Whats happened to this community

[DieselJC 196]

 

 

I don't mind steam..keeps my games updated and keeps me in contact with other players..the issue with Arma is the RPG part of it..brings the little kids in that play wasteland and all the other non-milsim parts of Arma..then they hop in a tactical server and act the same way and it ruins it for the people that enjoy the tactical and team based side of the game. Same with the forums I wish they would separate them into categories for Milsim and Roleplay instead of scrolling through mods like star wars or whatever just to find a good Milsim mod...its like everyone wants to run and gun and no one wants to go deep into logistics or actual team play and tactics...trying to find people for that is tough.

 

 

Diesel

[ProfTournesol 956]

Same with the forums I wish they would separate them into categories for Milsim and Roleplay instead of scrolling through mods like star wars or whatever just to find a good Milsim mod...

 

Yeah whatever you may think there has always been "non milsim" mods in this community since 2001.

[linuxmaster9 101]

Steam is not the problem. Power hungry communities where the leaders immediately take ranks like 'General' are. Used to be in a community which had 200 players and 6 staff grade general officers, and another 25 officers on top of that. Everyone else was an NCO. In that community, 'rank' becomes the be all and end all and they shat on everyone below them for that reason, even those who had actual military experience and were attempting to help them. Unsurprisingly, shitting on people regularly drives players out to form their own communities which split into smaller and smaller units until you get LOADS of tiny communities and no co-operation between them.

Because of this, people drift to Wasteland as they can't get a decent game, starving the larger Domination and Mission servers of players. Servers that do get player numbers are also occasionally swamped with administrators who have paid/donated/applied for admin positions, not people who actually know how to administrate, meaning that they also lose players due to people throwing weight around. If you want someone to blame, blame the communities that force people out, blame the bad admins who force people to congregate on a tiny number of decent servers (and even those have being going down hill lately) and blame the Life/Wasteland players who want to shoot everything that moves regardless of uniforms or tactics.

I actually got forced out of 2 realism communities for my development of my work on developing Wasteland modded with ACE. It did not 'jive' with their philosophy. It did not matter that it was my own work and not tied to the community. Those two communities were very close minded and forced out anyone that did not tow the party line so to speak.

[McAber 55]

I actually got forced out of 2 realism communities for my development of my work on developing Wasteland modded with ACE. It did not 'jive' with their philosophy. It did not matter that it was my own work and not tied to the community. Those two communities were very close minded and forced out anyone that did not tow the party line so to speak.

 

I can probably guess what one of those communities was, somehow.

This is the biggest problem. It's communities with leaders who race to the top of a fictional rank structure and then proceed to piss from a great (fictional) height on others. Unlike the real military, if people don't like it, they'll leave. Some communities need to work this out, although a few of them have and now exist basically entirely on new recruits.

[Ranwer135 308]

Hi,

 

The ArmA Community just go down since ArmA II.

 

What the hell are you saying there...?

 

 

Just look at some mods. Stupid mods. Like the mod with a bus, a goat, and shit mines.

And worst, some mods are completely useless and not adapted to ArmA.

 

You, my friend, need to lighten up a bit. Sometimes modders feel that they want to make something funny (take Goat Simulator as an example game).  Second, all mods adapt to ArmA, except when you have to deal with users that don't read the instructions properly...

 

 

 

Many modders just let mods dying, and some others used unfounded arguments to justify the aberation of adding their names all over their creation ingame.

An example ? Nickname of an author in the registration plate and on a sticker at the bottom of the back window in the vehicles because like that "others can't get him out of credits in his mod"...  :blink:

This thing is just killing the quality of the content.

 

The real problem is that nobody plays them!!! I have spent months creating my mod DSS, and the popularity died out in under 3 weeks. Second, modders claim their creation in-game because of incidents where the person using the mod did not credit who made it. Thirdly, Modders deserve to show ownership of their creation, especially when you have pricks going about on the internet ripping content illegally. If I have to, I'll might as well throw you The Book of ArmA's Policy.

 

 

 

Another problem is the invasion of too many players that don't know how to play to a game like ArmA III.

You know, the way like in Counter-Strike or any other FPS for kids. Running, shooting, strafing, entering in a structure, firing, then moving back.

No organisation, no way to have any kind of realistic battles.

 

It's their decision. If they don't want to learn how to use or play ArmA 3, they'll might as well go back to CSGO or whatever FPS they are usually doing. Not only that, since Epoch, Breaking Point, Altis Life, and EXILE take the spotlight. There are now very few Tactical Realism Units around, which makes players think that ArmA 3 is just a game, not a tactical military simulator.

