Arma 3 Units - Closed Beta Feedback

[BohemiaBeck 305]

Welcome to the Feedback thread for Arma 3 Units. Here we would like to collect all your feedback, suggestions, and ideas. For more information on Arma 3 Units, a new service which aims to connect Arma 3 players to community groups, please be sure to read the OPREP.
 

 

Arma 3 Units - Closed Beta
Ahead of Arma 3 Units' Foundation Release (scheduled in the next 1-2 weeks), we're hosting a short and small-scale 'closed beta'. This beta is primarily intended to identify critical errors and streamline the current experience. As such, we're inviting all interested leaders of existing community groups to participate.

 

To request an invite and participate in the Arma 3 Units closed beta, you simply need to send me a Direct Message or e-mail me at bohemiabeck@bistudio.com. Please remember to include your name, e-mail address, the name of your group, and associated website link(s) if you have them. I will then contact you with your login and all other relevant details.

 

Units Beta FAQ

1. What is the Arma 3 Units closed beta?
A short test to identify critical errors and streamline the core experience of the Foundation Release of Arma 3 Units. Please read the OPREP for more information.

 

2. Who is invited for the Arma 3 Units closed beta?
For the closed beta of Arma 3 Units, we're primarily looking for leaders of established Arma community groups. By reporting your feedback, you're helping us ensure a solid Foundation Release, while your unit achieves early presence on the Arma 3 Units website.

 

3. How to enter the Arma 3 Units closed beta?
Please send me a DM on the forums or e-mail me at bohemiabeck@bistudio.com. Be sure to include your name and e-mail address, name of your group, and any associated web links you might have. I will then reply to you with your login and other relevant details for accessing the Arma 3 Units closed beta.

 

4. What to expect of Arma 3 Units? What's currently planned for the near future?
Please see the OPREP for a complete introduction to the development plans for Arma 3 Units.

 

5. How to report feedback?
You can report your feedback in this forum thread. If you prefer to report issues to the Feedback Tracker (especially useful for simple technical errors/bugs), you can use the special 'Units' category.

 

That should be it! On behalf of everyone here, we'd like to thank you for your co-operation. Good luck with registering your unit - and let us know what you think!

 

Best regards,

BohemiaBeck

 

P.S. Even though we might not reply to all suggestions in this thread, please note that we'll carefully monitor everything here and take it into consideration.

[NeoArmageddon 958]

Interesting project. Reminds me of the squad managment Joint Ops had.

Very curious where this will go!

 

An API the community can use to access the data in A3 units will be crucial for success, if you ask me. I haven't seen anything about an API in the OPREP. If not already on it, you should but it on the list ;)

[WastedMike_ 27]

This is awesome, i will be adding my communities to this as soon as I can.

[WastedMike_ 27]

For the clan name will we be able to type special characters like ( ) [ ] + = - _ ?

[R3vo 2654]

Looks really promising, that's exactly what Arma needs.
 

 

One of the things we could imagine is to directly integrate Arma Units into the Arma 3 Launcher (and perhaps even into the game itself).

 

 

That would be really awesome. Upcoming events should be pushed ingame and/or to the launcher. So I am always up-to-date.

 

 

 

Edit: One idea that just came to my mind is the integration of a live chat or something similar? So you can get in contact with other Arma folks via the website in real time?

[Korneel 115]

An API the community can use to access the data in A3 units will be crucial for success, if you ask me. I haven't seen anything about an API in the OPREP. If not already on it, you should but it on the list ;)

We definitely intend to make an API available.

 

Edit: One idea that just came to my mind is the integration of a live chat or something similar? So you can get in contact with other Arma folks via the website in real time?

When we implement that 'PLAY NOW' system (to quickly form a squad without necessarily joining a unit), we hope to also have some basic web chat functionality.

 

Both great suggestions - keep them coming!  :)

[Korneel 115]

For the clan name will we be able to type special characters like ( ) [ ] + = - _ ?

Just checked it to be sure, but yes, it's possible at the moment.

[croguy 19]

Are you planning on integrating news updates/feeds and similar components into Arma 3 Units? Global stat tracking would be nice, too, but I don't know how much glares would you be getting from DICE for doing that!

