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st!gar

What exactly is ArmA 3's plot?

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I've been searching the main website as well as the wiki, but I can find no information as to what exactly the game's plot is. Who are the factions? Why are they there? The "Factions"-section on the website is greyed-out, so I couldn't find any info.

People here seem to still know, somehow, so I figured I'd go straight to the source and ask here.

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I'd say it's still work in progress, but here you have some guidelines from the PC Gamer interview:

The player is a regular soldier, a Corporal who’s part of a NATO peacekeeping mission in the Mediterranean. Originally deployed in the wake of the total economic collapse of the Republic of Altis—a nation something like the size of Malta—a situation that flared up into a bloody civil war. It’s been a couple of years of uneasy peace following a cease-fire. This US-led force is now in the process of a staged drawdown, tasked to decommission the bases and coordinate the scrapping of military equipment and vehicles that they can’t afford to ship back home.

This withdrawal takes place in the context of decades of recession in the west and a rise in power and ambition of nations under the banner of CSAT, the Canton-Protocol Strategic Alliance Treaty. Stratis—the island where the player’s unit is based—is a key strategic position between east and west. But, with the US more concerned about its interests and influence in the Pacific and traditional European powers looking inwards at their flatlining economies and mass unemployment, it’s become something of an unaffordable operation.

The vacuum left by withdrawing NATO forces is being rapidly filled by CSAT, creating the conditions for, one might say, a flashpoint. The campaign follows the player from this point and examines his role across three distinct episodes: Survive, Adapt, Win.

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So the AAF are the government forces. The FIA are insurgents who fought the FIA in a civil war. The CSAT is a some kind of alliance of Eastern countries that... wants what, exactly? And NATO doesn't particularly consider itself as an ally of either FIA or AAF.

Is that right?

Edited by St!gar

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So the FIA are the government forces. The AAF are insurgents who fought the FIA in a civil war. The CSAT is a some kind of alliance of Eastern countries that... wants what, exactly? And NATO doesn't particularly consider itself as an ally of either FIA or AAF.

Is that right?

Pretty sure AAF stands for Altis Armed Forces.

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So the FIA are the government forces. The AAF are insurgents who fought the FIA in a civil war. The CSAT is a some kind of alliance of Eastern countries that... wants what, exactly? And NATO doesn't particularly consider itself as an ally of either FIA or AAF.

Is that right?

Well, as far as I know the FIA represent the Altis common population ( like the "opposition/free syrian army" in Syria ), the AAF the official army and gov. ( let's say like the Syrian Army ). CSAT is a new world power ( some kind of asiatic NATO ), and NATO is... well, NATO xD

Looking from the videos that have been released it seems that NATO works with FIA (like in the mission that NATO sniper kills a CSAT leader and flees in a FIA offroad ). I guess that the AAF will play in both sides.

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So "Western NATO" is on the side of the common population, whereas "Eastern NATO" is on the side of the government?

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They had to change the story in a short notice so it's obviously kinda confusing lol. Also another reason why we won't see campaign at release, because of all of the changes. There were even supposed to be CIA in earlier DEV interview but i guess they scrapped that one too. The Greek gov really screwed them bad.

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So AAF are kinda the bad guys, or the neutral-but-CSAT-leaning guys?

where does that idea even originate from? from the bad syrian civil war analogy?

bis has been sticking with the same formula forever now. it's pretty clear the aaf are like the cdf, the csat are like the russians, fia are like the napa.

i wonder if there's a chedaki-like faction.

and the fia aren't fighting the aaf, the fia only formed after the csat invaded. aaf was the new military formed after the civil war. the story takes place well after the civil ended and begins as the player named "kerry" is about to leave the island.

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I don't think that's correct at all. If AAF was like CDF then they'd be on BLUFOR. And if FIA was like NAPA then they'd be on independent, which clearly isn't the case anymore because BIS specifically moved them. NAPA was against the OPFOR factions but they weren't specifically allied with BLUFOR, which FIA now clearly is.