 

 

 

Even if some survival mods are good, like "Zombies & Demons" or "RAVAGE", this kind of mods is completely unadapted to ArmA.

And theses mods are the reason for what we have a so bad community now. Many kids or bad mind players coming just to played these mods.

 

First of all, Zombies & Demons has gained a lot of popularity, including by some famous YouTubers like FrankieonPCin1080p. The creator of that mod relentlessly spent hard work on the animations and code, making it for what it is. Second, Ravage and DSS are recently created mods, which have barely hatched out of their egg yet. Just like in DayZ Standalone, these mods will get better overtime, so don't expect everything to be on your F'n shelf. Thirdly, your statement 'Many kids or bad mind players coming just to played these mods.' is entirely not true. Many players that had come to this game only wish to experience the realism of playing with friends/strangers or by themselves, as well as the modding side. When I first got ArmA 2 back on 2012, I was excited about the realism and potential this game has got, especially with the amount of amazing mods this community has whipped up. In a couple of months, I was addicted to the fact that modding is amazing itself! Now at the age of 17, I am still playing the ArmA series and have the desire for working with Bohemia Interactive soon. So again, don't be a scrooge..

 

 

 

I completely let down the multiplayer since I see that there is absolutely no more ways to have what ArmA can give, the simulation aspect.

The AI is better than all the players we can find in the differents servers.

 

That is your opinion, but don't forget that there are tactical units around, which are heaps more fun than playing by yourself. Playing in Multiplayer can be a different experience (and I feel for those who play Singleplayer as well), but can be very beneficial as the battleground could be more intense and immersive. AI are fine in some occasions, but they can do some strange things like lying on the ground while firing, or simply know exactly where you are regardless of camouflage. Sure, I can understand that there are some (or many) players out there that could also do weird things, but like I said, they are different experiences.

 

 

 

If we can have more realistic mods like in ArmA : Armed Assault (SLX) or ArmA II (unifinished ACE, I wonder if they will finish a version of ACE one day...) and less or no survival mods or stupid ones, and if those who create mods stops to stick their nickname everywhere on each creation, maybe we can find again a good community.

 

Try browsing through ArmAholic, I'm sure you'll find thousands of realistic mods. But if you want realistic, go join the Army or something..

 

 

 

But even with that, I clearly have a doubt for that.

 

I doubt that your attitude will be positive for ArmA 3...

 

 

 

Steam is not the problem.

The human mentality is the problem.

 

So you are blaming us 'old farts' for having mentality issues as well? I'm sure that if you start scripting or modding, you would be asking on the forums by now...

 

 

Look, in overall. Be positive about the game, alright? Sure DayZ Standalone left a bad mark upon its development, but that doesn't mean that ArmA 3 will do the same. Tanoa has barely released yet, and now many are making assumptions that 'ArmA 3 only has kids now'. By the time this APEX DLC arrives, I'm sure there will be thousands of Tactical Military Servers flooding the server list, with many who will decide to try something new. Not only players want to play something specific, but they like to explore something on the way. I can understand what the developers are going through and I have chatted to them as well, but they had decided to use Steam because it allows easy updating of games and a workshop. If they switched to Origin, the same complaints would still fly in, as well as the fact that Origin does not have a workshop. But I can say this: they do not intend ArmA to be a civilian simulator AT ALL. And as far as I'm concerned, the developers for DayZ Standalone have very few staff, so give credit towards what they are doing (Not only that, the whole BIS company is the size of a two story building).

 

 

Sometime in the next two years, I am likely to join BIS or BISim. So I have the same intention as well: Make ArmA a better game.

[McAber 55]

It's their decision. If they don't want to learn how to use or play ArmA 3, they'll might as well go back to CSGO or whatever FPS they are usually doing. Not only that, since Epoch, Breaking Point, Altis Life, and EXILE take the spotlight. There are now very few Tactical Realism Units around, which makes players think that ArmA 3 is just a game, not a tactical military simulator..

 If anything there are too many tiny ones, QED my first post.

[spanishsurfer 58]

I go back to OFP just like many here, my advice embrace steam you old farts! We just switched on custom content for our public BECTI server and it has completely taken off thanks to the vanilla launcher that auto downloads and installs mods. It's a game changer thanks to Steam! The launcher downloaded and had the 2gb worth of mods ready in 8 min! We also have a very populated TeamSpeak server now with players of all ages 16-60 and they're working together every day, on a public server mind you to play BECTI. Once VON is fixed, that will be another game changer! Plus we're prepping the mission for CUP, what a great time to be playing Arma!

The game has never been better and the community is still awesome! Find the right server gentleman.

