You're welcome. It seems you stumbled into a first-ever issue, else they already would have let you know the remedy. Bad luck!

You could also ask Codemeter directly: support@codemeter.com

@Skybird

Haha! Believe me, my computer is an expert in first ever issues, all the stuff that never happens on other computers always happen on mine :haha:I've developed a sort of sixth sense when it comes to that and yesterday I had this feeling that it was too easy to be true....and I was right :damn: :haha:

Once I had this blue monitor issue, the computer would suddenly reboot and show a blue screen, then recycle between this blue screen and rebooting until I swtiched it off. I took it to a repair man, after a week he handed it back to me, free of charge and disillusioned because after a week of intense work on it he could not find anything! And that blue screen phenomenon never happened while it was in his care no matter how much he tried to provoke it.....I took it home, switched it on an after an hour or so I had a blue screen reboot :haha:.....now I haven't seen it for a while, so then of course something else is bound to be wrong now, things have simply been too quiet and uncomplicated lately hehe

Depending on the OS you are running I recommend you go to the Codemeter webpage and download the latest runtime files for your OS.

I am running Win7 Pro 64bit and Codemeter had a specific file to DL and execute and install prior to setting up with my Steal Beasts install. After that I was able to install SB and then have the stick updated with the SP codes. Best of luck!

@Skybird & Wilcke:

It worked! The crisis is over :haha:

Thanks skybird for your help :yeah:

wauw the game looks great by the way.....I managed to take an hour to play it this afternoon and got myself shot to pieces in a Centauro :haha: time to have a look at the mission generator now....this game is just...it's like getting behind the wheel of a quality car, even though you haven't really run it yet you can just tell the quality! :up:

Na siehste woll! :03:

The - what...? :D

I'm preaching this since years, but its always the same show with the noobies: wide open mouths and starry eyes... :D

Well, that vehicle is a heavy turret on a medcium hull with a medium gun, so the name of the game must be "shoot and scoot". It's not much different with the Leopard-1. These vehicles are vulnerable, and they are the more difficult to play.

Some tips for starters.

Choose the heavy tank of your liking, Leopard-2A5/E/STRV122, or the Abrams. The Leopards are more ergonomic in their gunnery procedures, easier to fight with, and allow the TC better situational awareness (periscope, independent TIS). Then stay with that tank for the next weeks or so, play aroudn with all the sutff to please your curiosity, but then piuck one vehciole and stay with it. Learn it's handling inside out, especially the emergency procedures (gunnery via GAS).

By doing so, you allow yourself the chance to deal with the real challenge of the sim, and that is tactis, reading the landscape to yoiur advanatge, timing, formation manouvering.

From the main menu, use the gunnery practice where you shoot 10 moving targets, and try to get a 90-100% score there. This scoring also effects the skill of your AI colleagues - that'S why it is important. Go there again when you come back to the sim after some days or weeks of break. The shooting is one of the highly realistic physics model in the sim, and you really should try to become an expert at shooting, sharp like a razor.

Deal with the mission editor early on. This is not wasted, becaseu essentially it is the same interfce you use for planning your mission before it starts. Also, use the editor to edit the mission you play next that it allows you to play with the learning vehicle you have choosen. If you picked Leo-2, change playable Abrams to Leoo-2s, and vice versa.

Play small scale mission first, and plenty. Play from TC station only and try to command your platoon from that position exclusively. What you learn in skill that way, is stuff well-learned and will help you to establish routine quickly.

Always think ahead, and have a plan B ready.

Stay low in the valleys, do not advance over ridges - move back, and move around ridges.

Keep away from water holes.

Don't get frustrated. Most likely you will get killed often in the beginning, and most of the time you will not know what, why, and from where. Use the AAR (after action report), switch deisplay to real positions and single vehicles. Via F1 and F5 you can switcxh between map and real world vie - check what a critical shooting situation on the map looked like in the real world. Move via tank-control keys W-A-S-D, control your height via Q and Y.

In map vioew, there is the mline of sight tool. Use it, and use it much. Note the big differences in vehicle heights: Cahlly, Abrams and Lreo-2 are around 3m, but the T-72/T-80 just around 2.1 m. The highest vehicle is the M2/M3 (3.3+ m). CVs and BMPs are around 2.3-2.4m, the Marder 2.9m, the M113 2.4, the Pizarro and Leopard-1 around 2.5 m, the Centauro 2.7m, the Jaguar 2.4 but the TOW-Wiesel just 1.8m. What I mean is: just use the slider controlling the height for the LOS tool.

