Back with SF '42 and signing in!

[33lima]

Hi folks

thanks to Frinik22 alerting me over at SimHQ that this is where the action now is, I just wanted to sign in and express my appreciation of the modder's work on this sim, which deserved better reviews than it got on release and is now better than ever.

I do mission reports over at CombatAce and having recently 're-discovered' Steel Fury, I was sufficiently impressed to break the air-to-air pattern and get down in the weeds with a report on SF '42 which has generated a fair bit of interest:

http://combatace.com/topic/81863-tiger-tiger-burning-bright-sf-42/

Looking forward to trying out some of the new missions and vehicles, where the standard of presentation looks very promising. And now planning on making SF '42 and other tanksim mission reports a regular feature at CA.

Panzer, marsch!

[frinik]

Welcome to the forum 33lima! With NTA 1.8 you'll find a host of new mission series inserted such as Kyth's Panzer III and Panzer 38t campaigns, Rends' Kursk, Orel and Barbarossa campaigns, some others and the cherry on the cake; Lockie's compilation of missions made by various talented people including himself and collected in the mission pack 3.5 with tons of exciting German and Soviet missions and some American ones as well. All yours to discover( like Australia)...

[lockie]

Welcome to aboard of SF!
Great review! I hope to see the next view about USA side At this moment there are five missions devoted to the american units:
- everything, but the bridge
- `Tommy-cooker' into the fire
- river of doom
- save general Frinikenko(part I,II)

Also there are GBR troops and four missions involved:
- Sidi Rezegh
- Gazala
- road to Tobruk
- clean the road
(Hope there will be fifth mission devoted to M3 `Grant`)
But the troops in the missions are soviet. So, it'll take a time to replace them completely on the british units.

[33lima]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys! Yes I think I'll try a US mission next, looking forward to trying out the M4A3 76 especially, or perhaps the M26 if I just end up getting bullied by Panthers. And then the Western Desert, then back to colder climates...the King Tiger Hungarian missions in particular look just spectacular, big Tigers on the prowl in a barren winter landscape, you can practically feel the biting wind...so little time, so many missions!

[Txema]

Hi 33lima !

Are you the guy that contributed to Panzer Elite some years ago with a British sound pack and new British style briefings ?

I remember those mods !!

Welcome to Steel Fury !!


Txema

[33lima]

Yes that was me Txema! Seems like a few of the old PE crew hang out here now, I recognise your handle, for one!

Might try my hand at some SF '42 missions if I can get the hang of the editor and tear myself away from playing the many already made, that await me!

[frinik]

33 lima do you have NTA 1.8 installed now or are you still using SPM 2.0? Keeping both is fine for comparison....

[33lima]

Hi Frinik

I have both SPM 2.0 and now also NTA 1.8 installed in my JSGME mods folder, with NTA (not SPM) currently enabled. Have enabled all 3 mission packs, the NTA sound mod and the update in the order recommended (tho I saw somewhere else here a mod order which just lists mission pack 3.5, implying this contains the missions in the first two packs).

I'm assuming it's one major mod at a time...unless you can have multiple installs. Is there much/anything that SPM has, that isn't in NTA 1.8? I suppose I'm about to find out.

Only issue I'm getting so far is the blank screen on starting a mission, which I assume happens because the particular tank has no interior models, and needs switched to an external, sight or hatch view to be visible.

One thing I'd like to see is missions where the mission loads to present with the attacking force paused on the Start Line or in the Forming Up Place, so you can look around and orient yourself in the 3d world in relation to the other subunits in the attack, see and hear the artillery prep hit the objective, then get the red very light or radio message to move out. Good for immersion, building the tension, as well as good for orientation. And where during the advance, there's time for better tactics like halting to observe more often and backing out of fire positions. Or that involve your tanks attacking on a separate axis to the infantry, that sort of thing. Maybe it's there already but the norm for stock missions seems to be the 'mad charge'/expanding torrent of Liddel Hart fame. Great stuff and edge-of-the-seat fun but some slightly slower-paced stuff would be good, too. Anyway I'm looking forward to tanking my through what's available now!

