WinSP MBT: Das Reich

[RecruitMonty]

Oh and Lukerduker123 you need to do something with your account so you can receive PMs otherwise it will be a bit tough for you to beta-test without a link.

[scorpio_rocks]

Having a look now...

[Wiking]

Got it, will devote the rest of the night to some first impressions and maybe a few questions. I'll also try to start a few quick scenarios

[Wiking]

One quick comment, after playing around with it for about five minutes: Holy crap, this is insane. The next comment would be perhaps offering an "alternate" Kasierreich styled flag for those who have issues with or cannot legally play with a Swastika in their country? Just a quick thought. The readme was very clearly laid out and easy to follow. Did not expect to have to swap out the executable but it makes sense considering the vast number of changes I suppose.

I'm going to have a blast with this, I can tell already!

[scorpio_rocks]

Would you Prefer questions / comments in this thread or by PM?

[Wiking]

Just found the alternate flags, sorry for jumping the gun. And yes, it might be good to make a fresh thread to address everything at once!

[scorpio_rocks]

I will hold off posting comments, etc until you get on and let us know whether you would rather it not done in public.

but...

Must say a HUGE amount of work has gone into this and it shows! Thanks!
(and dont worry most of the notes I have are very minor, nitpicks, etc)

[RecruitMonty]

Hi everyone!

Glad to see the download worked! Am working on those missing icons for the amphibious mortars. Will load them up for you guys when they are done. Lets keep comments etc in this thread. With the title: "BETA-TEST".

[Wiking]

BETA TEST

Hello Monty, I've only managed to finish a single battle so far but I have some thoughts already. I took a fairly mixed force of mech infantry and various armor, SPA, SPAA, etc. Starting at your suggested date of May 1949 (I noticed you could force the battles to start earlier than that for OOB35 but it causes oddities like the flag on the player start screen changing to the Red Flag and you can only buy support from 35 if you select something else and then 35 again). I have to say the sprite work and the sounds are utterly fantastic, as is the attention to detail. I was quite overwhelmed, and normally I like having so many choices but this time I had to spend a long while thinking about what each formation did and its role. I'm still digesting quite a lot but I wanted to say that you've done exemplary work here, and I commend you on doing your best to make the LBM's all "hang together", even if the infantry are once again given the short end of the stick in this regard, though no fault of yours I have to say! Probably not much artwork out there of alt-history German soldiers.

On that note, I actually was perusing the opponent lists thinking "This is almost too good, the only ones who can possibly fill out an interesting roster to face this would be USA and Soviets..." which I think is the only real downside to your mod. It is abundant in detail and character matched only perhaps by the Marine OOB. Makes me sad that nobody else has the time or devotion to give us some proper opponents for this. I will say though, that the situation is probably less dire for the "Police" and colonial troops: Mujahadeen, USMC and other less "heavy" OOB's will probably stack up against them and that might be a fun campaign to try out.

As to any OOB issues I have with 35 in particular: I do think the infantry companies are over-weighted, with 4 platoons versus the WW2 and Modern standard of 3 platoons. I would suggest deleting one of the infantry platoons, unless you have a particular reason for 4? I'm very curious if there is one, and I can see the rationale if you intend them to be used as the core for a campaign force. But as part of a combined arms campaign core they do soak up a lot of points and slots, leaving less room for the other goodies (oh the goodies! So many of those). On a more positive note, the weapon platoons being built into the infantry companies is welcome, as is the integral SP-AA support; considering the number of aircraft I had coming in at me last night, I definitely appreciated this addition and I feel it would be a logical extrapolation of German experiences with low level attack aircraft in WW2. I am a little puzzled at the lack of rocket artillery though I may have simply overlooked it in the huge unit selection. Was there a particular reason for this or was there just no room for it?

The sound effects, as I said earlier, are spectacular. Machine guns especially have a lot more "heft" to them now as do rifles, and I enjoy the 'hit' sounds that play when you impact armor. The classic Steel Panthers clicking sounds on the menu were a nice easter egg, appreciated that muchly. As for errors, I did notice the ones you mentioned but the only real sprite issue I came across was Icon 8167, the Me.262 HGIII-1k which has white pixels appearing below it in the encyclopedia entry. I don't know if this happens during gameplay but it was an oddity so I thought I'd mention it.

[scorpio_rocks]

Das Reich -BETA TEST

Hiya folks,

Great work! - A few points (most small niggles) from looking over the OoBs, etc.
Please do not take any of this as criticism - just my thoughts.
I have a version of cross' sound mod - I will dig deeper to find the sounds you added.

General

1. LBMs - Great job finding some of these! however seeing black borders on some is distracting, perhaps artificially enlarge the pic with white space.

2. Having both OoBs called Germany can be a little confusing (I know you are limited in characters). Following on from this; both having the same flag can cause confusion - perhaps use a variant flag for the second OoB. This becomes especially apparent if anyone (like a mad beta tester) fights one Vs the other!

3. I persume that the many duplicated units are to allow each OoB to stand alone for a campaign? If they were only ever to be used in battles & scenarios then this is superfluous.

OOB 35

1. Unit #1 "Title" - make class = 216 "No Unit". Put in dates of country and LBM of flag. This is for consistancy across other OOBs and is a good way to give info to players - If it has correct country number and No unit class it will appear in Encyclopaedia (allows info on country) but will NOT appear as a unit in purchase screens.

2. Weapon #111 "13,2cm FlMG-131" - I believe this is a typo or its a VERY big MG (1,32 cm or 13,2mm ?)

3. Icon #8246, 8247, 8248 Ju-132B - Have a black line at bottom of icon (not tested in game, yet)

4. Icon # 8167 Me.262 HGIII-1k - White pixels below icon, visible in game

5. PpPz Leopard (everyones favourite cancelled tank!) Units # 225, 227, 228 - (If germany saw no need for it in '42/'43 why would they resurrect it in 47? - That said its in my fantasy extended reich OOB ) I would question its armour values however.
12 seems high for 50mm armour (and sides seem low). From the research I did, drawings and using the SP armour calc program I came up with a couple of options:
a) Using less armour but slope to acheive equivalence with PzKw II J armour (8,5,5,8,5,5,3)
b) from what little info does exist I got = 8,4,3,5,3,3,2 (with possible addition of Schürzen for 10 heat on flanks) - I use this in my alt WW2 OOB.
c) from drawings and "Real" turret on SdKfz234/2 = 8,4,3,4,1,1,2 + Skirts

Also If this existed would the MBT also have been called Leopard? If they were recycling names why not Tiger for the MBT? OR the "next" big cat name?

OOB 44

1. As note 1. above: Unit #1 should be "title page"

2. Gepard - same name for airborne light tank and Heavy Flak tank on different chassis? (need another name for airborne stuff Units #62 through #80)

3. Weapon #111 Believe the Mg131 isnt 13.2cm as above

All for now
as I said minor niggles and typos - great stuff

Will start doing some force builds and playing now