Panzer Command: Ostfront announced

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http://www.matrixgames.com/products/391/details/Panzer.Command:.Ostfront

Matrix announced this today.

Feature list:

* Includes all previous Winterstorm and Kharkov content for FREE, in addition to the all new content listed below. This is the complete Panzer Command for the Eastern Front and the perfect way to get started if you have never played Panzer Command before.
* 10 Preset Historical Campaigns
* 14 Randomly Generated Historical Campaigns. Choose a time period, a number of missions and a core force and progress through a series of randomly generated linked battles where your core force stays with you for the campaign and gains experience and medals and even equipment upgrades for the longer campaigns.
* 60+ Preset Historical Scenarios (including stand-alone and campaign battles)
* Infinite Randomly Generated Battles
* New Full Map Maker! Make your own maps of historical locations from 500m up to 2km in size. Designed to work with public terrain and height databases to automatically generate a 3D terrain mesh from real-world data. Pick your location, pick your map size and click! Additional tools to automate the placement of structures and items such as trees and shrubs assist map designers in putting together a realistic map in record time.
* 50+ New Fully Modeled and Animated Units spanning the 1941-1945 period on the Eastern Front (note that these are in addition to all units from Winterstorm and Kharkov)
* New Improved Interface and Order Improvements including Waypoints for Platoon and Unit orders, Auto-Mounting as part of a movement order, Full Battle Message Log and much more!
* Very Open and Mod-Friendly Structure – unit models and data, maps, scenarios, campaigns and more can all be easily changed and added.
* New Full 3D Sound System
* New PBEM Multiplayer system for easy and streamlined play.
* Improved AI
* New Animated On-Map Air Support
* New Rewind Ability in Turn Replay
* New Realistic Ammo Counts
* New Physics System
* Improved Sighting and Graphics Performance and Quality
* Improved Fog of War
* New and Improved Animations
* New Contested Objectives
* New Scenario-Based Turn Structure options, including no Reaction phase and 60 second turns
 

Michael Dorosh

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60 second turns, no reaction phase, and a map maker.

Who do these guys think they are, listening to the fanbase and all?
 

Michael Dorosh

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And the full announcement:

A New Release and a Massive FREE Update!

Matrix Games (www.matrixgames.com) is thrilled to announce Panzer Command: Ostfront, the latest in a new series of 3D turn-based tactical wargames which include single battles, multi-battle operations and full war campaigns with realistic units, tactics and terrain and an informative and practical interface. This new release is unique not only for the mile-long list of new features and improvements, but also because it will be made available FREE to owners of Panzer Command: Kharkov, the previous release in the series. Panzer Command: Ostfront is scheduled for release in the 4th Quarter of 2010.

Panzer Command: Ostfront will replace both Panzer Command: Winterstorm and Panzer Command: Kharkov and will include all the content from the previous two releases as well as new content. Registered owners of Panzer Command: Kharkov will have access to a massive FREE update that will bring their installations up to the Ostfront level in all respects.

For an early look at Panzer Command: Ostfront in action, check out the video and also the product page with some preview screenshots.

Erik Rutins, Director of Product Development at Matrix Games, said “Panzer Command has been very well received, but we felt it needed a little extra push to put it over the top. Thanks to the hard-working Panzer Command: Ostfront team, drawn primarily from the Panzer Command community, we can now show you Panzer Command as it was meant to be. There are more new features and improvements than we can list in this release, but perhaps the most important one is that we will give this one to owners of Panzer Command: Kharkov at no charge, while also establishing it as the new affordable starting point for those that have always wanted to give the Panzer Command series a try. Thank you to the members of the community that made this possible, both through their support of the previous Panzer Command releases and through their dedicated help with the development of this release.”

Many say that World War II was decided on the Eastern Front. From the initial Blitzkrieg in the Summer of 1941 through the final battles for Berlin in 1945, this was a land war that dwarfed all others in its scale and brutality. Through countless small skirmishes and large operations involving multiple armies, with increasingly deadly and advanced weaponry, the Wehrmacht and Red Army were locked in a fight for national survival that consumed a generation of soldiers and left half a continent in ruins.

