http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-APOS/achtung-panzer-operation-star\

I am thinking of purchasing. Hesitant though as I hate the camera controls and height limit.

Hi des,

This is one of the best 3D tactical games out there. Interface and documentation is a bit so-so, but for that price is a bargain.

http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.com/2012/01/achtung-panzer-operation-star-quick.html

Cheers,

have been waiting for the price to drop on this.  at $13, must be a steal.  was a huge fan of the original.  guess i know what i'll be playing this weekend.

great review, Chelco.  and great blog.

Arrrggghhhh!!!   I love game sales these days!!!!

I just bought it for full price, haven't even played yet!

Some days you win big, some days you win a little.

I love game sales...new games for less than the price

of a case of beer.  Time to get some beer and start playing.

Can't recommend it enough, esp at that price.

BUY IT!!

Oh heck, I'm gonna have to change my Friday post. Some of gamersgate's $13 bucks should go to Curtis Szmania and Wargamer for their timely Operation Star article. I wouldn't have pulled the trigger without either.

Originally Posted By sandman2575 (27 APR 2012 8:11am)

have been waiting for the price to drop on this.  at $13, must be a steal.  was a huge fan of the original.  guess i know what i'll be playing this weekend.

 

great review, Chelco.  and great blog.

Thanks for your kind words and let the tanks roll over the snow!

Cheers,

At that price, I'm in. My plans for this weekend's wargaming have changed, too.

Hey, for anyone who buys Op Star from GG, read this excellent post by Benpark from earlier this year about how to install the patches -- it may save you some grief --  see Post #8

http://www.wargamer.com/forums/posts.asp?t=582336&h=Operation+Star&pg=1#604362

Originally Posted By meadbelly (27 APR 2012 5:29pm)

Oh heck, I'm gonna have to change my Friday post. Some of gamersgate's $13 bucks should go to Curtis Szmania and Wargamer for their timely Operation Star article. I wouldn't have pulled the trigger without either.

Thank you, kindly.

Great game.  Well worth the price.  I also recommend getting the DLC...also on sale.  You can get the who set for about $24 bucks.

WOW! Picked it up last night--love the attention to detail. Playing the Quick battles only so far and enjoying it. A must have for $13. Review sprung me to buy, but I gotta say it is well worth 2X the price! A Gem so far--

BigBog

I'm confused..I own and have played Achtung Panzer Kharkov 43'....is Operation Star the same game only it's a Matrix release, or are they two different games?

Originally Posted By Rayfer (28 APR 2012 10:28am)

I'm confused..I own and have played Achtung Panzer Kharkov 43'....is Operation Star the same game only it's a Matrix release, or are they two different games?

Two different games (i.e. Op Star is *not* an add-on to Kharkov '43)

I did the 'whole package' deal for $24, and I am *impressed*.  Op Star is deeper and more refined than Kharkov '43 (itself a superb game in my opinion).  The documentation remains terrible -- and do see my post above about installing the patches, which could not be less clear -- but if you recall how to play Kharkov '43, you can be up and running quickly with Op Star.  I know people despise the UI, but I've never found it all that bad -- quirky yes, but can be used entirely comfortably and effectively once you get the hang of it.

If you enjoyed Kharkov '43, Op Star at this price is a no-brainer.

(Alternatively, you can buy Op Star through Matrix, which is entirely patched up to date, so no fussing with the confusing patches.  Of coures, you're spending more.  I love to support Matrix but could not pass up Op Star at GG at this price)

A little question, the DLCs are compatible with matrixversion??? i buy the game in gamersgate but i dont like the version (is not a simple .exe file, you need use gamersgate to run the files) and plan buy in offer the game in matrix and if DLCs are compatible... i can buy them now and the far east DLC when they release it.

Thanks.

Are the battles more dense than in Kharkov?  I thought Kharkov was a decent enough game but I found that the maps felt pretty empty as there weren't a lot of units involved in most battles.  I'd end up just concentrating my forces on one or two of the big objectives and ignore the little ones when I was on defence as there was no way to cover them all.

Originally Posted By Silent Disapproval Robot (28 APR 2012 12:12pm)

Are the battles more dense than in Kharkov?  I thought Kharkov was a decent enough game but I found that the maps felt pretty empty as there weren't a lot of units involved in most battles.  I'd end up just concentrating my forces on one or two of the big objectives and ignore the little ones when I was on defence as there was no way to cover them all.

this was definitely a valid complaint about Kharkov '43.  i'm still in the 'early impressions' phase, but the quick answer seems to be a big "Yes, more density in Op Star."  On the strat map, you can now have several (not sure what the max is? looks like maybe 3-4) platoons occupying the same 1x1km square -- in Kharkov the strat map used to only allow 1 platoon per square (of course, in the battles themselves, platoons from adjacent squares could be re-located to create a denser single square -- but now that same ability is multiplied).

incidentally, the thing that most has me scratching my head (besides the all but useless manuals) is the bizarre save game feature.  You can only "Save & Exit Game" , can't just save & keep playing.  Op Star only makes available your most recent save for any given scenario/campaign.  And there is a weird bug in which your save game will be LOST if you go into the Options menu at *any* point (!!??!?).  Camaign progress itself appears to remain, but if you had a battle in progress, saved, relaunched and wanted to tweak something in Options, your save game is lost.  um ,wtf?