[Ranwer135 308]

Actually now after the past 2 months, some members of this community have actually become rude and arrogant to myself and my projects. Since the last 'incident' occurred, I never returned to this community as my skills felt "unwanted" and "unnecessary". Now I don't know why the hell some of the members think of me as their 'arch-enemy', but I would assume false rumours spread around. I regret everything I said on this thread (except this post) to defend what was pointless, and instead, I throw it against the members that caused me to leave this community. In addition, I strongly agree with the OP as Steam did open up more issues, especially with the erratic behaviour of some members (However, the only thing I am grateful about Steam, is its efficiency of updates and downloads). This post may seem 'threatening' to most/some, but deep down I know this community had definitely changed after ArmA 2. In conclusion, I am just a normal modder that enjoys making mods, so please think before you post rude posts about me.

 

 

In the time being, I am happy with Frontier Development's forums and members, as they are a lot nicer and 'welcoming'.

 

 

 

 

BTW: In response to the actions of these offensive members, I have ceased development in anything related to ArmA 3. Happy now!?!?

[spanishsurfer 58]

What are the problems with Steam? It has helped bring the general Arma population into the world of mods, before only tech savvy folks could work mods, now anyone can. BIS has brought arma to the mainstream more than ever and Arma has improved because of it.

[Arkensor 96]

What are the problems with Steam? It has helped bring the general Arma population into the world of mods, before only tech savvy folks could work mods, now anyone can. BIS has brought arma to the mainstream more than ever and Arma has improved because of it.

 

It is an improvement for the diversity of the mods and mission, and yes many people got into arma because they have seen it on steam, and some youtubers did their part on this too, but there are some people from steam and some from the youtube followers, the typical casual gamers, who have got nothing to do with something like tactical playstyle. If you compare the kinds of people from the playerbase in arma 3 and the one from OPF or Arma 2, you will notice that there have been a lot more tactic clans, more tactic missions, and just a few casual modes like DayZ mod, and all of its submods. Yes something like takistan life was there, but it was more the hardcore arma players, wanted to make roleplay for some time, not casual gamers buying arma for that.

 

It might sound strange, since my server is a life mod one, but I can tell, that 70% of our players, would not even remotely touch a tactic mission, nor they played the campain. They ask us: Arma has got a campain ? What ?

Those people are a downside in the point of view, of many arma community members, who have been here for a longer time, and are used to play the way arma was intended.

 

However I think, it was not the worst idea to bring arma closer to mainstream, not only because of not beein dependet on the god damn gamespy servers, but also to bring arma to more players attention.

Many people joined the arma community when dayZ was released for arma 2 operation arrowhead, and now many people joined the community because of life mods, steam sales etc.

 

I don't know if so many people would play still arma today, if there would not have been the steps BI took, and just some trollers and idiots are an acceptable downside of that. 

[spanishsurfer 58]

It is an improvement for the diversity of the mods and mission, and yes many people got into arma because they have seen it on steam, and some youtubers did their part on this too, but there are some people from steam and some from the youtube followers, the typical casual gamers, who have got nothing to do with something like tactical playstyle. If you compare the kinds of people from the playerbase in arma 3 and the one from OPF or Arma 2, you will notice that there have been a lot more tactic clans, more tactic missions, and just a few casual modes like DayZ mod, and all of its submods. Yes something like takistan life was there, but it was more the hardcore arma players, wanted to make roleplay for some time, not casual gamers buying arma for that.

 

It might sound strange, since my server is a life mod one, but I can tell, that 70% of our players, would not even remotely touch a tactic mission, nor they played the campain. They ask us: Arma has got a campain ? What ?

Those people are a downside in the point of view, of many arma community members, who have been here for a longer time, and are used to play the way arma was intended.

 

However I think, it was not the worst idea to bring arma closer to mainstream, not only because of not beein dependet on the god damn gamespy servers, but also to bring arma to more players attention.

Many people joined the arma community when dayZ was released for arma 2 operation arrowhead, and now many people joined the community because of life mods, steam sales etc.

 

I don't know if so many people would play still arma today, if there would not have been the steps BI took, and just some trollers and idiots are an acceptable downside of that.

 

In no way do I mean to offend you but here's what I think: It's hard to take you seriously since you run an ALTIS LIFE server, you're telling us these game modes are a cancer yet you have the #1 server hosting the #1 cancer of ARMA?  What?

 

Maybe it's because you're in "that" community that you don't realize those "Tact" servers are STILL out there. In fact, they've been there the whole time.  Game modes like mine (BECTI) and others like EUTW are also running STRONGER than ever so I'm not sure I agree with your viewpoints, especially since I see the opposite. 

