Pros and Cons - Current Tank Sims (and your recommendations?)

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by frinik

Well Sledge this is what I said in one of my posts as well.SB is professional training software tweaked into a game.It was developped thanks probably to generous disbursements by the Pentagon or NATO

No, the US army has not bought it, and NATO had nothign to do with it. The team built them first version by itself, basing on not classified information that is poublicly available, and feedback from real tankers. the danish then bought it, and since then they offer it to other customer nations as well. just after that start they started to implement features that existing or potential customers ordered.

while SF and TvsT were made by small teams of Eastern Europeans programmers very dedicated but without the required funds to do anything comparable.Graviteam people say that much on their forum when they mentions that being cash/strapped forces them to adhere to basics when they make games.Had they been able to make SF with the kind of support/funding SB has had then perhaps the result might have been different.

I doubt that that is much different with ESim, it is no great studio either. If they had more money,m the sim would implement more of gamer's demand, but they cannot afford the ressoruces to do that in most cases, at least it takes them long time. A crewable T-72 for example is hoped for since years. Other features they rightout must reject. the team was even smaller in the very beginning of eSim. I think they still depend on basically just one programmer, the others help in vehicle design, skins, sounds, etc.

Lieste et al, correct me if I saying something wrong.

Unless some game company with ample funds and a willingness to put perfection ahead of short term profits comes along and agrees to pout the cash needed to make a WW2 sim comparable or that can compete with SB then SB will reign supreme for decades to come.

I think a shift in focus would be as important, if not more. the porblem with great publishers is that they tend to rush titles onto markets. so big money companies a,one are not necessarily a solution. in the cosim genre, the best games come from the smallest teams, it seems to me.

Frankly I don't see that coming because the tank sim game market is small compared to first person shooters, RTS or arcade/style sims like the Wolrd of Tanks, Panzer Elite Action Fields of Glory or Dunes of War.Even the aircraft or sub sims markets are probably bigger

tjhat is n surprise, flight games always have been extremely popular, naval sims are a niche product only.But the demand for tank games is not as small as you think, i think. I remember very well the heated activity in the forum here and elsehwere when it was annouhced that a WWII tanker is comingl and not even one but two! But then it was lighthouse, and the sims themselves also not convincing for many people, so the majorty of the trek moved on, leaving only real fans on the scene.

I think a really welldone WWII tanksim that is released in a good shape and by competent publisher, and that features good tactics, a minimum of physical realism, a minimum in battlefield realism, and a solid AI, would have the potential to become really successful, like SH3 or IL2 - even more so when it would also look good.