Why to people play so much Life and Wasteland?

[copper2010 1]

So I was replying to a comment early, when I realized my response was so big, it probably belonged in its own thread.

The thread was concerning that 50% of servers these days are Life servers and Wasteland. And I can't say I disagree. I see one or two domination servers now that are populated enough for me to join.

Why is this?

One reason I think is that most people are casual gamers (casual in the sense that they play COD and Halo) they don't want the huge amount of teamwork and coordination needed to play on a realism domination server. So what do they do? Go to Life servers, which are pretty easy to understand and play, and wasteland, which is basically dayz without the zombies (in the sense that you shoot anything that moves). In both gamemodes, the players are encouraged to kill each other rather then work together. And humans seem to have a much better time killing each other then working together.

This means that you pretty much have to join a clan if you want a "true arma experience".

Then there are people like me, people who play games in "waves" I play one game for about a week, then get bored of it, move on and play other games, and come back to it about a week or two later. This means that I basically get kicked out of any tactical realism clan I join, cause I lose interest, when in reality I am just taking a break from it. Which makes me sad :(.

This is another reason why people play Life and Wasteland, you play, you die, you play again. Then you quit when you want. No long battles, no huge commitment, no drills.

Well, that is all I can think of right now, what are your guy's thoughts on the subject?

[zooloo75 834]

People play games the way they want to play it.

[WCG 1]

Then there are people like me, people who play games in "waves" I play one game for about a week, then get bored of it, move on and play other games, and come back to it about a week or two later.

I do this, too. Of course, I don't usually play multiplayer games, so it doesn't matter much. And I'll play for longer stretches than a week, then take months off. I haven't played Arma 3 long enough to know if this will be the same way, but I don't know why not.

People play games the way they want to play it.

I agree. Or, as I might put it,... who cares how someone else wants to play a game? I've never tried the Life servers, or Wasteland, but the more the merrier. If that's what you like, why should it matter to me?

On the problem of getting kicked out of tactical realism clans, I think you're missing the fact that there's a lot of diversity between dedicated military simulation and Wasteland. In many groups - certainly the ones I've been playing with - you're not required to show up for games. Those who show up play. If you can't make it, no big deal.

Now, I understand why other groups are different, and that's fine. But if you don't want that kind of group, you're not reduced to anonymous games on public servers, you really aren't. Just find a group that's... kind of in the middle - semi-serious, casual but organized, team-based but not an obsessive military sim. I don't know if that's the "true Arma experience," since I don't know what that is, but I suspect that it varies, depending on the player.

Bill

[Nikko 10]

So I was replying to a comment early, when I realized my response was so big, it probably belonged in its own thread.

The thread was concerning that 50% of servers these days are Life servers and Wasteland. And I can't say I disagree. I see one or two domination servers now that are populated enough for me to join.

Why is this?

One reason I think is that most people are casual gamers (casual in the sense that they play COD and Halo) they don't want the huge amount of teamwork and coordination needed to play on a realism domination server. So what do they do? Go to Life servers, which are pretty easy to understand and play, and wasteland, which is basically dayz without the zombies (in the sense that you shoot anything that moves). In both gamemodes, the players are encouraged to kill each other rather then work together. And humans seem to have a much better time killing each other then working together.

This means that you pretty much have to join a clan if you want a "true arma experience".

Then there are people like me, people who play games in "waves" I play one game for about a week, then get bored of it, move on and play other games, and come back to it about a week or two later. This means that I basically get kicked out of any tactical realism clan I join, cause I lose interest, when in reality I am just taking a break from it. Which makes me sad :(.

This is another reason why people play Life and Wasteland, you play, you die, you play again. Then you quit when you want. No long battles, no huge commitment, no drills.

Well, that is all I can think of right now, what are your guy's thoughts on the subject?

You should try United Operations they are more serious and tactical than a domination server but there's no requirement to play a set amount of missions per week/month etc.

They have their faults like anyone but it would be a good start if you are interested in taking it a step further and you can pick it up when ever you like and not be tied down to a regular appearance.

[chortles 263]

This means that you pretty much have to join a clan if you want a "true arma experience".

It's been that way even before DayZ.

