Panzer Strategy: Blitzkrieg

[Wargamer74]

I thought it would be better to post this here rather than on the PC2 forum.

Anyway I was looking for some other websites about PC and found a new game being developed based on Panzer General and PanzerCorps called Panzer Strategy: Blitskrieg. Is this PanzerCorps 2?

I’m wondering because PC2 is going to be using the unreal engine and this game also uses the same engine. The way the game is described on the site sounds very similar to what we’ve heard about PC2, it also goes into the history of Panzer General and PanzerCorps. Another giveaway is the site can be translated over to Russian. The game is still in pre-alpha.

The description from wikipedia:

In early 2017 the StarniGames studio announced the work on new war game about WWII: Panzer Strategy: Blitzkrieg. According to the developers, the game is the ideological successor of the Panzer General. The game will use 3D graphics and Unreal Engine 4.

In Panzer Strategy: Blitzkrieg the campaign tree includes about twenty various missions, arranged non-linearly. Initially, one campaign will be available - for the Wehrmacht.

This is a pre-alpha video of the gameplay:



The Website for the game: http://panzerstrategy.com/

So again is this PC2? If it is I can imagine alot of fans of 2d might be disappointed.

[Yrfin]

PzC 2 - dead project from Rudankort.

[Wargamer74]

I'm thinking this might be a different company but it is using the same unreal engine. I really hope this isn't what PC2 is going to end being like, I prefer 2d and this game looks a bit childish to me.

[huckc]

Looks to be no affiliation, they did do a shout out to Panzer Corps though:
http://panzerstrategy.com/panzer-corps-whats-next.html

I believe neither party has any sort of license agreement with the original Panzer General franchise and that anyone can say they're a "spiritual successor".

That Tiger tilted on the rubble on the home page is pretty cool. I'm guessing it's from some random video game.

[Panzerpimp]

Looks quite bad. 3D strikes again...

[TSPC37730]

This is the first I've heard of this. Not impressed with the 3D. Looks like units are firing at range in the video. This isn't possible in the current PC. I do hope they're working on PC2 but I hope this isn't it.

[hugh2711]

If that is the same engine then that is really bad news. lets hope they have the sense to be able to switch all that 3d eye candy rubbish off and just play 2d.

[proline]

This is the first I've heard of this. Not impressed with the 3D. Looks like units are firing at range in the video. This isn't possible in the current PC. I do hope they're working on PC2 but I hope this isn't it.

They are working on PzC 2, their pinned post about 2018 releases from just a few days ago says as much. However, this isn't Slitherine's PzC 2, if it was they would have posted it here and on their site. This is someone else. A few observations:

1) Yes, it is the same Unreal engine that Slitherine is endlessly boasting about using for PzC 2, and yes, it's terrible. Slitherine will show up and tell us Unreal can do better, but obviously if it could do better easily these guys would be doing better too. It's obviously hard to make Unreal look good. Slightly better than terrible is still bad, and a lot better than terrible is still mediocre.

2) The zooming and panning of the camera adds exactly nothing to the game. In fact, they make it worse. Board games are meant to be god's eye view- you need to be able to see what is going on.

3) The "wait for animation to end" thing that keeps taking over the screen is hilarious. Long animations are terrible design, and bitching at the user to wait is a terrible way to handle the complaints. They doubled down on bad, making them such bad designers their game will never be good no matter how long they spend on it. That's a rookie mistake.

4) It's impossible to say which unit is where on the mini-map or the main screen. Complete visual chaos.

5) I don't like having portraits of Rommel, Guderian, Manstein, and the like. Don't get me wrong, I love history and I love reading about these guys. I loved meeting Charley Fox, the guy who ended Rommel's war, in person in Ottawa. But they fact is, they were nazis and those who survived the war typically tried to whitewash both their own crimes and the Nazis as a whole. Manstein was NOT a good person, he facilitated many atrocities. I don't buy PzC to "role play" these nazis. I like that I can enjoy the history and strategy of PzC without the game telling me that I'm pretending to be HItler's little you know what. And the game should NEVER display a bio of a nazi that only tells you about their military successes. Whitewashing history isn't ok.

[rubyjuno]

Doesn't appeal to me much either. The red/green glow around the units (to show sides I assume) is terrible, reminds me of "Ready Brek" adverts from when I was a kid.

[bcnkor]

[quote="Wargamer74"]I thought it would be better to post this here rather than on the PC2 forum.

Anyway I was looking for some other websites about PC and found a new game being developed based on Panzer General and PanzerCorps called Panzer Strategy: Blitskrieg. Is this PanzerCorps 2?


Wargamer74: Thanks for the contribution, I got a very good game, much better than slitherine.

[hugh2711]

proline; you you tagged it exactly "complete visual chaos". The other turn based strategy games that got stuffed in their second incarnation that was exactly what happened. The 3d effects were 'nice' but in reality if you really wanted to exercise your mind when you play a game it was more difficult to quickly find the relevant information on the screen. They looked great but the gameplay was worse. I remember when unreal first came out, it was a first person shooter, there was a big craze for them i.e about fast reaction times in great visual circumstances not about thinking deeply. It was a workout for the senses NOT an exercise for the mind. The only hope is if they allow you to turn off the eye candy and go to 2d. moan moan moan.

