Next DLC and Expansion Speculation

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

Nothing has changed regarding underground structures in VBS3. They are kind of a pain to work with, but they work just fine, and there's nothing hacky about it. I seem to remember Ivan saying that they experimented with underground structures in Arma 3 using the VBS method (an underground LOD that "cuts" through the terrain), and it worked fine except that the AI didn't work underground (which is also true in VBS) so they decided against putting it in as a feature. However, it looks like the folks at BISim have just recently managed to fix the AI limitation according to the 3.5 changelog, so it's possible that this information has been passed on to BI so they could possibly implement it. I have my doubts though. As much as I would love it, all of this sounds way too good to be true to me. I mostly have my fingers crossed for support of rivers and lakes being implemented. :)

I was thinking to myself about how AI are not able to work in underground surfaces, and buildings. What i came up with, was this. You have an AI walk around right? He can navigate past things, and aroun walls. Now add in different elevations and it becomes complicated. But it's not abut telling the AI to go into say, a staircase going down underground. But rather, telling the AI to walk in a line, in which does'nt bypass that staircase. Instead, the AI walks in a straght path as to walk straight, but since there is a stair case there, he goes down the stairs. Now the AI is underground. From there, it's the same thing, now simply need to add in a new layer for the AI, kinda like how there are paths on ground level, how about an underground path finding layer. Idk, i have no experience with AI, much less a single arn script. Ahaha.

Back on topic, though, I just really want something, or some place with alot of flavor. Albanian seems kinda cool, some Asian terrain would be nice, but i want to see something interesting, and unique. "Never been done" map for Arma? We must dig deeper. Lets all have a competition, and see who can come up with a list of places. When the Expansion comes out if a year or so, than who ever guessed it right, gets a free box of Pizza Ordered to their house. XD

[chortles 263]

Nothing has changed regarding underground structures in VBS3. They are kind of a pain to work with, but they work just fine, and there's nothing hacky about it. I seem to remember Ivan saying that they experimented with underground structures in Arma 3 using the VBS method (an underground LOD that "cuts" through the terrain), and it worked fine except that the AI didn't work underground (which is also true in VBS) so they decided against putting it in as a feature. However, it looks like the folks at BISim have just recently managed to fix the AI limitation according to the 3.5 changelog, so it's possible that this information has been passed on to BI so they could possibly implement it. I have my doubts though. As much as I would love it, all of this sounds way too good to be true to me. I mostly have my fingers crossed for support of rivers and lakes being implemented. :)

My remark was simply noting that the video demonstrating underground was allegedly such (my source may or may not have been Dwarden) but I'm willing to take your word on the idea that your experienced implementation was released after said video was produced depicting an earlier implementation.

Incidentally, your recollection about what Ivan may have said actually reminds me of a seeming trend between BI and BISim where the former would "require" that a feature work with the AI (i.e. no player-exclusive capability) while the latter could (would?) deliver a feature without AI compatibility if the client didn't require that. (I understand that 3.5 was only released very recently, and if so then I'm really not surprised that BI left out underground if "must work with AI" is indeed an internal features mandate and it took this long for BISim to achieve that!)

For what it's worth, I don't know how exactly you'd define rivers but when I ran Iron Front LITE in Arma 3, the Baranow terrain and its segment of the Vistula river worked fine, and the SDV was even able to traverse the river underneath the bridges as if it were 'regular' Arma 3 Altis/Stratis sea water, complete with what appeared to be the engine even "procedurally generating" more shore and river at the map edges and beyond! (The boundary between pre-existing and generated terrain didn't look so great, but I digress.)

TL;DR: something about Iron Front LITE allowed for a terrain with a simulated river to work in RV4. :D Credit to the Iron Front-in-A3 people for pulling it off, but at least it means that the Arma 3 engine iteration has at least some riverine capability.

[St. Jimmy 272]

TL;DR: something about Iron Front LITE allowed for a terrain with a simulated river to work in RV4. :D Credit to the Iron Front-in-A3 people for pulling it off, but at least it means that the Arma 3 engine iteration has at least some riverine capability.

Isn't that just terrain lowered under a sea level so it's a sea in the middle? Just like the swamp area in Altis. Real rivers and ponds are also above the sea level.

[jakerod 254]

Isn't that just terrain lowered under a sea level so it's a sea in the middle? Just like the swamp area in Altis. Real rivers and ponds are also above the sea level.

