Just wondering...
Dr. T. no longer publishes through HPS so this has become a severable question. I do not know what course HPS will take, but, if the last year or so be any judge, it will still release an occasional game.
As for Dr. T., yes, there are other games in the pipeline in a number of series -- some well known (Panzer Battles) and some less known that I, frankly, am not at liberty to discuss.
All the Tiller releases are very, very small operations and take time to come to fruition but the result has improved steadily over time. I can't even begin to describe, for example, how excited I am for the World War I PzC franchise, with which I am in no way affiliated save as a fan, to move forward in history.
I would welcome new releases to thew PzC and Squad Battles series, but I'd like to see the systems advance and modernize. I'd appreciate updates to graphics, sound and UI at this point. These games have been around for a long time with little in the way of improvement.
I'm not hooked up to those crews, but my impression is that WWII PzC has run its course and development effort -- which certainly includes graphics if not vast UI changes -- is being shepherded into Panzer Battles. I'd love to be wrong, but the PzC series already covers a whole lot of ground...both WWII and after. I am a huge fan of the WWI series which has made its bones in the research, improved rule set, and, in an almost equal measure, the graphics upgrade at the hands of long-time modder JIlson...whose name I fear I have just misspelled...
SB is a wildly under appreciated series for all its graphic limitations -- I marvel at those who prefer paper and cardboard squad level games to it -- and I, too, am quite interested to see where it heads. WWI and the free Grenada were both really good installments.
Not hearing much about upcoming releases from the Tiller games series is pretty par for the course. I suspect there are several games being designed and developed at the moment.
Quote from: reapagan on November 29, 2015, 08:54:18 PM
Just wondering...
Hi,
As the guy behind the most recent couple of Panzer Campaigns and now Panzer Battles titles, I am probably the best person to answer...
The answer is emphatically yes. John has independent teams working on his titles (we all have day jobs) and he releases them when they're done. It takes a minimum of two years to get a game from genesis to out the door - the norm is usually significantly longer than that. John himself is pretty tied up with some long term commercial contracts and that limits the time he has to spend on the wargaming side. That said, some of these commercial contracts benefit us - the technology for Android and iPad ports came directly from one of these engagements. Ultimately, I expect improvements to UI's on PC's etc to flow through due to the advent of touch and zooming/scaling and other enhancements.
As far as new titles, we have been running a big thread over at the Blitz showcasing the next Panzer Battles - its now at the 350 post mark
http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=68266
We're on track to justify some Christmas presents to the Tiller aficionado!!! :smitten:
We've also continued to do a lot of work on graphics and other aesthetics. A lot of what has been done in Panzer battles has been ported back into at least two Panzer Campaigns titles (Moscow '42 & Kharkov '43) via the latest patches.
We have also just put out a draft
Visual Order of Battle for the upcoming title in this thread. http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=68772
This really is a superb reference document created by Mike Avanzini.
This is available for
free for all to download. The link to the 66 meg PDF download is in the first post.
It shows what we have done with the graphics and the overall presentation and additions with each title.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblitz.org%2Fuploads%2Ffiles%2Fb47%2FPB%2520Graphics%2520345.jpg&hash=2228da679263aa53675d3f0c56b1724d2cf3a73e)
If you have any specific questions please let me know,
David
And for those that can't be bothered clicking through the links here is a sample page from the Visual Order of Battle. This is a couple of Regiments from the 1st Polish Division;
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblitz.org%2Fuploads%2Ffiles%2F442%2FPB%2520Graphics%2520346.jpg&hash=118fbc868b5920513933ce3ee484749828d40a18)
David
^^^ :smitten:
Looking very HOT. :-*
I have had the honor to beta test this upcoming title. Not only is this new title beautiful, but it plays awesome too ;) Panzer Battles Kursk was good, but this title moves the ball pass the goal line :D
Quote from: Cyrano on November 29, 2015, 11:48:01 PM
I'm not hooked up to those crews, but my impression is that WWII PzC has run its course and development effort -- which certainly includes graphics if not vast UI changes -- is being shepherded into Panzer Battles. I'd love to be wrong, but the PzC series already covers a whole lot of ground...both WWII and after. I am a huge fan of the WWI series which has made its bones in the research, improved rule set, and, in an almost equal measure, the graphics upgrade at the hands of long-time modder JIlson...whose name I fear I have just misspelled...
