My suggestions/complaints/observations

[massasster 1]

Note to readers:

Please don't just reply because your a fanboy of Bohemia Interactive and have the need to defend against any "slander" - I'm not posting to "slander" Bohemia Interactive in any way, simply posting my critique as a player and I am going to try to be as objective and try to post suggestions how it can be improved. PLEASE DO POST if you have a suggestion or a valid counter point. I am posting as a casual player, not a "hard core" war sim player.

I purchased mainly to play co-op with a few friends and really do enjoy when teamwork goes well and missions are going as planned. I'm well aware this is an alpha and many more improvements and features are due to come out - however I would like to express my concerns with what I have seen so far.

The main complaint of a few of my fellow gamers was that the arma 2 controls were "clunky" and complicated, I have to agree, often you needed to go through your keyboard bindings to figure out what was what after taking a break from the game. I see a little bit of improvement on this but generally the "clunky" controls are still in place, I think I have thrown a few mistaken frags here and there. I am not 100% sure what can be done to improve this, as it is a testament to the games "sim core" and flexibility, it does however turn off the casual gamer.

Enemy AI combat is lacking at the moment, and by that I expect a bit more realism in the "stealth and covert" aspect. The aim factor of the computer is flat out amazing and the shots they make are just off the wall crazy, this was a giant complaint in Arma 2 I had as well. Being sniped out of a helicopter I believe to be a lot harder than 80% successful shots the AI make. This goes for vehicles as well, when inside of a armored vehicle, it should be just that, armored and damage taken should be none unless that vehicle is compromised in some way. A turned in gunner inside an M1A1 Abrams should not be struck by small arms fire as happened in Arma 2. I am however impressed at the flanking and new team tactics the AI is using.

My major complaint... add-ons and modding.

Addons were a complete disaster in Arma 2, just off the wall nonsensical and overly complicated. I can't tell you how many times I've loaded the game to come up with yet another missing required file error that I had to go hunt down a file for. There is no need with today's modern setup that we should ever have to go to a website and hunt and peck down individual mods and than mods of mods to support the mods we downloaded. It's just trash. I should never join a server and receive "missing required mod" - this is simply just inexcusable. I know moders have expressed concern with the steam workshop and its TOS agreements , but for the sake of having a community to mod for, they should reconsider if not plead with Bohemia Interactive to implement something similar. At the very least, servers should "push" files to the client supporting server to client downloads. Hell this feature was in Half Life back in 2003...

Scripting and the editor - There really needs to be predefined scripts inside the editor - what I mean by that, scripts that can be downloaded and placed into a container to be pulled from a drop down later inside the editor. The scripting methods are robust, but lack accessibility for most players. People who wish to write scripts should be allowed to post these and players should download these for addition to the drop down scripting list inside the editor.

The game is good, but with a few improvements and tweaks to accessibility, I think it would open it up to the "great" marker.

[Troubletcat 10]

I'd agree with most of this, and I've been with the franchise since OFP in 2001.

As you point out, not much can really be done about the complexity of the controls - there's just a lot more actions in ArmA than in most shooters, and I guess that's one thing you just get used to with the series.

Enemy AI and AI in general has always been one of the sticking points in the series, hopefully they'll improve it more for ArmA 3. It's already a big step up on previous games, actually, but it definitely needs more work.

As far as modding goes, I THINK they'll be using Steam Workshop to handle the mods in the full version of the game. THINK. Hopefully yes. It'd make the process a lot easier than it is right now/was in ArmA 2, and I honestly think, since ArmA 3 is only available on Steam anyway, might as well make the most out of the available features. I get that modders have some concerns RE: the TOS, but I'd honestly advise them to deal with it. The improvement to user experience, and, indeed, the ease for modders to push new updates to the people playing their mods, outweigh the minor negatives.

You can currently KIND OF download and just plug scripts into the editor, but the process could definitely be made easier. TBH I also think they should add a full scripting utility to the ingame editor itself, including common features from popular IDE's, but that's a lot of work spent making something that's always only going to be used by a small part of the community just a little more accessible. Still, point stands, and they could definitely make scripting more accessible than it stands currently.

[massasster 1]

Enemy AI and AI in general has always been one of the sticking points in the series, hopefully they'll improve it more for ArmA 3. It's already a big step up on previous games, actually, but it definitely needs more work.

We know it can be done, the mod released for advanced combat took the AI to much better than stock AI quality - It proved their was a lot of room for improvement in the original AI layout.

