Multiplayer dying fast??

[katipo66 94]

Arma is and was never a game for public servers. I guess 90% which are playing this series online are playing it with friends and with teamspeak. If you want awesome public gameplay play BF4.

I hope BIS don't have this attitude, but sadly I think they do, I had a great time in the Alpha on these much hated on public servers, I have no time for joining teams, coops and training nights nor can I really talk to anyone, I just want to be able to play Arma online at an Arma pace with like minded folk, if Arma 3 cannot deliver on that and is just going to be like Arma 2 in terms of online options then now I'm thinking what does the game actually offer that Arma 2 doesn't cover 10 fold.

[Beagle 684]

...if Arma 3 cannot deliver on that and is just going to be like Arma 2 in terms of online options then now I'm thinking what does the game actually offer that Arma 2 doesn't cover 10 fold.

Ragdoll physiX

[iceman77 18]

With all those sh..ty public servers that only host repetitive missions in which you have to travel for kilometers just to kill some AI and eventually getting killed before even arriving... no wonder why the multiplayer is (slowly) dying. It will eventually get better if better missions will be hosted.

It's one of the great things about Arma (in most scenarios). You have to respect your virtual life, else, take a hike back to the AO. Maybe think twice before going into a hot Ao, unaware. I guess you could say that every game is "slowly dying", in that, all games tend to dwindle a bit and then even out. Weeding out all of the persons who shouldn't be there in the first place. That's not new news... especially with this series. It's always been a niche series. But now, it's more populated than ever (not counting dayz for A2).

[katipo66 94]

Ragdoll physiX

Sadly these alone will not improve any online gameplay options, the new lighting looks awesome at night though.

[fn_Quiksilver 1633]

No it isn't dying.

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/2185/3ahk.jpg

gads look at all that Wasteland

[iceman77 18]

gads look at all that Wasteland

What is gads? I'm assuming it's an acronym for something bad, so I'll say this... wasteland still counts as MP :).

[dnk 13]

Arma is and was never a game for public servers. I guess 90% which are playing this series online are playing it with friends and with teamspeak. If you want awesome public gameplay play BF4.

Rubbish, rubbish. There are tons of fun pubs that build up communities around them. I've joined squads and pubbed throughout Arma 1-3, and both are quite viable ways to play. Some of the pubs are very close to (or significantly better than) privates, and yeah some are full of headless chicken(shit)s and children/teens.

What is gads? I'm assuming it's an acronym for something bad, so I'll say this... wasteland still counts as MP :).

Good God or something of that nature.

[giorgygr 61]

What is gads? I'm assuming it's an acronym for something bad, so I'll say this... wasteland still counts as MP :).

Can't say you are wrong -typically-

On the other hand..i don't believe you want ARMA to be famous on Internet -and affiliated with Wasteland-

I would prefer DayZ mod better to be affiliated with ARMA series..because -at least- DayZ had proper atmosphere/survival feeling/better performance/innovative scripting technology/character save system...and lots other goodies.

Sorry ..i feel mentioning "Wasteland" on the ARMA forums is a sacrilege

[St. Jimmy 272]

gads look at all that Wasteland

This is the thing that annoys. There's just too many hosters hosting Wasteland and trying to get "easily" high player count on their server. I hope this will change when some more PvP missions come out.

[hekuball 10]

I like playing the pubs - specifically King of the Hill but the game does need more modes/missions which are publicly available (lets see what happens with the Battlefield mod). Although the pub games can be rather shallow in that there is not alot of organised teamplay going on (but there is some - highly dependent on server and players) what it does cater for is the player like me to hop on when you have a few hours to play when time allows, unlike clans (which require committment, training and include their fair share of politics and rage-quitting).

What does infuriate me iswhen you see that all of the highly populated servers are all running Wasteland or Altis Life - I just dont understand the attraction in that mode and never will. Isnt the whole point of Arma about assaulting a position and capturing it as a team?

[nabbl 10]

I like playing the pubs - specifically King of the Hill but the game does need more modes/missions which are publicly available (lets see what happens with the Battlefield mod). Although the pub games can be rather shallow in that there is not alot of organised teamplay going on (but there is some - highly dependent on server and players) what it does cater for is the player like me to hop on when you have a few hours to play when time allows, unlike clans (which require committment, training and include their fair share of politics and rage-quitting).

What does infuriate me iswhen you see that all of the highly populated servers are all running Wasteland or Altis Life - I just dont understand the attraction in that mode and never will. Isnt the whole point of Arma about assaulting a position and capturing it as a team?