SB is a wildly under appreciated series for all its graphic limitations -- I marvel at those who prefer paper and cardboard squad level games to it -- and I, too, am quite interested to see where it heads. WWI and the free Grenada were both really good installments.
+1 I for one would like to see the Pz Battles game joined up as a linked campaign. The standalone scenarios, while very good for what they are, leave me a little cold when I think what could have been done as Korps campaigns and a Grand Campaign bringing it all together. I'm hoping this will be done in a future update with carry over of losses, replacements and resupply. IMO, it would turn Panzer Battles from good to excellent. FWIW, JTS has made a MAJOR improvement with the effort put into the graphics in PZB. I have not always been charitable towards Joe Amoral's artwork, taking a similar view to Jarhead's earlier post, but I must say he has excelled himself with the PZBattles Kursk game. I just hope he will do retroactive artwork packs for the other games. I'd happily pay for a big art update pack for all the JTS/Games if he does it to the same standard done for PzB:Kursk.
@Strela :)
Fantastic news. I can hardly wait. O0 I do hope that the game will have a linked/dynamic campaign fro the reasons I mentioned in my above post.
A while back you hinted that you might so something to remedy the campaign deficit in PZB Kursk. Are you any further on, or has that been shelved :( (if so, hopefully temporarily) through pressure of RL and work?
Quote from: Boggit on November 30, 2015, 05:39:45 PM
+1 I for one would like to see the Pz Battles game joined up as a linked campaign. The standalone scenarios, while very good for what they are, leave me a little cold when I think what could have been done as Korps campaigns and a Grand Campaign bringing it all together. I'm hoping this will be done in a future update with carry over of losses, replacements and resupply. IMO, it would turn Panzer Battles from good to excellent. FWIW, JTS has made a MAJOR improvement with the effort put into the graphics in PZB. I have not always been charitable towards Joe Amoral's artwork, taking a similar view to Jarhead's earlier post, but I must say he has excelled himself with the PZBattles Kursk game. I just hope he will do retroactive artwork packs for the other games. I'd happily pay for a big art update pack for all the JTS/Games if he does it to the same standard done for PzB:Kursk.
Boggit,
Re. Campaign; Normandy has a couple of multi-day scenarios with Operation Bluecoat the biggest covering almost 5 days (144 turns). These longer scenarios feel very different to the average 20-30 turn scenario in Kursk. You feel the need to conserve forces and decide when to push and when to stop to recover.
That said, look out for the Blitz teaser thread at the end of this week - there will be an announcement that you might be happy with.
As far as Joe's latest art work - he started the ball rolling with the first iteration of Kursk. I have picked it all up from that point so most of what you see is my work. We have also retrofitted the new graphics style back into Panzer Campaigns Kharkov '43 and Moscow '42 in the latest patches. No need to pay for a graphics upgrade!
David
People asking for linked scenarios or carry over losses should realise that it's very difficult to balance, as you have to consider every eventuality and starting/ending positions for each scenario, and losses in wargames are nearly always ahistorically high.
For the Panzer Battles series, there's the specific handicap of having around 30 day turns instead of 6 to 8 which means there is no lull in the fighting that allows you to regain fatigue or establish new defensive positions. You can destroy a formation in that time.
As much as I would also really like to play linked scenarios with some losses carrying over, a true linked scenario campaign will be very challenging to balance, which is also why I was happy that the Cherbourg scenario for Panzer Battles Normandy is now less long than it was originally. Operation Bluecoat, based on its description, uses fixing and unfixing of units and a constant trickle of reinforcements, so that's also easier to balance. Balance usually goes out of the window when you have to use the same units over and over.
Variant scenarios based on a certain outcome in previous scenarios are easier to balance, however, so that might be an option. Like how Civil War Generals 2 handled its variants.
I would still be curious about new Tiller games but if they're only going to be sold with limited online activation DRM then I won't ever bother.
