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afp

My Alpha Gameplay Report

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It's not a bug report but just some observations as I've played a couple of hours in editor generated missions.

PART 1

- Progress bars in Settings interface are grey, almost like the "not selected" part, not enough contrast. They should be more visible.

- Game menu - its nice that is simplified, still you have to walk your mouse all around the screen. Once you clicked escape and asked for menu, this becomes the focus of the next action, it should be in the middle of the screen, it's the main point of interest the user will access next. It's like shooting picture of someone with the person in the corner of the picture...

- In settings UI, the upper tabs looks similar to the lower push buttons, it's a bit confusing.

- Some buildings still have LOD issues, althought not as visible as in Arrowhead.

- The rifle tracers could be more visible in the daytime.

- Enemies are hard to see in close-medium distance. It's field of view, rendering etc, whatever, you can hardly see them at 200m, I'm not sure about the reason. It's not about camo. Also, it's too hard to locate where they shoot from, no smoke, no motion, sometimes they're completelly hidden in the grass.

- Personal sounds (gear, footsteps etc) are not loud enough. Even if in real you don't hear them loud, you "feel" them through your bones and the overall perception is they are louder. In ArmA 1 they were bad too, in ArmA 2 /OA they were nice, also ACE 2 had them nice in the beggining. These sounds give the game a great feeling, you hear them all the time.

- Same thing about the permanent ambient noise - it creates depth, the sensation that you are in open space. Its not like a mild wind but rather a permanent buzz you should hear all the time.

- Bullets impact is not epic enough - only some smoke, no wall parts or rocks getting out of impact point.

- End of mission too slow, especially in editor. You don't have to spend 7 seconds to get the editor UI back.

- Sway/recoil/hold breath need serious tunning. You should be able to aim at someone at 2-300m for 10 minutes without dying suffocated. They were pretty good in Arrowhead. Weapon resting would be a great addition too. Right now its impossible to shoot at distance while standing.

- When an enemy is hit (even if he's dead), more visual impact should be added - a small shake, blood splash etc. Ragdolls do a good job, still it can be better.

- "+", "-" (zoom in, zoom out) keys are reversed. When I want to get closer, I push forward, like in car acceleration, like in tv remote control, like in whatever else.

- There is enough room in Editor to add small fonts text under icons, like "units", "waypoints" etc, currently the tooltips don't work but text plus icons is even better.

- Inventory should act natural, double clicking should move the item to the other side, please avoid other mouse clicking inventions. Single click should be used for selection and info (users don't have to learn different mouse clicking behaviour for millions of software programs available around...).

- It should be possible to arrange boxes items in order, by customizing boxes. Auto arrange alphabetically should be removed. This will help a lot in modding, where the items can be arranged logically by categories or whatever.

- Steam alone was a bad choice. (I had to remove my firewall to be able to play the game.)

- Some interface sounds are nice to be added, like clicking the buttons, mouse over etc. (in editor and in main menu).

Nice things observed:

- Inventory now natural, not the hideous invention of ArmA 2...

- Enemies now hide well in grass.

- Personal first aid kit is great.

- Less zoom is great, maybe a bit too fast but not more Terminator eyes now.

- Smart remaped controls, a nice progress.

PART 2

Some simple UI cosmetics can be added, not so much to change or improve but sometimes I feel like the menu entries do not entirely express the actions they intend. They are easy things to fix and will allign the menus with the most common texts that users are used to, in the international UI environment. Here they are:

1. "Revert" / "load" inconsistency. Sometimes you use "load", some other times "revert". You should use "save / load" for consistency. Everybody in computers age is familiarized with what happens when they "load" a "saved" something. The same about about "resume" and "continue". You better use "resume" every time, its more often used in games. Also, there is an inconsistency about "start" and "play" and sometimes "continue". You better use "Start" every time.

2. "Continue" in "wizard" type dialogs, ussually after selecting something. They better be replaced by "next" ("ok" / "start" for the last one), Windows use this for too many years, people are used to it. As long as you also have "back", "next" is better.

3. Keep the main menu simple, they will be used often, no need for two - three words entries unless really needed. "Options" may suggest something you may change or not, "settings" seems to be better. The main menu can look like:

- MAIN MENU -

PLAY

- TUTORIAL

- CAMPAIGN

- MISSION

- SHOWCASE

- ARMORY

MULTIPLAYER

EDITOR

SETTINGS

- PROFILE

- VIDEO

- AUDIO

- CONTROLS

- GAMEPLAY

- ADDONS

HELP

QUIT

ex.

PLAY- > CAMPAIGN -> (Campaign selection) -> BACK, NEXT -> (Mission selection) -> BACK, RESUME, START

EDITOR -> (Map selection) - > BACK, START

MULTIPLAYER -> BACK, CREATE GAME, SERVER IP ADDRESS..., FILTER..., CONNECT

Single mission in-game menu:

RESUME

RESTART

SAVE

LOAD

SETTINGS

HELP

EXIT (or MAIN MENU)

Editor - main menu:

START, (RESUME)

Editor - in-game menu:

RESUME

RESTART

SAVE

LOAD

SETTINGS

HELP

EDITOR ( not "suspend", we already have EDITOR in main menu )

(you can also add:

MAIN MENU or EXIT

QUIT)

I know there are a lof of crashes to fix, still, you carry on all these from OFP age, maybe its time to make them a bit more consistent.

Edited by afp

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Part 2 added, about making menu / buttons texts consistent.

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I havent really done any of the missions except the Showcase missions.

I play Wasteland nearly 100% of the time.

Things I love/hate:

Hate: Hackers (all over the place). When the server admin logs off, less then 5 minutes later we either get teleported and mowed down, or everyone on the server blows up. Its lame.

Love: The graphics/ atmosphere. I get lost in this island easily. Its awesome

Hate: I know its only a alpha bug but you have to reach your hand through your buttcrack just to scratch your nose. Weapon pickups, moving barricades, etc seem to all have a consequence on your weapon.

Love: Mission Objectives. They add a GREAT element to the game

Hate: The sun spot that show up on every player/vehicle. You can spot someone without actually spotting them....just look for the magical orb that points them out.

there are alot more love hates, but no sense in posting them.

Nice report btw

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afp, could you elaborate on "Right now its impossible to shoot at distance while standing."

I'm assuming you have an idea of distance you are talking about? Seems pretty good to me.

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afp, could you elaborate on "Right now its impossible to shoot at distance while standing."

I'm assuming you have an idea of distance you are talking about? Seems pretty good to me.

There is too much sway plus the right click "keeping breath" stabilizer is too short. You can't really target through a scope someone which is even 200m away, more then 2-3 seconds. Also too much recoil which makes shooting at something unnatuallly difficult. I think it was fixed a bit in yesterday developer version tho.

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I agree with the short breath time (It may be in the game as part of the fact you are almost always jogging), but I've done a fair share of shooting standing at a 3 inch diameter target from 200yards (182.88m) and while I wouldn't say its overly difficult, it isn't the most practical way to land rounds on target. It may be that sway is too high in game, and that is the main factor.

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all very good points!!

i didn't have problems with steam though

---------- Post added at 01:48 ---------- Previous post was at 01:47 ----------

Hate: The sun spot that show up on every player/vehicle. You can spot someone without actually spotting them....just look for the magical orb that points them out.

That's only on the lower difficulties. I actually like it. We had an addon for that on Arrowhead, great idea to add to the vanilla game.

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It is pretty hard to see people, and most of the time they are standing in the open near me. Feel like I have to zoom everywhere I go to be able to see anything.

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