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

[mattchicago 10]

The Good

the landscape and grass and tree's are great.

the vehicle handling is great and hit damage rate

The Bad

Video > Rendering > Post Processing (slows down i7 computers)

View Distance default to high (Lags default)

Random Massive FPS Drop to less then 2FPS then cleans up after 1 minute

Logitech Gamepad Default Configurations (not binded well default)

Needs better friendly targeting (name tagging) for reduction of friendly fire.

Small Rocks and Bushes still cause major vehicle damage (possibly less powerful small rocks) Never known a bush to take a tire off a car even in real life.

[PartyHead 10]

Although my experiences with Arma 3 (ALPHA) have been to this point fair, my first impressions of Arma 3 (ALPHA) in its present form is that its a cheap version of Arma 2. If they don't fix a lot of things wrong with it then i will be continuing to play Arma 2 instead and will be sorry i bought Arma 3.

Honestly i know its an alpha but it runs like shit and it just looks, sounds and feels cheap, for example when you shoot a barrel it just slowly rolls to one side and then gets sucked into the ground and looks totally fake and cheaply done, id rather it do nothing then to do some fake looking animation and the game is full of examples like that.

Arma 2 for me so far is looking to be a far superior product from Bis then Arma 3.

[mawg 1]

Like it so far. Ability to use mini map while divig would be nice.

Scuba demo finds me unable to kill anything with primary weapon. Fires great but is shooting blanks except at water... Weird issue..

Love the inventive aspect to playing the game and scenario's.

Ability to cut underwater mine cables and let them bob up and away and then blow on shore would be realistic..

So far seems familiar and similar to Arma II

Miss my weapsons selections and ability to establish my own loadout. Grenades for SCUBA mission..

Also Artillery is totally inaccurate and does not strike where pointed. Why doesn't he have a laser designator?

There you go..

[njmatrix 2]

bear with this post please before judgement. This is my interpretation of how events went don't bother correcting me. First I am one of those people who hates to love the ArmA series. I am not a fanboi. I loved OFP and VBS1. I paid out the money to get the german version of Armed Assault when Bohemia let everyone know they don't care for Americans by not releasing ArmA 1 til 6 months later in the U.S. Then letting us know AFTER we spent the money on it it was just a stepping stone to make ArmA 2. a laundry list of patches later the game finally ran pretty good but by then they decided that they weren't supporting ArmA 1 and were full motion on ArmA 2.

ArmA 2 comes and behold doesn't run. I mean really, crashed upon start. Yes another wasted 60 bucks. Emergency patch later you can kinda now play the game, sorta.. Then while I don't think the ink on the ArmA 2 boxes had even dried yet they announce Operation Arrowhead is now coming. Wait it get's better, it's a stand alone. KA-CHING means more cash cus it's a full game not an addon like Queens Gambit. Oh great the version i JUST dropped 50 whatever bucks on is now about to die off like ArmA 1 and it ain't even a month old yet. ok I am done with Bohemia and the ArmA series.The Ai are walking through walls, In MP I watch people skipping across the map I stop playing it and start playing Dragon Rising. It runs, the community is pretty good and some great mission makers turn the game into what CM couldn't and screwed up. So for a few years me and some friends have been playing a ton of DR and having a blast. I pickup all the ArmA 2 stuff on steam when it's 5 bucks because I already paid way too much for way too little before. I keep track of the A3 stuff here in the forums and know the Alpha is getting released via steam and I am upgrading my system. I get the system updated and a friend who bough the alpha sends me a lite version through steam to test on my new system.

I fire it up and it F-ING runs. No i mean it RUNS. It's smooth, it looks good even on my semi decent system. It is everything that A2 wasn't. I play the demo missions and find myself excited about playing it again and been trying out missions with friends for a month now and I gotta give credit where credit is due and Bohemia, for an Alpha this is a great release. I purchased the Alpha myself now and have been showing it off to other friends as well and we have been passing out those lite versions for people to play. Does it need stuff yeah it does but you know I can live with this. Upfront and I think we have a great base game to start with. OFP will always be my favorite game but one day A3 just may replace it after I get 10 years of playing it under my belt. I assumed A3 would suck as bad as previous releases and I am proud to admit I was wrong. It can only get better from here. Great job Bohemia.

[chortles 263]

Scuba demo finds me unable to kill anything with primary weapon. Fires great but is shooting blanks except at water... Weird issue..

This one unfortunately is "yet another case of BI being awful at explaining things like they ought to be" (Field Manual isn't enough, I'm afraid) but the "dual-purpose" ammo is #1: really only effective underwater, #2: HORRIFICALLY short-range compared to other weapons... point of aim = point of impact at 30 meters. Once you get above water, switch (using the action menu or the inventory menu) to the 5.56 x 45 mm STANAG magazines that the diver carries.