Experience the Panzer Command series of tactical wargames. In the new Panzer Command: Ostfront, you are a company-level commander on either the Soviet or German side, fighting on the Eastern Front. Preserve your men and defeat the enemy, there is no other way!

Each decision you make as a commander must be weighed carefully. You will find that the gameplay is balanced to reward historically successful tactics while the AI will punish rash choices. The victory system for scenarios and campaigns rewards multiple strategies and evaluates your performance and rank after each battle. A revised and improved interface gives you all the information you need at a glance, while allowing you to set waypoints for each of your platoons, rewind and review the turn replays and read a full log of the events of the battle, color-coded and filtered by unit.

After you have played through the 60+ included scenarios and 10 campaigns (including updated versions of all of the previous Winterstorm and Kharkov content), the Random Battle and Random Campaign generators allow you create new content with just a few clicks using the provided presets for nearly infinite replayability.

For scenario designers and modders, an innovative new Map Maker allows you to create your own realistic 3D maps from 500m to 2km scale based on actual historical locations with auto-generation features that help you create it in less time than any previous 3D map-making tool. In conjunction with the powerful Scenario and Campaign Editors and the fully open unit data and models, this means that you have unprecedented access to modify the existing campaigns, maps, units and scenarios or create your own. There has never been a more open 3D tactical WWII wargame.

The list of improvements is too long for this release, but please check the Panzer Command: Ostfront product page for the full list and more information and screenshots.

_____________________________

Sean Drummy

Marketing and Press Relations Manager
 

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* Includes all previous Winterstorm and Kharkov content for FREE, in addition to the all new content listed below. This is the complete Panzer Command for the Eastern Front and the perfect way to get started if you have never played Panzer Command before.

* If you own Panzer Command: Kharkov, this will be provided to you as a MASSIVE FREE UPDATE. If you are new to Panzer Command, this will replace the current Winterstorm and Kharkov releases (once it releases, it will be the only Panzer Command release in our catalog) and will be a great affordable new starting point and a way to get all the previous content as well as the new features and content below at a very reasonable price.

* 10 Preset Historical Campaigns
o Choose a campaign and progress through a series of linked battles where your core force stays with you for the campaign and gains experience and medals.
o Boot Camp (Tactics Tutorial) (6 Battles)
o German Operation Barbarossa, June 1941, 3rd Panzer Division (4 Battles)
o German Battles for Mcensk, October 1941, 4th Panzer Division (5 Battles)
o German Kursk North, July 1943, XLI Panzer Corps (3 Battles)
o German Kursk South (2 Campaigns), July 1943, 1st SS Panzer Division (6 Battles Total)
o German Winterstorm, 6th Panzer Division (5 Battles)
o German Kharkov, 14th Panzer Division (8 Battles)
o Soviet Winterstorm, 7th Tank Corps (5 Battles)
o Soviet Kharkov, 169th Rifle Division (8 Battles)

* 14 Randomly Generated Historical Campaigns
o Choose a time period, a number of missions and a core force and progress through a series of randomly generated linked battles where your core force stays with you for the campaign and gains experience and medals and even equipment upgrades for the longer campaigns.
o German 1st Infantry Division (5 Campaigns) 1941-1944 (12-129 Battles)
o German 1st Panzer Division (4 Campaigns) 1941-1944 (12-96 Battles)
o German 7th Panzer Division (3 Campaigns) 1941-1944 (19-97 Battles)
o Soviet 7th Tank Corps (1 Campaign) 1942-1943 (10-26 Battles)
o Soviet 29th Tank Corps (1 Campaign) 1943-1944 (15-41 Battles)

* 60+ Preset Historical Scenarios (including stand-alone and campaign battles)
o Stand-alone and campaign scenarios include:
o Ring of Fire, May 1942 (Near Kharkov)
o Maxim Gorky I, June 1942 (Battery 30 at Sevastopol)
o The Railway Station, September 1942 (Stalingrad Central Railway Station)
o 13th Crossing Guard, September 1942 (Stalingrad Central Railway Station)
o Return Road to Kharkov, March 1943
o Buying the Farm, July 1943 (Komsomolets State Farm at Kursk)
o Prokhorovka, July 1943 (Kursk)
o Kolomak, September 1943 (West of Kharkov)
o Hell’s Gate, February 1944 (Near the Korsun Pocket)
o Grosse Kompanie, October 1944 (Recon Battle)
o Operation Konrad, January 1945 (Near Budapest)
o Spring Awakening I & II, March 1945 (Near Budapest)
o Tucheband and Golzow, March 1945 (Near Berlin Highway)
o Hypothetical Debut of the Maus
o … and many more!

