A quantum leap - Arma 4

[Beagle 684]

ArmA did never recreate a real war, so the choice is totally free where it takes place the nations can be again completely fictious...its just about the time and tech frame. High tech usually just meant more player frustration in MP so far, very well know as the "TAB" key war. Btw. there is already a flopped WW2 game in RV3 engine called Iron Front: Liberation 1944

[ProfTournesol 956]

Failing that a Western (1800's) theme would be very interesting.

Funnily that what Spanel's brothers wanted to make after OFP (an RPG Wild West game).

[dale 11]

I wonder what proportion of the Planetside 2 players have actually paid a single dime.

10% currently of their existing population, which apparently is earning them 700% more each day than they would get if they were P2P, seeing as im orientated towards PvP and not Coop I will always try to push across my opinion that Arma needs to support more players.

And even coop players can't argue that they want to see more players on the field.

I believe even 200 players on a server would be a great achievement.

I think the bigger the servers get the more people get interested in the game, if you can have 200 man servers or 500 man servers then people get mighty interested as it allows them to have the battles they imagine, it would allow for specialist styles in large scale PvP such as PJ's or Engineers.

Currently we can't have that capability as we don't have the numbers to spare from the main objective.

[johncage 30]

you can always tell when someone is merely a superficialist and a sophomore when he thinks the modern military theme has been done to death.

the entire arma series barely scratches the surface of what it is to be a mil sim. there is no need for time travel. just go in depth. i'm talking about more interaction and realism.

[Flogger23m 2]

I would like the following:

1) Modern theme. 2000-2013, or from the 80s until now. No fictional junk.

2) Drop the controllable vehicles aside from small cars, hummers and trucks. The armor and aircraft modeling is a joke in ArmA games and is just a waste of everyone's time.

3) Refocus efforts on the core game; infantry.

4) Improve the editor. Put more GUI in to bring it up to par with editors from late 90s-early 2000s flight sim era.

5) Improve AI. Being able to walk or drive in a straight line is a must.

6) Make the AI command menu useful. As it stands in ArmA 2/3 Alpha it is nearly worthless as it is so slow and imprecise that the friendly AI essentially become respawn options for when the player (who does 90% of the work) dies.

7) Some proper damage modeling on vehicles. Dump the hit point based system.

8) 3D to 2D mode in the editor that can be switched between on the fly as seen in Jane's USAF from 1999.

To me, these are examples of a quantum leap. New units merely reskinned as they have been throughout the series is not appealing to me.

And my final hope:

9) Drop the "military sim" marketing title. The only thing it does somewhat well is infantry. Come to the realization that ArmA is an infantry simulator and nothing more. Everything else is horrid. Entire simulators, DCS and Steel Beasts, focus on a certain aspect of combat and still have short comings. ArmA's attempt to do anything under the false moniker of being an "everything military simulator" just lowers the bar on everything. Quality over quantity.

Edited June 18, 2013 by Flogger23m

[Caselius 94]

I would love a 1700's ArmA for change. I would love it, maybe set in North or South America so the warfare could be fit to RV-engine - Smaller skirmishes and most of the areas didn't allow huge battles in lines and guerrilla type warfare was used.

Heaviest stuff players could have is a horse & cuirass and there could be heavy artillery pieces, rifles for higher range shooting & different muskets and pistols for the most common soldiers. Variety would come of different types of units which play lot differently. Logistics also could be in good use, and smartest players in the game could ambush the supply-wagons, lowering the enemy fighting capability.

There is no tactical shooters based on this era as I'm aware. If there would be anything like it, I would immediately buy it.

[communisthamster 10]

Perhaps a land war in asia.

North korea/china as OPFOR.

[Beagle 684]

I would love a 1700's ArmA for change. I would love it, maybe set in North or South America so the warfare could be fit to RV-engine - Smaller skirmishes and most of the areas didn't allow huge battles in lines and guerrilla type warfare was used.

Heaviest stuff players could have is a horse & cuirass and there could be heavy artillery pieces, rifles for higher range shooting & different muskets and pistols for the most common soldiers. Variety would come of different types of units which play lot differently. Logistics also could be in good use, and smartest players in the game could ambush the supply-wagons, lowering the enemy fighting capability.

There is no tactical shooters based on this era as I'm aware. If there would be anything like it, I would immediately buy it.

The main problem hereby is the use of bajonets and small swords or sabres when the lines where dissolved.

[JdB 151]

The main problem hereby is the use of bajonets and small swords or sabres when the lines where dissolved.

That's not the real problem from a gameplay point of view (an interesting challenge to the animators and scripters though), the slow pace of combat would be. It would be too slow for most people, making the target audience too small to justify the investments that are needed. Judging from your join date I will assume you have played one of these at some point: House Divided, Civil War mod, Napoleonic mod. I like the gameplay restrictions/alterations that they bring, but things like 20 seconds (minimum) of reloading a firearm is going to be unacceptable for most players. Just look at reloading magazines in virtually every military game there is. 2-3 times faster than in real life, all to maintain the pace. It would be a niche within a niche. Economically unviable unless you are lucky enough to draw in players that are typically playing history based strategy games and the like.

