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Old 06-14-15, 05:05 AM   #24
33lima
Planesman
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Belfast, NI
Posts: 199
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Good luck then I hope you like it!

My PC's a bit of an animal too, possibly a mouse (without the plastic tank!) or other such creature (eg GTS 250), but it copes ok with both sims at fairly high settings (activating SABOW's 'reduce smoke' option still helped but as you can see from the screenies here and at CombatAce, I think I still get plenty of that!). It chokes on the action and unit-intensive 'Weisensee' missions for Steel Fury but is ok with 'normal' SF and SABOW.

BTW apparently, don't use graphic driver antialiasing with SABOW or SF - the latter needs an Nividia Inspector tweak (if you have that type of card) to get any and SABOW has its own settings.

The April update (and there's a patch for it too) for the CD version, usually referred to as the UIG version from the title of the original publishers - is here:

http://graviteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=10223.0

If you like it enough and see value in doing so, you might then consider picking up the better-supported downloadable versions eg in a sale. I'm not sure now which of the listed improvements came in the May update.

The SABOW learning curve is (perhaps like M1TP2 in a way) higher than the 'usual' tanksim because you go thru the wargame screens to to get at the tanksimming, so it's a case of 'Patience, Grasshopper!' The new quick missions bypass this. Tho composed before these arrived and better manuals and some tweaks otherwise helped, SimDeck's video I found very helpful in explaining how to breeze through the map and basic icons needed to get organised in the 'operational', pre-simming phase:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uROyjrKSB9Q

The same map and icons (the 'orders' subset anyway) is also available in-game as a tactical map which you use to monitor developments and give new orders beyond your own tank and tank platoon, so it helps to get the hang of these. After returning to SABOW in early 2015 when the updates started, a little persistence, reading the new manual (including the quick start guide here: http://graviteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=11215.0) and watching that video quickly got me over the hump and to the position where it clicked, the penny dropped and after that, it's pretty instinctive.

The other thing you'll notice is that in SABOW campaign missions, you get a briefing at the start which is sort of a combined operational directive and briefing. This may be updated as the campaign unfolds but you don't get individual new orders, for each campaign mission. In this respect it is like a wargame, where you're in charge and have considerable latitude in deciding what to do, as the wargame element develops the overall situation, with terrain and enemy forces being the main things you'll want to hit.

When I say 'you're in charge' there's another convention it helps to understand here, which is that on campaign, you are in charge of the friendly forces in one sector only. Based on your and the AI's moves, if and when a battle is calculated to be in prospect (complete with on-screen music, flashing status labels etc), you are taken usually a level further down, to the sector within your sector where the battle is imminent. There is a 'command all allies' option which gives you greater control but generally, you end up in charge of anything from two to about five platoons. I've tried to describe how this usually works out in the mission reports at CombatAce. This system has its good and bad points but overall, I think it might actually be the best SP campaign system any tanksim has had.

Anyway, good hunting!




Last edited by 33lima; 06-14-15 at 10:08 AM.
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