Contact Expansion Playable Content Feedback

[DnA 5143]

Now that the Arma 3 Contact expansion is out, owners finally get to play the "First Contact" singleplayer campaign. We’re definitely still interested to hear your feedback. If you encounter specific issues, please consider filing a Feedback Tracker ticket. Of course other playable content, meaning the Livonia multiplayer modes, can be discussed here as well. For general expansion feedback we prefer this thread.

 

While it may be hard to avoid spoilers entirely in this thread, try to use the spoiler widget to encompass plot points.

Spoiler

Thanks! 👽

 

 

How to access the campaign?
The campaign can only be played using Contact's 'Total Conversion' mode. This mode makes changes to various parts of Arma 3 and is primarily intended for the campaign, not for regular sandbox usage nor multiplayer. Once in, you simply press PLAY.

 

There are several ways to launch Arma 3 in that mode:

• In the Launcher: press the PLAY CONTACT button.
• In the Launcher, open the DLC page, select and enable Contact, then press PLAY.
• For advanced use cases, launch the game with -mod=Contact

[Private Evans 498]

Haha  ..steam is doing now a 24 gb update after doing a 24 gb download...one more hour to wait grmpf 😕

[byku 13]

Errors if I want to resume mission. Furthermore, subtitles don't work.

I'm on dev branch.

https://imgur.com/I2hmUvg

 

Edit.: Reverted to stable... steam is downloading something now...

Edit.2.: It's ok on stable.

[stburr91 1002]

I'm having a little issue.

 

Spoiler

When the game saves and I get into the Hemtt to go on the trash run, there is no sound for the dialog, and the subtitles go very quickly. 

 

On stable, no mods.

 

 

Edited to add.

 

It seems that the dialog sound isn't working while inside the Hemmt, because when I get out, the dialog sound starts working again.

[zukov 490]

Spoiler

when you exit, after disabled the UGV , there is a soldier at your left that  is an obstacle,  you have to to crouch to walk out and run to the hill

 

[R3vo 2654]

Spoiler

I might be stupid, but what am I supposed to do after I found out the squads call sign at the second site? 

 

Also, performance during the first two missions seems to be a bit low. Around 30fps. Anyone else having this?

[stburr91 1002]

16 minutes ago, R3vo said:

  Hide contents

I might be stupid, but what am I supposed to do after I found out the squads call sign at the second site? 

 

Also, performance during the first two missions seems to be a bit low. Around 30fps. Anyone else having this?

 

Spoiler

I can't remember exactly what I did, but...

 

Go into the device menu, select delta to contact that squad, then play the message from the LDF officer for the squad to move out to the east. 

 

[Chyroxis 0]

Hi,

 

Great expansion so far. I was wondering however when I will be able to use the map of Livonia in Zeus?

 

Currently it's not working when trying to set up an official zeus server from the multiplayer tab. ) 

 

Is this issue known and can I expect it to be working soon?

Chyroxis

Edited July 26, 2019 by Chyroxis
(fix link)

[darkChozo 133]

5 hours ago, R3vo said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I might be stupid, but what am I supposed to do after I found out the squads call sign at the second site? 

 

Also, performance during the first two missions seems to be a bit low. Around 30fps. Anyone else having this?

 

Performance was pretty bad across the campaign for me. It was fairly normal if you were out in the middle of nowhere but the framerate noticably dropped as soon as you get near, well, anything.

 

I usually maintain 50-60 FPS in low-unit-count single player stuff, in the campaign I was more in the 20s and 30s. That's usually what I'd expect from big multiplayer missions with a fair amount of AI.

[laxemann 1673]

Not completely through, but the campaign is great so far - amazing what kind of atmosphere and possibilities you got out of the engine!

 

The performance issues are a thing for me aswel. Even Apex Protocol on Tanoa ran really smooth for me and I got no problems with Livonia in the editor. Buuut I get maybe 20 fps on average during this one.

[jakerod 254]

I'm going to be greedy and request another one of these like I did for Laws of War: http://moricky.com/2012/07/private-military-creators/#more-483

 

Loving the campaign so far! A little confusing sometimes but I've been enjoying it.

 

A few things I've noticed:

