Development Blog & Reveals

[dale0404 5]

How much time was spent on stupid showcases which nobody playing aside from kids? Damn, full price for MP only game which can't handle even 80+ players. Seems like we are paying for 2D editor and community work.

Graphics are better, some animations too but the core hasnt been improved much and that clever idea with free three stories which Im sure will request some paid DLC is great markething.

Oh ye of little faith!

[elpresidente 1]

And no goddamn railgun tank.

"Hey lets release screenshots that imply it will be in the game, then cut it and make no statement about it whatsoever"

Actually, I think I saw a "statement" once.

If I remember correctly, it was Jay (I think it was him) explaining it in a forum post, that they cut it because it was to futuristic.

Maybe I'll try to find it probably not

[dale0404 5]

So wait - releasing it after final game is already bad - but it will be an episodic content to boot? Play for 3 hours wait for 2 months and forget what even happened?

Seriously BIS, just stop. Please just stop.

This will be the worst BIS campaign ever. What a trainwreck.

You had to get your 2 pence in didn't you? If your feeling like that then maybe you shouldn't play the game anymore...

7.So what are the release dates? â—¦We will announce the exact release date at the end of this week.

Is it Friday yet? :D

[doln 10]

How much time was spent on stupid showcases which nobody playing aside from kids? Damn, full price for MP only game which can't handle even 80+ players. Seems like we are paying for 2D editor and community work.

Graphics are better, some animations too but the core hasnt been improved much and that clever idea with free three stories which Im sure will request some paid DLC is great markething.

Bohemia would never make the Campaigns require paid DLC. They aren't EA. And plenty of people played the showcases. Limiting yourself purely to multiplayer you really are missing out on a large part of the game. I myself have about 1000 hours in the Arma series about about 20 of that is multiplayer.

[HKFlash 9]

So wait - releasing it after final game is already bad - but it will be an episodic content to boot? Play for 3 hours, wait for 2 months and forget what even happened due to waiting?

Seriously BIS, just stop. Please just stop.

This will be the worst BIS campaign ever. What a trainwreck.

Did your brain just explode? What the hell is wrong with you? You look like a Messiah of Doom preaching the End of the World!

[doln 10]

So wait - releasing it after final game is already bad - but it will be an episodic content to boot? Play for 3 hours, wait for 2 months and forget what even happened due to waiting?

Seriously BIS, just stop. Please just stop.

This will be the worst BIS campaign ever. What a trainwreck.

Alert, metalcraze is in the thread. All he does is spout vitriol and make things up please put no stock in what he says

---------- Post added at 14:47 ---------- Previous post was at 14:46 ----------

Actually, I think I saw a "statement" once.

If I remember correctly, it was Jay (I think it was him) explaining it in a forum post, that they cut it because it was to futuristic.

Maybe I'll try to find it probably not

I would really love to see that. But I can only shout at Dwarden on steam with no reply so many times man, the developers are making an active effort to not talk about it, and I'd really love to know why. Don't get me wrong, I can totally see why they would cut it, but I'm sure a talented mission maker could handwave that. "Oh the CSAT found a magic alien space super awesome generator and made a tank out of it". I think its clear that anyone making or playing a mission with railguns in it isn't going to be hugely fussed over it not being super realistic.

But this issue has been discussed to death and i don't want to start another argument over it in this thread, I've done that enough times.

[zimms 22]

How much time was spent on stupid showcases which nobody playing aside from kids? Damn, full price for MP only game which can't handle even 80+ players. Seems like we are paying for 2D editor and community work.

Graphics are better, some animations too but the core hasnt been improved much and that clever idea with free three stories which Im sure will request some paid DLC is great markething.

Only kids play SP showcases? Wow, tell me about how awesome, mature and grown-up you are...

Then why are you even complaining if SP is only for kids?

Full price? Yeah, €25.

Can't even handle 80+ players? Show me a comparable game which can. And besides players you can still have houndreds of AI.

[jw custom 56]

So wait - releasing it after final game is already bad - but it will be an episodic content to boot? Play for 3 hours, wait for 2 months and forget what even happened due to waiting?

Seriously BIS, just stop. Please just stop.

This will be the worst BIS campaign ever. What a trainwreck.

I agree.

First i will mention that i won't ever play the campaign so for me it is not a problem, but adding the campaign after release is far from optimal, but then even splitting up the campaign for release intervals seems really bad!!!

[doln 10]

I agree.

First i will mention that i won't ever play the campaign so for me it is not a problem, but adding the campaign after release is far from optimal, but then even splitting up the campaign for release intervals seems really bad!!!

