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Online Play and Virtual Units poll


hoggydog

How do you play SB Pro PE online?  

113 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you play SB Pro PE online?

    • I play regularly and am a member of a current VU
      24
    • I play regularly but am not a member of a current VU
      10
    • I infrequently play online but still consider myself a member of a current VU
      11
    • I infrequently play online and am not a member of a current VU
      24
    • I have never played SB Pro online
      45


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But watching requires "dropping in" or joining a session.

But dropping in to watch isn't the same as playing.

Your idea assumes that someone somewhere is running a server farm 24/7 and the product doesn't work that way.. '

That's my point it doesn't work that way, which makes it harder, IMO, than it needs to be, maybe I am lazy :-) nuff said

Edited by pii
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All I was trying to say is there are better/easier methods now days for finding games to play and ,sorry, but SB looks a little old hat in that department.

Well of course you re entitled to your opinion, but to me it doesn't get much easier than looking in a calendar (esp. if the person posting there turns on the reminder feature so the event is displayed on the forum as well.

Anyway as per Sean's post its unlikely that there will every be a "drop in" / "watch" / "observe" feature unless the software is pretty much re-written from the ground up.

Anyway just keep looking in the Calendar.

BTW: when is a good time for you - just in case there is a VU that is active then?

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no modern game does it that way NO ONE And whats wrong with dropping in when I get bored? At least I can "drop in" If I really get into it then I'll seek out more serious players and groups.

I sympathize and agree with your reaction to the original response. But real military operations - which is what SB tries to recreate - begin with a defined aim, followed by a briefing in which each person needs to understand his role. Having players 'drop in' in the middle of an operation for which they didn't attend the briefing and therefore don't understand the plan would result in chaos. Bear in mind that SB Pro PE is actually the Personal Edition of a real military ops simulator used by actual armies. It's only a 'game' in the sense that it is a recreational (as opposed to professional) activity.

Please don't be put off online play. Most VUs are very welcoming and helpful to newbies. After all, we were all newbies once upon a time. And the learning curve is so much easier to climb with guys providing hints and tips. Even if UKA as a VU doesn't suit your time zone, you are very welcome to pop in for a chat on the SB TS server at 20:00 BST (currently 19:00Z) Sun, Mon, and Wed, any time you are passing.

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I sympathize and agree with your reaction to the original response. But real military operations - which is what SB tries to recreate - begin with a defined aim, followed by a briefing in which each person needs to understand his role. Having players 'drop in' in the middle of an operation for which they didn't attend the briefing and therefore don't understand the plan would result in chaos. Bear in mind that SB Pro PE is actually the Personal Edition of a real military ops simulator used by actual armies. It's only a 'game' in the sense that it is a recreational (as opposed to professional) activity.

Please don't be put off online play. Most VUs are very welcoming and helpful to newbies. After all, we were all newbies once upon a time. And the learning curve is so much easier to climb with guys providing hints and tips. Even if UKA as a VU doesn't suit your time zone, you are very welcome to pop in for a chat on the SB TS server at 20:00 BST (currently 19:00Z) Sun, Mon, and Wed, any time you are passing.

My op had noting to do with dropping in, just that I thought it was a little harder than normal to find games.

I'll probably try mp some day as it was watching mp games on YouTube that sold me on SB.

Question...what happens if you are killed? Are you out for the duration?

Edited by pii
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Question...what happens if you are killed? Are you for the duration?

No, you're still in the game. You just don't have whatever unit you lost. If that was your only unit, you can only observe unless someone gives you an extra unit of theirs. But you can still jump into crew positions of other people's units if they have allowed it.

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Starting in the next version, we will be able to pause the session and go back to pick people up. It's fairly disruptive so I doubt it will be used much beyond picking up someone that has dropped.

So, what will the rule* be for games like TGIF? Only pause for dropped players, or maybe allow a scheduled, 1-time "intermission" where any late-comers that have gathered can join?

Just curious what the community thinks is reasonable and what people should expect.

*I say 'rule' in the loosest sense of the word. Of course players can always decide in a per instance fashion.

