ARMA3 needs better ACCESSIBILITY for players to meet, chat and play out of the box!

[tacticalnuggets 24]

Sorry, but I read that as "give up everything that makes ARMA unique and it will be popular." Or was there some other, philosophical/metaphorical meaning behind that? I thought it was pretty clear. :rolleyes:

LMAO. I was repeating what the community believed. And as I ended my post, the only "some how" that I believed was that they would wake up to the truth. Implying that what they believe is very flawed and full of holes.

EDIT: So wait, you seriously believed that people could really think that way? What sane person wouldn't want any of those things...

[-=Borz=- 10]

Totally agree with Avibird 1:

I have been "trying" to play BI games since 2001. Despite hundreds of hours of forums, my knowledge about the game is still quite poor (~ 10% of the total possible gaming experience), and I am still playing Arma 2 because it has a terrible potential and the game is amazing itself, but always with frustrations due to my lack of knowledge to maintain "the beast" happy. If I had invested all the time I have used trying to update this game focused in other places I would have a PhD now.

After trying to convince many of my friends to play, I still need to play with unknown people online. I have even bought combined operations for several of my friends, but they still do not want to play because of its complexity and how frustrating it is to keep the game up to date. Bohemia should understand that the IT knowledge of many of their customers is generally low.

BI's main Aim as a business is selling games. I am sure there are hundreds and hundreds of players in my situation, and this thread demonstrates this.

Thre are a few things might convince thousands of new people to buy Arma series.

1. The game should be able to download and install the constant patches automatically. Just doing a click.

2. Since most of the ArmA fun is about the editor, being able to make complex missions without having IT-Guru skills would be condition sine que non. And I mean not only being able to place units or groups on a map and giving them waypoints, so different factions cross each other and start shooting, etc. A system that allows mission makers to write briefings easily, add objectives, to plant an IED which is automatically ready to to the work without having to search forums to find what code to write on it and where. Of course the game should keep offering also the current system for advanced mission makers, in that way there is no conflict and all can create more developed scenarios.

3. Other very useful utility would be an user-friendly system to download, install and manage community addons. Of course the addon makers job is amazing, however some of their inventions are too complex for many of us, so I think BI should consider a system where people clicks a button and the addon is sent automaticaly to the right place. The modfolder system is not too complicated, but when people starts with scripts , init stuff, .sqf, . sqm, go to BI\Arma 2 |profiles\your profile\... it gets far too complicated.

4. It would be great if the game had in the multiplayer menu an option with a chat where all the people (who are not members of clans and just want to play casually) can discuss before creating a new scenario or joining a server.

Other things, but this is just my personal taste:

It would be great to come back to the command system in operation flashpoint rather that that of ArmA. In operation flashpoint i remember we were able to command an AI player to go prone to a specifi place, plant a charge and blow it up when a tank is coming. I have not figured out how to do that since the arma series started. I think the old system was having more posibilities.

More variety in opfor units would be great. Better equipment. Opfor should have the possibility to have vision aids, binoculars, night vision, rockets, etc. Remember the potential of this game is not on CQB, so from far away Bluefor will often win in a PvP due to differenc ein equipment. Opfor can seize weapons from bluefor in real life. And all type of weapons are sold in the black market.

These would be my suggestions to contribute to make Arma 3 the most epic game ever and make sure tens of thousands more people buy it. And I am not a COD series addict (I mention before one of the chosen ones starts accusing me without evidence).

To sum up, the game needs to be easy for the hundreds of us who have the game but cannot enjoy it thoroughly due to its extreme complexity.

More easy = more potential market = more profit for BI = more resources to make more amazing games = more community = more talented people tempted to create maps, factions, missions, etc.

I think Avibird was not saying the game has to be easier, so COD and BF players join our servers to annoy us. I think he means about the technical complexity of the game, not the gameplay itself. I also believe that the detractors of Avibirds proposals will continue playing with the clan they have been playing for years and would not be affected anyways if a BF "bunny" entered unexpectedly a server ;)

Thanks for listening.

All the Best BI, and thanks for your games.

---------- Post added at 11:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:17 PM ----------

Hi,

I wont buy; I am one of 11 who have said.

I dont want to play BFBC2 too... I'm for a good realitic simulator to reproduce RL situation...

You should read better my last post...

Thank you,

-Luc-

Sooner or later you will end up buying it, I am 100 % sure mate ;)

and you still have ~ 1 more year of temptations....

Edited June 18, 2011 by -=Borz=-
sorry, correcting grammar mistakes, etc

[krazikilla 5]

Had the same Problem like you Borz, about bringin friends to the game, but they gave up.

Not because of actual ingame complexity, but all the things around were too much for them.

