Arma 3 Community Alpha - Announcement!

[paecmaker 23]

When we became something new to See , ok the Merkava Tank is new an d the F2000 but what about the other´s ,Iran ARmy Vehicles & Co. We want more Intel :)

Actually both the merkava and the F2000 has been known a long time, however the pictures still showed some really interesting things.

[naizarak 4]

this is amazing, and those screens look photo-realistic. hopefully everyone interested will get a chance to play.

[twisted 128]

BIS you again show me why I support you guys!

awesome! please allow pre-orders so i can purchases asap.

[NoRailgunner 0]

So this will be a open community test version of an Alpha A3 without NDA?

How you make sure that everyone don't use and report issues/bugs using old, obsolete or buggy stuff?

Will you implement a feature/tool which suggests a good setting for user and/or include proper benchmark missions (with + without AI)?

Will there be another Alpha versions to focus more on specific things eg backward compatibility, commanding/controlling AI, making missions....??

:)

[nodunit 397]

Sitting in the house on a 80 degree day, meh temp is fine its not hot..read see picture of RTT and read about community alpha...why'd it suddenly become 100 degrees?

Edited February 24, 2012 by NodUnit

[Flash Thunder 10]

I can't wait to do some bug hunting, inbalances and nice.... ness

[highhead 20]

Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! thank you so mch BIS, where can we pre-order arma 3, seriously - open a preorder-shop m8s!

Cant wait to for june, i will test the sh.... out of it!

Thank your for your support BIS

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Sign me the funk up. :dj:

[markocro 66]

awesome :P

[the_antipop 10]

In regards to the alpha/beta, will they included a server exe file in order for clans and others to test the MP side of these builds? Or will it be purely SP?

And during these tests, will some base models and code be available to modders in order to help the process of porting A2 content?

Regards,

Anti

[maddogx 13]

In regards to the alpha/beta, will they included a server exe file in order for clans and others to test the MP side of these builds? Or will it be purely SP?

Considering that the dev blog article explicitly stated that they intend to deliver a solid MP experience, it's safe to assume that the alpha/beta builds will come with MP. Testing the dedi server would also make sense in that case.

[purepassion 22]

I absolutely welcome this decision!

The team gains feedback, the community can test and play elements of the game and everyone will get a much less buggy release version :)

However I think there is even more potential. And that would be making it available for pre-orders.

This would work perfectly via the in-house Sprocket store.

Why?

The team gets support in mid-development (money that can be used)

Anyone willing to support game development in alpha/beta stage is most likely also willing to pre-order it

Real and solid feedback gets more likely (point of all this)

prevents people from abusing it as nothing more than a "demo" and then judging the game from this WIP-stage

[kremator 1065]

Sign me up! Great idea !

[Sekra 10]

However I think there is even more potential. And that would be making it available for pre-orders.

This would work perfectly via the in-house Sprocket store.

I have already paid for a pre-alpha with buying Arma1 and Arma2 on release and I personally would refuse to pay to get the alpha. This is the first time I see actual sense in their release plan (thank god I'm not german so I've never been forced to play the 1.0 of any release) when we get the buggy as hell first version for free. I am more than glad to provide feedback with the alpha but like the song says; "Thank you Bohemia for making me beta test a game I bought".

[antoineflemming 14]

I have already paid for a pre-alpha with buying Arma1 and Arma2 on release and I personally would refuse to pay to get the alpha. This is the first time I see actual sense in their release plan (thank god I'm not german so I've never been forced to play the 1.0 of any release) when we get the buggy as hell first version for free. I am more than glad to provide feedback with the alpha but like the song says; "Thank you Bohemia for making me beta test a game I bought".

