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![]() OFFICIAL WEBSITE Official Alpha release video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83NkPguw9Jg Alpha is out now! Pick it up for 32.99 USD here (This includes Alpha and Beta access as well as the full game) ![]() ![]() "Do you think we'll get arrested too?" What is Arma? Arma 3 will be the latest instalment in the Arma series by Bohemia Interactive Studio. It is a comprehensive military simulator that aims to create an authentic recreation of modern warfare that is accessible to the public. The series is built around Bohemia's Real Virtuality engine, which besides being used for the Arma line of games, is also used in their commercial military training simulator, Virtual Battlespace 2. Arma 3's predecessor, Arma 2 (And it's expansion, Operation Arrowhead), was mildly successful at launch, and impressed reviewers with it's scope and it's sandbox nature, but it was criticised for it's lack of quality singleplayer content, steep learning curve, and for being a little rough around the edges. It's extensibility and mod tools, however, allowed players to create ambitious mods that pushed the engine to it's limit (such as Advanced Combat Environment, an extremely realistic overhaul mod. Play with goons playing ACE here) , added dozens of new units and custom maps, and allowed Dayzmod to come to be ( What's going to be new?
On the subject of release dates (Most of this section is thanks to Ham) ArmA 3 Alpha will be released on the 5th of March! It'll be a paid public alpha, starting price is 25 (~32.99 US/CA dollars) euros for the alpha, beta and the full game, which is releasing Q3 2013 exclusively on Steam. The Alpha is also going to be on Steam To buy: http://www.arma3.com/buy Release Plan: (Prices will increase per release (alpha, beta, gold), so a person buying ArmA3 at launch will pay the whole 45 euros instead of 25) ![]() Arma 3 Alpha Lite Refer to the previous infographic on information about the limitations of the Lite alpha. If you want an Alpha Lite key, check to see if any are available here(please mark the spreadsheet if you take one), and failing that, post in the thread asking for one. There are tons of people who have them available, you need only ask. Setting Arma 3 will be set on The second map that is going to be in the game is called Stratis island, and similarly to Arma 2's 'Utes', it will be a smaller map to supplement the main island. Stratis will be the island that will be shipping with the alpha. For comparison, here's Stratis compared to Utes ![]() And for further comparison, here's Altis versus Arma 2's Chernarus ![]() (These two images taken from This thread, it may not be perfectly to scale) The Story The basic rundown of the story is that, in the future, Iran becomes somewhat like the USSR of the mid to late 20th century, and is slowly expanding it's influence west, holding Turkey and several Hellenic islands. Tensions between NATO and the Iranians is mounting, and the spark that could start a war is about to be stuck on Limnos, or something to that effect. If this sort of thing interests you, here's the official background page on the official website http://www.arma3.com/arma-3-overview/background/ The Campaign The campaign will be an open world style romp through Limnos, where you do what you can as a special forces operator stranded on the island. There will be main objectives, but several different ways of approaching the problems, and side-quests/secondary objectives that could play a role in future parts of the campaign. Hopefully the dialogue won't be as painful as it was in Arma 2's campaign. Media Current Alpha Content Videos from Dslyecxi
Videos from the Media (RPS, PCG, etc.)
What the game looks like at different settings (AKA so how pretty IS this game at realistic settings?) From poster Steeltalon http://forums.somethingawful.com/sh...3#post413145867 Slightly Outdated E3 content E3 'Sneak Preview' trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tOSjYgGvHw E3 Showcases
Here, have some screenshots: ![]() ![]() ![]() Official Social Media Arma 3 on Facebook Arma 3 on Twitter Arma 3 on Youtube It's only been two weeks and there's already a bevy of useful mods out. Here's a list of good mods and a short guide on how to install them.
