Full Steam Ahead - "User Generated Content and multiplayer" as priorities

[OMAC 254]

While I greeted the news from the dev blog post with some degree of trepidation regarding Steam, what concerns me the most about it is not the Steam issue, but the stated BIS priorities for A3, namely this:

To give you two keywords summarizing our priorities: User Generated Content and multiplayer.

What about BIS content and singleplayer? Rich, long, complex campaign? SP scenarios? I sure hope that these BIS standards are not being neglected for A3. I would be very surprised if they are, but the stated A3 priorities raised doubts... :eek:

I assume that Joris mentioned these priorities because mod users/devs and MP people (including server admins) will be most concerned about the transition to Steam, but........

I was forced recently to move to Steam for Iron Front Liberation 1944, and have had no issues whatsoever in doing so. Everything is running very smoothly (esp. patching), but I haven't tried to use mods, because there aren't any due to contract. So far, the benefits of Steam (especially with Steamworks) seem to outpace the downsides, and I say that as someone who has never used Steam for A2. But I can also say that if there are any games out there that seem less suited for Steam than A2 and A3, I don't know about them.

[Smurf 12]

These could be their priorities for improvements, as those are really lacking (without 3rd parties programs).

They also stated that the campaign will be better compared to A1 and 2. IMO most single missions were quite good, inclunding the DLCs ones.

Looking at Killing Floor and TF2 Workshop pages, AS IS, don't think that those will work for Arma. Too many little, single pieces, may create a huge clusterfuck (can you already see infinite Ak\M4 mods and now, clothing pieces?).

[OMAC 254]

:D Yes, I doubt that such workshops would be optimal for A3, but who knows? Someone could spend hours making a new A3 belt buckle! :-o

Based on this, my credit card trigger finger is already itching, as it does look cooler than A2 campaigns:

06FZBB0dCOA

This also looks kick ass:

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/29/arma-3-will-have-sandbox-singleplayer-with-side-quests/

[chortles 263]

While I greeted the news from the dev blog post with some degree of trepidation regarding Steam, what concerns me the most about it is not the Steam issue, but the stated BIS priorities for A3, namely this:

What about BIS content and singleplayer? Rich, long, complex campaign? SP scenarios? I sure hope that these BIS standards are not being neglected for A3. I would be very surprised if they are, but the stated A3 priorities raised doubts... :eek:

I assume that Joris mentioned these priorities because mod users/devs and MP people (including server admins) will be most concerned about the transition to Steam, but........

I was forced recently to move to Steam for Iron Front Liberation 1944, and have had no issues whatsoever in doing so. Everything is running very smoothly (esp. patching), but I haven't tried to use mods, because there aren't any due to contract. So far, the benefits of Steam (especially with Steamworks) seem to outpace the downsides, and I say that as someone who has never used Steam for A2. But I can also say that if there are any games out there that seem less suited for Steam than A2 and A3, I don't know about them.

There's also the fact that the reliability of Steam offline mode aside, there's no obvious way that Steam would mess with SP -- for example, if you got knocked offline while playing the campaign -- and thus less uncertainty about what Steamworks means for SP as opposed to MP.

[doveman 7]

To give you two keywords summarizing our priorities: User Generated Content and multiplayer.

Well hopefully this means they'll implement automatic mod enabling/downloading for both SP missions/campaigns as well as MP servers, as I suggested in this ticket 8 months ago https://dev-heaven.net/issues/35469#change-139457 and discussed in this thread http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?120878-Automatic-Mod-Downloading&p=2244097&viewfull=1#post2244097

Because at the moment it's such a pain in the arse to setup a profile in Arma II Launcher for each SP Mission and then if I get bored with that mission, having to exit and relaunch Arma with another profile that I haven't even looked at most of the cool missions/campaigns I've downloaded sadly.

If they don't do this, clearly User Generated Content is not a priority for them despite what they say.

[chrisb 196]

Having never used Steam before, I am interested in the mod download section or workshop area. The two links there above seem pretty straight forward, I am assuming when mod/addons are listed that’s where they appear, then you just download the ones you want from there ?

I have currently HDD’s that I use to store all my mod/addons for the series, well over a 1000 mod/addons I would think, lost count.

Now with Steam do the mod/addons come into your library after downloading from the workshop area and if so, can they then be transferred onto storage like my others above ?

I see that they are sort of categorised, which makes it easier, similar in a sense to Armaholic or Armed Assault site.

Now being completely new to Steam, would mod/addons that are made separate to Steam, i.e. say placed on another site, be usable on Steam for A3, or would they have to come from Steam ?

Its better I think to ask to see if anyone knows here regards using Steam’s functionality, rather than search around on their site, I hope to get opinions too, concerning the functionality, how; easy, good, bad, hard, awkward, etc things are when using them on Steam.