Quote from: Nefaro on December 01, 2015, 09:23:02 AM
I would still be curious about new Tiller games but if they're only going to be sold with limited online activation DRM then I won't ever bother.
Not quite certain what you mean by 'limited online activation DRM'.
Tiller uses the same system as Matrix, a key that can be used for multiple installs. The two install limit was removed a long time ago. You only enter the key once on the very first time you start the game - it validates with the server and your done.
David
Quote from: Strela on December 01, 2015, 09:53:57 AM
Quote from: Nefaro on December 01, 2015, 09:23:02 AM
I would still be curious about new Tiller games but if they're only going to be sold with limited online activation DRM then I won't ever bother.
Not quite certain what you mean by 'limited online activation DRM'.
Tiller uses the same system as Matrix, a key that can be used for multiple installs. The two install limit was removed a long time ago. You only enter the key once on the very first time you start the game - it validates with the server and your done.
David
So it still has online activation?
Quote from: Nefaro on December 01, 2015, 11:02:05 AM
So it still has online activation?
Yes, but as I said it is only on the very first time starting of the game.exe. At that point it requests the key and validates it.
After that the registry maintains the key as valid and you never have to query the server again.
In my experience this is pretty standard with many PC war games.
The rationale is that as the game is only available for online purchase you will install the game pretty much after you download it. Access to the internet should still be available for validation. Once validated, you can even uninstall the game and reinstall it at a later date without having to query the server again.
David
@Strela -- Possibly difficult topic (hope not) but I was disappointed that MapMod doesn't work with the most recent update to Kharkov '43. I very much respect the work that's being done to pump up the graphics in the release versions, but, for me, MapMod remains preferable.
Given that the author has been brought in on the WWI series, I would have thought more circumspection could have been used to avoid breaking these mods -- particularly as they affect only the visual aspects of the game, no?
Thanks as always for the continuing effort and development!
Quote from: Strela on December 01, 2015, 11:17:54 AM
Quote from: Nefaro on December 01, 2015, 11:02:05 AM
So it still has online activation?
Yes, but as I said it is only on the very first time starting of the game.exe. At that point it requests the key and validates it.
After that the registry maintains the key as valid and you never have to query the server again.
While it's better than before, it is still present to some degree.
Using it right now isn't the issue. It's years down the road where such permission-based DRM can cause unforeseen problems. It lowers the long-term value in my eyes.
Quote
In my experience this is pretty standard with many PC war games.
Not all that common in, overall, PC gaming these days. The backlash in recent years has resulted in fewer indie titles using Online Activation these days. There are many available without it, with more showing up nearly every day.
There is a huge number of games coming out lately. More than I can spend the time on. So DRM has an even higher impact on my purchasing decisions.
Quote
The rationale is that as the game is only available for online purchase you will install the game pretty much after you download it. Access to the internet should still be available for validation. Once validated, you can even uninstall the game and reinstall it at a later date without having to query the server again.
David
I do appreciate the improvement over the limited activation amounts. I won't completely trash the idea of purchasing one of the new titles since such an improvement has been made.
I just wanted to point out that having to "phone home" is firmly in the negative column, and I'm not alone in this thinking as a consumer. With all the competition out there right now in the PC game market, that can't be good.
Quote from: Cyrano on December 01, 2015, 01:02:07 PM
@Strela -- Possibly difficult topic (hope not) but I was disappointed that MapMod doesn't work with the most recent update to Kharkov '43. I very much respect the work that's being done to pump up the graphics in the release versions, but, for me, MapMod remains preferable.
Given that the author has been brought in on the WWI series, I would have thought more circumspection could have been used to avoid breaking these mods -- particularly as they affect only the visual aspects of the game, no?
Thanks as always for the continuing effort and development!
Hi Cyrano,
Please have a look at the link in the first post in this thread.
http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=67577
This should help you get Mapmod working.
Let me know how you go,
David
@Nefaro
I understand your concern. I can see both sides of the discussion. Tiller has tried to make it as unobtrusive as possible.
I also know he has a contingency if he decides to stop supporting the games/providing a DRM server.
He has been a pretty known entity when it comes to providing long term support.