Going by the small amount of plot information we have, a Syrian analogy is probably more accurate than you think. Quote from RiE:

This is a nation that's experienced brutal civil war. Previously a part of the EU, its economy collapsed, which was followed by a period of violent rioting and disorder. ... [the AAF] seized power and put down down the rioting with a heavy hand. It was at this point in time that NATO moved in and put a stop to the brutality: an enforced cease-fire with boots on the ground. Partly under the auspices of humanitarian motivation - and partly because the new military regime were moving closer toward CSAT's sphere of influence

This suggests to me that the AAF is an oppressive military regime, fighting the FIA which it views as terrorists but whom NATO probably considers 'freedom fighters'. And that the AAF may actually be allied with CSAT, causing the FIA to get the band back together and help NATO.

the fia aren't fighting the aaf, the fia only formed after the csat invaded. aaf was the new military formed after the civil war.

Where are you getting this information?

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Considering all the wrecks it's been a zombie apocalypse,iranians developed the virus in those domes and Altis was the testbed,in a week everything went to hell,AAF stepped in and blew everyone cars to prevent escape.Also for some reason iranians hated women so the virus killed them all.

Then Nato was in the area and when they saw all the mess they couldn't stay away from it.Sadly a few of their transport planes were shot down and CSAT managed to steal some UGVs and a few turrets.

When they saw Nato superior turret technology they decided to transform the domes into factories to make the new turret for all their vehicles.The UGV were too advanced to reproduce so they just decided to paint them differently just to piss Nato even more.

FIA was made from surviving civ population,when they saw all their women died they decided to take arms,now they plan ops in their garages.

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I don't care about the story :P

We just have to run around shooting enemies and blowing stuff up.

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Considering all the wrecks it's been a zombie apocalypse,iranians developed the virus in those domes and Altis was the testbed,in a week everything went to hell,AAF stepped in and blew everyone cars to prevent escape.Also for some reason iranians hated women so the virus killed them all.

Then Nato was in the area and when they saw all the mess they couldn't stay away from it.Sadly a few of their transport planes were shot down and CSAT managed to steal some UGVs and a few turrets.

When they saw Nato superior turret technology they decided to transform the domes into factories to make the new turret for all their vehicles.The UGV were too advanced to reproduce so they just decided to paint them differently just to piss Nato even more.

FIA was made from surviving civ population,when they saw all their women died they decided to take arms,now they plan ops in their garages.

Incredible!

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We shall know tomorrow in one month.

Or more.

Probably.

:j:

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Considering all the wrecks it's been a zombie apocalypse,iranians developed the virus in those domes and Altis was the testbed,in a week everything went to hell,AAF stepped in and blew everyone cars to prevent escape.Also for some reason iranians hated women so the virus killed them all.

Then Nato was in the area and when they saw all the mess they couldn't stay away from it.Sadly a few of their transport planes were shot down and CSAT managed to steal some UGVs and a few turrets.

When they saw Nato superior turret technology they decided to transform the domes into factories to make the new turret for all their vehicles.The UGV were too advanced to reproduce so they just decided to paint them differently just to piss Nato even more.

FIA was made from surviving civ population,when they saw all their women died they decided to take arms,now they plan ops in their garages.

Godammit, Umbrella strikes again.

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where does that idea even originate from? from the bad syrian civil war analogy?

bis has been sticking with the same formula forever now. it's pretty clear the aaf are like the cdf, the csat are like the russians, fia are like the napa.

i wonder if there's a chedaki-like faction.

and the fia aren't fighting the aaf, the fia only formed after the csat invaded. aaf was the new military formed after the civil war. the story takes place well after the civil ended and begins as the player named "kerry" is about to leave the island.

In the 2012 story, it was that you had NATO, Iran, and the local resistance, supplied by Nikos Panagopoulos and led by Menelaos. The Iranians were supported by Georgios Akhanteros, the former mayor of Limnos and former mayor of Myrina. Doesn't seem like the Hellenic Armed Forces were supposed to be a faction, because Menelaos was a former commissioned/non-commissioned officer in the Hellenic Armed Forces. The AAF are pretty much HAF (but like, oppressive, like Syria). However, I'm not really sure why there's the FIA and the AAF. The original story makes more sense in which the local resistance is pretty much led by former HAF officers and NCOs. Not sure how that works with the FIA.

