The Competition & Teaser Thread

[Richie61]

David,

Opps. I stand corrected. I forgot about NATO/ WP Modern Campaigns. Sorry. :(

Richie,

We do them. PzC has Sealion '40 and I did Fall Kreml in Moscow '42. Add to that the bulk of the Modern Campaigns title are a what if for a Nato/Warsaw Pact confrontation in 1985 and I think there isn't any aversion.

[Strela]

The demand for this series is now. Ten to fifteen years from years from now, demand could easily be something totally different, due to the quickly changing advances in technology or the possibly the of the creation of brand new JTS series.

I feel that the quicker that JTS can dive into the different theaters of WWII (Eastern, Western, Mediterranean & Middle East, and Pacific), the more successful and popular this series will be, because it will be drawing on the different interests of your target market. I don't see this happening if multiple titles are required to cover just one battle.

Guys,

Your exuberance is evident!

Firstly let us get the first title out the door before demanding the next. To give you an insight we have essentially 1.5 teams working on both Panzer Campaigns & Panzer Battles currently. We may be able to activate another team that has been on sabbatical to date, but no guarantees.

That said, we are getting much more experienced at building games (this is my third) and we are building things that are modular and repeatable. For example the graphics you are seeing have probably taken up half the project time to date as we went through four (!!!) iterations before we settled on a look that was more contemporary. Most of that will be reusable for future games that are either East Front or include Germans in Italy/France. Even building new graphics is much quicker as the techniques have been learned through a lot of trial and error.

Same thing with the OB's. We have already started to build up a library of OB's that can then be selected, adjusted for the formation and included in game. Having these pre done as per the German KsTN's for example saves a mountain of time later.

The thing that takes time is the research needed before building a scenario. Once a candidate is determined then a lot checking needs to be done on the state of the forces, the actual historical outcome and whether its a playable situation. This is time that can't be circumvented.

Finally, you need to have a passion for this. Either the topic or the mechanics of publishing a work. This is a hard arduous 'job' and you have to love the project to finish it. This first Panzer Battles title was started on Nov 16 2012, just after Moscow '42 was released. It's due for release very, very soon. In that fifteen month period, I have been on a work sabbatical for ten months and put in very long days (every day) on the project. Trust me, my wife keeps reminding me!

To turn out more titles we need more teams that are ready to go the distance, otherwise the maximum a single team can turn out at the quality level we want is a title a year and that is probably pushing it. You want join or lead a team, speak up!

The good news is that we do have other titles in various stages of completion but that's dependent on everyone staying the course and working constantly - all while having day jobs.

None of us are getting rich from this (other than Tazaaron! )

David

[Strela]

Hello David:

Sounds interesting. Looks like it would take 3 actions (keystrokes/clicks) to move around. The way I mentioned just involves dragging the map. So if you wanted to see 5 more rows on the RHS of the screen you would just pull the map to the left a little and you could do this w/o changing zoom level.

How do you zoom? Is it with the mouse wheel?

Curious how many hexes approx. for say a small map?

In a more general sense I think the Tiller games have an old fashioned interface. It would be nice to see it change with this series. (I do realize the importance of the military content in these games.)

Thanks,

Gerry

Gerry,

Zoom is either via the mouse wheel or numbers 1, 2 or 3.

You do have Auto scroll on don't you (under settings)? With that on you just move your mouse towards the border you want and the map moves? This essentially shifts the map as you like. The more extreme the movement the quicker the scroll.


As far as map sizes. They vary. Here are some examples.

This is the Getting Started scenarios (closest zoom level);





This is probably the smallest scenario in the game (closest zoom level);





Here is one of the largest scenarios in total area. This is at the maximum zoom out and this is 75% of the scenario's map. There is a further 25% off the bottom of the screen capture as evident in the second shot from the jump map;







David

[GerryM]

David:

Thanks very much for the pics. Your are feeding us teh game through an IV!

Gerry

[Strela]

Todays reveal from the Visual OB.

Mike is getting close to having representative formations completed.

We expect that there will probably be thirty pages in the PDF that will either come with the game or be available for download.


Please note everything you are seeing is WIP and subject to change. We have already picked up a few errors by doing these Visual OB's and corrected them.

The below Visual OB's are some of the armour elements from a Soviet Tank Corp;









Enjoy!

David

[Xaver]

Thanks a lot for the pics, at this point in PzB 01 Striptease she cant hide a lot a good idea show the most exotic unit in soviet side in the battle, Churchill.