[tortuosit 486]

I came to the conclusion, that Arma III basically is Arma II with PhysX. And not much more (see AI/Pathfinding/Editor/UI Organisation).

[Bee8190 10]

I came to the conclusion, that Arma III basically is Arma II with PhysX. And not much more (see AI/Pathfinding/Editor/UI Organisation).

Truth to be told, I share your concerns. Physx were added as rather one of the main selling points and it would seem this is also where it ends. I feel A3 is not getting as much innovation as it deserves and rather seem to just follow improvements here and there. I don't want to discredit the no doubt massive amount of work that ragdoll (as well physx itself) will require, the detail of the huge island and much more but I really am utterly disappointed none of the features requested for years makes a mention and seem to be just ignored.

I was hoping for caves, rivers / lakes, walkable interiors, proper all core / HT use, firing from vehicles and some more. Admittedly, I have no clue how much work has to go into all that but I don't find this as concern of mine. Nonetheless, for the money I have bought the alpha game is still a fantastic deal, just to make that clear. I guess I just wish we could push this game to entirely new level where it would easily compete with any title from major developing studios out there. I mean the recipe is there and done now just add all the ingredients (long time lack of features) and when its done the game going to be unstoppable. (Basically it seem as always some kind of compromise)

Now I haven't reach my conclusion as we're in alpha but I am eagerly watching the progress and where it take us

[chortles 263]

Truth to be told, I share your concerns. Physx were added as rather one of the main selling points and it would seem this is also where it ends. I feel A3 is not getting as much innovation as it deserves and rather seem to just follow improvements here and there. I don't want to discredit the no doubt massive amount of work that ragdoll (as well physx itself) will require, the detail of the huge island and much more but I really am utterly disappointed none of the features requested for years makes a mention and seem to be just ignored.

Personally the only explanation I would have would be to joke that it took them over a decade just to get the AI to stop tripping over its own shoelaces, much less finally get new animation rigs, and (less jokingly) wonder if PhysX/ragdoll took up in fact so much of the budget and work-time... but then again, as for the stuff that didn't make it in, I believe a dev alluded to the team being so conservative about some of these changes, i.e. AI, because they barely know how some of their existing stuff works... and after Maruk's description of "Game 2" being so "extremely overambitious" I wouldn't be surprised if that informs their development of Arma 3 as well.

(Basically it seem as always some kind of compromise)

Welcome to making a video game anywhere near on budget and/or on time (which by the way was the most overt public reason for the Steamworks requirement).

[Juutas 1]

My first impression was... like... wtf! Looks great and sounds great! Sandbox world needs many many nights to explore! I love it!!!

[Hellhound 10]

I visited a friend tonight who bought arma3 alpha so i tried it out a bit (i don't own it 'cauze i don't do steam).

I'll break it down to what i liked and didn't like from the alpha (played a bit in the editor).

The Good:

- Like the new stance system

- Weather system

- New Sounds

- Physics (although it needs ALOT of tweaking).

The Bad:

- CPU usage is still horrible , like it is in Arma2 .I tried in the editor 32x32 AI and got 30fps at 40% CPU usage,

after that i tried 64x64 and got less then 20fps and the CPU was still only used 40%, (i7 920@3.4 GHZ)

I always was told that AI is heavy on the CPU, well i'm not seeing that, wish it was.

This should be top priority.

- Still no gun resting like in Red Orchestra 2 or bipod usage like ACE.

- The Gun sway , even in crouched position when you would rest the gun with your arm it sways like mad.

- Zooming Scopes is still very laggy (dropping from 50+ to 25)

- Midrange textures look terrible (blurry mes).

- No easy way to make custom loadouts without going with all the commands.

- No lights can be shot out (runway lights and lights from lamp posts, i know it's alpha but i have a feeling they

ripped it out completely).

- Running speed is way too fast, feels like floating also.

- Autohealing ? (when you get blood on the screen and it disappears).

- Don't like the whole future setting.

Personally I don't like the location (doesn't feel like a known war location, more like a holiday island).

It feels a lot like Arma2 with some added stuff and made more gamey.

It's a shame it still hasn't addressed the fundamental problems this engine has.

I have a feeling BI is aiming at the BF3 players, it feels more like a generic run and gun shooter now (you only have

to look at the youtube vids people are posting).

It probably brings in the money (untill BF4 comes along, and people start to migrate to greener pastures).