You can do that on most Wasteland Servers too. Some of them have territorial conquest built in. I really enjoy playing Wasteland (burn me) and when the mission is developed properly it can give you an amazing experience.

I usually play in a team of two and we are having a great time on Altis on an 80 player server, sniping from hills, accomplishing some side missions and killing as many players as possible while trying to keep being alive (even better in harcore mode). The "fun" thing is though, that you drop all your stuff on death. So if you want to survive you have play quite tactical.

There are a lot of very good PvPers on Wasteland servers who are used to play and aim in shooter-games. It just gives you another rush not like in COOP games where you hunt stupid AI bots which either finish you in seconds or won't even look at you.

In a good Wasteland mission you can have both.

[hekuball 10]

You can do that on most Wasteland Servers too. Some of them have territorial conquest built in. I really enjoy playing Wasteland (burn me) and when the mission is developed properly it can give you an amazing experience.

I usually play in a team of two and we are having a great time on Altis on an 80 player server, sniping from hills, accomplishing some side missions and killing as many players as possible while trying to keep being alive (even better in harcore mode). The "fun" thing is though, that you drop all your stuff on death. So if you want to survive you have play quite tactical.

There are a lot of very good PvPers on Wasteland servers who are used to play and aim in shooter-games. It just gives you another rush not like in COOP games where you hunt stupid AI bots which either finish you in seconds or won't even look at you.

In a good Wasteland mission you can have both.

Interesting and no I dont want to burn you.:cool: I'd consider myself quite new to Arma in terms of knowing how to play the game although I've known what it is for a long time, having played Arma2 and also OFP when it came out and

I just cant think of any other game that supports such a wide variety of player styles. I guess the problem is that, for whatever reason, there is a bit too much of Wasteland and more individualistic gameplay and not enough traditional team oriented PvP play atm. Im hoping this will change.

Of course it could be I'm just not looking in the right places....

[Smurf 12]

MP browser overhaul would help. SteamClient one is already good and fast, PwS is even better.

Another thing is, for pubbers, tools\GUI to see who are you playing with, all the squad shenanigans (join, leav, invite, roles, teams) and all those other nice things commonly found in mods or well made missions that, while we don't have auto sync, isn't the final solution.

But all that won't help if servers struggle to run A3.

[jgbtl292 0]

SteamClient ??? what ? arma runs not on steam in mp its the old GAMESPY look at the mp browser right side on top ;)

[Smurf 12]

If you are on the Dev Branch, open Steam and go in the top left corner, click View => Servers and filter it for A3.

Hope it eventually make into the game as the standard browser,

[dnk 13]

I agree with the general feeling that there aren't enough mission types, or those that exist are lacking in excitement.

Regarding COOP, as much as I enjoy it with a good, small squad, it's the most pointless and dull waste of time with more than 15 people on current missions. This is especially true since the current community culture on most of these servers is: snipe/CAS 95% of the AI from a 100% safe distance. Half the time a good CQC mission is ruined because 1 guy in a AH-99 or whatever gets to the AO 10 minutes ahead of the crowd and levels it for a LEET KILL COUNT of 200 while the rest of the server has like 15 per. Of course, since the rest just wanted to shoot fish in a barrel, who cares anyway?

This could be fixed through improved AI (that aren't terrible at a distance or in urban settings), improved scripting (same), or better mission design (more sniper and AA units). I would bet this snipe-a-thon approach would be greatly diminished if 30% of the AI in a city were snipers (forcing the player to close and use cover/defilade effectively in doing so), and simply eliminating CAS should be done for sure. But then missions would actually be challenging, which many of the large pub players seem to hate (and given some of the respawn systems - 10min time to return to AO - it's understandable I guess).

Of course, the fact that many missions use too-accurate AI because designers think 0.50-0.70 skill is acceptable makes sniping from a safe distance the only way to play without being instakilled when under 250m away.

Smaller pubs are more fun for COOP, especially when the players enjoy a challenge, but even there a lot of missions end up being "sit on a hill and shoot into the barrel", which is so extremely tiresome.

Additionally, I've not felt BECTI to be nearly as fun as it is in A2 right now, so that's also eliminated a very popular and challenging PvP mode from the lineup until it gets into better shape.

Edited November 20, 2013 by DNK

[progamer 14]

I agree with the general feeling that there aren't enough mission types, or those that exist are lacking in excitement.