This statement is accurate. It doesn't flow downhill or anything like that. It is just sea in the shape of a river which is still better than nothing I guess.

[krycek 349]

I hope they add Cherno style map and greatly extend the civ faction with emergency vehicles,choppers,civ regular vehicles like sedans,sport cars,suvs etc,new npcs like women civs and more clothing variation than shorts and t-shirt for males.Although instead of Cherno-style I would also prefer an urban map with 2-3 modern cities(A3 sandbox combined with Swat/R6 type missions would be a bliss in this map).

As for factions I hope they finally make different turret models and maybe extend the guerillas.Maybe add a PMC faction or more drone types too.Not sure if they plan even 20% of what I wrote,but since it's an expansion it should be beefy like OA was.

[HorbeySpector 164]

I hope they add Cherno style map and greatly extend the civ faction with emergency vehicles,choppers,civ regular vehicles like sedans,sport cars,suvs etc,new npcs like women civs and more clothing variation than shorts and t-shirt for males ...

You sound like one of them Altis Life players..

it's not Grand Theft Auto, you know

[mistyronin 1181]

You sound like one of them Altis Life players..

it's not Grand Theft Auto, you know

I don't see why. I also hope they increase hugely the civ faction that has been practically abandoned.

You know wars are not usually fought in deserted barrens. Specially in any COIN operation civilians are one of the main parts of the game. That's why ROE were made and have an important impact both psychologically and operationally ( huge main military operations can change or even be called off due to civilian factors ).

Guerrillas disguise themselves as civilians, use civilian vehicles... hell even coventional armies in certain cases do, not to talk about spec ops.

Just look in recent conflicts like Eastern Ukraine, the Arab springs, Syria, etc. or even Iraq and Afghanistan wars the civilians have been one of the main actors.

[krycek 349]

You sound like one of them Altis Life players..

it's not Grand Theft Auto, you know

It's a military sandbox,sometimes in military theaters you find civ vehicles and...(drums in the background)...even civilians,oh and sometimes operations take place in cities too.With this latest discovery someone can conclude that some people like to diversify their missions and considering BI even said they might expand the civ faction I would say that nr. of people isn't quite small.

Like I said before you can have some Swat or R6 missions combined with A3 ability to use vehicles/choppers which you would know you can't use them if you played those games.You could even make some civil war-type or pmc missions.The only limit is how creative you are.

Oh and GTA is far from a sandbox,it's just smoke&mirrors,the so-called simulation happens only around you and your vicinity(100m or a bit more depending on your draw distance).It's a pretty closed playground considering 80-90% of the city isn't even simulated.

Edited October 5, 2014 by Krycek

[chortles 263]

Isn't that just terrain lowered under a sea level so it's a sea in the middle? Just like the swamp area in Altis. Real rivers and ponds are also above the sea level.

The banks of the Vistula are actually inclined/sloped, so as far as an end user can tell the river itself appears lower.

This statement is accurate. It doesn't flow downhill or anything like that. It is just sea in the shape of a river which is still better than nothing I guess.

While perhaps true, "still better than nothing" to have a faux river which can facilitate 'basic' riverine gameplay, if only because that's something that can be hopefully expanded on.

[jakerod 254]

While perhaps true, "still better than nothing" to have a faux river which can facilitate 'basic' riverine gameplay, if only because that's something that can be hopefully expanded on.

We've had that capability since OFP though. BI just never uses the capability. The other major difference is that in OFP, ArmA, and ArmA II they provided us with bridges that could go across rivers, where as this time they provided us with bridges that, I'm told, look like crap when placed in line with one another. Additionally, for us terrain makers, having 0 based water makes real world terrain nearly useless since rivers flow downhill. When you download real life data the river doesn't stay at one level but flows downward sometimes as much as 100m depending on terrain size and roughness. That makes doing real rivers incredibly difficult because you either end up with huge canyons that don't really exist or you have to edit the entire heightmap down somehow which will also cause inexistent features. So 0 steps forward, 1 step back (if the bridges actually look bad together). That being said it would've served no purpose on Altis so it makes sense from their perspective.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

We've had that capability since OFP though. BI just never uses the capability. The other major difference is that in OFP, ArmA, and ArmA II they provided us with bridges that could go across rivers, where as this time they provided us with bridges that, I'm told, look like crap when placed in line with one another. Additionally, for us terrain makers, having 0 based water makes real world terrain nearly useless since rivers flow downhill. When you download real life data the river doesn't stay at one level but flows downward sometimes as much as 100m depending on terrain size and roughness. That makes doing real rivers incredibly difficult because you either end up with huge canyons that don't really exist or you have to edit the entire heightmap down somehow which will also cause inexistent features. So 0 steps forward, 1 step back (if the bridges actually look bad together). That being said it would've served no purpose on Altis so it makes sense from their perspective.

