Development Blog & Reveals

[chortles 263]

Carrier Command is also a console game. So, it might be those two.

Or the possibility of Arma Tactics ending up on PS4 -- that's already three different titles that aren't the main Arma franchise which could (and CC: GM's case did) end up on a console or handheld. Nothing untoward about this... although oddly enough, this Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) press release doesn't name BI as a developer or publisher; the "Behaviour Interactive" is a Canadian studio.

[NeuroFunker 11]

the "Behaviour Interactive" is a Canadian studio.

which is making Armet Assault i assume?

[maddogx 13]

what is this?

By: a guest on Feb 20th, 2013 | syntax: None | size: 4.25 KB | hits: 23 | expires: Never

http://pastebin.com/nD2qHXDq

Very interesting. It does indeed look like a report from a focus tester.

No major reveals in there though, except for the mention of an in-game field manual. (Which I think may have been hinted at before somewhere.)

[chortles 263]

The in-game field manual was confirmed and demonstrated at Gamescom -- in effect, the in-game "Hint system" pop-ups direct you to specific (context-sensitive) entries in the Field Manual, which is a "pause" menu (i.e. Esc key) option whose entries can be browsed manually.

[maddogx 13]

The in-game field manual was confirmed and demonstrated at Gamescom -- in effect, the in-game "Hint system" pop-ups direct you to specific (context-sensitive) entries in the Field Manual, which is a "pause" menu (i.e. Esc key) option whose entries can be browsed manually.

I thought it sounded familiar. Thanks for the refresher. :)

[chortles 263]

I believe that this was also showcased at E3 or the Support Showcase -- at one point a pop-up about supports comes up suggesting "PRESS [H] FOR MORE INFO", and pressing H expands the pop-up to reveal some information (which Gamescom videos suggests was a Field Manual entry) about the in-game-commands procedure for requesting a fire mission or helicopter close air support; other videos (at Gamescom?) had other pop-ups which, though not expanded, had titles that corresponded to glimpsed Field Manual entries.

It's an interesting take on "accessibility", I'll say that much. The controls are "a little more complex since Arma 2" according to that report, but the Field Manual implementation shown at Gamescom means that you can find them just by pressing Escape and clicking Field Manual then going to the relevant entry, or pressing H if a corresponding pop-up appears.

Interestingly enough, it appears that the keybinds of Z, X and spacebar correspond to what Jay Crowe brought up as his keybinds... :D

Edited February 21, 2013 by Chortles

[metalcraze 290]

DayZ WILL come to consoles. Anything else, who knows?

Good luck with that.

[maddogx 13]

A new blog post has arrived!

Full steam ahead! (Brace yourselves... a shitstorm is coming.) ;)

[frostwyrm333 1]

Ok, just for fun,

Reasonable expectations timer:

less than 5 hours

[roberthammer 582]

Holy Damn :/ - not happy with it but i have to deal with it heh

btw > http://www.bistudio.com/images/stories/arma3/screenshots/arma3_steam_screenshot_02.jpg

Iran's new Rifle behold :D (KH-2002)

Edited February 21, 2013 by RobertHammer

[Burgerlolz 1]

A new blog post has arrived!

Full steam ahead! (Brace yourselves... a shitstorm is coming.) ;)

Hmph that's kind of sad, all of that teasing for something we knew alreadly.

[Syonco 10]

This can't really be the news that was so hyped?... fml if it really is.. F-M-L

[maddogx 13]

This can't really be the news that was so hyped?... fml if it really is.. F-M-L

Just read the first sentence...

As we stand on the verge of revealing our plans for Arma 3, there is one big topic we'd like to get out there first.

[Smurf 12]

Steam exclusive?

[zoog 18]

I have to agree, as a consumer, let alone developer, it was a pain in the *** with all these different versions of Arma 2 and separate patches. In fact, I actually had to reinstall Arma after a reinstall because something went wrong in the patching order. Anyhoo, a shit storm is probably coming. I think there are lots of fruits to be picked from Steamworks which can benefit Arma 3 greatly. Although I'm not a big fan of Steam in general though. It seems to be a very reasonable decision, considering the extra resources that would be needed to implement certain Steam features by themselves or separate 3rd party solutions.

[frostwyrm333 1]

Snap, this wasn't what I was expecting. I don't mind steam exclusivity thing, but lots of people will go apesh!t when they see this. So they are working hard just to release in 2013? This is quite unexpected to say the least. What about workshop, I believe that submitters are forced to sign some questionable licenses.

[trent 14]

So long as I can buy a DVD copy that has the game data on it, I don't care if it has to be run through steam. But I will not buy a digital-only copy.

[NeuroFunker 11]

Not to look like i'm steam fanboi or something, but steam? Just look at my steam library, most of the games i do own, about 70% are brought from steam, i've had not a single serious issue at all, and news like this are actually good news!

[Ezcoo 47]

Well... While going Steam-exclusive is not the best option for me (because Steam kills my internet access and reduces FPS, it'll be interesting to play without e.g. TS3 and desyncing constantly), I think that it's good choice in general. Less unneeded work for developers -> more time spent to actually develop the game, and hopefully much less script kiddies.

[cozza 24]

as much as I like steam.

I do have problems with it sometimes. Like when my internet is being choppy. it just dosn't want to log onto steam.

But steam does provide good things. I will no longer have to run around looking for a good fast place to download patches

But i don't care about that. As long as I can play the game. its all fine.

I'm mostly waiting for the release announcement they just mentioned.

[tekgun2 0]

I like Steam and have a lot of games on there, but I don't use it for ArmA2. I have a slight concern about how this will affect running a dedicated server. At the moment myself and the clan I'm in have a great deal of control over how we operate our ARmA2 servers, I wonder if this is going to change with the interaction of Steam?

[Guess Who 10]

So let me start with the shitstorm right now ...

Not happy with the Steam only decision at all. Forced Steam has prevented me from buying more than one game; if this will happen to ArmA (and it seems to) ArmA 2 will be very possibly the last of the series for me. I don't care if it's out in 2013. I care about not beeing forced to go through the most intrusive distribution platform I know of to play the only game I really love.

This is a sad day ...

[ProfTournesol 956]

I can't say i'm happy with it, nor with the content of the given blog (lol at "Internally we did an analysis of which features would make sense in Arma 3, and we even invited you to participate".).

But i understand the financial need to release the game in 2013 and to ease the patching process.

[Varanon 892]

I do have problems with it sometimes. Like when my internet is being choppy. it just dosn't want to log onto steam.

You can usually play games in Steam offline mode. I think you just need to have authenticated once.

[Alwarren 2767]

So they are working hard just to release in 2013?

Actually, that triggered my alarm bells as well.

However, from my own painful experience as a software developer, releasing anything on physical media, especially in countries like Germany, is a pain in the ass. Over here, as soon as you have a single piece of music, even if it's a start-up jingle on an operating system disk (as in my case), it need GEMA clearance. Production, packaging, translation, package design, all that stuff takes time, lots of it, long after the product is actually finished. It can easily shave off a month or two at least from your schedule.

Just hope there's more news coming today.