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Panzer Elite: Special EditionSim Games suck so very intensely(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
(10 posts)solved
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 09, 2011
Panzer Elite:

I cannot get the viewpoint triangle in the front/top of the tank to work unless I move the turret to the side. Unless the turret is turned, this triangle will not "click" no matter how hard I try. I'd like to kick the designer in the crotch for every time I've tried to make this work.......literally dozens and dozens of times.

I can enable "target at will" for my tank, but cannot turn it off! Where is the command to turn it off? I can enable "target at will" for wingmen, but cannot turn it off. I've tried hitting CTRL-Space again, with no results.

1 through 0 on the main keyboard does NOTHING to affect the speed of the tank. In fact, the tank appears to have exactly three settings: Stop, Crawl, and Frustratingly Slow.

How do you completely shut off the "seasick" bobbing around? Even on almost flat terrain, this thing acts like a boat in a washing machine. SUX instensely.

Where is the ZOOM? Binoculars are pathetic, to put it mildly. Everything more than ten feet away from the tank is a blurry blob.

If my binoculars suck that bad, how, exactly, is the enemy able to both see and hit me at evidently superhuman range? WTF?

Clearly "Fire At Will" is causing my gunners to hugely waste ammo on targets out of range. They are not even showing up as SPECKS on the screen. How do you set a RANGE at which gunners are allowed to "fire at will"??

How do you KILL the sound of the treads? It's driving me NUTS.

"T" and "R" are supposed to select enemies but do literally NOTHING! Why?

What good are radio reports without any identification as to exactly WHO is making the comment?!!

Where are my wingmen? I put them in formation. When combat begins, I get curious as to exactly where they are. I look around, and they are nowhere to be seen? WTF? How do I give a command like, "Never move more than 20 feet away from me"? I get the impression that if you allow wingmen to "fire at will" they run off in all directions and leave formation. I want LOCKED formation, but free turret reign for wingmen for firing at targets. How do you set it that way?

I gotta get an Xbox. These old games are just sadistic and screwed.
Post edited February 09, 2011 by bearcat33
This question / problem has been solved by Brit44Aldoimage
Posted February 09, 2011
The triangle directly under the turret locks the view to the turret. If you want the unlocked view, selece one of the other triangles.

To turn off your AI gunner, turn the turret, order cease fire, or switch to the gunners optics.

To turn off wingman AI gunner, order them to cease fire.

A Panther tank is the fastest, but it's top speed is 40 kph, 20 kph off road. If realism is set to manual gear shift, you must change the gear or you will have 1st and reverse gear only.

You can adjust the slider for motion scale, but you will still get a lot of head bobbing.

Binoculars are only 2X zoom in PE. Real life were only 5X (which is what some of the German main guns have).

You can not set a range for the AI gunner, but you can select there targets for them.

You can not turn off the sound of the treads while moving.

T and R do not work, just like 'Help me!' and 'Defend Target' do not work. If the target is already spotted you can use next and previous. If they are not spotted, you can spot them by selecting them with the mouse.

Fire at will allows wingmen to look for a clear line of fire. If you want them to stay in a position, order them to wait, then give the fire at will command. There is no locked formation.

The wingman AI will not fire while moving. Most WW2 tanks did not have stabilized guns.
avatar
bearcat33: Panzer Elite:

I cannot get the viewpoint triangle in the front/top of the tank to work unless I move the turret to the side. Unless the turret is turned, this triangle will not "click" no matter how hard I try. I'd like to kick the designer in the crotch for every time I've tried to make this work.......literally dozens and dozens of times.

I can enable "target at will" for my tank, but cannot turn it off! Where is the command to turn it off? I can enable "target at will" for wingmen, but cannot turn it off. I've tried hitting CTRL-Space again, with no results.

1 through 0 on the main keyboard does NOTHING to affect the speed of the tank. In fact, the tank appears to have exactly three settings: Stop, Crawl, and Frustratingly Slow.

