Originally Posted By: aleader
This is a tank 'simulation.' I would bet that driving a tank in a field (muddy, dry, whatever) is very different from what we see in SBPro.


Maybe with better graphics we could create a higher immersion for some players. That alone is worth it (and, as I wrote, we will continue to give SB Pro better looks, the transition to 3D characters is but a first step). Those that have been on a tank however - be it as professional soldiers like me, or as conscripts like many others - will to a large degree "appreciate" better looks, but it'll do little for extra immersion for them because no matter what, you simply can't substitute or synthesize certain things. I tend to be cautious with predictions, but I think I can say that for the foreseeable future, it can't be done at all. I wrote a chapter in the user manual about the limitations of simulating tanks in general.
Form a training perspective, immersion alone does not make good training. In the Gadget Show they recently combined a dome projection, a universal direction treadmill, and a battery of paintball sentry guns á la "Aliens" (extended version) to shoot the player while he was playing some shooter game. They agreed that this was the best computer game experience, ever - yet I have to question whether zinging a student with paintball guns really would improve training results. Maybe as an educational measure it could help, were it not that there are laws against physical punishment in most armies, so it's a no-no.

Originally Posted By: aleader
You're so close to the pinnacle of a classic tank sim.

I have thought a while whether I should give this retort because it can, again, be misunderstood as arrogance. But I think I can say without a bad conscience that there has never been a tank simulation on the (commercial/computer game) market that came even close to Steel Beasts in any area, except eye candy. Maybe one day there will be a better simulation available. But for more than a decade now we've been in a league of our own.

Most of the time you spend looking through a scope where the least that is on your mind is the lack of shadows, or other eye candy. You try to concentrate finding the #%&*$# that just took out your wingman, and nail him first before he'll get you. A significant part of the timer you'll be looking at the map screen, trying to read the tactical situation to get the timing right for your units' next moves. You notice all these deficits in the screenshots and YouTube videos because they can only transport eye candy, but very rarely the excitement of (simulated) combat. It's one thing to see the video of British squaddies being strafed by an A-10 (and surviving it), and quite another to really being there. Or the difference between certain adult movies and actually being together with your loved one. While we are all visual animals, there's only so much that a screen can transport.
Like I said, we'll do more in the field of better visuals. But I'm absolutely convinced that we already have a great package that is worth every dime. smile


Well, I shall post a few more screenshots today to bring this thread back on track. smile


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