When it gets past 2020...
 

So what will happen if more than 9 years from now the game is still played? No future toys then?

Leisure thread

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Nothing I expect. SPWW2 ended in 1946,SPMBT ends in 2020. Deal with it.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Maybe they'll change the title, not '46-2020 but a mere Main Battle Tank.
Maybe we'll be fighting with slings and stones at that time

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Probably more like particle beam weapons.

It's ok to end at 2020 because the game can only handle so much.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Haha, particle beams, funny.. how much you bet? War machines have reached their limits and it's time for them to consume themselves. Not long before we get back to horses, slings, and arrows

Yea, agreed that the game, in its current form, can only handle so much

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

The only way the games form can change is to make a whole new game without 1996 programming limitations.

Now the horses, slings and arrows part I find really funny.:D

That's going to happen in 9 years?

Wouldn't we need a complete collapse of civilization first?

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Didn't set the exact time to 9 years... maybe it will take longer, maybe shorter. Who knows about this. Today's world cataclysm is really unpredictable.
Today Fukushima, tomorrow Japan deserted..who knows.. then the Arab revolts going really awry, changing all the "oil and war" policies around the globe

The largest quest for someone in the future

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Your letting the media influence your future vision.

The future is not echted in stone.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Do you think the media doesn't influence your daily vision? Sorry but I don't take any of those popular propaganda from gigantic media.
No, the future is carved in stone already; it's been preordained, but no one knows.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Media should institute a new rule,nothing involving anybody being killed, can be headline news.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Steel Panthers IV?

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

These two games WinSPWW2 @ winSPMBT are Steel Panthers 4.

Nobody else is working on SP stuff.

SPWAW by Matrix died long ago...

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

The weapons point might be mute already one of the refs believes this weapon can be online by 2016 if testing continues at it's current rate. Leave it to the Navy to lead the way!?! Anyway the last two refs have the water and air test videos in them.
http://www.naval-technology.com/news/news58019.html
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-14/u...ships?_s=PM:US
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011...8221302630063/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...ser-downs-uavs

To the rest, for a lot of the countries equipment would be greatly reduced as most will be outdated by 2020 anyway and the game is carrying the burden of equipment going back to 1946 as pointed out. For the U.S. I can think of only one piece of equipment that was operational in the 50+ year category that would make the transition past 2020, the B-52H slated to remain in service until 2035. If a future game is to be developed, I would think it to go in ten or fifteen year blocks, this would make it easier to manage the OOB's, reduce the number of R&D equipment that might slip in which some of us are still trying to clean up now and at a basic level I my part, I would think free up some memory or other space to allow compatibility with newer operating systems while maintaining playability with older ones. I'm staying with XP until support runs out in 2015 though rumors are slowly floating to the surface that MS might go a little beyond that. I'm just hoping Don and Andy and a couple of others can just keep the pace going until 2019 for for equipment and EVERYONE leave them alone as needed to have a year just to fully debug the game before the lights go out. I wouldn't expect them to carry on but I wonder who can and will want to and maintain the same set of standards? I've been pressing that point for a couple of years now especially in my patch posts. So for now, yes I'd like to see the game go beyond 2020, however let's focus on what can be done to keep this current game realistically relevant, support the main players who keep it going for all of us, and remember they'll have devoted more then twenty years to this endeavour before it's over and once in a while thank them for their hard work and remember they have families and the issues of life to deal with everyday just like the rest of us. For 2020 - 2030 new team needs to think about who they will be. And now I relinquish the keyboard to CINCLANTHOME :clap: and if you celebrate it, I hope you enjoyed your Easter.

Regards,
Pat
:capt:

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Steel Panthers V? Or may be Steel Panthers 2020 in roman numerals. Well maybe not roman numerals, the title would be to congested. Heck I can't even read the Super Bowl numbers anymore, and their only in the 40's, well may be the 50's.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Heck with a bunch of lasers on space orbiting platforms you could destroy entire amies, navies, airforces, even compleat counties with just a flick of the switch. First strike capabilties whould be so great I think WWIII would start for sure. That would kind of make the game obsolete wouldn't it?

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

With the World economy as it is,don't expect too many wonder weapons in the near future.
The two or three major developers on new weapons,are getting getting crunched on defense budgets.
Just look at the price oil.
M1 Abrams will be around a long time or a varient on it,possibilty a few F-22's will be built i suspect.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

In order to get back on topic :

I think that WinSPMBT is a fantaastic game.

It does not need to go beyond 2020.
The amount of work that has been/will be done on it is above and beyond anybody elses work ethics as far as I can see.

Thanks to everyone that makes this happen.

Don,Andy,All the researchers,All the designers.

Thank you all.

May we all make it to 2020!

