Well, what can I say... I personally would have liked to see a "WWII Battle Tanks: Panther vs. T-34", as the Panther was the German answer to the T-34, but it wasn't meant to be... And believer me: I was harrassing the producer about that, too!

We shouldn't really mention PEA here... what a sad piece of software...

Hmm, the main problem will naturally be multiplayer (which according to the press release should be available). In single player there will be no problems to create great scenarios as there are a lot of other AI tanks etc.

But who want's to drive the T-34 in a multiplayer game? OK it could may be solved the way it will be solved in singleplayer by throwing a company of T-34:s on a platoon of Tigers... But still - how fun would that be after the first time? OK, then pit captured T-34:s like the one they pulled out of a bog recently against similar Soviet T-34:s. It will be balanced but...

If I could dream a bit my proposal would therefore be:

Two drivable german:

Panzer IV (F2 or G) Maybe the Panther instead as it is the favorite tank plus cool of WWII but the PzIV is better to be able to portray the whole of Barbarossa if you add the E or so (I don't know how different the interiors where).

Tiger (the masses whant it!)

Two drivable Soviet:

T-34/76 (or T-34-85 if Panther selected above)
IS-2 (to fight the Tiger, by far the most frequent heavy Soviet tank)

Then we have fairly even matchups that may be mixed in multiplayer with only a few heavies avaliable etc.

Well, well here I am whining like an old troll when I should be celebrating

/Mazex

Naaahhh.. The devs want feedback.. that's for sure!

But I am also quite sure that for the initial release the featurelist is frozen...

But, it's still long ways to go - and we know that the some mild "community pressure" might open up the devs/producers a bit, eh?

It will be interesting to see this tank sim actually develop & I can understand mazex`s pont of view on the multiplayer side of things (& I play offline in all sims currently) Historically tank on tank the T34/76 was no match head to head against the TigerI. The only chance they had was to use their better speed & mobility to get into a superior position, perferably at the Tigers rear & put a round through the weaker armour. This was represented brilliantly in the PS1 game "Panzer Front" When driving the T34 the only way to take out the Tiger tank was to turn the battle into a close quarter street fight. This made for incredibly intense game play.
However all in all I am really looking forward to solid single player campaigns, I find these extreamly rewarding.

Mazex I have heard of the IL2 WW1 game . Just didn't know that was the name. I go check on the tread off and on but hasn't been an update for a while.Thanks for link.

It would be nice to see this cont but it won't . There isn't that much of a following for WW2 tanks out there . Everyone wants to be in jets then WW2 fighters then WW1 Aircraft . This will be Tiger vs T 34 .Terrible choice . Followed by independant people making add on mods that drive you nuts trying to install them .

So Red Orc gets better everyday .

Don't know what would be the perfect match up being limited to one tank from each side.

That's why you have more than one from each side.

Tiger II versus JSI , Mark 4 versus Sherman LL ,

You need a wide variety to compensate and balance.

Well they have 1 1/2 years before this thing comes out so they should be able to fix it.

I remember when iPanzer 44 came out and people were upset because it was limited to Sherman , T-34 and Panther . No Tiger . Hurt sales .

"But, it's still long ways to go - and we know that the some mild "community pressure" might open up the devs/producers a bit, eh?''


Yes let's hope so . If you don't know what the other tank is in the distance you have to hedge your bets. If you know it's ALWAYS a Tiger or a T-34 there is no guess work.

Panther vs. T34/85
Pz. IV vs. T34/76

Two interesting and fairly balanced match-ups that would cover most of the war.

As long as it will be no vapourware I -personally- can live with the choice of the two tanks for the beginning. But what fearlesslds said about it hurting sales could be true.....

I guess that budgeting such a game is quite a challenge too. No real similar games out there, no idea how the market will react. I think that you will not throw all your -financial- eggs in one basket and that you will start small and see if it is actually worth putting more effort in such a game. I hope its success is parallel to the one of the Il2-series and we will see lots more games and extensions coming from that direction.

Uwe

Well, I guess that makes sense.... Esp. for the niche market simulations are.

I am confident that this "WWII Battle Tanks: T-34 vs. Tiger" will be a good starte into this series ...

OK! HEADS UP EVERYONE... Here's a question from the producer to all of you.. Please voice your opinions here. This is in regards to the playable tanks in the initial release of "WWII Battle Tanks: T-34 vs. Tiger.

Choock from IDDK wants to know the following:

What do you prefer?
a) To get two playable tanks in early 2007 and then an addon with additional playable tanks after, say, 6 month

or

b) To get four playable tanks at the end of 2007


We prefer option a), becouse of the economics of development.


