Share your first Arma3 Beta Impressions (all first impression type posts here pls)

[Yairweinberg 1]

Okay, I played this for long enough now to give my full and honest opinion! :D

First off I would like to congratulate Bohemia Interactive you've made an exceptional game/simulator! I salute you!

Now that that's out of the way lets move on.

The GOOD! :D

Really fantastic work BIS you should be proud even as an Alpha this is amazing and an Improvement over ArmA 2. This game features a realistic

simulation of war like I've never seen before and throws CoD and BF out of the window! I like the fact that you added underwater environment and didn't go all

lazy about it and actually made it beautiful! The shooting both with hand held guns and Vehicle mounted guns/launchers is satisfying as hell! The above ground

environment looks amazing and when you fly over it will an AH9 it looks even better. Stratis is quite gorgeous and looks neat, I hope to have future operations there.

The vehicles physics are much better now and their interior looks awesome. I like everything about the Infantry whether its movement or stance adjustments love it all.

Good job!

The BAD! :(

As I started this I was overwhelmed with all the controls and stuff you need to do and remember the showcases were not very informative and I learned most of the controls and stuff from Youtube videos and the ArmA community Oh and of course my trusty field manual. The fact that there is no active anti cheat system. And there are a lot of bugs. Grenade launchers cannot be detached. That's about it really...

But seriously guys I might have learned the controls at the end but I'm not sure how many people will actually stick around till than. Make better guides and inform people of the field Manual it was extremely useful to me yet I didn't know about it till I randomly looked at it at one point. Don't make the game less complicated just guide people better.

Overall - You are amazing BIS you truly deserve every dollar I gave you!

[WonderWaffles 1]

Game looks good but doesn't run as well as I think it should (GTX 560 Ti, i5 3550 3.3 GHz)

Love the feel of the guns, and the new stances are GREAT

[Blaf 1]

TOH flight model is planned for later, it didn't make it to alpha because the alpha is infantry centric, beta is for vehicles.

Im not sure if ToH model is really confirmed...

[Elbows 10]

Previous ARMA2 guy here...(only a couple hundred hours, so not a life-long community player)

Initial impression:

This to me, simply feels like ARMA 2+. I understand the vast amount of work that must go into an ARMA title; it's what attracted me to the franchise in the first place - and what kept me enjoying the game despite a number of rather bad issues with it. I get the feeling when I play that I'm simply playing a prettier ARMA 2 mod.

Pros:

- It's an ARMA game, and it's the only franchise on the market which allows this style of gaming.

- The graphics are nice and crisp, and the skies look great. I'm sure the appearance of the game will be quite good when finished - and that's running on my mediocre hardware.

- While climbing/boarding/dropping animations are still obnoxious and chunky...basic movement when running forward and over small obstacles is much better. I haven't been hung up on anything yet.

- While I haven't figured it all out, the ability to customize weapon and gear looks like it has some good potential.

Cons:

- The editor is still identical...just looks different. I understand this game is about coding etc. (heck I got yelled out of the forum the last time I asked for help). But there is no excuse to not revamp it, and smooth many of the functions. It could be absolutely fantastic...as it stands it's a professionals tool, and is a huge turnoff for casual gamers. None of my gaming buddies ever bothered making missions in ARMA 2, so it was left up to me. I was really expecting better.

- Climbing ladders, dropping from a ledge, boarding vehicles, entering/exiting water are still...well...awful. The animations are horrible, jerky and it takes me out of the game a lot of the time. I would have thought simple things like this would have been first on the list of fixes.

- Vehicles still feel horrible from a physics standpoint. I don't feel proper weight, balance, etc. They're usable, but it'll win no awards.

- Diving. I'll say it: wasted time. It's a neat gimmick, but I can't see how it was worth all of the work. It'll be used a bunch at first, but I have doubts that it'll become a huge part of the game. Unless they intend to include some oil rigs or static ships etc...it seems like a huge amount of programming/work for a mechanic which won't be used too often, short of entry to missions, etc. I hope I'm wrong. I don't mind having it in the game, but that was programming time I'd rather see elsewhere.

- I'm sure this might change, but I used to use my Xbox controller when I hopped in Helicopters --- that doesn't work right now, and is a bit annoying. Flying the helo with keys and mouse never was very good to me.

Personal Cons: (ie. opinions...)

- I really don't like the near-future setting. I'll cope with it because I don't really have a choice, and I know I'll still enjoy the game. It just does nothing for me. Hard to get excited about it. Also makes it impossible to re-make fascinating real life engagements which I used to make in ARMA 2 (from the Cold War etc.). That as a whole is a bit of a shame. I hope Mods will save me eventually.