I also hope for easier access, so guys without IT knowledge, can add addons, can update them and the game, and can join several servers without googleing the serverhost, and finding the addons etc.

As i already said the ingame-Game is totally fine, for most, but the stuff to get there is too less user friendly.

[-=Borz=- 10]

Had the same Problem like you Borz, about bringin friends to the game, but they gave up.

Not because of actual ingame complexity, but all the things around were too much for them.

I also hope for easier access, so guys without IT knowledge, can add addons, can update them and the game, and can join several servers without googleing the serverhost, and finding the addons etc.

As i already said the ingame-Game is totally fine, for most, but the stuff to get there is too less user friendly.

I totally agree mate. It is not the complexity of the game or the missions, its about technical complexity to keep the game up to date without becoming mad searching in forums (although searching in this forum is more interesting that the game itself)

How many bunches of friends of hundreds of frustrated Arma players (who are reading forums instead, to learn how to play) there will be around the world? if we are hundreds and we have tens of friends with whom we play other games...then, lets allow BI do the maths ;)

We do not want COD players to join to annoy us. We just want our own friends to want to play with us.

Summary: same gameplay, lack of technical complexity + More user friendly editor = the best gamer ever for more thousands of armaddicts.

---------- Post added at 12:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:10 AM ----------

3 hours to install ACE ?

yes Sir,

we, most mortals, do not have your special IT talent

Edited June 19, 2011 by -=Borz=-
corrected grammar error

[avibird 1 142]

WOW some of the statements and direction of this thread at times can make me go nuts.

Gentlemen!

1. I do not what the gameplay to change in complexity:)

2. I only played COD a few times and I HATE the fucking game:eek:

3. BFBC is ok but not my thing to fast pace for me:cool:

4. The original BF pc was a good game but OFP was better:yay:

5. I may check out BF3;)

I Perfer hardcore COOP mission but if BOHEMIA could make a good balanced player vs player missions/maps then I would give it a go.

OFP/ARMA was made best for COOP play due to the background of being a real training tool just my two cents.

ACCESSIBILITY can mean a lot of things. BOHEMIA will never sellout have you no fate after 10+ years and how many games in the Series.

Right now it is hard for a player to find open rooms to play real coop misions or get other players to join to share missions with.

So many locked rooms that are playing good COOP missions but no real easy way to contact host to join. If there was some kind of IM system?

Many new players stop playing the game because of this and WARFARE/DOM/LIFE setups are in 95% of all open rooms.

Teamspeak does not allow the community to grow it just keeps old friends in locked rooms. Teamspeak is like party chat for the XBOX it kills community growth of a game.

If there was a lobby setup before a player could join in the game. The host could screen the player. Most people know after talking to someone if they are the right player for that mission. Better anti cheating for host rooms.

Gentlemen!

IT's real simple things to make the game more accessible for players to meet,chat and play with players with the same mindset.

How someone is going to turn this around and think I want a COD fast easy game I have no clue! THANK YOU!

Edited June 18, 2011 by AVIBIRD 1

[Innomadic 10]

I think we need a new word that doesn't imply effing the game up.

Go badger CM, EA, Activision for a bit and we'll applaud you if it works.

OFPDR was not more accessible (than even OFPCWC) in terms we're talking about here which is not the gameplay but MP (no JIP, standalone servers).

But that was one of their aims. Crysis 2 also suffered from "accessibility" downsizing.

[Loggert 10]

Have you ever used ACRE, or perhaps installing it without 100% luck?

I've just had problems installing ACRE once and then it was a fuckup that i did myself. It's not hard if you really read the instructions.

[4 IN 1 0]

I felt sorry for you AVIBIRD, for the fact that people just don't seems to read your post before reply.

[mrcash2009 0]

How someone is going to turn this around and think I want a COD fast easy game I have no clue! THANK YOU!

You know that's what your really want, you love it secretly, as you typed that post you were wearing a COD T-shirt, I saw you :p

Admittedly it has gone from one request arena to whole debate and sure enough I had a fair share of points added. I think that it shows the reaction to that word which seems blasphemous to many "Accessible".

So I wouldn't have suggested you actually wanted it like COD as the other extreme, I think It just brought up the notion of request to "simplify" when its a sim debate.

So, after a bit of mud slinging and the dust cloud settling, it got back to the stage of wanting a lobby and in game lobby chat etc, I can see how that works, so in effect the entire thread is a massive room of people debating while one man in the corner (you) were quietly saying "just really need a lobby and chat room options to be honest" :o ....

The rest of the thread is a spin off of reactions to reactions about changing the game itself to simplify a sim. Having said that how dare you suggest change, I dont like change, go play COD!!!! (just to keep the vibe alive :) )

Edited June 19, 2011 by mrcash2009

[paragraphic l 2]

This most likely will get lost in all the misread and misplaced reactions that have nothing to do with this thread but:

Would it be a better idea to have the server state what type of missions they serve.

