Can play MP with Alpha Lite?

[vegeta897 13]

I don't think custom MP missions fall under the 'no modding' restriction.

But they do fall under the 'no saving scenarios' rule. If you can't make and save your own missions, I doubt you can run other ones.

Could be wrong though.

[metalcraze 290]

What about custom made SP missions released by those who have the full edition? It seems that you will be able to load 3rd party SP missions with the Alpha LITE edition.

Most probably not. As others have said - can't save in the editor - can't play custom missions. Although I think it was said somewhere that you can't load missions into editor either - which would only confirm that.

[Angle 10]

The point is that there would be MP to begin with.

You don't see people "hacking in" mod support in ArmA2 Free. Or "hacking" demo version of OA into a full ArmA2 CO game.

HACKING IN [THE] MULTIPLAYER.

Joining servers and nuking everybody, making everybody dance, RUINING everything for everybody. And when they get banned they can just send their one lite invite they get with their first lite invite to a new steam account and do the same fucking thing over again.

CHEATING. BEING MASSIVE DICKHEADS. DO I NEED TO SPELL IT OUT MORE?

Edited February 28, 2013 by Angle

[metalcraze 290]

HACKING IN [THE] MULTIPLAYER.

Joining servers and nuking everybody, making everybody dance, RUINING everything for everybody. And when they get banned they can just send their one lite invite they get with their first lite invite to a new steam account and do the same fucking thing over again.

CHEATING. BEING MASSIVE DICKHEADS. DO I NEED TO SPELL IT OUT MORE?

But this is perfect. This is what Alpha actually needs. Otherwise stuff like this won't get fixed.

[viper[cww] 14]

It fails me why people never read any more, it takes twice as long to ask a question that can be answered by just reading.... smh

[Conti027 1]

Try playing 4 random singleplayer missions in ArmA2 1.0 and tell me if you would pay money for that game?

I would probably be considered an ArmA fanboy but if such game was my entry into the series and not OFP's outstanding campaign, insanely good mods and the knowledge that MP is even better than that - I wouldn't simply care.

No my suggestion is better than an utterly useless alpha where you can't even save your mission in the editor - basically an alpha-lite player will be stuck with 4 mediocre showcases that aren't even real missions.

It isn't like it will be a "lost sale" since it will just disappear in June and there's only so much MP you can enjoy without mods and with the need to have a paying player to host the game every time.

This isn't Arma 2...

It's an Arma 3 Alpha. Not a demo.

The Lite keys are perfectly fine and serve their purpose.

They could do it your way and it would be nice of them but they don't need to.

You make it seem like they are screwing people over when they aren't.

Its an extra.

[W0lle 1050]

HACKING IN [THE] MULTIPLAYER.

Joining servers and nuking everybody, making everybody dance, RUINING everything for everybody. And when they get banned they can just send their one lite invite they get with their first lite invite to a new steam account and do the same fucking thing over again.

CHEATING. BEING MASSIVE DICKHEADS. DO I NEED TO SPELL IT OUT MORE?

Please refrain from posting in all capital letters, which is considered yelling at people.

[sgthunter 1]

Aww that's a shame... the best Arma 3 parts are the two things that Alpha Lite people don't get. MP and Mods.

[lev 21]

I think for the alpha invites to be effective there should be some form of multiplayer allowed. Sort of like A2F where you can play MP, but no mods are allowed. I know for many players, my own friends included (who I will be sending invites to), single player is not a compelling experience particularly the Arma sp experience. The fidelity of multiplayer really sells it for them and is the difference between "meh" and a sale. It is disappointing that MP is not supported; I do not know if I should even send my friends the invite now as they probably will not put it to good use.

[andersson 285]

I think its all good as it is. Alpha is to invite people that dont know what the game is about, or to show them who know but plan to stick to arma2 because they dont realize it is worth to move on.

[Winfernal 2]

But this is perfect. This is what Alpha actually needs. Otherwise stuff like this won't get fixed.

Basicly, yes. This is true.

Let people absolutely obliterate the game and ruin peoples gamelplay sessions. It's better to check it out before release. Alpha is meant for testing anyways, treating and playing it like the release version now is a luxury.

[Overvolt 10]

I liked the missions of the showcase, if they'd like to play coop would be interesting.

[-Coulum- 35]

I think for the alpha invites to be effective there should be some form of multiplayer allowed. Sort of like A2F where you can play MP, but no mods are allowed. I know for many players, my own friends included (who I will be sending invites to), single player is not a compelling experience particularly the Arma sp experience. The fidelity of multiplayer really sells it for them and is the difference between "meh" and a sale. It is disappointing that MP is not supported; I do not know if I should even send my friends the invite now as they probably will not put it to good use.

