Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hello all,


My question is what will the future for ArmA look like?

 

Will we go back to proper military simulation? A2/A2OA

 

or will we stick with the sandbox? A3

 

Don't get me wrong I love and support what ArmA 3 has become I love it in some way the thing that killed it for me was ArmA 3 "Contact" and the fact that its all future based....not enough Takistan....I sometimes feel that ArmA became a meme because of PSYSIN I love his content but now it's all about life servers...the mill sim side is slowly dying off and only the elite groups are left.

 

if you're a mill sim guy I highly recommend that you try ArmA 2: Army of the Czech Republic...I wish they would make some DLC like that for ArmA 3.

 

I am asking these questions because I found ArmA 2 and A2OA to be much better for my self, A3 is great the mods are better in some way but it just does not have the proper military simulation vibe to it(Sorry if you're a life server person). I am sorry if I am not clear English is not my first language, sorry if this is a repost this is just something I've been worried about as we move on with ArmA and its DLC's.

 

Love you all, stay safe,


Luke. 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't think the "mill sim side is slowly dying off and only the elite groups are left" but that there are just a ton more player than in Arma 2. Arma 2 was, while loved by its fans, generally not a very known game. Thanks to DayZ though a lot of people noticed it (me including).
The "issue" is that many people stuck with the casual PvP gameplay and not many found the military simulation side interesting. Those people kept playing DayZ, went over to battle royale, maybe KotH and in the end even Life. 

I don't think that Arma 3 is SO much different to Arma 2. The game is still driven by its modder rather than the developer itself. However, I think BI did a lot to cater towards both side: Life and milsim. And that is fine. In the end, more games sold mean that an Arma 4 is more likely to happen. 

I do kinda understand what you mean when you say that "Arma 2" felt more like a proper simulation...I can't really say way though. But I think its just a general shift in mentality in the online gaming market. I have the feeling that it was way easier to get into Arma 2 Milsim then into Arma 3 Milsim just because back then there were just more public server that offered a milsim-ish experience. (I started with Domination back then and soon after made my own unit and haven't done much else the past 6-7 years.)

With all that said: I think BI does know what we want. And with we I don't mean the Milsim community but the whole Arma community. With all the other aspects of this game that have been developed over the years its hard to only cater to one party and even put some own flavor into it (like the Contact DLC). 

Btw, people should stop taking Contact to serious. I think it was just BIs way of saying "We actually didn't want to release anything anymore but we kinda want to go back to where Arma 3 started". I can understand that Contact was a low blow for people that already missed the realism in Arma 3 and hated the futuristic appeal but in the end...just ignore it. Nobody forces anybody to buy it and aside from that: The Assets that are available for everyone are just great 😉

Back to the topic: Arma 2 was great because it felt like real life and it had a great modding community. Arma 3 is great because it didn't just redid what Arma 2 was but tried something a bit different while still sticking to the main concept.....and also it has an awesome modding community. 

Now to answer your very first question: I don't think BI will answer that in the very near future....maybe they don't even know it themself. I think as long as the core game stays the same: A sandbox to make any kind of military gameplay possible (essentially what Arma 1, 2 and 3 was) it will be great.
On this note: BI, please don't go to far in the future! 😉

 

So if this text sounds like rambling without any plan...that is pretty much what I expected. Its way to late/early to think but I saw this thread and wanted to give my 2 cents.
Now lets have fun with the game we all hate love!!

Many Greetings
Moony

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hasn't the series always been a milsim sandbox? And hasn't Life been around since the first ArmA? Not that I'm a fan, people can make what they want of it to be fair, but I do remember loading up a life mode back on Sahrani and thinking "Nah, not for me". But still, the series has always been a sandbox with the base military premise being provided for with vanilla assets, followed by the community coming in and adding everything they want/need. ArmA 3 still has a pretty big milsim following. I mean, I've even seen some guy on Facebook blacking out player's faces in-game because they're role-playing SF. ArmA 2 was a sandbox (half-literally), just like the rest of the series, but they've all been built from the perspective of simulating military conflict. I honestly don't know what time-line or setting they would go with for #4 though, but I would agree that the previous titles were more of a favourite for myself than #3, if only due to the time period they went with. I don't mind the vanilla weapons, but I always find myself using RHS or CUP with my missions out of preference. I do like the advancements they make with each new game because there's always things I find myself being able to do new things in game that I've been able to do in person (you have no idea how excited i got about off-shoulder shooting).

 

Anyway, I think they're doing ok. I don't think they're about to ruin what they have by going and shifting focus away from the core military-themed experience they cater for.

