General Discussion (dev branch)

[2nd ranger 282]

Probably , only

Well there is a small blob like that in A3, whereas in A2 the laser just ended. A smaller version of what you see in that VBS video. But it's not a soft, anti-aliased effect like that screenshot, just a circle. Unless there's some video option that makes it that way.

[Smurf 12]

Uh, did you edit that? That's not what my laser blob looks like at all. It's basically just a circle.

Probably , only

Nop. No mods nor fancy configuration. :confused:

A bigger blob like the one on the VBS2 video at longer distance would be nice.

[DnA 5143]

Any chance on next stable we 'll see Network improvements?

Generally the devbranch over the period prior to the main branch update is a good indication. So, in this case, there have not been noteworthy improvements in this area. That is not to say we are not working on it. We're collecting a lot of data (that is not 'polluted' by external factors - this is a big issue in the complex MP environment!) and repro methods. Our programmers and QA team members are on it.

[Fushko 59]

2 dev branch updates... the same day :D

[kremator 1065]

Really? Or do you mean 2 DEV posts in one day? I haven't seen a changelog.

[giorgygr 61]

Generally the devbranch over the period prior to the main branch update is a good indication. So, in this case, there have not been noteworthy improvements in this area. That is not to say we are not working on it. We're collecting a lot of data (that is not 'polluted' by external factors - this is a big issue in the complex MP environment!) and repro methods. Our programmers and QA team members are on it.

I hope guys we on-the-same-wagon about the *Urge-needed regarding this matter.

There are tournaments (*so lots players on same server) are just about to begin...and ARMA3 it's already long enough out for at least seamless large scale MP experience.

Nobody wants this to be a disaster.

[V-zwo_Null 10]

The name of the titan (ap) anti personnel rockets are still wrong.

[St. Jimmy 272]

The name of the titan (ap) anti personnel rockets are still wrong.

Haha this fix is taking long :D

[Smurf 12]

Shall we have this talk again?

This is mainly about squad commanding but as these three things are somehow linked together, they have to be discussed as a whole.

Seeing how BI is slowly making A3 the best game in the series by, among other things, dealing with legacy problems, I am led to believe that this subject is more a matter of time (aka resources use) than enything else to be tackled.

But let start different this time.

Instead of pointing HOW these could be solved (Commo rose and KEYS addon, I'm looking at you) as everyone has their own ideas and playstyle, let's focus on the What and Why so we can tell what are the problems and add the HOWs when the discussion has matured.

So:

1- What are you main problems\issues when commanding a squad? (Just to be clear, this isn't about AI behavior but the interface and commands themselves)

What you often use? What you "never" use? What confuses you? What is missing? (be realistic guys...)

2 - While playing, what are you main problems with actions in general?

What works? What don't work? What confuses you? What are your thoughts in the relationship of keys and the action menu?

What YOU think?

_________

I'll start with:

1:

Group selection: Shift + F key == hand off controls, isn't quick in the middle of a combat.

Precise commanding with 2D interface is impossible: Pointing near to buildings, "cover" and foes (at distance, mostly) makes you shake your aim all around looking for a sweet spot. You know what I'm talking about.

Unit specific commands: To make ammo beares, medics, engies, etc do what they are suposse to do with minimum effort. Same goes for vehicles, prime case: Helos. I NEED THAT "LAND" COMMAND!

Force commands: This goes more into AI field than anything else, but I think it is important to have a way to overide the normal AI behavior. Things like "Move To BECAUSE I SAID SO" or "Assault a location fast even knowing we have enemies around". We all have been there.

2:

Weapon selection: Action menu, really? This goes to rifle\pistols\lauchers, grenades selection\use (BI isn't happy with current impementation), explosives as a whole, underbarrel attachments and all that.

Space bar: It works when you don't have a clutter of weapons\doors\ladders\actions in general. I want to pick THAT weapon. I want to open THAT door.

Drop Item: This is so basic that it scares me that no one complained about it yet. Yes, I can open the inventory, drag the weapon to the ground which triggers a change to other weapon animation when I simply wanted to throw "that" away or to my partner, leaving me empty handed.

As a whole, I don't have too many issues with controls but these few things REALLY bothers me.

