When it gets past 2020...

[gila]

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.

[Marcello]

Originally Posted by Dion

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?

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.

[Imp]

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.

[Wdll]

Originally Posted by Imp

only my girlfreind tops it & thats only if she hasnt got a strop on

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

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

John,
Well said on "both" accounts !!

Regards,
Pat

[Skirmisher]

Originally Posted by Marcello

The US R&D effort reads like a litany of cancellations

Did you take the black budget into account?

Surely not everything being researched is common knowledge.

[Marcello]

Originally Posted by Skirmisher

Did you take the black budget into account?
Surely not everything being researched is common knowledge.

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.

[Skirmisher]

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!

[Dion]

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.

[gila]

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