Countdown for Steel Beasts Pro: NEW 15 MIN.-VIDEO
 

I will keep this topic updated from now on.
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They are perfectionists - complete code including protection scheme will run one last testing session next week. If it passes (what everyone expects), it will be frozen (I expect at the end of the week) and production will start immediately. This is officially confirmed information.

It's becoming serious now! Better start digging your foxholes ASAP!

Can I get a link for it? It sounds very interesting. Although, I am just hearing of it and have not heard much!

Screenshots and videos:
http://www.steelbeasts.com/

Forum:
http://www.steelbeasts.com/index.php

Can be pre-ordered here:
http://www.esimgames.com/purchase.htm

:o $125.00...............

Should have been named "Steal Beasts. :yep:

The game looks really good, but $125.00 is a bit to mutch for my wallet. I think I'll waith for your review first, after that I will make my final decision if to by the game or not.

Polak,
it's not a game, really, don't expect that kind of round and polished package you got used to when buying sims or games. This does not mean you must be a specialised insider to use it, fans of SB1 surely will have a lot of fun with it. But the interface is not tailored for the taste of the gaming public, but for the needs of the military. It's essentially the same piece of software.

This also explains the higher price. On the other hand I have heared and seen infantry simulators with totally inferior interfaces and bad graphic presentation that costed up top several hundred dollars. Seen that way, SBP with it's expected limited sales numbers comes at a smile price.

several people in the DW forum have claimed in the past they bought TWO copies of it (59 dollars or so) to help develpement. The price of 2 DWs equals that of 1 SBP.

The price for 1 SBP equals that of 2.5 or 3 crap games (39-49 Euros per piece) from the shelves that you curse about and send them into the bin soon after. SBP, if you are interested in the mastter, will please you not for months, but years.

If you want a gaming package with easier interface and a design with the gaming market in mind, then DO NOT buy this one. Even the publisher himself recommends exactly this.

I dont really care about the game interface, I prioritize realism.
This is probably why I prefer simulators before other games.
For me realism has always been the most important thing.
As I said earlier I will wait for your review, honestly I dont know mutch about the game right now, I dont know if you will need some background knowledge about tanks or if there will be some kind of beginers-tutorial in the game. I would really like to buy this simulator because it's probably the closest I'll ever come to driving a tank in battle. The problem now is that my paycheck stinks... :shifty:

This certainly looks like something I would love! Thanks for posting about it otherwise who knows if I would have ever heard of it!

I'll probably buy it. I need a good new tank sim and its been a while since I've picked one up.

-S

The sim will have a whole series of short tutorial lesson teaching you the basic tactics of for example mutual support, movement under covering fire (2 stay&fire, 2 move), proper timing and the proper use of the ingame mission command interface to handle formation maneuvering; basically the kind of lesson that already SB1 has been euqipped with. you do not need background knowledge and insider information. But healthy reason and a good power of imagination (to form a picture of what is going on around you when the battle unfolds) certainly will help.

The number of non-educational scenarios the sim comes with will be limited, but new maps and missions are already under developement by the modding scene, amogst them many 1:1 copies of training sites at American Forts, and real-world places like Balkan hotspots. Missions from SB1 can be converted for use in SBP. Their forum is very good, and has a very dedicated and professional community. You can expect a constant flow of new scenarios beeing made available in their download section. SB's mission editor is of the top class.

Thank's for the reply, sounds very good. :)

Will it mainly be single mission type scenarios or will there be some sort of campaign of a fictional war or something?

No campaign. No story. Only multiplayer conferences, and single player missions.

I stress again: do not think in terms of a round, complete gaming package here. This is the military's training simulator - nothing more, nothing less.

Will there be a map editor?

I'd suggest you guys picking up a copy of the first Steel Beasts to see if it's your cup of tea.

SB Pro is only going to be more hardcore, not less. It's not even intended to be a "game".

You got me with that. There is a mission editor. there are several huge maps (bigger than a single battleground that is used for doing a mission). There will be no height map editor, they said in the past, for manipulating the 3D modelling of the earth's surface (the military's versions of SBP have that feature, though). A map editor changing the features of this modelled surface - should be there, if modders already recreate their places of interests by the use of pthotographs, and when several American forts get rebuilded in the sim's virtual reality down to the last hut on the perimeter.

So carefully I say: yes, there is a map editor. But I check back on that to be sure.

http://www.steelbeasts.com/pe/walnut_springs_sb.png

Looks like a map editor to me.

Also compare this modder's work (WIP):

Original:

http://www.steelbeasts.com/pe/Rasdorf02.jpg

Virtual recreation:

http://www.steelbeasts.com/pe/Rasdorf-ProPE.JPG

Concerning creating your own height maps:

http://www.steelbeasts.com/index.php...ght=map+editor

Thanks, I was interested because being able to do some work with maps always extends replayability, or add entire new content, just like new OFP maps.

It seems it's not exactly easy to create a whole new map, but with enough effort, maybe we'll see some interesting new maps in the long run.

I quote the site administrator of the SB forum:

"The Professional version (the one the militaries use - not Pro PE) includes the ability to import height map data (DTED files) from mapping software, but theres no way to directly edit the elevation data in the editor.
[...] there is a terrain editor, where you can change all the terrain that lays over the elevation map, including the ability to select ground cover objects, change the textures that are used, ground cover density, various sliders to control how fast vehicles can get through the types of terrain, etc etc."