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No, you're still in the game. You just don't have whatever unit you lost. If that was your only unit, you can only observe unless someone gives you an extra unit of theirs. But you can still jump into crew positions of other people's units if they have allowed it.

oh ok

That would be cool just crewing with others

Thanks

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Anyway as per Sean's post its unlikely that there will every be a "drop in" / "watch" / "observe" feature unless the software is pretty much re-written from the ground up.

Anyway just keep looking in the Calendar.

BTW: when is a good time for you - just in case there is a VU that is active then?

I'm no professional coder but how hard could it be to have people observe since observing is already in game when you die? And I mean using today's method of direct connecting? Serious question. Now I've done some coding and I know these things may seem simple at first (especially to someone that has no clue about the actual code...ie ME) and can turn into a massive project or pain in the neck. So if anyone has the knowledge and says "Nope it'd be a big pain in the AZZ" I'd understand. :biggrin:

As for time to play? Pretty much no weekend time, all day/night Monday's and up to 6:00pm EST tues, before 4 pm and after 10:00pm on tues, weds, Thurs, I work early sat mornings so Friday night is out also.In cause you missed it that's Eastern Standard Times and I live in Florida.

Yeah can see my problem now? LOL:eek2:

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I'm no professional coder but how hard could it be to have people observe since observing is already in game when you die?

Well its not if you are already “in” (i.e. started with everybody else).

You just need to be there whenever the mission starts.

If you mean turning up at random then hard enough that it:

a. Hasn’t been implemented in the last 10+ yrs.

b. Is unlikely to be implemented going forward.

So pretty sure the development team will tell you that its a:

"Nope it'd be a big pain in the AZZ".

This primarily because the military customers (including the ADF) who funded this thing to start with (and continue to pay a sizeable part of the bills) don’t need this.

We have a group who turn up at a classroom at a set time and then we start.

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G'day Pii

Welcome to SB, been having a look at your available times. Trying to convert time zones is a PIA but I think your time zone is GMT - 5 hours, so based on that why not drop into UK Armour on Mondays.

UK Armour meet at 2pm Monday your time (or 7pm GMT / 8pm British Standard Time), they are a friendly bunch (generally) and promise to go easy on newcomers (at least the first time) and they are more than happy to answer any qu's on vehicles and tactics.

Don't feel that you need to be an expert with SB to join in, they have made me feel very welcome when I dropped in twice recently and I'm nowhere near being even half proficient with SB.

I know of two others from your side of the pond who regularly join in with UK Armour due to also working shift and strange/unpredictable hours. Just log into TeamSpeak first as the IP depends on who is hosting for that session.

I would have suggested BG ANZAC (seeing as I live in Australia), but that would make it 4am Thursdays for you (not exactly convenient). There are also the French, German and Spanish VU's of course (if you happen to speak French, German or Spanish :))

Cheers

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I'm no professional coder but how hard could it be to have people observe since observing is already in game when you die?

The challenge is that a lot of data need to be transferred to an "outsider". That will work only if there is a server with a lot of extra bandwidth running, or some sort of a server farm with dynamic load balancing. The user front end is the easiest part. The necessary infrastructure is a different thing altogether.

In short, it requires a redesign of much of the network code in order to get this working. When we designed the network code in the late 1990s it simply wasn't on the charts. So you are absolutely right when saying that it looks like an old hat, because it is. But changing it isn't entirely trivial for us either.

I agree that we will eventually need to make finding other games easier, and be it just to adapt to user interface conventions to which most players are accustomed (while maintaining a barrier against random drop-ins, which, I think, everybody agrees to as being undesirable). Unfortunately we also have a few other high priority issues to deal with, so I'm skeptical that we can present a solution to your problem anytime in the next 18 months. Afterwards we may find the capacity to deal with this issue.

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The challenge is that a lot of data need to be transferred to an "outsider". That will work only if there is a server with a lot of extra bandwidth running, or some sort of a server farm with dynamic load balancing. The user front end is the easiest part. The necessary infrastructure is a different thing altogether.

In short, it requires a redesign of much of the network code in order to get this working. When we designed the network code in the late 1990s it simply wasn't on the charts. So you are absolutely right when saying that it looks like an old hat, because it is. But changing it isn't entirely trivial for us either.

