Many thanks to Nils for an enjoyable discussion! The screenshots in the video are from his collection and showcase the impressive progression of Steel Beasts from 2001 to 2020.
Thanks a lot for having me. Apologies for the sound quality - it sounded much better on my end, but noise-cancelling bluetooth headsets are apparently not what I should use on an occasion like this.
I still have my original Steel Beast and M1 tank platoon II game. I am happy that we have the SB Pro PE and also GHPC as modern equivalents. No progression needed, just get into the tank, plan, and fight.
We rapidly diverted away from game design talking points and into how SB Pro became what it is today. We just ran out of time to discuss these other topics. In all brevity, it was an important design decision not to have any kind of tech tree/progress ladder. That decision was made at least one decade before "grind" was coined as an (apparently widely accepted) game design principle. We briefly toyed with the idea. I'm glad that we very quickly decided not to do any of that.
@@eSimGamesDtl It is definitely the best decision. I played so many Sims in the past and I played them for thousands of hours without them having any progressions. What keeps me coming back for more are the missions, the flexibility and in some sims like the ones with Steelbeast, create my own scenarios.
@@eSimGamesDtl i was really happy to hear how much you were interested in the pure game design aspect of sims. I somehow wasn't expecting it (though this was without much thought)
I enjoy both games! I remember as a young kid the whole M1TP2 waiting for the M1TP3 (Known as Tank Platoon) head fake. That was rough time but Steel Beasts came out and then Pro PE and its been a fun 20-year ride.
Please try to set up a developer chat with the people who made the wargame Combat Mission, they've got a game that's under contract with the British Army for training. I'd be super interesting to hear from the minds behind that game which has been around for decades.
I really enjoy these developers chats, I hope for a lot more or maybe second rounds after a year or so with past guests. How about Regiments developer? Regarding Steal Beasts, with all the interiors they have modeled, it seems suited for VR. I can imagine that would be a lot of work to make it VR compatible, but in VR those interiors would really shine imo. And it would be likely useful for military organizations as well.
I'm less sanguine about the potential of VR, specifically, in training applications. You're supposed to push those buttons, flip the switches, and turn those knobs ... and ideally doing this WITHOUT looking at them. VR can't do that. You need at least a partially instrumented workspace. Augmented reality may have a place, but whether that's going to save you any costs over a complete mockup remains to be seen. High quality headsets are pricey, and on average soldiers are good at breaking equipment, be it intentionally or not. So replacement costs for such headsets could very well turn out to be a dealbreaker.
I used to play that old version of Steel beasts in the early 2000's. It's called Steel Beasts Legacy last I checked. It was fun but the graphics were definitely dated. It was simulator though and sims weren't known for looking good back then. Accuracy of the simulation was way more important. I did this was a Pentium II at 300Mhz with 128MB of RAM. Even then I couldn't keep a stead 60fps.
When I saw the first WIP screenshots of it in 1997, the engine looked WAY better than anything on the market, given the capability to render out to 4,000m distance, without any 3D accelerator hardware involved. It's just, in the following three to five years the PC market changed radically with the emergence of 3D accelerator graphics cards and their very rapid adoption by game developers everywhere. At which point it was too late for us to do anything about it while keeping the development time withing acceptable bounds. I'm not the least ashamed about how it looked back then. The engine did what no other could do, and it did what it had to do from a functional perspective - rendering landscape and targets out to the maximum range of the two main fire control systems.
I still remember seeing the original screenshots from the first Steel Beasts when I was a kid and thinking those graphics were mind blowing at the time. It's crazy to see how far we've come.
Its such a shame Steel Beasts is extremelly expensive for an individual to own. I have to at least subscribe for a few months. I love GHPC...it finally gave me something I never could enjoy in War Thunder, and in hand with GHPC, I think Steel Beasts will be my new focus. Two best tank sims out there
M1TP2 was a game I played for countless hours, and hasn't been replaced yet. GHPC may come close once infantry has been introduced. Steel Beasts has it all, but the old graphic engine just kills it for me. I had issues with using fullscreen 1440p too, and cannot get past the disappearing tank treads into the terrain. It reminds me too much of Panzer Elite, which was a great game, but it's so old now. Get a new engine and I'll pony up the cash for Steel Beasts.
Steel Beasts, Steel Fury and to a lesser extent (because it's a Wargame), Graviteam Tactics are the Holy Trinity of hyper realistic tank simulators. Hopefully one day GHPC will join them.
The esim store says it is no longer available in my country and has said this for over a year now, and the Steel Beasts forum has been broken for how long? Months? Probably going to stop supporting it at this point.
