From the newsletter:

Congratulations Ssnake and thanks for the regular improvements to a great sim.

Grats on the 10 years!

....very tempting.

Congrats.

Congratulations!

I have been wanting to re-buy after I sold years ago and regretted so if I can buy within 3 months I will. Is it still shipped only from the US?

Yes - unless you order it from OkaySoft in Germany. Shipping, as usual, is free of charge.

Congrats on the 10 years, those went by pretty fast huh?...

Staffan

Personally I had my 10th anniversary three years ago, with the reference to teaming up with Al Delaney, so this time it's not such a big surprise. But still, given that we started this as an elaborate hobby with minimal expectation for commercial success, things turned out remarkably well.
And as the years (at least for us) were filled with intense work, it certainly doesn't feel like a decade (although I must confess that the grey hair we've grown during the years no longer can be ignored).

Congratulations! Great Devs, Great Game, Great Community!

Haven't played in a couple years, but can't find the dongle for the life of me. I may have to jump on this sale.

So will we get a SimHQ retrospective? Maybe you could repost the old interviews, how-to-build scenario articles etc? How about a new interview, where Ssnake can finally spill when we'll get the crewable T72 and articulated suspension (aka bobbing roadwheels)..

Nice model of the CR2 Ssnake, very nice addition to SB, I'm wondering how will it's gun fare compared to the M256 (L/44 or even the L/55 on the Leo A6?)

Staffan

Sadly, our estimates suggest that the KE performance even of the lastest CHARM3 can be considered "adequate" at best. Of course, this is less relevant in contemporary operations where we have a strong emphasis on the demand for HE/fragmentation rounds and where the typical vehicle threat, if there is one, can surely be dealt with a 120mm HESH round, clearly a strong asset of the Challenger 2, in addition to its good armor protection.

To be quite honest I prefer a good APFSDS over adequate any day, especially in a scenario were OPFOR has any modern MBT's (Waiting for a HESH to reach orbit before coming down on the gomer, could reduce the chance of a hit, not so much against a stationary target but those pesky T80's tendt to mill around) Again t(h)anks for the info Nils looking forward to taking the Chally for a spin.

Staffan

The problem, I think, was that the Britons placed their bets on the Challenger 2 to become an export success, at which point there would have been more user nations to fund further ammunition R&D. By the time that it turned out that there would be nobody else, Royal Ordnance was already close to shutting down as ammo consumption was insufficient to keep the production line alive, so the CHARM3 was probably the last hoorrah, and already effectively a decade behind in comparison to the APFSDS progress made for the Rheinmetall gun.

Scary development for the nation that created the 17pdr and its very effective APDS.
but I can also see that a country like the US not having any issues with throwing huge sums for R&D for ammunition. I'm just happy as a clam the Denmark got the Leopard 2 and that they are effective in Afghanistan, Got a friend that will be deploying (Again this summer).

I also seem to have seen something (I think it was at TankNet) about the Chally having been tested with a smoothbore gun... However now I'm taking it off topic.
Looking forward to the update Nils. it is looking very good so far, Looks a bit clearer in the distance.

Staffan

wow how the years go by so fast - been years since i played Steel Beasts but i still remember the sandy river bed and the trees where we waited for "an ambush" lol.

Question, will the upcoming upgrade be $ for those of us who paid for the previous paid upgrade?

Cheers
Øystein

yes maddog... but if you can make a good mission, you can win it.

SimHQ contest announcement, celebrating 10 years of SB coming later today.

(now this is just me speculating from memory and what i think I read... not official... but 25 bucks for the new upgrade... 100 bucks for the whole thing if you don't have it already.)

*cough* ...and the M1A2... *cough*

*looks around startled*

OMG Who said that!?! How dare he mention that! String him up!

I'll be honest with you... SimHQ was determined to do a review of the latest and greatest SB Pro PE way back when... but I being new to tank sims felt I couldn't do quality work so asked for other staff members to do it, no one stepped up... so then we asked a couple of guest writers if they would, we had two start but then say they didn't have time.

IMO, SimHQ really dropped the ball on SB Pro PE... the greatest (and pretty much the only) tank simulation ever made and we did nothing. And pretty much only me to blame on that. But I knew if I wrote a review I would have no clue what I was saying, like I know if the ballistics are true or not, lol... I was afraid of the feedback, yep I admit it afraid, lol...so never did nothing. Was a true injustice to eSim Games and SB, and for that I regret and am sorry for.

Yes I will look into doing something, article wise for the 10th Anniversary...with links from the past SB article... but still, no way am I doing a review.

I've always wanted to start a SB Pro PE night here at SimHQ... just never panned out... like they do on their Friday night games over at steelbeasts.com.