Yeah, I understand what PurePassion's point is (that is, if I correctly understand what PurePassion said). If it were made exclusive for pre-orders, then only the people who wanted to buy the game would test the game, and then it wouldn't just be a bunch of people playing it like a demo, and offering little feedback. However, you're also right. I agree. It should remain free. Only the people who are actually interested in it in the first place will try it. Those who don't like it altogether will drop it if they try it. Those who do prefer ArmA's gameplay will test it, and provide feedback (most likely in the form of criticism, but hey, it's still feedback). You shouldn't have to pay for an Alpha. Now, IF BIS wants to limit who tests it, they can make a key-based system, where only people with a key can test it. But, I disagree on that point, too. I think it should be done similar to the TOH Community Preview. Just let people test it. The people who actually are interested will test it. Those who aren't will check it out but drop it. That's kinda what I did with the TOH Community Preview. I tested it, but I'm not the guy to fly helicopters in ArmA, so I wouldn't even know where to begin providing feedback because I really don't know the major differences between ArmA's FM and TOH's FM. So I stopped trying out the preview, because there was nothing in it for me. And, in the end, it doesn't matter how many people test it and provide feedback or how many simply play it as a demo. The same people who have the intent of providing feedback WILL provide feedback regardless of the number of people who download the Alpha. So nothing changes. So BIS might as well make it free. Which is the smart decision.

[Tonci87 163]

I don´t know if it would be a good thing to let only SProcket Pre Orders get it, I for example enjoy to have a hard copy of the game, with case disk and manual. I think that I´m not alone regading that.

[Derbysieger 11]

I don´t know if it would be a good thing to let only SProcket Pre Orders get it, I for example enjoy to have a hard copy of the game, with case disk and manual. I think that I´m not alone regading that.

I also like my hard copy. That's why I bought TOH twice. I guess I'm going to do the same with A3.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Did the world turned upside-down? Paying to test an Alpha? Seriously some folks must be really fanatic or from CM forum....

[Mr. Charles 22]

Protip: Do a BI forum alpha :D

[Smurf 12]

Did the world turned upside-down? Paying to test an Alpha? Seriously some folks must be really fanatic or from CM forum....

Paying for a full game; pre-order => Acess to Alpha.

What is the big deal? Have been done before many times.

Public Alpha may make people think that is the final product or will not change enough until realease. And lets be honest: that might be a problem for a game coming from BIS.

[Tonci87 163]

Thats why BIS has to make sure that the people understand that it is only an alpha. Something like a Popup everytime you enter the main menu.

[NoRailgunner 0]

@Smurf

If its well communicated and ingame marked as Alpha only blind (or very simple minded) people may still think that this is the final product. :icon_rolleyes:

And lets be honest: those people will probably like to play something else.

Tonic87 zeh ninja

[purepassion 22]

To be honest, I also have some problems with that ^^ Mainly what you, Tonci, said. As much as I like Sprocket, I prefer a hardcopy with a nice manual and this little idea would not offer it.

My main concern was basically that new people who might be interested in Arma 3 use it as a taste for Arma 3. And that is not really the case here. The Alpha/Beta is usually supposed to help with the developement and someone who is just looking into the game and might want to buy will most likely not "test" the game in terms of testing but rather see if he likes it. But to be honest making it completely accessible would indeed help. :)

[Smurf 12]

Thats why I said:

Public Alpha may make people think that is the final product or will not change enough until realease.

That happened more than once too. BF3 and RO2, for example, had an enormous feedback from the testers and changed little in the final build. That made people angry (at least in the RO2 part.... BF3 gamers seem to not care that much)

Anyway, it's not my call so whatever.

[gammadust 12]

I am for broad access too. And it is safe to assume so:

This will be an iterative process and we will appreciate any proper feedback. If we took a guess, there could be thousands.

(...)

We’re especially interested in the new technologies running on the broad range of hardware out there.

PCGamer interview

---

I noticed in a recent beta (other game) that feedback was collected in context through a in-game pop-up (dismissable) that would be triggered in key moments.

This could help in some ways, by helping in weed out the most conscious feedback from those simply "demoing", by putting the critique in context diminishing ambiguity arising from different terminology of certain features.

But this could also help in actually better involve those just seeking a "demo", by streamlining the boring part of writing feedback (in the form of rating of 1-5 and a field for small observations).

The example in question was more oriented towards game difficulty feedback more than general gameplay features, but this could be fitted for BI's purposes i guess.

Edited February 24, 2012 by gammadust