The CIA presence that MistyRonin was talking about was ODEVIL, a principle Mediterranean HUMINT source for NATO.

On the OPFOR side, besides Akhanteros (who has his own paramilitary guerrillas, already in the game by the way), you have COL Vahid Namdar and GEN Ostad Javeed Attar, both Iranians. Namdar was the Supreme Military Commander of the Limnos task force. He is subordinate to GEN Ostad Attar, who is the head of Iranian military research and arms development. The Ostad title is like "Dr." I think (a real Iranian academic title). Attar is also the CEO of Red Pegasus Engineering (note that the Iranian Republic flag, before being changed to CSAT, featured a red pegasus instead of the Islamic "Allah" symbol).

For the above, change Limnos to Altis, HAF to AAF (and their former officers/NCOs to defected AAF), and you pretty much have the story for Arma 3. Oh, and the domes? Well, that's Attar's weapons research. Not sure if he's building nukes or chemical weapons or what. Hope it's a railgun and that his relative level of R&D is comparable to US/German R&D during WWII (so game-changing R&D).

Oh, and a little off-topic but somewhat related, there was really no point for BIS to make up CSAT, as you already have the SCO which serves the same purpose, really, as a check against NATO (basically the 21st century Warsaw Pact). And I say that because the Canton-Protocol Strategic Alliance Treaty very obviously was signed in China. Well, a Chinese city is also named in the SCO's name: Shanghai Cooperation Organization. But just my 2 cents.

Edited by antoineflemming

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Considering all the wrecks it's been a zombie apocalypse,iranians developed the virus in those domes and Altis was the testbed,in a week everything went to hell,AAF stepped in and blew everyone cars to prevent escape.Also for some reason iranians hated women so the virus killed them all.

Then Nato was in the area and when they saw all the mess they couldn't stay away from it.Sadly a few of their transport planes were shot down and CSAT managed to steal some UGVs and a few turrets.

When they saw Nato superior turret technology they decided to transform the domes into factories to make the new turret for all their vehicles.The UGV were too advanced to reproduce so they just decided to paint them differently just to piss Nato even more.

FIA was made from surviving civ population,when they saw all their women died they decided to take arms,now they plan ops in their garages.

Lol that made my day :)

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Glad you guys like it,just remember that when the dlc campaign gets released I was the first that spoiled it for you.:biggrin:

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Considering all the wrecks it's been a zombie apocalypse,iranians developed the virus in those domes and Altis was the testbed,in a week everything went to hell,AAF stepped in and blew everyone cars to prevent escape.Also for some reason iranians hated women so the virus killed them all.

Then Nato was in the area and when they saw all the mess they couldn't stay away from it.Sadly a few of their transport planes were shot down and CSAT managed to steal some UGVs and a few turrets.

When they saw Nato superior turret technology they decided to transform the domes into factories to make the new turret for all their vehicles.The UGV were too advanced to reproduce so they just decided to paint them differently just to piss Nato even more.

FIA was made from surviving civ population,when they saw all their women died they decided to take arms,now they plan ops in their garages.

Hahaha! Amazing! :yay:

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Considering all the wrecks it's been a zombie apocalypse,iranians developed the virus in those domes and Altis was the testbed,in a week everything went to hell,AAF stepped in and blew everyone cars to prevent escape.Also for some reason iranians hated women so the virus killed them all.

Then Nato was in the area and when they saw all the mess they couldn't stay away from it.Sadly a few of their transport planes were shot down and CSAT managed to steal some UGVs and a few turrets.

When they saw Nato superior turret technology they decided to transform the domes into factories to make the new turret for all their vehicles.The UGV were too advanced to reproduce so they just decided to paint them differently just to piss Nato even more.

FIA was made from surviving civ population,when they saw all their women died they decided to take arms,now they plan ops in their garages.

Lol nice one. At least it's logical :D

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This probably pisses me off the most about Arma 3. Like Wtf give us the background and faction descriptions at least for the purposes of making immersive missions. All the missions I've been making are the US/AAF teaming up against CSAT....grrr

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