make Arma2 content available for free or as DLC.

[fabio_chavez 103]

as you can see here:

SKIP TO 2:50! SKIP TO 2:50! SKIP TO 2:50! SKIP TO 2:50!

Arma2 still has some perfectly good content, that is, despite the fact that it could doubtlessly benefit from some minor tweaks and polishing, still appropriate for the modern arma3 engine and does also profit from the new shaders and stuff.

I, as a customer, urge you, Bohemia Interactive, to better find a propper solution to make this happen.

Id like to throw 3 different models into the room, for discussion:

1. make it available for Free, just put the minimum required manpower into this so publish a slightly tweaked chernarus including fixed vehicles (sound, physx etc), it will be an extra incentive to buy arma3 with minimum cost, since the work is allready been done.

2. make it available as DLC, add the required polishing and tweaking to live up to the quality goals you have for arma3, it will be an incentive to buy arma3.

3. Users that aquired both, Arma3 AND Arma2 or Arma3 AND DayZ Standalone, should be granted easy access to a polished version of chernarus and the tweaked arma2 CO vehicle pool.

i know there allready was some discussion about this matter, consider this as an ignorant bump to apply some preassure on this cause.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Fabio_Chavez

[sickboy 13]

The community project getting this done (to a large extent) is kju's AllInArma: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?152706-All-in-Arma-(AiA)-TKOH-OA-A2-A1-merge-with-A3 and Sakura Chan's Island work: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?151855-Arma-II-and-Operation-Arrowhead-Islands-successfully-imported

Given the products are very cheap to buy these days, and many people already have them, I wouldn't see much commercial success in the options you provided so far, except for maybe 2. as Polished/Tweaked DLC

Edited April 10, 2013 by Sickboy

[dmarkwick 261]

Yeah there are several versions of this project happening in the community, and also several threads on the subject. Personally I would like to see Chernarus released as DLC with upgraded enterable buildings all round. Perhaps the most optimistic version of this wish would be a DLC of the upcoming DayZ version of Chernarus. I would pay some money for that.

[scrim 1]

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Yeah, come back and tell me that pretty much every Arma 2 vehicle isn't broke in Arma 3 when Strykers, tanks, BMPs, etc. sound lower than the quadbikes, and are lighter than it too.

[fabio_chavez 103]

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Yeah, come back and tell me that pretty much every Arma 2 vehicle isn't broke in Arma 3 when Strykers, tanks, BMPs, etc. sound lower than the quadbikes, and are lighter than it too.

the original soundtrack was blocked by youtube, so i had to pick some license free track, therefore dont take it too litteraly, the vehicles are not meant for arma3 alpha but for arma2, they lack physX and have bugged sound.

though the song does apply quite neat to the question if arma2 content was still good for arma3.

[metalcraze 290]

Given the products are very cheap to buy these days, and many people already have them, I wouldn't see much commercial success in the options you provided so far, except for maybe 2. as Polished/Tweaked DLC

Yeah. BIS should allow content porting for free like CAA1 which wasn't just configs. At least only island files.

The problem is that ArmA2 units are really subpar in quality to ArmA3 ones. Vanilla A2 ones can't even wear backpacks. And unless BIS makes new units, supporting new skeleton and animations, that are able to use all new features of ArmA3 - there's no point in wasting money on a content that nobody will use. Just like nobody used anything but islands from CAA1.

Yeah there are several versions of this project happening in the community, and also several threads on the subject. Personally I would like to see Chernarus released as DLC with upgraded enterable buildings all round. Perhaps the most optimistic version of this wish would be a DLC of the upcoming DayZ version of Chernarus. I would pay some money for that.

Except they seem to be replacing superior Chernarus grass cover with short and rare one from Stratis at least in some places. Not sure if I like the idea.

Edited April 10, 2013 by metalcraze

[sproyd 2]

I ported in some vehicles with absolutely no problems - of course not all features work and some vehicles are bugged but here is a demo of 4 aircraft from A2 in the A3 engine on Stratis

In regards to commercial availability of the content, I don't think this should be free DLC, there is still a lot of IP assets in Arma 2.

Of course, its likely that BIS will be using their A2 assets to refine for A3 Retail release so I wouldn't be too stressed.

[nodunit 397]

I'd buy a Chernarus (and arrowhead maps) DLC but ONLY if it were upgraded to the standards of A3, I'm not going to purchase the same exact thing twice for two different games.

Edited April 11, 2013 by NodUnit

[Smurf 12]

I'd buy a Chernarus (and arrowhead maps) DLC but ONLY if it were upgraded to the standards of A3, I'm not going to purchase the same exact thing twice for two different games.

Add A1 maps too and I'm sold, not only because they all are nice maps but also because many community maps are amazing.

BIS already said something of official integration of content, i imagine that is something that will just merge the contents with "hacky" methods.

Kju (thank you both for this and CAA1) method needs the whole game to be installed to merge?

[nodunit 397]

Oh yes I'm sure South Sahrani would be a little slice of paradise with the new lighting, would fit perfectly.

[Shadowvoodoo43 1]

Heck Yeah, Chernarus was by far my favorite map in A2

[seamusgod 1]

don't really see the appeal of having arma 1 era maps in this game. it'd essentially be like taking a really low(relatively speaking) terrain and dotting it with updated trees, roads, buildings, etc. totally not worth the time it would take to update all that to standard. it's like putting a red dot sight on a musket.

might as well take new height map data and make a terrain, the tools and the engine has grown so much, you can literally whip up something superior to anything before arma 2 in 30 minutes with just google map/satellite and compatible height map data.

