Steel Beasts Pro Players?

Tomlok · February 18, 2014, 09:20:35 PM

Hi

Are there any Steel Beasts Pro players on this forum?

1. If so Where are you based?

2. Do you play Online?

3. Why do you play or not play online?

4. Do you play regularly or do you still play?

5. Has the sim fulfilled your expectations ? If no then why?

6. Would you buy again? recommend it?

7. Is it worth the price tag ?(in your opinion)

8. What do you think of the Steel Beasts community and support?

Thanks for taking the time to answer

Apocalypse 31 · February 18, 2014, 09:43:49 PM

Quote from: Tomlok on February 18, 2014, 09:20:35 PM
Hi

Are there any Steel Beasts Pro players on this forum?

1. If so Where are you based?

2. Do you play Online?

3. Why do you play or not play online?

4. Do you play regularly or do you still play?

5. Has the sim fulfilled your expectations ? If no then why?

6. Would you buy again? recommend it?

7. Is it worth the price tag ?(in your opinion)

8. What do you think of the Steel Beasts community and support?

Thanks for taking the time to answer

If you are serious about tanking then SB is for you. it's not something for the casual WoT player. It also has the BEST community I've seen in any game. There is a large Friday night gathering every week, with large operations that occur at least twice a year.

The price is fairly steep, but it's really the same as two $60 titles, and you will get much more play time and enjoyment.

SB also has the BEST scenario builder that I've seen in any game. It is built with an auto-script tool that makes even complicated scenarios a breeze to produce.

I dabble with it every now and then, and will play coop with a group of friends.

My biggest issue is that SB could be more than just an armor Sim. It has the possibility to be a great combined arms game. The devs are making small progress, but it's slowwww, and they've been clear that it's not the direction they want. It blows my mind because most militaries are moving closer to combined arms doctrine and less tank only warfare.

Speaking of which, another issue that I have is the content. The developer, eSim Games, is clear about their intentions; Steel Beasts is for military contracts. They only add stuff if a country is fitting the bill. There is very little commercial development. Many vehicle in game are unplayable, and have remained so for years.

smithcorp · February 18, 2014, 09:53:08 PM

Quote from: Tomlok on February 18, 2014, 09:20:35 PM
Hi

Are there any Steel Beasts Pro players on this forum?

1. If so Where are you based? Australia GMT + 10

2. Do you play Online? Yes, weekly

3. Why do you play or not play online? Offline is great, lots of scenarios of different complexity, theatres and equipment, but online is where the sim shines, especially played with experienced tankers. Some folk consider MP to be daunting, until they try it. Welcoming community, very helpful. MP really brings the challenges and rewards

4. Do you play regularly or do you still play? Currently playing regularly (several times per week). Have played on and off depending on life circumstances, since 2006. Might be the longest-lived sim on my PC; and always on the hard drive

5. Has the sim fulfilled your expectations ? If no then why?Exceeded them. Has got better and better as a sim, is rock solid and I have learnt heaps from it

6. Would you buy again? recommend it? Yep. I am always happy to recommend it and promote it to new players

7. Is it worth the price tag ?(in your opinion)Yep, got my money's worth from it

8. What do you think of the Steel Beasts community and support?Top notch. Mix of current/ex military and civvies. Community has some of the usual personality niggles, company support is excellent. Private players are not their core business but they give an inordinate amount of time to us

Thanks for taking the time to answer

You're welcome - jump in. You can get a non-codemeter licence for $10!

