Arma 3 Community Alpha - Announcement!

[gonk 0]

Mondkalb Explains that

And this statement is a tad simplistic and offensive. Most older players have been requesting fixes/changes for a very long time and now they say that we accept it because we are blind... BS!... We ask and then we wait.... no use harping on about it as we know the company has limited resources... plus the game has come a very long way thanks to the Previous programmers listening to us. You might want to look through all the suggestions since OFP and you will see that same requests over and over and over... You might want to keep all suggestions rather than re-inventing the wheel and starting a new list every-time.

Edited August 19, 2012 by gonk

[instagoat 133]

Mondkalb Explains that

And this statement is a tad simplistic and offensive. Most older players have been requesting fixes/changes for a very long time and now they say that we accept it because we are blind... BS!... We ask and then we wait.... no use harping on about it as we know the company has limited resources... plus the game has come a very long way thanks to the Previous programmers listening to us. You might want to look through all the suggestions since OFP and you will see that same requests over and over and over... You might want to keep all suggestions rather than re-inventing the wheel and starting a new list every-time.

If you are requesting changes, and are interested in developing the series to make it more admissable, playable and smooth, you probably weren´t talked to to begin with, so how is that statement offensive?

There -is- a problem with people looking at the old games with pink glasses. I used to do this with OFP, and to a degree I still do. But every time I start it up, I notice all the flaws. And then when I go to Arma 2, it feels much better, but then some of the same old problems crop up -again-. The only stand-out good thing about OFP were the campaigns, in terms of size and flow, they were better than most of the things that have been offered to us afterwards.

One major problem so far has been that BI have tried doing too much. Even -major- gamecompanies do this (think of Lionheads Fable 1 debacle). After actually seeing the game now, I will be happy if I get a tightly developed, smooth playing, well rounded game even if content has been shaved away for the sake of error-potential reduction. If you ask any non-hardcore arma2 player, any casual gamer who has tried Arma 2 what they connect with the game, usually you´ll hear "Bugs, bad performance and buggy controls." That´s not what you want your game to be remembered by.

Arma 3 has to overcome a pretty big mountain of malcontent with the people who bought Arma 2, coming from outside the established communities, and got a buggy mess. Then it -also- has to convince the established playerbase, some of whom have been with the series for a decade by now, who have entirely different expectations in many cases than the casual gamer has.

BI has to strike a balance here, and in the light of the complexity and legacy of the Arma/OFP series, it´s a challenging and, as far as I am concerned, unenviable job.

[Redfield-77 10]

I just built a new PC for Arma 3. Now I want to pre-purchase. Please take my money and let me test the best game ever. :D

[gonk 0]

Are there going to be any extra debugging/data capture tools in the alpha ? I hope so...and I hope it is automated.

[Craig_VG 20]

What do you hope to be automated?

Thanks for the update, Jay. Keep up the good work.

[gonk 0]

What do you hope to be automated?.

If the game crashes, I would like to see a pop up window asking if you would like to send the computer and crash data to BIS. Rather than me trawling through the folders to gather up my PC/Windows/Driver info and then finding the DMP file.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

That'd be pretty neat actually. I'd like to be able to turn it completely off though, as some crashes may be directly related to own development that doesn't need to be looked at by BIS. In which case I don't want to be bothered with the popup at all.

[chortles 263]

If you are requesting changes, and are interested in developing the series to make it more admissable, playable and smooth, you probably weren´t talked to to begin with, so how is that statement offensive?

What do you mean by this?

One major problem so far has been that BI have tried doing too much. Even -major- gamecompanies do this (think of Lionheads Fable 1 debacle). After actually seeing the game now, I will be happy if I get a tightly developed, smooth playing, well rounded game even if content has been shaved away for the sake of error-potential reduction. If you ask any non-hardcore arma2 player, any casual gamer who has tried Arma 2 what they connect with the game, usually you´ll hear "Bugs, bad performance and buggy controls." That´s not what you want your game to be remembered by.

+1. Speaking of which, let's see what Vespa had to say on features...