 

As for game modes like KOTH, LIFE, Breaking Point, Dayz, I find them a bit annoying and understand where you're coming from (I also originate from OFP). However, after much discussion and thought i've come to realize they're GOOD for ARMA. It's game modes like this that have given us more players and in return more money to BIS, which has resulted in more updates/changes to the ARMA engine in the past 2 years then I've seen in 10 years. Sure, the more popular game modes are FULL of kiddos, however some of those KIDDOS grow up a bit and start to explore other game modes and eventually discover what ARMA was really made for. I can tell you that once they "get it" they never leave!  It requires a good community that's willing to teach and patient admins who don't insta ban for small offenses (we temp ban on our server). 

 

I'm excited the direction ARMA is going, I think things are only going to improve...It's PART of the community that has to catch up to the changes or get left behind!

[Arkensor 96]

I said it might sounds strange, how I talk about the gamemod I host... It is just the thing my community wants and the environment I develop in. I would prefer a tactic server over all life mods, since that is what i have done in ofp and arma 2, but it was a new chellange for me to get into life modding, and now I can not leave my people, just because I don't like life mods anymore. I hate life missions, well not the missions itself, but the most of the people playing it. For example we have got 150 players, that also play tactic and koth, or coop and then you hav got at least 60 mainstream steamsale kiddies and those who came in with youtubers. For example there are 2 german yotubers, casual player who played altis life, trolled the shit out of it, and had much fun. Now their viewers also join the servers, and when they find out that there is more in arma, they go and play with a tactic clan, with no knowledge about nothing, and no willing to learn arma.

 

There is this video, that already discribed the problem we arma 2 players had with some of the dayz only players:

 

The same is it now for arma 3.

 

In general, there are more casual gamers, but not less tactical players, or what some people call "real arma players", and the addional ones are just a bonus.

 

I totally agree with your opinion on this topic, and I also like the way arma is heading. Apex for example would never have been planned without this big fanbase, since the first beta days from arma 3.

 

The topic was started with the question, why so many casual gamers join tactical clans, without the intension to stay as permanent members.

I personally think that the days are over of arma just beeing that combat fans, and those 50 man tactical clans with weekly missions etc.There are still many of that, maybe more than in arma 2, but there are also many many gamers that just want to play a quick match of something, and do not integrate into a community. 

 

Some years ago, you joined a tactial clan and over 1-2 moths you were a big family. That still happens today, but often not, you have got people that you see once, and then never again, or that you do not even know the name from.

I think that is the change to the community the topic creator meant. But this is not a problem from having steam, or mainstream, it is the progression of online gaming, that now takes it's impact on arma.

 

To put it into a nutshell, there is no real problem, and everything that has come with arma 3 and the game beein on steam was just an addion to the community, not a replacement for old things.

 

I think it will be interesting how Tanoa will impact on the the playersbase, maybe a new map will revive many clans, and more memebers will join into their old squads again, I think that is something many people would appreciate.

[chris5790 24]

Saying that this only happened after Arma joined Steam is wrong. It's about the casuals joining the Arma community more and more. If started with DayZ back in Arma 2 which was supported by BI itself because they have seen the potential of Arma especially regarding the early DayZ. It was a slight process (and it's still going on) that casuals discovered the "indie" game Arma which was dominated by tactial clans and small groups doing their own missions, creating their own content and just having fun together. Nobody cared about making Arma big because that was not in the interest of them. They wanted to keep everything small and familial,

 

Starting at the time where DayZ was new to Arma. Back there the hype was real - everybody wanted to try out the new mod called DayZ which got into people's mind by online newspapers and gamer portals. Some communities were founded and the small tactial clans grew bigger and bigger. The first fights between server owners and players started and it was all about having the "biggest" server. Back in Arma 2 the limits were at about 90 players - everything above resulted in a server crash after some minutes.

 

After the DayZ hype Arma 3 got released in september 2013. After the alpha most players bought Arma because they expected a "new" DayZ or a new possibility to do the classic tactical stuff. This changed quickly after Tonics release of Altis Life which got popular really fast. Popular youtubers started reviewing the game bringing us the morons we have today in here. The game is casual now. Sadly we have to accept this. I had contact to a lot of stupid people aroung here complaining about everything in Arma without even doing some research. 

You should keep in mind that BI supports this progress (as they are forced to to keep it popular), just look at the "new" fatigue/stamina system.

 

Concluding it's not all about Steam. But Steam is also a important role in this progress. With Steam it's much easier for the players (and of course also for the developers) to install and maintain the games. It's also easier to distribute your game especially because you don't have to care any more about activation - Steam is doing this for you. Steam is the plattform for the modern game developer. Doing a release without Steam won't work anymore.