[alexcroox 29]

Sounds interesting thank you!

[NeoArmageddon 958]

Here is something that would probably affect a lot of people and squads and what MUST be considered for A3 Units:

 

From the pictures you posted I guess at the moment the squadtag must be exactly 3 characters long. That is a problem for a lot of squad, for example my own, Armed-Tactics, with AT as tag. There are other groups with even longer tags (75th for example).

Another problem is: Will Tags be used as identifiers? Do they need to be unique? There will definitly be collisions between tags and even squadnames!

 

Here is how I wanted to solve it in my own project a few years ago:

• A squad has a name, a tag and an unique identifier (Star Citizen uses the same approach and they named the unique identifier 'monicker')
• The tags does not have to be unique.
• The tag can be between 2 and 6/8 charachters.
• The unique identifier has to be unique and CAN equal the tag or maybe it is implemented as integer (ID).
• Tag and squadname can be changes, unique identifier not (as it will be used internally to reference the entry).

Why do we need this? At the moment the squad XML is not community wide. Some squads have the same tag shown on their vehicles/xml and some even may have the same name without knowing from each other.

When A3: Units makes squadnames and tags unique and they will be registred by "first come first server" it will create a lot of bad blood among the community. This can either be solved by a lot of moderation, or by a liberate system/implementation that hides the needs of the database (unique identifiers) and allows the squads and community members to choose the same names and tags they are used to use.

 

Here is an example:

Armed-Tactics [AT] is using this name and tag since 2004. Now somebody is faster and registers his squad ArmA-Tactics [AT] first.

 

Scenario 1: Tags and squadnames are unique:

When this system will really replace the squad.xml some time in the future, this will mean, Armed-Tactics will have a different tag on their vehicles than before. This also involves other stuff that needs to be changes, like Website, Teamspeak, T-Shirts, Coffeemugs, and other "branding" (basically everything that happend between 2004 and know), to be still consistent with the ingame and A3 Units appearance. But nevertheless we would be quite upset about changing our "squad-identity". And I am sure a lot of other would feel the same.

 

Scenario 2: The unique identifier is used and tags and names are not unique:

Armed-Tactics [AT] still registers after ArmA-Tactics [AT] but they can choose the same tag as they are used to be, only difference: They have to choose a unique identifier (or the system chooses one automatically). This could be for example ArmTac or A-T.

 

A3: Units MUST adapt to the current state of the community, not the other way round (forcing the community into its design).

[royaltyinexile 175]

Another problem is: Will Tags be used as identifiers? Do they need to be unique? There will definitly be collisions between tags and even squadnames!

 

So far, [TAG]s are not unique, but must be 2-5 chars long; but Unit names are identifiers and do need to be unique, and, yes, this could lead to some duplicity in the end.

 

Like most services, we'll probably have to adopt a first-come policy, but - in clear examples of 'squatting' on names / cloning, etc - we have a reporting system in place to enable us to take a look at the accounts in question.

 

Considering after-creation name changes vs the existing uses of identifiers etc, is certainly a valid question, and something we'll definitely have to tackle as we move past the foundation release to things like joining and events - great point!

 

 

Best,

RiE

[TheRockingDane 2]

This seems like a very interesting initiative. 

 

Hopefully it will create some competition to Armaclans aswell, which is very expensive. 

[NeoArmageddon 958]

Like most services, we'll probably have to adopt a first-come policy, but - in clear examples of 'squatting' on names / cloning, etc - we have a reporting system in place to enable us to take a look at the accounts in question.

 

Considering after-creation name changes vs the existing uses of identifiers etc, is certainly a valid question, and something we'll definitely have to tackle as we move past the foundation release to things like joining and events - great point!

 

Sounds good to me. You will probably have less problems later on, if you use non-public/non-userdefined keys in your database from the beginning (if it is not already too late). For example a autoincremented ID instead of the squadname as pimary key and for relations (assuming you use a relational database).

 

It was mentioned that squad.xml replacement is a long term goal. But it can already be archieved by generating a "virtual" squad.xml by php/js/node. You should maybe considering this as an interim solution. Some communities are already using dynamically generated squad.xml. A page like arma3.com/units/player/neoarmageddon/squad.xml will simply return a script generated squad.xml (virtual file) with the A3 units data.

 

This way we can test the usefulness of Units serving squad.xml data (and it is really simple to implement).

[royaltyinexile 175]

Sounds good to me. You will probably have less problems later on, if you use non-public/non-userdefined keys in your database from the beginning (if it is not already too late). For example a autoincremented ID instead of the squadname as pimary key and for relations (assuming you use a relational database).

 

It was mentioned that squad.xml replacement is a long term goal. But it can already be archieved by generating a "virtual" squad.xml by php/js/node. You should maybe considering this as an interim solution. Some communities are already using dynamically generated squad.xml. A page like arma3.com/units/player/neoarmageddon/squad.xml will simply return a script generated squad.xml (virtual file) with the A3 units data.

 

This way we can test the usefulness of Units serving squad.xml data (and it is really simple to implement).

 

From the start, the primary keys are not tied to the unit name, so we should avoid the type of issues that could arise from that. However, I did make a mistake in saying Unit tags are not unique. At the moment they actually are, but I think such a constraint could be needlessly punishing in the long term.

 

As for squad.xml, yes, there's the type of solution you've mentioned, and some simple form / wizard would be the simplest next step, but we're also considering how this may be integrated directly in game / in launcher to make it easier (particularly for those that may flick between units). However this may also be bound up with 'joining' units, which is a feature outside the scope of the foundation release. So some interim squad.xml creator hosted on our servers wouldn't be ruled out!

[NyteMyre 87]

Had some trouble in the initial version to register Tangodown, but after the update, i received no errors.

[MrSanchez 243]

Sounds like a good plan. :)

[Toasterbr 12]

Brilliant! Already sent an email. Thanks!

[Drumheller 19]

I'm a little flustered about the icon and banner. I made the banner to specifications yet on the page where it displays the unit, it has the icon interposed over the banner, but the banner is cropped off at both sides. I spent time making a banner exactly to the guidelines required and it looks terrible in that little thumbnail preview. I can fix it fairly easily but it was rather frustrating. It should be made more clear somewhere that the banner will be cropped off and the icon put on top of it.

[Guest Astavinu]

As NeoArmageddon already mentioned, i also think that a 2-8 chars clan tag would be great. My squad has a 8-chars-tag since the release of ofp, but more importantly i know many other squads that have a shortening of more than 5 chars as the squad.xml allows it.

[Korneel 115]

I'm a little flustered about the icon and banner. I made the banner to specifications yet on the page where it displays the unit, it has the icon interposed over the banner, but the banner is cropped off at both sides. I spent time making a banner exactly to the guidelines required and it looks terrible in that little thumbnail preview. I can fix it fairly easily but it was rather frustrating. It should be made more clear somewhere that the banner will be cropped off and the icon put on top of it.

Got it! Ideally we would be able to show you a preview of how it looks in all places, but for now (short-term) that will probably be out of scope - so we're considering to at least add this to the PSD Template.

[galevsky 11]

Hi, I am currently facing HTTP error code 500 when saving my characteristics changes about gameplay focus.

[alexcroox 29]

500 when editing my unit (after successful creation the first time round)

 

1. Remote Address:
   81.0.236.101:443
2. Request URL:
   https://xxxxx/units/resource/group/1036
3. Request Method:
   PUT
4. Status Code:
    
   500 Internal Server Error

 

 

The PUT payload is: http://pastebin.com/6PGXuyef

[Korneel 115]

Hi, I am currently facing HTTP error code 500 when saving my characteristics changes about gameplay focus.

Thanks! We're looking into it, so it will hopefully be resolved soonâ„¢.

[Variable 322]

 Not sure why it doesn't let me continue. This frame is marked in red:

Edit: my bad, I didn't meet the minimum character requirements.

[TheRockingDane 2]

I would like to see an increase in the amount of characters allowed in the clan tag.  

I think 5 characters is too limiting as many units have a larger clan tag. 

 

My clan tag is 18thMR but we had to make it 18MR now because of the limitation. 

It's a small detail, but a detail that is important :)