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

I think it should go beyond 2020 because the greatest thing about the game is the super rich data base, not continuing the game beyond 2020 would make the greatness of the data base obsolite, destroying loads and loads of detail concerning the historical development of weapon systems that the game provides. I see a release date of 2021! Love Steel Panthers and can't imagine an outdated, obsolite game.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

The game works well with the improvments so far,there maybe tweaks with false claims or real developments that need fixed.
Upgrades have been yearly for several years.
Other than that it's about as real as it gets for a top down,turn-based PC game in this genre IMO.
I really don't think in anyway this game is becoming obsolete!
If one want's more, maybe it's time to find it elsewhere;)

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Once you get to the use of lasers, EMP's and sonic type weapons on the battlefield at this scale I doubt the engine could handle it. At some point you reach the maximum capability of the existing code which numerous generations old in tech years.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

No such thing. Orbital weapons have too many drawbacks for such a thing to be built, not in the next decades at any rate. Besides any tech that is going to enable an orbital platform to zap stuff on earth is going to make equally possible for the stuff on earth to zap the platform in orbit.

Realistically if you look at the big picture, in terms of budgetary constraints and geopolitical issues, as well as the R&D performance in the US and several others key manufacturers you quickly realize that nobody is going to field any great deal of wunderwaffen, at least in the ground forces.
There is neither the money nor the pressing need to field new tanks and similar items. Wars are being fought in third world countries against low end opponents while several negative economic trends are raising their ugly heads. That is not a recipe for quick military innovation across the board.
The US R&D effort reads like a litany of cancellations, from the Crusader to the EFV. What gets actually fielded are upgrades of existing systems or incremental designs like the Stryker. Or badly needed, relatively cheap stuff like MRAPs.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Giggle be lovely if this game continued past 2020 but lets be realistic guys if this game is still supported like it is now till then I will be more than happy. Skirmisher hit it on the head nobody else is going to take on a game of this magnitude & if they did do you think it would be supported like this has been. Think I am correct in saying Don & Andy are now reteried this labour of love probably to produce the game they wanted to play has grown into the beast it is today I bet they never realised how much of their life would be consumed by it. What amazes me is the dediction both to keep up with current units & to still tweak & improve the game engine, ask fastboat how much time the first takes. The love affair has probably died to busy playtesting checking tweaks & ideas & doing the research to actually get around to playing much. Sure as someone said some modern weapon systems are beyond the scope of the game engine but we get little tweaks that at least approximate their use reasonably well. You thought about the time involved to see how a new weapon system plays make the choices on how to set it up, always surprises me there are in fact not that many variables in the game yet Don & Andy manage to get units to work so they feel right at least to me. Play it long enough & you get a feel for the units & there is a noticeable diffrence between weapon types might be slight in some cases but its there.
Rather than going wheres the next instalement I am going to say thanks for giving me the 2nd biggest distraction of my life only my girlfreind tops it & thats only if she hasnt got a strop on:) When they eventually decide to call it a day I will fully understand & it will mean the passing of to me the greatest game ever made so I would like to thank them here n now for the time & dedication they put into it & continue to do so.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

WOW, now that's something I never expected to read here. Talk about new OOB! :laugh:

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

John,
Well said on "both" accounts ;)!!

Regards,
Pat

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Did you take the black budget into account?

Surely not everything being researched is common knowledge.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

I am referring to items within the game scope: tanks, artillery personnel carriers,tactical missiles, infantry weapons etc.
Whiz bang recon satellites, improved stealth paint for aircrafts or encryption systems aren't, however necessary in the big picture.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

The game will crash and will no longer be playable! Sorry guys, but the party is over.:mad:

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

There would alway be emulators, wine and virtual machine.
The same solutions as today for good games with outdated code.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

I don't think he was actually talking about code age, more like, trying to play a 2021 battle.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

If so, he can play Starcraft is futuristic. Or Batterfield 2142.;):rolleyes:

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Greif little in all likely hood will change the fanbase will most likely slowly shrink & the game will continue in its final form. Chances of it getting further game engine updates will be very slim need a major programing fan or 2 to step in. Emulators will run it on future operating sytstems & if they cant there is a reasonably good chance somebody will hot fix the game so it works. People will start dabling more with OOBs n come up with there version, so some nations will die out past 2020 as nobody does a new OOB for it. Shrapnel will still keep this site active for a while they dont just shut the door n say tough & a few people might set up a site of there own. Look at SPWAW & its still going, infact it probably gets better support now than Matrix ever gave it though that wont be the case with this game.
What does all this mean
You will have to get more hands on getting it to run might take a bit of dedication, playing a battle after 2020 will require you to swap OOBs (dead easy) & send a copy to your opponent for PBEMs. Need to swap cause without recoding playing a battle in 2021 means you will have to use a diffrent date to simulate it say 1951 -60 represent 2021-30 You might be more inclined to build your own OOBs for your favorite countries or modify somebodys take on it. Finland certainly wont stop in 2020 its more a case of which one to choose based on past record :)
If you like to play all your battles in the current year then you had best learn the OOB editor but if you play as most do battles from diffrent time periods you will continue fighting the battles you always have. And you might just decide to download somebodys OOB & take it for a spin if fancy playing something based in the current year. After all 1 or 2 people still play WinSPWW2 & the dates there ended 60 odd years ago.
1 fan with programing skills capable of getting it running & a good search engine to find it is all it will take to keep this game alive on the majority of systems so your in the lap of the gods that your system isnt the one it wont work on & that this guy exists somewhere out there.
If Don n Andy are kind enough to release the CD version to the public domain once they feel the profits have dried up theres a good chance these games will outlive them. People arent going to stop downloading this "old school" game n trying it just because its 2020 something the same type of person will try it & like it as now.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