NOW: missionx has COOP in it's description, so that's what the server is at that moment. MissionY has nothing in it's description, frameset like MCC or BattleCenter for example, and the server is not found in COOP for example.

If the server admin can just state that it serves just VETERAN COOP missions, or VETERAN MIXED or maybe having a tick-box with all possible modes that they could select. If you'd start the MP lobby you can start with selecting what type of game you'd like to play and get a nice list that fits your search better.

So you would get in a game like this:

MP > CTF > pick server

MP > Any > pick server

You could even customize each lobby to show featured servers, missions, whatever

I think the community could also help by creating a better place to find a Community you'd like to play with. Not every group is a clan, nor does every clan have requirements to be and stay a member. If there would be a website commited to arma communities like, armaholic for addons, devheaven for developers, armastack for questions, etc.

I think that would help aswell as most described issues are made by the community in the first place, mods & addons, 'incomplete' usermade missions, lack of teamwork, VON vs TS etc.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Maybe I'm just crazy but would it be possible to create something that people can meet and talk to each other in somekind of "Arma 3 - VON lounge" before/after the match? Just an idea... ;)

[dmarkwick 261]

I wonder why, when the request to make something accessible, so many people bleat in the most pathetic terms. The general thread of these bleatings being that more accessible equals more idiots. Not just more idiots, but vastly more.

Instead of comparing to CoD etc when arguing against accessibility, what about the many other games that have good accessibility but very little problem in the way of idiocy? Perhaps it's the gameplay?

We want more people playing Arma3 gameplay right? The people vying for less accessibility are vying for BIS to be less successful. I can't understand why people would actually wish for things to be unnecessarily difficult for elitist reasons.

[chris64 0]

I wonder why, when the request to make something accessible, so many people bleat in the most pathetic terms. The general thread of these bleatings being that more accessible equals more idiots. Not just more idiots, but vastly more.

Instead of comparing to CoD etc when arguing against accessibility, what about the many other games that have good accessibility but very little problem in the way of idiocy? Perhaps it's the gameplay?

We want more people playing Arma3 gameplay right? The people vying for less accessibility are vying for BIS to be less successful. I can't understand why people would actually wish for things to be unnecessarily difficult for elitist reasons.

This sums up my thoughts perfectly. It seems that many people in this community are strangely proud of being willing to put up with some of the annoying niggles of the game, and they seem to think that the only people not playing are "COD kiddies" and not people who love the idea of the game but just get put off by the lack of help/features to help make the game more enjoyable/easier to play with others. They also seem to be wishing that the ArmA community remains small for some reason, as though they are actually wishing a lack of success upon BIS?

[Innomadic 10]

No, i believe it has something to do with great games ending up in the gutter in the name of accessibility. And i can completely understand why, Arma is almost the last bastion for quality and player freedom.

THAT is why people are jumpy at the term "accessibility", its not because they're on a high horse, they just don't want it to go down a route it can't possibly come back out of...

[Deadfast 43]

The reason why this thread is getting such a backlash is that the world accessibility pretty much equals dumbing down when it comes to games. A much better term to use would be user friendliness.

[metalcraze 290]

Back in the old days with OFP you could find player made missions to join in public host rooms very easy all day long.

Do you remember "old days with OFP"?

OFP had no join in progress at all. So once the mission began nobody was able to join.

So you got disconnected in the middle of the mission? Tough luck - can't join the game again, go make yourself a tea and watch TV until it ends.

Yeah - incredibly "accessible"

Yeah. I'm sick of playing domination all day too. I wish I can find more open coop missions at rooms.

You won't. The basic requirement for any coop to exist is TS3 and thus cooperation.

Public servers will never, never have coop gaming.

Domination is not coop - it's just a shooting gallery with AI.

Why do you even want to play on public servers if you want a more complicated gaming than run'n'gun'n'respawn

The system we have now is good enough. Join the private server or some clan game and enjoy organized teamwork.

What we have now is like a filter because public gaming does not attract good players. Only people who like to play it like CoD are the majority on public servers, the less of them there are - the better.

Edited June 19, 2011 by metalcraze

[SWAT_BigBear 0]

The system we have now is good enough. Join the private server or some clan game and enjoy organized teamwork.

What we have now is like a filter because public gaming does not attract good players. Only people who like to play it like CoD are the majority on public servers, the less of them there are - the better.

x2

I agree!

[Innomadic 10]

You won't. The basic requirement for any coop to exist is TS3 and thus cooperation.

Public servers will never, never have coop gaming.

Domination is not coop - it's just a shooting gallery with AI.

