Steel Beasts Pro Discussion Thread

[Asid]

Oh yeah... the T62 battle today... no AI gunners 

[Apocalypse 31]

Oh yeah... the T62 battle today... no AI gunners 

The T62 and T72 are great beginners tanks. Lack of modern fire control system makes you learn tactics very quickly.

I just wish we had a playable M60.

[jomni]

I tried playing with them one time. Never able to hit anything. Need more practice.

[Nefaro]

I tried playing with them one time. Never able to hit anything. Need more practice.

I used the T-62 in SABOW before, so I'm familiar with their gunnery (pretty archaic).  I'm glad they have playable Russkie tanks in SBPro.  I'm sure the experience is different than using the western tanks due to their shortcomings, so it could be quite fun.

[JudgeDredd]

I wasn't able to make it online on Sunday and in fact didn't get much time with this at all.

I'll tell you part of the problem...I want to drive and learn the Challenger 2. As per Asid's suggestion (and others?) - learning one tank and it's systems is critical to being apt and enjoying the game.

However - there are only a couple of tanks that have a decent list of tutorials - and the Challenger 2 isn't one of them.

I think there are something like 20 for the M1, 18 or so for the Leopard - but there's no consistency across the list of AFV's. That makes it hard to learn, with any confidence, the tank you want to play. The Challenger 2 has half a dozen I think - all of which are gunnery. So if I was to focus on the Challenger 2, I'd be failing drastically on other parts. Which parts, I'm not sure - but it's hard to suggest that I would be competent in a Challenger 2 when more than 3/4's of the tutorials I would have to do to learn this game came from the Leopard or M1 tutorial list.

For that reason - I think I'll be out of this in a short space of time. I wanted the Challenger 2. I found out it had a playable Challenger 2 and I was really excited...but having since found out that not all the systems are modeled and there's nowhere near the number of tutorials required to learn it with any degree of confidence, I can't imagine me playing this for long.

Sorry Asid - you were more than informative and helpful, but I don't want another detailed sim where I'm faffing around because I can't learn the platform I want to use.

If I ever find out the Challenger 2's systems are modeled well AND there's sufficient tutorials to help a novice work out what he's doing, I'll be back

It's a miss for me just now though... :(

[Yskonyn]

If I remember correctly, the Challenger 2 has PDF documentation in the Documents folder of your install. While the tutorials might not be there in-game, I am pretty sure the PDF is very helpful.
You can always edit a mission yourself and swap in the Chally.

[JudgeDredd]

If I remember correctly, the Challenger 2 has PDF documentation in the Documents folder of your install. While the tutorials might not be there in-game, I am pretty sure the PDF is very helpful.
You can always edit a mission yourself and swap in the Chally.

I'll give that a look - thanks. I did have very little time with it - and I didn't go rooting about. I had hoped everything would be "there" and available.

If a wee bit of rooting around to get the info is sufficient to learn the platform, then maybe I'll be happy with that. I also didn't think about changing the tank in the scenarios - mainly because I thought the systems would be specific to the platform and the tutorial.

[Yskonyn]

The thing is; the Chally wasn't a fully modelled platform until more recently.

[jomni]

Sorry to hear.

Most knowledge can be used between tanks. I am talking about basic simulation commands for movement and engagement and tactics.

What differs are usually gunnery fire control and tank commander capabilities. The challenger is a new tank in the sim so I guess they concentrated on the gunnery tutorials.

You can try playing the missing tutorials on the Leo or Abrams and I bet you can apply them to the Challenger.

[Asid]

Challenger 2

The Challenger 2 is not modelled  at the level of some of the vehicles at this point. A lot of the sub tutorials are generic apart from the ones relating to specific equipment and systems. If you do the tutorial for setting waypoints then you don't need to do it again in another set of tutorials.

To make some missions for the Challenger 2
Start the Editor and select/change the unit types you want. Remember to save the edited scenario as a different file name to prevent overwriting the original.

There are extra tutorial documents in the "eSim Games\SB Pro PE\docs" folder.

If you look at the wiki section about the Steel Beasts Challenger 2 Here http://www.steelbeasts.com/sbwiki/index.php/Challenger_2. There is a lot of information there.

In SB the Challenger 2 has:
Tank Commander's Position F7
    Commander's Periscope (PERI)
    Commander's IR Sight
Gunner's Position F6
    Gunner's Auxiliary Sight (GAS)
    Gunner's Unity Sight
Driver's Position F9
Loader's Position (currently not crew-able and is handled by the AI.)