Appreciate your commentary,
David
Quote from: Strela on November 30, 2015, 07:57:06 PM
As far as Joe's latest art work - he started the ball rolling with the first iteration of Kursk. I have picked it all up from that point so most of what you see is my work. We have also retrofitted the new graphics style back into Panzer Campaigns Kharkov '43 and Moscow '42 in the latest patches. No need to pay for a graphics upgrade!
Glad to see it's in good hands! :smitten:
Quote from: Cyrano on November 29, 2015, 11:48:01 PM
SB is a wildly under appreciated series for all its graphic limitations -- I marvel at those who prefer paper and cardboard squad level games to it -- and I, too, am quite interested to see where it heads. WWI and the free Grenada were both really good installments.
I agree. Great series IMO. Plus you can mod the crap out of it :)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi738.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx28%2FRichie61leader%2FAotR%25202_zpsbxiuo7jw.jpg&hash=916c44b3ba117bbf647425872b476732da393055)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi738.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx28%2FRichie61leader%2FAotR-GP-mod-4_zpsae8d6201.jpg&hash=bac5f38167d8b5239b1bd457f4244adb5e5f0a91)
@Richie: Who's counters are those?
and @Strela: Thanks so very much. Worked like a charm!
Quote from: Cyrano on December 03, 2015, 05:11:02 PM
@Richie: Who's counters are those?
Mine ;) I am no Iron X and David (Strela), but I have fun doing them. I have used Junior General stuff and lots of others. I am even building my own top down counters now.
http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=68730
Never finished it, but even Panzer Corps units.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi738.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx28%2FRichie61leader%2FAotR%2520-%2520WIP3_zpsu4to97wr.jpg&hash=0cb9a40e0efe701f2cb157354d2ac3fe1e40b528)
Even messed around with a soon to be released title :D
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi738.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fxx28%2FRichie61leader%2FTOTH-SL26_zpszn7zjblo.jpg&hash=e20dcd128b69b6f0f12a24fd5cec2c7ee8fdf223)
Quote from: Richie61 on December 03, 2015, 07:35:58 PM
Mine ;) I am no Iron X and David (Strela), but I have fun doing them. I have used Junior General stuff and lots of others. I am even building my own top down counters now.
http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=68730
Nice O0
Quote from: Boggit on November 30, 2015, 05:43:50 PM
@Strela :)
Fantastic news. I can hardly wait. O0 I do hope that the game will have a linked/dynamic campaign fro the reasons I mentioned in my above post.
A while back you hinted that you might so something to remedy the campaign deficit in PZB Kursk. Are you any further on, or has that been shelved :( (if so, hopefully temporarily) through pressure of RL and work?
@Boggit.
I think this might be what you're looking for...?
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblitz.org%2Fuploads%2Ffiles%2Fe09%2FPB%2520Graphics%2520347.jpg&hash=f4502169ab143d6ee6d691782cbee1d58a26fb7f)
Current planned content for this new feature;
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblitz.org%2Fuploads%2Ffiles%2F787%2FPB%2520Graphics%2520348.jpg&hash=3ed1475019a5d47f3200cb69b0761d3541144140)
A huge post explaining it all here;
http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=68266&page=36
David
Quote from: Strela on December 04, 2015, 03:38:16 AM
Quote from: Boggit on November 30, 2015, 05:43:50 PM
@Strela :)
Fantastic news. I can hardly wait. O0 I do hope that the game will have a linked/dynamic campaign fro the reasons I mentioned in my above post.
A while back you hinted that you might so something to remedy the campaign deficit in PZB Kursk. Are you any further on, or has that been shelved :( (if so, hopefully temporarily) through pressure of RL and work?
@Boggit.
I think this might be what you're looking for...?
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblitz.org%2Fuploads%2Ffiles%2Fe09%2FPB%2520Graphics%2520347.jpg&hash=f4502169ab143d6ee6d691782cbee1d58a26fb7f)
Current planned content for this new feature;
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblitz.org%2Fuploads%2Ffiles%2F787%2FPB%2520Graphics%2520348.jpg&hash=3ed1475019a5d47f3200cb69b0761d3541144140)
A huge post explaining it all here;
http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=68266&page=36
David
OK - I think that just made me a buyer.