One "plus" to Wasteland and Life's capacity for pickup and play compared to other modes like Domination, CTI, Invade & Annex is that if you try to hop in to those and play by yourself, the chance of your squad being dispersed or otherwise incoherent due to jump-in-play/join-in-progress is really high, there's no guarantee of someone having a mic or anyone responding if you ask for someone to give you a ride so that you can be ferried over to link up with the squad, so you end up having being forced to lone wolf anyway or forced to join the nearest players even if they're not in your squad, which only compounds the "squad dispersal" problem.

At least with Wasteland, you can 'meet up' by means of a third-party VOIP program, pick the same server to join and then use said external VOIP to abet linking up together and then having a group experience... believe me when I say that this does not preclude "tactical" gameplay, i.e. coordinating vehicle pickups, logistics (of moving gear), even attempting ambushes or breaking contact.

[WetNeptune 1]

What is life servers? What type of game play is it.

Im on and of as you because of IRL. Finding a group would be the best solution as there are alot of people out there, who can teach you alot about ARMA and team play. My own personal opinion about getting into a group/clan is - you have to be there and that`s my problem simply because not being there do, that I somehow feel guilty - people do invest alot of time in you/me and find giveing something back is the right way doing it.

On ARMA II I was lucky to find a player who I found very good to team up with. We would mostly do side missions and when entering the server he alway asked me if I would like to do some side mission and of we vent. It could be only the two of us (mostly) and some time 3-4 other players- I liked that. It was on the danish [HUD] Server - so if your out there and play ARMA III give me a PM :D forgot your player name.

Regarding Wasteland gameplay. It could be that the tactical level are more on the personal level, meaning only yourself to blame if something goes wrong - you dont have to concentrate on the the team aspect of it.

[chortles 263]

Let's put it this way re: Wasteland -- at least there if you're on your own you don't have to worry about squad dispersal.

[ZoneTrooper 10]

So I was replying to a comment early, when I realized my response was so big, it probably belonged in its own thread.

Why is this?

One reason I think is that most people are casual gamers (casual in the sense that they play COD and Halo) they don't want the huge amount of teamwork and coordination needed to play on a realism domination server. So what do they do? Go to Life servers, which are pretty easy to understand and play, and wasteland, which is basically dayz without the zombies (in the sense that you shoot anything that moves). In both gamemodes, the players are encouraged to kill each other rather then work together. And humans seem to have a much better time killing each other then working together.

This means that you pretty much have to join a clan if you want a "true arma experience".

Then there are people like me, people who play games in "waves" I play one game for about a week, then get bored of it, move on and play other games, and come back to it about a week or two later. This means that I basically get kicked out of any tactical realism clan I join, cause I lose interest, when in reality I am just taking a break from it. Which makes me sad :(.

This is another reason why people play Life and Wasteland, you play, you die, you play again. Then you quit when you want. No long battles, no huge commitment, no drills.

Well, that is all I can think of right now, what are your guy's thoughts on the subject?

Because right now it makes no sense to play domination.Most people wanna play and have there fun,tell me where is the fun,when you spawn at kamino firing range and infront of you is a VAC? seriously where is the fun in it? people equip there self with 1 sniper tons of ammo biggest-backpack,best-vest,helmets,titan launcher,tons on rockets and then they are going to the chopper wow now this is REALY REALY interesting and realistic please.Also there are only 2-3 pilots per team,and everyone is fighting for there position,also the guys who sit in inside on one of the attack choopers will dominate the map as long as they are doing it good.The gunner of the chopper can SEE EVERYTHING with his Thermal vision for round about 2 kilometers infront of him,no soldier of the enemy team can lock on so fast,the gunner would kill you multiple times before the lock on would be ready.There is nearly no teamplay in domination,in Wasteland you create you own kind of gameplay.Ok right now wasteland is yeah like a GTA in the ARMA 3 universe,because the modders are modding in that way so that even kidds who dont understand the mechanics of arma can have fun with this mod.