* Infinite Randomly Generated Battles
o Each scenario option can be fully randomized or customized based on your preferences
o Choose any date from 1941 through 1945
o Choose your force mix, either custom (by unit type) or pick from the presets
o Choose additional options from the following:
o Points level for each side
o Human or AI control
o Reinforcements available or not
o Minefields available or not
o Battle type, ranging from assaults and meeting engagements to envelopment/pocket breakout battles and pincer/wedge battles.
o Operational strength
o Unit experience
o Force deployment direction
o Map
o All of the random battle and campaign input files are easily accessible and can be custom-configured for additional options, though no file editing is required for any of the above!
o Random battles and campaigns can also be shared with other players.

* Updated Manual
o Includes all the new rules and comprehensive tables on game modifiers and effects as well as historical background and detailed documentation for all of the editors and random generators.
o Separate tutorial guide

* New Maps
o More than thirty new maps that combine to give a representative variety of Eastern Front terrain. Some are used in the campaigns and scenarios, others are available for random battle and campaign play.

* New Full Map Maker!
o Make your own maps of historical locations. Designed to work with public terrain and height databases to automatically generate a 3D terrain mesh from real-world data. Pick your location, pick your map size and click! Additional tools to automate the placement of structures and items such as trees and shrubs assist map designers in putting together a realistic map in record time.
o Panzer Command now supports 500m, 750m, 1000m, 1500m and 2000m maps. This allows the vast majority of historical WWII battles to be properly modelled and the larger map sizes allow plenty of room for maneuver.
o The Scene Editor has also been improved for easier tweaking of object placement.

* 50+ New Fully Modeled and Animated Units spanning the 1941-1945 period on the Eastern Front (note that these are in addition to all units from Winterstorm and Kharkov)
o German
+ Jagdpanther
+ Brummbar (Early, Middle and Late)
+ Hetzer
+ Jagdpanzer IV (IV, IV Late, IV 70A, IV 70V)
+ Panzer VI Tiger II (King Tiger)
+ 150mm sIG33
+ StuG IIIB
+ Grille (M and M Late)
+ Elefant
+ Panzer IVG and IVH Schurzen
+ Pz Kpfw T34-76 M40
+ Pz Kpfw T-70 M42
+ Marder IIIM
+ Maus
+ Panzer IIC, IID, J-VK, IIL
+ Flammpanzer II
+ Panzer II G-J ohne Aufbau
+ SdKfz 221, 221 Late, 221 PzB 39
+ SdKfz 223
+ SdKfz 234 Puma
+ SdKfz 250/11 Pzbuk, Halbkette ob-com, 250/09, 250 Neu
+ Luftwaffe Flaktruppen
+ Gebirgsjaeger Infantry
+ Pioneers with Satchel Charges
+ Almost all previous units overhauled and improved with better models, animations and textures
o Soviet
+ Josef Stalin series (IS-1, IS-2 M1943, IS-2 M1944, IS-2m M1944, IS-2m M1945)
+ KV-85
+ KV-1 1939 and 1940E
+ KV-1S
+ ISU 122 and 152
+ Sherman M4A2 Lend Lease
+ T-5 Pantera
+ T-4 PzKpfw IV
+ T-34 M1943e
+ T-34-57 M1942 and M1943
+ T-26 Model 26E and 26S M1941
+ Almost all previous units overhauled and improved with better models, animations and textures