Missions
Sorry for the short list, will add more as other actually good missions come out/come to my attention. How to install mods and missions Installing mods is pretty simple. The basic gist of it is that you have to have the modfolder in the root directory of your Arma 3 install(should be something like 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 3'), with the '@' character as the first character of the modfolder's name, for example '@CBA_A3'. Once you have the folder in there, you go into your Steam library and find the Arma 3 link and right click it, selecting 'Properties'. A new window should come up, and on the first tab, select the 'Set Launch Options' button. Another pop up will appear, with a blank textbox. In this textbox, you're going to add '-mod=' followed by the name of the folder of the mod you'd like to load in. So, following the earlier example, you'd add in '-mod=@CBA_A3;' to load CBA. If you're loading more then one mod, you add the '-mod=', followed by the name of the mod you'd like to load first, then add a ';', then type in the name of the folder of the next mod. So, my modline looks like this: ' -mod=@CBA_A3;@compassfix;@FA_gpstr_watermark;@tao_foldmap_a3;@sthud;@FA_stance;'. Most mods come pre-packaged properly, so all you have to do when you download the archive is drag the folder with '@' in it to your Arma directory and call it through steam, however, some addon makers will be lazy and only package the .pbo file(the actual mod itself). If this is the case, in your Arma directory create a new folder. For the name of the folder, call it '@______', filling in the underscores with a name that is relevant to the mod so it's easy to remember. Open this folder, and create another folder inside of it called 'addons'. Now, all you have to do is drop the .pbo file into the addons folder, and add the modfolder into your Arma's launch parameters and you're good to go. DO NOT DRAG THE .pbo DIRECTLY INTO THE 'ADDONS' FOLDER IN YOUR ARMA 3 DIRECTORY . This will only cause problems down the road and it's not a path you want to take.Missions are super easy, all you have to do is take the .pbo file that you downloaded for the mission, and put it into the 'mpmissions' folder in your Arma 3 directory (even for SP missions at this time). To play/host them, open the server browser in game, and click the 'New' button at the bottom. If hosting a MP match, make sure to change the type to 'Internet' instead of 'LAN', for obvious reasons. Playing with goons ![]() IRC #Armagoons on synirc Steam http://steamcommunity.com/groups/a3goons This is a public group, figure out how to get in yourself If you're about to play with goons, DON'T USE THE DEVELOPMENT BUILD[/b], it is not compatible with the stable version ![]() *If you have any suggestions or material to add to the OP, feel free to post it and I'll do my best to keep the OP updated* *Thanks to Chortles and Ham for extra content* *Since the game has started to pick up steam, the OP will be updated regularly to reflect first impressions and such from the Alpha* Mederlock fucked around with this message at Mar 19, 2013 around 04:55 |
| # ? Nov 14, 2012 09:48 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 16:08 |
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Have Bohemia said anything about whether or not the SP campaign will be more fleshed out this time?
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| # ? Nov 14, 2012 09:50 |
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TomWaitsForNoMan posted:Have Bohemia said anything about whether or not the SP campaign will be more fleshed out this time? Oh, yes, I forgot to add that. There's supposedly going to be a more dynamic and interesting SP campaign. Will add info regarding that to the OP
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| # ? Nov 14, 2012 09:52 |
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Has there been any info released recently? I haven't been able to find anything on their forums other than a potential alpha around the end of the year.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 00:53 |
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8lbsofanalsex posted:Has there been any info released recently? I haven't been able to find anything on their forums other than a potential alpha around the end of the year. I remember reading that the Aplha was planned for around September but then DayZ craze happened so maybe it got pushed back.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 02:21 |
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Any word on if you'll be forced into flying missions as a part of the SP campaign? I hate that poo poo
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 02:35 |
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Mr. Clark2 posted:Any word on if you'll be forced into flying missions as a part of the SP campaign? I hate that poo poo http://www.arma3.com/arma-3-overview/personnel/ On the personnel page it lists a US helo pilot so I'm assuming they will have flying missions. Even worse, he is listed as a transport pilot. So you'll probably have to do some missions just flying stuff around until out of necessity of course he will start flying comanches, gunships, A-10s, F-35s, and the space shuttle.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 03:20 |
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8lbsofanalsex posted:Has there been any info released recently? I haven't been able to find anything on their forums other than a potential alpha around the end of the year. Sadly, no. I've been keeping an eye on Arma 3 dot com and haven't seen an update for a couple months, but from what I've heard from people who are "In the know", the alpha build is at a playable state, and my guess is it'll be out within a month or so, and the full game within 1-3 months. It's hard to tell with Bohemia being so quiet about it.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 06:38 |
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I know this isn't about the game (which looks awesome), but has there been any news of the two devs detained in Greece? Apart from what little there is posted on the BI website I can't really find anything. As for the game, I hope that the SP campaign actually does a decent job of easing you into positions of command. The games so far have had a bad habit of putting you in the role of a squaddie for a couple of missions and then suddenly dumping the commmand of an entire armoured column on you. Give me a fireteam or something so I can actually get used to the command interface, drat it!