How do you completely shut off the "seasick" bobbing around? Even on almost flat terrain, this thing acts like a boat in a washing machine. SUX instensely.

Where is the ZOOM? Binoculars are pathetic, to put it mildly. Everything more than ten feet away from the tank is a blurry blob.

If my binoculars suck that bad, how, exactly, is the enemy able to both see and hit me at evidently superhuman range? WTF?

Clearly "Fire At Will" is causing my gunners to hugely waste ammo on targets out of range. They are not even showing up as SPECKS on the screen. How do you set a RANGE at which gunners are allowed to "fire at will"??

How do you KILL the sound of the treads? It's driving me NUTS.

"T" and "R" are supposed to select enemies but do literally NOTHING! Why?

What good are radio reports without any identification as to exactly WHO is making the comment?!!

Where are my wingmen? I put them in formation. When combat begins, I get curious as to exactly where they are. I look around, and they are nowhere to be seen? WTF? How do I give a command like, "Never move more than 20 feet away from me"? I get the impression that if you allow wingmen to "fire at will" they run off in all directions and leave formation. I want LOCKED formation, but free turret reign for wingmen for firing at targets. How do you set it that way?

I gotta get an Xbox. These old games are just sadistic and screwed.
Post edited February 09, 2011 by Brit44Aldo
Posted February 09, 2011
Thanks

What does "eight o'clock" or other time orientations mean? Where is "12 o clock"--- North?

How do you get the yammering jackasses on the radio to IDENTIFY WHO THEY ARE.....their info is useless unless I know WHO is saying it, and where they are located.

The triangle directly at the top of the tank is supposed to give a view as if you were standing in front of the tank, looking at it. Unless the turret is moved away, this triangle is "unclickable".

Where is the command "cease fire" located? I've searched.

I've discovered the "Zoom" I was looking for. You have to push "1" on the keypad, then franticly push "Z" ten or twenty times before it turns into the gunsight. Then it only has one zoom increase. Fortunately, it's enough. UNfortunately, this insanely cumbersome, awkward, non-intuitive, clumsy, frustrating, obnoxious and aggravating system of getting a decent bead on the target is so time-consuming and so confusing that it takes THREE MINUTES to stop the tank, find the command in the notes, find the key on the keyboard, hunt around on the computer screen again for the target, and now you're blown up by the enemy you were trying to target.

How do you get the Zoom gunsight without all the huge huge huge huge huge HASSLE???!!!!!!! This is not fun, it's WORK. I paid to be entertained, not made to work.

I hope the designers of this game burn in hell for eternity.
Posted February 09, 2011
12 o'clock is the front of your tank. 6 o'clock is the rear. The larger red triangle indicates North.
The o'clock is always the direction from you to the target, regardless of who is saying it.
If it is your crew that is spotting the target, no wingman information is shown in the text box.
If it is a wingman who has spotted the target, the audio will say wingman spotted and the test will say which wingman spotted. Unfortunatly, only one voice actor was used for all.

The large green triangle indicates the direction you are looking. If you are looking straight ahead, it does block the rear snap view triangle. If you hold the right mouse button you can pan the camera.

sorry, cease fire (ctl x) only works for wingmen. move the turret insted. I just checked T and R. They do work, but the targets have to already be spotted. The view will not change to the location of the target. That could be why I never use any of the targeting commands and simply click on the target with the mouse.

KP1 is the gunners position. F1-F4 are the cockpit cameras. F8 will take you directly to the main gun optics. So F8 followed by Z is the fastest way to the 5 power scope.

P pauses and unpauses the game. Inside the realism panel is a check box to make the commanders tank invincable.

You can find the most used keys in this posting
http://pedg.yuku.com/topic/1710/Feeling-a-little-rusty
Post edited February 09, 2011 by Brit44Aldo
Posted February 09, 2011
Hoping ill things for the designers of 12 year old software seems a bit silly.

Yes, simulations are frustrating while you learn the specifics of the sim. But, that is why sim players like simulations.