* New Improved Interface and Order Improvements
o New Waypoints for Platoon and Unit Orders
o Infantry units can now auto-mount as part of a movement path. No longer do you have to wait for the next phase to enter a building!
o New Full Resizable Battle Message Log, with color-coded event messages and highlighted messages based on the selected unit. This makes it easier than ever to understand what is happening to your units wherever they are on the map.
o You can now click on the unit or the unit’s floating icon to select it.
o Double click on any unit or its floating icon on the map to move to it
o Order and unit behavior re-worked for consistency
o Improved Pathing and Collision Handling
o Hotkeys for all orders and sub-orders, including use of the space bar to pop up and hide the order menu
o New Single/Group Orders hotkey
o New Charge orders allow Soviet human waves and ramming of tanks into other tanks and AT guns
o Scenario Briefing is now available from within the battle
o Improved camera behaviour, more realistic “binocular view” and no more “ground bounce”
o Mousewheel scroll support and page up/page down buttons on most game screens
o Configuration screen and intro movie will be skipped once they are successfully run once
o All Core units are automatically purchased in set battles to save time (they can always be “unpurchased” if desired).
o The Unit HUD now displays a green indicator if a HQ unit is in communication and able to call for off-map support. No need to check each HQ unit, this information is now available at a glance.
o New 3-D Targeting box to show the area of effect for Area fire
o New Unit and HUD icons now clearly differentiate HQ and Non-HQ units
o New Cinematic view hotkey to show just the battlefield and units while removing all interface elements.
o Improved Minimap
o Selected unit icon animation for higher visibility
o Enlarge the displayed unit model size for improved visibility
o New Covered Path option
o Automatic “grid” display option for new maps
o Improved targeting and LOS tool to distinguish area and direct fire

* New Full 3D Sound System with resampled sounds for a much more immersive environment

* New PBEM Multiplayer System for easy and streamlined play
o New Victory rankings at the end of each scenario that rate each player’s performance, also useful for ladder rankings

* New Animated On-Map Air Support
o Not only more impressive visually, but the air support system is now more realistically modelled in the gameplay as far as arrival, visibility and targeting

* New Rewind Ability in Turn Replay

* New Realistic Ammo Counts for all units

* New Physics System for more realistic vehicle movement across all terrain types

* Improved Relative Sighting System
o More realistic results and much better performance (significantly improved turn calculation times) especially on multi-core systems

* Improved Graphics Engine
o Better performance on all systems, especially multi-core systems
o Improved visual quality and new “Ultra” quality option
o Improved scenario load times

* New and Improved Animations
o Close assault animations for infantry
o Individual infantry casualties to show step losses, with fallen soldiers remaining on the battlefield
o Gun recoil when firing for vehicles and field guns
o Improved explosion and destruction animations with more variation by shell and explosive size
o New smoke and fire animations for static map objects
o Flowing water for Rivers
o New weather animations (Rain, Fog and Snow)
o Staggered animations for infantry so that they no longer move in perfect synchronization

* Improved AI
o Better able to seek flanking opportunities
o Better able to judge combat matchups
o Conserves ammunition rather than taking poor shots

* Improved Fog of War

* New Contested Objectives and Higher Visibility Objective Flags

* New Scenario-Defined Turn Structure
o At the scenario level, you can choose to play the normal 40 Second Orders / 40 Second Reaction turn structure, or choose one of the following instead
o 40 Second Orders with or without a Reaction Phase
o 60 Second Orders with or without a Reaction Phase
o 80 Second Orders without a Reaction Phase
o Yes, this means that if you want you can play with 60 Second Turns with no Reaction Phase and always have access to the full Orders menu at the start of each Turn.

* Very Open and Mod-Friendly Structure – unit models and data, maps, scenarios, campaigns and more can all be easily changed and added.

You can also select the turn 1 arty plotting to German, Russian, both, none and Russian command delay off, in the scenario editor.
 

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Sound a lot like the kind of update to CMx1 that a lot of people were hoping for.

Having never played the game, can anyone give a feel for how the game plays?
 

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The original was ok, different than CM in a lot of ways. The new version is better than CMx1 in the opinion of a beta team member. You'll have to wait for it to hit the streets to get unbiased opinions.
 

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If it does everything they say it does this should be bloody fantastic.
 

