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Infidelicious
Apr 9, 2013

Det_no posted:

Is it just me or is it more expensive to buy Steel Division's Franchise pack...

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/12309/Steel_Division_Franchise_Pack/

Than buying Steel Division I and II's complete packs separately?

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/6203/Steel_Division_Normandy_44_Locked__Loaded/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/919640/Steel_Division_2/ (The Total Conflict edition).

It seems the only thing I would be missing by buying separately is Steel Division II's preorder pack and that's only a couple bucks compared to the (in my store) ten extra bucks I'd pay buying the franchise pack.

Don't bother with SD1 the SP is meh and the MP has been dead since about 6mo after release.

Wargame RD has more players than SD2 at this point, too.

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Det_no
Oct 24, 2003

Infidelicious posted:

Don't bother with SD1 the SP is meh and the MP has been dead since about 6mo after release.

Wargame RD has more players than SD2 at this point, too.

I want it tho. I don't care about cold war stuff either.

Edit: On closer inspection, buying SD 1 Deluxe and the two separate DLC is also cheaper than buying the SD 1 complete pack. The Normal game + Deluxe upgrade of the bundle adds 10 bucks and the bundle's higher discount is not enough to make up for it. What the gently caress.

Det_no fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Dec 20, 2019

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
Fate of Finland releases today.

Panzeh
Nov 27, 2006

"..The high ground"
Thinking about getting back into SD2- didn't find the gameplay tremendously appealing when i first got it( I preferred SD1's scale) but i think i'll give it a try again.

And hey, they finally made a division that let me spam lees. I'm set.

pedro0930
Oct 15, 2012
Hopped on for a bit and saw 600 players online. Though from the looks of it, it's probably also counting SP player because there was almost no lobby activities. That, or 1v1 matchmaking has finally become the main MP game mode.

Looking at the patch note it seems recon is buffed a bunch, more stealthy and better spotting while heavy forest offers less stealth.

Finland has a lot of very good close range infantry, packed with lots of SMG, SVT40, molotov, and AT weapon, and a lot of their combat infantry has exceptional stealth. The elephant gun 20mm AT is weaker than the Russian ATR (and Soviet tank has better side armor in general...and also don't have to rely on interwar tank in 1944), though they do have unique AT rifle team that sports two rifles and 4 squad members. Speaking of ATR, some of them are now as cheap as 5pt, they maybe valuable as smoke layer if you can spare the slot.

pedro0930 fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Mar 5, 2020

Panzeh
Nov 27, 2006

"..The high ground"

pedro0930 posted:

Hopped on for a bit and saw 600 players online. Though from the looks of it, it's probably also counting SP player because there was almost no lobby activities. That, or 1v1 matchmaking has finally become the main MP game mode.

Looking at the patch note it seems recon is buffed a bunch, more stealthy and better spotting while heavy forest offers less stealth.

Finland has a lot of very good close range infantry, packed with lots of SMG, SVT40, molotov, and AT weapon, and a lot of their combat infantry has exceptional stealth. The elephant gun 20mm AT is weaker than the Russian ATR (and Soviet tank has better side armor in general...and also don't have to rely on interwar tank in 1944), though they do have unique AT rifle team that sports two rifles and 4 squad members. Speaking of ATR, some of them are now as cheap as 5pt, they maybe valuable as smoke layer if you can spare the slot.

The finnish divisions have really good infantry units like jaakari, and the combination of good infantry+varied tanks gives Panssaridivisiona a chance, though I don't consider the finnish infantry group to be competitive. The blenheim with its fast reload kinda reminds me of the power of the old wildcat from SD44.

One of the big changes is that they made 9 cav's infantry actually good, so i think if you like spamming mans supported by shermans, 9 cav is excellent. Soviets got mostly more of the same, tho gorno I think has some potential.

The soviet infantry divisions got access to a 15 point militia unit while I was away, which is pretty good.

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
I whined about this before, too. But, I have a 3440x1440 monitor, and all my settings are maxed out as far as I can tell. The monitor is 34 inches.

...this game just looks like poo poo on that. It's not really enjoyable to see paint smears substitute trees. I'm trying hard to get back into after Fate of Finland, but sheesh. It looks worse than Red Dragon, and by a lot. I almost feel like I am missing out some graphic options, somewhere a LOD slider or something. It just looks like trash.

Dandywalken
Feb 11, 2014

That seems wrong. Join the official discord and see if its something fixable.

The latest updates to tracers etc look fantastic. Sound changes are great too.

General Battuta
Feb 7, 2011

This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.

Vahakyla posted:

I whined about this before, too. But, I have a 3440x1440 monitor, and all my settings are maxed out as far as I can tell. The monitor is 34 inches.