The bright side for me is, i don't feel as bad now as i did for BI going steam exclusive, i like arma 2 better, and

unless there's gonna be a steam free version, i'll skip this one.

[mawg 1]

Thanks missed that...

[mr.g-c 6]

I visited a friend tonight who bought arma3 alpha so i tried it out a bit (i don't own it 'cauze i don't do steam).

I'll break it down to what i liked and didn't like from the alpha (played a bit in the editor).

The Good:

- Like the new stance system

- Weather system

- New Sounds

- Physics (although it needs ALOT of tweaking).

The Bad:

- CPU usage is still horrible , like it is in Arma2 .I tried in the editor 32x32 AI and got 30fps at 40% CPU usage,

after that i tried 64x64 and got less then 20fps and the CPU was still only used 40%, (i7 920@3.4 GHZ)

I always was told that AI is heavy on the CPU, well i'm not seeing that, wish it was.

This should be top priority.

- Still no gun resting like in Red Orchestra 2 or bipod usage like ACE.

- The Gun sway , even in crouched position when you would rest the gun with your arm it sways like mad.

- Zooming Scopes is still very laggy (dropping from 50+ to 25)

- Midrange textures look terrible (blurry mes).

- No easy way to make custom loadouts without going with all the commands.

- No lights can be shot out (runway lights and lights from lamp posts, i know it's alpha but i have a feeling they

ripped it out completely).

- Running speed is way too fast, feels like floating also.

- Autohealing ? (when you get blood on the screen and it disappears).

- Don't like the whole future setting.

Personally I don't like the location (doesn't feel like a known war location, more like a holiday island).

It feels a lot like Arma2 with some added stuff and made more gamey.

It's a shame it still hasn't addressed the fundamental problems this engine has.

I have a feeling BI is aiming at the BF3 players, it feels more like a generic run and gun shooter now (you only have

to look at the youtube vids people are posting).

It probably brings in the money (untill BF4 comes along, and people start to migrate to greener pastures).

The bright side for me is, i don't feel as bad now as i did for BI going steam exclusive, i like arma 2 better, and

unless there's gonna be a steam free version, i'll skip this one.

Yes i have the very same opinion like you. I'm not that impressed actuallyl. A polished ArmA2 so far. Tons of great gameplay features are missing still, stance system is great however. Realism is again on the short side for that so called "realistic military simulator".

Have not noticed any physic really. Try to drive with a car at higher speeds over some smaller hills and the car will still "fly" through the air like if there is ZERO gravitation - the same like in all previous titles.

Guys move generally way to fast, i think its even worse than in Arma 2 and kills immersion, if you can float over a whole island in "no-time". Could be tweaked of course, if wanted (and hopefully will!)

AI is still very bad. I wonder why there cant be made any improvements? There are tons of high voted tickets in the ArmA2 CIT at Dev-Heaven where many of the highly needed core-AI-improvements are listed. At least give modders full FSM Edit capabilities. Override/edit of core AI should be really possible.

However its still Alpha. If i were BIS i would delay a full release to at least End of 2013 (Christmas sale maybe?)

[PredatorAlan 1]

Ok so the problem that i have is that i randomly get banned on some wasteland servers.

I just click join and then it says You are banned, this is kinda annoying since i see hackers on servers killing everybody and i get banned for no reason.

I wanna know if there are some other people that have the same problem.

[ronwelch 1]

I won't be buying it. It has no 3D support. I simply won't play games that aren't in 3D. I don't need to. I have tons of great games that support it. ARMA II, because it was in DX9, could be made to work passably well in 3D but this game, because it's DX11, has to have the support built into it like Tomb Raider and Batman Arkham City (excellent games in DX11 with 3D). So sad too. I own a TrackIR was dying to fly through the valleys, cutting the enemy down.

[HunterUK 10]

Good parts- Nice graphics and new movements.

Bad Parts - Wrong Island, I would have been great to bring on a different land scape as well for instance the north of Germany and Jutland in Denmark would have been more suited to this type of War sim game.

The armoured vehicles look wrong to type of war scene, could be better with more upto date vehicles of today in which there is ample amount of out to day. Also it would be good to attack the AI Enemies own base and not just the towns etc what they Invade.

Thats all in my own opinion :)

[HKFlash 9]

I visited a friend tonight who bought arma3 alpha so i tried it out a bit (i don't own it 'cauze i don't do steam).

I'll break it down to what i liked and didn't like from the alpha (played a bit in the editor).

The Good:

- Like the new stance system

- Weather system

- New Sounds

- Physics (although it needs ALOT of tweaking).

