Just my thoughts on these things.

I own Pro PE and I believe that I have gotten my moneys worth out of it. One thing I would add is that the price tag tends to protect against teeny, x-boxers looking for some sort of tank-quake, who would surely show up and cause trouble in MP sessions and on the forums. When one of these types show up, history shows that they are usually weeded out pretty quickly by the community itself, by exclusion from the limited MP slots.

As for the 8 slot limit, I guess thats just a limitation I'm willing to accept. Without it, could it be possible government could try to avoid the price of PRO by buying Pro PE that had unlimkited MP slots? I'd think its possible.

The playable OpFor tank would be nice I guess. Any playable tank would be nice. Face it, despite comments to the contrary, if some government doesn't ante up for a T-XX then you will not see one in SB. Its just economics. I understand that and accept it for what it is. Any governments whisper carries more weight then the screams of the people that have bought SB for 10 years. Boom, its that simple.

30$ for the upgrade is OK, I suppose. Its not like there is more than 1 update a year, and I dont buy many (or any) games a year so the 30 dollar thing is OK by me.

SB2 isnt happening any time soon if at all, and I dont think Ssnake et al could be any more clear on that, so why try to add anything to that discussion?

Im OK with the dongle. Its needed. There was a group that traded a copy of the last update, which probably cost e sim a little bit of lost coin. There was one guy on the SB forums a while back that bragged about downloading torrents of games so he didn't have to buy them. How can a software company survive in that kind of environment?
I would rather use a dongle then some online connection to play. What happens when company X goes out of business, and your software can no longer connect to anything? If you still like to play that game you are "up the creek", but with a dongle, they can still protect their product and I can still use it no matter what happens, until my dongle dies, then I'm not sure what would happen.

Waiting for the 21st,
Jack

Oh and just a quick addition to this. I know of at least four copies that were purchased as a result of playing SB Gold multiplayer just a couple of weeks back! If you have Windows xp and can get hold of the original version then give it a whirl with some like minded friends. You will be surprised how atmospheric it is even with the dated graphics its still a very functional tactical Armour simulation and will wet your appetite for the quantum leap that SB PRO PE

Oh and if your having trouble connecting using that try port 2302 instead of 2300

and also a little package I found here that forces DX to use certain ports

http://www.puffinsoft.com/

you still need to forward your ports but the above makes sure your using the range you want

Have you heard of anyone running SB gold under Win7 ? I installed mine lately but it did not run, a missing library or something.
I loved the atmosphere of SB.

Michael

For the record i gladly payed $125 for SB Pro PE, but can't seem to fork out $60 for COD Modern Warfare 2 lol
Take it for what it's worth.

Same here!

Hi Michael,

Sorry for the late reply (Blame my recent acquisition of SBProPE) in answer, no I am afraid I haven't found any one that managed to get SB Gold running on windows 7.

I Dual Boot XP/Windows 7 currently and went through many hoops and loops trying to get it to run on 7 even to the extent of finding the missing driver and placing it in a suitable location. all that meant though was I got it to run but the gunsight and graphics were unworkable. I did consider using windows 7 built in virtual machine but then decided to just bite the bullet and get the modern version.

Thanks Bal,

appreciate that. Yes, I will finally end up buying SBPro as well, I fear.

Michael.

You won't regret it.

hi there!

I was reading this topic and I was so glad to see that Ssnake from the developers answer the questions/thoughts. That is a good thing. In the past I had contact with the developers of Operation Flashpoint (now ARMA) and is always nice to have some kind of response from the ones that build our dreamed games...

The other day I finally order Steel Beasts PRO PE 2.538 (after playing all these years mainly with SB Gold, OP.Flashpoint, ARMA 1/2 )

about the price: of course it was costly at least for me living in Argentina but I like to think in the hard work programming it and that is a real simulation and not just a simple game and now more knowing that THE programmer is the one that actually send the copy to you (as Ssnake said "since you all get your copy straight from the hands of Al Delaney himself") Also the high lasting level that I´m sure I will have with it...

more about the price, let me give this example, I'm quite sure that $125 in other places of the world is not like in here, well maybe worse... :

normal salary in Argentina (working 6 days per week 8-10 hours per day) , about u$s 7.500 (per year, yes :-/ ) that is u$s 625 per month so now you see that paying u$s 125 for me was quite expensive but sure SB will deserve it! (other local paradise example: here a 55´ LG LCD LED TV costs u$s 6500 , searched the same product in newegg.com and I almost faint...)

My only "wish" is to have an OPFOR tank (T-72) in some time in the future years (at least playable with some kind of bitmap cockpit hehe) but I understand the reason in not having one at this moment.

thanks!!

If you have a friend to play it with, consider the secondary license program as a way to reduce your costs. A secondary license is $25.- and allows you to play the software on two computers without having to pay for a full extra copy (while the two have a network connection).