Development Blog & Reveals

[ck-claw 1]

Winter all the way for me.

[Rovka 14]

Whatever it's going to be, I hope it'll be twice the size of Takistan-map! Perhaps a Canadian Artic-circle map? Several nations fighting over the last fossil-fuel/ore deposits available on earth, whilst they're at it? And ofcourse, temperature's being a hazard aswell. Able to freeze to death in -40 degrees C. if not properly clad, etc..

And on the Southern edge of the map, the utmost northern border of the great Pine-forests. with some lumberjack-camps strewn about, a lone oil-rig or two, a research-camp/weatherstation up north on the map, near the frozen ocean.. And all this in a permafrost rocky tundra, with splotches of snow in shadowy places, like on the northside of hills.

And so on, and so forth.. Would likely be more system-rig friendly then a jungle or dense urban map I'd say. Anyways, this is what I personally hope for to see implemented. But in the end we'll see, right?

[nikiforos 450]

I hope it's an urban area like New York or some other american city. I know that is almost impossible with this engine but I still hope for a miracle :)

[christianmo 10]

I think a China inspired map would be great.

The terrain could vary from dense jungle and mountainous areas to cultivated farmlands with rice fields and alike.

In addition to that a conflict between NATO and China/ an east Asian alliance would fit the future theme of Arma 3 well and allow for a interesting new faction.

[Wiki 1558]

Asian map like China or Vietnam.

Maybe something like Lingor island or maybe 2 maps - 1 jungle map like Nam war and one big city map like Hue.

Or as said,

Three things we need for the next map:

- (sub)tropical

- heavy urban

- middle developing world that has both the traditional, poor housing and modern urban landscapes (China)

[13islucky 10]

I think a China inspired map would be great.

The terrain could vary from dense jungle and mountainous areas to cultivated farmlands with rice fields and alike.

In addition to that a conflict between NATO and China/ an east Asian alliance would fit the future theme of Arma 3 well and allow for a interesting new faction.

Not to mention mountains (both with and without snow), barren deserts and such. China's a pretty diverse land, surely something can come of it.

[benjamin1 10]

Maybe something with lakes or long rivers and bridges so the amphibious vehicles are put to good use and the dimension of logistics, moving assets around will come into play.

[2nd ranger 282]

[a winter setting] will get boring fast.

If the whole thing is covered in snow, yeah. I think that's one reason BIS has never done it. But an Arctic/Alaskan terrain doesn't have to be all snow. There could be snow in some areas and others could be thawed. Tundra can be pretty cool-looking terrain.

[old_painless 182]

I would not be interested in a white "snowy" Takistan with featureless (white) terrain. I would prefer one of these:

1) A lush jungle map, however, that would require a level playing field with regards to spotting through the foliage when fighting the AI.

2) A sprawling urban area, with interesting buildings and structures and interior, however, that would require that AI pathfinding gets improved.

Hope that one of the two will be realised :-)

OP

[Alwarren 2765]

I would not be interested in a white "snowy" Takistan with featureless (white) terrain.

You guys have obviously not seen much snowy landscapes if you equate winter with Takistan... But whatever, everybody has his pet peeves. Jungles we already had, dense urban is not going to work without major slowdown (and I don't even want to think how the AI does on such a map)... We'll see it when we get there.

[wolf359 19]

I would like a map based on Iceland or the Falkland Islands. A wide open terrain not slowing down our PC´s but different from the deserts. Many rocks and grass like we already have in the greek islands punctured with snow or glaciers and mountains. :)

[froggyluv 2130]

Yes. Would love to see The Land Of Many Mid Range Textures.

Thanks!

[windies 11]

You guys have obviously not seen much snowy landscapes if you equate winter with Takistan... But whatever, everybody has his pet peeves. Jungles we already had, dense urban is not going to work without major slowdown (and I don't even want to think how the AI does on such a map)... We'll see it when we get there.

I wouldn't mind a winter setting either, it just doesn't jump out at me as the first thing.

[ceeeb 147]

Interesting to see no mention of plans for an (engine & feature) expansion (Arma 3.5) yet. Operation Arrowhead was announced less than 1 month after Arma 2's release.

Edited January 25, 2014 by ceeeb

[[evo] dan 79]

I'm hoping they make the pacific campaign, together with adding fully walkable moving ships too.

[CaptainObvious 95]

Regarding winter terrain, I wouldn't mind seeing something like this with matching equipment and vehicles.

[JWLEE 1]

How about Korea?

Also it seems that Chinese+Korea and Japan are in conflict. It may become story line.

[dnk 13]

Yeah, Korea's got great locales too. Basically everything along the coast from Nha Trang to the NE tip of Korea could work. There are like 50 different places that would be amazing to have in a game. It's all hilly, coastal, lush forests, and dense urban. I feel Korea's a bit too developed and "clean" for my tastes, but whatever North Korea could work too.