[twisted 128]

nice idea.

to me it's things like not being able to select ai, put mouse on an ammo box/body and have option to rearm there.

this can apply to take cover there,

Not being able to give actual squad commands. so sleect a couple AI and choose flank left based on where the mouse is pointing and they'd come at that posiiton from the left.

just top line becuase i have to rush to work

[byku 13]

Inventory management of AI is the biggest problem for me. It's a frikking nightmare :P

[HaZZarD 2]

Hope this will be fixed in next main build

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=15779

[MavericK96 0]

Just for your info the MXGL has been a 3 round launcher since the game was released in Alpha.

I don't ever recall being able to use the 3GL rounds in it, though. Tried it before, didn't do anything.

[St. Jimmy 272]

My ticket about freeing numbers for use when you're not commanding but you can still use them to command like before. Every game that has the quick chat function does it this way and it could be implemented in Arma. Arma style to do it is like from the '70s :D

The problem with those 6 down voters is very likely that they got no clue what I was talking about and I meantioned arcade shooters...

1- What are you main problems\issues when commanding a squad? (Just to be clear, this isn't about AI behavior but the interface and commands themselves)

What you often use? What you "never" use? What confuses you? What is missing? (be realistic guys...)

My main issue is that I can't see what is under number 1, 2, 3... without pressing them first. Why not implement one button that brings this kind of menu so we can see the main categories. After that we can navigate with number buttons like before. The main category is pretty clear IMO if we could see that.

2 - While playing, what are you main problems with actions in general?

What works? What don't work? What confuses you? What are your thoughts in the relationship of keys and the action menu?

Action menu doesn't really work at all at the current state.

Weapon selection, door opening, every bomb, detonate, get in vehicle, everything cluttered in the dam action menu. Mine and bomb blacing and detonate shouldn't be in the action menu, weapon selection shouldn't be there and they should be in the number keys. Door opening/ladder climbing/getting in vehicle shouldn't have anything to do with the things I mentioned first.

Also the action menu doesn't watch enough well where I'm watching so I might climb a ladder behind me even if I'm watching a door.

I suggest an "action key" that does:

Open and close doors etc.

Climb and drop from ladders

Get in the seat that you're watching

Take an item and disarm a bomb that you're watching

Probably some more but notice how you can't blow yourself up accidentally if you're opening a door

Action menu where you select the action with "select key". You can scroll it like before. Action menu hasn't much anymore left other than bombs or custom actions, different seats, engine off and maybe some other vehicle stuff. Best way to please people would be that some controls have a tick so you can include or remove them from the action menu because some people don't need auto-hover for example in the menu.

Notice that select and action key are different. Action key could be space and middle mouse button and select key could be enter.

I also like how ACE did their interaction menus. There was self interaction menu that naturally you could interact with yourself and interaction menu that you could interact with people, vehicles, environment etc. Pretty simple and it worked.

Edited November 20, 2013 by St. Jimmy

[-Coulum- 35]

Action menu problems

There are too many useless items. Reload and secondary weapon should not be there. I realize this means another reload will be needed for loading different types of ammo but it causes more problems than it solves right now.

BIGGEST PROBLEM - it is too hard to predict and control what the first action on the list is going to be and it is far to sensitive. move a bit or look in the wrong direction and you are suddenly pulling out your side arm or opening the door behind you.

If those were fixed I think the action menu actually would work quite well.

Command menu

Overall its just to clunky. The combination of small lettering, vague descriptions, having to scroll (very imprecise when trying to do it fast), and really weird overly sensitive context sensitvity makes it horrible to use. Commo rose + number keys for the win in my opinion.

Controls

They are pretty good as is but I find the stance adjust keys a wee bit slow at the moment. It takes slightly to long to conform to my cover after getting there. I think its as optimized as it can be, but the user should be able to adjust the keys (Ie I want ctrl q instead of ctrl a for my stance adjust left). This will also allow for stance sdjust on the move which is really neccesary. Also, having hold breath and zoom mapped to the same key, while easily fixable, is just dumb and gives newer players alot more grief than they should have to deal with.

Those are just the ones off the top of my head. Dslyecxi had a really good vid on this that reflected my feelings pretty well.

[antoineflemming 14]

1. Team Leaders in squads don't have control of their fire teams. Squad Leaders in platoons don't have control of their squads. And the same the higher you go. It's not enough to have ranks either. There need to be configurable squad roles for groups.