[Wargamer74]

When I was younger 3d games were more appealing to me but now I find 2d to be far better. Also these type of games have a very different mindset, I see PC and a majority of the games made by Slitherine/Matrix games to be more like board games but unlike real board games computers allow for more complicated die rolls and mechanics. Another thing is as I get older I'm burned out dealing with driver updates and technical issues that always seem to plague 3d games plus I'm not exactly rich, I can't afford to run out and spend hundreds of dollars on a new graphics card. Panzer Corps runs on any system, the main issues people had with PC was audio issues. The only problem I've ever experienced was some interface issues, the game uses html for most it's interface and I was messing around with how tabs work in internet explorer and for some reason the briefing screen that comes up between turns wasn't displaying, resetting the tabs in internet options fixed it.

Imo Sltherine's decision to go 3d with PC2 is a huge mistake, it's going to mean way more support issues and one of the things that also gave PC a longer lifespan was the ease of modding the game. I think PanzerCorps is going end up being similar to the original Panzer General, many years from now there's still going to be a huge following with PC, on the other hand initially PC2 will be popular but overtime will quickly die off. Maybe what influenced them to go 3d was all the younger people complaining on Steam about the visuals.

[rubyjuno]

When I was younger 3d games were more appealing to me but now I find 2d to be far better.

Have to agree with you there. The graphics in Panzer Corps are ideal for the type of game it is. I remember loving Panzer General 2 then playing Panzer General 3D and thinking WTF? What have they done? I was disappointed when I saw the news about Panzer Corps 2 using an arcade graphics engine. I'll wait and see before condemning it but I think I'll be sticking with Panzer Corps (the original). Luckily there's so much DLC and Mods from the brilliant community that I've got hundreds of hours of game time yet.

[WarHomer]

Yes, this looks terrible and not anything like I love about PC. I love what OOB did but no further than that please.

[proline]

Curious that the PzC 2 devs haven't commented. They should certainly clarify that this atrocity is a rival group, not them. In addition, now would be a very good time to demonstrate that they have a vision for Panzer Corps beyond "It runs on Unreal!!!" because as these videos show, that just isn't good enough.

[Firestarter99]

Yes, it's Panzer Corps 2, announced by Slitherine!
Some time ago I was invited to a booze, where I met one of the devs of the Panzer Strategy. We got really shitfaced, and he opened some cards.
This guy told me that his team was developing this project on outsourcing terms for Slitherine. Then something went wrong, and Slitherine left the game.
But the guys didn't want to bury their work and decided to independently release this game called Panzer Strategy.
So Panzer Strategy and Panzer Corps 2 are one and the same project. This is insider information.
Well, judge for yourself: the development of two very similar games on the UE started at the same time. Did you really believe in such coincidences?) In addition, Slitherine keeps absolute silence about the fate of PzC2 ...

[proline]

I did find the coincidence too hard to overlook! However, there are a couple things about what you're saying that don't make sense

1) The Panzer Strategy folks are clearly Russians that don't speak English. Their website reeks of Google Translate. Why would Slitherine be that desperate? And if you got drunk with them, you'd have to be a Russian too.

2) If they were contracted by Slitherine they wouldn't own their work so they wouldn't be able to sell it. Unless of course they are double crossing Slitherine, which takes us back to point 1.

3) Slitherine still claimed as recently as December that PzC 2 will come out in 2018 on the dreadful Unreal engine seen in the Panzer Strategy videos. Still totally vaporware without even a single screenshot or gameplay description, but a claim nonetheless.

[sorenthewild]

Slitherine (and Matrix for that matter) never comments about games in development.
They announce the game is being worked on and then there's silence until they are close to releasing it.
It's not just with PzC2, it's with all their games. Beats me why they do it - but they do it. So don't expect any news until about a month before release.
And I'll be very surprised if Lordz Games and Flashback Games are not the ones making it. I mean PzC was an utter success so why change studios?

[proline]

I'll be very surprised if Lordz Games and Flashback Games are not the ones making it. I mean PzC was an utter success so why change studios?

Was PzC a success? We all love it, but if it made Slitherine a bunch of money it sure doesn't show as far as how they maintain it. Speaking of studios, they did contract out the Mac version to some very low talent foreigners, so I suppose it is possible, however unlikely, that their are continuing that strategy. They made a lot of compromises in quality on the Mac version. The entire UI is badly distorted so that buttons are comically wide, and things like the casualty screen are missing entirely.

[goose_2]

I'll be very surprised if Lordz Games and Flashback Games are not the ones making it. I mean PzC was an utter success so why change studios?

Was PzC a success? We all love it, but if it made Slitherine a bunch of money it sure doesn't show as far as how they maintain it. Speaking of studios, they did contract out the Mac version to some very low talent foreigners, so I suppose it is possible, however unlikely, that their are continuing that strategy. They made a lot of compromises in quality on the Mac version. The entire UI is badly distorted so that buttons are comically wide, and things like the casualty screen are missing entirely.

I think the evidence of Panzer Corps success lies in the fact that the icons on this forum stem from the units in the game. So if you start commenting on Sanctus Reach here, you get a Panzer Corps truck as your first posting icon....so...why make this the face of your forum if this is not considered your greatest success.

That is the conclusion I come to anyway.