Will ARMA3 need A2 installed moving forward for old islands and assets etc?

[cpl_hicks 2]

I own A2 all the way up to A3 but I do not want to have to have A2 installed with all its DLC just to use its assets. Is this just the way its going to have to be moving forward or will we be able to just have A3 installed and use something like six updater to just get whats needed?

Ideally I would like to see all previous islands, weapons and assets from Arma on up to Arma 2 (combined ops) available in Arma 3 without having to have any other game fully installed besides Arma3.

Thanks ;)

Edited August 29, 2013 by CPL_HICKS

[dmarkwick 261]

Well as I see it those assets have to exist somewhere, whether that's in an A2 folder or not seems to be moot... so unless BIS decide to supply A2 content as a download for A3 then I would say you're going to need A2 installed.

[cpl_hicks 2]

No other way?

I was hoping to get away with using my 256 g SSD but if this is the case now ill will need a way bigger SSD just to help store game engines I will never use again....

I would rather BI came out with a legacy pack for ARMA 3 and I would gladly pay for that as it would be far cheaper!!!!!

[chortles 263]

Or be like me and throw Arma 2 onto the HDD, which is already where I keep my mods as well (I use the My Documents method, so Arma 3 is the only Arma content that I have on the SSD, while I could easily fit Arma 2 as well).

[cpl_hicks 2]

Or be like me and throw Arma 2 onto the HDD, which is already where I keep my mods as well (I use the My Documents method, so Arma 3 is the only Arma content that I have on the SSD, while I could easily fit Arma 2 as well).

Are you able to run AiA using ssd and hdd together and verified?

[tonygrunt 10]

No other way?

I was hoping to get away with using my 256 g SSD but if this is the case now ill will need a way bigger SSD just to help store game engines I will never use again....

I would rather BI came out with a legacy pack for ARMA 3 and I would gladly pay for that as it would be far cheaper!!!!!

There are few if any assets that are duplicated between A2,A2OA,A3 and the obsolete addons for gui,campaigns etc. don't take much space.

Even if they came with a pack I don't expect it would take much less space and trying to repack the addons would probably break compatibility with missions and addons for A2OA.

[cpl_hicks 2]

What I mean is they would have to all be consolidated then updated to Arma3 standards and I think people would like to have these items and be willing to pay for it. The question is does is save BI time and money to use these older items and update them or is just faster and cheaper for them to just reintroduce them from scratch?.....

[bravo93 37]

To be honest I think BIS are going the wrong way about this. Yes they made all that stuff for Arma 2/OA and they deserve to get payed for it but this config stuff for using the addons in Arma 3 seems a bit silly. If I'm probably not going to play Arma 2 anymore (Which I own btw) I don't really want to have all that content stored on my hard drive. From an economic perspective I really doubt BIS make much money from people buying A2/OA to use the contents in Arma 3. What is it, like £3 for A2 today? I can understand them thinking 'well loads of these guys have already paid £20-£30 for A2/OA so it's unfair if we give the whole game away to new A3 users for free' but I doubt many people care to be honest. I'm more interested in being able to go onto Armaholic and download say old A2 objects/user mods etc and use them in Arma 3. I really don't want like 15 GB sitting around on my computer and having to use a messy config file to launch everything.

[tonygrunt 10]

.... I'm more interested in being able to go onto Armaholic and download say old A2 objects/user mods etc and use them in Arma 3. I really don't want like 15 GB sitting around on my computer and having to use a messy config file to launch everything.

But to be able to use these old addons in Arma 3 you need the base games that are dependent on (be it graphics, models, sounds, configs etc.). Nobody could guarantee if they released a reworked version of the old assets that they wouldn't break compatibility with old user made addons, which would probably happen.

[Smurf 12]

When talking about Steam Workshop and future applications for it,Dwarden mentioned the desire to use A2 content and A1 terrains somehow, don't know if as an official approach or just an helping hand for AiA. The reason I don't used its plain and simple HD space, can't afford to have A2+OA to use only part of it.

I'll go ahead and say the "free"\unexpected money they got for A2 from DayZ could be reason enough to provide this content (terrains at least) for free on a patch or for a really small fee. It's things like this that create a loyal fanbase that won't blink (maybe a little) to support the company further with DLCs\expansions.

[dsi24 12]

It'd be awesome if you could enter your old keys on Steam to get a content pack for those games.

[chortles 263]

Are you able to run AiA using ssd and hdd together and verified?

That's exactly how I got this screenshot, this one and others: Arma 3 on the SSD, Arma 2/OA and both games' mods (AiA included) on the HDD with the My Documents method (modfolders in My Documents -- which is on the HDD -- and enabling/disabling using the Expansions sub-menu in Arma 3).

[becubed 24]

I own A2 all the way up to A3 but I do not want to have to have A2 installed with all its DLC just to use its assets.

Well given that the assets located in the addons, common and BAF folders total up to 12GB and the four exe's in my A2/OA folder total to 44MB I don't really see that there is much saving to be gained.