A few questions regarding the future of SABOW.

[Tyockell18]

Hello everyone,

I have always been a fan of Gravi team sims and SABOW is an excellent accomplishment.  The T-62 has always been one of my favorite tanks and I can finally command one in battle.  That being said, does the dev team intend to perhaps supply us with more driveable armoured vehicles later on in updates, or is this solely up to the modders?.

I would really love to use the T-54/55's and also Centurion ect.  They are already in game obviously but require interiors ect. 

Has anyone heard anything about this?.

Do you guys expect SABOW to have a fairly strong modding community down the road?. This game is beautiful but could be soo much better as well.

Thanks for reading, look forward to responses.

[Flashburn]

Heck i would love a playable bmp1 and m113, but im crazy.

[Tyockell18]

yes a playable BMP 1 would be great!.

[Panzerfaust]

SABoW only been out for about a month and while I would love some new DLC I would prefer to see Graviteam working on making sure SABoW is problem free (the good news is it mostly is  ). But from what I have seen andrey post here and there really leads me too believe that what we see (or don't see) in SABoW as far as DLC is really going to up to the publisher. If sales are good it quite possible the publisher could approach Graviteam and contract them to make some DLC for SABoW, again even if sales are good the publisher may not. I really wish we had a link to the publishers where we could let our voices be heard about DLC for SABoW. I think the SABoW Western version is handled Indie Games?

@andrey,
If the publishers do not contact you for DLC work on SABoW will Graviteam be able to offer new pay for DLC like they did for the AP series recently? While it would be nice if the publisher did this I hope Graviteam is in a position to work on and offer paid DLC for SABoW if the publisher choses not to do anything.

[Tyockell18]

Yeah I would have no problem with paying graviteam for more playable vehicles and content ect.  This is the best tank simulator I have ever played in my entire life.

I want Gravi team to do well as a company, they produced content on a level far beyond other companies. Their attention to detail and realism is pure awesome.

The fact that they produced a state of the art simulator for less than popular cold war era equipment "like the T-62" is great as well.

However having an M1A1 abrams would be nice as well, I would love to fight in some gulf war scenarios with an old T-55 or T-62 war horse.

[Flashburn]

I am really hoping sales are good enough that dlc and addon get produced.  But APOS is damn good in its own right, it seems to be doing alot better.  I can hope.....
So far I have heard nothing really about mods etc.  I have some plans to do some small stuff and I have a "last years rainy day project" Saladin Armored car I did in 3dmax.  Dont know if Ill ever touch it again, but it fits into SABOW,er sort of.  Who knows maybe I'll finish it and get it into SABOW.  But I'm still trying to figure out what files do what etc. on that front.  Oh ya and I keep making campaigns lol.   

So poeple go buy SABOW so I can have a playable bmp1.   

[Tyockell18]

Agreed!, go buy this sim, ITS GREAT! and they deserve the $30.00 US.

[Tyockell18]

On a side note, I'd even be willing to pay for extra useable vehicles that modders have created provided they are good quality.

[johncage]

i really wish dejawolf, the guy who created the custom t-72m for steel beasts, would do something similar for this game:

http://www.dejawolf.com/steelbeasts/gallery/t72M1.html

he has accepted donations. maybe if enough people donate 

[Flashburn]

Too bad he didnt do a graphic for a hapless crew member being loaded into the gun.   .  Looks good. 

[Tyockell18]

i really wish dejawolf, the guy who created the custom t-72m for steel beasts, would do something similar for this game:

http://www.dejawolf.com/steelbeasts/gallery/t72M1.html

he has accepted donations. maybe if enough people donate 

Very nice model!, it'd be fun playing with that beast as well.

[Panzerfaust]

Adding additional vehicles in SABoW should be possible if it's anything like SFK42 but here's the catch. Most of the new vehicles added to SFK42 are minus 3D crew stations and it would probably be the same for SABoW. When these new vehicles first started showing up for SFK42 most (probably 99%) came without 3D crew pits. The concensus from the modders was that 3D crew stations were really just eye candy and really not that important to gameplay since any game function could still be preformed without the 3D pit. This isn't a put down of the moders in the slightest as their focus of what was of most importance in gameplay just didn't translate into having 3D crew stations, they felt modeling accurate vehicle capabilities was all that was really needed. At first I disagreed about not having 3D crew stations in SFK42, but now I can understand why they did what the did, the lack of these 3D crew stations really is just eye candy and while nice to look at really didn't affect gameplay, and by keeping this aspect simple it allowed more moders to get involved adding accruate vehiles to the game in a very quick pace. Now if this trend continues in SABoW I'm confident we will eventually see the in game vehicles become user playable (at least the tanks) and new vehicles being added, but all probably  without 3D crew pits. Also my understanding is making the vehicles themselfs for SFK42 are not above the skill of the slightly above average model maker, but adding 3D crew stations is a lot more involved and complicated so I don't see it being any different for SABoW. To get these new vehicles modeled with 3D crew pits like the user vehicles already in SABoW would probably have to be done by Graviteam to get them fairly quickly (<6 months). If done by a modder, in his spare time, it could take up to a year or more.
Cheers

[Flashburn]

Doing an interior really requires alot of referance work.  How many people can get inside an armored vehicle?  Then take all sorts of measures a zillions of referance photos.  You could fake it I quess, but thats alot of work even to fake it.

