game Preferences settings
 

We are doing a study of what players are setting game preferences to if they reguarly deviate from the stock 100%.

So......if you play with hitting set to 150% and infantry toughness to 80% we'd like to know. We don't want to ASSUME everyone plays as we do.......with all setting to default 100%

I will be away for a week and I will check these over when I get back and the more people who take a few minutes to answer gives us better data to work with and if you do keep the player and realism preferences set to the "stock" settings we'd like to know that as well......................we don't want to hear only from the people who change them and if you DO change them could you please tell us why

Thanks

Don

Re: game Preferences settings
 

I normally play with hit rates set to 150%, mostly to make the game go a bit faster as it is more lethal.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

150% for both sides ?

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Keep them at 100%, and all realism on. Have tried changing some of the percentages, but think 100% is ok. Leave "AI tank heavy" off in campaigns, as I build my core around an inf. bn.

Halstein

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Yes, sorry for not making that clear.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

I like to use different settings for "hitting", "spotting" and "rallying" to simulate the effects of climate and time of day. I dug up a table somewhere (and then made it into a word doc, then a pdf), which provided me with the parameters (visibility settings were the key). I leave infantry toughness, tank toughness alone and "xxx" is my standard "Troop Quality" setting.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Haven't toyed around with the settings yet to offer an opinion.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

General Preferences are On except for Battle FX, AI Tank Heavy, Fast Artillery, Hex Grid, and Move Radius.

Realism Preferences are On except for Breakdowns, and Command.

Player Preferences are 100% Searching, Hitting, Rout/Rally, Tank Toughness, Infantry Toughness, and Arty Effectiveness. Training is On so Troop Quality is XXX for both sides and Battle Points are XXX for both sides as well. Air Sorties are 50 for both sides, and Map Height is 80 with Map Width at 160.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

I generally find the default settings to be fine. I sometimes manually set Air Sorties if I want to make sure air support will be available. Sometimes I turn on Tank Heavy AI if I want a tank battle, but I usually prefer more infantry-oriented action. I usually play smaller battles on 70x70 or 80x80 maps.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

These responses are good, please keep them coming. I was curious whether ( for example ) people were running one or two of the Player preferences a little "hotter" or "colder" than the default but that so far does not seem to be the case but please keep reporting what your using...all info is valuable.

Thanks

Don

Re: game Preferences settings
 

I almost exclusively PBEM.
100% on both sides for everything.

Though this thread has me thinking that I should up the toughness of the AI on the occasion that I do play solo, because the AI is not much of a challenge.

Cheers,
Cross

Re: game Preferences settings
 

For both sides:
Searching 85%
Inf Toughness 90%

all other settings standard

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Hi All,

Breakdowns on. Hex grid off, all else standard except:

1) I always play tank heavy, and although it really seems to make little difference playing against some enemies, it also pretty much guarantees that I will need to think about my ammo resupply playing against those nations that do have a lot of armour. It means I have to be really careful siting anti tank guns and making sure I have enough supporting infantry in delay/defend scenarios. It also means that I must have effective supporting artillery if I am going to break up a large armoured attack, and that I must be prepared to move mobile units around and think about relocating them before they are at risk of being ever overrun.

2) The only other tweak I do is to crank up the artillery to 150% effectiveness for both me and the AI. Artillery is "Queen of the Battlefield" after all, and at 150% infantry more readily "go to ground" and armour is more easily damaged and upset. I like to think that artillery has a more profound psychological impact than the standard setting of 100% seems to provide.

I sometimes wonder that if I had not selected Tank Heavy, whether or not 150% artillery would be necessary - maybe I just like artillery!

Cheers,
Gelainey

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Mostly default, but sometimes I change them to simulate some type of operational situation or global/strategical situation. I do the same thing with WinSPMBT.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

I set spotting to 80 because I don't want vehicles to spot an infantry squad until they are in the same hex.
I don't have z fire because it is too powerful
I set rout/rally to 130 because the morale effect of artillery is too high can we have a button in preferences to adjust artilleries morale effect as well as it's casualties?

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Have experimented, but we are happy with all default settings as they are.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

For my German vs Russia mega campaign I use:
Search: Ger-110 Rus-90
Hitting: Ger-110 Rus-90
Rout/Rally: Ger-100 Rus-90
Tank Toughness: Ger-120 Rus-80
Inf Toughness: Ger-110 Rus-100
Arty Eff.: 105%
Realism: All On

Thanks,
Don Bennett

Re: game Preferences settings
 

What happens if a player resets them in the middle of a battle?

Re: game Preferences settings
 

In solo (Vs AI) play, I believe, the "new" reset values are used from then on (may need a save and restart?).

I don't believe preferences can be changed mid battle during PBEM.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

I support the wish for an option, but that is because I think the morale effect of artillery is too small compared with its casualties.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Using only 100%.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

I use default settings. (hope reply is not too late)

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Always stick with stock settings

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Only thing I always change in WWII games is putting artillery up to 150%.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

This might be off topic but I would like to not see the message about what is shooting at me and it's range, especially from something I haven't spotted. This removes some of the challenge of not knowing where I am being fired at from.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

I think know you are being shot at by small arms or a tank/anti tank gun is okay to know, since that is realistic, but not much more than that.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

All SP messages are global - so your opponent sees the exact same message that you do. Just like all wrecked guns and vehicles "magically" appear if you randomly barrage behind a hill, or beyond your visibility and kill something, your artillery "phones hone" to you.