It looks good from an Altis perspective. But for a game, and community heavily dependent on misdeed and sandbox content, from my perspective, a major drawback, disappointment, and downgrade of an important and crucial feature, which even more last gen games have.

---------- Post added at 00:44 ---------- Previous post was at 00:43 ----------

Modders and sandbox content*

[zukov 490]

some additionaò images/videos for upcoming DLC ? ;)

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

some additionaò images/videos for upcoming DLC ? ;)

For the expansion? No... However I have been looking up locations in and around Albania, and honestly I wouldn't undermine the possibility for such a map, as it's a very beautiful region with geographical opportunities. Also, try had Canals. Who in their right mind wouldn't want actual Canal's in Arma 3. That's be amazing.

[zukov 490]

For the expansion? No... However I have been looking up locations in and around Albania, and honestly I wouldn't undermine the possibility for such a map, as it's a very beautiful region with geographical opportunities. Also, try had Canals. Who in their right mind wouldn't want actual Canal's in Arma 3. That's be amazing.

more or less like Bystrica map

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

more or less like Bystrica map

I would say more like the coast of Kavala, mixed with the inner hill of Bystrica/Chernarus, mixed with like... Mountains, and valleys, and awesome water systems.

[Undeceived 392]

This is probably old news, but maybe someone didn't see it yet:

http://blackelement.net/job.html

I'd say Southeast Asia. :)

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

This is probably old news, but maybe someone didn't see it yet:

http://blackelement.net/job.html

I'd say Southeast Asia. :)

I saw this in the a section on the top of the forums yesterday, and thought literally nothing of it. Now that you bring it up like this, maybe. But idk, but maybe. First, why is this advertisement on the BIS sight unless it's by BIS, or for BIS. Second, Taiwan? So maybe, we could see some Taiwanese items being made for Arma. Just maybe.

[slatts 1978]

Black Element is owned by BIS.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

Black Element is owned by BIS.

Well then, I learned something new. Is there any more information on them? BIS wise?

[slatts 1978]

Well then, I learned something new. Is there any more information on them? BIS wise?

If memory serves me right, they made the DLC Queens Gambit for Arma: Armed Assault and Carrier Command.

[da12thMonkey 1943]

If memory serves me right, they made the DLC Queens Gambit for Arma: Armed Assault and Carrier Command.

At the time they were based in Prague. BI acquired Black Element and the other Czech companies involved in IDEA Games back in 2010

The Thailand office is a new one that started operation in January. AFAIK it currently does 3D asset creation for BI's games (lots of the items in the render on their site are from DayZ) and also offers 3D modelling services to other developers who want to outsource that kind of work to another studio: I guess similarly to how BI provide their motion capture, UHD video recording and sound recording services to other developers and film-makers.

[2nd ranger 282]

Classic Arma community forum logic. BIS-owned company advertises a job in their Thai office >>> SOUTHEAST ASIA DLC CONFIRMED!

They didn't open an office in Lemnos when they started developing Arma 3.

[joehunk 10]

For the most part, sounds in ArmA 3 are improved over ArmA 2. I often played the ACE mod in ArmA 2 and I though the sounds were much more immersive in ACE than in the base game. The sounds in ArmA3 remind me a lot of ACE *except* for the sonic bullet cracks. They sound identical to base ArmA 2 and not nearly as immersive/realistic as in ACE. I would love to see (hear actually) more immersive bullet cracks in the Marksmen DLC.

[KeyCat 131]

Sound samples may be better but when it comes to the whole soundscape and immerssion I disagree with you that A3 is better than A2.

One of the main problems IMO is that you only hear gunfire up to ~200-300 m which mean you only hear the "tick thick... snap" when taking fire from a distance. The devs have stated that they are working on improving the sound engine and there has been some progress but I relly hope above issue is solved in addition to adding more subtle audio cues like in the new helis.

/KC

[Brisse 78]

Have the author of the thread tried J.S.R.S? Strongly recommended, and includes some awesome sonic cracks aka. bullet snaps.

Not saying the devs should not improve sound, but try it out anyway.