[ric 1]

not to be cheeky but a quantum leap would be an engine that can fully! utilize available hardware :) then ANYTHING is possible

[dale 11]

That's not the real problem from a gameplay point of view (an interesting challenge to the animators and scripters though), the slow pace of combat would be. It would be too slow for most people, making the target audience too small to justify the investments that are needed. Judging from your join date I will assume you have played one of these at some point: House Divided, Civil War mod, Napoleonic mod. I like the gameplay restrictions/alterations that they bring, but things like 20 seconds (minimum) of reloading a firearm is going to be unacceptable for most players. Just look at reloading magazines in virtually every military game there is. 2-3 times faster than in real life, all to maintain the pace. It would be a niche within a niche. Economically unviable unless you are lucky enough to draw in players that are typically playing history based strategy games and the like.

Mount and Blade would dispute that fact, its actually the bad accuracy and long reload times which make it more intense and fun, I love how you take a while to reload as it makes sense due to the period and it also adds to the gameplay because you need to be smart (i.e. loading in cover).

As you say though the real challenge would be animations, I couldn't imagine how hard it would be to implement that feature even into arma 3 in a way that didn't feel rusty, you've got your two ways really Chivalry:medieval warfare style or mount and blade style.

In regards to fire arms thats relatively easy, just increase the deviation by a massive ton, but add some skill elements such as standing still for a while gets you more accurate shots etc.

[sander 14]

A game set before the era of steam would be wonderful in more than one sense. The slow reload times would be a distinct disadvantage if it involved merely a pause, which would be boring, but modelling the different actions required to operate a good old fashioned musket could make that more interesting, especially if all the stages would require the player to acquire actual skill to perform them right. A mechanism where synchronisation of actions between players in a formation would confer advantages would be a bonus, inducing players to actually invest in drill to gain effectiveness on the battlefield. Having a musketeer platoon or pike formation set up and maneuver without dissovling into a gagglef**k would be nice.

Regards,

Sander

[ProfTournesol 956]

The main problem hereby is the use of bajonets and small swords or sabres when the lines where dissolved.

No problem with that :)

[Joe98 90]

The addition of mud and snow.

The mud and snow slow the movement of men and vehicles.

The addition of baynets on rifles.

The addition of a club (to be used in a Great War type trench raid.)

That men can use knives, swords, clubs and bayonets as weapons.

An order that men "form line" like Napoleonic warfare.

---------- Post added at 02:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:38 PM ----------

For those who wish for a western, some of the PMC men look like "cowboys"!

Remove all weapons, give every man a revolver and raid buildings occupied by enemy. Of course the enemy only have revolvers so you get a western shoot out sort-of.

[nuthead 10]

Operation Desert Storm or 'Nam.

[Valken 621]

... I would really like to see a Jason Bourne type campaign series... it can be based on the books or movies, ideally the books but the A3 engine will be limited to pulling off indoor type cqb battles.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Valken

[jeza 5415]

Would love to see them do something on the Korean War, when if ever arma 4 comes but I am rather content with ArmA 3 now :)

[fragmachine 12]

^ this. More asia - oriented and it doesn't have to be US against the world. It could be for instance Korea vs Korea, China - Russia conflict or something on the smaller scale. Overall something not marked by politics as much as current A3 background. Never seen in series 'Nam (only in mods) would be nice to see but in gaming industry would be probably an overkill.

I would like to see new engine, heres why:

Im mostly would look forward rewriting the whole engine to modern standards. They could even make a new engine and use as a base RV4 engine - avoiding mistakes of the older version, its shortcomings. Making it much more easier to mod (along with better modtools - even if these would be premium - like 3d editor, simple animation editor for tweaking various animations for community projects <example get in - get out animations to fit with the vehicle - packed into .pbo>, better 3d real time island creator, vegetable creator, more intuitive version of oxygen).

-realism-oriented product

-improved micro-AI

-better AI pathfinding indoor as well as outdoor

-better CQB

-usage of the buildings

-deployable bipods

-firing from vehicles

-walking inside/on vehicles (especially big one like heavy choppers, transport planes, navy ships)

-RTT optics

-climbing over objects if possible dependant on amount of carried weight

-meele possibility

-fast roping

-much more realistic blood effect. getting rid of bubbles of blood. adding tiny blood mist on one or both sides of the body if bullet penetrated. also blood splashes along with bullet markings on the walls, trees, bushes if shot enemy was close enough to it.