When setting up a defensive psoition in the map tool, set that psoition a bi8t BEFORE the actual position where oyu think it is. The vehciles will always relocate a bit by themsleves to find optimal positions, up to 300 m, and it is better that when they ´gain autonomous status by the kssion plan, they still have some protective spac eion front of them - they will move forward all by themselves until they can see. even if the gun doers not pass a ridge - the tank will move by itself so that the TC can see what he must see. For the same reason, when using prepared psoitons for tanks (those trenches in which the vehicles hide their hulls, set up the defesne psoiton marker slighty in fron of thew entrance, not directly on top of the trenches. The vehicles than find the trenches by themselves.

Never forget, tanking is a TEAM play. As long as you think you are a one-man-army, you will die over and over again.

2 minutes 40 seconds - that is the usual artillery reaction time. Keep it in miond. Once you have been spotted, it might be a good idea to have left your current position before the time is eaten up. Standard artillery barrages are 200x200 m. Make it a habit to start moving after 2 minutes or so, to clear that box before the shelling starts. ICM can kill any vehcle in the game - especially when the hatch is still open (then a single HE round already may be enough). Note that the Leo-2E and Strv-122 have special hatches that are operated by hydraulics, noit manually. They have improved armour, but they need around 20 seconds before they are shut (or opened).

Learn to close or redcue the GPS shields when you are under small arms fire (some tanks allow that). that small callibre still can kill your TIS and primary optics. When running into artillery, not only close the hatch, but also the GPS shields.

If you have, setup a HOTAS for the sim. Learn to aim and shoot both with stick and with mouse. Many people forget that there is a mouse control, too.

Firing procedures and sight control can be very different in some of the vehicles, especially the IFVs. Be prepared for that.

Yeah, but that makes it so much more interesting to learn :up:. I have done what you suggested though, played around with other different vehicles, it would be silly not to with all of those choices, I just keep going back to the Centauro. By the way, one vehicle that could be great to try out in this game would be the Swedish S-tank.

Oh yeah, I already am fiddling with this :haha: Problem is that I have so little time right now.

Oh I do get killed and never am able to figure out why :haha:some times I wonder if I'm completely blind.

Thanks for all of your advice and for helping me out :up:

@Skybird:

Oh by the way regarding the mouse control....I will not forget! I only have a mouse and no stick and that is a real pain in the back side, I haven't owned a stick for years, a mouse is simply too slow and difficult to handle

Quite the opposite, the mouse in sbp is probably the most precise aiming method you can use, especially when tracking moving targets. It'S mopre precise and reacts faster. Many players favour it over a stick. I only use a HOTAS combo for it alows me to have almost all controls within the grasp of my hands. For gunnery, I grab the mouse.

Try it. It'S closer to how the real thing works. And it works better. ;) SBP is one of those rare sims were you can claim with all honesty that a stick is not needed.

@Skybird

Actually I tried out the shooting range yesterday and I was surprised how well the mouse reacts when you are encountering moving targets, some times I could let totally go of the mouse and the reticle would follow the target precisely, only I find it annoying when you have to make small vertical adjustments, maybe my mouse configuration is off a bit. For other controls I find the mouse slow and annoying. What exactly is a HOTAS? Remember I'm a newbie :oops:

HOTAS is a term from fighterjets, meaning

Hands
On
Throttle
And
Stick.

It simply means a throttle grip with many (programmable) buttons in your left hand, and a stick with many buttons in the right hand. That way you can trigger many functions without needing to adress the keyboard (or to let your eyes off the manouvering enemy.

Your comment has given me some doubt that you have understood in full how the mouse is functioning in SBP when using it to control any reticules...!? It is different than when you use mouse control for just panning around with binoculars or outside view. The more the mouse-cursor is moving away from the centre-mark (to which it is connected via a line), the faster it is moving at that direction. It is not linear. If in doubt, check it once again, and very carefully. The mouse allows you to acchieve steady angular movements with much higher precision than even very good, precise joysticks usually would give you - if for no other reason than your hand trembling. It's also easier (compared to a joystick) to track targets that change not only vector but also distance to you quite fast.

The only tricky part with the mouse is to get used to not overdosing the initial steering input - if you do, you can easily use visual lockon to ther tatrgbet and need to reaquire - and that time you take may be the time the other needs to kill you, not to mention that it may expose the turret's flank to the enemy.

If that happens, or you ran into an enemy unprepared, or you lack initial SA (situational awareness), pop smoke immediately, and reverse at full speed. Your Western tank still is quite fast in reverse. Retreating behgind a ridgeline may save you from destruction due to your SA being confused.

Make sure that you do not forget the type of terrain behind you. Water - bad, woods - may make you stop before you reached safety, swamp: slows you down, turning you into a lame duck. Stay aware of these things when tailoring your tactics.

The Leopard-2s have a rear camera in driver's seat. Use the mouse to see the monitor on the left panel.