The forum is well alive. Don't know why you can't connect to it. As far as sales restrictions are concerned - yes, we no longer sell to a few countries. This can have different reasons (like, if you can't order a classic license it may be that too many shipments disappear in the mail of certain countries - but you could still order time-based licenses that involve no shipment of physical goods). Another reason may be trade embargos.
@@RoninTF2011 I see, it has 3d tracks, I remember the Gold version had the same graphics as the older Steelbeast, the only difference are the scripting, AI, maps, missions everything else were updated on that.
That was from a development version maybe a year or so before SBB Pro PE 2.251 (which was the initial release to the general public). May have been 2.1something.
They'd be forced to work with EDs bullshit and rewrite their entire ground AI and command system to have a passable product. I wouldn't wish that on any of my coder friends in a million years.
Many thanks to Nils for an enjoyable discussion! The screenshots in the video are from his collection and showcase the impressive progression of Steel Beasts from 2001 to 2020.
tbh I bought GHPC mainly to support you guys.....Its good to have more good tank games around.
Most of my gaming time is still dedicated to SB
Thanks a lot for having me. Apologies for the sound quality - it sounded much better on my end, but noise-cancelling bluetooth headsets are apparently not what I should use on an occasion like this.
I love playing both GHPC and Steel Beasts! It's nice to see you both sitting down to talk.
Had a lot of fun with this conversation. Looking forward to the next one!
These are such great "meetings of the minds" - thanks for taking the time and effort to make and release these!
Nils is an awesome awesome guy. Helped me a lot with Steel Beasts! Thank you, Nils!
What an amazing interview. Nils story is inspiring. GHPC deserves all the support they can get!
The one and only Steel Beasts - I've been & will be hooked on it till I'm able to handle the joystick and keyboard! Now to checkout the interview!
I still have my original Steel Beast and M1 tank platoon II game. I am happy that we have the SB Pro PE and also GHPC as modern equivalents. No progression needed, just get into the tank, plan, and fight.
We rapidly diverted away from game design talking points and into how SB Pro became what it is today. We just ran out of time to discuss these other topics. In all brevity, it was an important design decision not to have any kind of tech tree/progress ladder. That decision was made at least one decade before "grind" was coined as an (apparently widely accepted) game design principle. We briefly toyed with the idea. I'm glad that we very quickly decided not to do any of that.
@@eSimGamesDtl It is definitely the best decision. I played so many Sims in the past and I played them for thousands of hours without them having any progressions. What keeps me coming back for more are the missions, the flexibility and in some sims like the ones with Steelbeast, create my own scenarios.
@@KiLDELTA The greates plus I see in SB is also, that it has a great mission editor....like virtual sandbox actually.
@@RoninTF2011 Truly it is and i have fun even making scenarios that makes my PC cry in pain due to the scope of the battles. LOL
@@eSimGamesDtl i was really happy to hear how much you were interested in the pure game design aspect of sims. I somehow wasn't expecting it (though this was without much thought)
Ah I‘ve been waiting since Nils mentioned this interview on the forum. Nice to finally get to see it.
Grüezi
@@RoninTF2011Diese Reaktion kommt unerwartet.
Moin übrigens.
Exciting to see you guys sitting down together
These interviews are so neat. All these devs seem like cool guys.
I enjoy both games! I remember as a young kid the whole M1TP2 waiting for the M1TP3 (Known as Tank Platoon) head fake. That was rough time but Steel Beasts came out and then Pro PE and its been a fun 20-year ride.
I love the love what you pour in this sim.🙂 Just keep the vigor.
Love the May update! The two new missions are very well laid out, fun to play, and much more complex and realistic!
Please try to set up a developer chat with the people who made the wargame Combat Mission, they've got a game that's under contract with the British Army for training. I'd be super interesting to hear from the minds behind that game which has been around for decades.
I really enjoy these developers chats, I hope for a lot more or maybe second rounds after a year or so with past guests. How about Regiments developer?
Regarding Steal Beasts, with all the interiors they have modeled, it seems suited for VR. I can imagine that would be a lot of work to make it VR compatible, but in VR those interiors would really shine imo. And it would be likely useful for military organizations as well.
I'm less sanguine about the potential of VR, specifically, in training applications. You're supposed to push those buttons, flip the switches, and turn those knobs ... and ideally doing this WITHOUT looking at them. VR can't do that. You need at least a partially instrumented workspace. Augmented reality may have a place, but whether that's going to save you any costs over a complete mockup remains to be seen. High quality headsets are pricey, and on average soldiers are good at breaking equipment, be it intentionally or not. So replacement costs for such headsets could very well turn out to be a dealbreaker.
