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Rookie questions


Nasder

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I ordered this simulator a day ago, hopefully I will get it in the mail some day between Christmas and new year's eve. I hope so at least but you never know.

Anyways, to the questions.

Exactly how good are the tutorials? And a follow up question, how steep is the learning curve? I don't expect to be understand it all in a day or two, but at least operate it very basic.

Does it ship with good and easily understandable documentation covering the tactical aspect of armored units? I don't have any military experience or such, will the documentation (if any) confuse me?

How friendly is the online community? Do people give helpfull pointers online to new players rather than being a bit "cranky" about that they don't fully understand or can operate a armored unit? To be honest, the online part is why I actually got this simulator. I just love playing co-op and playing realistic games/simulators, this game is perfect for that I reckon.

I am really hoping that it arrives a few days after christmas, Right now I can't find a better thing to do during the holidays than to learn how to operate the STRV 122 or the CV9040 in the snow.

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I ordered this simulator a day ago, hopefully I will get it in the mail some day between Christmas and new year's eve. I hope so at least but you never know.

Good luck.

Exactly how good are the tutorials? And a follow up question, how steep is the learning curve? I don't expect to be understand it all in a day or two, but at least operate it very basic.

The tutorials are very good at what they do. They teach you the workings of the vehicle in question. Basically, how to put steel on target in various modes. They will not teach you how to stay alive in tactical fire and maneuver, it's far too complex an issue to put into a tutorial and you'll just have to learn the hard way.

Does it ship with good and easily understandable documentation covering the tactical aspect of armored units? I don't have any military experience or such, will the documentation (if any) confuse me?

Good, yes. There's a bunch of Army Field Manuals attached. Easily understood... sortof. For Army manuals they are usually written in plain English, surprisingly enough. However, the best tactical teacher is going to be experience. Be prepared to die a lot, but be sure to use the AAR tool after the scenario is over to show you where you went wrong. Eventually you'll learn.

How friendly is the online community? Do people give helpfull pointers online to new players rather than being a bit "cranky" about that they don't fully understand or can operate a armored unit? To be honest, the online part is why I actually got this simulator. I just love playing co-op and playing realistic games/simulators, this game is perfect for that I reckon.

I think I'm friendly...

Never seen anyone abused for dying. At least, not until they demonstrate a complete inability to learn from mistakes.

NTM

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Good, I've had my fair share of jerks in other games, those who don't bother to even try and help out and goes to namecalling instead. So far you all seem friendly enough. Now don't prove me wrong.

As for multiplayer, how do people play most of the times? head to head or co-op against AI?

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Good, I've had my fair share of jerks in other games, those who don't bother to even try and help out and goes to namecalling instead. So far you all seem friendly enough. Now don't prove me wrong.

As for multiplayer, how do people play most of the times? head to head or co-op against AI?

It is actually pretty mixed. Smaller games can be either or, the main community events (TGIF and Long Night of Tanks) though are generally H2H.

One more thing. Games meet up on the SteelBeasts Team Speak server. You can access it easy via the "Online Play" button up top IIRC.

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One more thing. Games meet up on the SteelBeasts Team Speak server. You can access it easy via the "Online Play" button up top IIRC.

That's another good point for Nasder. Stop by TS and talk to some of the guys there. Ask questions, try and join a game if only to see if your connection works, and have fun!

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That's indeed a good idea, I just set up TS and joined up real quickly just to make sure I could connect with the right info. I'll be around now and then asking around and just listening in.

What advice would you give someone who is about to dive headfirst into this simulator? If you only got to give one advice, what would it be?

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The tutorials are your friend. When I first started SB1 I knew nothing, absolutely nothing about tanking (I thought that the hand cranks were the primary means of turret movement FFS!). If you use the tutorials, everything else should come relatively easy. Also some of them are fairly good gunnery practice.

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I'll do just that, I won't give this up, not after paying 125USD for it. Na, seriously, I've taken on hard things before so I will stick in there for sure. Learning to fly the 747 from scratch in a flightsim took me a while but I can handle it very well now.

You've been most helpful so far, I reckon I'll exchange words with you all in the future as well, I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions once I get the simulator up and running.

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I have gotten my hands on Steel Beasts Gold from a friend to help me with the wait for Pro PE to arrive. I'm playing through the tutorials for the M1A1, in the lead tutorial I felt pretty good about myself with around 8-9 second per target (1 hit, 8-9 seconds, next target hit). I feel like I am getting the hang of it.

Anyways, I got another question. As a rookie, which vehicle should I "start" with? I'd love to have a go at the CV9040 but I kind of think it's not as forgiving as a main battle tank. What do you who have played this sim for quite some time think, which one (if any) is a good starting vehicle?

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I think that the easiest vehicle to start with is the Leopard 2 (any of them), and since the 2A5 offers the best protection out of the Leo family, it's probably the most forgiving of them. There are serious arguments in favor of the M1 being easier to start with since it has automatic processes to help you with lead. This is offset by more things that the gunner has to think about - indexing the ammunition, getting the hang of dumping the lead, lase & blaze, etc.

It may be a matter of taste.

The M1 should offer even better protection than the 2A5, although the difference isn't very big (except for the results, if the Leo 2's hull ammo storage area is being hit).

The CV90's fire control system, especially with 3P ammunition, it pretty complex. Like all IFVs the protection isn't terribly high, so be prepared to die a lot more often if you have to fight against MBTs. In order to be successful you will need a lot of tactical prowess in addition to gunnery skills.

If you want to keep the familiarity with the fire control system but increase the tactical challenge significantly you can switch from Leo 2 to Leo 1A5. Almost identical as far as procedures in the gunner's place are concerned, but a much more vulnerable tank in general, so you can concentrate on using the terrain and leading your forces while you don't have to worry too much about the actual handling of your tank.

The Bradley is pretty easy to learn, at least in principle. The fire control system is simple. The gun has a decent punch, but the protection level isn't very high.

If you already get the hang of the M1, you may want to stick to it for a while longer so you have at least one tank with which you feel "at home". Once that you get the impression that you have seen it all you can switch to one of the others.

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Based on SB Gold, I'm better of using the gun of the Leo2 rather than the M1, all though it's not by much. Being a Swede, the Strv 121 and 122 might be a good starting point for me. But I can not deny that the CV90 and Bradley are extremely tempting to learn first.

Heck, I'll just flip a coin to figure out what to start with, in the end I am going to learn them all anyways.

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