Arma 3 DLC - CONTACT

[EO 11277]

It's a shame you feel cynical about latest promotion, there's still a full month to go before release, i'm sure sales for Contact are ticking over just nicely. I'm happy to get the extended video presentation, not quite as entertaining as there live stream reveals they used to do......man they were so good! 

[stburr91 1010]

3 minutes ago, EO said:

It's a shame you feel cynical about latest promotion, there's still a full month to go before release, i'm sure sales for Contact are ticking over just nicely. I'm happy to get the extended video presentation, not quite as entertaining as there live stream reveals they used to do......man they were so good! 

 

It may be viewed as cynical by some, but it's a pretty realistic possibility.  I of course could be wrong, but the game is six years old, and the response to the aliens theme has been mixed at best. 

 

I too am also happy to see a new extended promotion. It doesn't change my mind on this expansion, but it's good to see, and people can see some of the non-alien content, which can only help with sales.  

[zukov 490]

i hope, in some ground vehicles re-painted (in green  no taiga camo!) for the Spetsnaz.  from Kaliningrad by teleport 😁

in any case the guys from Amsterdam studio have a better skills regarding textures, is a huge step forward then base game. Before, sometime the Khaki is green and sometime is beige, the Nato tropical is mint..... 

ASTRA IS A FACTION? WITH CONTRACTORS?

[haleks 8212]

38 minutes ago, stburr91 said:

 

 the response to the aliens theme has been mixed at best.

 

Numbers?

 

I've seen plenty of positive comments on several websites; and I would bet the DLC is going to bring in some fresh blood : it could be a good gateway for people who usually aren't too much into milsim.

[Glow 181]

This is not about aliens... blablabla... C'mon we all know where this "Contact situations" is leads us. Right?

Trailer should looks like this:

 

[ISparkle 49]

45 minutes ago, haleks said:

 

Numbers?

 

I've seen plenty of positive comments on several websites; and I would bet the DLC is going to bring in some fresh blood : it could be a good gateway for people who usually aren't too much into milsim.

Tbh, I am sure some people who are in milsim community within ArmA already are also excited about alien stuffs. Most likely, they will use aliens in their fun ops. I am excited to see what they will bring forth with aliens (should BI choose aliens to be actual faction that can go up against every factions in game instead of some 'Empty' prop).

[Glow 181]

I don't believe we will see any alien creature from BI. Contact DLC will create gateway for weird scenarios - it's up to community imagination what this will be - extraterrestrials, ghost, army top-secret lab experiments on a loos, etc.

 

BI targets military conflicts and Contact campaign will be about that, I think. Community will take this "little" Contact DLC and build to "Full Scale Invasion from Space" MOD, but scenarios made by community are already there, scripts too. PHANTOM, ALIAScartoons are with Arma for very long time now (search on Steam Workshop).

[Wiki 1558]

3 hours ago, Glow said:

As mentioned in the new trailer : 2 surprises. Hmm... I wonder what that may be...  2 surprises...  2 surprises...  2 surprises...

 

Indeed I am

[Wiki 1558]

BTW, no information about when the campaign will hit devbranch?

[lexx 1393]

Very late. Vehicles are still missing now and it was said that in the beginning that the campaign might not get to the dev-branch pre-release at all.

[ISparkle 49]

3 hours ago, Glow said:

I don't believe we will see any alien creature from BI. Contact DLC will create gateway for weird scenarios - it's up to community imagination what this will be - extraterrestrials, ghost, army top-secret lab experiments on a loos, etc.

 

BI targets military conflicts and Contact campaign will be about that, I think. Community will take this "little" Contact DLC and build to "Full Scale Invasion from Space" MOD, but scenarios made by community are already there, scripts too. PHANTOM, ALIAScartoons are with Arma for very long time now (search on Steam Workshop).

I hope their 'car-sized aliens' description they have on the page still hold. Because that description seem to indicate there will be alien entities controlled by AI or playable. Just hoping.

[jakerod 254]

3 hours ago, ISparkle said:

Because that description seem to indicate there will be alien entities controlled by AI or playable. Just hoping.