Where's Spoons hiding anyway?

IMO that could actually turn out to be a different but valid approach for a review. Not only are you a novice to tanks, so probably are the majority of your readers. So you could describe your impressions from that point of view. And you can then still do some fact-checking. There's Google, there's Wikipedia, there's TankNet.org that you can use to cross-examine what we did. Plus, SB Pro PE comes with extensive electronic documentation. We think that as simulation designers we owe our customers proper documentation of what we're doing and what our design decisions were (and why).

Not being a subject matter expert is no reason not to review a title about an unfamiliar subject.

easy for you too say. lol.

I would offer my help, but that's probably unethical.

There's still TankNet though, maybe someone there is willing to help you out with his expertise. There's plenty of Leopard 2 and M1 officers and senior NCOs there, military historians, and others. There's the Armor Scientific board on the same forum with the one or other internationally renowned expert.



Just ... uh, stay clear of political debate there, until you acclimatized. :o

Hi Ssnake ;

congrats on reaching the decennium mark ;

Could you please direct me to a faq where i can find some basic information about SB Pro PE (stuff like : has it got besides MP also SP , does it work on a foreign (dutch) XP SP3 , can i stick that dongle in one of my G15 hubs ; can i use my TM Cougar with it (and the TM Warthog when it comes available) , are SB pro PE updates seen as DLC (payware) , ...

I've been playing sims right from the floppy era (digital integration , dynamix , microprose , spectrum holobyte , novalogic ...

But i hate to say , i didn't know that SB pro PE exists

Greetings from Flanders

I thought we had one at the official Fan Site but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, the site has a "game info" section and several search buttons, so I guess you can find out much on your own with relative ease. That being said...:


You bet!


Absolutely.


If it is a powered USB hub, yes. Otherwise it might work, or not.


SB uses whatever joystick input Windows provides. And yes, the programming should work just nicely (at least I have never heard something to the contrary about Thrustmaster sticks.


Not quite sure what you mean with DLC, but we had free updates from spring 2006 until late 2008, and released one update for pay so far (followed by a free update). The new PE version is for pay again. You can however order the current PE version right now from our web store at a reduced price of just $100.- and then get the upgrade for $25.- so that in the end you won't pay more at the moment than the regular price.

Thank you for the answers/information guys.


[quote=Ssnake Not quite sure what you mean with DLC, but we had free updates from spring 2006 until late 2008, and released one update for pay so far (followed by a free update). The new PE version is for pay again. You can however order the current PE version right now from our web store at a reduced price of just $100.- and then get the upgrade for $25.- so that in the end you won't pay more at the moment than the regular price.
[/quote]

just 1 follow up question ;

base version in your shop is 2.460 CD

recent update version that i found on your site is 2.483 (downloadable file)

can it be that the payware upgrade that you are talking about has not yet been released ?

Steel Beasts Pro on SimHQ: For the past year or so on Monday evenings, a small group of us have gotten together to run missions primarily from the user community centered at the Steel Beasts website. We use the SimHQ TS server SB channel for comms, and congregate around 8:30 to 9 p.m EDT. Dr. James Sterrett, who teaches at the Command And General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, has been a steady participant and often but not always serves as CO. We've been a little light on sessions in the summer, but generally at least a couple of us show up every Monday. Importantly, this is an informal group. We are not dedicated to strict mil discipline and comms as for instance the Monday Night ArmA sessions also here at SimHQ. We do this because we enjoy SBP so much, and each other's company.

If you would like to get together for MP SBP, please feel free to drop by on Mondays. We would be happy to see you.

...as it says on nearly all the screenshots.

Sorry if i ask stupid questions but i am new to SB pro PE , so i try to get things along by reading what i can about this simm and asking questions along the way...

I am not new to simms but i am new to SB pro PE

Will there be preorders for 2.5x ?

And for now the only thing holding me of from an instant purchase is the question if there will be a base 2.5x CD release (=an all in release = 2.460 + 2.483 + 2.5x + manual + dongle)

Hello Beelzebub,

I believe it goes like this:

1) You buy now SB Pro PE: 100 USD
-> You get a CD + manual + dongle with version 2.460
http://www.esimgames.com/purchase.htm

The price is normally 125 USD, but is temporarily reduced to 100 USD & that till 21/08
http://www.esimgames.com/press_releases.htm#TenYearSpecial

2) You can then download version 2.483 - for free.
It requires the previous version 2.460 to be installed already.
http://www.steelbeasts.com/update-2-483-posted-a44.html

3) You order 2.5: 30 USD (CD + digital download) or maybe 25 USD (only digital download).
-> I'm not 100% sure about the price of 2.5, needs to be confirmed by Ssnake,
but it won't be above 30 USD.
Preorders for 2.5 are not possible yet,
but it will be announced sooner or later when we can do that.