Jack Nastyface · February 19, 2014, 01:15:34 AM

Quote from: Tomlok on February 18, 2014, 09:20:35 PM
Hi
Are there any Steel Beasts Pro players on this forum? That's me.
1. If so Where are you based? Tsawwassen, British Columbia, Canada
2. Do you play Online? No.
3. Why do you play or not play online? Because I have a crap-tastic computer that gives me frame rates of about 12fps. Prior to v. 3, I could get about 30-40 which is acceptable.
4. Do you play regularly or do you still play? I played regularly (every other day) until a couple of months ago, then I had to sacrifice my good PC for the "homework" PC so I haven't played a game in over 2 months. I am definately missing it. As soon as I pick up another computer (which unfortunately just isn't a huge priority for me for a number of reasons) I will be back in command.
5. Has the sim fulfilled your expectations ? If no then why? Absolutely. I've said it before, but I can think of no other AFV sim that even remotely compares to SB Pro PE. There are so many interesting vehicles, weapons platforms and tactical possiblities available, and each new release just gets better. This game has grown from a great "study" of the M1A1 and Leopard to a full-blown military AFV simulator. At the same time, it also shows you certain ideosyncracies and dare I say frailities as well. Think you are tough stuff in that M1A1? Not until you see what the Stilleto ATGM can do. Very humbling, and provides good intellectual reflection on what I can only refer to as real-world challenges facing armor in the 21st century.
6. Would you buy again? recommend it? In a heartbeat. I would only recommend it to someone who was keen and wanted to spend time with the game. This is NOT WoT..it ain't even M1 Tank Platoon II. You gotta know your vehicle, it's systems and tactics if you want to survive.
7. Is it worth the price tag ?(in your opinion). I once calculated that since the release of the original Steel Beasts game in 2001(?), I have probably gamed well over 1000 hours into the various iterations. It is one game (SB, and now SBProPE) that has been on EVERY computer I have ever owned. So, yeah...I think it is worth it.
8. What do you think of the Steel Beasts community and support? Community is great but intense. Some of the folks are former tankers so they know their shit. Support is great, both from the company and from the user community. I had a guy help me work through getting set-up on-line (I have nested routers, so I need to do some duplicated port forwarding tricks) which took over 1/2 hour to do. No complaints at all, and we had a great time chatting over teamspeak.
Thanks for taking the time to answer

jomni · February 19, 2014, 03:18:37 AM

In my case, the game is shelved. It's good but definitely not my type of game. It has no campaign to keep me coming back for more. I play solo. And after not playing for some time, I need to always relearn it
It.

Skoop · February 19, 2014, 01:31:22 PM

This is the best armor sim on the market, if you like modern armor you wont be disappointed. There are thousands of scenarios to choose from plus one of the best editors I've ever used for a game. There are virtual unit campaigns that go on at the steel beasts community site, but dudes are really serious there when they play Friday nights. There's guys that play every Monday evening at simHq which is more casual. Any one can host if you want to do some casual 2 or 3 person coops, I am PST.

James Sterrett · February 20, 2014, 08:39:01 AM

Quote from: Tomlok on February 18, 2014, 09:20:35 PM
Hi

Are there any Steel Beasts Pro players on this forum?

1. If so Where are you based? Kansas City

2. Do you play Online? Yes

3. Why do you play or not play online? Part of a small tight knit group that plays every week (I've been playing games online with one of these guys for nearly 20 years!) Steel Beasts has been the game of choice for 5 or 6 years.

4. Do you play regularly or do you still play? Yes

5. Has the sim fulfilled your expectations ? If no then why? Absolutely. If you want a ~~tank~~ modern mechanized warfare tactics sim, this is the cat's pajamas.

6. Would you buy again? recommend it? Yes; and provisionally yes. You have to invest time in this to make it worthwhile. You have to be interested in the subject matter. It plays at 4 levels: gunner; tank commander; platoon commander; company commander. Each is a different challenge. In my opinion, it gets more interesting as you go up that chain; but others are very happy to be the gunner all the time.

7. Is it worth the price tag ?(in your opinion) Absolutely. In terms of hours per dollar it's proven very cheap. A different look at it: Despite the price tag, my wife doesn't bat an eyelash when I bring up getting the latest version, because she knows that it's going to get a huge amount of play time.