...this game just looks like poo poo on that. It's not really enjoyable to see paint smears substitute trees. I'm trying hard to get back into after Fate of Finland, but sheesh. It looks worse than Red Dragon, and by a lot. I almost feel like I am missing out some graphic options, somewhere a LOD slider or something. It just looks like trash.

I had the same reaction to the first game, though my hardware anywhere isn't near as good as yours. Something about it was all smeared and messy. Kind of like the postprocessing back in European Escalation but way, way worse. I don't know if it was an intended effect or a graphics bug.

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
I have 300 hours in the coop of ALB, and I longed for it in Red Dragon. I love this, but I know not everyone cares as much.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/919640/announcements/detail/1794061784789621806

quote:

Hello all!

We hope that everyone is doing fine.

As you might remember, we have been talking for some time now about introducing multiplayer into Steel Division 2’s strategic Army General mode. Well - you guessed it - we are getting very close to implement this popular-requested functionality in the near future.

In today’s post, we’ll take a closer look at what online play in Army General will entail.

However, before we continue, the whole Eugen team sincerely hopes that all of our fans and players are well and healthy. We are still hard at work - just from a different place (home). To the community: stay strong, keep safe, and see you on the battlefield!

Army General and Multiplayer




We always envisioned the Army General mode in Steel Division 2 to be an in-depth experience in commanding units and formations on a massive, strategic level. It would allow us to broaden the perspective from the tactical battle to a campaign dimension, expanding the combat experience across multiple days and kilometers. This opens up an exciting new dynamic.

As a single-player experience, we never stopped working on what an Army General campaign can offer, but we feel it’s getting pretty close to its final form. Introducing an online component, and allowing players to fight against each other, was one of our original objectives when we launched Steel Division 2. Alas, having a great idea is one thing - working it out, prototyping it and making it fun is something completely different. It took us a bit longer, but we got there in the end!

Along the way, we realized that we needed to separate online play in Army General into two constitutive elements: cooperative and versus (also known as Cooperative Mode and Battle Mode).

Battle Mode





The first multiplayer experience we want to introduce in Army General is a 1v1 versus Battle Mode. This is a pretty straightforward experience, on paper, but making it real and working properly within the complex machinery that makes up the innards of the Army General mode required some additional time and effort.

In Battle Mode, each player takes command of a separate army. Everything else is as normal: each player moves their units around during their turn and engages into battle before handing over the turn to the other player. We have added extra information about the opponent’s actions to make the experience as easy and comfortable as possible. If needed, a tactical battle can also be resolved using our Autoresolve mechanic. We decided against having players taking their turns simultaneously due to design constraints and the unforeseen ramifications in the underlying game systems - simply put, we couldn’t guarantee a fun experience in the same way.

The Battle Mode will be the first to be released. We don’t have a date yet, but it will come soon!

Cooperative Mode




The second experience we want to introduce into Army General is the Cooperative Mode. The idea is to allow up to 3 players to join forces and play against the AI. One of the players will act as the host and gains the ability to invite the others into a shared Army General campaign. The host is also the one who can take all the strategic actions during a turn; of course, the other players can provide vital advice while they spectate.

Much in the same way as a normal Army General campaign, the host can decide to auto-resolve a battle or to fight it. When this happens, each player takes command of a battalion. If there aren’t enough battalions? No problem, the game adapts and allows everyone to play at the same time.

Cooperative mode is focused squarely on 100% human players battling it out against 100% AI-controlled opponents. We are still putting the finishing touches on this mode. When we have more news, we’ll let you know!

pedro0930
Oct 15, 2012
Glad they are working on this. May be a nice slow pace game to shoot the poo poo while playing.

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
Eugen posted a teaser about possibly a new Wargame.
It's getting fully revealed tomorrow.



https://steamcommunity.com/games/919640/announcements/detail/5072740119197171097

Danann
Aug 4, 2013

Trailer Up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4yZRkFsQUM

Popete
Oct 6, 2009

This will make sure you don't suggest to the KDz
That he should grow greens instead of crushing on MCs

Grimey Drawer
Looks cool but WARNO is such an odd name.

Mazz
Dec 12, 2012

Orion, this is Sperglord Actual.
Come on home.
Okay from everything I’ve seen this sounds like Airland Battle stripped down to the Major factions only and with all of SDs QoL.

I’m now super loving excited for it since that’s like exactly the RTS I’ve been looking for.

Mazz fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Dec 17, 2021

Dandywalken
Feb 11, 2014

Yeah if they skip the dumb meme units and prototypes then Im hype

PONEYBOY
Jul 31, 2013

Maybe WARNO sounds fantastic in French but it sound like a nickname for an Australian cricketer. I assume it's military jargon.

