Steel Beasts: Content Wish List

[Ssnake]

I wasn't so much referring to ammo cook-offs, but the request for counter-battery radars. If the complexity of the average mission is supposed to remain manageable, CB/ground radar would need to operate semi-autonomously, feed its data into the artillery queue, at which point it's the computer largely fighting itself.

If you want ground radar, then I want the means to spoof it. A radar won't magically tell you what it detected, except it's a strong echo with a certain characteristic, and probably some doppler shift to indicate it's travel velocity. It would still require a human to interpret it. A strong echo traveling at 30km/h towards the border in an international crisis situation might be an armored division about to crash your party at the border. Or two dudes on a moped, transporting a mattress with a gazillion steel coils in it. I want the Opfor player/mission designer to send five moped teams, and the armored column, so human players still need to send forward reconnaissance assets to investigate what the radar ruckus is about.

And the moped dudes are just one example. Every object has a certain radar characteristic. The entire virtual environment needs to throw back signals, and then the player should set a signal filter to concentrate on what's most likely an actual threat. So, then the question is, how realistic should that be. Should there be radar jammers and other electronic countermeasures. Shouldn't we also have ECCM?

And it balloons into an electronic warfare simulation. Which is important, too - don't get me wrong. But we're beyond the point then where even ten people could manage a scenario that has all these elements in it.

 

My job is to consider the implications of your requests, and then to be rather careful about the kind of projects we take on, so we can deliver adequate results in a finite amount of time. And the big prize is the development of a new Steel Beasts software architecture. Every hour spent on version 4 feature development is an hour lost on version 5, and half an hour added to the V5 development because all V4 features need to get converted, eventually.

[Captain_Colossus]

because it is a wishlist thread, that is what has been occurring to me as of late understanding full well that a basic player request is only that-  under a hypothetical scenario i would not have went so far as analysts intercepting voice or data transmissions and so on, but as much as could be imagined a more rudimentary model (as are some other things in steel beasts, eg, the way air strikes can scripted into scenarios but are not exactly full fidelity representations of a physical plane nor counter measures nor air defense nets coming into it), i would argue for a 'magic radar' with maybe user assigned chance for detection or evasion to abstract results somewhat, but which at least gives parties some urgency to relocating artillery after firing as well as imparting the challenge of locating the opponent's artillery. in other words, it is not really the technical process (assume all of that has been done already under the hood) so much as the results.

 

of course it is all hypothetical for a wishlist thread and in my opinion just a good topic of discussion for its own sake

 

 

Edited March 15 by Captain_Colossus

[Gibsonm]

I guess my concern is that there are reasonable work arounds already for GSR, CBR and blast effects without diverting the limited development workforce to create bespoke requirements.

 

Note “reasonable” not “perfect”

 

1. Catastrophic explosions.

 

You can do this for static defensive positions by placing a suitable IED in the same location as the vehicle. Set it to detonate (% chance) if the vehicle is hit, or set it to detonate if Blue indirect fire is landing in the region occupied by the vehicle’s defensive position.

 

This wont help if you want cook offs with moving vehicles.

 

2. Counterbattery fire.

 

Wont work for off map artillery assets, unless you just want to generate a message.

 

a. As the designer, identify ARA / AMA (roughly grid square boxes) to be used by the Red artillery. These will be limited (i.e. not every grid square).

 

Setup an event so that if number of vehicles in say ARA 1 is >5 and Blue units in Region Z are under indirect fire and X1 is say 30% (0 <X1 <30), then Blue gets a message “Red indirect fire assets detected in GS 1234 (one of the pre established ARA / AMA)”.

 

Each ARA / AMA would have a corresponding set of events, scripted messages, etc.

 

b. The Blue player can either then work with that information or alternatively a Blue scripted Indirect Fire strike (say MLRS or PGM) can be activated at GS1234. Counter battery fire is not controlled by Company or Battalion Commanders so scripting it, reflects say DIV or CORPS allocating artillery assets to deal with the issue.

 

3. GSR.

 

a. As the designer, identify locations where Red is scripted to go, that are likely to be the subject of GSR coverage (say a mountain pass, or a plain, not a valley that is surrounded by mountains).

 

b. When Red enters that region, generate an event on Blue that provides a message along the lines of “ISR assets report enemy movement in GS 1234”.

 

This can be enhanced by:

 

i. Add a degree of randomness to reflect the chances of them actually being detected, or

 

ii. If the Blue player owns the GSR assets add another condition that Blue unit X needs to be in Region Y (somewhere that has GSR coverage of the Red area) before the message is sent. That way if the Blue GSR unit is in the South, messages about Red movement in the North wont appear.

 

As I said none of these are perfect, but using the tools already there you can make a reasonable approximation of the capability. You can do similar things with CBRN and other issues too.

 

[Augustusrex]

since it's a wish list....

I wish there was an implementation of the effects, as regards, smoke, dust, etc. especially the dissipation time of the smoke produced by artillery and explosions and smoke produced by weapons in general.

the battlefield, in my opinion. it's too clean now.

 

For me, I use SB just for entertainment, it would be much more immersive.

[MTLB-CMDR_Finn]

On 3/9/2023 at 10:21 PM, Gibsonm said:

 

There is a SPG-9 on a technical. Whilst its not dis-mountable, you can use an RCL.

 

 

 

I know this, but I am missing the RCL as a infrantry ambush weapon as it is. (At least in Finnish cold war doctrine)

 

But thanks for your answer!

