Kursk patch & Panzer Battles 2. WARNING Image Heavy

[Strela]

Hi All,

Firstly apologies for the silence from the Panzer Battles design team.

We have spent a number of months cleaning up the OB in Panzer Battles 2 and have only just got an updated play test version out to the team. This has been a real labour of love and has meant that many of the current scenarios have required review and in same cases complete replacement.

That said, the game will be better for the additional time and effort. As mentioned previously this is a West Front game and has required a lot of new artwork and other collateral. The good news is that every time we complete these game resources they are available for future games.

With the latest play test version out, I have moved back onto wrapping up the first patch for Kursk. The patch includes a range of fixes and enhancements to the game system as well as a number of scenario updates. This will be the first but not last patch for Kursk. I expect that there will be further patch release when Panzer Battles 2 is done. With that in mind the coming patch will have everything fixed to date included as well as the scenarios that we have had time to go back and retest and adjust. There are still a range of scenarios that need head to head play testing and they will be updated (if necessary) in patch two or beyond.

We are also deciding whether to include a lot of the graphics enhancements that have been done for Panzer Battles 2 as an inclusion in the first Kursk patch.

I'd like to share with you the revised look and feel and get players opinions and interest in including these new graphics. Everything is subject to change but these are getting close to the look we want. There are currently three new types of graphics; Top down (definitely included), entrenchments (possible) and terrain graphics (possible).

Without further ado....


New Soviet top down graphics (right) - compared to the originals (left). Colours have been corrected as well as 'depth' shading & lighting.





New German top down graphics (right) - compared to the originals (left).





New entrenchments (right) - Definitely WIP





Old Terrain - screen 1





New Terrain - screen 1





Old Terrain - screen 2





New Terrain - screen 2





Old Terrain - screen 3





New terrain - screen 3






All the above is WIP, we are hard at work here, but I'd be interested to hear whether people like this new look and would like it included with the first Kursk patch. As a final comment, Mike Avanzini is working hard on the OB for Panzer Battles 3 and that will be yet another variation on what has come before it...

David