Hopefully they follow through with the division system and some of the other incremental design improvements from steel division.

George H.W. Cunt
Oct 6, 2010





I did not like SD2s macro style combat compared to SD1 but I may be in the minority here. Still, looks neat though.

Mazz
Dec 12, 2012

Orion, this is Sperglord Actual.
Come on home.

Dandywalken posted:

Yeah if they skip the dumb meme units and prototypes then Im hype

I'm cool with meme units like the MBT-70, BMPT, etc, but did not like, and probably voiced it here several times, that Red Dragon went real far into "quantity for the sake of quantity"; we really didn't need so many nations that were not all that different from each other barring their specific meme units, nationalism aside. It just felt bloated and less balanced than ALB ever did to me. I've heard it got better later in RD's life but they also just kept adding nations with new OP poo poo it sounded like as well.

I think doing the Division thing of SD but with the US, Germany, USSR, etc could be a very good middle ground that I hope pans out well.

Also hopeful they implement a way loving better matchmaking and ranked system this time around, that seemed to always be the killer for matches in late ALB and most of RD. I've never dove into SD2's MP so I don't know how that is. WW2 just doesn't interest me like it used to.

Mazz fucked around with this message at 00:13 on Dec 18, 2021

PONEYBOY
Jul 31, 2013

Mazz posted:

I'm cool with meme units like the MBT-70, BMPT, etc, I but I did not like, and probably voiced it here several times, that Red Dragon went real far into "quantity for the sake of quantity" realm; we really didn't need so many nations that were not all that different from each other barring their specific meme units, nationalism aside. It just felt bloated and less balanced than ALB ever did to me. I've heard it got better later in RD's life but they also just kept adding nations with new OP poo poo it sounded like as well.

I think doing the Division thing of SD but with the US, Germany, USSR, etc could be a very good middle ground that I hope pans out well.

Also hopeful they implement a way loving better matchmaking and ranked system this time around, that seemed to always be the killer for matches in late ALB and most of RD. I've never dove into SD2's MP so I don't know how that is. WW2 just doesn't interest me like it used to.

I love being able to play with the underdog nations who realistically would have been rolled over should the Cold War have gone hot. I hoping that’s where the division system can really shine; instead of throwing whole nations in wholesale, release them as a few new units in a division that has an otherwise interesting balance of units that previously weren’t accessible together.

Dandywalken
Feb 11, 2014

Playing as em is fun definitely but buffing em with crazy poo poo draws out a bunch of hypernationalists. poo poo gets weird real fast.

Beefeater1980
Sep 12, 2008

My God, it's full of Horatios!






I never got into SD2, what’s the right way of playing it SP? Is there a decent guide out there to how to play the campaign? I remember starting it up and then just being totally overwhelmed and putting it aside for when I had more time.

Pirate Radar
Apr 18, 2008

You're not my Ruthie!
You're not my Debbie!
You're not my Sherry!
Warno sounds like a hastily invented fake Polish city name.

PONEYBOY
Jul 31, 2013

Beefeater1980 posted:

I never got into SD2, what’s the right way of playing it SP? Is there a decent guide out there to how to play the campaign? I remember starting it up and then just being totally overwhelmed and putting it aside for when I had more time.

I only started playing army general recently myself. While I can't offer much in terms of strategy advice, I found Bobruisk as the nazis was the best place to start. It's relatively small scale and gives you a decent understanding of how to control segments of the map. As the Germans you have a relatively linear set of goals: Keep the soviets out of Bobruisk without being surrounded; after the garrison is available evacuate without being caught up; then form a hasty skirmish line around Marina Gorka and hold out. You don't really have to juggle reinforcement points or make too many trade offs when deciding how to allocate requisition points, and you can do some manoeuvres that make you feel clever by pushing west with the units stranded on the east side of the river to try and cut off the airfield (removing Soviet air support) or rush them to the north to try and secure that flank.

Don't forget to actually click Deploy AA to use the flak properly (moving the unit afterwards will cancel it), and take note of how effective bombardments are in paralysing key units (particularly tank reinforcements) prior to an offensive. The other one star complexity campaign was fun, especially with the optional objective of pushing into Stolpce(?), but wasn't as focused as Bobruisk, and the bigger campaigns I've tried feel unfortunately like five turns of interesting strategy and then fifty turns of slogging towards Minsk.

Acebuckeye13
Nov 2, 2010


If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling
1-800-GAMBLER


Ultra Carp

Pirate Radar posted:

Warno sounds like a hastily invented fake Polish city name.

