Arma 3 - Sneak Preview Livestream

[Azzur33 1]

Maybe we’re getting our wires crossed, I said size, maybe I should have said content. If I placed out a city, putting houses at all outer reaches NWSE, but filled it with little content then that is not really a city as such. The content we see is mainly harbour only, the outer are suburbs (not even that really), it may have a footprint the same if taking into account the outer reach buildings, but in reality its a lot less, there's nothing much inland.

You can see the whole town in the video, not just the harbour. You can see also that the town limits are the same. And the density of the houses and other stuff is high within the town limits. So, the town area on Arma 3 "Moudros" represents well that what you see in google maps/earth.

[Smurf 12]

SO UAV\Gs just add to the Action Menu clusterfuck. Nice. Little to none new features or enchancements on it both in UI (!) and usage.

Tanks seems boring as they always were (at least for me, an inf guy) on sounds, handling, FX and all that.

Equip tab is gone?

I'm really sorry to say but this whole livestream story could be a summary of A3 so far.

An announcement that got the fans excited to see new stuff and some answers; When we are about to get "hands on" with it, problems (technical, out of your control or not, still problems that prevented you to achieve your goals) and we asked to wait until "it is done"; When we finally get to see what the fuzz is all about it's under expectations and we can see some axed stuff already that were present in the last livestream, focus on the wrong things and a lack of real informations leaving a great shadow zone there that may lead to more speculation that later may lead to more disappointment; An aftermath with lots of excuses.

I find myself more and more interested on what happened behind the scenes this whole time with each new unfolding.

Altis seems good tough.

[Wiki 1558]

How much accurate is Altis compared to Lemnos?

And I have an important question about the UAV:

in ArmA 2, the reaper was almost unusable - and it was impossible to use it in an offensive way because of a sucking weapon system.

so now, how about the new fixed wings UAV? will there be easier to use and have effective firepower? will it finally BE possible to lock and shoot the missiles? or even not to lock, but place the UAV in the way we want to fire the missile?

thanks

Wiki

[Lucasmnunesk 2]

From what i saw from the livestream i believe operating the UAV will behave as operating a Jet, just take control and bam its like you're piloting it.

[Wiki 1558]

Maybe, but we didn't see fixed wings drones, so we can't say until a dev confirms it (or not).

[maddogx 13]

Maybe, but we didn't see fixed wings drones, so we can't say until a dev confirms it (or not).

We didn't see them fly, but they were there and they were mentioned.

[Alistair 10]

I want my cargo planes! :(

I loved the Quad-Rotor drone.

It will be amazing to set recon teams in multiplayer.

:D

[[evo] dan 79]

forgot to ask ready for the stream, but are all the editor modules now MP friendly?

[kylania 567]

Dan;2465737']forgot to ask ready for the stream' date=' but are all the editor modules now MP friendly?[/quote']

I love how you still need to ungroup every module as you place it still. :) Most of Zipper's quick mission build was spent ungrouping briefing modules from one another. Could have just typed up code a lot quicker.

[Colossus 2]

Already made a ticket on that. It's currently being 'reviewed'.

[Sniperwolf572 758]

Already made a ticket on that. It's currently being 'reviewed'.

Wrong tense, it has been reviewed. :) Annoyed me as well as grouping of modules serves no function. :\

[Colossus 2]

Wrong tense, it has been reviewed. :)

Ah, right! I had forgotten there was something about that. Hopefully they can tweak the text a bit. Thanks for clearing that up again ;)

[DarkDruid 96]

SO UAV\Gs just add to the Action Menu clusterfuck. Nice. Little to none new features or enchancements on it both in UI (!) and usage.