Thanks. :)

[OMAC 254]

Yes, makes sense. I never knew there was such a thing as Steam offline mode until now.

So, for example, all the mod makers would upload their stuff to Steam, and then Steam kind of controls them (:-o) and adds them to a workshop browser screen to download? Hmmm. But I assume that users could still use local mod folders as always, and load mods by adding them to the Steam "Set Launch options"? I have no clue as to how all that would work, but I am sure BIS does (or is working on it), and will ensure awesome mod functionality, or else they wouldn't bother with Steam...

Edited February 25, 2013 by OMAC

[gibonez 18]

Not worried about that.

The best thing in Arma 2 is community generated content.

Bohemia lays the foundation for a great game, the community grabs it and runs with it making the game the community wants.

[Gunter Severloh 4063]

Like Skyrim mods through steam, can be downloaded through the workshop but you need to register or something forgot the word.

But all the mods i have ever downloaded for Skyrim was through nexus which is independent of steam and you install them into the main folders for the game,

it should be the same setup for Arma3 I would think.

[Smurf 12]

You have to Subscribe to mods, so they are updated automatically. The only time I used it was for RO2 maps and it's integration was far from great (couldn't see a list of what was going on, not even the % of the downloads) but I think that goes to TWI account, not Valve.

Anyway, some "mods" (more like skins) there seems to be local only and depends on the server if they allow such things to be used.

Honestly I know very little about it so don't know what to expect. But to me it seems that Workshop may only serve as a repository\file host and the mod management must be something provided by BIS.

____

@Steam multiplayer browser: (if used) It's good, way better than what we had built in until now. Many filters, tags, tabs for history, favorites, friends... and it is quick.

What Im looking for is the actual server lobby. It will be the same thing? (Team, slots) Something diferent for pure PvP (where slots don't matter) and PvE\Coop?

Arma can be so many things that is hard to imagine what can happen there.

[OMAC 254]

Well hopefully this means they'll implement automatic mod enabling/downloading for both SP missions/campaigns as well as MP servers, as I suggested in this ticket 8 months ago https://dev-heaven.net/issues/35469#change-139457 and discussed in this thread http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?120878-Automatic-Mod-Downloading&p=2244097&viewfull=1#post2244097

Because at the moment it's such a pain in the arse to setup a profile in Arma II Launcher for each SP Mission and then if I get bored with that mission, having to exit and relaunch Arma with another profile that I haven't even looked at most of the cool missions/campaigns I've downloaded sadly.

If they don't do this, clearly User Generated Content is not a priority for them despite what they say.

^ ^ This is key. I wonder how easy it will be to set up mods for a given session/mission, and then to switch between mod setups or vanilla? Just some clicks from a list of "registered" (? - meaning already downloaded) mods and then relaunch? Automatic mod downloading? But then there is the built in ArmA expansion menu... How much will be A3 versus Steam? It will be cool to find out.

But the coolest would be automatic mod selection and download whenever you select a mission or server, and then auto-updating of all mods. But that would require the missions to have required mod info embedded somehow, or there would be a master mod requirement list somewhere, perhaps maintained by BIS? So many cool things to think about..

[cuel 25]

I'd like to see a system like how natural selection 2 works, so called hot mod loading. Depending on the server you connect to, the correct addon is installed / mounted. Of course it's a lot different since it's more lua-code related addons, meaning that the file size is lower. Still there's a lot of client-side addons (models, skins) that are consistency checked on the server. Of course there's still some stuff to work out like how would you be able to create a user mission with some specific addons etc.

[maddogx 13]

I'd like to see a system like how natural selection 2 works, so called hot mod loading. Depending on the server you connect to, the correct addon is installed / mounted. Of course it's a lot different since it's more lua-code related addons, meaning that the file size is lower. Still there's a lot of client-side addons (models, skins) that are consistency checked on the server. Of course there's still some stuff to work out like how would you be able to create a user mission with some specific addons etc.

Some time ago, a new "experimental" command was introduced (and removed a short while later due to possible exploitability) in an Arma2 beta build that allowed config files to be loaded without restarting the game. This even worked from the mission directory if I recall correctly, which theoretically would have allowed mission makers to package simple config mods into their mission, had the command not been dropped. The only drawback was that you couldn't remove or change any mounted config classes, only add them.

At the time, Suma stated that dynamically unmounting or changing classes was a much more complex task than adding them, and that this certainly would not happen in Arma2. This was before Arma3 was announced though, so maybe there is hope that something like this has been implemented.

[eddieck 10]

Some time ago, a new "experimental" command was introduced (and removed a short while later due to possible exploitability) in an Arma2 beta build that allowed config files to be loaded without restarting the game.

If they keep the event logging/blocking feature (or perhaps implement those API changes, but I doubt they will at this point), there shouldn't be any security issues with this. Well, there would be, but it'd be the mission maker's fault.