My previous post was in jest and sarcasm ;). Now I'm serious:cool:.
I do not understand the problem of the game engine. It is obvious that this game is tactical, so that guns are more or less conventional. If you continue to update the database on conventional weapons this game would never end. Or am I wrong? :confused: Sorry but I do not understand the focus of the topic :(.
If someone asks for nuclear weapons or strategic missiles I think it is obvious that these weapons are not for this game.
If may be that the problem lies with the compatibility with new operating systems. If that is the problem personally will try to always have an xp. In fact I have xp :up: and not the scum of windws 7 lol:down:

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

When it gets past 2020 all the or nearly all, the orbat work will have been done. Do you play SPWW2? World War 2 has been over for 66 years (in Europe at least) and that's still a good game.

Hell, I play Boer War scenarios in Age of Rifles, and that war has been over for more than a hundred years. I can't see that the passing of a year means diddle-um squat in gaming terms.

troopie

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

There are 92 OOBs in the game: many are third world or unpopular countries that have received little attention and would profit from overhauls. Also note that issues dating back to WW2, such as the armor quality of german AFVs, are still being debated decades later: things like the armor of the Abrams won't be publicized for quite a long time.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Good old fashioned highly trained boots on the ground took UBL completely by surprise,no high tech drones or smart bombs needed,yes OT but what the hell,in the U.S we are very proud of the special ops now and the money spent on training them alot less than billions or trillions spent on pie in the sky Wonder Weapons.
:)

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

[quote=Marcello;776826]Not many if any 3rd world countries will get the most advanced MBT's,Abrams,Merkava ect.any time soon in the future, as in this uneasy politcal climate they could very well be used against NATO.
Any Arab nation (pakistan for one) and N.Korea especially!

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

That's completely besides the point, which is that a lot of minor OOBs are off mark in terms of presence or absence of certain weapons, availability dates, formations etc.
Have you seen the differences between the iraqi OOB of four years ago and the current one? Or how much the north korean one has changed in the last two years? It may well be that a lot of these issues in others OOBs will never be fixed for lack of time. And in 2050 we will be still discussing how much Abrams armor was capable in 1985, just like we are still discussing the metallurgy of King Tiger armor in 1945.

As for the rest Abrams are already assembled in Egypt and have been sold to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. None of which could use them against NATO without magic teleporting.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

You might want to check your maps, Pakistan is not an Arab nation and not even located particularly close to them (the closest one seems to be Oman, on the other side of the Gulf of Oman, ie. several hundred kilometers away).

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

I have to agree with MARCELLOS last post, dealing with some of the smaller countries in the game. In the last patch post I ran into this situation (And others.) with Malaysia concerning the PT-91 MBT, saw some info on it, investigated it, found changes needed to made to it, and submitted the info. The problem was I kept seeing references to an ADNAN APC-so what? Here's a country I've never used in the game or gave much thought to, I find an article or two on a tank upgrade and the next thing I know I'm "going down the rabbit hole" chasing APCs that Malaysia has had for at least 8 yrs. In total we got the tank upgrade, 6 or 7 ADNAN variants, 2 or 3 APC deletions (Never got those units.) and 2 new APCs being fielded in 2012 (Thanks Don.), All by accident, because of a tank issue. The work isn't easy and I would submit based on my small contribution to the game thus far, that at least a third of what we add or delete will come from "accidents" similiar to the example above. I would refer you to the APC thread Post #62 for further information. And the armor point is well taken also.

Regards,
Pat

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

Yes. I think they is doing much to update the game data. I thank you and those who are doing research on the units.
It is true that maybe need to see present before the future.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

MMXX. However, I agree with one of the guy's in another thread who said al orbats should end on XXI/XII/MMXII

As far as the shrinking fan base, I plan on teaching my neices and nephews how to play, so they'll be at least five fans left after all of us have died of old age. :P

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

I probably missed it somewhere, but are there plans for a new SPMBT or is the current engine gonna be continuously updated?

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

I think Andy and Don will update it until they think it's the best that can be done, i've read more than once that they're not starting over.

Re: When it gets past 2020...
 

These games(both WinSPWW2 and WinSPMBT) are damn near perfect. The new support for any screen resolution makes this game pure gold. Now no matter what I kind of computer screen I buy I know that can always play WinSPMBT. 2020 is still almost a decade away, so I'm not worried too much.

I admit though, it's awesome play such a wide range countries and play them on the current date. I will still be satisfied if it never goes beyond 2020. IF they DO make a new game, if it doesn't have all the replayability or game options that the current game has for the sake of new graphics and eye candy then I don't want it.