Snif ! Russian steel 1.3 ?

Unknown_Enemy · Post by **Unknown_Enemy** » Sat Jul 13, 2002 1:57 pm

I am really waiting for it.

Any news about it ?

This campaign is awsome, even if it is dam hard.

Tankhead · Post by **Tankhead** » Sun Jul 14, 2002 12:31 am

Hi!

In the last E-mail I receive you are looking at around 6 weeks or so.

Unknown_Enemy · Post by **Unknown_Enemy** » Sun Jul 14, 2002 7:29 pm

Thanks for the new.

Countdown launched.....

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Tue Jul 16, 2002 5:50 am

Merci Boucou, Unknown Enemy,

Russian Steel 1.3 is delayed considerably - my work commitments just about doubled in late May and killed chances of the June release...and July...

The job finishes August 12 so unless there is "follow-on" work, the campaign will resume...

The best news is all the battles are designed and the @#$% virus didn't get them...

They need some final playtesting (some of the designers got a little carried away with the Panzers...) - usually 3-4 days per battle...

It is very nice to hear that someone is eagerly awaiting RS 1.3 - perhaps not quite as much as I am eager to get the remaining battles released at last!

I will try and keep you updated.

Brad (previously posted under RussianSteelDar)

moni kerr · Post by **moni kerr** » Wed Jul 17, 2002 8:53 am

Hi. I downloaded v1.2 and unzipped it into C:\MatrixGames\Steel Panthers World At War\Campaigns. It created it's own file folder and doesn't show up in the campaign list. Help please.

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Wed Jul 17, 2002 10:38 am

moni:

its a windows feature...

this problem usually seems to be the way you drag your file icons to the folders...

you need to drag the file(s) from the zip window onto the campaign folder (it will gray out when your cursor reaches it) and release..

I found out that if I opened the campaign folder and then dragged and dropped it didn't work and I got a nice little folder icon instead of files in the campaign folder..

APologies if I got some of this wrong - pulling an all-nighter - and not playing SPWAW:mad:

let us know if this works...

there may be some old posts I can look up if it doesn't

Brad

moni kerr · Post by **moni kerr** » Thu Jul 18, 2002 2:06 am

Yes, that worked just fine. Now to start.

rbrunsman · Post by **rbrunsman** » Thu Jul 18, 2002 3:22 am

Is v1.3 just a patch, or what? I haven't played any of the Russian Steel Camps. but with all the talk of it, I've put it on my "to do" list. Should I just wait for v1.3 or are each of them separate campaigns?

Thanks

Bob

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Thu Jul 18, 2002 10:50 am

Bob,

Russian Steel is currently sitting at 36 battles - June 26, 1941 through Jan 1 1943...

1.0 provided the first 9 battles (I think - it's been awhile...)

1.1 provided patches for about 5 of the first 9 battles and added 6 more...

1.2 provided 3 more "battle" patches and 4 more new battles that get you to April 1942....

so...RS 1.3 is patches but also new battles...each release will provide some patches to previous battles (based on pplayer feedback) but mainly it will provide new battles...

There's 17 more battles to produce and there will be a few bugs.

I strive to maintain high standards for releasing battles and there have been zero major blunders of the sort that cause you to restart or dump.

Most of the bugs are minor annoyances to the player and really annoying to me since I'm going for serious gaming here...

The short version of this answer is: when you get around to Russian Steel on your to-do list, just dive right in - the battles that have been released already are not going to be updated in any way except to fix bug reports until the remaining 17 are in circulation. The whole thing is stable and with new releases, you wil only have to add the new battles (battles 1 - 18 are solid).

The plan once all 34 battles are out is unclear.... - maybe I'll go back and fool with the previous battles...or maybe we'll go forward to Zitadelle...

We'll see.

B

rbrunsman · Post by **rbrunsman** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 3:29 am

So, I download v1.0, then all the patches (soon up to v1.3) and then I'm off and running. Maybe I'll find I actually like playing Russians.

Thanks for all the work you've done (in advance).

Bob

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 8:21 am

Bob,

Re: Thanks - you are more than welcome - it wasn't all drudgery and actually a fair bit of fun (now that the stress and anxiety of RS 1.0 is over with at least)...it is exciting to hear that players have enjoyed themselves....

...but then maybe I'm a sicko or glutton for punishment.... : )

As for loading 1.0....