It doesn't indicate that at all. I guess maybe AI but even then I don't think it indicates it. Although I too am hoping for them to be playable.

[ISparkle 49]

1 hour ago, jakerod said:

It doesn't indicate that at all. I guess maybe AI but even then I don't think it indicates it. Although I too am hoping for them to be playable.

"Recent reports also mention sightings of highly advanced car-sized alien entities surveying the UFO’s nearby environment." I don't know. This part of description could be bogus after all. This section is the reason why I think there's a fair amount of chance that we will see moving/AI/playable alien. But BI insist on keeping aliens secret. 😢

[Grumpy Old Man 3548]

11 hours ago, haleks said:

I've seen plenty of positive comments on several websites; and I would bet the DLC is going to bring in some fresh blood : it could be a good gateway for people who usually aren't too much into milsim.

Personally I got into the franchise by buying Arma2: OA for Day z.

Had been fun times trying to get used to the gritty controls while trying to survive and teaming up with others, until it turned into a kill on sight fest 6-7 months in.

Discovered other game modes and had a blast playing takistan life where the map was split to the northern republic and southern rebels.

Then I got curious about the editor and scripting and here I am.

 

The diversity of gamemodes in this game is great, can be overwhelming almost.

Really looking forward to this DLC, the map alone is worth the purchase, on top of that there's now shotguns (finally), a tractor and a tinfoil hat.

 

Cheers

[EO 11277]

@Grumpy Old Man, I'm digging your updated avatar. 👽

 

[zukov 490]

I tried the new gorka with yuoemod,   defender 2 vest, smersh and altyn helmet

IT' S AWESOOOOOOME!!!! almost perfect!





ASTRA IS A FACTION? WITH CONTRACTORS?

[Callsign 128]

On 6/20/2019 at 7:30 PM, lexx said:

 

Well, I kept nagging with every DLC release about how uncool the promo has been. It was always "say nothing, release everything at once" - super lame.

Now it seems this has changed.

 

On 6/20/2019 at 7:35 PM, stburr91 said:

 

I agree, this is probably a much better promotion for the expansion that the previous vague one that emphasized aliens. I like that they are showing the content in a more in depth way.

I suspect it was to point out to people just how much of the DLC was *not* aliens to counter all the people being negative about the theme, but it's certainly a much better promotion that previous DLCs!

[Wiki 1558]

On 6/20/2019 at 11:41 PM, lexx said:

Very late. Vehicles are still missing now and it was said that in the beginning that the campaign might not get to the dev-branch pre-release at all.

Oh, ok, thx

[Glow 181]

14 hours ago, zukov said:

ASTRA IS A FACTION? WITH CONTRACTORS?

On newspaper page (new asset) you can find: "Varana Industries Faces Catastrophic Collapse". I believe we will see some back story about corporation conflict, private military armies/factions - could be interesting. Astra vs Varana. CyberPunk2070 (ETA: next year, Polish Made too) is coming to Arma3 😎

[froggyluv 2136]

On 6/21/2019 at 3:49 AM, Grumpy Old Man said:

...and a tinfoil hat.

 

 Ahh so thats what im seeing here. Thought maybe your were the Khaleesi's other brother and got into some trouble with The Khal

[stburr91 1010]

Just a heads up for anyone that is considering buying Contact.

 

It's on sale in a bundle with all the Arma DLC together.

 

If you're like me, and you already own all the other DLCs, the cost of the bundle on Steam is $18.89 USD, which means you can buy the Contact expansion for $18.89 USD. I think with the amount of content in this expansion, that is about what it's worth.

 

However, if you just buy the Contact expansion alone, it's $25.19

 

So even if you already own all the other DLCs, buy the bundle on Steam, you'll save 25% off of the Contact expansion.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ex3B 267]

On 6/29/2019 at 5:13 PM, stburr91 said:

Just a heads up for anyone that is considering buying Contact.

It's on sale in a bundle with all the Arma DLC together.