Spoiler

• The HEMTT that you're told about while you're at base in Anomalous Phenomena (the one with two looters guarding it) has an invisible wall between it and the trees. https://i.imgur.com/UkqkmDu.jpg
• Same mission; this shed at one of the roadblocks (south of Polana I think) seems to have weird geometry and you can't get close to it. It has the prisoners inside. https://i.imgur.com/czBQeHN.jpg
• Same mission, after I cleared Polana I was driving down the road and a UGV spawned right in front of me along this road: https://i.imgur.com/lkMIw1R.jpg I don't remember when exactly it happened. I might have cleared out the camp to the north of the road and been coming back or maybe just gone into the small cabin. But maybe check out the spawn conditions on the UGV and make sure it spawns while people are kind of far away. There's a small possibility that maybe it drove into my view very fast but I feel like I just saw it appear.
• Nice touch! https://i.imgur.com/QKGRnfu.jpg (I probably commented on this in LoW too but completely forgot that the model exists)
• I was a little hesitant to pick up the beacon at the helicopter. It said it was a beacon which to me means someone is tracking it and I figured carrying that around might draw people towards me. Not a big deal but thought I would mention my reaction to it. I also feel like two guys randomly died from nothing there too. The UGV took a lot of fire and ran away and I swear there was two guys left running around but then all of a sudden there wasn't anymore and I don't remember hearing or seeing any gunfire.
• I was about to complain about not being able to see how much fuel I have left because of the missing HUD elements but I guess the fuel gauges inside work. One of my vehicles just suddenly stopped working and I had no idea why. Figured it must had been fuel but there was no indication of any problem and normally they don't run out that fast. Had I been driving in first person maybe I would have noticed though. In the future a "I'm almost out of fuel" or "Shit I'm out of fuel" could be helpful for 3rd person players but probably too late for new voices now. Again, no big deal. Just not used to worrying about fuel on ground vehicles.
• Disappointed I didn't get some kind of tin foil hat achievement for constructing one and putting it on at one of the looter positions.
• That hole in the ground at the factory was clever! I don't think anyone even found that beforehand on dev branch either. Might be wrong.

 

[R3vo 2654]

8 hours ago, stburr91 said:

 

  Hide contents

I can't remember exactly what I did, but...

 

Go into the device menu, select delta to contact that squad, then play the message from the LDF officer for the squad to move out to the east. 

 

That's the problem, I have no idea how to get into the menu. Pressing "H" to get more information doesn't work.

 

Alright, I figured it out. Seems like if "Last Help" action is bound to "CTRL + H" it doesn't work.

[Grumpy Old Man 3545]

9 hours ago, R3vo said:

  Reveal hidden contents

I might be stupid, but what am I supposed to do after I found out the squads call sign at the second site? 

 

Also, performance during the first two missions seems to be a bit low. Around 30fps. Anyone else having this?

Yep, usually topping out at 55-60fps in my own SP "adventures" with what seems to be a similar unit and object count,

scratching around between 25-30fps in the first mission so far with the same settings (all on ultra) but view and object distance to 1000m.

Basically same experience as @darkChozo here.

 

Regarding the sound there have been quite a few DC offset clicks that I noticed, maybe worth a look, seems to be coming from one of the samples used by the

Spoiler

jamming device

 

Cheers

[Sniperwolf572 758]

- "Hold [space] to advance" prompts don't seem to do anything, the text just starts spazzing out (Albeit, I've only tried it during the starting cutscene of Anomalous Phenomena after a revert to it)

- Performance is horrible. Max settings, 30FPS. Min settings, 30FPS. 🤷‍♂️

- Disabling saving in those certain zones where one might need them the most is incredibly frustrating in muh singleplayer campaign. I want to say this might be masking some technical issue, but considering autosaves and quit saves work fine, pointlessly inconveniencing your players with a mechanic that has no bearing on the game world.

- No achievements at all?

- Orange question marks on the map seem to disappear when you zoom out the map unless it's the currently assigned objective, kinda awkward.

[Bobrus 29]

1. Addon Error on start up - https://feedback.bistudio.com/T142660
2. Missing czech subtitles in game - https://feedback.bistudio.com/T142659 
3. Poor performance, about 50% of normal FPS. 
4. No achievements. 

I was looking forward to spend last few days of my vacation playing Contact, but now I understand that I will play Contact in my next vacation in six months, when it wil be in playable state 😄

[Sniperwolf572 758]

Spoiler

In Anomalous Phenomena, loading a save made a while (10ish minutes) after after saving the 3 soldiers at the Alpha+Bravo LDF barricade, and not following them, the following error occurs and a conversation begins playing as if I re-encountered the 3 men at their camp.

 

[DnA 5143]

6 hours ago, Chyroxis said:

Currently it's not working when trying to set up an official zeus server from the multiplayer tab.

Hi, this should work fine (and there should be also Warlords and Combat Patrol listed). Are you running with or without mod contact? For Livonia MP, it's better to run just vanilla Arma 3.

[Chyroxis 0]

1 minute ago, DnA said:

Hi, this should work fine (and there should be also Warlords and Combat Patrol listed). Are you running with or without mod contact? For Livonia MP, it's better to run just vanilla Arma 3.

I'm not using any mods. Just vanilla. The screenshot depicts what I see when trying to select the Livonian map - there are no missions to select. I have tried several times and there's no other Livonian servers up either so I'm guessing it's not just me.

[Chyroxis 0]

9 minutes ago, Chyroxis said:

I'm not using any mods. Just vanilla. The screenshot depicts what I see when trying to select the Livonian map - there are no missions to select. I have tried several times and there's no other Livonian servers up either so I'm guessing it's not just me.