I allready made the suggestion to make wasteland more realistic,like base capturing where you earn money for it,and then you can buy weapons,tools,items,ammo etc for it.Also missions like outpost missions,chopper,weapon-creates.Also things like you just spawn with 1 pistol and 1 clip for you weapon,no vests,no backpack,no NV-googles,no binoculars,eveyrthing you have to earn on your own.The stuff you need you can find in cars like googles,diving-suits,smaller backpacks,different headgear, and weapons only in military vehicles who spawn near military camps/bases.There you could find vests,helmets,big/military backpacks,weapons,ammo,explosives,and all the other stuff,but also in a limited amount like 1 weapon and 1-2 mags maybe sometimes even a scope.And the weapons in the gunstores would have real weapon prices,so that you have to earn yourself the stuff you want,like assault rifles TRG-20 1800 dollars light MGs 3600 dollars rocket launchers up to 13000 dollars and sniper like the G6-Gepard(Lynx-12,7 Cal) 14,999 dollars.So that the prices are more realistic,but still affordable because you are getting payed by capturing bases and by picking up the money from dead players,so in 30 mins you allready can buy a big sniper and with good equipment etc.Or you could find it in one of the missions who starts all 15-20 minutes.

But no one wants this version,most of the people wanna play this game with tons on vehicles where you find tons of weapons in it just find one and start to kill.I guess people just love it to play as simple as possible,they just dont wanna do anything for there equipment,just open the ass and everything flyes in :cool:

[chortles 263]

You can go make it yourself.

[ratszo 17]

Wasteland is pure PvP, without mods. For it to be so popular bodes well for all pvp players.

Remember, Playable Netcode only came to Arma with the v.60 patch, X-mass, 2011 --'bout a year and a half ago.

Consider, without v.60, Dayz would have been a non-starter as a PvP.

So here we are with Arma3 --servers full of people shooting at eachother, and not shooting at lame AI.

People are developing A&S, C&H, even TDM modes which will blow our minds once we move to the big island.

We are gonna see logistics and teamwork at a whole new level just in straight-up vanilla.

I see Wasteland as 'gateway drug' to some serious organized TvT down the road.

Arma2 was about coop; Arma3 is about PvP.

The future is bright.

Find a server you like and support it. Find some Bros in that server and buddy-up, form fireteams and squads.

Play hard, kill the enemy and know, the enemy are just as motivated to kill you.

[lao fei mao 21]

Because right now it makes no sense to play domination.Most people wanna play and have there fun,tell me where is the fun,when you spawn at kamino firing range and infront of you is a VAC? seriously where is the fun in it? people equip there self with 1 sniper tons of ammo biggest-backpack,best-vest,helmets,titan launcher,tons on rockets and then they are going to the chopper wow now this is REALY REALY interesting and realistic please.Also there are only 2-3 pilots per team,and everyone is fighting for there position,also the guys who sit in inside on one of the attack choopers will dominate the map as long as they are doing it good.The gunner of the chopper can SEE EVERYTHING with his Thermal vision for round about 2 kilometers infront of him,no soldier of the enemy team can lock on so fast,the gunner would kill you multiple times before the lock on would be ready.There is nearly no teamplay in domination,in Wasteland you create you own kind of gameplay.Ok right now wasteland is yeah like a GTA in the ARMA 3 universe,because the modders are modding in that way so that even kidds who dont understand the mechanics of arma can have fun with this mod.

I allready made the suggestion to make wasteland more realistic,like base capturing where you earn money for it,and then you can buy weapons,tools,items,ammo etc for it.Also missions like outpost missions,chopper,weapon-creates.Also things like you just spawn with 1 pistol and 1 clip for you weapon,no vests,no backpack,no NV-googles,no binoculars,eveyrthing you have to earn on your own.The stuff you need you can find in cars like googles,diving-suits,smaller backpacks,different headgear, and weapons only in military vehicles who spawn near military camps/bases.There you could find vests,helmets,big/military backpacks,weapons,ammo,explosives,and all the other stuff,but also in a limited amount like 1 weapon and 1-2 mags maybe sometimes even a scope.And the weapons in the gunstores would have real weapon prices,so that you have to earn yourself the stuff you want,like assault rifles TRG-20 1800 dollars light MGs 3600 dollars rocket launchers up to 13000 dollars and sniper like the G6-Gepard(Lynx-12,7 Cal) 14,999 dollars.So that the prices are more realistic,but still affordable because you are getting payed by capturing bases and by picking up the money from dead players,so in 30 mins you allready can buy a big sniper and with good equipment etc.Or you could find it in one of the missions who starts all 15-20 minutes.

