Contact Expansion Playable Content Feedback

[R3vo 2654]

1 hour ago, zimms said:

 

I guess by final "mission" he meant the epilogue/outro. You can still change frequency there and listen to several radio channels. You will have to "replay" it several times if you want to listen to all of it since some channels are concurrent.

Didn't know that. Weird decision. 

[Glow 181]

OMG I did it! I successfully stealth Carpe Noctem mission!

Spoiler

No LDF killing, disabled both Stompers and the most difficult Ed1e climb I encounter. That was hard.

 

[ISparkle 49]

1 hour ago, Glow said:

Have you change an antenna on your SD? ID signal have a low frequency so sometimes it take time, you have to aim and wait until you see spikes on screen.

I am pretty sure I said that it was with military net radar attached... but yes, and it won't work always. Hence, me resorting to shooting after trying about 5 or more times on same squad/fire team. This was all without mods too.

[lex__1 422]

38 minutes ago, ISparkle said:

I am pretty sure I said that it was with military net radar attached... but yes, and it won't work always. Hence, me resorting to shooting after trying about 5 or more times on same squad/fire team. This was all without mods too. 

You must understand with the analyzer:
- which squad is in front of you
- what commands to send him and on what behalf
If you make a wrong choice:
- well, if the enemy did not understand your signal
- it is bad if your actions were recognized as a diversion.
Perhaps one mistake will block the call sign and further sabotage from the analyzer will not bring a positive result.

[stburr91 1002]

So it's not just me that thought that the, find the root tips mission was terrible. 

 

I just watched OperatorDrewski's play through of Contact. He said the mission to find the root tips was the worst experience he has ever had as a gamer. He said it was so bad, that he was going to edit it out of the video, and spare his audience having to sit through it.  LoL

 

For anyone that wants to see his video.

 

 

[EO 11275]

@Glow some folks, including me, haven't played Carpe Noctrem yet.....

 

[Glow 181]

4 hours ago, EO said:

@Glow some folks, including me, haven't played Carpe Noctrem yet.....

 

No worries, I haven't said anything. It's hard. If you played two previous missions  you should have some idea and know how things works. It's good mission makers ethic, that at the beginning you have presentation of all used mechanics and letter on, it's all same but elevated on much harder level.

 

EO this one is for you:

Spoiler alert!

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Do not click if you haven't made a save before.

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Saving. Please wait.

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Press "A" key.

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System error

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Screenshot?

Nah... just a test 😛

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Here it is.
 

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I'm waiting for my in game Options menu to load... 30sec for one bar... I need to get to controllers tab to refresh my Xbox pad, that I need for drive a car. Never seen this issue before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My point was: It is doable in stealth. Hard and buggy, but possible - that was most important for me.

 

It should be mentioned in Contact description, that you can play this camp stealth or in John Wick mode. I believe you can play first four missions with not a one shot or kill - the first mission I'm not sure, have to play again to test this theory. Maybe all camp can be played without one shot.

 

5 hours ago, stburr91 said:

So it's not just me that thought that the, find the root tips mission was terrible.

 

 

"the root tips mission"? Can we use proper mission names pls?

 

Carpe Noctem

 

The worst issue I had so far was with auto saving. After few hours, one save took about 1min 15s and there was places when auto save popup like crazy. If you like to explore that's super annoying. When I arrive at some target place, then before cut-scene in this place, after cut-scene, when you enter some danger zone... omg... EVERY WHERE IS DANGER ZONE! Why those zones have to be announced? I don't like that sound and all this zone mechanics... That should stay invisible for player.

 

I like the mission, remind me patrols from The East Wind camp and the time I spend playing one of my favorite game - Falout2. Soundtrack is super cool! My fps was not the best but playable in stealth. I can't imaging how playing this in John Wick mode could be frustrating. There are some good locations to explore, but there was place for much more side tasks and I had feeling, like some things have been left unfinished. Mission maker was in a hurry, you can see many bad placed items, etc.

I'm not sure I found all the intels but some... looks like unfinished.

Some best things are just droped on my head from nowhere, like extra equipment and ammo all over the place. I would hide those things behind a puzzle or task - you solve a puzzle you get your GPS, you not smart enough - use a flashlight. You killed all enemy fire team, ok good - here is a box with ammo for you. In that way it would be much more fun to play.

[tpw 2315]

8 hours ago, cub1 said:

I read somewhere on this forum to disable Battleye from Arma 3 Launcher if finding low frames with "Contact". Frame rate has been ok for me, but I still disabled Battleye as its single player content.