[Arch]

I too would enjoy an infantry RC. I had to use the technical with SPG-9 for my East German dismounted RC team, which looks a bit funny.

[Falcon]

Sort the name of Ref. Points in Target - Location blind in "Call for fire" window alphabeticaly, currently it is by the order of creation. It is messy to orient in when having multiple TRPs.

 

Edited March 17 by Falcon

[Falcon]

Another thing I would really like to see:

Having a possibility to change my Controls while being in-scenario. As going back to Main Menu -> Controls is very cumbersome and I (as well as many other people) like to see the effect of changes in my key-bindings.

- already there, I am just blind

Thank you

Edited March 17 by Falcon

[TSe419E]

32 minutes ago, Falcon said:

Another thing I would really like to see:

Having a possibility to change my Controls while being in-scenario. As going back to Main Menu -> Controls is very cumbersome and I (as well as many other people) like to see the effect of changes in my key-bindings.


Thank you

Alt+C

[Falcon]

47 minutes ago, TSe419E said:

Alt+C

Thank you,
 then my wish is to make this more visible. Ideally having a small menu when pressing Esc (instead of directly asking if I want to exit the scenario), as Esc is the standard way how to get into these functions (along with Graphics and Audio settings) in most other games.

[TSe419E]

26 minutes ago, Falcon said:

Thank you,
 then my wish is to make this more visible. Ideally having a small menu when pressing Esc (instead of directly asking if I want to exit the scenario), as Esc is the standard way how to get into these functions (along with Graphics and Audio settings) in most other games.

 

When in the 3D view it is under the "System" tab in the upper left-hand corner as well.

[Falcon]

11 minutes ago, TSe419E said:

 

When in the 3D view it is under the "System" tab in the upper left-hand corner as well.

Thanks again, I've never noticed it.

[TSe419E]

👍

[mpow66m]

How about troops digging their own fighting posistions.

[Ssnake]

Eventually that's going to happen, but my firm prediction is that it's going to be a near-useless feature for the Personal Edition because of the amount of time that it takes to dig in.

[Grenny]

1 hour ago, mpow66m said:

How about troops digging their own fighting posistions.

First I'd like the option to fire AT weapons and rifles...

[Gibsonm]

2 hours ago, mpow66m said:

How about troops digging their own fighting posistions.

 

I can just imagine siting in a game for 90 mins watching Infantry get part way to Stage 1 and do nothing else. It takes time to dig something 2m x 1m x 0.5m as well as remove the top layer (to put back later) spread the spoil, etc.

 

From memory its 2 days to get to Stage 3 with OHP (with concurrent patrolling tasks etc.).

 

Edited March 17 by Gibsonm

[Hedgehog]

8 hours ago, Falcon said:

Another thing I would really like to see:

Having a possibility to change my Controls while being in-scenario. As going back to Main Menu -> Controls is very cumbersome and I (as well as many other people) like to see the effect of changes in my key-bindings.

- already there, I am just blind

Thank you

 

Make a back up your SB executable and put it somewhere other than your SB folder.

Reason:

If you make and save control key changes while in a SB Multiplayer via internet network connection, (aka Network session)

as soon as you hit "Save" your antivirus will identify SB as malicious software (because you made a configuration change while connected to the internet) and nuke your SB executable from orbit.

 

Edited March 17 by Hedgehog

[mpow66m]

10 hours ago, Grenny said:

First I'd like the option to fire AT weapons and rifles...

In V5 will the grunts finally fire from a standing and kneeling posistion?

[mpow66m]

11 hours ago, Ssnake said:

Eventually that's going to happen, but my firm prediction is that it's going to be a near-useless feature for the Personal Edition because of the amount of time that it takes to dig in.

Time compression?

[Ssnake]

Even with 10x time compression (during which you could do nothing), and assuming that nothing else happens during that period, an infantry platoon would need seven hours to dig 100m of trench line.

Watching paint dry is faster.

[Abraxas]

Some wishes for the next patch/update/upgrade:

1. ARV should get again a sort of coverage radius within which some damage to the engine and chassis/track can be repaired faster.

2. Dismounted paramedics should also be able to care for injured crew members.

3. Saved mission planning (not overlay!) with waypoints etc. should remain valid and usable after changing parts of a scenario.

[Lumituisku]

Reticle illumination to Shot'Kal. Or Centurion with such

( Very difficult for gunner to use dark reticle in dark wooded terrain)

 

And if possible dark green camo skin with Finnish roundel to turret sides.

 

I remember having read that Centurion is a tank that we wanted but that wasn't sold to us.

However it could act as placeholder for British Charioteer's / Comets that we actually had. 

Edited March 29 by Lumituisku

[Gibsonm]

26 minutes ago, Lumituisku said:

Reticle illumination to Shot'Kal. Or Centurion with such

( Very difficult for gunner to use dark reticle in dark wooded terrain)

 

Almost certain that Centurion at least never had this, not quite as certain as to the Shot'Kal.

 

Splash is probably the guy to ask about the Finnish skin, but in the Mods section.

 

Edited March 29 by Gibsonm

[Lumituisku]

I 

1 minute ago, Gibsonm said:

 

Almost certain that Centurion at least never had this, not quite as certain as to the Shot'Kal.

I don't know.  It seems rather obvious necessity... In dark woods and swedes have centurions too.