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 06:47 |
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Buck Turgidson posted:I know this isn't about the game (which looks awesome), but has there been any news of the two devs detained in Greece? Apart from what little there is posted on the BI website I can't really find anything. There was some news today actually http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...vs-refused-bail
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 06:49 |
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I'm so majorly stoked for this, but I dread the kind of PC I'll need to run it for large-scale multiplayer.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 06:53 |
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KennyLoggins posted:I remember reading that the Aplha was planned for around September but then DayZ craze happened so maybe it got pushed back. It was pushed back, yes, but not because of Dayz. Dayz actually hit it's peak around the April-July timeframe, and has had little to no bearing on the actual development of Arma 3, afaik. The detainment of the 2 Arma devs and just development schedule issues is far more likely to be the causes that pushed the dates back. Edit: ^^^ I'm pretty stoked too, and as a member of Shacktac, large multiplayer experiences is all I really do, and we're all hoping Arma 3 doesn't make our computers beg for mercy on big co-ops like it does for a lot of us in Arma 2.
Mederlock fucked around with this message at Nov 17, 2012 around 07:03 |
| # ? Nov 17, 2012 06:58 |
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^^^ Dude if this game doesn't ride my pc into the dirt I'll be amazed. Disappointed even.VarXX posted:There was some news today actually http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...vs-refused-bail drat, that sucks. I hope the trial goes their way, twenty years in a Greek slammer is no holiday. Buck Turgidson fucked around with this message at Nov 17, 2012 around 07:12 |
| # ? Nov 17, 2012 07:09 |
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Mederlock posted:Edit: ^^^ I'm pretty stoked too, and as a member of Shacktac, large multiplayer experiences is all I really do, and we're all hoping Arma 3 doesn't make our computers beg for mercy on big co-ops like it does for a lot of us in Arma 2. I've been thinking of applying for ShackTac or playing w/ UO but I know 90% of the mission will take me to 10fps and poo poo.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 08:16 |
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Have my favorite ARMA 3 moment yet Switch this to 1080p for the closest I've seen yet to the so-far default ARMA 3 keyboard layout Here and here you've got a good animation showoff; for the second one, at 15:03 he shows off the "campaign hub" Camp Maxwell, at 16 minutes he shows off infantry combat, at about 19:50 there's a bit of "sidestep" instead of leaning, and at 21 minutes he shows off the hint system! If you take endorsements, the best sign that the animations are better is a BI forums KennyLoggins posted:I remember reading that the Aplha was planned for around September but then DayZ craze happened so maybe it got pushed back. As for the campaign... apparently the "taking uniforms off of enemies" is SP-only, since the devs supposedly ran into issues when trying to implement it for co-op/versus. The heresy of game balance? Sounds like it... later, some campaign talk from Karel "Gaia" Moricky, i.e. scavenging weapons and sometimes being separated from 7th Infantry Division, and at about 9:30 of this he compares it to Operation Flashpoint: Resistance; the "story" of 7ID is told in part through the "ORBAT", shown off at this point and here. (More infantry small arms action here, then at about 6:30 sniping, and at 11:55 doffing gear in realtime, and watch him take a KRISS Vector but not the ammo.) A bunch of my notes on the state of ARMA 3 as of Gamescom are cribbed from BI forums users InstaGoat: InstaGoat posted:When I talked to him he said that in terms of mission scope and campaign design, they want to do something that will be similar to OFP:R and OFP:CWC, in terms of story twists and such. I think it´s likely we´ll see a progression from reconaissance, to invasion, to some sort of SNAFU and people being scattered into the woods, guerillia fighting, and counter invasion towards the climax of the campaign. Chortles posted:I'm not sure how exactly this would work considering what was said that sometimes the player will be cut off from 7th Infantry Division, but I've seen it at moments in COD4/MW2 -- depending on the mission, if you were playing the Campaign sequentially (i.e. one mission into the next) you'd carry over the same weapons, since that mission would be an immediate continuation of the scenario that you had just concluded (i.e. break into a base, next mission starts you inside the base), but you'd have a default weapons set if you instead selected the mission manually from the Mission Select menu screen instead of seguing into that mission; I wonder if ARMA 3 will do the same? InstaGoat posted:I imagine it´s something like that, but not just carrying over the weapon, but carrying over -everything-. Ammo, individual magazine roundcounts, vest, clothes, helmet, eyepro, attachments, as well as teammates and all the gear on them. I doubt you´ll be completely alone at any point, unless there´s some sort of "after montignac" style mission in there. Oh yeah, have the summary of a BI survey on social networking features of ARMA 3 with 633 responses.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 09:50 |