1.0 and 1.1 no longer exist (I had to wipe my hard drive to kill a virus last month..) but before panic sets in let me point out that what Fabio Prado and Tankhead have been so kind as to host is Russian Steel 1.2 - which is actually RS 1.0 and RS 1.1 all grown up:

RS 1.2 is 19 battles that fit into slot 22 of your campaign folder. These battles are the latest version of the ones originally introduced in RS 1.0 and 1.1.....

Russian Steel is being released incrementally and what this means is that every release provides new battles plus any fixes I have applied to previously released battles. These fixes are almost always cosmetic (we had a T26 masquerading as a T-34 - shot and moved like a T26 but icon said T34...annoying but otherwise irrelevant to gameplay) - the biggest problem we had was where player's had too many units and the AI refused to create bailed out crews (which if you are grooming elite tank crews as you need to in order to survive the later battles, is exasperating - but again, gameplay is actually not affected).

Think of Russian Steel as an evolving kind of thing - typically each release introduces several new battles and provides patches for the battles from the previous release. By carefully doing selective file replacements, you can update your campaign underway without any effect on play - just make sure your have the latest battle in next battle slot of campaign 22 before you end a given battle and the AI will carry you along to the next fight. No need to reinstall the whole blessed thing for each release...

If we decide to re-engineer Russian Steel 1.x after all 34 battles are out, it will be re-issued (eventually) as Russian Steel 2.0 and will be in a different campaign slot. If we go this far, we will ensure that Russian Steel 2.0 is sufficiently different from RS 1.x so that players of RS 1.x will find it worthwhile giving RS 2.0 a play.

I'm also hoping players find there is good replay value in RS 1.x - I can play it over and over (in fact, I have!) and still have fun - even though I know where everything is because of all my playtesting time....

And finally, playing the Soviets is not for everyone....your first 5 battles will be very frustrating because Soviet morale and experience are so low....but if you can hang in there and let your tankers learn to fight without getting killed (or at least preserving the crews) they will gradually become veterans and then elite..

...an elite T-34 or KV-1 can do some serious damage to the Germans...I particularly like it when my pet KV-2s achieve elite status giving them 3 rounds of 152.4mm per turn....at this point, if I see 'em first, they are toast!

Happy hunting.

Brad

rbrunsman · Post by **rbrunsman** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 9:49 am

Excellent Brad, RS1.x is on deck for my game playing enjoyment. If I can only get through kicking Ivan's *** in MCLV! (no offense intended to you Ruskie lovers.)

Unknown_Enemy · Post by **Unknown_Enemy** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 7:16 pm

To rbrunmans and moni kerr, on my experience, don't try anything heroic on the first battles (4 to 6 I think), be especially caution to have your boys not slaughtered by the Lutwaffe, this one is especially murderous to your infantery.

I believe the turning point will be after an escape battle when you avoid being surrounded. Ever found yourself running with the devil hot on your tail ? You'll see what I mean. This one in particular was probably one of the best battle I ever played on SPWAW.

Even with a few reloads when the sh.t had hit too much the fans, I was barely able to achieve more than marginal victory on the first missions.

Tell me how you are doing, I would be interested to know.

PS : And do take some flak. Then take some more. You'll never have enought.

rbrunsman · Post by **rbrunsman** » Fri Jul 19, 2002 10:43 pm

Thanks for the tips. Now you are making me decide to play it concurrently with MCLV!

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 4:38 am

Unknown enemy has it right...

The readme has some good info - I reccommend it.

Some more tips:

Keep core force < 55 units to make sure you always have crews...

You will enjoy 60+ core forces much less as the battles are playbalanced for th 50+ unit size force and in most battles, you need quality not quantity...

Select a combined arms force - roughly 33% armor, 33% infantry, and 33% guns..

I tried to supply about 12 medium trucks in battles that require you to maneuver - so you can skip extra transport...

Don't buy too many light units for later upgrading - get to 55 units and then try and get as many T34s, KVs, 76 ATGs, 37AA, 82Mortar, and SMG squads as possible right from the start so they can accumulate experience.

You can probably afford 5-8 T34s and a couple KVs...

Battle 1: stay alive - try and keep armor intact
Battle 2: about the same - there are no points across the river
Battle 3: must exit units via victory exit hex - NOT retreat hex (this gives no points)
Battle 4: Carefuly start grooming your most experienced tanks by letting them make lots of kills
Battle 5: uh-oh!.....

