So it seems many would like Steel Panthers next

[MrsWargamer]

Ok Panzer General was old and it was allowed to be reborn as Panzer Corps. It's not the same software, so it's not tweeked software.

Panzer Corps merely has given the Panzer General fan their 'game experience' back. Like dating a twin, not the same girl she just looks the same.

Many want Steel Panthers to be reborn. Sadly many are not aware that the ownership of the actual software seems totally uninterested. They allow Matrix Games and the SP Camo guys to give it away, just not sell it.

I have personal familiarity with Steel Panthers in all it's flavours as a player, just never messed with the code. And that is not about to change There's no programming in this person's future.

I want my Steel Panthers 'gaming experience' back though. I don't want anyone to continue beating the poor bloody code to death though. Let it die for crying out loud. The mouse will never get fixed. It's never going to run 'correctly' without massive geekskill on your new computer using Windows 7 64. If it does at all, and I have tried all the tricks short of time travel and bringing back my old 486 with Windows 98SE install and not messed up with anything modern on it.

It doesn't need to be ACTUIAL Steel Panthers any more than Panzer Corps doesn't need to be actual Panzer General software.

It just needs to be squad level ie squads, and individual tanks and planes, and it needs to be 2d look down graphics. It doesn't need anything more, it doesn't need to 'move forward' and "embrace new technology". I don't want 3d or live mode or anything that wasn't part of the real game. I don't need to be in the game as if morphed into a blasted shooter.

I just want to play something called maybe Armoured Cats such that we can skip out on any issues of legality, but have it obviuous what it really is to anyone like me that just wants to be playing in that mode and in that style again. All the squad types and vehicle types and nations and settings basically what Steel Panthers gave us.

I will pay gladly for it. You can design it to use the currently very satisfying multiplayer process, and let us enjoy some great wargaming ala Steel Panthers once again.

Mentioning this all here, because here is currently where it's at
Maybe it won't be Lordz doing it, but if it isn't Matrix Games and Slitherine setting it up, it sure as hell isn't going to happen.

And yes, I remember Combat Leader. So you stumbled and smashed a shin. That's no reason to quit eh.

[IainMcNeil]

Steel Panthers is a different beast. The number of versions and mods that exist now mean that everyone has their own personal favourite. Layer upon layer of complexity has been added over the years so that people who loved the original would probably struggle with the extreme complexity that has been added and not enjoy it. However people who have got used to this complexity over years woudl not be happy to strip all that away to get back to the core of what made Steel Panthers so popular. It would be hard (impossible!) to keep everyone happy.

It would be interesting to hear poeples thoughts on this.

[MrsWargamer]

My thoughts, I say ignore the anal crowd that will argue over anything you do anyway I think they ENJOY arguing over armour ratings.

I say offer David Heath a beer, tell him 'look man, you gotta get over the fact that Combat Leader just plain fizzled and get back on the damned horse".

Find someone that can code at the needed level of game style, show him the original game of Steel Panthers, tell him he is to talk to no one on pain of death and say "I want this, I want it brand new code so we own it, and I want it to offer the same selection as this game with the same basic appearance". And just refuse to call it 'Steel Panthers 4 for the love of gaming

We don't need a new tweeked version. We DO need it to run on modern computers. And most of all, you need it to be owned by Matrix Games/Slitherine.

[TheGrayMouser]

Well if you want to PAY for Steel Panthers you can:
The MBT and SPWW2 versions are fully updated to work on Modern systems and are free downloads , but they do have CD versions you can purchase that add additional features (mostly for hardcore scenario desighners) as well as support for a lot more screen resolutions.

For this reason i dont think we will see another version of Steel panthers based off the original code, it would need to be develped ground up , which THEN means the developer would feel complled to make it 3d or something..

I love games of this scale and magnitude as well, although i never really thought it was overly complex
Personally though I liked the scale of SP 3 even more( units platoon size instead of squads) and was sad that noone with skill ever revamped the game like that.

Cheers!

[VPaulus]

Never played Steel Panthers. Well I tried, but I was just interested in PG wargames look a like.
I understand your concerns Iain, but if you remake Steel Panthers (and I might be interested now) and give the possibility of total modding, people will use the new engine to tweak their way, like after all they have done with the original. More "modddifiable" is the game more chances have to succeed. That's how we create communities in PC gaming.
Just have to do it like you've done with Panzer Corps after all.

[adherbal]

This is entirely my personal and current thought, but I wouldn't want the Lordz to be known as "the remake studio" If we happen to do a(nother) game that is inspired by a certain classic it happens, but I'm more interested in doing more innovating games myself.

Besides we have so much on our plate at the moment we won't be starting anything new for at least another year or so. Which doesn't mean we've publicly announced everything we're working on yet

[IainMcNeil]

We already own the rights to the Steel Panthers mega campaigns and all the source so it's something we can look in to if there is a demand and a clear idea what it the game would be!