If you destroy a tank, you know then and there - so do not expend rounds on an already killed unit. (Part of the study done by Operations Research groups after Normandy noted one particular dead German half-track on the top of a hillock near hill 221, and looked at the several strike traces on the ground around it form different weapon types, and concluded from that and the after battle reports that it had been "claimed" at least a dozen times by different strafing planes).

It would need a complete redesign of the game engine so that the game worked "realistically". Say your Sherman moves up to the top of a hill, then just goes "bang" with absolutely no explanation - was it an 88, or did he run over a mine?. And then many casual gamers would not like that sort of "reality", and would complain that things go bang without any explanation of why, or that they had to pour rounds into a tank till it physically burned or blew up, before they could be 100% "sure" it was dead. But in reality, troops did pour fire into a tank to be 100% sure - firing till it "changed shape or burned".

Plus, we report the achieved penetration of any hit on a tank - information that real gunners did not get "telegraphed" back to them by real life ammunition!.

If you spot a unit in SP then you have 100% complete information on it. Make, model, number of men in a spotted section and what weapons they carry. Unrealistic, any boxy German tank was a "tiger" to most troops, any enemy gun was an "88" and spotting 2-3 men in a hedgerow did not mean that they were part of a 10 man rifle section rather than a patrol.

Neither do your own troops misidentify each other and open fire on friends - "blue on blue" (apart from pilots, but then they are Air Farce so that is perfectly normal for fly-boys:rolleyes:). But puttering about as an army cadet, and later in the Territorials on night patrols - popping blanks off at "enemy" that later turned out to be one's own side in the debriefing, happened enough even in training to be something to be legitimately worried about. In SP, enemy and friend are rigidly defined, as in chess.

You manoeuvre each piece yourself and choose which shots to take and at what targets for them (bar reaction fires, but you can set up policies for that with the full game), as if you were a godlike being. In the SP universe, cities would need no traffic lights since the player-god can avoid all collisions..

If the enemy turn up on your flank, then everyone can immediately react to this, unlike in reality. Everything is known to the player-godlike being who promptly wheels units to face off. None of your units needs orders or any general operations plan, since you the player-as-a-God knows it for them. Maps are 100% accurate and nobody gets lost, takes the wrong turning or whatever. None of your troops slope off for a crafty cigarette break or go off looting, either. You the "Q" figure know exactly where your boys are at all times, and exactly what ammunition status, which ones are hurt and so on. There is no need for your subordinates to send SITREPS that by the time you get them are already outdated, or have wrong map references saying they are at Xville, so you happily shell Yville and then suddenly get casualty reps since the officer got his villages wrong.

It is a wargame and not a simulation at the end of the day. Real simulations give out incomplete information, but that would be totally confusing to civilian end users who want a "chess" type playing experience and not a tactical training tool.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

As Plato once said, that imitative artists create things that are THIRD removed from The Truth:

http://sites.bu.edu/ombs/2012/11/12/...iation-of-art/

But then again, who could possibly spare real blood & flesh to educate oneself about the art of war, or, for mere enjoyment of one's spare time? There is bound to be tradeoff between preserving The Truth, and, making The Truth accessible.

Steel Panthers is an imitative art, it is a simulation; but simulation too has many levels, in regards to the realism it's trying to achieve.


Cheers

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Stick a post it over it while you play.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

If it is a 'God view' game it is with a small letter 'g'.
Units will go out of contact and not answer calls for fire missions. Units will suppress and not rally and carry out your orders. If you do not move units 'Hex by Hex' they will 'pop out on roads' when they should have stayed in cover, drive thru buildings or see no danger in heading for the gap in the wire the enemy has conveniently left for you.
While it is more game-over-simulation, the message info is still supposed to represent a turn's worth (2-3 minutes?) of unit observations and reports up and down the chain of command. The hit reports are too much for the situation but it is nice to know why my BFG did not kill it's target just to know the AI is not cheating.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Thank you for your response Mobhack.
I see, it is a game and not a simulation, and has many God problems, but I think this one has an easy fix, not requiring reworking the game.
I brought this up because from first hand accounts it seems the worst problem a soldier faces is often identifying where fire comes from.
But with the range information and the shooting graphic for direction the Soldier can easily work out where fire comes form.
Then just paste that position with artillery or Z fire roll up to it and destroy whatever it was.
This makes it impossible for a defender to play a stealthy game.
I know you know all this but I say this to explain my thinking.
So maybe just the range data can be removed from the global messages?
That would create the spotting difficulty and make the game a little less God like?
If you want to know the range then the T for Target button gives that information but only for spotted units, not unspotted as it should be?
I dont think this modest change would cause any confusion for your civilian players?

Re: game Preferences settings
 

The changes you are suggesting would require a brand new game, unfortunately. The messaging system is core game code, and is fundamental to the operation of PBEM replay for one thing. Not "modest" at all I am afraid.

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Im not sure if I was clear enough before,
I think that in computer talk we are dealing with a string?
So when the string is built isn't it easy to not put the range info in?
The change would be something like
muyunitnamevariable + " firing at " + opponentsunitsnamevariable + carriagereturn + "Range " + rangevariable + " metres"
to
muyunitnamevariable + " firing at " + opponentsunitsnakevariable
So just dont call the global rangevariable when building the string, wherever else the Global rangevariable is used is unaffected.
This truncated message can then be passed around, stored, discarded or displayed just like the origional is?

Re: game Preferences settings
 

Try playing with the hex grid off the game looks far better & you have to judge ranges, I put them on sometimes if close fighting is happening for example in woods