Things that are actually better with ARMA 3.

[accapella 1]

For some Arma 3 is forming up to be a tad disappointing and atleast requires more work but here's a list of things to be thankful for:

Change in setting from modern day to territory which modders have not yet touched, near future. Modders will make a million packs of different m4 and ak variants but never stuff like we're getting now in high quality from bis themselves.

Improved AI, the AI is more responsive and deadly. Comparing with OA shows less shameful rotation speed and the tendency to shoot more rather than move for cover in cqb.

Improved performance relative to graphics update. People with certain hardware and some people who play badly scripted/highly demanding multiplayer missions get very bad FPS but especially in singleplayer it is an improvement.

Less bugs on release. If not for the public alpha, game breaking bugs like the AI enemies always knowing exactly where you are after initial contact regardless of line of sight could have gone unnoticed for several full release versions.

Favorite server list. Seriously it took this long?

The largest and most detailed landscape in arma up to date. More buildings are enterable than in any stock island before, the biomes are more varied than before (there's hills, plains, forests, mountains, islands, a large swamp and a large flat desert), there are small detailed locations all over and despite this the performance is pretty good (admittedly again some people have serious problems).

Overall the graphics are better than before from the slightly outdated from launch day graphics of arma 2 to nearly top of the line quality.

Improved inventory system. Arma 2 had terrible inventory and Arma 3 pretty much fixed it completely. Good job.

Weapon and gear customisation. Uniforms are made in a pretty silly way (because of pretty silly technical reasons bis said geneva convetion lol and removed cross side uniform switching instead of changing their system) but otherwise switching backpacks, vests, helmets and weapon attachments on the fly is a welcome addition. Too bad you can't remove and attach barrel mounted grenade launchers though.

PHYSX. You cant make a tank fly up into the air and roll over onto it's back by accident like back in Takistan.

Improved water movement and diving. Some say it's a gimmick but it's a whole new gameplay avenue Arma and many other games havent touched so far.

Improved animations. People who said arma 2's movement was total shit (count me in) now find Arma 3's sublime movement animations near optimal. Stance adjusting adds a new level of flexibility.

PIP technology. It's kinda nice??

Overall: 7/10 you tried well, now add more content, make ai utilise buildings and smoke grenades and fix people's performance problems.

When fretting over how arma 3 is ending up like, remember all the good things like these. Post your own in this thread.

[RushHour 11]

Graphics

Cockpit animation/visualization

Inventory

Mod adding made easier

Altis

Sea factor

Animations (although jumping and climbing over walls would be quite welcome)

Weather engine (beautiful)

Probably forgot about some things, much easier to memorize the bad stuff ;)

Edited September 7, 2013 by RushHour

[accapella 1]

Also saying that focus on graphics detracted directly from gameplay may really be just an uninformed argument due to games not actually having x amount of development that can be allocated to different parts but instead many developers all working on their own area of expertise.

[horrorview 10]

Great post, OP! As someone who actually TRIED to get into ARMA 2 upon its release only to throw my hands up in disgust when I was faced with what were, at the time, seemingly insurmountable bugs, outdated graphics, and hideously bad AI (I know, it's all good NOW, but, man...), ARMA 3 pretty much destroyed VANILLA ARMA 2 out of the gate. I can only imagine it'll get much, much better from here.

[NeuroFunker 11]

For some Arma 3 is forming up to be a tad disappointing and atleast requires more work but here's a list of things to be thankful for:

you don't say. Why it should be dissapointing, and for whom?

[Rich_R 1087]

Personally, I'm slightly taken aback when I load up Arma 3. You can see the progression in the Arma games with the latest adding more realism.

Arma 3 feels good and I see it as being an incredible platform to continue milsimming on. If the improved tools that have been promised come out soon, we'll see a ton on content.

Best of all, it'll be free. Show me another game that has that community support.

[thx1137 10]

The positives for me (my negatives go to the ARMA issue tracker...):

*The environment. (mainly attention to detail of the "world")

*Looks decent graphics wise. Not generally photo real but I find it serviceable.