I disagree. You are treating the free invites as if they are demos. The main purpose of the alpha, whether lite, standard etc., is to test the game and weed out bugs. There are more than enough people who have payed for the access to MP and are testing out multiplayer to find bugs. Therefore there is no need to include it for free, in the alpha lite. The alpha is not supposed to turn a "meh" into a sale, it is to make sure the game is functioning and polished. When arma 3 is officially released as a final product, then there needs to be demos, with multiplayer, to show how awesome the MP experience is. But I do not believe that it is needed now.

[OriginalHunk 1]

i was happy when my friend toll me that he's gonna get me a alpha code when there released and now im shaked cause i hear there's no multiplayer that is what i was looking forward for with being on the battlefield with other players and communicating on mic and owning the enemies , not playing infantry missions , people are mostly looking for the fun in multiplayer , single player are always fun for a while but get boring before its time , but yeah its already released thanks though, i got no credit card or those stuff to get arma III alpha or else ill surely be glad to give bohemia some support , i wont be getting a credit card till later on , my country run different to those places out there in the US like game stores, and prepaid cards i don't have those stuff my clan friends got me my games out of honor and years of friendship , but i hope ill get to play arma III multiplayer in the future with others ,

Thanks again

[chortles 263]

Here's an idea: do you live in a place where a retailer sells Steam Wallet codes? At least in New York City, GameStop stores and Best Buy stores sell Steam Wallet codes ($20 or $50 at GameStop) which work the same way that the PlayStation Store codes work -- redeem the codes to fill one's account wallet, then use the wallet as the payment source; in this case that would be two $20 codes, so $7.01 left over after buying Arma 3 at alpha.

[lev 21]

I disagree. You are treating the free invites as if they are demos. The main purpose of the alpha, whether lite, standard etc., is to test the game and weed out bugs. There are more than enough people who have payed for the access to MP and are testing out multiplayer to find bugs. Therefore there is no need to include it for free, in the alpha lite. The alpha is not supposed to turn a "meh" into a sale, it is to make sure the game is functioning and polished. When arma 3 is officially released as a final product, then there needs to be demos, with multiplayer, to show how awesome the MP experience is. But I do not believe that it is needed now.

If this was truly the case then the alpha lite invites are completely useless. Veterans of Arma who actually know what to look for in terms of improvements and testing have most likely bought the alpha already. These people are the dedicated community that will actually find and report bugs as we have done throughout A2 and earlier development processes. I'd rather not send alpha invites for testing purposes to users who don't understand Arma and will most likely report issues that are non-issues with Arma (just think about how many complaints and useless suggestions we got about A2 when the influx of dayz players joined). Considering the lack of any replay value or technically challenging game play in the showcases delivered for the SP component I highly doubt any useful testing will come out of that (face it how much useful bug reporting comes from a less than demo quality build sent to non-core consumers?). Any bugs that would have been found through a single or a few play throughs of SP will have already been reported by the large amount of players who have already played the SP and are now on the MP component. Also given that they are showcases, they deliver contrived missions that try to "show off" the engine instead of challenge it to do things that might cause issues.

I did consider this a good chance for allowing some friends to play some coop or something in order to convince them that the final product is worth getting. It would have been a nice couple of months to be able to show friends the multiplayer aspects of the game which sell this game far more than any showcase BIS packages in to "show off" the game. Most players are almost willing to overlook the flaws with conventional Arma gameplay given the chance to experience real gameplay in a multiplayer environment. As it stands these alpha invites are of little use to me. I'd be very lucky if I got a friend to try play the SP component of a game that they did not have much interest in to start with and with no promise of playing cooperatively or in multiplayer.

[Fuse 1]

I really can't believe people are complaining about friend invites to an alpha test. Are the free bonus invites useless for you? Then don't use them! You got the game at a big discount, you get to start testing in ALPHA, and they let your friends try out single player as a little perk. How is this not enough? Talk about ungrateful.

[3instein 10]

^^ Amen.

Mick.

[codball 1]

I'm not sure if people are being ungrateful about the Alpha Lite invites...

I'm in the same boat, I got into Arma 2 from Day Z, after playing for a while I decided to actually play Arma 2 for what it was really made for and thought it was brilliant - hence bought access to the Alpha.

I tried to get my friends interested in playing Arma 2 but none of them were willing to pay the money to do so and none were interested in playing the single player demo missions (for obvious reasons), I know this is an Alpha and these Lite invites are an added bonus (which is great) but I just think it would be far more effective to help people promote the game if a LAN feature or co-op feature was included.

Then you're not flooding the multiplayer servers with loads of random accounts which can spam, hack or troll but people can hand the invites out to their friends, play in a co-op scenario and learn to appreciate the game. Then you turn around and go "oh and guys, the multiplayer online is even better!"