[johncage]

i've been toying with the qbattle file in  tab to change the chieftain to human controlled. though in the game, it's still the m60.

i've looked at the tech_base file responsible for vehicle data and all the vehicles seem to have an equally lengthy section devoted to them. comparison between playable tanks and the non playable tanks are nearly identical. i could not find the component which is responsible for making an ai tank human controllable.

i'm starting to think it may be hard coded. as in the switch is elsewhere. maybe in one of the codelib files in the bin directory.

[Panzerfaust]

Exactly Flashburn, it's one thing to have the skills to do it and another to have all the required information needed and time to make it. A compromise will probably have to be reached by the mod community in SABoW just like there was in the SFK42 mod community for AI vehicles already in game and those that might get added later. This is one area were I truly hope that Graviteam can step in and provide the vehicles, maybe doing something similar to what Rise of Flight has done? I'd gladly pay $XX per vehicle for the ability to add them to SABoW as user playable and with full 3D pits. If the guys at Graviteam havn't entertained this ideal yet I sure hope they would.
Cheers

[Donken]

Doing an interior really requires alot of referance work.  How many people can get inside an armored vehicle?  Then take all sorts of measures a zillions of referance photos.  You could fake it I quess, but thats alot of work even to fake it.

This!

When i did the interior for the Jagdpanzer (yes i did an interior for that model) in SF that was the hardest and most time consuming thing. You would be chocked of how few good reference pictures there are out on the net for interiors.

But probably there is alot easier to find for a little more modern tanks, Like finding interiors for Centurion, T-55 and so on. There where alot more produced of them and surviving examples than on for exemple Ferdinands and StugIV:s

[Panzerfaust]

i've been toying with the qbattle file in  tab to change the chieftain to human controlled. though in the game, it's still the m60.

i've looked at the tech_base file responsible for vehicle data and all the vehicles seem to have an equally lengthy section devoted to them. comparison between playable tanks and the non playable tanks are nearly identical. i could not find the component which is responsible for making an ai tank human controllable.

i'm starting to think it may be hard coded. as in the switch is elsewhere. maybe in one of the codelib files in the bin directory.

Well keep in mind when SFK42 had it's first vehicles added they were the vehicles already in game that were AI controlled. And to get them to be user controlled this was done by a mod that was activated by JSGME and not by changing anything directly in SFK42. To me it looks like the same for SABoW but instead of using JSGME to do this you use the SABoW Game Updater. I think the answer to making the AI vehicles user controlable lies somewhere in the APOS_SABOW_MOD_MANUALS documents andrey supplied awhile back. But I'm a totally clueless when reading these manuals as they are not entry level friendly 

[Flashburn]

Exactly Flashburn, it's one thing to have the skills to do it and another to have all the required information needed and time to make it. A compromise will probably have to be reached by the mod community in SABoW just like there was in the SFK42 mod community for AI vehicles already in game and those that might get added later. This is one area were I truly hope that Graviteam can step in and provide the vehicles, maybe doing something similar to what Rise of Flight has done? I'd gladly pay $XX per vehicle for the ability to add them to SABoW as user playable and with full 3D pits. If the guys at Graviteam havn't entertained this ideal yet I sure hope they would.
Cheers

Interesting idea the ROF thing.  i'm guessing Graviteam could get access to older vehicles like brdm, bmp1, btr 60/70, t55/54, but Western stuff?  Not without alot of driving or an airplane ticket.  When the Fort Lewis military history mueseum reopens someday, I am so gonna try and talk my way inside their bmp1.  If I had been thinking a few years back I could have taken a zillion photos and referance measurements of amx10, bmp1, t55, t72, chieftan, bm21, and a whole bunch of blown up stuff.

[Panzerfaust]

  totally agree Flashburn, but some how they did manage to get a lot of info on the M60 

[Flashburn]

Oh poop, If anyone has figured out where all the files for hand grenades pls post them! With the cfg file for getting a model in game.  This is gonna be my test run for other stuff.  3dsmax + texture for an RKG3 should not take more than 6 or 7 hours for basic modeling and texture.  Crap like normal maps really arnt needed, well at first.  Probably do it anyways  .  Put if I can get that in game, might try one of my never finished weekend rainy day models.  (saladin armored car and an amx13 that needs lots of help.