    Thermal Observation and Gunnery Sight (TOGS)
From the wiki

Challenger 2



Challenger 2: Main Battle Tank

Contents

    1 Statistics
    2 General
    3 Thermal Signature
    4 Crew Positions
        4.1 Tank Commander's Position F7
            4.1.1 Commander's Periscope (PERI)
            4.1.2 Commander's IR Sight
            4.1.3 Commander's vision block view
            4.1.4 Key listing for Challenger 2 TC's position
        4.2 Gunner's Position F6
            4.2.1 Gunner's Primary Sight
                4.2.1.1 Sight Symbology
                4.2.1.2 Engaging Targets
                    4.2.1.2.1 Lasing
                    4.2.1.2.2 Lead
                    4.2.1.2.3 Firing
                    4.2.1.2.4 Reengaging and Dumping Lead
            4.2.2 Thermal Observation and Gunnery Sight (TOGS)
                4.2.2.1 Sight Symbology
                4.2.2.2 Engaging Targets with FIN
                    4.2.2.2.1 Lasing
                    4.2.2.2.2 Lead
                    4.2.2.2.3 Firing
                    4.2.2.2.4 Reengaging, Dumping Lead
                4.2.2.3 Engaging Targets with HESH
                    4.2.2.3.1 Extreme Super-elevation with HESH
                    4.2.2.3.2 Engaging, Dumping Range and Dumping Lead
                    4.2.2.3.3 Manually Inputting Range
            4.2.3 Gunner's Auxiliary Sight (GAS)
            4.2.4 Gunner's Unity Sight
            4.2.5 Key listing for Challenger 2's gunner's position
        4.3 Driver's Position F9
        4.4 Loader's Position
    5 Reference

As you can see there is quite a lot available for the Challenger 2.

Regards

[Nefaro]

I wasn't able to make it online on Sunday and in fact didn't get much time with this at all.

I'll tell you part of the problem...I want to drive and learn the Challenger 2. As per Asid's suggestion (and others?) - learning one tank and it's systems is critical to being apt and enjoying the game.

However - there are only a couple of tanks that have a decent list of tutorials - and the Challenger 2 isn't one of them.

I think there are something like 20 for the M1, 18 or so for the Leopard - but there's no consistency across the list of AFV's. That makes it hard to learn, with any confidence, the tank you want to play. The Challenger 2 has half a dozen I think - all of which are gunnery. So if I was to focus on the Challenger 2, I'd be failing drastically on other parts. Which parts, I'm not sure - but it's hard to suggest that I would be competent in a Challenger 2 when more than 3/4's of the tutorials I would have to do to learn this game came from the Leopard or M1 tutorial list.

For that reason - I think I'll be out of this in a short space of time. I wanted the Challenger 2. I found out it had a playable Challenger 2 and I was really excited...but having since found out that not all the systems are modeled and there's nowhere near the number of tutorials required to learn it with any degree of confidence, I can't imagine me playing this for long.

Sorry Asid - you were more than informative and helpful, but I don't want another detailed sim where I'm faffing around because I can't learn the platform I want to use.

If I ever find out the Challenger 2's systems are modeled well AND there's sufficient tutorials to help a novice work out what he's doing, I'll be back

It's a miss for me just now though... :(

I also definitely want to get familiar with the Challie.  From what I've seen, you only really need to learn each tank's specific fire control system.  The rest is pretty much the same from one to another.  I don't think there are any playable British APCs, however.  :-[

Sounds like we'll be doing mostly Leo2s in multi-player, so that will take highest precedence for me.  I'll still be looking to do some Abrams & Bradley stuff too, along with some Challenger fun.  :)

[Nefaro]

Try using "Show mouse vector" It draws a vector line from centre position to where the mouse is and this can help a lot. Itis in the "system" menu when you are in game.

I was wondering where this was located, as I didn't see it in the main menu 'Options' pages.  Do we have to actually be inside a scenario/tutorial to turn it on?  Also.. will we have to do this every time we start a scenario?

It looks like just what I need, after occasionally losing sight of the little mouse cursor.

Gonna get some quality practice time in today, hopefully.



Edit:  Another thing.  I've not used Teamspeak in a few years, especially as my guildies used Vent.  It's no biggie setting up but I'm wondering if I need the same 32-bit or 64-bit client to match the server.  Or are they compatible with each other?

[Asid]

I was wondering where this was located, as I didn't see it in the main menu 'Options' pages.  Do we have to actually be inside a scenario/tutorial to turn it on?  Also.. will we have to do this every time we start a scenario?

It looks like just what I need, after occasionally losing sight of the little mouse cursor.

Gonna get some quality practice time in today, hopefully.

I set it in a mission and it stays on

Another thing.  I've not used Teamspeak in a few years, especially as my guildies used Vent.  It's no biggie setting up but I'm wondering if I need the same 32-bit or 64-bit client to match the server.  Or are they compatible with each other?

I use it on both 32bit and 64bit windows and they communicate perfectly cross platform.

[Asid]

I also definitely want to get familiar with the Challie.  From what I've seen, you only really need to learn each tank's specific fire control system.  The rest is pretty much the same from one to another. 

Correct

I don't think there are any playable British APCs, however.  :-[

The Warrior. However it is not modelled to ashigh a degree as some vehicles.

[Nefaro]

I also definitely want to get familiar with the Challie.  From what I've seen, you only really need to learn each tank's specific fire control system.  The rest is pretty much the same from one to another. 

Correct

I don't think there are any playable British APCs, however.  :-[

The Warrior. However it is not modelled to ashigh a degree as some vehicles.

I wondered if the Warrior was playable, but I didn't see it listed in the Wiki so I wasn't sure.


Also.. not too crazed with the Leopard 2's method of computing lead.  Having to hold down an extra button after lasing isn't as smooth as having it mixed in with the rangefinder laze command like on the Abrams.  Will take some getting used to.