I got the demo, and while I’m loving it I’m really really bad at driving and fighting and overall situational awareness all at the same time.
i did just read the guide and learned some new tricks.
Don’t feel bad, I’ve been playing it over a year & often still get lost or can’t find my objective until the enemy parks an ATGM or tank round in my turret.
The platoon AI is still a work in progress, so sometimes it works great & you get these awesome battles with 15+ tanks slugging it out. Other times my platoon sits there and lets me be a one-man army, surges forward into obvious doom, or immediately takes off to launch an ambush and they’re scanning for more targets among the burning enemy hulks by the time I catch up.
The big map in the Patreon demo “slice” has been a big improvement & help to my play style. The scenarios have objectives marked & often an order to take them. I like taking my platoon around hills & tree lines where the enemy cannot make visual contact. Then when I hear the shooting start, hit from the flank and have a different line of fire from the main friendly AI force.
I’ve been really surprised how the M2 Bradley is an awesome or frightening fighting machine, depending which side you’re on. The 25mm really tears up APCs and even older tanks from the sides or rear, and having a fast platform with eight TOW missiles zip over to a flank can be complete hell on Warsaw Pact armor attacks.
I had one time where the platoon AI worked perfectly. I was in a M1 and had a 2nd M1 as a wingman. He stayed right with me, fighting by my side until he died.
In another time all the AI ran off and left me. I finally followed the sound of battle and found all the wrecks. Then encountered the remaining 3 OPFOR. Frankly I was more lucky than good in defeating them.
The map in demo is ok. I understand its not supposed to be dynamic, but it really should have more information on your starting position, your line of advance (or retreat), and suspected OPFOR avenues of approach.
Something like what a platoon commander might hastily sketch out on a map, like this
or
Maps like that would be nice, and the target audience for the game would likely grok them. Step 8 of their roadmap, the “Expanded Campaign” sounds like it may have higher-level command structure, but I don’t know. I’d like better control over the supporting units (like "Hold this ridgeline until you take 50% casualties or come under artillery fire, then fall back to here), but I’m not sure how far they are going with that.
They announced in the Developer Stream last week that the game will go into Early Access release on Steam the afternoon of September 6. Price will be $30, with a 10% discount if you buy in the first week ($3, wow, thanks). Patreon supporters who have given a lifetime total of $25 or more will get it for free.
Since it is Early Access, they pointed out that the game is not complete & has flaws, they know that. The Steam version will have all vehicles unlocked and all stable features. They are at least a year from the 1.0 release.
The monthly “Patreon slice” version will change to releases of less stable builds & new features, on a new Patreon tier, price to be announced. They also said the Steam version will get more expensive when as it nears completion & 1.0 release, but not how much more, if this would be in steps, or the amount of the final release price. Being a huge tank sim nerd, I’ve already thrown in enough Patreon money to get the free copy, but if you are not a huge tank sim nerd then I’d say apply your usual Early Release rule (mine is: I’ll let other people be the beta testers & wait for the retail release while I play complete games instead).
nice, thanks! I’ll probably get in on that.
Finally in early access on Steam…
If it’s to the latest Patreon demo lots of good stuff in there now to iterate from.
Game is slowly becoming a game. I just given it another go and with the xbox controller, it’s eminently playable. Fun! Blasting fools and watching those famous T-72 cookoff turret launches is awesome. Game is hard though. No crutches in spotting or map views or anything.
Will this end up being M1TP3? I hope so. It does have the makings of it.
Here’s a long ass interview with the devs on the game design philosophies:
Watched that yesterday. Excited to hear they want to work on multi-crew co-op.
Fantastic!
April Fool’s update is live, and they added in a warsaw pact “april fools” mission series where your goal is to destroy NATO’s party. It is built to show of the new warsaw pact IFV as well as CAS.
NATO uses both F4 Phantoms to melt your tanks, but also A1-HZ vipers to attack you. Super satisfying to pepper a NATO chopper with the 7.62 and watch it make a crater in the ground.
It also welcomes the extremely capable bradley-equivalent BMP2 for the warsaw pact side, as well as german voice-over for the warsaw pact forces, as well as an improved map/waypoint system.
Holy shit, the warsaw pact side campaigns won’t be a complete shitshow with the BMP-2 on your side, stabilized gun? Auto-cannon? Anti-tank missiles? Leaps and bounds more useful than the BMP-1
It is a HUGE update to the game, and worth checking out if you haven’t played in a while.
Welp, probably time for me to hop on.
Any word of this game will be coming to consoles eventually? I tried the demo a while back on PC and I think it would work well with a controller.
Well I learned something new. I had no idea what a A1-HZ viper was, so looked it up. The Viper is the last of the lines of the Bell Cobras. I thought the Cobras ended once the Apache’s reached service, but apparently no Bell created this super-duper Cobra and sold a few to the Marines and a few other countries while US Army and most other countries went with the Apache.
That said, while possible to take down an attach helo with 7.62, the helo should be engaging from way outside of 7.62 range. So I bet is very satisfying, but maybe the AI is a bit overzealous with the helos?
Also what are Phantoms doing chasing tanks. Doesn’t seem their forte as they are too fast to target acquire IFV well (unless its to bomb the neighborhood with HE or cluster). Where are the A-10s?
The game is set in 1985, and is only using vehicles/arms from that time period.
As for the helicopters and other CAS, this is the first time they have been in the game, and it was for an april fool’s mission. The april fool’s mission is very tongue and cheek and “call of duty” like where waves of enemies throw themselves at you, so I am sure the tactics are not realistic for that mission.
The helicopters are probably just regular AH-1 helos, as the AH1-Z seems to be way newer, I just googled something after I finished the missions to look up the AH-1, and the AH1-Z was the first page to come up.
The A4 phantoms are being used, because the dev does not have A-10’s in the game yet. Those are on the roadmap. They wanted something to show off the possibility of CAS. They drop cluster bombs, and absolutely wreck you in that mission. I think they are meant to feel unbeatable.
I mean, your T-72’s end up wasting ammo firing APFSDS rounds at the helicopters in the mission, it is all just for fun, I don’t think they spent any time tuning the AI for the april fools update.
But it is exciting, because the game is supposed to have both CAS (that you can order) as well as helicopters and other non-tank vehicles and this is the first time they have ever been in the game. The other thing it has introduced is the ability for tanks to be placed in defensive sand-bag bunkers, making them much harder to hit.
As for a console port, they said it isn’t impossible, but not currently on the roadmap, as they are focusing development solely on content right now.
oh, I did not understand it really was a April Fools and a bit of a beta/demonstration.
As they work on this, the cat and mouse between helo/CAS and the local AA defense (missle and/or gun) will be fascinating.