Is Arma3 still the "Flagship"

[Smurf 12]

Multiplayer stuff, that is (was) his job at BIS.

[kylania 568]

Multiplayer stuff, that is (was) his job at BIS.

Confirmed! ArmA3 to be single player only with no editor! :P

And it's entirely DayZ's fault. :p

[celery 8]

Confirmed! ArmA3 to be single player only with no editor! :P

And it's entirely DayZ's fault. :p

Yeah, just pretend I'm not here at all. :(

[kylania 568]

Yeah, just pretend I'm not here at all. :(

ArmA3 to be multiplayer only with full "Holodeck"-style virtual reality editor!

[hund 0]

ArmA3 to be multiplayer only with full "Holodeck"-style virtual reality editor!

I'm gonna need a bigger monitor...

But seriously, much as I adore Arma, I wouldn't blame BIS if they made DayZ the flagship franchise. I don't know diddly about the numbers involved, but it seems that the zombie franchise is selling like no-ones business over at steam. And as a business, BIS looks to me like it is big in it own neck of the woods, but if it wants to be big globally, the better bet might be to go with the franchise that everyone might want rather than the one a select (but smaller) group will most certainly want.

If it happens I'll be sad (I might even cry a little) but I'll also understand (not that I think it'll happen, BIS have always been such nice and standup fellas towards us, the communitards). Now I feel like an ugly girl. Gonna go eat some ice cream.

[Mattressi 10]

Even if DayZ were to become the financial flagship of BIS, I can't see them developing it as the flagship. That is, I don't see them making their next generation engines based on the needs of a zombie survival game (though, perhaps they'll add some features for it, like melee weapons). As a military sim engine, it is very flexible; able to be a civilian helicopter simulator, for example. An engine built for a zombie game likely would make it inflexible. You can make a zombie mod out of a military-based engine, but it'd be very time-consuming to make a milsim or flight sim out of a zombie engine.

I do hope that DayZ doesn't change their focus away from Arma. The good majority of people that I know who bought Arma CO for DayZ, said that they got bored of DayZ relatively quickly and thought they'd try Arma - only to discover that they love it. Maybe it isn't representative of everyone who bought Arma CO for DayZ, but I still think it would be a mistake to neglect Arma. Arma can be so many things, while a zombie game cannot easily.

[Phantom Six 25]

I rather have ARMA as the flagship than DayZ. Its easier to mod and make more out of a simulator than a zombie game. Just as you have said Mattressi, there's so much more you can make out of ARMA. It may be a military sim engine and a more tactical game, but because there's commands in the editor that make it possible for me, if I felt like it, I can make some kind of run and gun crazy rambo missions. It's so flexible. Now trying to make a tactical mil-sim shooter from a zombie game? That's way harder and much more time consuming to do. I hope all goes well for ARMA 3, so far from the videos I've seen, it looks like a jewel, I'd like to see the open Alpha for myself and hope that ARMA 3 has a bright future ahead for it. Of course the mainstream favors DayZ, but the long time fans, true fans, first fans, and niche tactical shooter fans that BIS created ARMA for the first place will always remember ARMA.

[chortles 263]

Multiplayer stuff, that is (was) his job at BIS.

Actually, according to the April animations interview, he also recorded about a third of the infantry animation (mo-cap) for ARMA 3, while Smookie did the rest. Therefore, you can "blame" (read: credit) him with Last Stand and Final Stand :D

(Man, remembering a forums member's sheer Internet RAGE at the supine position was so hysterical in light of the above pictures, and so "everything that is wrong with the ARMA community".)

From what I've heard, the ONLY "loss" to ARMA 3's dev manpower was Rocket, and that happened a while back (when the "Rocket told to work on DayZ full time" rumors hit the Internet); I've heard that he's hanging on to the people that he'd already been working on the mod with, instead of pulling more people off of ARMA 3 development team(s). The allocation of other resources is unknown to the publicly, but whoever was saying this basically said that in terms of allocating people, it was NOT a zero-sum equation -- DayZ's gain was NOT ARMA 3's loss. Take heart in that at least! :)

Edited August 9, 2012 by Chortles

[maturin 12]

The 3D editor IMO is a very very important feature. It can mean the difference between mediocre to good user generated scenarios with rough similarities to the ones included in ARMA, versus a plethora of excellent creativity in how ARMA is and also isn't meant to be played (both are good).

Uh, why the hell?

The only thing a 3D editor is necessary for is stacking crates to build elaborate pillow forts. Anyone who says otherwise just can't read maps.

