steel beasts 4.1 upgrade pre order available

[Grim.Reaper]

you must download the 10 files.....from what read the map downloader is something for future map sharing.

[Jarhead0331]

Can someone please summarize the biggest new features offered by this update?

[Grim.Reaper]

Don't believe I have seen a summary, but best source is the release guide.

https://www.steelbeasts.com/updates/SBProPE_4_156_Release_Notes.pdf

New terrain graphics, bug fixes, better pathfinding, and seems like according to the book much more.

[Jarhead0331]

Yeah...I've seen the release notes. I was looking for a summary from someone who has been following development for a more meaningful assessment of how the update will improve the experience.

[Yskonyn]

Pete, yes, but check their forum quite an extensive thread(s) about it.

Engineer functionality is new (or expanded); you can dig those tank emplacements with engineer units now.

Several new units will be added (dutch gear! yay!).

New (deformable) terrain engine.

Full suspension animations (or was that already in last upgrade?)

New tracer effects

New fragmentation calculation system (new HE modelling)

New environmental engine ((sun)light, water, weather)

New Anti-Air options and Programmable Ordnance

Better pathfinding for AI

MANY new units btw!
MLRS and Howitzer artillery units are added as well.
Oh and better first person Infantry handling.

You can also check the video series Ssnake put up these last weeks on YT.

Its a big beefy update and the 4.1 tag doesn't reflect its size IMO. Easily 4.5.

[Grim.Reaper]

Pete, yes, but check their forum quite an extensive thread(s) about it.

Engineer functionality is new (or expanded); you can dig those tank emplacements with engineer units now.

Several new units will be added (dutch gear! yay!).

New (deformable) terrain engine.

Full suspension animations (or was that already in last upgrade?)

New tracer effects

New fragmentation calculation system (new HE modelling)

New environmental engine ((sun)light, water, weather)

New Anti-Air options and Programmable Ordnance

Better pathfinding for AI

MANY new units btw!
MLRS and Howitzer artillery units are added as well.
Oh and better first person Infantry handling.

You can also check the video series Ssnake put up these last weeks on YT.

Its a big beefy update and the 4.1 tag doesn't reflect its size IMO. Easily 4.5.

Good summary...I am not an expert at this game, so not really sure how much of a difference this all makes, but $25 was low risk for me.  I'll admit reading their forums, I am pretty confused by all the map talk so hopefully not too complicated...also saw a couple of people with performance issues, but maybe just their computers.

[Yskonyn]

Had framerate issues as well.
Reduced Anti-Aliasing to 2 and Dynamic Cache to minimum (the cache is used
For jumping large distances over the map). FPS back to 50+

[Ssnake]

Yeah...I've seen the release notes. I was looking for a summary from someone who has been following development for a more meaningful assessment of how the update will improve the experience.

You're asking for a highly subjective assessment.
My take is,

• Better Framerates
  ...with medium and high end gaming machines, and with the right settings, that is. Old computers may actually see worse framerates, and it seems like the default settings aren't the best possible ones for people with just 8GByte RAM and two or less GByte video memory ... soo, depending on whom you ask and how deeply they looked into the matter you may get mixed answers
• Better looks
  That I think goes undisputed. We've replaced the whole scene lighting, and the high resolution terrain (even if it's just converted lower res legacy maps) looks generally a lot more realistic because of the combination of micro-variations and said improved lighting. Plus, much nicer looking particle effects, particularly tracers. Further improved vehicle suspension simulation.
• More terrain variety
  "Africa" may finally look like "Africa", as the prime example of the expanded range of region-specific terrain objects. If you aren't interested in scenarios like Libyan "Toyota Wars", or "Angola" then maybe this isn't so relevant. But then again you can now also better replicate different regions of moderate climate zones; the new theme files simply cover an overall broader range
• Dynamic terrain
  IEDs will now leave craters, engineer vehicles can dig more useful emplacements, and dig them at runtime
• Modern adversaries
  You can now have peer level threats without having to pitch Leopards against M1s - even if in real life Armatas and Kurganets family vehicles aren't so prevalent. AT-14 Kornet missiles for infantry (and for you).
  Active protection systems add another element of tactical depth.
• Overhead View
  This is not a new feature, but one which I believe is underreported and underappreciated, when it should appeal especially to wargamers. This turns SB Pro PE into a real-time "strategy" (well, tactics) game as most of the UI elements are concerned. So you don't have to deal with shooting yourself and learning all the details of the different fire control systems if you don't want to; note that the overhead view needs to be explicitly activated in a scenario, but that's what the integrated Mission Editor is for.
  This ties in with (much) improved pathfinding for infantry, and vehicles.
• More detailed AARs
  Maybe you ARE interested in what, specifically, caused a certain damage, how Pvt Nameless was killed by artillery (a fragment? overpressure? both? could a protective vest have saved him?), how an airburst of an artillery shell sprinkles the ground below with fragments. In that case the new AAR is made for you. But of course you can gloss over most of that. In any case, I believe that the way we're visualizing things is relatively intuitive.
• Camera Animation Window
  If there's a war movie film director in you that wants to get out: Testing a mission, jumping to the free-flight camera, pausing the 3D scene (this is the new feature) and hitting Alt+Space brings up a dialog where you can define keyframes that will then be connected with a 3D spline along which the camera will be moved as soon as you hit Alt+Space again (and then unpause the scenario). This allows you to become writer, director, cameraman, and editor of your own little war movies. I demonstrated that with some of our recent YouTube videos.

For better or for worth, this is "my" list of things that change "the experience".

[Ssnake]

I have never gotten my money's worth out of Steel Beasts.  I keep paying for the upgrades, I play it for an hour or so and decide that this is going to be the time when I learn the game properly....and then I forget all about it.

I think maybe I'll just pass this time and stick with the numerous "lite" tanks sims.

I have a feeling I would fall into this category. I am not sure I agree with games being sold using the "Software as a Service" model. If it works for the SB folks, more power to them but I do suspect it may be impacting sales at some level. SaaS for things like Windows, Office, etc. where you are constantly using the software is one thing......games...not so much.

We're giving everybody the choice to pick whatever license model suits them best.
You can have permanent licenses (and we offer upgrades at reduced prices going back even to the oldest Steel Beasts Pro PE licenses ever sold).
In response to the claims that our permanent licenses were too expensive and therefore limit our sales (which I suspected to be hogwash back then, a suspicion that I can now confirm) we then also introduced low priced licenses that are limited in their duration. If you just want to try it out: There's one-month licenses. If you know you won't play it for much longer than two or three months: There's the four-month license. If you think you will play it for a long time, but with occasional breaks: The one-year license is for you.

Yes, it's possible to look at it from the SaaS angle but you can just as well forget about that and simply think of each license being "a game" that you play for a while. And if you happen to discover that you like it a lot more than originally anticipated you can either switch to licenses that last longer, or the permanent option. Many people play a new game for two or three months, until the next "must play" one comes along. In that case $24.50 will give you that "four month" option, and Steel Beasts won't cost you an arm and a leg. Just sayin'...

If you treat Steel Beasts as an RTS by playing it primarily from the overhead view (something that you must enable in the mission editor, but that's really simple to do) you don't have to bother with the intricacies of fire control systems and their switchology. And in that case, I think, the learning curve isn't steep at all (except for one thing, that you need to learn about your units' and adversaries' capabilities, but that's nothing new for a wargamer).

[A Canadian Cat]

We're giving everybody the choice to pick whatever license model suits them best.
You can have permanent licenses (and we offer upgrades at reduced prices going back even to the oldest Steel Beasts Pro PE licenses ever sold).

Choice is the key word there. I, personally, hate software that is not a service being sold by subscription. But in truth, what I actually hate is when a company does not give you any choice - other than not buying that is. The various scenarios that Ssnake outlines for different choices is pretty awesome actually. If people have the choice between a perpetual license, and yearly licenses and some short term options that is a nice amount of flexibility.

Some people are a bit gun shy over the subscription choice being available because of the history of companies introducing such a choice and then removing the choice of perpetual license. How long has SB been available with these licensing choices? Has there been any statements by the company about future directions or their philosophy surrounding licensing?

[Ssnake]

Some people are a bit gun shy over the subscription choice being available because of the history of companies introducing such a choice and then removing the choice of perpetual license. How long has SB been available with these licensing choices? Has there been any statements by the company about future directions or their philosophy surrounding licensing?

We introduced time-based licenses six years ago with version 3.0
We intend to maintain this option, or possibly to replace it with an option where the license wouldn't be stored locally but on a cloud server, thus being made secure against Windows reinstallations. Even if we decided to change the product policy at some point, this would not invalidate already purchased licenses. After all, Steel Beasts license management up to this point is locally contained; once that a ticket is purchased we have a contractual obligation to deliver it, and once that it's activated we can't pull it from your PC. We have deliberately minimized our influence past the point of sale. Even when it's a time based license, it still is YOUR license.

[Skoop]

Do you have a list of what's currently crewable / internal gunner station modeled in game ?  Are the new Armatas crewable or AI only ?

[DoctorQuest]

Some people are a bit gun shy over the subscription choice being available because of the history of companies introducing such a choice and then removing the choice of perpetual license. How long has SB been available with these licensing choices? Has there been any statements by the company about future directions or their philosophy surrounding licensing?

We introduced time-based licenses six years ago with version 3.0
We intend to maintain this option, or possibly to replace it with an option where the license wouldn't be stored locally but on a cloud server, thus being made secure against Windows reinstallations. Even if we decided to change the product policy at some point, this would not invalidate already purchased licenses. After all, Steel Beasts license management up to this point is locally contained; once that a ticket is purchased we have a contractual obligation to deliver it, and once that it's activated we can't pull it from your PC. We have deliberately minimized our influence past the point of sale. Even when it's a time based license, it still is YOUR license.

Is the clock you use play time or calendar time?

[Pete Dero]

Is the clock you use play time or calendar time?

To try out the game before buying I took a one month licence a couple of years ago and it was one month calender time.
(one month 24 hours a day play time would equal around 5 years calender time for me ...)

[Yskonyn]

Here is a nice comparison video of the new and old.