[nmdanny 22]

I think they should make an ArmA 2: Complete FREE version which has lower resolution textures/models/content of A2 and all of it's expansion packs/DLCs, and for people who already own A1/A2, make a tool that integrates A3 with A1/A2

Polishing ArmA 2 features and remaking them on the other hand, would take a lot of development time and with the limited team BIS has, they have better things to do with their time rather than remaking old content.

[evromalarkey 150]

I hope they do for example Arma 3: Rearmed DLC for free as they did for TKOH. It would be awesome have in Arma 3 plenty of vehicles and islands in official way. Big CTI on Altis, Stratis, Chernarus, Takistan and Sahrani would be f**king awesome.

All In Arma by .Kju is awesome, but it's not official so there wouldn't be much people who would play it. If it would be official, everyone would have it. Arma 2 have almost everyone and who has Arma 3 and don't have Arma 2, he would be at least motivated to buy Arma 2 too.

[Binkowski 25]

It won't be for free if BI does it. But I'm sure kju and his addon AIA adds much of the content.

[wipman 1]

Hi, i would take very badly to have to pay for an ArmA's 2 weapons DLC... when i did my M4's pack for the ArmA2 i'd checked that the ArmA2 weapons are full of bugs and holes, some parts are not even textured on some LODs, others are not in scale or are misplaced in comparison with other weapons or even between LODs; it should be a Free thing IMO, but it depends on BIS... sure that alot of ppl won't mind to pay for the ArmA2 weapons on their current state. Let's C ya

[Haystack15 10]

I would like to see BIS recycle ArmA 2 Content since it has a great amount of stuff to enjoy. For DLC or free doesn't matter to me. I'll be happy to pay for the stuff again to see them upgraded and polished for the RV4 engine.

[twisted 127]

love to see updated content to arma3 standards. but certainly not expecting it to be for free even if i own all the originals.

[bigshot 62]

I hope they do for example Arma 3: Rearmed DLC for free as they did for TKOH. It would be awesome have in Arma 3 plenty of vehicles and islands in official way. Big CTI on Altis, Stratis, Chernarus, Takistan and Sahrani would be f**king awesome.

All In Arma by .Kju is awesome, but it's not official so there wouldn't be much people who would play it. If it would be official, everyone would have it. Arma 2 have almost everyone and who has Arma 3 and don't have Arma 2, he would be at least motivated to buy Arma 2 too.

^yep, what he said^...I'll gladly pay for all of the Arma 1 AND Arma 2 stuff working in A3 as an official addon/dlc.

I always use CAA1 to bring A1 into A2 but nobody has it, knows about it, etc. Making this sort of thing part of the official game is something ive been waiting for for years now. I like to bring all my old missions with me with each new version of Arma.

[call_911 10]

Sahrani island is an awsome map, to not see it ported or made as DLC is a shame, so many memories of the original "Evolution", "Domination", "RTS" 4-5, "Beserker"(b4 Warfare came out)

[Sneakers O'Toole 2]

The crude kju addon with all the error messages and caveats doesn't interest me at all.

I would be happy to pay for a2 content given an a3 makeover. I miss my MErlin HC3.

[l mandrake 9]

The problem with mods is that they divide the community; some use them, others don't.... so we're back to the whole 'You cannot play this mission it is dependent on....blah blah blah,' bullshit. And there's the stability issue too with WIP mods, which is a deal-breaker for many.

I agree that an official port of A2 content to A3 is needed (for those who prefer a contemporary setting) - if BIS needs to charge for this, it should be no more than the cost of a DLC (€8?)

Kind of an 'A3: Combined Operations' deal - Stratis, Altis, Takistan, Zargabad, Cherno, Utes + all units with full A3 compatibility and Physx. This would be an amazing package. I have no idea of the programming hours needed to achieve this A2/A3 unification though....probably too much extra work for BIS right now?

[sickboy 13]

The crude kju addon with all the error messages and caveats doesn't interest me at all.

I would be happy to pay for a2 content given an a3 makeover. I miss my MErlin HC3.

It's a work-in-progress, and early days, knowing kju and his loyal years of serving the community with awesome stuff, it'll be alright..

---------- Post added at 10:14 ---------- Previous post was at 10:12 ----------

The problem with mods is that they divide the community; some use them, others don't.... so we're back to the whole 'You cannot play this mission it is dependent on....blah blah blah,' bullshit. And there's the stability issue too with WIP mods, which is a deal-breaker for many.

I agree that an official port of A2 content to A3 is needed (for those who prefer a contemporary setting) - if BIS needs to charge for this, it should be no more than the cost of a DLC (€8?)

Kind of an 'A3: Combined Operations' deal - Stratis, Altis, Takistan, Zargabad, Cherno, Utes + all units with full A3 compatibility and Physx. This would be an amazing package. I have no idea of the programming hours needed to achieve this A2/A3 unification though....probably too much extra work for BIS right now?

Tools like PwS help in the modding area, but more importantly, gaming is diversity, regardless of "Cannot play this mission ...", there are many different servers out there, with different game modes and play styles. The community is divided per definition. Not sure what a few addon servers are supposed to make a difference of.

[Tonci87 163]

I think it would be a wise decision if BI did something like Arma 3 rearmed with all the A2 content if you own it. People new to A3 might pick up A2 too just to get all the things.

[Mirudes 1]

I would like to mention, that I already have the licenses for all versions of Arma.

It is not like that I would get for free. But like before mentioned, I wouldn't hesitate to pay for it.

I would like to make the suggestion, that the "Supporter-Edition" from ArmA3 could be extended in that way, that already existing official-ArmA-versions (including DLCs) can be ported to ArmA3.

The "AllInArmA-mod" is guiding into the right direction and is basic research for the future "armaversum".