They'll be far more inclined to buy the full version then.

Plus, the steep learning curve of playing online is likely to put people off so a co-op mode where 1 friend can give tips and advice to help others seems logical?

Maybe not now with the Alpha Lite I guess, at some point though!

[liquidpinky 11]

Gave my three alpha invites to workmates who i also game with on a regular basis, now I can have proper arma discussions at work.

Whats not to like?

[Victim 1]

Yea this was a mistake imo too, I was hoping to get a few friends interested in A3 via some late night multiplayer games :(

Bad strat imo, invites are almost useless :(

[jaykinch 1]

I don't think the lite should have multiplayer if people's want multiplayer then buy the game

The way I see it is the lite is to see if it will run on your pc and to see if u like it

I give a mate one of my lite invites yesterday he liked it and ran nice on his machine so now he's gotta buy into it to play online

They might release a online demo nearer to when the game coming out

[Placebo 29]

The core gameplay doesn't vary between SP/MP, by that I mean how you move around, how many buttons you need to learn, the basics of how you shoot etc. so you can consider the Alpha Lite as a core feature set tech demo as someone alluded to above, there will presumably* be either an Arma 3 Free with MP or an Arma 3 demo with MP and that is what will convince non-Arma devotees that the game is for them (or not) if they must try a game's multiplayer to know if a game is for them. Many, many gamers will not want to play Arma within 5 minutes of seeing how complex it it, and of course the inverse is true as well, 5 minutes in the Alpha Lite shows you it's not a run and gun game.

*based on past events not based on insider knowledge, just in case ;)

[lev 21]

I really can't believe people are complaining about friend invites to an alpha test. Are the free bonus invites useless for you? Then don't use them! You got the game at a big discount, you get to start testing in ALPHA, and they let your friends try out single player as a little perk. How is this not enough? Talk about ungrateful.

Ungrateful? I'm trying to help BIS sell their game and support a product that I enjoy. Had the 3 alpha invites been equivalent to the paid for version of the alpha, that would have been potentially 3 more A3 sales from my end. Imagine if all supporters got at least 1 of their friends to convert to a sale. That is almost 2x the revenue they already have from alpha sales Yeah so I'm so sorry for being ungrateful and trying to improve BIS's revenue and perform free marketing services for them :j:

The core gameplay doesn't vary between SP/MP, by that I mean how you move around, how many buttons you need to learn, the basics of how you shoot etc. so you can consider the Alpha Lite as a core feature set tech demo as someone alluded to above, there will presumably* be either an Arma 3 Free with MP or an Arma 3 demo with MP and that is what will convince non-Arma devotees that the game is for them (or not) if they must try a game's multiplayer to know if a game is for them. Many, many gamers will not want to play Arma within 5 minutes of seeing how complex it it, and of course the inverse is true as well, 5 minutes in the Alpha Lite shows you it's not a run and gun game.

*based on past events not based on insider knowledge, just in case ;)

I agree as a tech demo it does its job but really that is preaching to the converted. None of us here would hesitate to purchase the alpha because of our inherent interest in A3, but only a very small percentage of players would actually be interested in just a tech demo that you have to pay to play or get an invite to try out. The thing you bring up is that the core gameplay stays true, which I agree with. However, pretty much all of us on the alpha have tried the showcases and the core gameplay already and we've already reported the majority of those problems. On top of that core gameplay does not stress the game and root out the issues that need to be fixed. Custom mods/missions and MP push the engine to the limits of its capabilities and helps us find the problems that would actually affect game play when we have the full game.

A demo will probably be released at some point but the value of that is questionable because at that point the community will probably be fractured into demo players and full game players. Very few experienced arma players will go download the demo just for the sake of trying to show new comers on the demo how to play or explain what cooler things exist in the full version. Whereas right now BIS has a great opportunity to allow a cohesive community experience in testing and enjoying the alpha which can convert more potential players into actual sales or at least generate more data by giving players a build with re-playability value.

Long story short, IMO alpha lite without MP support will not generate better testing nor will it increase sales so more or less it is useless to both BIS and a lot of players hoping to get their friends onto the game.

[chortles 263]

At this point it seems like all the backlash against Arma 2: Free and the reputation for "casuals" or hacking influenced BI to decide that avoiding that this time (ahahaha now it's just them paying to achieve those) was worth the lost potential sales from lacking MP in the Alpha Lite.

The only downside to me re: the Alpha Lite is #1: will performance improvements ("optimization") in the paid builds be added into the Alpha Lite? After all, that's part of why the SP demo for Arma 2 became a horrible representation of Arma 2/OA's paid version, and #2: good SP performance (i.e. stability and high frame rate) will NOT represent the performance of MP, although right now that's understandable (no dedicated server binary).