I'm working on UAVs so maybe I'm too optimistic, but I really belive that new UAV system and UAVs will be very useful and open to you new possibilities and strategies in the game. There are some new features which wasn't a part of the stream presentation. It was mentioned yesterday that UAVs still have some issues which must be solved, but they are currently planned for the dev branch next week. It is very close, please wait for it with judgements. :)

so now, how about the new fixed wings UAV? will there be easier to use and have effective firepower? will it finally BE possible to lock and shoot the missiles? or even not to lock, but place the UAV in the way we want to fire the missile?

thanks

Lucasmnunesk is right. You can control them similar to classic airplane. Second option is using of autonomous mode and UAV terminal.

[sgt_Savage2003 10]

You can control them similar to classic airplane. Second option is using of autonomous mode and UAV terminal.

I know because of limited time yesterday but can you go a little deeper into how the autonomous will work. Also will you be able to set waypoints and have the UAV's follow them on their own, Like a patrol or loiter.

Also you showed that the uav's will have a limited fuel just like a plane, Which I like. But do we know how long the fuel/ Batteries will last on the larger UAV's And the UGA's?

[omerc 10]

I'm working on UAVs so maybe I'm too optimistic, but I really belive that new UAV system and UAVs will be very useful and open to you new possibilities and strategies in the game. There are some new features which wasn't a part of the stream presentation. It was mentioned yesterday that UAVs still have some issues which must be solved, but they are currently planned for the dev branch next week. It is very close, please wait for it with judgements. :)

Lucasmnunesk is right. You can control them similar to classic airplane. Second option is using of autonomous mode and UAV terminal.

Hi DarkDruid. Is it possible to make an animation of player opening a suitcase or taking out some kind of controller for the UAV controls? It looks rather uninspiring when the soldier is in stand by :)

[das attorney 857]

I watched with interest but apart from the graveyard (which looked fucking awesome), and Zipper playing about with the aerial drone, there was not much in the way of enthusiasm from the devs.

They must be in a tight hole at the mo, and I feel their pain man.

It is unfortunate there is no campaign on release day, for it leaves Arma 3 (SP?) content as some firing courses, a few MP co-ops and scenarios as the main game content.

I intimated from what Jay Crowe said in the YT-liveStream (and I do respect him by the way) that they have provided the platform through Alpha public participation to allow missions to be bought over to the "mainland" of Altis and form the content of the game.

That's kind of cool with me in that I get to play MP on Altis quicker, but it would have been sweeter if there was boxed content (as in a campaign) for me to play with as well. Sometimes, playing with the general folk that make up Wasteland* does my head in and I need to retreat to SP serenity :)

Plus, I'll be experienced in the terrain by the time the Altis campaign comes out so I'll be able to artificially know what's the best place to attack from in campaign missions and miss out on the joys of bollocking up attacks because I have no idea of the terrain. :(

It seems there is a weird dichotomy in that:

• The game must be out on Sept 12 for *reasons*, so...
  
• As there is no other "mission" content, the devs hold back Altis and the rest of the units (so that there is actually something new for all in the release).
  
• The longer assets are held back, the less time there is for everyone to test them and help eliminate bugs.
  
• The more chance there is bugs in the release version (which is total antithesis of what's supposed to be going on in terms of accessibility/stability), so
  
• Reviewers in PC Gamer/(other reviewer etc) are more likely to say that the game is bugged and there is no campaign as well.
  

That might be too harsh an appraisal as there the things that Arma 3 has improved upon are legion and make it a worthwhile purchase (and successor to Arma 2 - we shall see after release :) ).

Greets, Das Attorney

* = I play this because the frame rate is very good as opposed to a lot of other mission types that s-t-u-t-t-e-r on my PC.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Das Attorney

[ShotgunSheamuS 1]

Hi DarkDruid. Is it possible to make an animation of player opening a suitcase or taking out some kind of controller for the UAV controls? It looks rather uninspiring when the soldier is in stand by :)

I want to suggest the same, specifically because the player is just standing there like an idiot waiting to be shot. The UAV interaction should be via an actual terminal, so optional stances (standing/kneeling/proning) but this interaction should also be like the "binoculars" interaction where we can briefly leave the terminal view without completely going out of it. For example I initiate manual command of UAV, I want to be able to leave the teerminal view, by switching to autopilot mode (which just does what you last told it to do like move forward etc) and move to a safe location, inside a building or any other form of cover, maybe kneel or lie down and then go back into terminal view and control the UAV.