They're releasing the campaign after release so that it can be good, but thats "bad"

They're releasing it in episodes so that they can get some form of playable campaign out asap, but thats "bad"

They could release everything they have now at release but it'd be a buggy piece of shit, and you'd complain about that being "bad"

There's no winning with some of you guys sometimes

[metalcraze 290]

No they are releasing it as episodic content because they didn't have a finished campaign to begin with and this only means they've started developing it months ago - since after all there will be months of wait for the remaining episodes.

Episodic content also means that the campaign will be very short and rushed since they are forced to push it out in short portions.

And the time that could've been spent on making campaign actually good and finished was spent on showcases most of which are really subpar and play like an action packed arcade shooter.

But you can keep flinging insults around even though it's BIS' fault - since it appears insults is the only thing 2013 ArmA community is good at.

[antoineflemming 14]

Here are the first details of the storyline! :)

This is pretty much the same storyline as was put out after E3 2012, and need I say, it's much more interesting:

Tensions rise as NATO and Iranian forces stand-off in the Aegean: the strategic fault-line between crumbling European influence and a powerful, resurgent East. But when a key radar facility drops off the grid, a Greek flashpoint risks escalating into global conflict.

Caught up in a situation beyond their control, a botched withdrawal traps men of the US 7th Infantry Division and a clandestine group of UKSF operators in a fight for survival. With only a crippled local resistance to turn to, they must rapidly adapt to overcome an unforgiving environment and defeat a brutal enemy.

Edited August 6, 2013 by antoineflemming

[comp_uter15776 1]

As long as there's a campaign, and it's free, I'm happy. I think there's plenty to be doing on 270km^2 of terrain whilst waiting. Hell, no-one said you had to play it ASAP, just chill and let them all come out and then play it in one big string if you really must.

[doln 10]

No they are releasing it as episodic content because they didn't have a finished campaign to begin with and this only means they've started developing it months ago - since after all there will be months of wait for the remaining episodes.

Episodic content also means that the campaign will be very short and rushed since they are forced to push it out in short portions.

And the time that could've been spent on making campaign actually good and finished was spent on showcases most of which are really subpar and play like an action packed arcade shooter.

But you can keep flinging insults around even though it's BIS' fault - since it appears insults is the only thing 2013 ArmA community is good at.

Did you even read the blog? They went through a major change in direction. Remember how it was initially going to be Greece and Iran? All that shit is gone. This is what I'm talking about when you just make stuff up metalcraze. The showcases are not complex missions like a campaign mission is. I could recreate some of the simpler showcases in a few hours quite easily, and theres only 8 of them in the full game. They wouldn't have had any major bearing on the final quality of the game. And the whole reason they're delaying it is because they want it to be good, so why would they rush it and cock all that up. Where do you get all these crazy ideas from, I don't think I've ever seen you say anything positive about Arma 3 - if you hate the game so much why do you bother coming into these threads and spewing vitriol and a lot of the time straight up lies

[katipo66 94]

But you can keep flinging insults around even though it's BIS' fault - since it appears insults is the only thing 2013 ArmA community is good at.

I guess it sucks if you are looking forward to the campaign, I can understand that disappointment, but seriously the campaign is probably third on the priority list for most, after MP and editor, but you can't go around complaining everyone from 2013 only good at insults after calling BIS a train wreck :)

[foffy 58]

Game designers from the community are Zipper5 (Thomas Ryan) and Neo[nika] (Nelson Duarte) as far as I know.

That's pretty cool. Do we have a list of what community guys have ended up working with Bohemia as developers over the span of the series?

[alx 20]

I wish people would stop quoting the trolls here. It's ruining the functioning of my ignore list (which has grown rather large lately).

[Smurf 12]

Fair enough, explanations make sense (many changes on the game along the way in the past months with Alpha and Beta), Altis WILL be awesome.

[-=seany=- 5]

Thanks for the explanations BIS. All seems very reasonable.

[Sniperwolf572 758]

Can we change the tagline to "Release / Delay / Survive / Delay / Adapt / Delay / Win"? ;)

[Undeceived 392]

I stand behind BIS' decision to postpone the campaign.

Everyone who makes campaigns or complex missions knows how difficult and time consuming it can be.

And... Building your campaign upon a ever changing platform (as it was stated in the devblog) is definitely a PITA...

Blah blah - rant rant... (before EVERY release - since Arma 2...)

I wish people would stop quoting the trolls here. It's ruining the functioning of my ignore list (which has grown rather large lately).

What - there is a ignose list?? Damn, I didn't know about that!

One last thing to metalcraze, before you get on the list:

Why are you still here? Must be because Arma is the love of your life, otherwise it's absolutely incomprehensible why you waste so much energy in bashing the game aka. "constructively providing valuable feedback and encouraging the dev team"... LOL...