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Chortles posted:A bunch of my notes on the state of ARMA 3 as of Gamescom are cribbed from BI forums users InstaGoat: Great post, I have a question that a man of your knowledge may know. What's the word on difficulty levels and the built-in range finders on scopes? Is that going to be across all difficulties, or will it be like arma 2 where going to veteran removes the nameplate feature? I'm actually concerned at how trivialized long-range engagements could be with that built-in range finger.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 10:52 |
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Chortles, you rarely fail to dredge up good tidbits of information about this series. Thanks for all that. I'll try and see if I can work in the sourced bits into the OP
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 10:53 |
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Wow the animations look extremely nice. It's really weird to see the recoil being so little. The aiming and movement seems extremely snappy too which is promising. I still feel it's going to be a buggy unoptimized game though... Oh they're going to find an alternative to the action menu to steamline actions which is a big plus in my head.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 13:11 |
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Any in depth info on the mission editor? Will it be easier than previous installments? Or do we still have to know scripting and crap?
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 17:29 |
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In my opinion, without scripting, the mission editor would be useless. Some of the best missions I've played require a basic selection of scripts, such as a spectator script, stuff like Dynamic AI Creator's, and scripted events/actions. So, to answer your question, to make missions that are really ground breaking, you are going to have to know how to do basic scripting, or at least know how to copy paste scripts into the right places. I do hope they make the mission editor a bit easier, but I think the best thing they could do to make missions easier to make is to make a comprehensive tutorial for it that explains the functions of all the buttons and functions. They're also adding java scripting, which they introduced first in Take On:Helicoptors, so that should be interesting.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 18:25 |
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I wonder what the mix of missions will be between the different characters. It seems like so far it's mainly been the regular infantry guy that has been shown. Wondering where a US Tanker will fall into a guerrilla campaign. I'm assuming the alpha is gonna be open for everyone?
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 20:40 |
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God I hope the interface and controls are better than ARMAII. I really want to like that game but it just feels so clunky walking around.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 20:47 |
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I feel like a lot of what you are saying was only required because the editor was built in a way that made scripting necessary in the first place. I feel like there are at least a few things that could probably be done through menus and such, while undoubtedly more complex, heavily customized things would probably still need some degree of scripting. I'm not even suggesting scripting be removed, they could leave the script boxes there for all I care, but in 2012 I am sure it's possible to figure out how to assign certain behaviors or basic customizations to an entity without having to copy paste a script or something like that myself. Like, for example, there should be zero scripting needed to create a basic artillery bombardment or air strike scenario. It should be dropping an entity onto the map, and, through simple menus, assigning the details of the event (duration, whether it is triggered by player proximity or a player action or if its independent of the player, type of ordinance used, area of effect, etc.) There really isn't any reason that kind of stuff can't be straight forward. It's possible to do it through scripting, so there is no reason it can't be done through menus at this point. The same can be said with editing a unit's loadout. Why isn't there simply an "edit inventory" button when I click on a unit?