The Bad:

- CPU usage is still horrible , like it is in Arma2 .I tried in the editor 32x32 AI and got 30fps at 40% CPU usage,

after that i tried 64x64 and got less then 20fps and the CPU was still only used 40%, (i7 920@3.4 GHZ)

I always was told that AI is heavy on the CPU, well i'm not seeing that, wish it was.

This should be top priority.

- Still no gun resting like in Red Orchestra 2 or bipod usage like ACE.

- The Gun sway , even in crouched position when you would rest the gun with your arm it sways like mad.

- Zooming Scopes is still very laggy (dropping from 50+ to 25)

- Midrange textures look terrible (blurry mes).

- No easy way to make custom loadouts without going with all the commands.

- No lights can be shot out (runway lights and lights from lamp posts, i know it's alpha but i have a feeling they

ripped it out completely).

- Running speed is way too fast, feels like floating also.

- Autohealing ? (when you get blood on the screen and it disappears).

- Don't like the whole future setting.

Personally I don't like the location (doesn't feel like a known war location, more like a holiday island).

While some of your concerns are valid, stuff like running speed or the lights not being destructible are features that are clearly still being worked on and fine tuned. Take a look at the house windows for example: in 0.50 some of them were not destructible, other remained floating in the air when the house was destroyed.

Currently there's no autohealing, what you mention is just a feedback effect indicating you were hit. I won't lie though, I don't like it and I also don't like how MedKits are so effective.

You also forgot to mention that collimator sights are finally working properly. Honestly I think that should have made it into the GOOD list. Also the zoomed scopes don't reduce my FPS like ARMA2, on the contrary, they do exatcly the opposite.

[chortles 263]

Collimator sights were specifically one of the more featured things near the tail end of Dslyecxi's "Movement & Shooting Tutorial" video.

[Farraj 10]

i like alots of new thing so it will take long mentioning it

Bad things

1- animation , please work more on it , climbing ladders and changing weapon animations are the same as arma 2 , this is disappointing.

2- on editior mode , the FPS is 60 + with standard graphics but in multiplayer it drops to 30-20 , i have i5 2500 3,3 cpu and 6780 gpu.

3- please add new sound affect of the environment ,don't copy arma 2 sounds .

4- AI still ediots , if u shoot them from long range , they must take cover not only prone .

5- more characters or give abiltiy to create ur character from the beggining.

[obiadmin 1]

Cool concept allowing to you to help control your teams, but with 3rd party software (communication) all that is null and void unless you are playing a single player game (which I haven't done since 1999). With all these excess movements (weapon sway when firing, or the cluster of keys to do all kinds of things) the game feels far from real. I run around teaching men to kill people and with this game it doesn't feel real at all. When I fire my weapons I have no sway, and that's because of the years of practice/conditioning. I even have men who can run and fire the M320 (40mm) through windows to hit targets.

Graphics are ok but with CryEngine and Frost Bite they have much room for improvement. I won't bother with the full release but I'm sure in time I will come to enjoy some of the game (multiplayer). Thanks for the alpha preview though!

-SSG Fain 1-501 IN(ABN)

[Enrico 1]

Cool concept allowing to you to help control your teams, but with 3rd party software (communication) all that is null and void unless you are playing a single player game (which I haven't done since 1999). With all these excess movements (weapon sway when firing, or the cluster of keys to do all kinds of things) the game feels far from real. I run around teaching men to kill people and with this game it doesn't feel real at all. When I fire my weapons I have no sway, and that's because of the years of practice/conditioning. I even have men who can run and fire the M320 (40mm) through windows to hit targets.

Graphics are ok but with CryEngine and Frost Bite they have much room for improvement. I won't bother with the full release but I'm sure in time I will come to enjoy some of the game (multiplayer). Thanks for the alpha preview though!

-SSG Fain 1-501 IN(ABN)

Hi!

ArmA 2 takes the players on another level completely against any work other title in the FPS.

(may be because ArmA has never been just a FPS, but a simulator-tactic-shooters and strategy-games)

It 's like wanting to play with DCS Black Shark Simulator and complaining about the excessive difficulty of the Flight Model and the amount of commands that enable you, and know, to be able to fly.

Of course,the title about Apache: Air Assault is more immediate and fun, but it is not a relative of a flight simulator.

If you tell me that you have some difficulty because there are too many controls is only because you have not played enough time, because the gamers that follow the Bohemia Interactive from 2001 with the OPF (like me for example), they can be very fast and with a full control of any action......always if you know thats controlls of course and with the appropiate devices (nice mouse+speedpad or keyboard game+joystick + rudder).

And about the modest HD texture, you must think about the HUGE maps and how many objects that your CPU-VGA must to calcolate in real time in this game....so....Whic type of PC can run ArmA whit same graphic texture like Crisys 3...Nasa Server?