I agree that we will eventually need to make finding other games easier, and be it just to adapt to user interface conventions to which most players are accustomed (while maintaining a barrier against random drop-ins, which, I think, everybody agrees to as being undesirable). Unfortunately we also have a few other high priority issues to deal with, so I'm skeptical that we can present a solution to your problem anytime in the next 18 months. Afterwards we may find the capacity to deal with this issue.

Thanks for the insight Ssnake

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G'day Pii

Welcome to SB, been having a look at your available times. Trying to convert time zones is a PIA but I think your time zone is GMT - 5 hours, so based on that why not drop into UK Armour on Mondays.

UK Armour meet at 2pm Monday your time (or 7pm GMT / 8pm British Standard Time), they are a friendly bunch (generally) and promise to go easy on newcomers (at least the first time) and they are more than happy to answer any qu's on vehicles and tactics.

Don't feel that you need to be an expert with SB to join in, they have made me feel very welcome when I dropped in twice recently and I'm nowhere near being even half proficient with SB.

I know of two others from your side of the pond who regularly join in with UK Armour due to also working shift and strange/unpredictable hours. Just log into TeamSpeak first as the IP depends on who is hosting for that session.

I would have suggested BG ANZAC (seeing as I live in Australia), but that would make it 4am Thursdays for you (not exactly convenient). There are also the French, German and Spanish VU's of course (if you happen to speak French, German or Spanish :))

Cheers

Thanks man that sounds like a good time and day for me, if I'm not out golfing. Maybe I'll see you ther. :-)

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And the irony being that UK Armour is one of the groups who do use the calendar, so one click on the calendar link would have provided you with a solution.

Yeah if had actually been looking for one. I thought we were past this? Let it go man, just let it go...

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I haven't joined online yet but may at some point. I haven't read this whole thread yet so if this has been brought up already....sorry.

How about setting up some sessions specifically for newbies like myself? A veteran could guide us through all the steps to get logged in and set up, go over the procedures of playing on line. Review etiquette and rules of on line playing. And, run through a short but illustrative battle or two. Maybe make it a regular thing. I know it would make me feel a lot more comfortable about playing on line and suspect other newbies would appreciate it too.

Just my $0.02US worth.

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There are some plans to do this once the update is released. Volcano, Mog and myself were discussing it just the other day. It will probably be on a Wednesday night around usual (US) TGIF time. It will have to wait till the release tough as all of us are currently busy with the release. For those in a different timezone (non US) I believe UK armour will be running something similar.

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There are some plans to do this once the update is released. Volcano, Mog and myself were discussing it just the other day. It will probably be on a Wednesday night around usual (US) TGIF time. It will have to wait till the release tough as all of us are currently busy with the release. For those in a different timezone (non US) I believe UK armour will be running something similar.

BG ANZAC will have some AS / NZ time zone sessions too. :)

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It all depends on where:

1. You live

2. The "mentor" lives.

For example, A "TGIW" type timeframe is roughly noon on Wednesday here.

So if we can match attendees availability to mentor availability then that's great.

Depending on demand we may end up with say a:

UK Friendly timezone

US Friendly timezone

AS Friendly timezone (probably 0900 GMT on Thursday)

Time.

Then of course can you both make the same days ... :)

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There are some plans to do this once the update is released. Volcano, Mog and myself were discussing it just the other day. It will probably be on a Wednesday night around usual (US) TGIF time. It will have to wait till the release tough as all of us are currently busy with the release. For those in a different timezone (non US) I believe UK armour will be running something similar.

Yes UK Armour are intending to run Newbie nights, we anticipate an influx

of new people wanting to test the waters with the release of 3.0 and the new licence options, this will be for anyone that wants to have a go and get up to speed, with no pressure to stick with UK Armour, we're just happy to help :)

Edited by Crusty
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Well - I play SB since 2000 (started with demo 1st) then moved to Sb Pro Pe and so on.. BUT I never tried MP..Main reason was my Wi-Fi which showed some serious issues when it comes to reliability.

Now that Im on good cable net, I would LOVE to pick opne of VUs and start training with them..

So I have a question: until I pick which one is good for me ( I`m in GMT +1) would it be fine to go from 1 training to another ( session for newbies of course, not real training with full staff), or that would be against rules ( SPY!..look spy!). And are there some eastern block VUs that speak English online, or I must revert to Russian language - it is not my best language altho i understand them quite good.

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