ArmA 3 on Steamworks?

[Varanon 892]

OK, lets get back to this question

I would guess that you can still use a launcher. Even now, most launchers (like Armarize) have the option to start through steam.

For all the Workshop using games I know (Skyrim, Legend of Grimrock) the Workshop is only the distribution medium, the actual game handles the loading of the mods. For Skyrim, they are automatically added to the mod configuration, though, so Arma 3 might do something similar.

I'm still hoping for a better addon handling in Arma 3 than what we have right now in the predecessors :|

[derdoe 10]

Yep I'm the same, I would love to see full stat logging/tracking in all Arma games along with achievements, I want to know how many bullets I fired, how accurate my shooting is, which weapons I use the best, where I hit on the enemy, etc. etc. etc.

Well i dont mind stats i just hate it when i shoot someone and something pops up on my screen. If its hidden in some menu that i can activate on a key press or something like that, sure go for it. I would also love to know how many bullets i have fired, my hit rate and so on.

[purepassion 22]

Yes, modlauncher work just the same with the steam version of Arma :)

[krycek 349]

I use Steam a lot,we aren't best friends but we tolerate each other.

I also use the offline mode quite a lot when I travel,in my experience if you have wonky offline mode it's because of the devs not Valve.Some of them slap additional drm on their titles or it's their decision if the game will work in offline mode.Steam just provide the tools.

For example most of my BI titles are store bought(sprocket+brick&mortar) the only exception was ToH which Steam had a nice bundle last year.ToH worked for me in offline mode with no probs,not to mention it started even when Steam crapped(aka I messed it:p).Single+editor in offline mode and I'm happy.

Still with all this my main problem with Steam are the friggin prices,what happened with we eliminate the middle man,cheaper prices,more profits for devs???

It's no surprise that Europe gets screwed up big time on this front,I look at some older games(2-3 years old) still with 40-50 euro tag.:936:

The conversion scam works so well for Valve,40 bucks for a game in NA??No prob,40 euros for EU too.In stores after the launch date a game will drop in price after a few months,not with Valve though.

This is the main reason why I purchase new games on Steam only on special sales or holidays.

[dmarkwick 261]

Whatever happened to Sprocket? That was a perfectly good and comparative alternative to Steam, with more money going to BIS right? And with the option of backing up your install files onto DVD etc? So you would have your hard copy with serial number, and no third party reliances?

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

[derdoe 10]

Whatever happened to Sprocket? That was a perfectly good and comparative alternative to Steam, with more money going to BIS right? And with the option of backing up your install files onto DVD etc? So you would have your hard copy with serial number, and no third party reliances?

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

100% dito!

[metalcraze 290]

I don't play COD, but the games I do play that have achievements for example recent games like Fifa, Skyrim, Sleeping Dogs etc. etc. it just adds another layer of things to achieve, aim for, enjoy within the game, if you don't like achievements just ignore them, they do you no harm, they won't change how you play the game etc. so why be against them for those who do enjoy them? :)

You are wrong. I can ignore achievements - but will other players do the same?

It's like that stupid gnome achievement in L4D2 in the carnival campaign. Sure I didn't care about it, but the other guy was constantly carrying that gnome through levels to get that silly achievement - which meant there were only 3 instead of 4 guys working to achieve victory.

Add a simple achievement a la "kill 100 enemies" to ArmA - and the multiplayer will be utterly ruined.

If a game needs achievements to interest people - there's something really really wrong about it.

There can be no achievement for a real effort put into the game - like a real teamwork, not some "teamwork achievement - stay within 50m of teamleader even though he tells you to go scout or stay back"

Edited February 25, 2013 by metalcraze

[NeMeSiS 11]

Whatever happened to Sprocket? That was a perfectly good and comparative alternative to Steam, with more money going to BIS right? And with the option of backing up your install files onto DVD etc? So you would have your hard copy with serial number, and no third party reliances?

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

That is just for distribution (like steam). Steamworks gives the devs additional crap to play with which apparently helps them so much that they drop every other distribution method. Which is also the main reason for all the complaints, since you become fully steam dependent.

EDIT: And i full agree with metalcraze when it comes to achievements. Statistics are awesome(when not contantly in your face, just in your profile), achievements suck.