- I was really hoping for a ground-up new game, and I don't feel like I got that. I have payed for a copy of ARMA 3, so I'll still be supporting the franchise, but I'm less than ecstatic thus far.

Overall impressions: C+/B-

[chortles 263]

A dev confirmed early on that it was still planned, but DnA said that he wasn't sure if the vanilla helicopters in the release build would use it.

[coridon 1]

Short and sweet...

I think this is very impressive for an Alpha release. Kudos to you, BIS!

The *first* thing I'd like to see improved is the hit detection/weapon damage from small arms fire. I haven't played TvT yet but I'm avoiding doing so because I realize the lack of stopping power when landing shots would frustrate me to no end...

[KingScuba 1]

The Good :

Looks amazing in 5760 x 1080p

Great GFX

The Bad :

Alpha stuff. Can't use mirrors or in game windows (such as the gunner aim window)

The Ugly :

30 FPS when hardly 5% of my computer is being utilized.

[Tier1 1]

nice game

[Klash 1]

The game is very good, and very well done.

[Smoker36 1]

Arma 3 forever!

[Chrono_Binder 1]

In sunlight and nice weather it looks way better than Arma 2. In some cases it looks a lot like Arma 2 :/.

Soldiers can move a lot more freely with better flow now, still jerky in some situations.

Physics is finally here and I like it where it's used. Buildings tear apart like in Arma 2 (scripted).

AI is the same in most cases.

I love the new equipement system. Way better.

It feels stable. Actually it feels just like an Arma game without tanks, jets and a big island. Should rename it to Arma 3: Mini/Lite/Demo :)

Weapon sounds are great.

I'm glad to see something other than brown dull colors (Takistan) or the boring architecture seen in Chernarus. Staris is very pleasing to the eyes, just go to Camp Maxwell.

I love it! I think it is better than earlier Arma games in almost every aspect.

[mlewis1969 1]

Love it...

[Megadave 1]

With a fairly older system, I can run the game smoothly with high texture/low effects/no AA or PP. The game looks beautiful, the animations are very well done, the helicopter flying is a little easier than on ArmA2. Overall loving it.

[jefcostello 1]

I think animations have some issues, characters look a bit funny, when running, a bit stiff and a bit too quick sometimes which sums up to the funny part(like old chaplin films). Gun bobing while running seems really unrealistc, and quite too smooth and CODlike. Overall characters look weightless, unlike ArmA II.

[mikey74 168]

I said it once I'll say it agian much much better! AI is improved, sound and atmosphere is much better. Cant wait to see the finished product! Deffo cant wait to see some of the mods that come out later on. Hopefully there will be more to the main island then the stratus one. It was nice looking and had one town I like to skirmish in, but had to go back to other maps( I know alpha ;) ). Other than that, I LOVE IT! :) jmho ahhh yeh one thing. When I sprint behind cover my man will keep on going and Obviously I get killed. lol That' the most annoying bug I've seen thus far. ;)

[Puristaako 1]

Awesome, except one thing -- UI

UI looks like in 90x. Please, hire good UI designer.

[b33k3rz 1]

When it works, it is amazing.

[kernriver 4]

When it works, it is amazing.

So true. More often than not, when I start the game (from Steam) my monitor turns off, don't know why. Must be something on my end.

But when it works, it's great, even on my dated PC.

[wiresnsnakes 1]

First: It isnt possible to get my money back, if im informed correctly?

For Fans and other people, who dont have the same issues as I have, this may seem like trolling/flaming or whatever, but im serious and its just my opinion:

I buyed the Alpha, unaware of a problem, I never had with any game or where this had a real impact on the overall experience.

Its the blantness beyond 100-250 meters of grass/some objects and the awful texture thats used a bit further and then till over 1km or something; anyway as far as i can recognize a unit with the most advanced optics.

So too around 200m I get a pretty game for today, with no issues but beyond that a game of 2002 or 04. And thats makes the game look overall bad and more important brakes the immersion.

Even more awfull is, that it actually brakes the gameplay and make all this talk about "realism" "tactic" etc. quite laugable.

The solution is pretty poor for lieing units but there isnt any for crouching or standing units. You are a sitting duck in the field, just like a black shem on a white ground, which is just horrible considered the effective range of the weapons in this game and the camouflage makes it even worse.

Now i searched for solutions, so I dont have to be angry to wasted 25€s. the reworked midrange-texture makes it like a black shem on a grey ground, the advanced version version of the other person here, wouldnt be much better, that you cant see parts of lying units, which would be covered by grass, isnt great either besides it just works for lying units. Nothing of that is the real deal or acceptable, at least for me.