This wasn't demonstrated so I am not sure if this is what you guys already implimented, but just incase you haven't as yet, this should be a must I believe.

[runekn 3]

Hi DarkDruid. Is it possible to make an animation of player opening a suitcase or taking out some kind of controller for the UAV controls? It looks rather uninspiring when the soldier is in stand by :)

A temporary thing to do, would be to set the old map animation as "controlling" state.

[Lucasmnunesk 2]

Here is what a i thought would be perfect to UAVs in my opnion, when you use the terminal you actually control just like the Hunters, Ifrits and Striders guns. You see through a PiP at the terminal and you would still be possible to freelook, if you use the look through sights you get the view as it is, and the player human model would be holding the UAV terminal. But since the release date is too close i believe they have no time to implement this, but its an idea that can be worked.

What i really want is just an "operating uav" animation, and it should not force you to stand, or crouch it should be played in both situations, and if the release date is too close neither they need to add a terminal to the players hand, just an animation so you know that guy is operating the uav, like the A2 healing animation.

What i really hope is that they intend to release the PiP way, that they just hadn't those things ready at the livestream :p

[chortles 263]

Let me point out, since a bunch of you seem to not be seeing this, that there IS an "Open UAV terminal" action menu option in that video, Zipper5 just never chose to use it in lieu of direct control. Unfortunately, for that very reason we have no idea what the "UAV terminal" implementation looks like besides direct control...

[Smurf 12]

It is very close, please wait for it with judgements. :)

Will do, waiting for that SITREP aswell.

Anyway, didn't meant to be mean or something. I imagine that this last week has been hell over there but don't lose your enthusiasm. ;)

[Lucasmnunesk 2]

Let me point out, since a bunch of you seem to not be seeing this, that there IS an "Open UAV terminal" action menu option in that video, Zipper5 just never chose to use it in lieu of direct control. Unfortunately, for that very reason we have no idea what the "UAV terminal" implementation looks like besides direct control...

Yeah i saw that, i wanted to cross the computer screen and hit his mouse just for the sake of my curiosity! But i believe it must something about the autonomous part of the vehicles, like setting waypoints or something like that. But its is just me assuming things without any base, so its means nothing

[chortles 263]

Note that the "direct control" implementation for both the six-wheeled armed UGV and the quadrotor UAV is actually done in a manner akin to the "take controls" functionality in the helicopters, but preceded by a "connect to UAV terminal" action (the UGV erroneously has the "UAV" term but that's a typo) which implies the presence of a manportable UAV terminal on the user's person.

[nodunit 397]

don't lose your enthusiasm. ;)

Yeap, it may be dark and bleak right now, like a big rainstorm with thunder and high winds..maybe a few flash floods. But after the sky clears the grass is always greener and something something. I'm not a poet but you get the idea, might be dark times right now but the future can still be very bright.

[instagoat 133]

All improvements aside, but watching the tank part was mildly (ie, rather severely) disappointing. No active protection, no half-popping the hatch, and the effects both visually and sound wise were not at all showing the kind of power behind them. And the tank close combat was more reminiscent of a kind of high speed WW2.

Why do all explosions, including tanks firing, have this pewwwwww noise? And why are they so weak? Without ear protection, the sound of the main gun being fired would be enough to blow your eardrums from a hundred meters away if you weren't careful.

That said, I liked how the vehicles did not explode all the time in the shown version. In one part you could even spot a sabot round overpenetrate an ifrit and fly off into the distance if my eyes didn't deceive me. Many of the other things I liked too, such as the now hard-coded as opposed to scripted UAVs.