What kinds of things are possible in Arma 3?

[Handle1 10]

I'd like to know just what types of things are possible with the Arma engine; now I've seen some amazing things on the Arma 3 Make Arma contest but how they accomplished them is wayy beyond me. I just don't see many possibilities beyond simply changing models, textures, and some functionality. I think I'm wrong when I say that; but like I said; looking at the tutorials it doesn't seem like there's many possibilities beyond basic stuff. Lastly I'd like to know just how efficient is the Arma 3 scripting language? I'm worried that if I tried to do something awesome; it would be grossly inefficient, and make it impossible for a large percentage of the users. I'm new to this whole Arma modding thing so bear with me!

I'd also like to know if its possible to modify the health of a standard player. Like give them more health, or less (though players are very vulnerable already), or boost it for a short time.

[stevoau 6]

For the first part.

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Category:Scripting_Commands_Arma_3

If you are creative enough, and know how to do things, a lot is possible - but there is also a lot of engine related barriers (the biggest one IMO is AI, which is pretty much useless\difficult to deal with for anything other than milsim use). Arma's scripting language is pretty easy to use, but reading scripting tutorials won't get you into the advanced stuff, read other peoples code and open BIS missions and look at their code and you will start to learn new ways to look at things and solve issues you come across.

[jshock 512]

As Stevo said, modifying the engine itself is a bit of a task when it comes to certain stuff, and as far as the scripting language goes the code is only as efficient as the coder can make it, sure, yes, there are numerous possibilities for the commands and such to be better overall, but in the end it's down to how the coder uses what he/she has at hand that decides how efficient and effective the code is.

And doing something awesome with the code and not having it optimized well in the beginning is how it always works, you just keep working at it to get it down to a streamlined and optimal format, then sometimes we get thrown bones from the BI Dev Team with new commands that supplement or completely overhaul older commands, so that our code that we write becomes more and more efficient.

Time + Effort + Motivation + Experience + A small amount of luck = Something awesome for the whole community and for yourself

And like with any code, really and truly anything is possible, and sure with Arma, it throws some kinks in that philosophy at times, but there is almost always a way to do what you want to, and some people here on these forums don't mind at all helping you get to your goals.

As far as your question on player health and such, I would recommend using the search feature on these forums, and just search for keywords that you think are involved with what your going for, and you'll come across quite a few threads, read through them, and you may even find a cool way to accomplish what your going for, or at least learn something along the way. When you exhaust your possibilities with that, then I would come back and post up a thread on the subject, that way we can help you in a more beneficial way :D.

Sorry that was kind of long-winded, but hey, what the hell right? :cool:

[iceman77 18]

Anything is possible. You are essentially the only one who can set a limit for yourself. It's a combination of a three things that make a legit game mode. The concept (imagination). The ability to see it through (coding skills) and people. Yes people. You can be super coder and make the best game mode since sliced bread.. but none of that matters if you don't have a solid base of people who are willing to give your game mode a try. Not only that, but stick it out through all of the potential debugging and faults. I've watched sooooo many good game modes fall through the cracks :p

[dreadedentity 278]

You can do anything with Real Virtuality (the name of the Arma game engine). The question is, can you, as a programmer, do anything in Arma? Of course, the community is always willing to help you.

EDIT: said basically the same thing as JShock, with much less words, and Iceman, even though he ninja'd me. Don't drink and post, kids.

[Von Quest 1161]

Another good way to see whats possible, is check out Armaholic.com, check the downloads sections for a good dose of what's been released to the public... Yes, anything is possible.

From a pencil, to entire massive island. Fictional to real. Napoleon to Star Trek. Its their game, but its our Armaverse...

[bangabob 41]

'Nuff said