Regarding COOP, as much as I enjoy it with a good, small squad, it's the most pointless and dull waste of time with more than 15 people on current missions. This is especially true since the current community culture on most of these servers is: snipe/CAS 95% of the AI from a 100% safe distance. Half the time a good CQC mission is ruined because 1 guy in a AH-99 or whatever gets to the AO 10 minutes ahead of the crowd and levels it for a LEET KILL COUNT of 200 while the rest of the server has like 15 per. Of course, since the rest just wanted to shoot fish in a barrel, who cares anyway?

This could be fixed through improved AI (that aren't terrible at a distance or in urban settings), improved scripting (same), or better mission design (more sniper and AA units). I would bet this snipe-a-thon approach would be greatly diminished if 30% of the AI in a city were snipers (forcing the player to close and use cover/defilade effectively in doing so), and simply eliminating CAS should be done for sure. But then missions would actually be challenging, which many of the large pub players seem to hate (and given some of the respawn systems - 10min time to return to AO - it's understandable I guess).

Of course, the fact that many missions use too-accurate AI because designers think 0.50-0.70 skill is acceptable makes sniping from a safe distance the only way to play without being instakilled when under 250m away.

Smaller pubs are more fun for COOP, especially when the players enjoy a challenge, but even there a lot of missions end up being "sit on a hill and shoot into the barrel", which is so extremely tiresome.

Additionally, I've not felt BECTI to be nearly as fun as it is in A2 right now, so that's also eliminated a very popular and challenging PvP mode from the lineup until it gets into better shape.

The mission maker creates the mission and balances the mission. You can create your own missions you think are better, seek permission to edit current missions or ask the creator to change things. 9/10 times these "high profile" mission creators are pretty nice people.

Arma 2 missions also had years of polish. Arma 3's missions do not. Just wait until 2014 when we can play domination with ACE3 and many other mods.

[dnk 13]

My complaints were mostly about the AI and playstyles than mission makers. Most of my desired mission changes would not appeal to typical playstyles (no magnified optics, weaker skilled AI, no CAS... the community does not support these things generally), so I don't bother the mission makers with my desires. They've done what they can - given the community wants X, you can't force Y on them.

I would ask for far more challenging AI that, you know, engages the player instead of waiting to be killed, but this requires a lot of extra scripting, lots of AI units, which cause performance problems. Or something where the player isn't in a permanent position of domination over otherwise helpless (but superhuman) AI. Unfortunately, the big box COOPs tend towards "humans should have totally dominant firepower and unassailable position" OR in cases (insurgency) where humans have to actually be put in harms way to clear things, the lackluster urban AI issues come to the fore. AI just sitting in rooms, lying on the floor, waiting to be found - a long, tedious exercise of Easter egg hunting with M4s, where occasionally you get a curve ball and it gets fun for a minute before the long search resumes. It's not the mission maker's fault - given X resources, you can't create Y.

I mean, it seems the large-pub COOP community mostly wants to sit on a hill and shoot fish in a barrel with lots of armor/CAS support, and no one minds at all if 1 player hops in an aircraft and levels the AO first. This is what I've seen through countless hours of COOP play among many different servers. I don't get it, that's all. It's dreary to me. I do like PvP, but it has its own problems - namely, balancing teams (KotH = 6v14v14 or such often, leaving newcomers to choose "join the losing side" or "have fun"?).

And Warfare just hasn't matured yet, as you say. It always had issues with too-hard AI, and for that I lay the blame more at BI's feet for making defaults so insanely high and forcing certain minimum levels (insanely high) for a given difficulty setting (0.7 for Vet is ridiculous).

Edited November 20, 2013 by DNK

[bvrettski 10]

I agree with the general feeling that there aren't enough mission types, or those that exist are lacking in excitement.

Along with a long list of as yet fufilled promised by BIS in promoting the game there was this:

"ARMA 3 WILL PLAY HOST ONCE MORE TO THE ARMA SERIES' MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER PLAYERBASE WHO, WHEN COMBINED WITH THE ABILITY TO CREATE CUSTOM MISSIONS AND CONTENT, ARE PLAYING A VAST ARRAY OF OFFICIAL AND USER-GENERATED MISSIONS AND GAMETYPES DAILY. FROM 2-PLAYER CO-OP MISSIONS TO 60 VS 60 COMPETITIVE WARS, ARMA 3 FEATURES SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE."