If you're like me, and you already own all the other DLCs, the cost of the bundle on Steam is $18.89 USD, which means you can buy the Contact expansion for $18.89 USD. I think with the amount of content in this expansion, that is about what it's worth.

However, if you just buy the Contact expansion alone, it's $25.19

So even if you already own all the other DLCs, buy the bundle on Steam, you'll save 25% off of the Contact expansion.

Well, I just checked (in switzerland), and the bundle is 26 CHF (more expensive than US, yay...), the standalone contact is 22 CHF. At least that makes a bit more sense.

On 6/21/2019 at 9:07 PM, Callsign said:

I suspect it was to point out to people just how much of the DLC was *not* aliens to counter all the people being negative about the theme, but it's certainly a much better promotion that previous DLCs!

I'm most excited about the woodland terrain, and promet series of rifles - finally, a 6.5mm bullpup for NATO, I wonder how it compares to the Katiba as far as muzzle velocity, ROF, and accuracy. I wonder how the promet with a shotgun firing slugs will compare to the type 115.

On 6/21/2019 at 6:55 AM, ISparkle said:

"Recent reports also mention sightings of highly advanced car-sized alien entities surveying the UFO’s nearby environment." I don't know. This part of description could be bogus after all. This section is the reason why I think there's a fair amount of chance that we will see moving/AI/playable alien. But BI insist on keeping aliens secret. 😢

On 6/21/2019 at 2:21 AM, ISparkle said:

I hope their 'car-sized aliens' description they have on the page still hold. Because that description seem to indicate there will be alien entities controlled by AI or playable. Just hoping.

Car sized aliens to me seems like the aliens will be semi-playable. To me it sounds like they will be drone UGVs, and probably drone UAVs (helo flight model?). Based on my understanding of Arma 3's game engine though, they *must* be a member of either Blufor, Opfor, Indfor, or Civilians. If that is the case then you cannot *be* an alien vehicle, but you would be able to *control* one, just the same as with UAVs. My guess is that means there's no little green men infantry. So my guess is that there will be drone AI vehicles, that you will be able to control if properly configured in the mission editor.

On 6/20/2019 at 11:41 PM, lexx said:

Vehicles are still missing now and it was said that in the beginning that the campaign might not get to the dev-branch pre-release at all.

FWIW, I think they need to expand the vehicle assets. Alien contact would be too important to leave the high level assets out. Not only that, but supposedly this happens in the midst of a military training exercise. Livonia historically refers to a baltic region, and the Baltic NATO members rely on larger NATO countries for air defense. A military exercise should involve multirole fighters from NATO members like the US/France/germany:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Air_Policing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livonia

So, for such an event (alien contact, or NATO exercise), there should be high air cover (air superiority and long range strike), there should be lower level air cover (recon and CAS, drones, but also helos and strike fighters), there should be heavy ground forces (armor).

Now, simple reskins should work for armored vehicles. Helos should be fine for both sides (would still like to see a Blackfoot with external stores, and some balance changes).

Aerial drones... should be fine, the sentinel can work, even if its a carrier based aircraft and that doesn't make so much sense here.It would be functionally very similar to a land based drone, so I don't see the need for a new version... although one that has no wing fold, no hook (but otherwise the same model), and a bit better performance/stealth would be welcome.

A russian reskin of the Shikra should be fine for the Ruskies, but I'd be pretty disappointed by seeing black wasps over Livonia... I guess if we say its close enough to the sea, that the presence of carrier based aircraft isn't ridiculous, but NATO's air policing mission is done (AFAIK) by all land based aircraft, and I don't imagine that would change (keeping an aircraft carrier around the baltic sea seems wasteful and provocative).

Basically, I want to see F-35s. They exist in the Armaverse (Arma 2, in service long before real life; references/a comparison to the F-35 program in the Xian's description), and should surely still be in service. The black wasp is slow compared to the Shikra, has a terrible IR sensor, doesn't win in a dogfight. The terrible IR sensor of the black wasp, and stealth attributes of the shik and BW mean that the shikra will detect a BW at 5km on IR, and 5.2 KM on radar. Result: The shik has no use for its radar when hunting BWs. The BW will have to go around shining its radar, giving away its position from a long way off, while the faster SHik can maneuver around and get an IR lock undetected.

