Things ArmA 1 and OFP did better than Arma 2

[twisted 128]

ofp brought a sense on innovation and willingness to take risks to stand out and make its mark. while the next iterations where technically better they didn't try to break new ground in what a military sim could be. I'd like to get that feel again of BIS pushing boundaries and doing what others are afraid to.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Dont know why helmets did'nt come off in anything after OFP as it's pretty damn realistic, in fact I even questioned if I saw it in the first place because I dont think it was that common even in OFP.

Can at least another veteran please confirm that vanilla OFP had helmets that come off? If so, I'm going out back to shoot myself because I've played the wrong game for 10 years.

Nah seriously, helmets didn't come off in (vanilla) OFP.

[HyperU2 11]

Yeah I never saw one come off. SLX had some nice particles from explosions but not Vanilla. Not sure I ever saw a helmet though.

[ernee414 10]

3 Things:

AI in general. How many times has not only the AT guys, but just regular infantry, or snipers had clear line of sight to enemy they can engage and kill but just sat there and been killed by the enemy?

Or how many times has an AI crewed M1A1 or M2A2 rolled up, had a target in sight and in range, and even after being told to engage it just sat there until they were blown up themselves?

Or how many times have you had an AI pilot, fixed wing or rotary just flow over not engaging any targets, whether they were told to or not, when they had the chance?

On the topic of AI in the air, how about putting in a command that tells aircraft to land? Whether it's a return to airfield function, especially on fixed wing, or for transport birds to just land, but not get out, just so you can have them drop off infantry units.

And lastly when are we going to have vehicles that travel at realistic speeds and power? As a real life former Bradley crew member, I can tell you that a Brad will go up to about 65 MPH, not KMPH, on a hard ball road. And I can't even count how many times I've been going up a hill, that a Brad could easily take at well over 30-40 MPH with no trouble accelerating, and been stuck at a max of 10-18 KMPH. There is no realism in that and makes many vehicles completely useless in a lot of game modes, especially Domination or Warfare. Because let's face it, by the time you get to an AO in Domination in a Tank, that AO and the one after it are both completed already. And as far as tanks, if I recall correctly, an M1 will travel up to 55 MPH with no problem, but no faster. And even that is only because with the turbine engine they run on, if they go any faster it will rip the drive train apart.

I've also never seen a heavy tracked vehicle like a Brad or a tank, slide sideways like a hockey stop when trying to turn at 20-30 mph, let alone at 30-40 kmph. If you even think about turning the slightest bit at even those low speeds on level ground the thing tries to power slide into whatever you're turning to miss.

I just think it's about time we seem some true realism in the vehicles.

And don't forget, there is no way on God's green Earth that 1-2 RPG-7's are EVER going to take out an M1A1/2. It just isn't going to happen.

And I know the armor stuff is fixed, mostly, with mods like ACE which I love, but it shouldn't be necessary to have it, especially when the game is supposed to be a milSIM. SIM being the key word.

I know the land command would be new all together, but I don't ever remember having trouble getting AI to engage or problems like these with vehicles in OFP. Some of the vehicle stuff maybe, but not all of it.

Edited June 1, 2011 by ernee414
Addition

[maddogx 13]

Helmets came off in OFP? That would be news to me.

[.kju 3245]

OFP is better in:

• Interface design style and color (Black+White+Red+Yellow)
  
• Better visible weapon cursor (white color)
  
• More meaningful and better looking weapon cursors (especially for infantry rifles)
  
• Better infantry movement gameplay due to far less exhaustion and weapon jumpiness from that (more weapon sway based on stance is the right approach instead)
  
• Tank crew actually heard impact on their vehicle and it's direction
  
• Tanks had more useful armor values in respect to damage zones (broken tracks, turret gun down, turret no longer movable, backside/engine hits)
  
• Infantry AT rockets had a meaningful drop
  
• Sounds sources could be pinpointed precisely and over meaningful distances
  
• Sonic cracks do downgrade the playability a lot in addition
  

Edited June 1, 2011 by .kju [PvPscene]

[Grimfist 0]

-The GUI, grey, simple and unintruding.

-no annoying quick command thing that auto pops up.

-When you fire an RPG or LAW, the sounds and smoke actually feel like you are there.

-pistols were useful.

-faster movement when weapon raised.

-the immersion value, when I play OFP, it feels like I am there, when I play arma and arma 2 it feels like I am in a 3d artificial world.

-the resistance campaign, where stealing those last few heavy weapons into a ural with approaching enemy's and setting up ambushes

-everything PvPscene said

-fights lasted longer, with arma and arma 2 tank and infantry battles are always over quick with ai accuracy being to great. in ofp tank battles were epic as you would be blasting away at each other from 2km for a while (like that scene from red dawn).