I never use Battleye, I shudder to think how bad the FPS would be if it was on :)

[ISparkle 49]

6 hours ago, lex__1 said:

You must understand with the analyzer:
- which squad is in front of you
- what commands to send him and on what behalf
If you make a wrong choice:
- well, if the enemy did not understand your signal
- it is bad if your actions were recognized as a diversion.
Perhaps one mistake will block the call sign and further sabotage from the analyzer will not bring a positive result.

Spoiler

...... As I said, that's not the problem I have. I know how to send commands, and their HQ never ever said 'radio silence'. My problem, as I say again, is 1. Spectrum Device just won't pick up LDF signals most of the times even when I am looking at the right location where the activities were detected before, and distance doesn't matter. 2. In the occasion where the device pick up the sound and I manage to get the team designation, sometimes the message won't work with 0 response despite the device pointed toward the leader with no radio silence direction. This problem in particular made it very difficult for me to complete the last mission, since we are tasked to find launchers with the device. It only picked up the LDF demolition group, Russians and AFR and no other groups.

 

[jakerod 254]

6 hours ago, stburr91 said:

So it's not just me that thought that the, find the

Spoiler

root tips

mission was terrible. 

 

 

 

Really?

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I didn't even use the device to find them. I completed the mission from just roaming around and checking interesting places. It was a lot of fun. 

 

[lex__1 422]

1 minute ago, ISparkle said:

  Hide contents

...... As I said, that's not the problem I have. I know how to send commands, and their HQ never ever said 'radio silence'. My problem, as I say again, is 1. Spectrum Device just won't pick up LDF signals most of the times even when I am looking at the right location where the activities were detected before, and distance doesn't matter. 2. In the occasion where the device pick up the sound and I manage to get the team designation, sometimes the message won't work with 0 response despite the device pointed toward the leader with no radio silence direction. This problem in particular made it very difficult for me to complete the last mission, since we are tasked to find launchers with the device. It only picked up the LDF demolition group, Russians and AFR and no other groups.

  

Strange. I have never encountered this problem. Only one moment, I sent a message at that moment when the surge of signal activity was at the maximum value. With a low level of signal spike, I received a response from them several times: "I hear you badly, repeat the order" or something in that sense.
Passed the whole company for two evenings.
Check the game files may be something wrong ..

[Ex3B 266]

6 hours ago, jakerod said:

 

Really?

  Hide contents

I didn't even use the device to find them. I completed the mission from just roaming around and checking interesting places. It was a lot of fun. 

 

I basically cheated and looked online to determine where they were. I found the first one on my own. The thing is that the "bouncer" has such a small radius that it doesn't really help you find anything, as the

Spoiler

root tips aren't alone, and you'll spot other things before you find them.

After checking online, I reverse direction for all of about 15 seconds, and got another "danger zone" with a red circle indicating the danger area (luck that I was that close, I guess?), and that made it obvious where to look. It seems the radius of the danger area is wider than the bouncer scan radius... so...?

Spoiler

I guess the bouncer can help you find it if you notice an area that seems to branch off from the track to the first root tip, but whatever, I found it by encountering the danger zone first

As for the "points of interest",

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the interest for me was that they allowed one to get access to weapons that you otherwise wouldn't be able to get.

At the first HEMMT one, I got a suppressed SPAR. At one on carpe noctem? or the one before it maybe, I found an MXM but just took its MOS scope for the SPAR. Later on Carpe Noctem, I found a frigging MAR-10 with a NVS scope... which was the only working NV that I came across during the campaign. Although the moonlight meant it wasn't a problem for the vast majority of the time. I saw some videos of people with an AMS

 

[nikelzero 10]

well, im found kir and eastern nvg on dead spznz in one building, so, it become my final loadout

[darkChozo 133]

7 hours ago, Ex3B said:

I basically cheated and looked online to determine where they were. I found the first one on my own. The thing is that the "bouncer" has such a small radius that it doesn't really help you find anything, as the

  Reveal hidden contents

root tips aren't alone, and you'll spot other things before you find them.

After checking online, I reverse direction for all of about 15 seconds, and got another "danger zone" with a red circle indicating the danger area (luck that I was that close, I guess?), and that made it obvious where to look. It seems the radius of the danger area is wider than the bouncer scan radius... so...?

  Hide contents

I guess the bouncer can help you find it if you notice an area that seems to branch off from the track to the first root tip, but whatever, I found it by encountering the danger zone first

 

 

Spoiler

The point of the bouncer is to detect the underground roots that lead to the tips, not to detect the tips themselves.