If you like the premiss of PE but want more of an action shooter, you might think about JoWooD's later Panzer Elite Action titles.
Posted February 10, 2011
avatar
Brit44Aldo: Hoping ill things for the designers of 12 year old software seems a bit silly.

Yes, simulations are frustrating while you learn the specifics of the sim. But, that is why sim players like simulations.

If you like the premiss of PE but want more of an action shooter, you might think about JoWooD's later Panzer Elite Action titles.
I disagree. This is a deep flaw in our world, our culture.
How many hundreds of hours of frustration did this game cause? How much disappointment? How many people felt cheated, overwhelmed?
This game was a relative failure when released. If the designers had included an interactive tutorial, it could have been worthwhile for so many players who hated it.

Sims are relatively rare, not because there isn't a big enough audience, but because the arrogant designers refuse to do what it takes to bridge the gap between normal gamers and masochists who love frustration. All it takes is a comprehensive and highly detailed interactive tutorial.


Thank you

Yes, I had noticed that only one voice was used for all of the radio announcements, but I did not register that some of the "radio announcements" were coming from my own tank crew.

Since the orientation is always relative to my own tank, it does not matter who is making the spotting announcement, but since I did not know this orientation fact, it was unnecessarily confusing and frustrating when no ID was given for the spotter.

In fact.....since it doesn't matter who is making the spotting announcement, WHY is ANY identification of the spotter EVER given in the game?

Question: When a spotting announcement states the Range, is that the range from target to my tank, or from target to spotter?

Since lacking Cease Fire for the command tank is such a pain, I presume that someone has written a mod to add Cease Fire to the command tank? Where can that be found?

Thank you especially for the F8 to Z information.
Post edited February 10, 2011 by bearcat33
Posted February 10, 2011
I disagree with you about sims, but to each there own. I do agree that a tutorial would have been nice. But, since the original publisher went out of business before Panzer Elite was even finished, I feel fortunate that it was released and not scraped. Also, if JoWooD had not purchased the rights from Sony, the original printing would have been the only one.

It is nice to know which tank is spotting if you are sending tanks in multiple directions to defend or scout.

The range is from the player to the target. This is not the exact range. An attempt to simulate a real life estimation is made. Depending on the skill of the crew, this information could be off by several hundred yards.

PE was written long before scripts were used within the game engine. To add or change commands the engine has to be rewritten in C. I will add the player to ctl-X for the next build of pe-x.

When you change positions to the gunner or the gunners optics, the AI ceases fire automaticly. If you move the turret , the AI ceases fire.

You might like this article for playing as American
http://www.tanksim.com/sherm1.htm

Or this one for playing as German
http://pedg.yuku.com/topic/1728/Ranging-Turmzielfernrohr-TZF-9b-gun-sight-optics
Note: PE's German optics are drawn for 500 meters not 1000 meters.
Posted February 10, 2011
Thank you again.

Is there any way to save the game within a scenario? In fact, I can't find any sort of Save Game function anywhere.

German Campaign question: How is it that the "Short" campaign includes three theaters (Desert War, Italy, and Normandy) while the "Long" campaign includes only the Desert War? Seems as if they got this backwards?

Yes, it makes sense for scouting purposes that spotters would ID themselves, except the command to my wingmen to go places I click on the terrain fails to do anything about 50% of the time. They just sit there.

In fact, many of the keyboard commands appear to be "dead" in this fashion; they only work sometimes, and often not well. This is especially true for "Z" zoom. I have to mash it ten times before it responds. I wasn't looking for quite that high a level of realism, LOL.

I gather that what you're telling me is that once the command tank is set to Fire At Will, you're screwed------ Fire At Will can't be turned off the command tank? Yikes.

Since this means I will have to stay in the Gunner view the whole game, how do I set waypoint flags on the map for the command tank to follow? Or, have they created a function by which you can freeze time inside the game while you do things like consult the map or switch stations? There simply isn't enough time to continually move between stations and survive.