If anyone knows a work-around for this, I'd love to hear it.

That said, this seems like a really excellent game --

Originally Posted By Hexagon (28 APR 2012 10:57am)

A little question, the DLCs are compatible with matrixversion??? i buy the game in gamersgate but i dont like the version (is not a simple .exe file, you need use gamersgate to run the files) and plan buy in offer the game in matrix and if DLCs are compatible... i can buy them now and the far east DLC when they release it.

 

Thanks.

Re: the GG DLC, this from Erik at the Matrix site, post #4 -- just fyi, I don't claim to know one way or the other --

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3065871

They should work fine as far as I know. We also plan to have the DLCs in our store soon.

Regards,

- Erik

I hesitated to buy given my experience with Graviteams original tank game Steel Fury (a game lost in translation, English speaking market hardly an afterthought). All this good press and a very reasonable price were more than I could resist. Will hold off on the DLC until I see if I can master.

Originally Posted By Hexagon (28 APR 2012 10:57am)

A little question, the DLCs are compatible with matrixversion??? i buy the game in gamersgate but i dont like the version (is not a simple .exe file, you need use gamersgate to run the files) and plan buy in offer the game in matrix and if DLCs are compatible... i can buy them now and the far east DLC when they release it.

 

Thanks.

Just copy and save all the files in the temporary folder to a folder of your choosing.. You should be able to install right from there without Gamersgate.

I really wonder about the team that made this Achtung Panzer and the previous one. On the one hand the game seems like a work of genius to me, but then they make things difficult that don't have to be. The user interface for instance not being intuitive. Or the updating system. I bought Operation Star yesterday, and it has taken like five tries including one complete uninstall to figure out how to update. For those of you with Windows 7 x64 bit, you may run into this bizarre little eccentricity that I've never seen in any software install before: when running the first update, the 577 one, it created a new Achtung Panzer OS folder in 'Program Files' instead of where the actual program was in 'Program Files (x86)'. I kept running the 577 update and starting the game only to see it wasn't updated. Took a while to figure that one out. 

Originally Posted By 2DWorldofHurt (29 APR 2012 3:16am)

I really wonder about the team that made this Achtung Panzer and the previous one. On the one hand the game seems like a work of genius to me, but then they make things difficult that don't have to be. The user interface for instance not being intuitive. Or the updating system. I bought Operation Star yesterday, and it has taken like five tries including one complete uninstall to figure out how to update. For those of you with Windows 7 x64 bit, you may run into this bizarre little eccentricity that I've never seen in any software install before: when running the first update, the 577 one, it created a new Achtung Panzer OS folder in 'Program Files' instead of where the actual program was in 'Program Files (x86)'. I kept running the 577 update and starting the game only to see it wasn't updated. Took a while to figure that one out. 

From BenPark's Post in the thread that sandman links above, regarding installation:

"The order of installation is critical to patch success.  I learned this the hard way as well. 

Here's what worked for me:

1. Install the update 5777 as you would any normal installer running an .exe. (not using the updater)

2. Install the latest patch (now we are installing through through the updater).  This should show as "Game Update 3.02" in the updater.

3. Install the "District Update" through the updater.  I believe this is optional, but helps with pathfinding and generally improves the maps.

4. Now install the Sokolovko add-on and any mods.

The order in the updater window should have the "Game Update 3.02" listed last, with the other stuff in ascending order.

It's a little tricky, but worth it.  The game series is really pretty fantastic, but there are a few things that are a bit odd at first. "

The advice helped me; otherwise I would have been similarly confused as you.

Originally Posted By sandman2575 (28 APR 2012 2:08pm)

Originally Posted By Hexagon (28 APR 2012 10:57am)

A little question, the DLCs are compatible with matrixversion??? i buy the game in gamersgate but i dont like the version (is not a simple .exe file, you need use gamersgate to run the files) and plan buy in offer the game in matrix and if DLCs are compatible... i can buy them now and the far east DLC when they release it.

 

Thanks.

 

Re: the GG DLC, this from Erik at the Matrix site, post #4 -- just fyi, I don't claim to know one way or the other --

 

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3065871

 

They should work fine as far as I know. We also plan to have the DLCs in our store soon.

Regards,

- Erik

Thanks for the info.

EDIT: is the 5.77 the last patch??? because i install it (gamersgate version is 5.72) install the summer DLC but cant start game, critical error... and is strange because yesterday i install de sound mod over 5.72 and dont have any problems... and current game version is 5.77 (i uninstall the DLC and game works fine)

"Critical error
001: An error has occurred while initializing the program"

Originally Posted By Rekim (28 APR 2012 5:49pm)

I hesitated to buy given my experience with Graviteams original tank game Steel Fury (a game lost in translation, English speaking market hardly an afterthought). All this good press and a very reasonable price were more than I could resist. Will hold off on the DLC until I see if I can master.

Funny that. SF 42 with the amazing mods you can download over at Sim HQ has to be my favourite ever tank sim. I'm not normally into tank games either.

Ummm i read about february patch... but cant download it from graviteam web, the file is not in the server

The requested URL /demo/k43t_apos_patch_07c_(feb12_eng).exe was not found on this server.

Somebody update the game??? thanks.