I have been complaining about this since the release. If you want to call it a multiplayer game you actually have to provide some of that content. To date , from BIS we have Zero, none nada. Yes its great that the editor can do it and that largely the best gametypes will be developed by the open community but I still feel that BIS dropped the ball on multiplayer by not providing anything.

It can't be that hard to hire a couple of well versed mission designers and coders....design a few gametypes DM, TDM, Conquest, Sector Control, Domination, Search & Destroy, CTF etc...given them an Arma spin so we aren't just copying EA, Activision etc and throw them into the release. Additionally these missions could act as samples for would be new mission designers. You'd get double duty out of them.

Give me the $10-20k and I'll find someone(s) more than willing to crank them out. Maybe even less...

[Zipper5 74]

To date , from BIS we have Zero, none nada.

This is incorrect. In the game right now, there are the following official MP missions:

• COOP 07 Headhunters
  
• COOP 08 Combined Arms
  
• COOP 10 Escape from Stratis
  
• COOP 10 Escape from Altis
  
• COOP 10 Tanks
  
• DEFEND 10 Defend Kamino
  
• DEFEND 10 Defend Syrta
  
• SEIZE 10 Seize Edoris
  
• SEIZE 10 Seize Feres
  

And it's no secret that we have been hinting towards an upcoming multiplayer reveal of some kind.

[nicolasroger 11]

Also don't forget the steam workshop guys (accessible ingame) where it is really easy to download a new mission and enjoy it (multiplayer ones too)

[bvrettski 10]

This is incorrect. In the game right now, there are the following official MP missions:

• COOP 07 Headhunters
  
• COOP 08 Combined Arms
  
• COOP 10 Escape from Stratis
  
• COOP 10 Escape from Altis
  
• COOP 10 Tanks
  
• DEFEND 10 Defend Kamino
  
• DEFEND 10 Defend Syrta
  
• SEIZE 10 Seize Edoris
  
• SEIZE 10 Seize Feres
  

And it's no secret that we have been hinting towards an upcoming multiplayer reveal of some kind.

These are coops are they not? Player vs AI?

I am speaking of player vs player as it relates to the 60 vs 60 competitive wars mentioned above.

Yes I'll be excited about a multiplayer reveal..anything that brings more of the content that should have been ready at the full games release. This will be a good boost for the installed player base but do little to broaden the games appeal now that the momentum of the game has sadly been lost to bigger flashier titles...

I hope if there ever is n Arma 5 that they finally put together a complete game right out of the gate..if possible.

Edited November 20, 2013 by Bvrettski

[iceman77 18]

I have been complaining about this since the release. If you want to call it a multiplayer game you actually have to provide some of that content. To date , from BIS we have Zero, none nada. Yes its great that the editor can do it and that largely the best gametypes will be developed by the open community but I still feel that BIS dropped the ball on multiplayer by not providing anything.

With all due respect, this 'complaint' is ~13 years old, yet you act as if this release "dropped the ball on official MP content". MP isn't dead and it isn't dying. It's a sandbox and it's all about the community. What you (& I) may or may not like doesn't matter so much, as it all comes down to what the larger clans/communities want to host (concerning public MP). There are several really well done MP modes that don't even get the time of day from public games. Yet there are really bad generic modes being played in abundance. Point being, even if BI did decide to make some MP modes, it would most likely end up being a waste of time on their end. Communities in Arma, are going to play custom scenarios no matter what.

[cpl_hicks 2]

Until ACE 3 comes out, I am going back to Arma 2........

[zukov 483]

With all due respect, this 'complaint' is ~13 years old, yet you act as if this release "dropped the ball on official MP content". MP isn't dead and it isn't dying. It's a sandbox and it's all about the community. What you (& I) may or may not like doesn't matter so much, as it all comes down to what the larger clans/communities want to host (concerning public MP). There are several really well done MP modes that don't even get the time of day from public games. Yet there are really bad generic modes being played in abundance. Point being, even if BI did decide to make some MP modes, it would most likely end up being a waste of time on their end. Communities in Arma, are going to play custom scenarios no matter what.

MP in Arma 3 simply doesn't exist

the lobby is atrocious

sector control module doesn't have not even a sample mission

stratis is the only map with a decent fps

squad and high command are a bugfest

wasteland and other mp modes are only the result of hard work by eroic users, that struggling continuosly with the editor.

All missions on arma 3, made by BIS, are coop, this game is just created around a one idea, coop coop coop coop

ps. but all modes max for 10 players

Edited November 21, 2013 by Zukov