2. I'd like a radial menu for the most common commands: stop/regroup/move to this location, hold/open fire, combat modes, reports

[dnk 13]

1. Can't tell AI to gear at a specific spot, and can't tell them to use inventory at no spot in particular.
   
2. Can't tell AI to switch to their primary (big issue after using inventory is often they have the pistol selected.
   
3. AI kind of suck at following me in urban settings (need an urban formation where they just follow my path (as in, not going through adjacent yards/alleys when I'm walking down the street) closely, taking up positions along that path as the formation stops (like on walls, corners, etc - anything within 3m of the path). So, so, so much micro needed to get AI to properly traverse urban areas right now.
   
4. AI get stuck a lot still (might be mods/scripts?), and it's hard to unstick them (though possible so far).
   

[Victim9l3 11]

Has anyone noticed that the rear window on the SUV is not in place? It's on crooked. It's as if someone turned the window about 30 degrees

[jgbtl292 0]

Weapon selection, door opening, every bomb, detonate, get in vehicle, everything cluttered in the dam action menu. Mine and bomb blacing and detonate shouldn't be in the action menu, weapon selection shouldn't be there and they should be in the number keys. Door opening/ladder climbing/getting in vehicle shouldn't have anything to do with the things I mentioned first.

Also the action menu doesn't watch enough well where I'm watching so I might climb a ladder behind me even if I'm watching a door.

this commands in the action menu are for your commend ai to, not only for you. example : the problem is i have in the menu 8x open the door my ai stand 100m me ..... wtf what for a door from this 8 is the doors, is the door what i mean ^^ confuse

[antoineflemming 14]

Also, on opening doors. Like skipping the UAV view, there needs to be a quick action key, yes like in your more traditional FPS games. Maybe [sPACE] could be that key. It could be used for holding breath, opening a door, entering a vehicle at any position. Sure, you've got your standard action key, but that kinda gets frustrating when you're looking at a door, and the order/priority of the actions in the menu changes, and then you've got to scroll down and open the door. Then, if you're experiencing FPS drops, simply scrolling through the menu can take longer than it needs to take. This could apply both to actions you're taking, or to actions you want your AI to take (say you have an AI squad member selected. Then, facing a vehicle, pressing this quick action key would tell the AI to get in the vehicle. You could do this without having to scroll through a list of different actions, actions like placing explosives, detonating explosives, setting a timer on explosives, reloading a tracer mag, opening your inventory, switching to a launcher, switching to a side arm, and pulling out a laser designator. Ends up being a lot of items in that menu that you have to scroll through).

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

- Finding the "sweet spot" where you can loot a body could be easier.

- The icons of the squad members are too cluttered: A tiny hand grenade with the overlays for combat or injured states is hard to identify.

- It is difficult to know who is who in a squad, especialy if several squad members are equipped with the same weapons.

[RSF TheCapulet 59]

As far as AI goes, I really have a problem getting the Ai to go where I want or do what I want in a certain direction quickly. I think the game that did this best for me is Operation Flashpoint: DR. All details aside, in that game, I could smoothly access commands most relevant to the situation and apply them without taking my eyes off the scene.

[dnk 13]

Opening doors should AT LEAST always be the first command, so I can quick scroll my mouse up and get that instead of something pointless like "reload 556 magazine" (why is this even an action?).

And removing pointless actions from the scroll menu (like reload current magazine type, inventory, and switch to secondary). We have keys for these things, why also have actions? It pointlessly messes up the action menu.

[dmarkwick 261]

Contextual action menu needs to be worked on - I often spend some time working out what I need to do... select some units, get them ready for some order... then somthing drifts into view just as I click and changes the whole order, oftem meaning my selected units get up and romp away to their immediate deaths :)

I'd also like to see some effort into moving/duplicating the order menus into some onscreen selectable format, like this:

Doesn't need to be either-or, it can co-exist alongside the numeric key system quite happily. Press & hold some hotkey, and use the clock menu to make the order. Or if you prefer, use the old numeric system.

[Smurf 12]

Doesn't need to be either-or, it can co-exist alongside the numeric key system quite happily. Press & hold some hotkey, and use the clock menu to make the order. Or if you prefer, use the old numeric system.

Oh yes, after all those years it is a must that the numeric system remains; Once you know where is what, things can get very fast. Same thing in CS and Wolf:ET for the radio commands (this is another thing I wanted to discuss "Communicate with the AI" but will leave for another oportunity).