I should note that "bugs, bad performance and buggy controls" is pretty much also a very, very common view of DayZ -- although of course a lot of its faults could be blamed on its mod status, a LOT of this sentiment has rolled over into strident anti-Real Virtuality 3 sentiment, i.e. "I hope the standalone uses the ARMA 3 engine because the ARMA 2 engine is so awful!"*

Don't accuse them of being casuals, notice the liking for the ARMA 3 engine. ;) Do I consider this worth listening to by the ARMA 3 developers? Absolutely.

Arma 3 has to overcome a pretty big mountain of malcontent with the people who bought Arma 2, coming from outside the established communities, and got a buggy mess. Then it -also- has to convince the established playerbase, some of whom have been with the series for a decade by now, who have entirely different expectations in many cases than the casual gamer has.

Boldfaced the important parts; the former about "coming from outside the established communities" is important because I believe that Mondkalb's intent behind the statement had to do with the priorities for "fixes/changes" that the long-time players have requested for a long time being so different from what "people trying out ARMA" would prioritize to "fix/change", and Jay's promoting in the lead up to E3 and afterward has seemed geared to those who were looking to give ARMA a chance (i.e. after the DayZ hype) or who were burned by ARMA 2 on first impresssions (as opposed to discontent with long-standing more under-the-hood issues like AI)...

This is why an open/no-preorder-required alpha is so important, to maximize the playtesting of these changes! If it's only "the community," they're not going to be able to give "newcomer to ARMA" feedback that this series needs, and may well be playtesting things (i.e. AI behavior) besides the dev-intended "targets of playtesting" (i.e. "does this feature feel approachable, is tactical pace fast enough, is this feature or functionality that we added make ARMA usable")...

(Speaking of said official E3-to-GC promoting... what do you think I use to proselytize the good word of ARMA? It's certainly not particle effects, AI or "realistic backblast", it's videos of ARMA 3 E3 and GC 2012 infantry gameplay. ;) )

* Alternately, would you rather see ARMA 3 be called "everything BF3 should have been" or "fun to play in spite of itself"/"fun BECAUSE it's so terrible"?

Edited August 20, 2012 by Chortles

[kylania 567]

* Alternately, would you rather see ARMA 3 be called "everything BF3 should have been"

I would actually prefer that BF3 not be a target to emulate at all to be honest. But then again, I'm not a BFoon and don't want to play a game where

. :)

[tremanarch 6]

I am really looking forward to teh alpha. And now that Gamescom is over maybe we get some deadline soon :)

[reaper lok 82]

I would actually prefer that BF3 not be a target to emulate at all to be honest. But then again, I'm not a BFoon and don't want to play a game where

. :)

wow....and not a good wow!! I loved playing BF2 Bad Company but this latest version is a step back. The ArmA series is my Obi won Kanobi (spelling).....my only hope at quality military gaming (or at least as far as I am aware of). I was excited about the community Alpha for an August release date but understand them pushing things back if its just not ready for the mass public backlash. I'm pretty impressed with even the changes from E3 to GC this past week.......keep up the great work BIS!!!

[BuddLight 1]

Ive been to GC and I kinda wondered that I got to test this game within 10 minutes of wait which was awesome. Kinda funny that all the guys are waiting for COD for hours when the best game in the world is in a lil corner somewhere in area 9 with 3 computers. When it was asked who wants to play Arma 3 I directly said, me me me, and no one else out of the 20 guys waiting there replied lol, all of them wanted to test DayZ I guess, which they actually can play at home ;)

To be honest I was so extremely suprised about the quality of this game and also suprised of the great Bohemia guys advising you there. The guy who welcomed me lost his voice so he talked to me with papersheets, pretty awesome and funny evening.

I noticed many changes with the handling of weapons because they feel a lot lighter now so you can move them a lot faster! Pretty awesome.