[frinik]

Uh there' a variety of mission. If you like slower and quieter pace then the stock missions of the game are your cup of tea. The user made missions are a mix batch with some quiet one and lots of action-oriented not to say hairy ones....

SPM 2.0 has les models than NTA 1.8 being by 15 months and not having been updated since release. It's  very stable and I have an install of it myself which I keep. I also have various older version Beta 1.5, NTA 1.3 and 1.4 and Ultimate 1.5 as well a NTA 1.6 and 1.7.

Only a few tanks have interiors modelled thus the blank start...

It's advisable not to mix different mods in one install such as PM 2.0 and NTA 1.8.Even if enabled separately could eventually result in file conflict and ruin your installation...

Hve fun there's lots to try out and more to come thanks to our Ukrainian-Russian colleagues who keep pouring new stuff.

[33lima]

I see what you mean about the variety, having just tried out lockie's 'Everything, but the Bridge' M4 mission!

First instalment of mission report just posted;

http://combatace.com/topic/82034-hell-on-wheels-sf-42/

[frinik]

Good beginning of report; looking forward to the next episode! We need "War Correspondents" like you on this forum

[lockie]

That's amazing review!(I'll place link in the appropriate topic). It's more unbelievable, coz the game was released 7 years ago! Keep on good work! When I read description, I felt once again how I made/played this mission! There is a big surprise during battle and now I see that mission suffer from lack of the briefing text.
That was first mission devoted to the USA side. And it had a very poor english speech, but it was first try.
 I may say, it would be good idea to install `winter mod`. It's fully compatible with NTA1.8(FebrUpd2014).

BTW
Would u mind, if I pick up some text from review and place it in the mission?

PS
Also I recommend mission 'River of doom'. It's simple mission, but it's interesting to use spg `Jackson`.

[frinik]

Speaking of the M-26 and M-36 I am unable to adjust the reticle I this a bug or just a normal feature of the models??

[lockie]

Speaking of the M-26 and M-36 I am unable to adjust the reticle I this a bug or just a normal feature of the models??

This is a bug in er installation. Suppose, smth. wrong with gunsight parameters in the common_res. Only commander can't move reticle at the vertical. Though, it should be adjusted, but nobody complains - means everything fine

[33lima]

Hi Lockie

yes please use anything you want!

Final instalments of mission report now posted. I did not see much of what happened, but that was intentional, because I chose my firing position that way. Like in infantry training where they tell you to stay back inside a room, away from the window, so you have a narrow arc of fire but can't been seen by much anything else but your target.

I am not used to managing my own tanks in SF '42 and will need more practice! I failed to get my other two Shermans into better fire positions and they got killed, even though my tactics worked for me. I would prefer if missions did not stop when 'mission failed' is announced but maybe that is just how SF '42 works.

Many thanks for this great mission, I'm looking forward to trying more!

[lockie]

Excellent review! I see that activity of the mission is not clear. That's because of the lack information. It should be added.
The main idea - holds the area near bridge. If user retreat, then AI come to the area and capture it. In case, if AI stays more then 5 min(he has advantage in the units), then mission failed.
It's possible instead "Mission failed" make a warning message - "Mission failed" with ability to play on, but in such case there will not be challenge.

[Tsohg76]

Now that you mention It I do recognize Txema and Limas name from the PE days. that was soo long ago.

[33lima]

Excellent review! I see that activity of the mission is not clear. That's because of the lack information. It should be added.
The main idea - holds the area near bridge. If user retreat, then AI come to the area and capture it. In case, if AI stays more then 5 min(he has advantage in the units), then mission failed.
It's possible instead "Mission failed" make a warning message - "Mission failed" with ability to play on, but in such case there will not be challenge.

Hi Lockie

I see your point!