A little question, i see a depot in the first screen (tutorial scenario) and this made me ask how they work in PzB... they are like the depots you have in PzC to prevent isolated status starting a supply chain or like the explicit depots that you can take and use in your benefit??? or you can destroy them when you take the hex??? if you cant use for you enemy cant use it, in PzC you need leave an unit over the hex to cut off supply. Oooo and the icon in the top is a victory point??? i refer the german cross in the depot hex, or is part of depot graphic???.

And a little observation, mines are very hard to see in swamp terrain... and well, i think i dont ask this but there are diferent levels of minefield density??? like in PzC.

Oooo a little moder question, there is a symbols file like in PzC??? i plan paint the trench/IP and Bunker/Pillbox borders similar to PzC hehehe (IP could be dark yellow, trenches dark green, bunker dark grey or black and pillbox blue).

Well, the "big" scen remember me a lot Nap or ACW titles in size... and for me they could be great for a team game AND a little ???? the scen shows a soviet counterattack... maybe is a post Citadele scen??? title cover not only german road to Prokhorovka and covers to the post tank battle???

And to the "future titles" if now release a title is around 15 months i think we see a big improvement, maybe PzB as first modular title could introduce in Tiller games the assembly production model... now we only need robots do not feel pain and surrender under "crazy wifes" attacks

I think are in Pacific battles you can cover in PzC scale... in other thread i talk about 3-4 titles with big actions think in this scens: "invasion Hawai 1941", "invasion USA, San Francisco 1941" (no, Chuck Norris unit is not present hahaha), "Malaya 42", "Philippines 41" and the other side "Philippines 45" and well the Chinese campaigns... of course at PzB level you can cover all you want (Guadalcanal, Saipan...) i dont feel that the Panzer in PzB limit engine to armored combats for me is only asume you cant use hundreds of tanks to smash enemy and push hard... you need use an infantry mind something you need do in a lot of PzC scens for example, and i feel a little like in Nap serie where you know cavalry units are very valuable units BUT you cant use them a lot or you lose a lot of victory points, curious but this super units in my case are more time behind the line or waiting than fighting.

Again thanks a lot for you hard work showing us the game images but remember, info is like beer...

[ComradeP]

Xaver, you own Kursk '43 right? I believe the large screenshot might be from a scenario of the Soviet attack at Prokhorovka, but I don't know where the major roads are in Kursk '43 (which should be able to tell us of it could be Prokhorovka).

I'm also not sure where the 9th Guards Airborne Division would be. Maps tend to show it cooperating with 29th Tank Corps, but here it is south of what might be 5th Guards Mechanized Corps.

The Soviet formations would be elements of 18th Tank Corps, 29th Tank Corps, 5th Guards Mechanized Corps and 9th Guards Airborne Division. However, I'm not sure what the Guards Tank unit at the bottom would be. The Soviet concentration further south could be 2nd Tank Corps and 2nd Guards Tank Corps. 2nd Tank Corps was shifted south from its original position north of 2nd Guards Tank Corps it seems, so it could be that the Guards Tank Brigade in the south is 25th Guards Tank Brigade of 2nd Guards Tank Corps.

The German formations might be large parts of LSSAH, an independent battalion of some sort and the first units of Totenkopf.

[Xaver]

Yes, i have Kursk 43.

I think the same when see the image, soviet attack in Prokhorovka but some things made me doubt:

1-i see to grey the german units to be SS units, in PzC you can diference between black SS and grey wehrmacht, even more you can see in the minimap clearly what are luftwaffe units in light blue, all units in north you can see in the other pic are non SS units.

2-to be Prokhorovka battle i am unable to see a soviet defensive deployment, even more, i see germans with this defensive deployment, looks more like soviets are launching a pursuit attack to prevent germans break contact... more a post battle action after germans leave Citadele plans OR a soviet attack over a german static line in Kursk battle...

3-only german side of the line has victory points and they are in depth, i dont see this as Prokhorovka because germans cant counter and exploit a soviet weakness and try take the it.

4-Where is the river??? i dont see a river that set the left flank of the SS korps... you know, where the Totempkopf was practically all the battle holding a bridgehead, i dont see a river south-west to north-east that divide a part of the battleline.

I feel like PzB Kursk or cover post Prokhorovka OR not only cover south flank and we have north flank and this minimap show us the soviet attack in north flank to reduce presure over Ponyri

[Strela]

Save yourself some times guys - that's not Prokhorovka...!


David

[Xaver]

Save yourself some times guys - that's not Prokhorovka...!


David

Thats the point, as i say, after think it a little, remember what i read and what i see my eyes move before the famous place OR more to the north...

Damn, i feel like a mouse and you be a cat... Tom&Jerry syndrome but remember, mouse allways wins