4) I don't know what will be the situation as of 21/08.
Normally you should get if you order then: 2.5 + CD + Manual + dongle.
Price: 125 (or 130 ?). Again to be confirmed by Ssnake.

=> So buying now, would give you a good taste already of SB 2.483, for 100 USD.
And if you would be disappointed, you could forgo the additional 25/30 USD for 2.5.

Would you be disappointed ?
Hmm, since you're a long time simmer, there's a good chance that you will enjoy SB - a lot,
and ... spend way too much time with it.
You can play it purely for the fun of gunning a tank (but in a sim-environment, not as in Quake).
Or you can be tank/company commander and try to use the right tactics to lead you platoon(s) to victory & survival.
Or you can play mostly from the map, and command a battalion (or more) as a real armchair general.
Or you can mix all of these play styles in one, during one scenario, which is what I tend to do.
IMO it's a multi-faceted sim, that also goes indepth in the situations it tries to simulate.

Here's an AAR that I wrote for scenario, to give you a taste of what I mean:
http://www.steelbeasts.com/sbforums/showthread.php?t=14160
Screenshots of this mission:
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2887438/Operation_Grafton_Notch.html#Post2887438

And of course you can do MP as well: 2 or 3 ppl manning one tank etc...
Personally I stick to SP due to lack of time.

Best rgds,

Koen

Hallo koen2 ,

thanks for this very good information/feed-back

it's much appreciated

money wise it would be basicly the same i guess between steps 1 to 3 or step 4 (about 130 green ones) but i think i would prefer the latest all in one version because of ease of install (like i fe purchased IL2 1946 DVD or First Eagles Gold just for that reason)

the maybe steep learning curve doesn't worry me because i have games like Tornado , red barron , falcon 3 gold , Falcon 4 , ... were the manuals aren't realy manuals but are more like hundreds+ paged books

Sincere Regards

When 2.5 is being released you simply uninstall previous installations and install the new one. Your settings and user-created scenarios will survive the uninstallation process.


Basically, Koen was right on all accounts.

Does this group have an equipment preference, e.g., M1 vs. Leo2?

I don't know if I mentioned them before here in this thread ... PE version 2.5 will also bring civilian cars which, unless disabled by the mission designer, will carry between three and six "insurgents" to sow additional chaos and confusion. The Technicals will also dismount a few troops.

Over here, 21 new screenshots since the last updates of this thread.

Last time i played with SB Pro PE was in winter/spring 2008/2009 but as my computer had not enough space on hardrive, i had to desinstall. It seems now that it is time to reinstall.
Questions : Is 2.5 coming with scenarios with T55, T62 and new T72B ?
Is an early Merkava coming soon ? There were a gigantic battle in the Bekaa Valley in 1982 with hundreds of tanks, or Kippour scenarios will be improved with the new Tanks.
I suppose that Invasion of Europe 85 is now possible. I think that SB will be much better now !!!

I may still have time to adapt a few scenarios, but by and large you shouldn't expect them. It's just a matter of time however until they will appear, I'm pretty confident about that. Mission designers love new stuff to play around with.


...and you can be a mission designer too!
It isn't that complicated.

Thanks, creating scenarios is certainly not so easy and i don't know if a Tutorial is available here or on SB website. Moreover it seems to me that many scenarios are done by real soldiers in order to verify the tactics learnt on theories and then applicated.
In the SB Gold, my favorite campaigns were Korea done in 12 or 13 missions and Invasion of the west by the Soviets. Unfortunately in SB Pro PE the Author redone only 3 or 4 scenarios out of 12-13 of his Korean Campaign.
How many variants for the T-55 or T-62 in the future ?

More will certainly follow, but it's impossible to give a specific list and schedule at this point.

WRT to mission making, there is a dedicated discussion board for this at SteelBeasts.com. If you have a question, or if you want to ask the author of a specific scenario to make certain changes, this would be the place to go.

Today's beans to be spilled have a caliber of 40mm.

The Lemur remote weapon station, available as an equipment option to many vehicles (old and new) in SB Pro PE 2.538, can receive not only the cal .50 HMG but also a 40mm AGL.

Is it possible that we are going to see an Omani upgrade given we will be seeing the M60 and Challenger 2? As far as I know they are the only other army using Challenger and M60 combination?

We didn't have a specific nation in mind when adding those two vehicles.

Dang so no bagpipe mod then either

Not saying anything about mods here; if someone is willing to invest the time, Kilts are welcome.

eSim have their own youtube channel now, all the video teasers in onr place,
http://www.youtube.com/user/eSimGamesDtl

No kilts though