 

4 minutes ago, Moon_chilD said:

Btw, people should stop taking Contact to serious. I think it was just BIs way of saying "We actually didn't want to release anything anymore but we kinda want to go back to where Arma 3 started". I can understand that Contact was a low blow for people that already missed the realism in Arma 3 and hated the futuristic appeal but in the end...just ignore it. Nobody forces anybody to buy it and aside from that: The Assets that are available for everyone are just great 😉

 

Actually yes, I also wanted to mention something about Contact. So many people were up in arms about aliens, even though so many people showed support for mods featuring aliens/sci-fi content. Then Contact came out and.... 

Spoiler

there were no actual aliens and again, people expressed their disappointment. I dunno, I liked it. I liked the short side-story it gave us of a smaller, "unknown" nation being the one's to almost get everyone killed, and having to work with some Russians to stop it happening.

It was fun. Then I go right back to my modded ArmA 3 and it's current day tech, and all is well.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Arma 2 was also a sandbox.
I hope it stays as it is. Military simulation sandbox.

A bit less of the Arma 3 Arcade stuff tho. Actually, just checked Arma on steam and apparently they removed the "Arcade" tag again, didn't even notice. That's already sufficient for me 😄

 

8 hours ago, beno_83au said:

Hasn't the series always been a milsim sandbox?

Yes

 

9 hours ago, Luke Zientala said:

the mill sim side is slowly dying off

I wouldn't say that. Depends on where you look and what you watch on YouTube. I get milsim groups mission recordings on my YouTube feed every day. Whereas other people who watch psisyn and similar stuff(/crap) might only get flooded with life content.

 

9 hours ago, Luke Zientala said:

My question is what will the future for ArmA look like?

🤔

 

  • Like 4

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Self-report it using the flag in the top- right corner of your post. Then in the comments just tell them what you need to. 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

ArmA has always been a sandbox, and it's the mods that make it a mil-sim IMO 🙂

 

For the future, it's probably going to remain that way. Not-quite-real-world hardware but allowing for 3rd party real-world hardware. This is the most likely continuing situation simply because of licensing. I know you can recreate items and give them faux names, but at some point it's better to own your assets totally I guess and not have to dance around the legalities.

 

As long as A4 has mod support, and support for easy importing of <A4 mods, things will be good.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 8/20/2019 at 9:45 AM, dmarkwick said:

 

For the future, it's probably going to remain that way. Not-quite-real-world hardware but allowing for 3rd party real-world hardware. This is the most likely continuing situation simply because of licensing. I know you can recreate items and give them faux names, but at some point it's better to own your assets totally I guess and not have to dance around the legalities.

So here is my query, licensing starting off with EA don't pay what they did before made a big song and dance about it for weaps and vehics ect same for activision granted their huge corporations, but then you look at any number of lower budget shooters e.g. squad, ground branch , ready or not ect, they are fine and previously OFP,. armed assault and A2 were fine (although I think they had license for trijicon and colt), so I likely am missing a trick but I don't know why this would be an issue? Secondly A4 mod support will fix it...if the above is correct then why would you do something the core community would not want i.e. 2035-20** stuff why not go back to what worked with previous, by what worked I mean bog standard M4/L85 , AK/type1**.... as if we had a choice I think most of us would rather that than current (not that is bad). Those are my main questions about A4 aside from the typical 'when' 🙂 . 
My two cents anyway tear apart as you wish 😛 . 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 8/24/2019 at 2:40 AM, jeza said:

So here is my query, licensing starting off with EA don't pay what they did before made a big song and dance about it for weaps and vehics ect same for activision granted their huge corporations, but then you look at any number of lower budget shooters e.g. squad, ground branch , ready or not ect, they are fine and previously OFP,. armed assault and A2 were fine (although I think they had license for trijicon and colt), so I likely am missing a trick but I don't know why this would be an issue? Secondly A4 mod support will fix it...if the above is correct then why would you do something the core community would not want i.e. 2035-20** stuff why not go back to what worked with previous, by what worked I mean bog standard M4/L85 , AK/type1**.... as if we had a choice I think most of us would rather that than current (not that is bad). Those are my main questions about A4 aside from the typical 'when' 🙂 . 
My two cents anyway tear apart as you wish 😛 . 

I think licensing has become an issue over time, so the older titles assumed a fair use but it became stickier :) Large companies are a lot more savvier now when it comes to monetising their very name. I'd guess before they were happy for their stuff to be represented, or did not care about a small issue of video games. Now video games are big money, and game technologies mean a more accurate and hi-fidelity representation, lawyers start to sit up :)

 

As to why BIS take the future route, well perhaps they don't want to just make the same game over & over, and want to create original content. I'm sure they have their own ideas they'd like to develop, and I seem to remember that OFP "became" OFP based on an originally sci-fi concept, so maybe that's always been their eventual passion project. Yes real-world content worked in the past, but those games are still available and quite playable :) and for the most part can be ported in. Mod support can give most people their real-world fix, that's what I meant by 3rd party content :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think it will be a little bit of both.
The milsims are all as dependent on sandbox theme as the success of Zeus ect was dependent on milsim units utilizing it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now

×