[mobile_medic 43]

I'm fine with their explanation. Still a bit disappointing, but the reasoning behind their shifting internal development structure and roadmap, and how it impacts content that is being simultaneously developed is a worthy explanation for me (if taken on its own).

They seemed to give a lot of focus about how their priorities have shifted, and kind of laid out their mission statement and plans for moving forward. One of the big things they said on that topic was how the feedback from alpha and beta has been very important in prioritizing their development. Yet, the dreaded performance issue (which is, admittedly, the most widely reported issue from alpha and beta, and extends back to previous Arma games) didn't appear to be worthy of mention in their list of examples (and, has received very little visible attention to date). I know some folks don't care as much about this particular issue, but for me, it is issue #1 that prevents me and others from being able to fully enjoy this game.

The lack of mention in this blog was another nail in the coffin for my hopes of this issue getting serious enough attention to allow me to look forward to being able to play this game as it was intended any time in the future. To me, the aging (obsolete, in my view) foundation upon which this game is built is the most important issue. Addressing it (imo) should be a primary objective in looking towards the long-term future. Not having a foundation that includes a robust engine capable of handling the scale and scope of this game, and able to take more full/proper advantage of modern hardware is probably the biggest limiting factor to the long-term potential of the series. If this ever got proper attention, I would forgive them of any other shortcomings.

[daze23 1]

Yeah, but that doesnt mean they will be included at release, could be a case of "They will be added post release, because they are not ready yet."

have they said that though? if they're gonna be adding additional assets after release, they need to come out and say it. this "maybe it'll come later" logic can apply to anything you can think of, but that doesn't mean it'll happen...

[-ghost-tf 12]

Can we change the tagline to "Release / Delay / Survive / Delay / Adapt / Delay / Win"? ;)

This.

This is going to ruin the campaign experience for me, if I have to wait weeks before I can continue where I left off then I'm better off waiting until all the episodes are released which probably is like ~3-4 months after release...

have they said that though? if they're gonna be adding additional assets after release, they need to come out and say it. this "maybe it'll come later" logic can apply to anything you can think of, but that doesn't mean it'll happen...

Well.. I see they have updated the vehicle list, and added the A 143 Buzzard jet fighter. So im guessing since they have updated the list and only added 1 plane, it means we are only getting one plane (I dont consider UAVs planes btw).

[metalcraze 290]

Did you even read the blog? They went through a major change in direction. Remember how it was initially going to be Greece and Iran? All that shit is gone.

Yeah except the island is still Lemnos just with a different name just like CSAT is still iranians and AAF is still greeks. Just by a different name.

I could recreate some of the simpler showcases in a few hours quite easily, and theres only 8 of them in the full game. They wouldn't have had any major bearing on the final quality of the game.

You would recreate, provide voice-overs and debugging for those in a few hours? OK.

But also don't forget to add stuff like challenges and firing drills to that.

And the whole reason they're delaying it is because they want it to be good, so why would they rush it and cock all that up.

You mean like ACR DLC? They released it in a horrible state and haven't patched it since and it's been a year.

Or ArmA1? Which suffered from exactly this kind of mismanagement of ArmA3 where BIS binned everything that was made and started anew with 1 year till release.

As a result the game had dull campaign and subpar content. Which they later expanded in patches (or free DLCs as they are called now). But it didn't help the game at all. And now this happens once again.

Why would they release a final game with broken AI then? Why would they cut out stuff and simplify the game, make sides mirror each other - until ArmA3 only remotely resembles ArmA game if they care?

Or why are they telling us this only now? Not a year ago?

And yeah there are positive changes in ArmA3 but for every positive change there are two negative ones. And I know that my opinions can differ from yours, especially when you don't know that ArmA was better before or don't accept the complexity of original OFP/ArmA gameplay and is happy with the current state of ArmA3 which is more like an arcade shooter on big maps now.

Edited August 6, 2013 by metalcraze

[daze23 1]

This.

This is going to ruin the campaign experience for me, if I have to wait weeks before I can continue where I left off then I'm better off waiting until all the episodes are released which probably is like ~3-4 months after release...

yep, I had that issue with the Walking Dead game. I played the first one, but by the time the second episode came out, I realized I didn't really remember what happened in the first one. I ended up waiting for them all to come out, rather than deal with that every time

Well.. I see they have updated the vehicle list, and added the A 143 Buzzard jet fighter. So im guessing since they have updated the list and only added 1 plane, it means we are only getting one plane (I dont consider UAVs planes btw).

my question still stands though. is that the 'final list', or should we expect more assets (as well as the campaign) after release?