Do not forget that Steel Beasts is military training software. One of the most powerful training aspects of the software is the AAR (After Action Review). While in the AAR, you can select to observe all units, blue and red. You can review every hit, both from the map and the world. In the world view, hits are denoted with color-coded vector lines, the colors corresponding to the type of round that penetrated. You can move around the map, viewing engagements from the victor's and the victim's aspects. You can assume an airborne postion viewing the engagements more globally. The AAR files can also be saved for review by others.

Using the AAR well will put you in front of the learning curve and before you know it, you'll be able to figure out precisely why it was that you got killed.

Hola Skybird!

I HAVE THE SIMULATOR!! :woot: :rock:haha sorry for the screams/enthusiasm but two days ago it finally arrive (22 eternal days of waiting :doh: -Argentina here and NOT an esim fault, they ship it at once from California, the delay was local- (big thanks to SSnake for the support while waiting!- but luckily it arrives intact and in perfect condition, I have to pay nothing at customs and installs perfect under XP SP3 and the USB codemeter works! :arrgh!::haha:)

I´m already 100% addicted to it (that is why I didn´t write before here...) and I can´t stop playing, trying stuff (adding skins, editor test etc )

thanks for your "tank museum" mission Skybird!! :rock: is so great for try ALL the tanks at once jumping from one to the other :rotfl2:
love it! :up:

I`m playing mainly with the Leopard 2A5DK, I use the mod for put the interior in english and I want to learn with that one the best I can. I read your tips and I will follow them, so much to try that you can get lost ! :doh: better start slow and taste the sim like a good wine!

I really recommend it to all the tank lovers! (why I didn´t buy it before? :88))

just a question Skybird , I think if you don`t know it any will know it... I can`t sleep well becuase this haha

please check these pics...

First one: under "view option" (before playing) in editor T-80 has the gunner hatch open (love the red star there :DL using a skin mod...)

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/2...rhatchopen.jpg


Second one: I start the mission and that hatch close (FOREVER :wah:) and now the commader one is open...


http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2...hatchclose.jpg


Third one: T-55 while playing the mission BOTH hatches are open (so nice! :shucks:)

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/1...hatchsopen.jpg

please do you know why is in that way? I mean I love to see the gunner hatch open but while the mission only the commander one open/close (at T-80 / T-72´s also happens that) with T-55 both hatches open or close due the situation (fire, no fire etc)

can you control that behaviour in some way? using some option at editor? I know is not a killing issue but I like to know if you can control those things... In ARMA (Armed Assault from Bohemia Interactive) when you select "SAFE" the crew open the hatches and drive that way... when the see action they close them. Really want to know if here you can control those things. I try using "b" while driving those units but nothing happens...

well thanks for the patience reading all this and thanks for recommend this great simulation and for all your energy promoting it :yeah:

now time to some playing at the summer tank museum :shucks: (with the hatches open or closed! :rotfl2:)

ps: glad to know about the patch coming and I download the mission pack you post in the other topics! :rock:

:shucks: And another happy convert. :D

The hatches, well, I am not aware of any way you can control the gunner's hatch.

In several tanks, the gunner can open and close the sight shields, however, which is recommendable when you take artillery fire or small arms fire - even a light machine gun can damage your thermal sight or EMES or optics if it hits the right spot too often.

The TC can manually control his hatch, and should use it in deed. For example a shelling by HE artillery with just one gun tube (sometimes a battery with one gun only is used to mimic light mortars) that would not dasmage a heavy tank with closed hatches, can score a lucky hit and kill the TC or even the entire tank when the hatch is open. The AI is suboptimal in handling it, and it takes control of thr hatch and opens it when you jump to the TC's seat and the nb ack to the TC - in this case, close it again. The AI only closes it if it is aware of enemies that cna harm the tank, or an arty barrage has started. That is a porblme since in the Leo2A6 the hatch is different to the others, it is better protected, but takes around 15 or 20 seconds to close due to the hydraulic (?) mechanism.

No known mods for hatches. All skins necessarily follow the 3D wireframe model of the vehicles.

yes! :salute: this is turning into a real SECT :shucks::shucks::shucks::shucks::shucks::shucks:

thanks for your replies about my the hatches madness :doh: good to know if you have it open something can happens and is not just a nice detail touch in the game :sunny:

seems like the gunner in T-55 is waiting for a bullet and he opens his hatch without problems :88)
or maybe is because the tank... you know, with hatch open or close he knows he will be dead soon:timeout: :D poor 55 and I really like the 3D model :up:

well time to.... play! :arrgh!:

Pepper any of the tanks, friendly or foe, with open hatches with some light MG fire. You should get a message that they are taking fire, and you should see the AI closing the hatch. After some seconds, when it sees no enemy, it unbuttons again.