 

Is this a bad change? 

On the one hand: Yes it is. Servers are bashing eatch other, trying to achieve the most players and being casual enough to get the biggest playerbase. Everything is getting more and more commercial and pseudo devs are jumping aroung everywhere stealing stuff others made. I intentional said "stealing" because taking something you don't made and putting this into your "own" mission promoting this as your "own" work is stealing. Everybody can take my work as long as he credits me. 

 

On the other hand: No, it's not. More players automatically means that Arma gets more attention which would lead into more attention from BI. 

 

The issues mentioned above led me to get inactive in this toxic community unless the "Altis Life" and "Exile" people around here are going away. Same applies to some people aroung here (Sa-Matra, some other devs) because they were breaking the rules of MANW by not publishing the work they did for the contest in a proper open source way to contribute to the community and to encourage people to start developing their own stuff.

 

Seriously, SQF is no advanced math or difficult science. I hope more and more people are getting interested into this. It took me almost half a year to get the appropiate skill to write own stuff which is not total rubbish.

Maybe I will come back in Arma 4 (which will never be released so far). 

[zeddy360 0]

to be honest, i never played arma on public servers with strangers so i can't say much about the community in general. i only play with some friends or alone.

we usualy played the becti mission but it's a bit buggy and has other things we don't like which is why i decided to make my own mission.

 

so i'm currently starting with SQF and have a problem i can't seem to fix.

unfortunately for me it has a very strange syntax but i think i'm getting used to it.

[Mirek 166]

STEAM is the best thing that happend to gaming ever! If it wouldnt be for steam, i would probably never found abut arma series. Because of Steam i discovered Plantside 2 (Fun game btw) From Planetside 2 comunity i found out about Arma Series, I got arma 2 complete collection on steam sale realy cheap few years ago. It was Cheap, i wanted new game, i tried, and now? 1700+ hours played in arma 2 and OA, My own Arma2CO+ACE+TFAR Milsim comunity, Own Game server, Own Mod in Development, Learned Basics of coding, Learned Different kind of 3D modeling than CAD, Met lot of great people, had lot of fun. 

 

Without steam, i would probably still be playing Gothic 2 and X-wing aliance today.

[cxrshaggy@gmail.com 0]

Toxic salty players & trolls everywhere.

[Vasily.B 529]

I saw steam like and not like - i have a ask for every fan of steam - i'm going offline for month - how i can update my game? I cant. In arma 2 i was going to internet cafe and was downlaoding update from Official arma 2 site, now i cant. IS THIS REALLY NEEDED? NO. Definetly no. Its just making things harder. Last time (today) i found, it run best in offline mod, and game FPS is increasing. Off course - game files verification is great option, but its the only one that i use from steam. Game have great launcher, DRM, no bloody need for steam.

And before telling me "Who doesnt have internet today!?" Please check the official data about this. Its still less than 50%
http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/

[lawndartleo 109]

How is steam a barrier to updating your game content?  if you walked into an internet café before, you can do the same now.

[Vasily.B 529]

How is steam a barrier to updating your game content?  if you walked into an internet café before, you can do the same now.

I'm online now, but after month, since today i will be offline. How i can downaload any steam update in internet cafe and get it to my pc? No to mention its a suicide, beacuse of virus dangerous, but its simply impossible. You cannot download any update without installing whole game on the PC. I will not install arma in Internet Cafe, just to get udpated files (which i would not know, which files actually are new, whole game will install, and update in same time).

[lawndartleo 109]

Vasily,

 

Do you have a smartphone with a data plan?  If yes, does the the smart phone have hot spot capability?

[Macser 776]

Arguments for and against Steam are irrelevant to me. You use it or you don't. If I'm required to use a service I have issues with, or love, I'm not inclined to explain myself. Nobody is being "left behind" by not using it. And neither are they somehow more savvy just because they do. No matter how enjoyable, they're games. And Steam is just a service. 

 

I'm sure it has contributed to a bigger user base. But I doubt it changes the ratio of idiot to decent folk. There's just more of both as far as I can see.

[chortles 263]

Arguments for and against Steam are irrelevant to me. You use it or you don't.

That, and years ago now Bohemia leadership decided that meeting the release date outweighed all the conveniences Steam might/does impose on users, this was in the Steamworks announcement and everything...

[Vasily.B 529]

Vasily,

 

Do you have a smartphone with a data plan?  If yes, does the the smart phone have hot spot capability?

No.

 

[PHXAdmin 3]

There are still great tactical communities out there. Like ours, for example.

[tissue901 1]

I dont buy games unless they are on steam. I hate other clients