*It just feels less clunky than A2 in operation. Mainly a mods thing maybe.

*Good range of default weapons. Guns, a good range of attachments, missiles, rockets, mines.

*Water. It came in really useful as a tactical element in one particular stealth mission.

*Improvements in AI. Using way-point types well they can work pretty well. I like just watching them search each other out, engage using cover, retreat and flank. Seeing them go into houses (only sometimes it seems) is pretty cool too.

*The extra view distance with twice the FPS of A2 (on my rig anyway) makes CAS tons better.

*Running Dxtory costs me no more than 2 FPS

*The level of problems I had with A2 (like Horrorview) are actually non-existent for me in A3 (yes there are issues but no bad ones for me)

[Smurf 12]

For me it's easier to list the bad things because everything else is better ;)

[J0K3R 5 93]

The way I see Arma 3, is that its a rough diamond.

It just needs a bit more polishing and it will be the game we will all be happy with.

I will put my hand up and many others have done the same.

Im guilty in comparing the polished Arma 2 to rough uncut version of Arma 3.

Yes it needs more content and things need fixed, but track record tells us.

BIS will do its best to make it one of the best game around.

[PuFu 4600]

Modders will make a million packs of different m4 and ak variants but never stuff like we're getting now in high quality from bis themselves.

LOL...yeah, right

[chortles 263]

It seemed like a joke at the expense of what modders usually release as well as a continual demand for "legacy" content...

[PantherAl 11]

Whilst I will agree, there are some issues - that horse has been beaten to death a million times over - there are great things. If I had to pick one, I'd say the lighting. Amazing, simply Amazing. :)

[sic-disaster 311]

I honestly can't see how anyone could find ArmA 3 disappointing. The list of improvements over previous games is huge, and thanks to a lot of things coming together ArmA 3 feels more like a game again, without losing any depth of previous titles, while simultaneously making it easier to get into. It takes me back to my days of playing Operation Flashpoint, which ArmA 1 and 2 absolutely did not though I loved them too.

As for people complaining about a 'lack of content', what the hell guys? You can't compare ArmA 3 with previous games, because the setting is completely different, both time and place. Everything had to be done from scratch, whereas ArmA 1 and 2 were basically (as far as I could tell) revamps of the same stuff that has been in there since OFP.

I fully appreciate that everything is new, I was getting so very sick and tired of seeing the same assets pop up again and again in the series. I've been walking the same set of buildings since OFP, but no more! Thank God for that. And if I had to fire another M16/AK variant I might have punched a wall. I'm sure BIS's artists would say the same, how many times you can revamp the same weapons without getting sick and tired of it?

I'll grant you that having just 1 plane to be used by all sides is kind of awkward and silly, but more will come in time. As for the rest of the vehicles, the amount and variety there is OK to me. What's there is functional, I don't need 10 variants of APC's. I need a rolling block of pure steel to get me into combat safely, and that is good enough. I don't like hiding in tin cans anyway.

Along with the game stuff being much improved, the editor is improved too. Creating tasks on the fly and creating briefings without fiddling with external files etc. has never been this easy, though my one gripe with the new briefing system is that the topics are placed in a random order. So I use the new tasks system, but I still use the old briefing.sqf.

And Steam Workshop support for missions is a blessing too. I love being able to download missions straight from within the game, and having them kept up to date automatically too (the best thing about it really).

[ProfTournesol 956]

I honestly can't see how anyone could find ArmA 3 disappointing. The list of improvements over previous games is huge, and thanks to a lot of things coming together ArmA 3 feels more like a game again, without losing any depth of previous titles, while simultaneously making it easier to get into. It takes me back to my days of playing Operation Flashpoint, which ArmA 1 and 2 absolutely did not though I loved them too.

As for people complaining about a 'lack of content', what the hell guys? You can't compare ArmA 3 with previous games, because the setting is completely different, both time and place. Everything had to be done from scratch, whereas ArmA 1 and 2 were basically (as far as I could tell) revamps of the same stuff that has been in there since OFP.