Anyway!

This is not an instant play for newcomers, but this does not mean that gives satisfaction, indeed, far from it!

My opinion about ArmA 3 alpha is nothing more than something between a playable preview trailer,i hope to 5% ..... then nothing at all .... look and dont touch!

You should also know that every title about bohemia begin to be stable and or enjoyable after 6 patchs....so calculates another 1 year after the date of the game...and I do not think that ArmA 3 will make an exception to the rule!!

If you want to understand what it means for your game you need to install ArmA II: Combined Operations, and if even after you do not like for the usual reasons listed above ... it means that maybe you're more suited for BF3 or COD .... but we are talking about 2 things COMPLETELY different, as between BF3 and COD you can also make some comparisons, but for the series of ArmA exist YET titles for comparison.!

Regard.

Edited April 11, 2013 by Enrico

[Sixgears2 1]

I've been rather impressed with the alpha thus far. It plays well, runs smoothly (provided you're nowhere near a large town), and actually offers a shocking amount of content for an alpha test. Oh, and it's really pretty on ultra. :)

However, it does have a few issues. Friendly AI frequently disregards your orders and runs off to die, enemies' reaction to incoming fire is possibly the least realistic scripting I've seen in a shooter, buildings in any large quantity seem to crush even high-end rigs no matter the settings, the environments feature some of the must stubborn jaggies in history, and the contextual actions are awfully finicky. I believe most of this will be fixed by release, but even new I'd consider ArmA 3 to be the best tactical/strategic shooter on the market--a statement that's both a compliment to BIS and an illustration of just how empty the genre is these days.

I'd give it a 8/10 right now and a 9.5/10 if the issues get sorted.

[krizz kaliko 1]

• Great Gameplay
  
• Graphic Support for AMD not GREAT, But Decent
  
• Needs to be optimised
  

[Enrico 1]

I've been rather impressed with the alpha thus far. It plays well, runs smoothly (provided you're nowhere near a large town), and actually offers a shocking amount of content for an alpha test. Oh, and it's really pretty on ultra. :)

However, it does have a few issues. Friendly AI frequently disregards your orders and runs off to die, enemies' reaction to incoming fire is possibly the least realistic scripting I've seen in a shooter, buildings in any large quantity seem to crush even high-end rigs no matter the settings, the environments feature some of the must stubborn jaggies in history, and the contextual actions are awfully finicky. I believe most of this will be fixed by release, but even new I'd consider ArmA 3 to be the best tactical/strategic shooter on the market--a statement that's both a compliment to BIS and an illustration of just how empty the genre is these days.

I'd give it a 8/10 right now and a 9.5/10 if the issues get sorted.

Sorry m8 but if you give 8/10 right now,,,,,,how much you give to ArmA 2?....100/10?:bounce3:

I dont undestand you.

What you found so ....WOW?..

The better graphic texture?...the new future about scuba?...That's mind that if the final version, about arma 3, it's look like now, you will be ready and enjoy to buy it?

Because 8/10 it's high score...you have been very,very generous about it.

There are some many intresting things that let's HOPE a great game,but if you check to 360°,currently, you get many smokes but just for a poor fast-food!

It seems to me like you're accepting so many compromises to play it.

Edited April 11, 2013 by Enrico

[ak1287 1]

Sorry m8 but if you give 8/10 right now,,,,,,how much you give to ArmA 2?....100/10?:bounce3:

I dont undestand you.

What you found so ....WOW?..

The better graphic texture?...the new future about scuba?...That's mind that if the final version, about arma 3, it's look like now, you will be ready and enjoy to buy it?

Because 8/10 it's high score...you have been very,very generous about it.

There are some many intresting things that let's HOPE a great game,but if you check to 360°,currently, you get many smokes but just for a poor fast-food!

It seems to me like you're accepting so many compromises to play it.

Arma 2 before playing Arma 3 Alpha: 8.

Arma 2 after playing Arma 3 Alpha: 6. Maybe a 5.

[Enrico 1]

Arma 2 before playing Arma 3 Alpha: 8.

Arma 2 after playing Arma 3 Alpha: 6. Maybe a 5.

....i would like know your pusher..LOL!

I think that you talking about OFP for that score...como on...be serious plz!

If you are happy just for to hear the sound..bang..bang...may be you right...but if we are talking about what miss still in arma 3 alpha........comparate whit ArmA 2 CO + ACE Mod....it's still so long the way!

Como a night in the server whit arma 2 in CTI mission and you will see wat mind,,,,,,,,play to 360°!

Edited April 12, 2013 by Enrico