-realistic wounding system

-AI making fast decisions if under fire (micro-AI)

-modular artillery for AI leaders

-modular HQ set up so teams are subordinated to it

-modular HQ system that generate tasks on-fly for leaders and their subordinated teams based on battlefield conditions (if needed to deviate from actual task)

-subordinating leaders to various fronts

-proper use of recon and UAVs reporting to the HQ about the activity

-more stable net-code handling more players (approx 128-256 players on the server)

-volumetric light

-soft shadows

-any light source to cast shadows

-better quality ground look

*ground tesselation

*unique for the place higher res close-up textures. improved middle ground textures

-better implementation of physx

*active ragdoll

*more natural death positions - animation-cooked ragdolls

*trees, bushes, branches, leaves and grass realistically reacting to wind, footsteps, driving over

-more lifelike destructable environment and vehicles

*up to 10 partially animation-cooked APEX building destruction for each side of the building - for each building - or full APEX-like implementation in-game

*craters

*breaking trees/bushes branches. Physx or any other physics engine should take care of enviromental simulation

*being able to crush, break all materials in game

*vehicles should have much more complex armor-penetration system incorporated as well as effects that would stand by it. Less explosions if there weren't any possibility for explosion to occur, visible damage on parts that been hit, holes in penetrated vehicles

-more realistic explosions, fire, smoke, dust

-surface simulation like

*mud

*sand

*tarmac

*grass

*gravel

-better rain with raindrops, ground getting wet and muddy

-vehicles and uniforms getting dirty if used in bad conditions

-improved clouds. no cloud morphing. more advanced options for setting up the weather like incoming fronts, direction, wind speed, density of rain, sleet, snow, possibility to set up clouds anywhere on the map on starting location, so we don't get storm over our heads but just 25 miles away.

-improved much more immersive animations

-much more realistic sound experience.

*distant firefights should be heard from 2.5 miles away and tank rounds in good weather even by 20 miles. PP occlusion, doppler, echoing, reverbering and filtering for all sounds in game. when inside a building we should feel being separated from outside - like when in the vehicle.

*volumetric sound, surround sound system

-rivers along with curent simulation

- better AI for animals (being frightened or fighting for the survival).

- more particles in the air like single dust particles flying over your head you see when walking throught the forest and the rays of the sun pass through the branches (watch: volumetric light)

-etc

If there would be an ArmA 4 I would have HUUUGE expectations :cool:

This list can be improved by more issues. I would give team of one hundred developers 10 up to 12 years to come up with game like this.

Edited August 11, 2013 by fragmachine
Updated list with most voted features

[instagoat 133]

1970s South American guerrilla war, involving national army equipped with french/south american vehicles, american/russian aircraft, british/russian weapons, reflecting a complex and troubled history since the end of WW2.

Then you would have CIA and KGB training units on both sides of the conflict, guerrillas, and what would be essentially a counter-insurgency type of operation where -both sides have technological parity-.

Then, as a bonus, you would have US Airborne (landlocked nation this time pls) troops along with all their airborne equipment.

Vehicles to be used should be, for example:

T-54 and/or AMX-30 as national army MBTs

AMX-13 or SK-105 as national army light tanks

AMX-VCI or M75 APCs (No M113s pls) as national army APCs

M4 Sherman and M24 Chaffee tanks in national army reserve and captured by rebels

Early BTRs as rebel and army reserve APCs

RPG-2, RPG-7, Bazookas, WW2 surplus gear mixed with modern gear from various sources.

US Paratroopers using M551 Sheridan tanks and M114 APCs, as well as then top notch assault rifles and other equipment.

Mountain, Grassland and Jungle warfare on a single, 100 x 100 km map with 1x1 meter tile size.

My hope.

[chris77 11]

Perhaps something Steampunk, shaped after Last Exile? With nimble fighters and huge airships that serve as battleships and aircraft carriers.

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• Textless Intro (SD)

[Brain 12]

IMO the perfect setting would be:

- Time around 1995/1996

- South American/Latin american location (Jungle, Tropical woods, Swamps)

- Factions are a coalition of Armies from e.g. USA, Columbia, Mexico, Venezuela as BLUFOR

- Druglords, Drug Trafficking groups, Rebells as OPFOR

- Guerillas which are in war with either both sites or OPFOR as Independent

Why? Because it's awesome. Imagine all that swamp action, tropical action, especially with our ultra-cool-underwater-stuff we have in A3 now.

The 1995-1996 time would reduce the risk of an emberassing fiasco we have right now with all the 3D-Scopes aka my eyes are magicially magnifying everything since Scopes are a bit more rare.

It's also a setting which is not seen often, yet has an awesome amount of potential.

PS: Watch Act of Valor for a good impression of "my idea".

[mrcash2009 0]

Brain, I like that setting and theme. I dont see why it cant be made into a conversion mod!

[Brain 12]

Would be a nice one, but it would need a lot of custom models, which unfortunately not everyone is able or willing to do. :(

[Smurf 12]

To me, this sums up everything pretty well: http://dslyecxi.com/bestoftactical.html

+ dynamic destruction of environment and vehicles + "flexible" animations. And awesome graphics.

Era: 1980-200x, anything betweeen.

Setting: Not jungle, unless made right (interaction with vegetation, dirt, mud and all that).

[Darkhorse 1-6 16]

I'd like to see Germany in the 80's. Make a full scale Cold War gone hot scenario. They could then stretch that game out for as long as 10 years. Imagine all of the legitimate DLCs they could release. Start out with US vs USSR, and then expand it via DLCs into NATO forces, French forces, the Soviet Unions member states, and everything else that would see action in such a conflict.. They could even have a fairly large empty ocean terrain with the carriers being fixed objects and having usable escort ships, subs, and naval aviation.