Actually i've had a few games of Dom recently where the average IQ of the general population was decent, many of whom were using Mics as well.

Its not impossible, just rare.

[metalcraze 290]

Actually i've had a few games of Dom recently where the average IQ of the general population was decent, many of whom were using Mics as well.

Its not impossible, just rare.

Of course there will be the small minority who will try to play it organized on public servers too. It's not black and white.

But that's a small minority. The majority will still chaotically run around.

The general rule for ArmA seems to be - the more effort you are willing to put into playing the game the better quality of gaming you'll get out of it.

[4 IN 1 0]

Do you remember "old days with OFP"?

OFP had no join in progress at all. So once the mission began nobody was able to join.

So you got disconnected in the middle of the mission? Tough luck - can't join the game again, go make yourself a tea and watch TV until it ends.

Yeah - incredibly "accessible"

You won't. The basic requirement for any coop to exist is TS3 and thus cooperation.

Public servers will never, never have coop gaming.

Domination is not coop - it's just a shooting gallery with AI.

Why do you even want to play on public servers if you want a more complicated gaming than run'n'gun'n'respawn

The system we have now is good enough. Join the private server or some clan game and enjoy organized teamwork.

What we have now is like a filter because public gaming does not attract good players. Only people who like to play it like CoD are the majority on public servers, the less of them there are - the better.

Yet, I will join the server, wait for the mission to be over, chating/texting with other who are dead, then play for a few hours, JIP is good as long as you know how to add it(JIP as seagulls, how hard can it be?), which mission maker for some reason fail to do so now adays. And the most important thing you should damn well remember: Many people starts to love COOP back in OFP days through entering a public COOP server.

Real man play without respawn.

[-=Borz=- 10]

Of course there will be the small minority who will try to play it organized on public servers too. It's not black and white.

But that's a small minority. The majority will still chaotically run around.

The general rule for ArmA seems to be - the more effort you are willing to put into playing the game the better quality of gaming you'll get out of it.

That is not true, some people have put lots of effort to follow intructions and be able to learn a bit, but still find difficult to be able to play. We do not want COD kiddies either, but just want to be able to play.

There are many adult players willing to enjoy the game without having to expend the whole afternoon figuring out how to find and install the mods required to join servers.

As someone said in these forums more than one year ago, "I already work enough at work; all I want when i go home is to be able to play ARMA without constant barriers" (not literally , but it was something like this).

If the chosen ones still want to search forums for hours feel free to do so (i am probably the least IT-skilled member of this community and i search in forums because i enjoy, and I cannot play ARMA games).

Regards

[smookie 11]

Real man play without respawn.

Real men play against real men :) When having to choose between being a seagull on a server with JIP and not be able to enter the game at all (forced to wait in lobby for that matter), I would most likely not want to waste my time on flying around.

Edited June 19, 2011 by Smookie

[4 IN 1 0]

Real men also can play against real men, still without respawn. :)

Fix that for you.

Remember: No Respawns, No Muppets.

Edited June 19, 2011 by 4 IN 1

[Daniel 0]

Good to see there are still some die hard players kicking around! And it certainly was die hard back in the day... But it did help pile on the pressure when you were the lone survivors and you knew the rest of the (now dead) platoon was watching your every move and talking about you in the other TS2 channel. Good times.

[PuFu 4591]

Do you remember "old days with OFP"?

OFP had no join in progress at all. So once the mission began nobody was able to join.

So you got disconnected in the middle of the mission? Tough luck - can't join the game again, go make yourself a tea and watch TV until it ends.

Yeah - incredibly "accessible"

Give it a rest already! OFP is a 10 year old game! Would you still prefer to be playing with on a commodore?

You won't. The basic requirement for any coop to exist is TS3 and thus cooperation.

Public servers will never, never have coop gaming.

Domination is not coop - it's just a shooting gallery with AI.

TS3 is great, but VON could replace it to a certain degree. Are you trying to say that if VON would work as well as TS3, and no one would be using TS3/mumble etc there wouldn't be any proper cooperation? That's a great logic son!

The system we have now is good enough. Join the private server or some clan game and enjoy organized teamwork.

What we have now is like a filter because public gaming does not attract good players. Only people who like to play it like CoD are the majority on public servers, the less of them there are - the better.

You laddy boy, are the biggest norrowminded mule i have come across a gaming forum yet (hell, make it any forum). That got to stand for something. Congrats

If you are so happy about how things are right at this very moment, and find things like more filtering options, chat rooms, more information available to the average player useless, why do you even bother to post around here?

Oh and btw, i would really want to know that exceptional clan you play with but your are not part off, just so i don't join their server...by mistake...I know you are making them a lot of good right now.

Edited June 19, 2011 by PuFu