To anyone else needing help with the game: the Gog file includes an MS Word file named PE_Tutorial. (You can find it by going to the Panzer Elite folder, right click, click Explore, click the tab for List). It starts off with an arrogant declaration that when the game was released they made the mistake of not including a tutorial. The designers put the word "mistake" in quotes, in a very condescending fashion; they refuse to admit that the lack of an in-game tutorial makes this pile of code a massive FAIL.

However, there is some (though not enough) vital information there that you will not find in the manual.

It's actually fairly funny that the designers of this game are German. When you think of arrogant, buggy, hugely-complex, over-ambitious design that frequently fails, what do you think of? German design. I don't care how good that Mercedes is if no one can afford to buy it, and no one can afford to maintain or repair it.
Post edited February 10, 2011 by bearcat33
Posted February 11, 2011
Sims are not for everyone. I first cut my teeth as a young lad on Red Baron 3D then Falcon 4.0. I then discovered the joys of Silent Hunter II and III. I have played other sims like T-72, Steel Fury and the like. Hell I just barely bought Steel Beasts Pro Personal Edition. Honestly either one has the patience for sims or they don't. There is a reason it is a niche market.
Posted February 11, 2011
You can only save the game between scenerios.
From the camp screen, click on the ADC (help guy). After the notebook appears, select the HQ tab. At the bottom of the right page is the option to save. click new (not sure of the exact wording as I have the German language version installed for mod testing) and give it a name. Between missions, the campaign is auto saved as "continue".

The short campaign allows you to play one of the 3 theatres. The long campaign starts you in the desert and progresses through all 3.

You should not have to flail at the keys. The speed your keyboard sends a signal may be too fast. Try setting the desktop icon to run in windows 98 compatability mode.

You can clear the fire at will. When you move the gun or turret, the command is cleared. When you switch to the gunners position, or gunners optics the fire at will command is cleared.

P will pause the game. You can not pause while viewing the map, but you can view the map after pausing.

An AI driver for the players tank is on everyone's wish list.
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bearcat33: Thank you again.

Is there any way to save the game within a scenario? In fact, I can't find any sort of Save Game function anywhere.

German Campaign question: How is it that the "Short" campaign includes three theaters (Desert War, Italy, and Normandy) while the "Long" campaign includes only the Desert War? Seems as if they got this backwards?

Yes, it makes sense for scouting purposes that spotters would ID themselves, except the command to my wingmen to go places I click on the terrain fails to do anything about 50% of the time. They just sit there.

In fact, many of the keyboard commands appear to be "dead" in this fashion; they only work sometimes, and often not well. This is especially true for "Z" zoom. I have to mash it ten times before it responds. I wasn't looking for quite that high a level of realism, LOL.

I gather that what you're telling me is that once the command tank is set to Fire At Will, you're screwed------ Fire At Will can't be turned off the command tank? Yikes.

Since this means I will have to stay in the Gunner view the whole game, how do I set waypoint flags on the map for the command tank to follow? Or, have they created a function by which you can freeze time inside the game while you do things like consult the map or switch stations? There simply isn't enough time to continually move between stations and survive.

To anyone else needing help with the game: the Gog file includes an MS Word file named PE_Tutorial. (You can find it by going to the Panzer Elite folder, right click, click Explore, click the tab for List). It starts off with an arrogant declaration that when the game was released they made the mistake of not including a tutorial. The designers put the word "mistake" in quotes, in a very condescending fashion; they refuse to admit that the lack of an in-game tutorial makes this pile of code a massive FAIL.

However, there is some (though not enough) vital information there that you will not find in the manual.

It's actually fairly funny that the designers of this game are German. When you think of arrogant, buggy, hugely-complex, over-ambitious design that frequently fails, what do you think of? German design. I don't care how good that Mercedes is if no one can afford to buy it, and no one can afford to maintain or repair it.
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This is my favourite topic
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Panzer Elite: Special EditionSim Games suck so very intensely(10 posts)solved(10 posts)solved
(10 posts)solved