War? No! (Good God, Y'all)

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?
As a Finn myself I like having some representation in games and I hope there will be some in this new one. Red Dragon had some really over the top paper unit stuff going on.

Koesj
Aug 3, 2003
Reporting in!

Hopefully there’s some decent singleplayer since I really don’t have time for MP what with a second kid on the way.

Mazz
Dec 12, 2012

Orion, this is Sperglord Actual.
Come on home.

Ataxerxes posted:

As a Finn myself I like having some representation in games and I hope there will be some in this new one. Red Dragon had some really over the top paper unit stuff going on.

I should clarify my point I think: There's no good argument against the representation of a lot of the smaller cold war powers like Norway, Finland, Japan, etc being a good thing. They are super underrepresented most of the time and seeing those factions was neat.

My issues with it stemmed more from the fact that RD played out as a having a bunch of factions that were pretty similar in overall capacity but all feeling like they had 80% of the capability of one of the larger, more complete factions. They tried to make up for this with coalitions & gimmick/paper vehicles a lot of the time, and it just fell flat to me. Even giving the US the Patriot as a gimmick vehicle felt really poorly executed, because why wouldn't the USSR have like the S-300 in that case? It just all around felt much less cohesive and well thought out than ALB was at its prime.

I'd really like to see divisions for the minor powers added over time, but with poo poo like a USSR SAM company or what not added where needed to flesh them out where they're really deficient. I personally think the end goal should be that you can take a division into pretty much any battle and not feel like you flat out made the wrong choice. Weaker sure, but not just completely outclassed in infantry/ tanks/planes/etc. The USSR (with the US and FRG pretty close as well) could do this for a large part of of ALB, and I look at that as the peak Wargame experience for me.

Sure it's cool to have to play a deck to it's strengths and weaknesses, but too often that meant you just had to hope your enemy doesn't have something you cannot respond against in a decent capacity, and that kind of sucks over the long term. Several of the ALB/RD minors, at least in my experience, could run into this relatively often. Same with some of the SD divisions: if you were stuck in a part of the map that didn't favor your division, or you got hard countered by the enemy division choice, you could be up poo poo creek with little to do but try to hold them off and hope your teammates can either win their side or come to your aid ASAP.

4v4 premade goon games and such can minimize the above a lot of course, but for the regular player or people in ranked, it means your choices were really a lot more limited than it would appear and/or a lot more pure luck was involved in matchups, and I just didn't really like that.

EDIT: To be clear, I'm looking for 100% mirrored divisions all the way down or anything, just making sure that one division isn't just like "hope you don't see airplanes this game!" by being able to throw in independent AAA companies or whatever as part of the division to pad the big weaknesses. This is something divisions could easily allow where nations didn't.

Mazz fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Dec 18, 2021

Danann
Aug 4, 2013

Armory preview of the two divisions currently in the game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXIESR_msuM



they found an absolute unit of a motostrelki

Pirate Radar
Apr 18, 2008

You're not my Ruthie!
You're not my Debbie!
You're not my Sherry!
How are we feeling about Eugen these days? Did they ever sort out their labor issues?

PONEYBOY
Jul 31, 2013

There’s a stream of gameplay here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1266642484

This guy uses a 2070 Super (which means nothing to me), and apparently he gets 60fps at max settings when he’s not running a stream on the same PC.

General Battuta
Feb 7, 2011

This is how you communicate with a fellow intelligence: you hurt it, you keep on hurting it, until you can distinguish the posts from the screams.
Panzeh in the chat all :blastu:

appropriatemetaphor
Jan 26, 2006

Supposedly it'll have basically the same reqs as SD2, but probably means at full release not early access.

Looks kinda cool, but I like how SD2 feels like you're actually in charge of a whole division. WARNO looks like you've got like maybe 10 units max?

Danann
Aug 4, 2013

PONEYBOY posted:

There’s a stream of gameplay here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1266642484

This guy uses a 2070 Super (which means nothing to me), and apparently he gets 60fps at max settings when he’s not running a stream on the same PC.

lol at the a-10 making ace off of both air and ground kills

fuf
Sep 12, 2004

haha
So WARNO is out now (early access)

dunno if there is gonna be a thread?...

Pirate Radar
Apr 18, 2008

You're not my Ruthie!
You're not my Debbie!
You're not my Sherry!
I know we talked about having a thread but I don’t know how many of us are actually picking it up in its EA state.

Beefeater1980
Sep 12, 2008

My God, it's full of Horatios!






I’m going in, wish me luck.

Deptfordx
Dec 23, 2013

I'd be interested to hear, but yeah I'm getting really tired of the whole EA thing. Especially as this looks pretty bare boned at the moment.

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Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3991389

Made thread. Bought game. Linked discord.

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