Steel Fury?

[ottoramsaig]

I have just bought T34 vs Tiger and soon after have discovered Steel Fury. Can someone let me in on the difference between the games. An E-Bay vendor told me that the producers of "Steel Fury" are out of business.

[frinik]

Hi Ottoramsaig,

Ironically both Steel Fury and T34 versus Tiger were distributed by the same defunct( bankrupt) company Lighthouse Interactive.However the difference is that while TvsT was sold on the market ,half finished ,with lots of flaws and bugs and with the G5 Software washing it's hands of the product( they have even removed alll references to TvsT from their website),. Graviteam ,which developed amongst ohters T72 Balkans on Fire, on the other hand have been supporting Steel Fury and helping a community of dedicated Russian modders who have created dozens of fine mods for SF.

TvsT until ZeeWolf came along was destined to oblivion except for a dedicated MP community.But even then many were complaining of having trouble gettin into MP games because of faulty interface.If you are planning on purchasing TvsT and want SP not MP then don't buy it unless you buy into ZeeWolf's mods otherwise it's going to be a waste of money. ZeeWolf has made new missions and added new vehicles and wants to expand the game well beyond it's original Operation Bagration scope.However there are only 2 playable tanks the Panzer VI ausf.E and T34/85

SF is purely SP there's no MP component. It's got a solid variety of missions, campaigns, single and user-made( I have made about 60 myself)and a user-friendly mission editor .Now with all the mods there are about 40 different tanks including Tiger I and II, JS2, T34/76 and 85, SU85, Stug III C,D,F and G, Panzer IVF1, F2,SU122, SU152, KV2, Panzer II C, Panzer IIIg ( L42 and L60) , Mathilda, Valentine ,T60, and many other armoured vehicles light tanks and guns)AT and plain artillery).TvsT has slightly better graphics but Sf is more stable and has more variety of maps and landscapes which you can use for ambush or tactics.


Anyway I would recommend you get both games as they are different and each enjoyable in their own way.They're cheap and frankly I have both for 2 years now and enjoying them very muchthanks to the mods and add ons.I advise you to read the various threads dedicated to both TvsT and Steel Fury on the forum you'll glean lots of useful info.If you needs tips on things let me know.


Re gun stabilisation.I thought it had been invented after WWII?It's true US armour doctrine was quite different from the German or even British one.The much maligned( probably unfarily) Sherman tank was built more with the British doctrine in mind , most British tanks were meant as infantry support not to be used in tank vs tank combat.It's really the Germans who adopted that philosophy and later one the Soviets as well.

Cheers

[Sledgehammer427]

The shermans had gunsight stabilization If memory serves me right.

I find it funny that there is a neat little split among Zeewolf and I. He's the TvsT guy and I'm the Steel Fury one. I have both as well, but TvsT taxes my system far more than SF does so I prefer the one that doesn't threaten to fry my video card.

i find Steel Fury to be more immersive. I've never been in a tank but I feel it comes the closest. TvsT has some pretty little things that don't click with me. like, for example, the gunsights. you have the grainy one that is the gunsight you are looking through, then you have the high res fullscreen one, which is more preferable. I don't see how that can plant you in the combat environment...it feels like a cheat, but I consider a cheat to be something the tanker back then didn't have.
the other one is the interfaces, the TvsT one is streamlined and user friendly, while the Steel Fury one feels raw, where everything you need to know is right there, and yes I am being a little bit of a hypocrite by saying that but it's no different than putting the thought processes of the tank crewmember in visual form. They didn't have a hud, and there will come a day where we won't either...but now, the information that would have been readily available to the tanker, such as the RPM's and which gear you are in, the number of shells remaining, what your last order to the driver is, and so on, will have to be visually defined onscreen, and therefore I think Steel Fury does a superb job of that.
Okay, done with my rant.

Lastly, otto, I do find enjoyment in both, and as frinik said they are cheap, I suggest having both. you will have days where one game just doesn't compete with the other and days where you just want that one mission...

[Gary Owen]

Otto,
Once you've taken a look at Steel Fury (check out youtube for videos), go over to Simhq's for this thread: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.ph...ml#Post3047733

[ottoramsaig]

Looks like a great summer, after trying to fix an address issue with EBay it looks like TvsT, SF and tonight I am looking into SBPro PE. I have studied and became quite good at the Silent Hunter games (Manual Targeting) I will finnally get to use the Tank Knowledge that I have accumulated over the years, I am so looking forward to the games I promise I will stop the mindless post once occupied with the Tank sim's

[frinik]

Ottoramsaig,

Make sure you go the tanksim.org.ru website to get all the early and latest mods for Steel Fury( there's tons of them).The website is temporarily under renovation but they posted an alternative website and anyway it should go back in a couple of days or so.Later on, if you're interested, I'll email you some of my user-made missions for Steel Panzer 1.4.There's not such thing as a mindless posts here.Everybody's welcome to talk and ask....

As SledgeHammer said Steel Fury is more immersive and offers more variety than the stock TvsT .The period covered is May 1942 so you get to play early war armour but with the mods you have access to all kind of 1943/1944 and even 1945 armour.The upcoming official Steel Panzer 1.5 promises to add even more missions and variety to the existing tank/apc/gun park( which is well over 70).

Cheers