Looking forward for the community alpha, too bad he couldnt tell me some information about it but I guess bohemia is taking their time to develop a fantastic game, not like DICE ;)

Budd

[chortles 263]

I would actually prefer that BF3 not be a target to emulate at all to be honest. But then again, I'm not a BFoon and don't want to play a game where

. :)

You misjudge me: the hypothetical "positive review of ARMA 3" line was to say that Battlefield 3 should have emulated ARMA 3. :D

all of them wanted to test DayZ I guess, which they actually can play at home ;)

They may have heard that the DayZ standalone will NOT use Real Virtuality 4, so they realized that ARMA 3 wouldn't be an accurate representation of the game mechanics in that standalone. :p

I noticed many changes with the handling of weapons because they feel a lot lighter now so you can move them a lot faster! Pretty awesome.

It's basically the most awesome thing about the E3 and GC builds, and the infantry/weapons handling is what I've been using as my main centerpiece of promoting ARMA 3 to outsiders (because frankly it's what they seem to react to most positively). Edited August 21, 2012 by Chortles
Added the bit about advocating for ARMA 3 with the infantry videos

[simon1279 51]

Ok an entire year have passed out untill we noticed the release of arma 3..... right it was dated to be released in summer 2012, a very long year suffering for to waiting for this, E3 is finished time ago GC finished, videos are very nice, the release date has been posticipated, but please BIS release the alpha soon or i'll become insane.... please have mercy and save me from my insanity..... please can't wait anymore....

[HKFlash 9]

Ok an entire year have passed out untill we noticed the release of arma 3..... right it was dated to be released in summer 2012, a very long year suffering for to waiting for this, E3 is finished time ago GC finished, videos are very nice, the release date has been posticipated, but please BIS release the alpha soon or i'll become insane.... please have mercy and save me from my insanity..... please can't wait anymore....

Jesus christ man - stand fast!

[NeuroFunker 11]

wow, maybe i would feeling the same, 10 years ago, when i was a scholar. Now i have enough patience to simply WAIT, and understanding, that BIS not rushing it, cause they willing to optimize the game as good as they can, unlike it was in arma's 2 case. Whats the point to play bugged product, getting mad and angry, waiting for 10 patches, until it's finally get polished? I do prefer to wait, for a quality product.

[jhoson14 10]

To be honest, i'm more cool with wating this time. (With A2 i was almost eating my finger's )

Let BIS get the time needed, when its ready we will be able to play for days without sleep! (hope there are no serious problems with Phsyx to be holding Alpha this much )

[gonk 0]

As mentioned the Multi-player is also being a problem. Might be worth looking into a Pre-Alpha release option with single player only. Just to make people focus on the core of the game rather than get caught up in the distraction on Multi-play.

[NeuroFunker 11]

As mentioned the Multi-player is also being a problem. Might be worth looking into a Pre-Alpha release option with single player only.

huh, the earlier players will get their hands on multi, the earlier BIS will fix multiplayer, especially balance wise...

[chortles 263]

You mentioned multiplayer and balance, let us run for the hills! (I still remember the disaster that was the MP Balance thread.)

[gonk 0]

huh, the earlier players will get their hands on multi, the earlier BIS will fix multiplayer, especially balance wise...

I am just worried they may spend a lot on time on the core of the game and then they will have to change it due to the public.. it is all about trying to streamline the dev and not having to repeat. In the interview they mentioned that is has been delayed due to Physx3 and the new MP features/code. Might be easier to work on one area at a time.... just a suggestion, not a demand. :). No biggie if the hold off until next year for the alpha if they want to perfect it.

[sgtsn1per 1]

Cmon BIS we havent had any new eye catching info from you guys for atleast a month i think now?... :/

[papanowel 120]

Cmon BIS we havent had any new eye catching info from you guys for atleast a month i think now?... :/

Let them recover from the Gamescom :p

[Scoggs 1]

fix multiplayer, balance wise...

Hate to use this. But. "Not sure if serious. Or just doesn't get what arma is about..."

[celery 8]

Hate to use this. But. "Not sure if serious. Or just doesn't get what arma is about..."

Continue the discussion here please.