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 20:50 |
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8lbsofanalsex posted:I'm assuming the alpha is gonna be open for everyone? I'm assuming you will need to preorder to enter in the alpha. An alpha of a Bohemia game is going to be pretty buggy, so I think they will prefer to have something more closed, controlled, and they have enough hardcore fans that will pay up to enter, no need to do it more open.
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| # ? Nov 17, 2012 20:51 |
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ToastyPotato posted:I feel like a lot of what you are saying was only required because the editor was built in a way that made scripting necessary in the first place. I feel like there are at least a few things that could probably be done through menus and such, while undoubtedly more complex, heavily customized things would probably still need some degree of scripting. I'm not even suggesting scripting be removed, they could leave the script boxes there for all I care, but in 2012 I am sure it's possible to figure out how to assign certain behaviors or basic customizations to an entity without having to copy paste a script or something like that myself. Yeah, I think we're thinking along the same lines and I just misinterpreted what you were suggesting. It would be cool for pre scripted events like the ability to call in artillery to be easy as that to place, and I 100% agree with the inventory thing. In fact, the lack of an easy to edit inventory screen in the editor is one of my biggest gripes with it.
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| # ? Nov 18, 2012 02:20 |
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Just The Facts posted:God I hope the interface and controls are better than ARMAII. I really want to like that game but it just feels so clunky walking around. Yes, from what I've heard from people I know who have played it, at E3 and gamescon and otherwise, it handles a lot better. Some even ventured to say it was as smooth as BF3, but with a lot more freedom regarding stances and such, but still feeling natural and not arcade-y
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| # ? Nov 18, 2012 02:22 |
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Mederlock, the "infantry animations and shooting" bit links to the same video you'd already posted, why not use some of my other links/timestamps? My linking to 4:13 was just for that one moment of "OH MY GOD this could never happen in ARMA 2". As for the controls video, I'd use the timestamp so that that video goes straight to 18 minutes in (I recommended 1080p because that was the only way it was visible for me). Note that the campaign is SP only, no co-op option, but from InstaGoat's initial "back from GC, first impressions" report: InstaGoat posted:As far as mission design goes, gameplay will trump screenplay. Contrary to most big games studios (thinking specifically of the COD developer types here), BI are fully aware that they are making games, not movies, so they are trying to create cool missions first, before trying to tell a convoluted story. OFP:R and Arma were mentioned as examples, as well as a handful of other titles from the past that did it right. InstaGoat posted:Now, these are things I have seen at gamescom that are implemented right now. Chortles fucked around with this message at Nov 18, 2012 around 13:09 |
| # ? Nov 18, 2012 13:06 |
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Honestly the only downer for me about this game so far is that near future setting, just because this game seems to fix 90% of what I disliked about Arma and the old OPFP games. I kind of want a regular modern setting, so I can play with regular weapons and vehicles. With the graphics fidelity taking a nice step up, I worry that it will be difficult for modders to keep up with the quality. I don't want to be stuck with lame pseudo-future stuff, unless it is going to be really downplayed and basically all the normal modern stuff will also still be in the game...
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| # ? Nov 18, 2012 16:44 |
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ToastyPotato posted:Honestly the only downer for me about this game so far is that near future setting, just because this game seems to fix 90% of what I disliked about Arma and the old OPFP games. I kind of want a regular modern setting, so I can play with regular weapons and vehicles. With the graphics fidelity taking a nice step up, I worry that it will be difficult for modders to keep up with the quality. I don't want to be stuck with lame pseudo-future stuff, unless it is going to be really downplayed and basically all the normal modern stuff will also still be in the game... Re: future "notes from InstaGoat", how should I go about putting that information together for the purposes of this thread?
