Kursk patch & Panzer Battles 2. WARNING Image Heavy

[Strela]

Everyone has his own preference, so it's nice that both the new and old terrain will be included.

Personally, I think the new terrain (the actual tiles, without anything on them) is less defined, not more: less use of colour to differentiate height levels, making them less easy to identify (height levels are usually some sort of green). That's particularly clear in the second terrain screenshot, where in the new terrain you might with certain terrain configurations think there are just two important height levels, instead of three, as two of them are green. That's why I'm a big fan of using colours for that purpose.

Villages are more defined in the sense that the buildings are more clear, true, but in the new version they use similar graphics to the current Town terrain graphics. Without the clearly visible patch of soil around the buildings, you can no longer see at a glance what is what. Scattered or Building terrain also no longer stands out for the same reason: without the Village hexes having something that identifies them, the patch of soil, it's less easy to identify them. The new Village terrain graphics have a green patch, but that blends in with the terrain tiles.

The colours used for the roofs also look too European/North American in my opinion, they'd look great in Civil War Generals 2 for example. Soviet stone buildings would have mostly brown-ish/dark red-ish roofs or some dark shade of brown or black-ish, not a variety of colours. Buildings in villages might just be wooden huts. With the new terrain graphics, it's unclear why the one terrain type offers less defensive benefits, whilst in the old you can more or less see: these are wooden huts/simple buildings, and these are not.

The new Swamps contrast too much with the surrounding terrain, they're a bit too "in your face" in my opinion.

Using multiple variations for the same terrain type, like with the fields, can also be problematic, particularly if some of them can be confused with Grass. Currently, all fields are identical. I've never really understood why adjacent fields need to look different in some wargames, considering that it's unlikely that they produce different agricultural products, particularly in a collective farm.

ComradeP,

I always love your insightful commentary - you pick up on the areas I am either concerned with or going to change.

All the buildings you are seeing are from the West Front title. They are definitely not 'atypical' Eastern front buildings. I'm in the process of updating that, but wanted to get everyone's reaction to this art direction. Everything is still being tweaked, but as this terrain change is essentially a mod in Kursk, I am currently trying to go the populist route and get the most accepted option. One of the big things with the buildings is that we spent time to orientate them so that shadows and highlights are consistent. the prior building were very inconsistent.

I'll have a look at the swamps and probably either de-saturate them or recolor them to blend better. As far as fields I'm personally happy with them. I have six slots to work with and have used a number of different variants of crops. The original used just one type (wheat). I could limit the variance to less but I think the current mix works.

Grass is harder. I have used the original graphic to date and lightened it, but there are other variations that are possible and I'll try a few things here.


Thanks for all the feedback; were listening.

David

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

The best graphics I have ever seen are the 3d in Campaign Series and Sudden Strike, but you would need a 3d map to go with it. The graphics here are nice though.

[ComradeP]

With different field varieties, maybe grass could be slightly more pronounced? Making it slightly lighter, as in the new terrain graphics makes them blend in a bit more gently with the terrain, but if there is going to be similar terrain (field types that look similar to grass), it might be worth making it stand out more as a contrast.

The shadows on the new villages look good, indeed. Until someone pointed it out, I had actually not noticed shadows in the game, such as on the rail embankments. According to the person who pointed it out, it looks like the sun is coming from two directions so depending on where the shadows are in a certain terrain type. I'm the kind of man who enjoys small details, but for some reason I had not really realized shadows were in the game.

[Xaver]

In the art area... why not use like in the unit graphics an alt system??? i refer you can release the game with 2 sets of map art and even if is possible give the option to have a 3rd custom folder were use "mods" for example i have SAI and this works very well to customize game in art area (even in non art area).

Other point... you dont plan use something like Jison map mod to show mines??? i do my copy-paste mod to have them and works very well to show the level of minefields.

If i dont remember bad at least 2 patches before PzB 2 (or 2nd when you release PzB 2 no???).

PzB 2... any "leak"??? maybe the image of a german unit from an unit that see many actions in west front hehehe.

[ComradeP]

David, maybe it's a technical issue on my side, but sometimes smoke doesn't display properly during a turn replay. A smoke barrage is fired, I see the artillery strike graphic, but no white plume appears. When the actual turn starts, the smoke is there.

It doesn't happen all the time, but it happens fairly often, particularly when several smoke barrages are fired after eachother.

Is it a known issue that is being looked at or am I the only one who has the issue? It's a minor inconvenience, but it can be somewhat confusing.

[Dog Soldier]

It is a know issue that is being looked at. It is a minor graphics issue that does not affect the way the smoke works in the when presented in replay. Units covered by smoke in the player's turn are not revealed in the replay.

Dog Soldier

[Jeff Conner]

Just a heads-up that I have had this same issue. It may be graphics card related like the disappearing artillery barrages in SB.

[Dog Soldier]

Thanks for that information Jeff. I have noticed it before on my machine, but it has become rare. Maybe I got a graphics driver change in the recent months that made it work better or maybe it was sheer luck. I cannot tell.

In any case the smoke function works properly in the replay. No special advantage. You just do not see the smoke icon though one can see the smoke being deployed as ComradeP explained in his post.

Dog Soldier

[ComradeP]

Talking about smoke, I've been meaning to ask why there's more smoke in the smaller scenarios compared to the corps-sized ones. Is it to limit the advantage that could be gained? For example, the availability of smoke in Yakovlevo is identical to that in the full July 6th scenario.

[Strela]

Talking about smoke, I've been meaning to ask why there's more smoke in the smaller scenarios compared to the corps-sized ones. Is it to limit the advantage that could be gained? For example, the availability of smoke in Yakovlevo is identical to that in the full July 6th scenario.

The smoke level has been adjusted in the latest versions that will be in the patch.

David