Edited February 25, 2013 by NeMeSiS

[tonygrunt 10]

I don't play COD, but the games I do play that have achievements for example recent games like Fifa, Skyrim, Sleeping Dogs etc. etc. it just adds another layer of things to achieve, aim for, enjoy within the game, if you don't like achievements just ignore them, they do you no harm, they won't change how you play the game etc. so why be against them for those who do enjoy them? :)

No problem if achievements are single player but achievements in multiplayer sometimes can hurt the game. People will play a game to complete achievements and not the mission eg. achievement for 1000 sniper headshots and everyone wants to be a sniper. Also I have the fear that to check the achievement progression is legit, you have to stay in official BI missions, maybe forcing on to us a closed mission environment and not the openness we are accustomed.

[Hicks_09 10]

If we can get word on a complete (patched up to date) steamworks and other drm free release at a later date that'll be me happy. Would be happy to buy a product that I'd like, just on mine the customers terms.

[jw custom 56]

Yep I'm the same, I would love to see full stat logging/tracking in all Arma games along with achievements, I want to know how many bullets I fired, how accurate my shooting is, which weapons I use the best, where I hit on the enemy, etc. etc. etc.

If that happens A3 is most definitely a no buy for me. I have nothing against the stats/achievements themself but the type of people they attract(cheaters).

[Alwarren 2765]

Add a simple achievement a la "kill 100 enemies" to ArmA - and the multiplayer will be utterly ruined.

Add an option "no achievement tracking" to a server, and make it possible to filter servers based on that.

I don't think that the achievement itself ruins the multiplayer.. People going for that achievement specifically do, their mindset is not on the game or objective but on achieving some personal gain/fame. I don't think this type of player needs any incentive to do that.

I am not a fan of silly achievements like "start the game", not to reach a number of kills. Achievements are good if they are unusual. As Varanon said, shooing down a bird from underwater would be such an achievement - mostly useless, but fun nevertheless.

[Smurf 12]

Make anchievements related to the campaign and armory mode only. Everyone is happy.

[dmarkwick 261]

That is just for distribution (like steam). Steamworks gives the devs additional crap to play with which apparently helps them so much that they drop every other distribution method. Which is also the main reason for all the complaints, since you become fully steam dependent.

I had kind of assumed that Steamworks was a separate issue from Steam - are we now saying that ArmA3 will have Steamworks integration? (I'm not going to trawl through 1208 posts to find this :D ;))

If so then I guess some sort of sweet deal has been reached between BIS and Valve, maybe as a result of the sudden DayZ upsurge. I'm fairly ambivalent about Steam, but my preference is not to have ArmA3 on it, I'd prefer the complete independence from it. That must still be possible via Sprocket.

[froggyluv 2130]

Whatever happened to Sprocket? That was a perfectly good and comparative alternative to Steam, with more money going to BIS right? And with the option of backing up your install files onto DVD etc? So you would have your hard copy with serial number, and no third party reliances?

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

I would guess Steam, after seeing the Dayz success, did everything possible to lock down exclusivity of Arma3. Not sure how price control would work if it were cheaper on Sprocket...

It's like that stupid gnome achievement in L4D2 in the carnival campaign. Sure I didn't care about it, but the other guy was constantly carrying that gnome through levels to get that silly achievement - which meant there were only 3 instead of 4 guys working to achieve victory

+10 to no-Gnome carrying in my Arma 3! :mad:

[tonygrunt 10]

I had kind of assumed that Steamworks was a separate issue from Steam - are we now saying that ArmA3 will have Steamworks integration? (I'm not going to trawl through 1208 posts to find this :D ;))

If so then I guess some sort of sweet deal has been reached between BIS and Valve, maybe as a result of the sudden DayZ upsurge. I'm fairly ambivalent about Steam, but my preference is not to have ArmA3 on it, I'd prefer the complete independence from it. That must still be possible via Sprocket.

Steamworks integration is confirmed and I think it might also have to do with gamespy shutting down servers that don't pay up some extra fees. If the master server is on steam I don't think they can do a steam independent version.

I also wonder about the future of the arma2 gamespy master server.