 

But really, you barely need to map anything out at all. At the start of the mission, there are already two blotches of heatmap color in your search area; if you walk towards them, and just kind of keep going, you go straight to the objectives. Both are also very close to the objective danger zones, and one is so close that you get lit up with LDF frequencies and can spot the root by walking like 50 meters east. 

 

 

The bouncer does light up a path to the roots, but it's more of a sanity check than something you need to actively map. They're pretty straight paths, so if you're not in a cold zone you're probably going the wrong way.

 

[Glow 181]

Yes, this map was nice add

Spoiler

but not properly used, could be spread on much bigger area to let player explore some more. Everything was in very narrow area. I hope for this underground map return in mods or maybe... Contact 2 🙃

 

[jbs1949 0]

Cannot complete the Anomalous WhateverItIs campaign.

Spoiler

It will not allow me to communicate with the alien entity. When I try I get a repetitive glitch.

 

The RF dohickey fritzes, the alien goes out of focus and it pushes the character back. Repeats just about every 2.5 seconds and goes on for as long as I can stand it.

 

I can force the character forward until he's standing right underneath the alien entity, but it won't do the scene where it goes all psychodelic and he gets the vulcan mind merge or  whatever it is. I have tried verifying the integrity of the local files through Steam (where I bought Arma 3 Complete that included the Contact DLC). No Joy.

 

I haven't yet tried to see if I can still play the other campaigns in Arma 3 or if the Contact DLC has screwed them up.

 

I am NOT a happy camper!

 

 

 

[Sgt. Dennenboom 98]

@jbs1949

 

Spoiler

When you see the EMP pulses that disable your device continuously, it means you're standing too close.
You don't need to be extremely close to be able to communicate with the aliens

 

[jbs1949 0]

18 hours ago, Sgt. Dennenboom said:

@jbs1949

 

  Reveal hidden contents

When you see the EMP pulses that disable your device continuously, it means you're standing too close.
You don't need to be extremely close to be able to communicate with the aliens

 

Thanks. I'll try again.

Spoiler

I've mapped the contour of the phenomena, so I know just how close I can get before it starts, but I haven't been able to figure out how to communicate from outside that circle. I've tried music, tried noise ... even tried the drone hack. I've tried music etc on the side-bands when they pop up, switching back & forth ... just can't seem to get it to go to the part where it blasts out the "vision" so I can go back to the tower & get captured by the Russians.

 

I've watched other people's YouTube mission videos to see what I'm not doing or doing wrong and I'm still at a loss.

 

[Electricleash 133]

Hit a Hard Freeze while Playing Contact Mission 3 (had to sign out/in of Windows) to get ARMA3 to quit.

The .rpt is uploaded to the feedback tracker.

https://feedback.bistudio.com/T142799

 

 

[Sgt. Dennenboom 98]

@jbs1949
 

Spoiler

It is a little puzzle to get the alien to communicate with you.

 

You have to hit their signal peaks with whatever noise/music to get them to switch frequency.

Transmitting at their new signal, and then stopping will then make them transmit a different frequency.

Use trial-and-error to find which of their peaks you need to hit. If you choose the wrong one, their pattern resets and you can try anew.

 

When you complete this little frequency hopping dance, you'll get the vision

[Moon_chilD 200]

After a week of debating whether I should continue (I can talk about that later) or just shrug it off as another lame Arma 3 Singleplayer mission. After IndeedPete and other kept saying that they enjoyed it I figured I should finish it...and I finally did.

A little prologue to this review:
I'm more a skeptic to Official Arma Singleplayer/Coop Campaigns. I never really enjoyed them nor did I finish many. (A clear exception is the Laws of War Campaign...spoiler alert: still the best!) So I came into this with mixed feelings. I was all up for the idea of aliens, mixed with chemical or Electronic Warfare. But did I get what I hoped for. Let me out line my Pros and Cons first:

Pros:

Spoiler

• Great atmosphere:
  The Campaign started very strong. The first few seconds I was like "Wait? I thought Livonia was friendly towards NATO". But also the whole lore and atmosphere around the aliens was great.
• Great Voice acting:
  Here and there I thought "Maybe a bit over the top" but over all it was great. Got me hooked!
• Great new Assets:
  The new assets alongside the campaign are great. Not only for the Campaign but for the overall sandbox.
• The Spectrum Device
  I liked the idea of this thing - once I finally figured out its capabilities. 
• "Elemination Coda"
  I liked the last mission for the fact that it broke out from the formular before. We had some sneaky, quite and non "eventful" mission before hand and the last mission was what I call a last mission. Well done (even though I needed to restart twice)
• By far...the russians:
  I really expected them to be the baddies again but they turned out allies against your former allies. Its just sad they were only really important for one mission...though I understand why.
  