8. What do you think of the Steel Beasts community and support? Great community - as somebody else noted, small but intense. People tend to either not like SB, or love it - and the core community loves it. Human nature plays a role: ask nicely for help and you will get it ("I'm confused by XYZ..."); say negative things their favorite product ("XYZ is dumb because I don't understand it...") and they'll sling sabots at you. eSim's tech support is generally very responsive and even when things are failing they are open about what they think the problem is (such as in the online licensing SNAFU in the fall of 2013 - it was painful and took a while to get sorted out, but we were told what eSim knew at each step.)

All that being said: I can understand that solo-only players get less out of SB. That's not the recipe for it becoming a never ending obsession. The campaign mode that exists in the latest version is limited (admittedly, I tend to divide campaigns into the two categories "Falcon 4" and "Yawn" :) ) and you don't have the regular scheduled session to keep your skills up.

Tomlok · February 21, 2014, 02:53:49 PM

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Are their any Virtual groups that play?

Again thank you

James Sterrett · February 21, 2014, 03:27:50 PM

There are a variety of virtual units you can find at the forums on steelbeasts.com, but I don't really know anything about them.

Nefaro · July 16, 2014, 02:41:19 AM

Some recent brief discussion on SB Pro and watching some vids (from Krause) has me beginning to crack. Especially since there was some mention of low cost Dongle replacements if they blow up on you. This makes me think of it more akin to a CD/DVD-ROM, so it's easier to justify the expense if we can get a replacement without re-purchasing.

Now I just have to get over the price hump. I may consider it next month. What I wouldn't want to see is purchasing it and then a new version coming out shortly afterward, ending up having to spend more on an upgrade when I could've just waited a bit. Not really sure how to gauge that. I suppose it will take some research on their sales policies and whether something big is near?

Vids like this multi-player session are really convincing, however:

I really love to play Sims of all kinds. Flight sims are great fun but the plethora of extra hardware I have to find space on the desk for, and put on, isn't always ideal for my mood. This looks like something I could play with mouse, keyboard, and headset as opposed to a big spread of hardware laying about.

jomni · July 16, 2014, 02:58:36 AM

Oh another problem with SB Pro is that major patches/upgrades cost money. So I'm now several patches behind as I don't really buy every one of them. Wonder how this affects multiplayer (I don't know since I don't do MP).

Nefaro · July 16, 2014, 03:04:44 AM

Quote from: jomni on July 16, 2014, 02:58:36 AM
Oh another problem with SB Pro is that major patches/upgrades cost money. So I'm now several patches behind as I don't really buy every one of them. Wonder how this affects multiplayer (I don't know since I don't do MP).

That's another Con that still keeps me on the fence. How often does this happen? Do these paid updates actually include a lot of new content or are they mostly just patches??

I'm sure you cannot play MP with other people using different versions, of course.

JudgeDredd · July 16, 2014, 03:35:44 AM

One question - do they have playable Challengers and Leopards?

JudgeDredd · July 16, 2014, 04:28:30 AM

That's an awesome video. I love when multiplayer has a good community...but for some reason I still avoid them.

The couple of times I have found and stuck with an MP community it was BF2 and a racing game (I think it was rFactor1). They were superb - but ended...the BF2 because the group started to drift off with the expansions and also because of in house bickering about donations for servers and the racing one eventually died because some people were just to freakin competitive.

And those experiences, whilst initially positive, reinforced my reasons for staying away from anything online.

*edit*
In fact even on that video you've got someone telling someone else to chill out and calm down...seriously mate - WAY too anal!

Grim.Reaper · July 16, 2014, 05:16:37 AM

Quote from: jomni on July 16, 2014, 02:58:36 AM
Oh another problem with SB Pro is that major patches/upgrades cost money. So I'm now several patches behind as I don't really buy every one of them. Wonder how this affects multiplayer (I don't know since I don't do MP).

To the best of my knowledge you only pay for major upgrades, not patches for example when version 3.0 came out and it is at an upgrade price. Seems perfectly reasonable to me since no different than other games out there that releases new versions. There aren't many games if any that give you totally free upgrades when a new version comes out. I don't believe the major release are that frequent at all. They definitely don't charge for patches.