NATO needs a better air superiority fighter. Now... a F-35 is about the same speed as a F/A-18 - although the BW is a f-18/f-22 hybrid, so I guess the BW should be faster and more maneuverable, but an F-35 with better sensors and stealth would be good for balance, and would make a lot of sense for the type of craft you'd send to keep an eye on Ayyyy lmaos.

 

I recently read that germany and france want to cooperate on developing an advanced fighter for the 2040's (and this affected a decision by germany not to buy the F-35, due to political pressure to buy from a European aircraft manufacturer), so if this is 2039, Eurofighters should still be in play. I guess that means Saab Gripens/A-149's should still be in play as well.

So a NATO reskin for a A-149 should be in at least, if we don't get a surprise F-35 (and I'm not counting on a surprise F-35, so I really hope we at least get an A-149 reskin).

 

[Glow 181]

I don't see reason why Livonian shouldn't have an A-143 Buzzard in stock. Not sure about Livonian history, but if we assume that they had strong economic connections with CSAT in the past, it would be ok to see To-199 Neophron in Livonian/NATO liveries (and readjusted to use NATO missiles). Confusing? That's good - more fun.

 

 

From this what I saw, Livonian probably will be the weakest faction, even more weak than FIA and Syndikat. Probably not with any serious armor (reskined Kuma tank), so... forget about planes. I wonder why? All this will make them completely useless in any big conflict scenarios again CSAT.  Probably just small scale engagements, not bigger than one platoon or as support for main NATO forces. We will probably see LDF overhaul mods with tanks, planes, sec-ops very soon... and many complains before.

 

btw time: 3 weeks to Contact

[Ex3B 267]

I'm confused why the LDF aren't a Blufor faction. Livonia is clearly stated to be a NATO member.

I guess its for non-story gameplay purposes, just having 3 sides. Even so, its easy enough to place LDF units and make them Blufor in the editor, but it would be equally easy if LDF was blufor to  place LDF units and make them Independent in the editor.

I guess we won't have any joint NATO-LDF force fighting Russians/Opfor and aliens all at the same time. Alien drones could be an idependent factor, but with the LDF also independent, that would make them allied by default when placed in the editor.

Maybe there will be no alien drone units after all...

20 hours ago, Glow said:

From this what I saw, Livonian probably will be the weakest faction, even more weak than FIA and Syndikat. Probably not with any serious armor (reskined Kuma tank), so... forget about planes. I wonder why? All this will make them completely useless in any big conflict scenarios again CSAT.  Probably just small scale engagements, not bigger than one platoon or as support for main NATO forces.

Are you kidding me??? weaker than Syndicate? Syndicate has no armored vehicles, no air forces, no AA launchers,  no AT launchers aside from RPG-7s, no marksmen/sniper rifles, no helmets, and no armor stronger than a tac vest.

From what we've seen, the LDF has plate carriers, helmets with face guards, a pretty advanced 6.5mm rifle series including marksmen variants, and tracked APCs with autocannons (they've shown Mora's reskinned with LDF camo). Their description states they've got a not-insignificant air force as well.

I expect them to be on par with or a bit weaker than the AAF. Their standard rifle seems better (6.5 vs 5.56 mm), their body armor may be a bit better (better helmets? both use some form of plate carrier). We've seen they have at least Moras, but we don't know about any MBT, or if they have gorgons (ie an APC with an AT launcher). They are stated to have an airforce, which probably would include an A-143, but do they have something as good as an A-149?

The Livonia terrain is more than half the size of Altis+Stratis combined (270 + 20 km2, so about 300 km2 of land), which forms the enitrety of the republic of Altis and stratus... However the Livonia terrain is only a small region of the entire country of Livonia:

"Arma 3 Contact’s 163 km2 Eastern European terrain covers the partly abandoned Nadbór region within the larger Polish-speaking country of Livonia."