Cons:

Spoiler

• Far on top - Performance:
  As many already stated, the performance is shit. I don't have a powerful missions - sure - but I can play normal Arma Vanilla content just fine with FPS over 30-60 and Online Modded at about 30. So I don't think that it speaks for this if I was constantly down at 13-18 FPS with this campaign (turning down the settings - even to standard - did next to nothing). For the last few missions I used the Unlock View Distance Mod which helped, at least when there wasn't too much going on. 
• "Anomalous Phenomena" and "Carpe Noctem"
  I hated these two missions. I can see what was tried to do here but the constant running around, checking the device and running more completely killed any atmosphere and excitement I had from the mission before. I think when it comes to story telling rather than action (which obviously was the goal with this campaign) a linear mission is more appropriate.
• The Aliens
  When you mad such a secret around the aliens I was like....damn...they will be great. But what did we actually get? One Drone, some attachment floaties and the giant static ship. I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. I mean, did I expect alien infantry: Yes, would I be disappointed without it: No. But I thought we get some sort of alien "force". Sure they actually came in peace but even then you might need to defend which in the end they needed to. 
• The LDF and Russian factions
  The stuff we got is great no doubt. I love the new gear and the weapons. I wouldn't even say anything about mission planes or vehicle....but if you don't provide it - don't put it in the campaign. When everyone cried "Where is the Livonian Air Force?" I thought to my self "Well, they are not part of the campaign so I'm fine if its missing!".....WELL!!! I was wrong. 
• The Spectrum Device
  Yupp, it is a pro and con. The con is, I rarely had the feeling (especially in "Anomalous Phenomena" and "Carpe Noctem") that I REALLY need to use it. Sure it was fun to tell Livonian forces to move in another direction but ultimately I could have just mow them down (which I chose to not do for immersion sake). So the whole EW aspect was nice but only played a very minor role.
• Corporal Stype
  Frick this dude. Oh I hate him. (But its fine...fits the story........just wanted to say how much I hated him)

So what did I think?
It was okay. Definitely not the best Arma 3 Campaign but most importantly by far not the worst.
I do enjoy the overall story and the development of the whole "first contact" with aliens. 
We can all see that you really put your whole love for this project into it. You seemed very happy to finally tackle this idea and following the development was great fun. 

Would I recommend this DLC?
Really hard to say. I'm no huge fan of the campaign and the exclusive stuff is nothing to brag about...however, Livonia is a great addition to Arma 3s Terrain pool and while all the other content is free I'm very happy to pay you guys for your work. So if you want to experience Bohemia Interactives idea of our first contact with alien life first hand or if you want to play on a beautiful middle-eastern European terrain go and get it. Otherwise....maybe wait for a sale ;D

________

I'm just very happy that I tugged through and finished it. Otherwise I'd always thing....maybe it is good! 
Thanks BI for your continuous support of Arma 3 and after that I think everyone is ready for Arma 4!

Many Greetings
Moony

[FoxFort 341]

Overall the campaign is a nice addition, I like that asset from APEX DLC are also in. The story and spooky night settings with aliens have been done tastefully, overall it was a nice experience.

I was pleasantly surprised how Russians have been included into story settings. That's was interesting plot twist for me.

 

What i didn't like was repetitive nature of walking around, one mission was cool but having two in a row. Also I found it annoying the "talking" with alliens, I was not engaged when doing that thing several times. 

 

I was missing more combat missions and meaning behind going for constant point of interests. It was not rewarding experience, not doing "side missions" does not affect progress of main story. No point in doing side missions when there was no reward. I would say that was the biggest let down. Basically it was "combat patrol" from East Wind Campaign. Is it a great addition? Of course it is. But them having no impact on main thing is really disappointing. Armed Assault had side missions which affected how main mission will be difficult. I miss this type of campaign.

 

[jakerod 254]

edit: nvm

[soceris 56]

Nice secret in the campaign 

Spoiler

 

in mission 5 there's a shed with a driveable kart in it

 

 

 

[Glow 181]

3 hours ago, soceris said:

Nice secret in the campaign 

 

In Carpe Noctem I found about 12 interesting places like this but not this one. My favorite

Spoiler

is a looters camp with this crazy music played from a pickup car. I was there early in the morning with deep fog - this will stay in my mind for long. Mostly 'cos of intriguing music. I'm not sure about the reference... "Twin Peaks" maybe? That was  my best spooky moment in that mission.

 

Miller
 

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News Reporter

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Abandon your posts

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The Tower

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