What did the updates brake now

[Boss-Starstreams 10]

I don't understand this. Before steam, I never had major issues that caused inconveniences with this game. Every time I go a few months without playing ArmA 3 I come back and there is either some new error with steam itself, or the game is broke. I'm getting tired of this becoming a second job.

 

Anyway

I just loaded ArmA3, four months ago everything was working great, Red Hammer, CUP, and all my other add-ons. Now today Jul, 16th I load the game and it's asking me to agree with the license as though I just installed it for the first time. I've been playing this game since OFP, and now days it's been nothing but a hassle with the inclusion of steam. Also, None of my add-ons are working because my Set Launch Options are wiped out of the settings. How did that happen? I have not changed anything on this computer as I only use this computer for gaming which I have not played any in 4 months. Anyone know what the devs broke so I can go fix it once again?

 

This game was so much better before Steam. You went to the website to get your updates, no big deal. All Steam does is adds more complexity to system instability because now you have something else running that can have it's own issues. It just compiles the chance of an issue. Steam developers have thousands of games to try to be compatible with, they can't manage and test their service against them all. This is why ArmA 3 has been a nightmare for some people. As always, the developers at BIS are masters and artists at what they do, but steam has to go. I lost my entire clan when BIS adopted steam.

[jeza 5416]

The dev's broke nothing they updated their game, its the responsibility of the modders to keep their mod up to date with the current version of the game, and that has nothing to do with steam. In OFP. A1 / A2 if a big patch came out chances are you would have to update your mod, how those patches are distributed be it steam or from bis.com doesn't make a difference. And loading a game with mods that you have not played in four months expecting it all to be okay hmm, if you are not using steam workshop to keep your mods up to date then ofc you will need to update them four months down the line as you would have in previous games. 

 

I do understand the steam bit after 8 or 9 years my end being used to community websites and patches off bis studios I had the same feeling not knowing steam that well even a year into alpha/beta but now it really is a simple enough thing to get a grasp of. But you can't complain about the developers updating their game (with some great free stuff like malden & UssFreedom) because it may break some mods which may or may not actually be up to date :/

[Boss-Starstreams 10]

There's nothing wrong with the Devs updating their game jeza.

But I don't remember major patches braking modes years ago. And if they did what's the difference? Things get broke now so the community modders still have to update their mods regardless of how they distribute them. People act like steam has taken the burden of work away from modders. Give me a brake. The modders still have to do work. All Steam does is adds a channel to distribute something that could be posted at a website and downloaded. But everyone is too lazy to set bookmarks on their computers now days.

 

The only difference is that the workshohp automates the process. When you buy a product, you buy it because how it worked at the store, Updates are always appreciated, but when they start breaking things, then it's not. Like when you buy a phone because it has high volume at the store, but then an update is released and now you have almost no volume. Steam is part of the application verification as an integrated component so it is relevant to mention. Steam is another application running on the system that increases the chances of system conflicts. By the way, I'm NOT saying steam is not simple to use. But sometimes simple things are not the best things. Automation always adds redundancy and unnecessary overhead.

[Greenfist 1863]

What do you mean by "None of my add-ons are working because my Set Launch Options are wiped out of the settings"? They don't load at all even if you select them in the launcher? Or do you define the -mod parameter somewhere manually but it doesn't get passed on to the game?  Any other parameter, or the lack of it, shouldn't affect how mods work.

And I assume all the mods are up-to-date and not too ancient with no active development?

 

That licence message is most likely a one-time thing, so it's not really much of an issue. Unless it came with profile reset (settings, keybinds etc gone), which is unfortunate of course, but seems a very rare glitch. 

You could check if the active profile is reverted to the default one, and you can just change it to get everything back.

[lavbo0321 5]

I had to delete all of my mods to get ARMA back to 'normal'.

 

And I still get a dump error when the game starts about a missing cnf file for some type of ammo from a mod I tried years ago, and didn't like.

 

I might have to do a clean uninstall and reinstall.

 

I am old enough to remember all games used to be a struggle to get them to work. No so anymore. But ARMA is 'different'.

 

My Steam never gave me any grief until the update. Now it freezes and loads very very very slooooooooooowly.....

 

[Boss-Starstreams 10]

On 7/16/2017 at 11:05 AM, Greenfist said:

What do you mean by "None of my add-ons are working because my Set Launch Options are wiped out of the settings"?

 

What I mean is, when I go into steam, all the settings I had in the load options were cleared out for some reason. Not by me. Not a big deal, I added them back and the add-ons are working with the exaction of one new error that I'll hunt down when I have time.This is obviously a steam issue.

 

Today I got a second blue screen when I clicked a friends name in my steam contact list. This is the second time I've had a blue screen error from clicking on an image in Steam. I've run 5 passes with Memtest86 and no errors. This is exactly my point when I say that steam just adds to the probability of more issues. It's common sense. The more things you have running on computers the higher chances of conflicts that can happen. This is why operating systems like Linux for example allow for headless operation with the bar minimal services loaded. (Because it's more stable). Period. . Years ago it was just ArmA running, now it's Steam along side ArmA with more things to go wrong. The new comers can defend it all day, but it's just a marketing leech suck to the side of a great game. Even though ArmA 3 is running fine, Now I'm forced to troubleshoot steam's issue. That would not be the case if it was just ArmA running. Again, more things = more headaches. LIke how old cars had less to go wrong, and when they did you could almost always fix your car on the side of the road. Now days, you're stuck getting towed and getting nailed with a huge bill. It's all relative.

[Greenfist 1863]

Ok so the game updates didn't break anything and all your addons were in fact working fine all along?

 

May I ask why did you make a post on the Arma 3 troubleshooting forum if clicking images in Steam BSODs your computer? You might want to ask about it on their forums?

Or was this more like just a general rant about Steam? In which case it should probably be moved to the offtopic section so players and developers won't accidentally waste their time on trying to help you with your issues.

 

On a sidenote, I've always liked what Steam did to Arma, for example much wider audience to generate income towards development, possibility to deploy hundreds of game updates a year to get instant feedback from playerbase, and seamless integration of mod delivery and updates.  

[R0adki11 3949]

On 16/07/2017 at 6:08 PM, Boss-Starstreams said:

-snip-

Moving the thread as this clearly has nothing to do with Arma3, and its merely a complaint out how steam works. Please try to post in the correct section.