

BTW, I won't ask what you've already got in the non-PE version. ;)

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To me, infantry weapon models largely fall into the category of "eye candy". There is no appreciable difference in the way they are handled in the simulation. They are all one of three calibers (7.62, 5.56, or 5.45mm), so in principle a "generic assault rifle" model would be closer to representing what's going on in the simulation itself.

I mean, as soon as you ARE infantry in real life, I understand that there are differences in weight, accuracy, reliability, ergonomics, and that all these differences matter. But for a lot of people on the internet it seems to be rather an obsession, really.

In any case, there will be a bit more variety WRT the hand weapons, but don't read too much into it. It's visual cotton candy.

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Well, we hired a specialist to improve this area specifically. How much progress he'll make until we have to freeze the code, I can't say yet. May well be that we'll have to delay those parts until the first update in autumn/winter '16.

For reasons of project management/work organization we cannot delay the PE 4.0 release (unless we'd be willing to delay it for a full year), so some items may require to be delivered via updates.

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To me, infantry weapon models largely fall into the category of "eye candy". There is no appreciable difference in the way they are handled in the simulation. They are all one of three calibers (7.62, 5.56, or 5.45mm), so in principle a "generic assault rifle" model would be closer to representing what's going on in the simulation itself.

I mean, as soon as you ARE infantry in real life, I understand that there are differences in weight, accuracy, reliability, ergonomics, and that all these differences matter. But for a lot of people on the internet it seems to be rather an obsession, really.

In any case, there will be a bit more variety WRT the hand weapons, but don't read too much into it. It's visual cotton candy.

SLR?

Please? :)

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SLR?

Please? :)

That would be utterly unfair.

It is well know that the mythical powers of the SLR(also known as "that rifle") are just to "OP",to use a gaming term.

-it can penetrate the frontal armour of any known tank from over 1000 yards

-if you shoot into a lake, the resulting Tsunami can wipe out whole towns...

...well, that what I've heard ;-)

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That would be utterly unfair.

It is well know that the mythical powers of the SLR(also known as "that rifle") are just to "OP",to use a gaming term.

-it can penetrate the frontal armour of any known tank from over 1000 yards

-if you shoot into a lake, the resulting Tsunami can wipe out whole towns...

...well, that what I've heard ;-)

It's all true :clin:

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That would be utterly unfair.

It is well know that the mythical powers of the SLR(also known as "that rifle") are just to "OP",to use a gaming term.

-it can penetrate the frontal armour of any known tank from over 1000 yards

-if you shoot into a lake, the resulting Tsunami can wipe out whole towns...

...well, that what I've heard ;-)

Well at least it didn't melt when it got hot. :)

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That would be utterly unfair.

It is well know that the mythical powers of the SLR(also known as "that rifle") are just to "OP",to use a gaming term.

-it can penetrate the frontal armour of any known tank from over 1000 yards

-if you shoot into a lake, the resulting Tsunami can wipe out whole towns...

...well, that what I've heard ;-)

It was actually the last rifle that worked for the British until 2001 when the HK fixed their SA80 with the A2 model re-manufacturing and rushed it into service and in action in Afghanistan in December 2001 and it wassent until 2006 that all of them was fixed. :c:

1986-2001/2006 that's 15-20 years without a reliable rifle so of course they remember it as a great thing :clin:

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think the infantry weapons renderings and selection are fine. But if the infantry could use urban cover better, it would be huge. The infantry seem programmed for techniques in the field (stay low & crawl). This doesn't come off well in urban areas, where it is more about staying behind objects and moving quickly from behind one object to behind another object.

But the software required there would not be small, I imagine.

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