[Twin2Win 1]

I do not think any author well the popular ones that are known in the community will release their mods on Steam workshop. And I hope it stays that way. Modding as it is right now is easy and most of the time if it isn't working it's the users fault for not reading the documentation that comes with the mod. Controls I feel are smooth but maybe that's just me...

[Troubletcat 10]

I do not think any author well the popular ones that are known in the community will release their mods on Steam workshop. And I hope it stays that way. Modding as it is right now is easy and most of the time if it isn't working it's the users fault for not reading the documentation that comes with the mod. Controls I feel are smooth but maybe that's just me...

Question: Why? Why would you hope they're not released on a service that makes installation one button and can update automagically without you having to do anything? I can understand not liking Steam (...kind of...), but since the game is going to be on Steam, might as well take advantage of the features it offers. It's true that the way mods worked in ArmA 2 was fine, but if it can be made easier without actually compromising... anything, in this case, than we might as well have it be made easier.

[massasster 1]

I do not think any author well the popular ones that are known in the community will release their mods on Steam workshop. And I hope it stays that way. Modding as it is right now is easy and most of the time if it isn't working it's the users fault for not reading the documentation that comes with the mod. Controls I feel are smooth but maybe that's just me...

I have not attempted to mod Arma 3 but if it is anything like Arma2 , than I wholeheartedly disagree that it is "easy" or "simple". I'm not retarded when it comes to computers, and picturing someone with very little computer knowledge installing some of the mods is just laughable. I sincerely think this was half the issue when i placed up a modded server I would see "soandso user missing content" - because a good percentage of players lacked the knowledge to get beyond the X file is missing error to get the mod working that required another mod on top of another mod. It was insanity at it's core, and chaos to all who didn't get it. I enjoy the series and think it should be more accessible to your average user, not a game of find the missing files from the mod.

[Gorbachev 1]

WithSIX is currently the best solution.. but it's not official thus I would wager more than half of people who purchased any ArmA game never even became aware that WithSIX exists in the first place!

Edited March 15, 2013 by Gorbachev

[chortles 263]

1. If you threw mistaken frags, then you're actually too used to Arma... because last I checked, "G" is the grenade key in regular FPS games like COD and BF3! :D

2. Agreed re: the AI issues, but #1: this is an issue that BI has struggled with for over a decade seemingly, and #2: it's a work in progress that at least can presumably be patched and isn't too fundamental to the engine, so I wouldn't give up hope here

3. Gorbachev's point is sound, but another issue is that as far as modding, the issue is that a bunch of modders are overtly resisting Steam Workshop and implicitly threatening to scale back or not make mods if it's implemented. As far as modding though, I would note that DayZ Commander is as close as we've got to a "one size fits all" mod utility outside of PlayWithSIX... unfortunately, it's not official either, though thankfully it was seemingly implemented so early on that many DayZ guides mention it.

I would also add that the Arma 3 keybind preset is as close as the series has ever been to standard FPS controls, and right now functionally speaking you could suggest that the default keybinds (i.e. the "Arma 3 keybind preset") be different; for example, the spacebar is "context-sensitive actions" (a "use" key) because that's what the creative director likes, as controversial as it may be even among the devs.

[LeeManatee 4]

gorbachev. learn your stuff. most people use sixupdater and yoma tools. playwithsix lacks functions

[dnk 13]

Play

With

Six

As much as I dislike their GUI and design, it does exactly what you want for addons.

[Arliak 1]

I personally agree with the points of the editor and modding.

I feel the controls are fine, and like the depth of the simulator in this regard.

I am so very tired of the screams to make all the games I love, "more casual friendly". Can't the hardcore gamers just have a couple, just a few that have have depth and difficulty the casuals don't complain about?

Finally, I am a real life friend of Massasster, and play this and every other game with him. Yes, I am still so very sick of the, "Help, I'm casual!" issue going on in games I like how they are.

My 2 cents.....

[massasster 1]

Finally, I am a real life friend of Massasster, and play this and every other game with him. Yes, I am still so very sick of the, "Help, I'm casual!" issue going on in games I like how they are.

My 2 cents.....

I wasn't looking to "nerf" or "dumbdown" any aspect, what makes the game great is the "sim" - I would simply like to see more accessibility to a wider group, small changes to modding and editor scripts I think would go a long way to this, because as it stood in Arma 2 - it was pure junk. RE: Play With Six isn't the developers option, it's aftermarket and not a real "solution" to anything, It's a band aid on a broken system.