Please answer this and reason your decission.

Fearlesslds,

"Knights of the Sky".....certainly is WWI!

http://www.SimHQ.com/simhq3/sims/boards/bbs/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=144;t=001669

"WWII Battle Tanks" sounds cool too (but as has been mentioned already, from a simulation perspective it'll take lots of T-34 "over-runs" to make the gameplay balanced against Tiger I formations. Hopefully there will be more armor available, both Russian and German to command in the sim. Still, it will be interesting to see how the AI reacts on the battlefield. Will we see massed Russian formations of multi-tank battalions and brigades pushing towards objectives, or will the sim center around tank "dog-fights", of a handful of units swirling around a location?

In the end AI control and terrain complexity will be very important to the gameplay, and what has me curious is what other formations will be occupying "40 square kilometers" of map terrain while we command our individual tanks towards an objective....will there be a dynamically evolving battlefield (the Front) in progress, or will game missions be aimed at static lines, via canned scenarios (which is ok if things don't get repetitive)?

EDIT: (after reading the above recent post)

I would also choose a) IF, continued support (a process for adding content) is being pre-planned in order to expand the sim's coverage. In fact, I would personally encourage the 1st-Quarter release in order to get the game out (w/o being rushed of course), as a means of introducing the sim to the marketplace, but with the expressed intent of releasing add-on content to grow the title over time.

IMO.....offering add-ons, modules, unit-packs, is the way to promote the health and success of the simulation market in general.

"Build it and they will come", but don't stop there......plan on-going expansion over time, meeting customer demand for more title content, while providing the producers the opportunity to offer additional retail add-ons so that we customers can "grow our own" (add to our base game's vehicle, mission, and map content).

If the title is good to start with, we'll be wanting more gaming goodness as time goes on ,but the expansion business model has to be stated clearly up front, so we customers know the designers are in it for the long haul too!

In reply to your question Rainer, I go for option A, it is what the developers have planned for & I wish to see a quality tank sim that sets a benchmark for others to follow. As long as you have a solid variation of A/I Soviet, IS2, KV1, SU85, T34/85. German, Panther, PanzerIVG TigerII, Jagdpanther I can see a very good single player campaign system developing.

On the other hand the T34/76 will have a hard time if this sim is historically accurate, but so what? If the developers plan on expantion packs then the next Soviet tank should be the IS2 & German the Panther.

But overall I would love to see a tank sim developed to the IL2 standard, with priority placed on single player campaigning.

On a side note if the developers are looking for a Sim name instead of T34 vs Tiger how about

"T34 Scorched Earth"

Anybody else with a sim name?

I go for OPTION A)

We need a good and realistic WWII tank simulator as soon as possible. We have been waiting too much time (well, since Panzer Elite in the 90´s).

Come on !!! Bring it to us !!!


Txema

OPTION A !, been waiting for this type of thing for a long time.

"Panzer Fowards"......or maybe "Backwards" in this case.

I'd be most interested in the game's multi-player component, deemed to be command only 15% of the "reason to buy" sales of today's sims (if that's in fact the case), but what producer can afford to throw away 15% in potential sales with the tight profit margins available in the sim-specific market nowadays?

If WWII Tank Battles doesn't have good online capability, as BOBII is lacking......I'm one who won't be interested......sorry.

So from topic it looks to me like a spiced up version of iPanzer44 released in 1998, although that included the Yanks as well.

If you put as much love into the AI and team intelligence as into GfX, I´d be interested, definitely. Would´ve been more challenging to jump into the turret of a T34/76 version to experience the difficulties of a commander who has to serve as gunner too. So in this regard the 1942/43 era probably would be more interesting, since things are more "balanced" IMHO.

Also hope terrain handling will be realistic and does not just offer the ever present search for that hull down position! I mean boggy terrain (that is not always identifiable at first glance), woods that offer varying degrees of difficulty (chance to get immobilized or gun damaged)..and as said an AIP able to handle the various terrain.

Option A, you could give the other two tanks just a gunsight view, untill the update. Alowing them to be took to battle.

Please also alow custom skins, for individual tanks. Got book loads of Tiger/T-34 scheme's

And please don't sacrafice realism for gameplay. The ablity to comand other units should be used to trump the superiority of a super tank like the Tiger.

The T-34's advantage in numbers should be used to balance the game, not giving it unrealistic firepower, or anything else it did'nt have in real life.

I know alot of IL2 types that will gladly buy this sim, but if you get that wrong, look out.
Its a tuff crowd

A is better.