If we look here:

(and for real world context: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kaunas,+Lithuania/@54.6184745,22.7676634,8.25z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x46e72270b167d343:0x614bd1e0c7378bbc!8m2!3d54.8985207!4d23.9035965 )

We see that its approximately the size of the Kaliningrad Oblast, which is 15,100 km2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Oblast

This would make the country of Livonia about 50x bigger than the republic of Altis and Stratis... now it may be poorer and more sparsely populated, but its 50x bigger and next to the Russians, so it *should* have a more powerful military in terms of total size.

So the soldiers seem better equipped than the AAF, it should have more soldiers total, and its mechanized and air forced should be more numerous than the AAF, although we don't know if that includes MBTs and air superiority fighters.

[ISparkle 49]

15 hours ago, Ex3B said:

I'm confused why the LDF aren't a Blufor faction. Livonia is clearly stated to be a NATO member.

I guess its for non-story gameplay purposes, just having 3 sides. Even so, its easy enough to place LDF units and make them Blufor in the editor, but it would be equally easy if LDF was blufor to  place LDF units and make them Independent in the editor.

I guess we won't have any joint NATO-LDF force fighting Russians/Opfor and aliens all at the same time. Alien drones could be an idependent factor, but with the LDF also independent, that would make them allied by default when placed in the editor.

Maybe there will be no alien drone units after all...

Are you kidding me??? weaker than Syndicate? Syndicate has no armored vehicles, no air forces, no AA launchers,  no AT launchers aside from RPG-7s, no marksmen/sniper rifles, no helmets, and no armor stronger than a tac vest.

From what we've seen, the LDF has plate carriers, helmets with face guards, a pretty advanced 6.5mm rifle series including marksmen variants, and tracked APCs with autocannons (they've shown Mora's reskinned with LDF camo). Their description states they've got a not-insignificant air force as well.

I expect them to be on par with or a bit weaker than the AAF. Their standard rifle seems better (6.5 vs 5.56 mm), their body armor may be a bit better (better helmets? both use some form of plate carrier). We've seen they have at least Moras, but we don't know about any MBT, or if they have gorgons (ie an APC with an AT launcher). They are stated to have an airforce, which probably would include an A-143, but do they have something as good as an A-149?

The Livonia terrain is more than half the size of Altis+Stratis combined (270 + 20 km2, so about 300 km2 of land), which forms the enitrety of the republic of Altis and stratus... However the Livonia terrain is only a small region of the entire country of Livonia:

"Arma 3 Contact’s 163 km2 Eastern European terrain covers the partly abandoned Nadbór region within the larger Polish-speaking country of Livonia."

If we look here:

(and for real world context: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kaunas,+Lithuania/@54.6184745,22.7676634,8.25z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x46e72270b167d343:0x614bd1e0c7378bbc!8m2!3d54.8985207!4d23.9035965 )

We see that its approximately the size of the Kaliningrad Oblast, which is 15,100 km2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Oblast

This would make the country of Livonia about 50x bigger than the republic of Altis and Stratis... now it may be poorer and more sparsely populated, but its 50x bigger and next to the Russians, so it *should* have a more powerful military in terms of total size.

So the soldiers seem better equipped than the AAF, it should have more soldiers total, and its mechanized and air forced should be more numerous than the AAF, although we don't know if that includes MBTs and air superiority fighters.

I am sure people are saying it's weak because it doesn't have air superiority. It ain't weaker than Syndikat though. Syndikat is just basically a huge network of gangs. But, I am not sure if they are stronger than AAF myself if they rely on NATO's air assets to provide them protection on the ground as they don't technically own any air. And you definitely won't stop Russians and their satelite states from rolling you over without MBTs and Air Force that can hold the ground imo. I don't think Livonian air assets will be in the game that isn't helicopter or so. That can be excused by the fact that it's literally got no functional air field in-game currently. But lack of MBT... I don't know. Maybe they couldn't pull off them of Kaliningrad border.