Nice to see them always hard at work good going GHPC team!
I used to play that old version of Steel beasts in the early 2000's. It's called Steel Beasts Legacy last I checked. It was fun but the graphics were definitely dated. It was simulator though and sims weren't known for looking good back then. Accuracy of the simulation was way more important. I did this was a Pentium II at 300Mhz with 128MB of RAM. Even then I couldn't keep a stead 60fps.
When I saw the first WIP screenshots of it in 1997, the engine looked WAY better than anything on the market, given the capability to render out to 4,000m distance, without any 3D accelerator hardware involved. It's just, in the following three to five years the PC market changed radically with the emergence of 3D accelerator graphics cards and their very rapid adoption by game developers everywhere. At which point it was too late for us to do anything about it while keeping the development time withing acceptable bounds.
I'm not the least ashamed about how it looked back then. The engine did what no other could do, and it did what it had to do from a functional perspective - rendering landscape and targets out to the maximum range of the two main fire control systems.
You should try get a dev chat with the guys from Graviteam. They did Steel Fury, Steel Armor: Blaze of war, and tactics: Mius Front.
Can't wait for SB 5.0
I still remember seeing the original screenshots from the first Steel Beasts when I was a kid and thinking those graphics were mind blowing at the time. It's crazy to see how far we've come.
I am enjoying this podcast series.
Will we see more weather options..
Its such a shame Steel Beasts is extremelly expensive for an individual to own. I have to at least subscribe for a few months. I love GHPC...it finally gave me something I never could enjoy in War Thunder, and in hand with GHPC, I think Steel Beasts will be my new focus. Two best tank sims out there
Not that extreme compared to other realistic simulators. About as much as two full fidelity planes for DCS or, if you're into airliners, MSFS.
Would love to see a Lav 6.0 driveable/playable vehicle
SB has Lav 25 which was the LAV III ( last generation )
21:09: Sprites! I remember them!
M1TP2 was a game I played for countless hours, and hasn't been replaced yet. GHPC may come close once infantry has been introduced. Steel Beasts has it all, but the old graphic engine just kills it for me. I had issues with using fullscreen 1440p too, and cannot get past the disappearing tank treads into the terrain. It reminds me too much of Panzer Elite, which was a great game, but it's so old now. Get a new engine and I'll pony up the cash for Steel Beasts.
Steel Beasts, Steel Fury and to a lesser extent (because it's a Wargame), Graviteam Tactics are the Holy Trinity of hyper realistic tank simulators. Hopefully one day GHPC will join them.
and also tell those trud thunder and World of wussy tank into hell.
The esim store says it is no longer available in my country and has said this for over a year now, and the Steel Beasts forum has been broken for how long? Months?
Probably going to stop supporting it at this point.
The forum is well alive. Don't know why you can't connect to it. As far as sales restrictions are concerned - yes, we no longer sell to a few countries. This can have different reasons (like, if you can't order a classic license it may be that too many shipments disappear in the mail of certain countries - but you could still order time-based licenses that involve no shipment of physical goods). Another reason may be trade embargos.
When will Kontakt 1 reactive armour be in the game?
You two should work together to make Ghpc more Modern!
@40:10 Liasions?! Uh, yeah, you're talking to him! :D
So there will be another tank game coming?
Ahm, why do you think that?
What steelbeast version is being shown starting @08:01?
I think that was SB "gold" from 2001(?)
@@RoninTF2011 I see, it has 3d tracks, I remember the Gold version had the same graphics as the older Steelbeast, the only difference are the scripting, AI, maps, missions everything else were updated on that.
That was from a development version maybe a year or so before SBB Pro PE 2.251 (which was the initial release to the general public). May have been 2.1something.
@@KiLDELTA Yeah, right.
Leo1 also was not part of SB 1 if I remeber correctly
@@RoninTF2011 Correct. And this was an early 3D model, not the one that was released in SB Pro PE.
how can i download Steel Beasts?
Looking forward to this conversation, but please no "emotive" crews in SB Pro PE thanks.
Na Logo 😁
Hey Nils, viele Grüße von Feldpost 911 ;-)
make tanks for DCS world, please
They'd be forced to work with EDs bullshit and rewrite their entire ground AI and command system to have a passable product. I wouldn't wish that on any of my coder friends in a million years.
@@beny874 Sad
Hali to Steel Beasts!