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| # ? Nov 19, 2012 02:26 |
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Just The Facts posted:God I hope the interface and controls are better than ARMAII. I really want to like that game but it just feels so clunky walking around.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2012 03:08 |
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Chortles posted:Err, ToastyPotato, the BI forums' "Is Arma 3 authentic?" thread reveals that besides the Mi-48 "Kajman" (or as I believe Ham dubbed it, the "Hamoc") among vehicles plus the MX rifle and the SDAR among small arms... yeah, a lot of ARMA 3's supposed "psuedo-future" stuff is modeled off of stuff that's been produced in real life. That's all well and good, but are the things they are modeling off of in wide circulation? Because if they aren't, I would hate to see things that actually are used not be in the game and be left to modders. Unless there was a modern DLC pack, which I would probably buy.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2012 03:22 |
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ToastyPotato posted:That's all well and good, but are the things they are modeling off of in wide circulation? Because if they aren't, I would hate to see things that actually are used not be in the game and be left to modders. Unless there was a modern DLC pack, which I would probably buy. Out of the small arms, only the Mk 14 has been in what I'd call "wide circulation" (just look at the years of "EBR" appearances in video games such as MGS4) with the US military, and out of the vehicles besides the HEMTT (a cargo truck) there's the Osprey; the AH-6 and SDV are special ops, while the F-35 has yet to really circulate.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2012 09:23 |
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Just The Facts posted:God I hope the interface and controls are better than ARMAII. I really want to like that game but it just feels so clunky walking around. It's honest to god why I love Arma more than most shooters, honestly. You move around like you actually are a bit burdened by poo poo you carry and things don't just align themselves perfectly to be played like a game, but more as a simulator of sorts. And it's good for making my friends who say they'd love to be in the military shut up, as they die in one bullet to the head.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2012 14:15 |
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Mordaedil posted:It's honest to god why I love Arma more than most shooters, honestly. You move around like you actually are a bit burdened by poo poo you carry and things don't just align themselves perfectly to be played like a game, but more as a simulator of sorts. You can't honestly say you enjoy how clunky (ala Metro 2033) Arma is, it's a subpar system and everyone including Bohemia knows it, which is why it's been fixed in Arma 3. It will have a stamina system, so the heavier you are, the harder it will be to keep up with everyone, and the longer it'll take for you to get your breath back for aimed shooting, which personally I find is the better system. Mederlock fucked around with this message at Nov 19, 2012 around 20:57 |
| # ? Nov 19, 2012 20:04 |
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I'm sold just on those screenshots.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2012 20:10 |
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quote:![]() That's amazing.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2012 20:15 |
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Mederlock posted:You can't honestly say you enjoy how clunky (ala Metro 2033) Arma is I honestly like how ARMA2 feels (and Metro 2033, though it's very different). That doesn't mean I wish every game played like ARMA2 or that the problems with going through doors and tight spaces aren't crappy. But I'm pretty fat, so maybe I just like it 'cause it it feels like a good simulation of me as a soldier (if I could jog for more than 10 feet).
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| # ? Nov 19, 2012 21:27 |
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Mederlock posted:You can't honestly say you enjoy how clunky (ala Metro 2033) Arma is, it's a subpar system and everyone including Bohemia knows it, which is why it's been fixed in Arma 3. It will have a stamina system, so the heavier you are, the harder it will be to keep up with everyone, and the longer it'll take for you to get your breath back for aimed shooting, which personally I find is the better system. I disagree with your assessment, but that's because I don't really consider Arma "games" to be enjoyed to play, in the same way you enjoy playing Counter-Strike or Quake or Half-Life. I enjoy it because of it's complexities, and taking it away kinda takes away from what makes Arma different from Operation Flashpoint(current ones). It's just not meant to be that kind of shooter, I feel.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2012 21:38 |
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So will it be possible to create James Bond scenarios where people are shooting at eachother underwater with harpoon guns? I might have to pick this game up if so.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2012 21:47 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 16:08 |
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I hope it doesn't run like poo poo, like the other ArmA games. (It will)
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| # ? Nov 19, 2012 22:05 |





Official Alpha release video: 
, and hopefully realistic physics simulations will alleviate or solve this issue. (To answer your question, if you have an AMD video card, it'll just offload the PhysX processing to your processor.)


















