Arma 3 Community Alpha - Announcement!

[sparks50 0]

I'm against the idea of paying for testing the alpha and beta (for ArmA3). It's going against the openness that BIS has had with the community in similar ventures with the current beta patch system and the Community Preview for Take On.

The Take On beta required Arma 2, and the patch was just a patch.

I think people preordering physical disks should be included as well in the alpha/beta as well if possible. Sprocket is a very good service, and my preferred way to buy BI games, but if people don't want to buy from this shop, then I guess you could make a case that using beta access to push them into using it is wrong.

[dale0404 5]

From the looks of it if you want to take part in the Alpha / Beta then you'll be able to, no need to have any qualifying criteria etc.

[purepassion 22]

Damn this is cool...

@CarlGustaffa

Surely the Alpha will be on the same Island as the retail version. Why should they use a different Island for this?

Since it was said it will be very limited in terms of assets included, it might take place on the smaller island Agios Efstratios. Remember this which led to this? :) (Nothing confirmed tough)

Edited February 25, 2012 by PurePassion

[onlyrazor 11]

Since it was said it will be very limited in terms of assets included, it might take place on the smaller island Agios Efstratios. Remember this which lead to this? :) (Nothing confirmed tough)

So... Chances are there will be a small island in Arma 3.

[metalcraze 290]

That or the small part of Limnos like in a demo.

[Craig_VG 20]

Limnos lite?

[gammadust 12]

I don't know if soundtrack contributed too much, but I read PurePassion's post and I strongly think he stripped inocent the whole twitter obscurity given by the exile, i am almost crying. If it looks like am talking like on a hangover you are right, but it certainly does not feel like it. I am not a man of religious beliefs but the alternative is trying and understand why this kind of stuff makes me have blind faith in humanity (!!??)...

nvm, maybe i just followed the suggestion in the twiter...

[Sgt Mack 10]

Sounds interesting. I'll look forward to hearing (reading) about more information on a playable ALPHA build that we can test and give feedback on.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Iirc the Arma2 demo had both; a small area from Chernarus, and Utes. The small area wasn't usable for anything afaik, but I used, and still use, Utes all the time. Due to its size and thus efficiency, yet complex enough to allow testing, and it's now my default island at startup. When you get into frequent crash hell due own mistakes in mods and missions - like I do all the time - loading efficiency is crucial.

I think it was said they wouldn't be making a separate island. And I haven't heard any news about it.

:pray:<- Me praying for a small separate island, that will be the basis for the alpha.

[jblackrupert 14]

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.

This.

I do have several Sprocket purchases though so I hope something can be worked out for DISC buyers. Say, people who bought the A2 and TOH DLC.

[Craig_VG 20]

It would take longer for it to download then for a dvd to come in the mail for me. So I'll probably go for a hard copy too. But I did get Take on Helis from Sprocket and it went fine. I guess I'll make my decision later.

[AnimalMother92 10]

Good decision BIS, looking forward to it

[ceeeb 147]

Sounds like a good idea, especially target feature builds.

[nuxil 2]

This is real great news.. this will hopefully help you crush some nasty bugs before the release..

[purepassion 22]

I think it was said they wouldn't be making a separate island. And I haven't heard any news about it.

:pray:<- Me praying for a small separate island, that will be the basis for the alpha.

here is what RiE wrote to me:

Your sleuthing is indeed formidable!

Though, to save you all the effort, I must say there is no link between the horses head and any island :D That was genuinely just a crazy team member!

I think you might have extracted all the information there may or may not have been in that single, innocent tweet! ;)

Best,

RiE

it seems like your prayers were heard ;)

It would sound plausible if they used the smaller map for the alpha to test on (also due to the reasons you mentioned) which is about 40km²

[Tonci87 163]

It is very handy to have a small island to test things on. IF you want to do a quick test with somethng, it is way faster to load up utes or the desert instead of Chernaruss.

[CaptainBravo 0]

The pictures look ... WOW!

[NeuroFunker 11]

the only reason i'll looking for this alpha - testing performance. If it's good, i might get arma 3 copy just at release date, if it's worse - then i have to wait altleast half a year, to 5-10 bugfixes and optimization patches to come. Not nagging, just based on really bad arma 2 performance at release date.

[maddogx 13]

the only reason i'll looking for this alpha - testing performance. If it's good, i might get arma 3 copy just at release date, if it's worse - then i have to wait altleast half a year, to 5-10 bugfixes and optimization patches to come. Not nagging, just based on really bad arma 2 performance at release date.