I fully appreciate that everything is new, I was getting so very sick and tired of seeing the same assets pop up again and again in the series. I've been walking the same set of buildings since OFP, but no more! Thank God for that. And if I had to fire another M16/AK variant I might have punched a wall. I'm sure BIS's artists would say the same, how many times you can revamp the same weapons without getting sick and tired of it?

I'll grant you that having just 1 plane to be used by all sides is kind of awkward and silly, but more will come in time. As for the rest of the vehicles, the amount and variety there is OK to me. What's there is functional, I don't need 10 variants of APC's. I need a rolling block of pure steel to get me into combat safely, and that is good enough. I don't like hiding in tin cans anyway.

Along with the game stuff being much improved, the editor is improved too. Creating tasks on the fly and creating briefings without fiddling with external files etc. has never been this easy, though my one gripe with the new briefing system is that the topics are placed in a random order. So I use the new tasks system, but I still use the old briefing.sqf.

And Steam Workshop support for missions is a blessing too. I love being able to download missions straight from within the game, and having them kept up to date automatically too (the best thing about it really).

Yep, my thoughts exactly. Not that i'm always happy with what is done by BIS, but i understand that choices must be made, and those choices are most of the times very honestly explained by the team.

I'm extremely upset by all the rage posts i see here and there. Each time i launch A3 i'm having a lot of fun, even if my PC is sometimes struggling with Altis. All those new things (underwater environnement, wonderful Altis, new toys such as drones...) will make a wonderful campaign. Moreover i'm bored with A2 vanilla (love historical mods though :)).

I'm even pleased with Steam (even Workshop for missions), which i honestly wouldn't have thought.

Most of us know that the release date doesn't mean much, the game will be supported during the upcoming years, contrary to most of the other games.

[tpw 2315]

I'd like to add the things that I really notice

• Massive improvement to radio protocols, sounds like real people instead of robots
  
• Massive improvement to player movement noises. Remember the clonk clonk rattle of vanilla A2 movement?
  

Periodically I go back to A2/OA to remind myself just how far A3 has really come.

[Vilos Cohaagen 1]

Good OP!

There are so many elements that I am enjoying in Arma3, but I think for me it is the lighting and new fog systems for the environment. The colour temperature of the lighting is perfect and the fog is more than window dressing adding new tactical options.

On the tactical side I absolutely adore the full range of stances and they have become second nature during play and are something I really miss when playing A2 or other games.

I'm also enjoying exploring Altis on the small scale, there is so much detail on the island and so many locations that I visit in missions or the editor that inspire mission ideas or just surprise.

Aside from a few issues with Altis I am also mightily impressed with the performance and how it has been optimised even since Alpha launch.

Yes, there are issues with the game, but I've been enjoying watching the game evolve and also seeing issues get resolved that would previously have made it to release.

I've already had some memorable experiences in missions with friends, and I'm sure I have many more to come.

[dayglow 2]

#1 mostest best improvement: gernade launcher sights work! Seriously since OFP came out I've been waiting for this.

[dale0404 5]

#1 mostest best improvement: gernade launcher sights work! Seriously since OFP came out I've been waiting for this.

Mate, just noticed your join date, even Jesus got old after you!

[McSenna 1]

The lighting, voice acting is generally much improved, Steam Workshop, mo-cap.

[adanteh 58]

1. Lighting
   
2. Weather effects
   
3. Animations + mocap
   
4. Sights (I like the 3D sights)
   
5. Vehicle handling
   
6. Interface
   
7. Enviroments and buildings (Altis is great!)
   
8. Weapon handling (Not sure what I think about the lack of inertia though)
   

Lots more, but that's the main things.

[Tacti-Cool 10]

PHYSX. You cant make a tank fly up into the air and roll over onto it's back by accident like back in Takistan.

Go hit a rock with the NATO tank, itll go ragdoll.