Kineas

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If they fix the uncancellable arty and give 2km x 2km maps then I'm in.

*
* If you own Panzer Command: Kharkov, this will be provided to you as a MASSIVE FREE UPDATE.
Too good to be true.
 

[hirr]Leto

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What?

No T-28's?

FIE! FIE ON THEM!! I WOULD RATHER BUY A BURNT **** FROM A DRUNKEN IRISHMAN THAN BUY PANZERCOMMAND!!
 

junk2drive

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You can plot, then cancel, then plot again in the same phase. Once you go to the next phase, you can cancel but delay rules apply.

In PC one pixel is one meter on the map. A 2K map in PC seems bigger to me than a 2K map in CMBB. I could be full of it though.
 

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[hirr]Leto;1303504 said:
What?

No T-28's?
I would have to be the one that made it and there was so much bling needed done I decided not to. The Niemirow battle could of used a pair of them though. It probably would be the next Russian model I do if I could pin down a decent blueprint.
 

[hirr]Leto

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I would have to be the one that made it and there was so much bling needed done I decided not to. The Niemirow battle could of used a pair of them though. It probably would be the next Russian model I do if I could pin down a decent blueprint.
One of my greatest interests in world war 2 battles lies in the marginalized AFV's of the war, such as the T-28, the T-35, the Polish tankettes and 37mm armed TD's and others on the eastern front, and on the western front, the Semovente M41 and many of the French tanks such as the Char B1, FCM 36, Somua and Renaults (just for examples).

I think the one great thing about CM was its diversity in units and its attempt to capture as many of these rare AFV's, especially with the axis minor countries, was one of its greatest features.

The closer PC moves toward providing all these units, the closer it moves to my own heart.

Cheers!

Leto
 

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This sounds too good to be true, but I have it on really good authority it's not!

Simply the 60 second turn means that I will revisit, never mind about the rest of the stuff

Mind you the rest of the stuff looks very good. I'm sure if these guys get the thing out before CMN it's going to take the edge of the those sales, well maybe some of the cm1 fans, I'm not sure about the new 1-2-1 fans and their ability to adapt to representation.....

Can't wait to try it to ne honest, any ideas when it will come out?
 

Palantir

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Sounds like I'm going to be getting a new game and it's title won't include the word "missions."


No destructible terrain.
:hmmm:
Does that mean every hut is a toothpick fortress? How will it play out in a game if a "Sturmtiger" 380mm opens up on said hut? What about LOS: that means you can always count on a building being blocking terrain no mater what punishment it takes- just like a hill.

Blasting away at a building will surely kill the guys inside but, say you have a heavy building = great small arms/light MM cover on multipile levels, do you just run out the back door wait a minute as it wastes it's shells then run back into a building that still = great cover?

I really like seeing buildings blow up... :joy:

edit-
1. Some of the guys posting sound like they are working or have worked on this game- can they please add a disclaimer so I at least can tell if they actually know what they are talking about or are blowing smoke like Leto :p usually does? It will also help on follow up questions, thanks.
2. When does the Panzer Command forum go live here- before or after BFC's CM:N forum? :devious:
 
Last edited:

mOBIUS

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edit-
1. Some of the guys posting sound like they are working or have worked on this game- can they please add a disclaimer so I at least can tell if they actually know what they are talking about or are blowing smoke like Leto :p usually does? It will also help on follow up questions, thanks.
2. When does the Panzer Command forum go live here- before or after BFC's CM:N forum? :devious:
1. Maybe they should. Yes a few people here now worked on the game. Not just play-tested but added content. In fact almost all the work since Koios gave up its mortal coil was done by volunteers. A testament to its modability. There is still finishing work being done so the final date is not firm. I have a few more "hats" I have to design for the tanks.

2. That's up to Matrix. But putting up a forum specifically for PCO isn't going to turn the rest of the forum into a ghost town.
 

[hirr]Leto

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so I at least can tell if they actually know what they are talking about or are blowing smoke like Leto :p usually does?
My signature is my disclaimer and can be roughly translated into: "I AM ALWAYS FULL OF CRAP".

So, you're right on the money there big K.

: )

Cheers!

Leto
 
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