I expect performance is one of the things they will want to test with the alpha release (makes sense), so that's absolutely legitimate.

If you go a step further and actually provide feedback, for example by providing repros for specific situations where performance is especially bad, you'll be helping everyone, including yourself. ;)

[krazikilla 5]

For some reason my Quote thingy is not working, so ill do it like this:

"NeuroFunker:

the only reason i'll looking for this alpha - testing performance. If it's good, i might get arma 3 copy just at release date, if it's worse - then i have to wait altleast half a year, to 5-10 bugfixes and optimization patches to come. Not nagging, just based on really bad arma 2 performance at release date. "

NeuroFunker is, without him wanting to do so, showing off a problem which might hit in at the alpha release.

Too much clueless dudes might mistake it as a kind of a demo.

Means, they are thinking like:

"Oh the performance is shit, not even my 3000€ Rig can handle it on Full Settings, i wont buy this sh*t"

" The AI is so bad, i wont buy this game"

" The map is so low on details, if this small map is already so bad, how bad will be the big one?"

you can continue this for at least 20 more examples.

So, i love the idea about having a nice alpha, helping you guys finding major bugs and testing features, but PLEASE BIS:

TELL EVERYONE that this is an ALPHA Version, and explain what alpha means (Even if you think its impossible: A lot of people do NOT KNOW WHAT ALPHA/BETA stands for). Tell eveyone that the performance and ALL the featuers and graphics might be muuuch better in the original game a bit later.

Else you might have a lot of whiners and "Not buyers" because they think: Whats in Alpha is in Full.

[.kju 3245]

Simple - create an obstacle to get only really interested and dedicated people to try it, like pre-order requirement or similar.

[JSj 12]

Pre-ordering would indeed seem to be the best solution. That means that only those dedicated to getting the game on release will get into the Alpha and Beta, and not the people who will just regard it as a demo and don't understand that the final release will be different from that what they are trying out.

[metalcraze 290]

Preordering will be the stupidest solution.

Preorder to try out alpha version? Are you joking? So the dude will try alpha, won't like the gameplay but sorry you already wasted your money - tough luck. This will make BIS look no better than Activision or Ubisoft.

Why not preorder to download demo then since considering how buggy and brokern ArmA2 demo was it's the same thing?

[maddogx 13]

Preordering will be the stupidest solution.

Preorder to try out alpha version? Are you joking? So the dude will try alpha, won't like the gameplay but sorry you already wasted your money - tough luck. This will make BIS look no better than Activision or Ubisoft.

Why not preorder to download demo then since considering how buggy and brokern ArmA2 demo was it's the same thing?

Ironically enough, you're proving Krazikilla's point perfectly.

An alpha is not a demo. It is not what someone new to the series should be checking out to see if they "like the gameplay". If someone wants to try the game, they should wait for the actual demo. Making the alpha only available to pre-ordering customers makes perfect sense, because it keeps the people away who would grab the demo just to see what the game is like, find it is full of bugs and dismiss it out of hand. The people who pre-order a game in summer when it will be released in Q4 are mostly the ones who will be buying it regardless, because they know the Arma series. It makes sense that these are the people who should be testing an alpha version, because they have the most incentive to provide feedback.

Anyone who actually goes and pre-orders a game just to try an alpha build is, frankly, an idiot.

Edited February 27, 2012 by MadDogX

[-=seany=- 5]

Preordering will be the stupidest solution.

Preorder to try out alpha version? Are you joking? So the dude will try alpha, won't like the gameplay but sorry you already wasted your money - tough luck. This will make BIS look no better than Activision or Ubisoft.

Why not preorder to download demo then since considering how buggy and brokern ArmA2 demo was it's the same thing?

Yeah, I agree with Maddog. It is not stupid at all to make the Alpha available if you pre order. That is the way I guessed they would do it. You get fans who where going to buy the game anyway, and the ones with the most dedication on the Alpha team, saves a lot of problems. And by not allowing every one and anyone to get copy of the alpha you have more control over your content and get to keep some of the "Shine" on your brand new product / features. It also stops passers-by (unjustly) dismissing Arma3 on the basis of an alpha build they downloaded, just because its free.

Eagle Dynamics did this for their Beta of DCS:A10 and it worked perfectly.

The point is that people who are not fans wont pre order to try an Alpha. If your stupid enough to pay to try a demo of a game you don't know you will like, then you are stupid enough pay to try an Alpha...and be disappointed. Not much can be done for such special people. Having pre-order alpha actually stops stupid people dismissing the game based on an Alpha Build.

Edited February 27, 2012 by -=seany=-