[viper[cww] 14]

Yep I'm the same, I would love to see full stat logging/tracking in all Arma games along with achievements, I want to know how many bullets I fired, how accurate my shooting is, which weapons I use the best, where I hit on the enemy, etc. etc. etc.

Anything you say will always be biased ;)

If achievements are to be added it should be for single player only, that way the people who like to hunt the achievements will not ruin the gameplay for others. As someone else said regarding a L4D2 gnome achievement.

____

So will BIS be dropping BattlEye now?

[Placebo 28]

No problem if achievements are single player but achievements in multiplayer sometimes can hurt the game. People will play a game to complete achievements and not the mission eg. achievement for 1000 sniper headshots and everyone wants to be a sniper. Also I have the fear that to check the achievement progression is legit, you have to stay in official BI missions, maybe forcing on to us a closed mission environment and not the openness we are accustomed.

Surely then it will help you weed out those kinds of people and you won't need to play MP with them? They're not the sort of people who join squads, play on private servers etc which is what you'd be doing considering how serious you are about the game and the experience you have with it when playing.

You are wrong. I can ignore achievements - but will other players do the same?

It's like that stupid gnome achievement in L4D2 in the carnival campaign. Sure I didn't care about it, but the other guy was constantly carrying that gnome through levels to get that silly achievement - which meant there were only 3 instead of 4 guys working to achieve victory.

Add a simple achievement a la "kill 100 enemies" to ArmA - and the multiplayer will be utterly ruined.

If a game needs achievements to interest people - there's something really really wrong about it.

There can be no achievement for a real effort put into the game - like a real teamwork, not some "teamwork achievement - stay within 50m of teamleader even though he tells you to go scout or stay back"

Nobody is saying it "needs" achievements, I'm saying I like achievements in there so hope they're included, I only play SP so am certainly happy if they're SP only achievements thus leaving the MP purists alone ;)

---------- Post added at 14:35 ---------- Previous post was at 14:31 ----------

;2302754']Anything you say will always be biased ;)

Only biased from being a 360 gamer's perspective ;)

[eddieck 10]

;2302754']So will BIS be dropping BattlEye now?

I'd love an answer to this. I certainly hope not. IMO, that would be a bigger dealbreaker than Steamworks.

[Smurf 12]

Only biased from being a 360 gamer's perspective ;)

Oh.... You didn't do that...

So will BIS be dropping BattlEye now?

Why? Steamworks doesn't mean VAC exclusive.

[scrim 1]

No childish achievement systems please. It's just going to attract more CoD kids, it's completely irrelevant to Arma. Might as well say "add laser rifles for those who want it, and a Sims mini game for those who want that, and..." Those things never end until it looks like a heads on, high speed crash on the highway.

[Placebo 28]

Why do achievements define a game as "childish"/"COD kid inviting"? Surely the tone, style and complexity of the game does or doesn't do that? Cod kids play Cod because it's loud, flashy, brash, shallow, arcadey, when has Flashpoint/Arma been any of those things? Adding achievements to Arma3 wouldn't make it any of those things.

[OChristie 0]

I'm going to go home a rethink my life...

Edited February 25, 2013 by OChristie

[metalcraze 290]

Why do achievements define a game as "childish"/"COD kid inviting"? Surely the tone, style and complexity of the game does or doesn't do that? Cod kids play Cod because it's loud, flashy, brash, shallow, arcadey, when has Flashpoint/Arma been any of those things? Adding achievements to Arma3 wouldn't make it any of those things.

Well there's some truth to that. Achievements in MP for example (and yeah I get your point about them being SP only being OK) may enable some people to ruin the game for others. Right now there's simply no reward for choosing to do something that makes little sense and hurts the mission progression so there's no point in wasting time on that - with achievements it may easily be the opposite.

[Kerc Kasha 102]

I personally don't mind achievements as long as they're something more than 'started up the game' and 'played the game for 15 minutes, somehow managing to survive through the opening cut scene' that more main stream games seem to have.

I always found it funny when some games claim to be some sort of emotional roller-coaster and then it pops up 'achievement unlocked: some really bad pun that makes light of the so called emotional situation'