Besides its just fucking dishonest, cause that wasnt advertised. So I just feel ripped off.

The only solution would be detailed textures in the range of any optics in combination with something like noise which is just cheating and not really helping, but real graphic objects above the ground, so in this case grass.

I could accept if there wouldnt be any grass like in planetside 2, where, your know, there is only one environment, which doesnt work against me, no matter how far you look and the graphics are just...yeah: "honest".

Seriously: Warn people about that! One of the mainpoints of realism would be a consitent environment, where is no difference in those ranges.

And: That the people just can set the settings considered on this for the server is just horrible.

Cause of the reputation of the developer and that there probably will be no "real" solution, Im really angry, cause the game just looks like it is be advertised about 200 meters and every engagement above that range is a joke.

Other maybe dont get whats the big fuzz about, but i feel the same for people who spend money on this.

Anyway, I wish all people fun, who dont feel like I do and sorry.

Edit: BTW: There are many things in this game that are great, but that makes it even more sad.

Edited March 28, 2013 by wiresnsnakes

[acesential 3]

Sank way too much time into ARMA 3, about thirty hours, if steam is to believed.

It's just a lot of fun, really- setting myself and some friends against the AI and working together. The game just feels better, and while there are still a lot of rough spots, due to its alphaness, it's still incredibly enjoyable in its current state. I had a hard time convincing my friends before, to get into ARMA 2, but with ARMA 3 (plus those lovely alpha lite invites), I've been able to convince them just how great ARMA 3 is! I am looking forward to future developments!

Also, greetings, BI forums! First time posting- good to make your acquaintance!

[tremanarch 6]

hitting my 300st hour playing ArmA 3 alpha I must say: great work. Never had any Alpha Version that was so stable!

the game itself even cutted very low (only few weapons / vehicles and "small" island) already feels so divers, so many possibilities, makes up for good gameplay!

The AI - when in the open field, is so aggressive and good! (not perfect, but never saw any other games AI comparable to it)

--

of course improvements of all sorts are welcome, but I am already happy! and I regret not waiting to buy the supporter edition and only having the digital deluxe due to the shop not working in the beginning. Maybe I just gift an ArmA alpha to a friend as to say thank you to BIS!

keep up the good Work!

Cheers!

[Gustoril 1]

My first impression.

The first single player mission was mass confusion, The controls were completely not standard for a FPS game, Commands like spacebar to stand up/jump, control to crouch, shift to run. Rightclick to use sights, was all different until I spent an hour in the options trying to replicate as best I could the standard setup that I'm used to.

Even the weapon changing, rate of fire, grenades, there was just a huge learning curve for anyone who hasn't played an Arma or OFP game before. I gave a friend one of my lite invites and he was just completely confused as to, what to do, what to press and gave up within the first 10 minutes.

User Interface -

Start menu was easy enough to understand, Editor, options, multiplayer.

In-game I think is a complete mess and not user friendly (for new comers), Nothing is simplified and there are menus buried in menus for every action, command, visual and it is way to slow paced and overwhelming for my liking. I can understand everything perfectly just the time it takes to execute a command is to much. I'll state some examples of frustrating moments in-game below.

-Entering a vehicle requires a positional aim in order to access a -Part- of the vehicle rather than a simple -Enter / Exit- button. Needing to use a scroll wheel to select a part of a vehicle to enter in the middle of a fire fight is just stupid imo. I would rather a single button to enter the vehicle (in any available spot) and then shift seats if needed, setting priority for entering as (Driver, gunner, secondary gunner, passenger) and so on. Also I shouldn't need to be standing right ontop of a vehicle just to enter it, It is so hard to enter a boat that you need to be in the water when the boat was parked next to a docking walkway.

-The multiplayer user interface for players has minimal information to view, info like their role (Repair specialist), their squad (Alpha, bravo, charlie), their commands (Vote restart map, don't know who has voted and who hasn't). I'm not seeing any editable content either that allows someone to change squad or, select a role that's already taken because it's all -pre set- by the editor. The multiplayer commands are all in code and not easily usable from a menu, The amount of times I told others the commands for kicking, vote restart. If there was a interface for all the commands related to multiplayer, It would be easier to execute for new comers, because what other FPS requires the need for commands?. (Again the learning curve is to high)

-The map is easy enough to understand, though one thing that annoys me is the need to use arrow keys to shift through -markers- rather then a drop down menu that displays all symbols and can be selected with mouse. A menu that can display the all the symbols, colour, directional facing would be very useful in speeding up the Process.