Note that I say 'necessary' for. 3D can speed up object placement immensely, cutting down on the time spent previewing, minutely adjusting, then previewing again ad nauseum. But this can be alleviated by an accelerated preview method, launching the map in seconds with only the designated objects rendered. Also, BIS could create a 3D placement tool for making prefabbed defenses.

All in all, that would be a better use of resources (along with improving the usability of the very stable and mature 2D editor). Because you just know that any 3D editor released by BI would just unleash a cascade of headaches, while seriously detracting attention from the core game (it is in effect a whole separate program. look how long it took Bethesda to turn out their piece of crap mod tools). Stability issues, glitches, performance issues from play transposed to the editing process, you name it.

And I mean really, what is so hard about dropping down units and waypoints and triggers in 2D? Nothing. That's most of mission making, after all.

[Phantom Six 25]

Well, the 3D editor benefits would be as you stated maturin. Waypoints, triggers, and markers to be are better in the 2D editor. As for precise and quick unit placements, 3D editor would be better for interior placements or stacking a bunch of crates together to create a fort. There is also another way to place units in interiors by finding the position you are standing but it is more a hassle than a quick 3D. Of course the 3D editor isn't the most necessary thing, but it is nice to have for convenience. As for stacking up blocks or making large mazes, the current 3D editor in ARMA 2 can do the job pretty well by doing all of the empty objects first then converting it to 2D and doing the rest there.

A 3D placement tool for placing prefabbed items would be excellent.

[maturin 12]

Like with a building-only 3D editor that would bring up the model in a blank window. You click a location on the 3D preview and your unit appears at the proper place in the 2D editor.

[carlostex 38]

Yeah, just pretend I'm not here at all. :(

Oh noes! SQS is BACK!!! :p

[celery 8]

Oh noes! SQS is BACK!!! :p

With unprecedented vengeance.

[dmarkwick 261]

With unprecedented vengeance.

And furious anger?

http://www.omega-level.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Pulp-Fiction-Remix.png (164 kB)

[Jezuro 452]

This disabled 3D editor discussion is getting out of hand. Even if we don't manage to make any further changes in it, we see no reason not to have it in the game.

Remember: no features removed!

[maddogx 13]

This disabled 3D editor discussion is getting out of hand. Even if we don't manage to make any further changes in it, we see no reason not to have it in the game.

Remember: no features removed!

Le good news, straight from the horse's mouth. :D

[kylania 568]

It's like Alderaan has been put back together! Yay!

[Nicholas 5]

Honestly, I don't care anymore. As long as they keep the same open engine for their games, I am happy. I want them to be happy with their work, not some slaves to the community. As long as they are happy with their work, we will see more quality work.

[chortles 263]

So Jezuro, all of what you guys are fixing in ARMA 3 don't count as features? :D

Le good news, straight from the horse's mouth. :D

Sounds more like "we may not make it any less buggy and it may still be hidden, but it'll still be in the release build." (Anyone who panics about it not being in the community alpha, I believe it was specifically already said that the alpha would only have the 2D editor.)

Nevertheless, overall positive news, thank you Jezuro.

[dmarkwick 261]

Honestly, I don't care anymore. As long as they keep the same open engine for their games, I am happy. I want them to be happy with their work, not some slaves to the community. As long as they are happy with their work, we will see more quality work.

Hah :) thread winner.

[jack_oneill 0]

Sadly, I'm at the point where I don't care if resources were moved to day z. It doesn't look like A3 has any more of a hope of being a fun multiplayer game than OFP, Arma, or Arma 2 were.

Although I haven't played day z yet, it looks like it might actually be fun to play with and against human players. Who would have thunk it would ever happen.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[kylania 568]

It doesn't look like A3 has any more of a hope of being a fun multiplayer game than OFP, Arma, or Arma 2 were.

That's fantastic news! Since the ArmA series has been the most fun I've had in multiplayer gaming in over a decade.

[metalcraze 290]

Yeah it almost sounded like jack_oneill isn't happy about that.

[avfc 10]

Not anymore no, was crazy excited for arma 3 this time last year, a year on and not so much now. Who knows they may suprise us but its fair to say my hopes arent that great at the moment.

[Ekko 1]

They really need to work the level of detail in ArmA 3 since ArmA 2 had some really awful transitions on a large amount of objects, mostly houses. Hopefully they will do something about this since they have more people working at BIS than before.

Its just so distracting to see objects change their form completely when you get closer to them, and I don't like how they change or pop up slowly(0.5 sec) when you zoom in on them or get close to them, it should be dynamic, it should be fast and precise.

If they can do this right, then its only the AI left. :cool: