How much would you recommend the Apex Expansion?

[_Hawkeye_ 43]

The map alone is worth it, let alone the new weapons/vehicles/new units etc and the Coop Campaign.

[paecmaker 23]

Worth the preorder price but wouldnt say the full price unless you are hardcore Arma player and your private server will most likely use it.

 

Can't really rate the Apex yet as it hasn't been released and most of things might get fixed BUT as of this moment the Apex Preview quality is subpar imo.

 

 

8. Was expecting more famirial firearms and vehicles being used in current militaries.

 

 

What's good about Apex:

1. Finally some ARs and AKs in vanilla :) Just hoping they improve texture and sound quality

2. Quite liking the vehicle loading into VTOLs mechanic. Now you can paradrop IFVs and other lighter vehicles without landing and hovering in combat zone. Eagerly waiting for modders to take advantage of this with Chinooks, C-130s etc.

3. Tanoe itself looks very nice and should be fun in TVT. I personally didn't have much fun in COOP  against AI so far.

4. Overall some new engine based improvements

 

This is just my opinion and it doesn't mean you shouldn't buy it. One man's masterpiece is another's garbage so take this post with a grain of salt. I'm simply a bit underwhelmed with current state of Apex Preview.

 

What do you mean with more familiar firearms: Nato uses it's normal and nato SF uses an M16 version(or HK 416) CSAT uses the main chinese rifle which makes sense due to the setting.

 

 

 

But on point. I think this is a good expansion, had maybe hoped for a few more vehicles and water assets but all in all it's pretty nice.

 

Tanoa is amazing but I haven't really been fighting to much in the forests yet so I don't know how it is against AI. 

 

I do like the vehicles we got now, teh LSVs fill a gap that I have really wanted to be filled and the VTOLs look pretty sick.

[BL4DE 91]

What do you mean with more familiar firearms: Nato uses it's normal and nato SF uses an M16 version(or HK 416) CSAT uses the main chinese rifle which makes sense due to the setting.

 

When they advertised adding famirial firearms etc I was actually hoping they would go back to the present setting at first. Then later I was hoping this would be like Operation Arrowhead expansion with dozen more current weapons even if set in future. Also was expecting Harrier jet for a VTOL or something like that.

Got a bit dissapointed that all they added being used right now is AR platform, AK platform and RPG-7 and some chinese rifle. You know when you compare it to OA there were dozen of guns even bolt action rifles, revolvers and shotguns. Having a full auto shotgun like AA-12 with HE shells would have been sweet in Tanoe.

 

Now weapon sounds are bad I expect that to change if it hasn't already in dev branch. There's barely any sonic echo coming off Apex weapons. Texture quality is awful and barrels are plugged!!!!

 

Last but not least this map would have been perfect for Naval combat like the Battle of the Philippines. Would have been awesome if they added controlable Aircraft Carrier, nuclear submarines and destroyers with arty balistic missiles and all that amazing shit.

[metalcraze 290]

Tanoa is the real reason to pick this up. Other than that...

 

New weapons are acceptable.

New vehicles range from meh to ridiculously uncreative twists on modern technology.

 

A single SP mission is good.

 

Campaign is trash.

 

That's it.

[VanZant 48]

Tanoa is the real reason to buy the expansion. Has some flaws but superb in general.
The campaign is pure crap.
The rest is similar to other DLCs in quality and quantity, could be better, but not bad.

[froggyluv 2130]

A single SP mission is good.

 

 

 Well heck why didnt anyone tell me theres another mission besides that co-op crap - I wouldnt have had to go all defcon 4 on them

[tpw 2313]

For me, Tanoa is worth the price of admission alone, despite the lack of some much needed content (women for starters), it's one of the most stunning and immersive environments ever created for a computer game. However its size, density and detail pushes computers very very hard. If you want to engage the game's vaunted military subsystems to do much more than just admire the amazing scenery, then Tanoa just exacerbates all the well known problems of Arma 3's RV engine: the subpar multicore and GPU utilisation; AI driving and pathfinding; issues with textures and LODs etc etc- despite ongoing heroic efforts by the very talented devs to find workarounds to address performance issues. I snapped up Tanoa as soon as it was available and have had some fantastic SP experiences on it, albeit with often very unimpressive framerates. I hope once Apex is released BI concentrate their limited resources on bringing RV or another engine up to the point where it really does justice to the game's scope and ambition. 

 

TLDR; I'd recommend buying it just to admire Tanoa as the state of the art in computer environments,  just don't expect state of the art performance.

[Von Quest 1161]

@twp

Extremely well said.

[dragon01 902]

I'll say that the assets look good, but I'm going to get Apex on a sale. ArmA games don't get much in terms of discounts until they're really old, but as it is, it really doesn't look like it's worth the asking price. After a while of post-release improvements, maybe additional Apex-dependent content, I might revise that opinion. You may check the devbranch for most of the content and YouTube for Tanoa videos (it is impressive, but again, not worth the full price, IMO).

 

Also, mods are unlikely to depend on Apex. It's nothing like OA was. The platform updates that come with it are free (well, as long as you have A3 itself) and most of the assets are there regardless of whether you own the expansion or not. Barring any artificial restrictions, the presence of DLC content in a mission doesn't prevent you from playing it, at least as long as using it isn't necessary to complete it (and you can ride along as passengers in non-owned vehicles, including FFV positions. Just not as crew, unless you're spawned like that).

 Well heck why didnt anyone tell me theres another mission besides that co-op crap - I wouldnt have had to go all defcon 4 on them

I take it that you found the campaign adequate and told them there's nothing to worry about anymore. :) FIY, on DEFCON scale higher=lower readiness state (4 being pretty much the default).

[grieferbastard@hotmail.com 15]

I'll agree the map is amazing - stunning design.

 

Campaign and respawn system is horrible, the 'we don't really do SP anymore' thing is a let-down. Wish that'd been more clear up front.

 

The vehicles, content, vehicle in vehicle changes, all that is good and especially the map will be core to the mods that will make the game worth playing.

 

If you only are into ARMA for the MP then you will see a lot of value in all of it. If you play it SP you'll potentially see the value in the map and new content if modders start taking it as default content.

 

Dear god the respawn thing though. You pick a new character class after you die - Rifleman, Scout or Anti-Tank. No AI companions to use but there are immortal AI NPCs who'll come along on some missions and kill everyone for you!

[pharoah 65]

I'd recommend it. Why?

 

1. Tanoa is excellent

2. the additional $ provides more future releases, development for BIS which we, as customers/gamers, benefit from

3. It finally provides us with something I've been after for a long time - a jungle environment as well as close islands requiring waterborne craft

 

So buy it...and recommend it to your friends. The more copies they sell, the more $$ BIS will make which in turn reinforces their belief that this is a commercially viable product thus making them want to invest in ARMA4 and beyond. 

[brightcandle 114]

I think Tanoa is the main reason to get Apex and it has issues. Its a pretty map statically but there is a lot of level of detail changes and other artefacts close to the user that are extremely obviously that look very poor in motion, they distract the eye from looking out into the forest for bad guys and that is very very bad. Then you have the sizeable reduction in performance the map has, somewhere up to 30% less fps when compared to Altis.

 

The AI doesn't play fair in the forests at all and it requires substantial modding to make it work sensibly or you just die to guys you can't see all the time. Its pretty buggy as well, we had a lot of issues launching the coop campaign reliably and one player got dropped a few times. You can see what BI is doing to try and balance the jungle combat, they are pitting the 4 of you up against 1 guy and its lots of singles and staged enemies to try and make the combat less deadly. But get a similar number of AI all at once and you are going to crumble due to how close everyone is. We have kind of fixed it with a custom mod we made a few months back which we hope to release soon and it did make the coop campaign a lot nicer once enabled but its still only really brought into a reasonable balance rather than outright fixing the issue of how the AI perceives visibility.

 

So while I think its worth it my community isn't requiring it yet because for a lot of people the FPS is unacceptable (15fps). I am not going to sing praises over something I (we) have known has quite a few issues that wont be fixed. Tanoa is a scenario where the AI has always behaved poorly and the forest is so thick its problematic. So while I would love a jungle scenario the reality is the engine isn't up to it, performance wise nor AI behaviour wise.

[Staines 74]

I'm seriously disappointed they didn't even bother to add olive skins for NATO vehicles, or jungle skins for CSAT helicopters. 

[OrLoK 20]

Hello there

 

I think this DLC is a return to the splendidness I expect from BI.

 

I did like all the other DLC's but they didnt blow me away for some reason.

 

Im not a fan of the near future setting but with this (and the other DLCS) Arma now feels properly fleshed out and I actually now enjoy playing on "Vanilla" servers.

 

Tanoa, is superb and although there have been other "Jungle" maps, none have got near Tanoa in terms of quality, it's set a new benchmark. Hopefully with the new rendering tech, modded landmasses like Lingor will also soon look as sexy.

 

Is it an essential purchase? hmmm. TBH I was going to wait for a sale but then came into some pennies and splashed out on Apex and Im so happy I did now and didnt wait.

 

I usually play a heavily modded SP or if I play MP i tend to play on Iron Front servers but with this DLC, all MP vanilla games now feel "correct" as there's now a decent amount of gear and vehicles. YMMV.

 

If you have the spare pennies, I'd say "go for it". Tanoa, IMHO, alone is worth the admission fee.

 

Rgds

 

LoK

[dmarkwick 261]

Tanoa is a great map. The dense foliage affects the AI hugely, it's possible to stumble upon one another and they don't have any magic eyesight.

 

Plus, last night I played around with the new VTOL troop carriers. Ordered a group into the CSAT one (the one with cool wing fans) and ordered it to fly to the top of a nearby mountain. Ordered it to come back, which it did very fast, then ordered it to land next to me on the runway. It came around and hovered, and lowered to the ground, all the troops got back off.

 

It was kind of awesome.

[johnnyboy 3741]

For me, its totally worth it for beautiful Tanoa, plus new weapons and vehicles.

 

Tanoa is a great map. The dense foliage affects the AI hugely, it's possible to stumble upon one another and they don't have any magic eyesight.

 

Plus, last night I played around with the new VTOL troop carriers. Ordered a group into the CSAT one (the one with cool wing fans) and ordered it to fly to the top of a nearby mountain. Ordered it to come back, which it did very fast, then ordered it to land next to me on the runway. It came around and hovered, and lowered to the ground, all the troops got back off.

 

It was kind of awesome.

@dmarkwick:  The thatched huts are just begging for your fire propagation script/addon.  Torch the village!

[dmarkwick 261]

For me, its totally worth it for beautiful Tanoa, plus new weapons and vehicles.

 

@dmarkwick:  The thatched huts are just begging for your fire propagation script/addon.  Torch the village!

Rgr dat :) I'd like to get some new pfx image sequences first.

But on a similar topic - I am making a startled birds addon, it seems to be working nicely, especially on Tanoa where it seems made for it :) just need to iron out a few bugs & I'll release it for player testing (I cannot test for MP myself unfortunately),

 

Moving for too fast for too long might startle some birds up, but moving carefully will not. And also firing a weapon after a long period of quiet will scare up many many flocks :) increasing with tree density.

[bonchie 39]

Tanoa really has to be seen to be believed.

 

If it were only the map, it'd be worth it (assuming you play with a MP group that would make use of the map in mission making).

[pooroldspike 128]

I bought Apex DLC from Steam yesterday for 24.99 GB pounds (33 US dollars) and went straight onto the King of the Hill EU # 5 (Tanoa) server, below are a couple of screenshots. The dense jungle areas are very well done, you can almost smell the rotting vegetation in the still humid air-

 

 

[pharoah 65]

Sniping will be fun for KotH

[djotacon 190]

APEX expansion is a "must" for all Arma 3 players, not only the "die hard fans" even the newbies can enjoy with this awesome expansion.

 

Thinking about the philosophy of the APEX expansion, to me is a return to the Arma 2 roots, an dense foliage, new revamped enemies with a low armor settins - forget the human tanks of CSAT -, excellent fps, well balanced weapons - forget the "aim drunk dancing" -, and new vehicles that the VTOL fans enjoy the expansion.

 

If the devs will be create more like APEX expansion - with this philosophy - my money is on theirs pockets.

[pharoah 65]

my OUR money is on theirs pockets.

 

:P

[Haddedam 4]

I think it's a fantastic map, best jungles since crysis, actually better.

Fantastic (if a bit buggy) sound effects, massive rainstorms and thunderstorms. It feels like a horror game if you're going against a viper squad in a pitch black jungle during a thunderstorm.

 

New gear is neat, chinese rifles are best of opfor, never liked the katiba but the chinese ones feel better to use. The type115 is a cool device with udnerslung beowulf. AK's and AR15's and AR10 added, only gripe is how you hold them.

 

Sadly many buildings are not enterable, which was one of the things I was hoping bohemia would fix. But the island is fantastic, feels like a whole nother game. Definetly a different experience.

 

I'll rate it a very strong 8/10 and a reccomendation if you play whole map SP mods or MP

[Retch 15]

I really have to say this mostlikely the best map ever created in the ArmA Series, it feels amazing.

We did a patrol through the jungle along one of the small paths while raining.

You could hear the rain hitting the leaves, flash then a thunder and out of nowhere you are surronded by IR-Lasers and you get attack by

Bug and Spidermans.

 

Very nice expansion, even incredible.

10/10 

 

Retch

[bigshot 62]

The map is very nicely done and so are the few new weapons they give you. If you prepaid and are a die-hard fan then $28 is worth it...

 

...however as usual they failed to give us the tools/vehicles/AI that is truly needed to play on a map like this which has large waterways throughout and inbetween. What this means is that the COOP AI fans among us will not get too much use out of this map and vehicles since the AI cannot properly traverse this landscape on their own. If you put them in a tracked vehicle for example and give a waypoint that would require them to drive across the map by finding a bridge...they sometimes won't do it and instead just ignore the waypoint and sit there all day without moving. It's like Op Flashpoint, maybe worse. Sometimes they follow waypoint if there's a bridge connecting island but only 1 of the island has a connecting bridge...all the other do not and so the AI to have any chance at all in traversing the entire map is to be amphibious vehicle. There is only 1 amphibious each for blufor/opfor.

 

They needed to give more/new amphibious vehicles that the AI would be willing to actually use to traverse this map. Logistically speaking, as far as the AI is concerned you're only hope are for missions that restrict use to the larger middle island and small one connected to it to the south.

 

I guess it was really designed then for the PvP people among us. Coop logistics were simply not well thought out here at all.

 

Coop players need more amphibious land vehicles and all the small islands need to connect in some way to the center...instead of just 1.