Believe it or not - there is less Luftwaffe than in the original versions of most battles! Their fangs have been filed down some but they will still cripple several squads and vehicles per battle...

To reduce airpower casualites:

1. Disperse units - as in real life, cramming lots of men and machines together is just begging for it. 50 meters (1 hex) of open space between tanks is best....

2. Think twice before parking tanks near guns and infantry. AS in real life, the tanks attract the Stukas. In many cases where the tank is lucky enough to survive the strike with only severe suppression, it is usually not so for surrounding infantry and gun crews (within 100 meters) - they tend to vaporize from the repeated concussive effects of the bombs...

3. Think of trucks as bomber candy for the AI...like tanks, if you leave them parked near their cargo (infantry or guns) you should expect them all to be vaporized by the next airstrike...

..I've seen the AI go for a truck parked in the open that was spotted by an AI ground unit and the bomber literally had to overfly my unspotted tank forces in the woods to obliterate the truck...

4. IMHO, the best Soviet antitank weapon through 1943 is probably the SMG squad in any kind of cover...

5. Try buying two KV-2s and exploiting the fact that the shell, being over 150mm, causes visible concussive effects and the game allows you to "indirect fire" into empty hexes....

Let's say your scouts found out the hard way that a German engineer squad is holed up in a stone house hidden in the middle of some wodds so it can only be fired upon by adjacent units.. (I'm sure this NEVER happens in the game

:rolleyes: ) - waddle your KV-2 into clear field of fire and target any adjacent woods hex repeatedly - two KV-2s are of course better....my experience is that in two turns, even German engineers are shell-shocked enough that you can finally move adjacent for the kill...

One trick is to avoid having any of your infantyr adjacent to a hex that a KV-2 fires on....you'll get a front row seat view of the effects of 152 concussive damage...trust em - I know this from personal experience:(

Hope you have fun.

Brad

Behemoth · Post by **Behemoth** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 4:44 am

All this talk about 1.3 reminds me that I only have 1.1... Where might I find 1.2... prado's download page I think used to have it, but now that's gone the way of the dodo. I also checked the camp out in the editor and saw a large gap of no scenarios between 11 and 30 perhaps... is this normal or am I missing something big? A little enlightenment would be welcome...thank you in advance.
-B

P.S. You know, I just realized I was looking right over it at tankhead's site...Doh! It's not an update but sobeit. Thanks for reading this anyway... Disregard! Happy Gaming!
-B

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 5:28 am

Yes, Tankhead has been kind enough to host us. He's done us all a big favor!

I forget exactly what you see when you open the scenario list - I think you just may see entries for more battles than you actually have files for....this is because my campaign has all 34 battles in it (but the last 16 are not yet fully tested and ready for release)...you are loading my ucamp file which seems to govern the scenario list..

This is because (I think) the ucamp file acts like a table of contents and describes the lists of battles - but you need the actual battle file s(.dat, .cmp, etc..) to play.

I've found that:

1) if your ucamp doesn't list the battle, it will not show up even if the .dat files are present...this is why it is important that I remember to include the updated ucamp file in each new RS release...otherwise you won't see the new battles...

2) you can update (replace) your ucamp file with a newer ucamp using windows and add new .dat files without disturbing an ongoing campaign - just make sure the changes are rolled in before your current battle ends and you reach the black summary screen - at this point, the existing ucamp and files have been used and you will have to play all the way through the new battle to get to the new ucamp (or, if you get in the habit of saving the next-to-last-turn, you can replay the next-to-last turn after updating the ucamp, and it will pick up the changes before taking you to the black screen and the unit rebuilding screens...)

Cheers,

Brad

Behemoth · Post by **Behemoth** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 7:09 am

Thanks a lot for replying, at the moment I'm pluging away and loving every minute. All your time and effort shines through... It is in a way a work of art, thanks also for your attension to detail, keep up the the good work. I look forward to future installments. Thank you tankhead where ever you are!
-B

Unknown_Enemy · Post by **Unknown_Enemy** » Sun Aug 18, 2002 6:08 am

countdown still running......

Frank W. · Post by **Frank W.** » Mon Aug 19, 2002 7:24 pm

i´m now at the battle with the war prisoners.

seems the germans coming now from multiple
sides. funny.

i wonder why have jerries so few air support???

thx f. the camp!!

frank

Snif ! Russian steel 1.3 ?

Snif ! Russian steel 1.3 ?

Help!

thx