But no one wants this version,most of the people wanna play this game with tons on vehicles where you find tons of weapons in it just find one and start to kill.I guess people just love it to play as simple as possible,they just dont wanna do anything for there equipment,just open the ass and everything flyes in :cool:

Good suggestions, I like wasteland too, beacuse I love survival gamemod but hate to see zoomies crawling around you, so wasteland is the best choice for casual players like me. I used to be a hardcore team coop player back to the era of ARMA1&ARMA2. But now the real life keeps me busy, sometimes I was really exhausted after a long day, I don't want engage in team coop mission anymore, just want to sit before my PC and have some fun.

I do hope wasteland could attract much more players , and could support more players on the servers (say:256 MAX) especially after the Altis island come out. And it would be much better if the Steam could offer several quality servers.

[chortles 263]

Find some Bros in that server and buddy-up, form fireteams and squads.

Ironically one plus to Wasteland is that it's much more amenable to this than Domination or I&A are.

Love everything else about that post, by the way. :D

[TSAndrey 1]

Because Domination even though it's fun for a while, gets boring pretty fast. Let's face it, it's just against AI, and the AI in Arma is pretty bad. Wasteland on the other hand, is pure PVP, with added looting and teamwork elements.

I think that Arma has a lot of potential for more PVP gamemodes, but someone needs to go it right. I'm still waiting for a PVP mode with all Arma content (jets, helicopters, vehicles, submarines and etc.)

[ratszo 17]

Ironically one plus to Wasteland is that it's much more amenable to this than Domination or I&A are.

Love everything else about that post, by the way. :D

Thanks for your kind words.

Tho i haven't played Wasteland enough to like it or not, hundreds of people play and i'm sure many are forming-up to group into tactical play.

Domination? Is that where coop player shoot ai like fish in a barrel --and call it 'mil-sim'?

PvP of any type or mode will test tactics --that's why people want to play. ..., to test their tactics and skill against an enemy very capable of victory.

Wasteland has my respect --any firefight is a good firefight in the PvP zone.

[Masharra 10]

I find the comments against the ai a bit despairing.

For one people use "Domination" of all things to judge the ai's ability.

Domination and its breed are nothing but ego padding for ai is typically reduced to an extremely limited area of operation and typically uses unmodded ai.

To quote Mr. Pryor " You order shit, you get shit"

Patrol Operations, MSO, (with modded ai) show the AI's ability much more and whilst good they unfortunately can not compare to finely crafted co-op mission like PMC Versus, L.I.M.A, Animalmother92, FHQ, Phantom, Outlawz, or the dozen other great mission makers.

I actually like Life servers, as they allow most types of gameplay and one can actually concentrate on being "legit" unfortunately this game mode is most like a multiplayer GTA.

I view wasteland as battlefield for people who don't like battlefield. Different enough but similar enough so that they are still within the comfort zone.

The finely crafted missions I play are usually anything but. From blinding sandstorms, to 3 faction battles, to amphibious assaults, to double penetration, and everything in-between. Those "generic" game types unfortunately offer very little of variety . I mean when was the last time you raided a whore house?

exactly

[NeuroFunker 11]

this is the good about arma, it can be so variable, nearly everyone, can find a mission, he preffers most.

[Gera_CCT 12]

No problem for me, but i prefer simple and faster Pvp modes. But i wonder: how can people really play this mode? I Get 35 Fps Gaming but in wasteland drops to 10! Impossible for me

[chortles 263]

No problem for me, but i prefer simple and faster Pvp modes. But i wonder: how can people really play this mode? I Get 35 Fps Gaming but in wasteland drops to 10! Impossible for me

That... frankly comes down to unfortunate coding; I've seen one guy's account of his delving into other missions for scripting reference "and discovering horrible things" -- in (one) Wasteland variant's case, "to draw the food/water/money HUD, the A3 Wasteland mission we've been playing keeps a thread occupied in an infinite loop, polling and redrawing one or more times per second", later rephrased as "oh my god / that wasteland mission reads the food/water/money icon image files every single time it redraws / and recalculates complex HTML, and renders it".