I just tried again and there seems to be an official server up and running now with the Livonian map.

[_Unnamed_ 8]

I made it to the mission 4 this far and I'm really enjoying it. The ambience is really awesome great work !

 

BUT there's one thing really killing my experience.. performances !!   I mean I play since ofp and I'm used to the fps drops,  but there seems to be a real issue with the campaign I'm getting very low fps average not even a question of drops, it just stays low ( excepted in middle of nowhere ) and changing graphical settings don't seem to actually affect fps ( even setting the upscale from 100 to 75% didn't give me more than 1 ou 2 fps ). By low I mean something like 20fps average instead of 40.

[NikkoJT 58]

Spoiler

During the second attempt to communicate with the Alpha Echo, I got very close to it. When underneath it, I got a script error relating to an undefined variable (_lightsource, I think).

 

When the IFV falls down the hole, it's tempting to walk on top of it. But if you do that, you get stuck.

 

[Kydoimos 916]

Spoiler

@NikkoJT - thanks for the report! Regarding the IFV, we're exploring some creative solutions, as it does appear to be the most inviting route down into the sinkhole.

 

[NikkoJT 58]

32 minutes ago, Kydoimos said:

  Reveal hidden contents

@NikkoJT - thanks for the report! Regarding the IFV, we're exploring some creative solutions, as it does appear to be the most inviting route down into the sinkhole.

 

 

Spoiler

IMO the best solution would be to make it possible to walk on top of vehicles in general. You can stand on GM vehicles without getting stuck in the quantum realm, so it must be possible in the engine. But I know there are some reasons why that might not be practical.

 

[krzychuzokecia 717]

Apart from the performance issue, I noticed a lot of weird things happening (and not weird in a positive, extraterrestrial meaning). In mission one it seemed to me as if everything was playing on double/fast forward speed. Spoilers ahead, I guess.

Spoiler

 

Mission one: I'm still in the woods, running with empty lungs and shooting at the enemy, while the leader of my element is already near the factory gate, rambling about some UGV. Then, when I'm investigating control station, I'm getting shot with simmunition effect even before Randall (or whatever's the protagonist name) finishes his part. Same with spectrum analyser training - Jack (so far only memorable character) never seems to shut up, while I'm trying to simultaneously remember what he wanted from me in first sentence, and get my head around the analyser itself. And then the bombing aftermath itself - all the dead bodies were floating in weird positions in air, one dead crewmember got stuck in talking animation. There was no point in grabbing the medkit, and the final scene with alien artifact was just horrible in execution and anticlimatic. First off, artifact looks like a pretty regular liana, not something out of this world. Second, going down the hollow is an excercise in not dying/getting stuck due to Arma being Arma. Third, everyone around me freaks out about the artifact moving, while it's clearly static (also US officer, Jack and LDF officer all talk at the same time). Not to mention no reaction from Jack after finishing the help action (he still lies on the APC in an endless freak out animation loop).

 

Mission two was going pretty straight-forward (well, apart from Jack being once again overly talkative during SD tutorial section) until I hit the wall of Delta squad radio deception. First off, I got the prompt about Delta's callsign even before I was near them (just when Jack started to explain what he wanted me to do). Second, I wasn't able to succesfully send the HQ to Delta command even though I was almost on them. They always wanted me to repeat last because they couldn't hear (I send it ten to fifteen times). I send the Move East command anyway, to which Delta replied they will do so and that they heard me clear on the first time already (I dunno even what's that supposed to mean). After that protagonist somehow learned that there's radio silence, and started talking with Jack, while Delta... was still standing. I got no new task and for the time being my alien adventure is stuck.

 

 

Also I don't know who wrote Polish lines, but he clearly never learned this language and used some automatic translation. The number of grammar mistakes, non-existing words, weird phrases etc. is too big to list them all. And that's only in first two missions (even radio protocol is not free of this). One that stuck in my mind is brak prasy on a photo in AAN article. It is supposed to mean no press allowed, but... it doesn't mean that at all in Polish language. What it means is no newspapers, as in we the shop run out of newspapers, you won't buy one here today. I was literally rolling on the floor laughing after seeing that, and well... it destroys the campaign experience completely. Also it makes me wonder how messed up are Persian and French protocols/dialogs in base game and Apex (apparently Russian radio protocol is also full of mistakes, this was already mentioned in other threads).

[AveryTheKitty 2626]

A few small issues:

 

Blanks break windows:

 

If you skip talking to The Don and talk to Lane, this happens. The conversation won't play after speaking to The Don.

 

Spoiler

 

Some compositions have desert tents or vehicles.

 

 

I guess it's fair to say that the LDF operate Gryphons and Russia uses Shikras. Would be awesome if we could get proper skins for each of these!