-Equipment manager, I think it's improved since my last experience with a game like this(OFP), It's set out visually with main weapons, secondary weapons, storage space (backpacks), ammo, attachments, looks neat and tidy, easy to understand for more experienced gamer.... but, the visual information is minimal, There is no information about the weapons, the function, shots per minute, rate of fire options, recoil, accuracy. It would be useful to have a button that creates an info menu of the selected items characteristics, it could be a small splash screen or a fullscreen layout where you can play with the loadouts and read information about the item, Also the item list for selecting equipment show too many items of the same type.

Here we have 10 types of Weapon (A) with different attachments /// Here we have 10 types of ammo (A) with different tracers, round size /// Here we have 10 types of grenade (A) with different colours, size.

It's just this huge list that isn't categorized.

-Why not have 1 weapon type (A) visible, Click on it (opens a side menu), select attachment (Grenade launcher, Bipod), Equip.

-Why not have 1 ammo type (A) visible, Click on it (opens a side menu), select round size (100, 200, 30, 20), Select tracer colour, Select amount (1, 3, 5, 10 mags), equip.

-Why not have 1 grenade type (A) visible, Click on it (opens a side menu), select grenade (explosive, mini, smoke/colour), select amount, (1, 3, 5, 10), Equip

Gameplay -

I've been playing multiplayer coop matches, mainly domination and i'm enjoying the game-play, There's a good feeling when you have 20+ players working together to achieve a goal, communicating and playing their selected role (Pilot Doing pick ups and drop offs, Engineer road convoys), This game has a team based atmosphere which is rare with other FPS. The AI is just dumb and don't use the surroundings to their advantage, when under fire they drop to the ground in the open instead of running for cover, Something that could be changed in time I suppose.

I dont know what it is about the gun sounds, but they sound all the same, no variation in pitch at all, feels weird to try different weapons and have minimal variation in the feel of the weapon, grenades and explosions don't give that thundering sound that that I'm used to. I own a .223 Rem 700 and that has a very low pitch thump when I fire, Sounds nothing like the rounds in this game. My friend actually mentioned that the sound effects sound like they were made in a studio because there's always an echo. So I'm hoping that throughout the alpha/beta and to release. The sounds are adjusted to make the weapons sound more powerful.

Animations - Needs tweaking, I've noticed this game is set around animations and realism, but I'm finding that some game-play is affected due to this. The connection between each animation could be made tighter/smoother, Diving to the ground and then rolling sideways requires a break between instead of a single action, The need to actually be on the ground before being able to role, I do find problems with getting stuck between animations from swimming to walking, no jump/ step jump / vault whatever you want to call it, to easily scale obstacles, It makes it very difficult to enjoy the game when stuck behind objects and the need to always run around instead of climbing/jumping over.

That will be all for now, I'm sure there's other subjects to give a first impression about, but these are my main issues that affect my experience.

[ravenmorpheus 1]

I am a recent convert to BIS products, I'm traditionally a Battlefield 3/Bad Company 2, Call of Duty or Medal of Honor single player mode player (totally rubbish at MP so I don't even bother with MP in Arma 2), but CoD and MoH have gone stale recently and I've played to death BF3/BC2 so I've been looking around for alternatives, I'm also not a great fan of the "modern warfare" type of setting.

However, having bought Arma 2 Combined Ops and BAF DLC, along with Take On Helicopters, I am enjoying BIS's offerings, so far.

Here's my initial observations of the Arma III alpha.

Not too sure about the "future" setting of Arma III, too much like BIS are trying to compete with CoD Black Ops 2/CoD MW 3, but so far I generally like the Arma III alpha for what it is.

What I don't like -

1. The framerate (discussed to death I'm sure). My framerate in Arma II/OA and ToH isn't what I'd call great, average of about 25-35 fps in general during the Harvest Red campaign (40-60 fps in the Littlebird scenario though, probably due to it being a flying mission with minimal stuff on the map) and a little less on ToH (average 25 fps over Seattle). But those games are at least reasonably playable.

My rig is as follows -

AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE @3.2ghz

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1GB

1 TB HD Samsung 7200RPM

8 GB 1300 mhz DDR3 RAM

Windows 7 64bit

My settings for Arma III -

http://imageshack.us/a/img18/7793/arma32013032915243329.jpg (141 kB)

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/1546/arma32013032915242856.jpg (152 kB)

I tried the "Autodetect" feature but that set the settings higher than what I've set, so given the FPS drop I would have had if I'd gone with the "Autodetect" settings I'd say that feature is slightly broken...