Whatever it's going to be' date=' I hope it'll be twice the size of Takistan-map![/quote']God no, please. Something smaller but more detailed. They keep expanding the map sizes, and frankly I've not played on half of Altis yet after like 300 hours. What's the point of making something this size when they don't even have proper armor/air assets to use (I would hope that would change, though)? They're getting into flight/armor sim territory with these map sizes, yet we have like 1 tank and a few helicopters only. It's silly. If you're focusing on infantry, get smaller more detailed terrains. Especially if they can't get past the 4GB barrier, they can't keep just expanding the size. Focus more of that mapmaking talent on detailed landscapes! Look at what Nord did (I think it was him, right) with the terrain texture. This is what happens when you go for quantity over quality, you miss out on a hell of a lot of quality when you max out quantity.

I'd greatly prefer a 9x density terrain grid with a 1/9th sized island. So greatly (shouldn't have a huge performance impact with LOD levels as we have already).

You guys have obviously not seen much snowy landscapes if you equate winter with Takistan... But whatever, everybody has his pet peeves. Jungles we already had, dense urban is not going to work without major slowdown (and I don't even want to think how the AI does on such a map)... We'll see it when we get there.

So you have to have this mediocre low grass clutter that turns into a blank, bland flat polygon after 50m (a polygon that is about the same size relative to the gameworld as we had 10-15 years ago in games I might mention) and a few tree models inbetween. Yawn. I've played on winter Thirsk. On this engine, you need a dense forest for it to not look like a desert. Why not just have a jungle then? It'd look nicer. Snow just isn't going to sell (but maybe they can add it in dynamically like in VBS).

If they can overcome that, yeah, okay snow wouldn't be terrible, but it wouldn't be great either

Oh, and if they haven't added considerable parallelism to the engine's execution by the next major DLC/map, I won't buy it unless it's like a "perfect" map for me. So that'd fix the performance issues for AI (at the very least, make THAT parallel, then it takes a much smaller framerate impact). We already have dense urban from an AI standpoint (not a huge difference between Kavala and NYC even, just in the 3rd dimension), so it shouldn't cause huge performance issues (though getting the AI to intelligently use an improved 3rd dimension might).

Edited January 26, 2014 by DNK

[twisted 127]

wow, nice to see an update blog. New map would be nice. But please, BIS, there's a lot of features that could be introduced to mature the infantry fighting features as well as vechiles. you know, those exciting advances that only devs can do and that take arma3 even further on the awesome journey you've already started on.

Edited January 26, 2014 by twisted

[Alwarren 2765]

Regarding winter terrain, I wouldn't mind seeing something like this with matching equipment and vehicles.

That one.

---------- Post added at 12:29 ---------- Previous post was at 11:22 ----------

It'd look nicer.

One person's nice is the other person's boring.

There is a thing called "taste", and it isn't really something you can argue about. I would like to see a winter terrain. I don't need a reason for that other than that I want it. Your mileage will (and obviously does) vary, but don'T try to tell me what looks nice and what doesn't. That's a matter of very personal taste. And makes this an utterly fruitless discussion.

[NeuroFunker 11]

Snow doesn't mean desert, have a look at Thirsk for a great example of a Winter map. Snow just poses different challenges.

then BI could implement snow from VBS, or make a like. This can be nearly any terrain then. Just a terrain covered with snow - boring.

Edited January 26, 2014 by NeuroFunker

[chrisb 196]

Snow/winter terrains offer some of the best, most atmospheric game play, for those with an imagination of course. Smokey chimneys, a units breathe in the cold nights air, a snowy night seeing a town, village or camp lighting, fires etc. All adds up to a really great immersive feel.

[Alwarren 2765]

Snow/winter terrains offer some of the best, most atmospheric game play, for those with an imagination of course. Smokey chimneys, a units breathe in the cold nights air, a snowy night seeing a town, village or camp lighting, fires etc. All adds up to a really great immersive feel.

Exactly. Also, the sound of footsteps. Moving around becomes scary because it is so loud.

---------- Post added at 17:04 ---------- Previous post was at 17:02 ----------

then BI could implement snow from VBS, or make a like. This can be nearly any terrain then. Just a terrain covered with snow - boring.

Terrain covered with grass - boring.

Terrain covered with sand - boring.

Terrain covered with rocks - boring.

You get the point. Or not. Of course I don't want to just have a straight plain without features. I don't mean arctic like in "drifting ice floats". Would you call northern Skyrim boring? If you do, then fine. As I said before, it's a matter of taste. II like it.

[Sealife 22]

Not to mention Skis :) miss that element of a good mission and whilst there are grass and sand skis its not the same

[antoineflemming 14]

Exactly. Also, the sound of footsteps. Moving around becomes scary because it is so loud.

---------- Post added at 17:04 ---------- Previous post was at 17:02 ----------

Terrain covered with grass - boring.

Terrain covered with sand - boring.

Terrain covered with rocks - boring.

You get the point. Or not. Of course I don't want to just have a straight plain without features. I don't mean arctic like in "drifting ice floats". Would you call northern Skyrim boring? If you do, then fine. As I said before, it's a matter of taste. II like it.

What wouldn't be boring to me would be a Pacific island or something that resembles Korengal Valley, and no, that's not like Takistan. But I'd expect the former, but not really sure if they'll do a big expansion pack like OA anyway. Even if they do, it might not connect story-wise.