That, and due to client (your) FPS being based on/tied to server FPS due to quirks or engine design... if the server/host is having low FPS, so will you. :(

Tho i haven't played Wasteland enough to like it or not, hundreds of people play and i'm sure many are forming-up to group into tactical play.

As I said before, I can hop onto third-party VOIP and organize a player group, then once on a Wasteland server we can just all select the same faction, go into Group Management and put together the damn squad on the fly instead of being stuck with "squads" that may or may not actually interact with each other, much less coordinate... this is what puts Wasteland over Dom or I&A for me.

Hell, one of the more interesting things about reading one forum's DayZ thread and its Arma 3 thread (overall A3 but also for the A3 versions of Wasteland) was reading a DayZ thread where a player was trying to organize non-DayZ Arma 2 sessions specifically for squad-level training -- because their ability to shoot was on par with the competition, but communicating and operating as an organized squad was what would put them over the top -- and got receptive responses. :D As the would-be organizer put it:

Don't you guys have a basic understand of squad tactics and communications from playing shooters all your life? I feel like Battlefield Vietnam was enough training

No. No other game I've ever played has prepared me for DayZ in any way, shape or form. My experience hiking, orienteering and army training has, however.

One of the responders also noted that they'd had pretty good success when organizing said third-party VOIP in a manner akin to squads, namely channels per area/vehicle each with a "radio man" in each able to "shout" to other channels for major events/distress calls/avoiding friendly fire, and the first page of that thread has multiple nods to Arma as more than just the game/engine that DayZ mod was on. ;) (i.e. of Dslyecxi's TTP guide, "since ARMA II was built to be a squad combat simulator, the information is still pertinent to DayZ and WILL help you survive against players", then of the combat "You will never find anything more adrenaline-inducing than combat in this game. THIS IS NOT AN FPS. If you try to run and gun, you will lose. If you work with a team, however, you are the most lethal thing on the map" and even "Exchanging fire in any ArmA game is always intense-a single bullet can ruin your day.")

So yeah, the "open PVP" concept behind Wasteland absolutely does not preclude respect to tactics and squad-based gameplay... you just need a squad or at least a partner to do it with (unless you really must lone wolf things) and for some reason Wasteland gives me better odds of having one than Dom or I&A.

FPDR

[rotekz 10]

If you want high frame rates in Wasteland play the Sa-Matra version. Its well coded.

[Masharra 10]

If you try to run and gun, you will lose.

Unless youre dys(howeveryouspellit)i :D

The joys of the freedom in arma.

[Alabatross 1]

They're both insanely boring and it makes me mad because I don't see many DM DOM or COOP modes

[Varanon 892]

Arma2 was about coop; Arma3 is about PvP.

The future is bright.

Sorry, didn't really want to post anything, but i call this nonsense. Nothing has changed. You play Arma 2 or 3 how you like it. You might go for PvP, and that's fine with me, but I will stick to Coop, thank you. To say A2 is this and A3 is that is just ridiculous

[Alwarren 2767]

Arma2 was about coop; Arma3 is about PvP.

The future is bright. .

Luckily, Arma was never "about" anything that someone told you on the forum. It's about what you want and how you want to play the game, not what some random dude on the forum tells you.

Seriously, what's wrong with people? Has tolerance sunk so deep that we cannot accept anymore that some players like coop, some like PvP, and some like zombies? Let everybody play this game like they want, for crying out loud.

[zooloo75 834]

Luckily, Arma was never "about" anything that someone told you on the forum. It's about what you want and how you want to play the game, not what some random dude on the forum tells you.

Seriously, what's wrong with people? Has tolerance sunk so deep that we cannot accept anymore that some players like coop, some like PvP, and some like zombies? Let everybody play this game like they want, for crying out loud.

I guess some people can't stand to see others' enjoyment.

[Smurf 12]

Why to people play so much Life and Wasteland?

Because is really hard to play in a public server with some organization in ArmA, Coop or PvP, when one player alone can jeopardize the whole thing.

Those missions are also more plug and play, easier to get in and have quick good time.

Edited June 30, 2013 by Smurf