But I take the view that in most solder's terms, the ultimate victory is survival. So if, to win a mission, you have to take excessive risks with your life and the lives of your platoon-members...well many would not think that it is maybe better to lose than take risks most would quail at. If the choice is between the Germans capture the bridge or I die and most of my men die, then I think the Germans can have the bridge and I can live to fight another day. The Germans may have gaind the bridge but we made them pay a heavy price, making the odds better in the next battle.

In this mission I deliberately chose positions which gave me a good chance to shoot and scoot, and kill maximum panzers with minimum risk. Unfortunately I failed to get my AI tanks to to likewise but maybe that was not all my fault!

I can't recall which famous British General - Wavell, maybe - said in guidance for officers, that you must treat your troops like they were a racehorse - in the stable, look after them carefully like they were worth five hundred guineas, but in the race, ride them like they were not worth five pounds. But I like to look after my own neck and bring my men through the battle alive, too, as many as I can. I suspect this is how I would behave for real and I think it is human nature too - we are not all Victoria Cross material (it is usually won posthumously, after all!).

In Panzer Elite, if you failed a mission you would be informed, but you could play on. In the debriefing, you would get a 'bollocking' from the boss. That is how it would happen in real life, too. That did not stop the missions being challenging.

[lockie]

Hi Lockie

I see your point!

But I take the view that in most solder's terms, the ultimate victory is survival. So if, to win a mission, you have to take excessive risks with your life and the lives of your platoon-members...well many would not think that it is maybe better to lose than take risks most would quail at. If the choice is between the Germans capture the bridge or I die and most of my men die, then I think the Germans can have the bridge and I can live to fight another day. The Germans may have gaind the bridge but we made them pay a heavy price, making the odds better in the next battle.

I completely agree with u! I may say that all variants, which u mentioned above, are available. I mean, I can make three variants of the victory:
1. original variant - holds the area near the bridge and destroy all enemy units.
2. make a big damage to the enemy (let's say efficiency decreased 5 times), then retreat in safe area
3. just retreat in the safe area, if enemy outnumbered (i.e. 5 times)
But I can't predict all variants. Thus I need user's opinion how to improve the mission. And there is another question. Should be in the briefing described all variants of the victory?

PS
I found in the ME operator "goto". Just wonder, if there is operator "if"? Then u may create everything

In this mission I deliberately chose positions which gave me a good chance to shoot and scoot, and kill maximum panzers with minimum risk. Unfortunately I failed to get my AI tanks to to likewise but maybe that was not all my fault!

That was original idea - take a good position, then u've to change it several times to get the victory. If u stay on the same place, then with 90% mission failed. According to teammates. Unfortunately, the commands to control them are very poor. A couple advices:
1. check option "always execute orders"
2. send teammates to the defence point, then rotate er tank in the direction of attack and give order "rotate". Tanks will rotate exactly where u pointed. Then watch on them during battle and give them order "do as me" to force them stay on the same place.

In Panzer Elite, if you failed a mission you would be informed, but you could play on. In the debriefing, you would get a 'bollocking' from the boss. That is how it would happen in real life, too. That did not stop the missions being challenging.

It's possible to make the same in SF, but as my point with current feature, the mission more challenged.
Anyway, all mission made for the users to get a fun and force them a feel erself a bit disappointed, when mission failed
In such case, u open ME and make all necessary adjustments! I remember myself, when I wanted to change the mission, but didn't have a skill. Now I do 

[Kyth]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys! Yes I think I'll try a US mission next, looking forward to trying out the M4A3 76 especially, or perhaps the M26 if I just end up getting bullied by Panthers. And then the Western Desert, then back to colder climates...the King Tiger Hungarian missions in particular look just spectacular, big Tigers on the prowl in a barren winter landscape, you can practically feel the biting wind...so little time, so many missions!

If you're keen on a challenge, give my Panzer III and Panzer 38(t) campaigns a try.
At the very least, they will be a pleasant change of pace.