-equal factions, when the Russians and Americans met on the field it was 50/50 but now it always seems i have Apaches, thermal sights, advanced tanks etc and im fighting against some rusted ww2 tank and some men armed with ak-47's

Edited June 1, 2011 by Grimfist

[Sky999 10]

-the immersion value, when I play OFP, it feels like I am there, when I play arma and arma 2 it feels like I am in a 3d artificial world.

Why do you think this is? What did OFP do to give you this impression that ARMA1+2 didn't?

[dmarkwick 261]

Why do you think this is? What did OFP do to give you this impression that ARMA1+2 didn't?

Yeah, me too :) I played OFP recently, and my overriding impression was..... quaint. We've moved on immeasurably IMO as far as ingame immersion goes. TrackIR, clutter, gameworld detail, sound occlusions etc, OFP was very good for it's time, but so is ArmA2.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Has someone mentioned the story yet?

In OpF the story and the characters were far more deeper/cooler/simpler to follow and to relate to (as a gamer). In ArmA1 you mostly see some nameless guys shooting/driving around and you're just one of them. In ArmA2 you have the Team Razor characters - a step in the right direction, but everytime they get stuck in the ruined cities / in their vehicles the illusion of 'unique characters' is totally destroyed again.

Never finished ArmA2 because of that. OpF was superior in terms of story, maybe because it was simpler.

[EDcase 87]

I guess I'm the only one who thinks ARMA2 is actually an improvement on OFP.

OFP was awesome and because it was so different to anything else at the time gave it even more impact.

ARMA2 has improved alot of things in the game (not talking about missions etc) but some people just focus on the bad. Yes, there are things that need fixing but its a great improvement overall.

One thing that always bugged me is the pistols lack of accuracy.

Edited June 1, 2011 by EDcase

[.kju 3245]

@ EDcase

You misread the topic title. No one says a2 has no improvements over OFP. Quite the contrary.

Again this is not the intention of this thread though. Instead it is about Things ArmA 1 and OFP did better than Arma 2.

[celery 8]

What kju said.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

What kju said.

Who? :D

[Banderas 0]

Sounds, in the context of both A1 and A2. I never used any soundmod for OFP, they were just right, everything had it's simple, diverse and distinguishable sound, when you heard the threatening sound of a jarring BMP, when you heard the M60s open up, ect. I don't mean to bring back OFP sounds though, but a similar achievemnt.

[lugiahua 26]

3 Things:

AI in general. How many times has not only the AT guys, but just regular infantry, or snipers had clear line of sight to enemy they can engage and kill but just sat there and been killed by the enemy?

Or how many times has an AI crewed M1A1 or M2A2 rolled up, had a target in sight and in range, and even after being told to engage it just sat there until they were blown up themselves?

I don't have those problems unless in very close ranges ( 25m or less)

maybe has to do with your CPU strength.

[celery 8]

OFP and Armed Assault didn't have a black "Receiving..." screen while the mission was already playing. The black screen causes problems in getting intros to show as intended and getting players to act as soon as they connect.

[icebreakr 3159]

Great posts guys. Things that were better:

- intro island cinematics with really cool tunes

- european feel, that town near the beach where BMP2s were coming out of water... and memorable peninsula with an old jeep

- sp campaign (I gave up on A2 with coop buddies as we were stranded on the carrier)

- cool police 4x4 jeep

:)

[wolfbite 8]

I liked the death quotes.... And In mission editor the notebook would open up and give you a list of what you killed... I knida miss those.... Storyline was better.. Other than that.. Its all been greatly improved..

[dmarkwick 261]

Euro/woodland maps. Best game environments IMO :)

[ziiip 1]

ArmA1 had a good "unarmed running/sprinting" animation and it boggles my mind why they replaced it with something so bad in ArmA2.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Helmets came off in OFP? That would be news to me.

No they don't. But it was modded once IIRC.

[*LK1* 10]

1) Birds. You could shoot seagulls and buzzards out of the sky in ArmA 1, which was very fun indeed. Also, no seagulls in Arma 2 when the obvious move would have been to have crows in addition to seagulls.

:icon_ohmygod::pray:

[Gunter Severloh 4063]

I felt the colors of OFP and ArmA were much more pleasant to look at for extended periods.

I second that!

The colors, and clean environemnt, felt more attractive, and enjoyable then the drab, brown tan we got,

although it has its color, i feel it may have been toned down, or maybe its my Nvidia color settings?

[ernee414 10]

I don't have those problems unless in very close ranges ( 25m or less)

maybe has to do with your CPU strength.

Last I checked whether or not the AI in the game do what it is they are programmed to do has literally nothing to do with my CPU strength. Now perhaps if it were a discussion of lag in some way, sure. But it isn't a discussion of lag, because if it were lag, then it wouldn't just be my AI not engaging, the enemy wouldn't be engaging either. So instead of my AI getting killed by the enemy AI, which is also running off of my computer in SP, it would be a battle that never started as I'd be the only one shooting.

Good effort though...