I'm also using these launch paramaeters, taken from my Arma 2/OA install, not sure if they truly make a significant difference though -

-nosplash -maxmem=4096 -maxvram=1024 -cpuCount=4 -exthreads=7

I'm hoping the game is better optimised come the beta, and final releases, but given Arma 2 never was optimised very well I'm not holding out on that. However I've played through all the showcases and the infantry/scuba/vehicle showcases gave me playable framerates of about 25-30 fps on average, so it's no worse than Arma 2/OA. The Helicopter showcase was a little worse at times as I recall but still playable.

The game looks great even on the slightly average/low (in my opinion) settings I'm using however, so apart from the framerate issues I'm satisfied with the graphics so far.

2. The fictional elements so far. Such as it being set in 2035. A fictional island. Fictional names for one or two of the weapons, in particular the Walther P99. As far as the weapon names go I realise there are probably licensing issues, but I hope they are resolved soon and proper names are attached to the weapons. As for the island being fictional, just a personal thing but I'm getting tired of seeing fictional countries, islands, cities, towns etc. I realise there would probably be an "international incident" if say BIS released a game based in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran etc. (although CoD MW3 seems to have gotten away with it) but personally I'd say publish and be damned. The "future" setting is also another bugbear, as said above it smacks of BIS trying to copy or keep up with CoD BO II/MW3. If BIS can't do a current conflict era setting how about choosing historical settings, such as Vietnam (very underdone imo), anything but a setting in the future would be great from this gamers pov.

3. The use of Steam. I don't like it as a DRM measure because it means I end up with tons of games I can't sell on or give to friends when I'm done with them, even if I could (PC 2nd games market has been dead for a long while though) and I don't like it because Steam often has problems - I've frequently had problems where Steam has tried to update itself and just wouldn't and I've had to go to safe mode with networking just to get it to update. I've also heard about the problems Arma 2 owners had with their Steam version...

4. Just a matter of preference really but I don't like the HUD for the helicopters so far. I'd like to see the virtual instruments panel that ToH has when flying a helicopter in Arma 3. I only have a 21" monitor (which sits about 2-3ft away and doubles as my TV) and the resolution I use isn't good enough to see/read the instruments in the cockpit properly and I find the cockpit view rather awkward at times anyway, so I find that overlay in ToH very helpful.

5. Stealth seems redundant so far. I like the fact that in Arma 2/OA it appears the AI are sensitive to the noise you make and that creeping around in walk mode or on your belly reduces noise levels and thus allows you to get the drop on AI (it makes the tank destroying scenario in Arma 2/OA really epic). In the Scuba mission however this didn't seem to be the case, nor in the infantry mission where I tried to creep up on the mortar spotters. Hopefully that gets fixed.

Things I like (I can probably think of more but this is what springs to mind at the moment) -

1. Love the helicopter available. although I'm a little confused over the missile (dagr?) targetting system and I don't seem to be able to aim them very well, nor the machine gun - it would help if the co-pilot acted as the gunner. Correct me if I'm wrong but the flight model from ToH seems to be being used, if not the flight model seems to be improved over that used in Arma 2/OA. I can't fly well though, I'm rubbish at it, but I do enjoy it. I hope to see many many many more helicopters in the game.

2. PIP in the vehicle showcase - very nice detail. The rear facing camera in the driver position (took me a moment to work out it was rear facing) and the gunner FLIR camera are a bit laggy but that's probably just my rig and the low-ish FPS I get, hopefully optimisations can be made with that... The PIP in the Infantry showcase was a little confusing (saw the two spotters, still couldn't tell where they were and I had to look at the map) and rather pointless IMO but perhaps that's just the way it was used in the scenario and can be better implemented from an infantry perspective.

3. Scuba - another nice addition. I found in that mission you can even kill the turtles whilst underwater. Lol. Nice attention to detail.

Edited March 29, 2013 by RavenMorpheus

[mrbud420 1]

my arma 3 alpha on steam wont update at all, it wont even give me the update to download ive tryed everything that people have put out but nothing still. im sorry if this topic is in the wrong place but idk where else to go, soo i was just wondering if you guys could some how upload a standalone update to 0.52 so we can download and install? cause ive been lookin everywhere nd it seems like some people are having the same problem. Thank you! PS. i wanna be able to test and report bugs again :(.

[rfc 10]

my arma 3 alpha on steam wont update at all, it wont even give me the update to download ive tryed everything that people have put out but nothing still. im sorry if this topic is in the wrong place but idk where else to go, soo i was just wondering if you guys could some how upload a standalone update to 0.52 so we can download and install? cause ive been lookin everywhere nd it seems like some people are having the same problem. Thank you! PS. i wanna be able to test and report bugs again :(.

Please search the forums first: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?149411-How-to-change-between-stable-Arma-3-Alpha-versions-amp-release-candidates-STEAM-client