[TheGrayMouser]

We already own the rights to the Steel Panthers mega campaigns and all the source so it's something we can look in to if there is a demand and a clear idea what it the game would be!

Ahh, and if memory serves me correctly Mega campaigns/matrix Steel Panthers was based off the Steel Panthers 3 Code converted down to squad level. So you have a great base to make a platoon level game of that magnitude , drool.....

[lordzimoa]

Something we could consider for the future, but we have full agenda`s, so for now let us concentrate on more content for Panzer Corps, finish Commander: The Great War and bring some other unannounced projects to an end. But I always liked Steel Panthers, so definitely a possibility for the future.

[MrsWargamer]

I have the Mega Campaigns myself (I was part of the Screaming Eagles team actually). Best things to ever evolve from the name.

I have the SP Camo programs too, although the purchased form, even if they wear the term WINSPMBT and WinSPWW2 are still dos programs battered into Windows wannabes. They are still plagued by their orgigins.

3d? Wouldn't interest me in the slightest.

Like I mentioned, Panzer Corps, it looks just like Panzer General, it just happens to be that way.

What I want is a program that simply can't be distinguished from Steel Panthers. I don't want mangled SP3 code rebuilt yet again. I don't want mangled SP2 code rebuilt either (which is where SPMBT and SPWW2 come from).

I've got the Close Combat rebuilds, and while I have no beefs with them, it does need to be said, it's old code with a lot of make up

3d isn't always better. In fact my 17 year old gamer son says he loathes the obsession with 3d.

[Obsolete]

For some reason, I just never really got into the Steel Panthers series. I've played one of the demos before but that's where it ended.

What I'd be more interested in (I think) would be A.S.L. The first & only software version that came out a decade ago was an absolute atrocity. I guess that was expected, with Hasbro holding the reigns at the time...

[TheGrayMouser]

3d? Wouldn't interest me in the slightest.

What I want is a program that simply can't be distinguished from Steel Panthers. I don't want mangled SP3 code rebuilt yet again. I don't want mangled SP2 code rebuilt either (which is where SPMBT and SPWW2 come from).

3d isn't always better. In fact my 17 year old gamer son says he loathes the obsession with 3d.

Well , i was makin the same point about 3d, i dont want it either! ( i just dont see many game companies considering a flat top down game with as much content as SP, 1 2 or 3)

I am startled here , are your really saying yould rather play SP 1 EXACTLY as it was vs the 10 years of modding that make up the product of SPWW2? They changed many things but for the worse?

[soldier]

Huge SP WAW fan but its so old now, i had to move on to other games. I even bought Battlefield Academy because it looked similar.

[MrsWargamer]

Obsolete, we don't mention that abomination

I am not saying Steel Panthers just as it appeared, just not a quite so badly fussed over at it has gotten.

[rich12545]

I purchased spww2 and spwaw and play them on win7x64 at 1920x1080 widescreen and they work great. Some of the fonts were too small so they made larger ones. They are great games and work perfect. Just got them a few months ago after the latest patch that enabled the latest computers. I never was able to get into the series but these are wonderful games.

Funny I never really got into pg or pg2 much either but got panzer corps and am liking it very much. It could use a couple of things like a printer friendly manual and a zoom in between the two provided but it's a classic already imo.

[Razz1]

BlitzKreig Remake would be good or Sudden Strike.

[MajVonRyan]

My interest is in a Squad Leader style of game, and Steel Panthers was the closest anyone had come to making a good squad level game until the Close Combat series. Panzer Corp is a great game, and I have had many late, late nights playing it since its release, and will have many more

However, a would like to be able to purchase and play a squad level game, not a company size game unless that company in made up of squads which I can control, and has more detail than Close combat or Steel Panthers, as the scale of the units need to be increase not made any smaller. Basely what I am trying to say is -please make a squad level game as close as the old squad Leader with the same size as squads, vehicles etc, 'not in 3d'

[MrsWargamer]

BlitzKreig Remake would be good or Sudden Strike.

Good grief no, the games were crap to begin with.

We are all hoping for great games of the past to be reborn, not RTS slock that died because I'm right, it's RTS schlock.

If you need a real time fix, my advice is buy the right game to begin with, something Close Combat engine or Airborne Assault engine based.

[bobk]

My two cents... like all the sp games, but I hated the top down view. I would. like a 2D isometric view because the units look better IMHO.

[boredatwork]

SPWW2 is almost adequate for me - the only improvements I would want to see are things that could be easily coded to the existing engine.



If the Devs were really feeling ambitious what I would like to see is an empire building game that uses the PzC mechanics, artwork, and scale but is expanded so that you're controlling an entire country long term, instead a corp/army size force for a brief scenario.

Production, supply, diplomacy, etc. Basically a cross between a much larger Civilization and PG where instead of refighting predictable WW2 scenarios you instead get to fight proper, unpredictable wars over random maps, using WW2 era technology. Basically a WW2 version of the game Civ5 should have been had it not failed misereably.