Arma 3 Apex: Old Man Feedback

[darkChozo 133]

3 hours ago, Morbo5131 said:

- The "Action" music is overused and plays way too frequently, more often than not when there's nothing happening

 

That might be the in-vehicle radio, which currently only plays generic Arma music every so often. I'm not sure if I've actually heard music otherwise.

 

Also, regarding vehicle/weapon storage, I get the feeling that you're really not supposed to be stockpiling large amounts of stuff. The cache system, for instance, works a lot better as actual places to rest/rearm, as opposed to being loot spawns that mostly contain redundant equipment (why would I need two backpacks, three rifles, and an SMG all at once?). It's kinda weird if you're used to the typical open world formula, but at the same time I kind of like it; it makes it feel like you're actually just a guy with a gun and not the owner of a private army.

[Kreu 16]

@Morbo5131
I Agree with almost everything your saying and i like your suggestion.

17 hours ago, Morbo5131 said:

- The radio noises that play when you are "wanted" are incredibly obnoxious, make it difficult to concentrate on what you're doing ie fighting enemies, part of which in closer quarters is listening out for their footsteps and speech, gunfire in general.
A way to disable this would be nice, but for expediency's sake it could just be removed completely.

Either the radio chatter or the map overlay has to stay thou. Or we need something else that tells you if you are still considered hostile or not.

 

17 hours ago, Morbo5131 said:

- There's no way I'm aware of for the player to fully-repair a vehicle - there should be servicing facilities at ports, airfields and airstrips, in major towns with service garages etc.

 

You can repair your vehicle at every Civilian repair vehicle (Offroader with lights on top and the VAN's).
 

17 hours ago, Morbo5131 said:

All items placed in a safehouse stash are accessible from all safehouse stashes. Right now, if you're stockpiling equipment at the safehouses you're either going to centralise it (most likely at Player Home), or dump it into many different boxes across the map in which case it's very easy to lose track, or just put it all in the vehicle you intend to use, putting it at risk of loss.

When buying from a Market, the items can be purchased directly to the player-stash, appearing after a delay.

I would not like a shared safehouse storage. I prefer that i have to fight with the equipment that is accesable to me in a certain region.
If i don't have the stuff i want at a certain place than i have to transport it there or i get it by attacking CSAT or finding a geo cache.
Implementing this feature would quickly result in constantly running arround with the same perfect loudout.

I totally agree with everything else!

 

 

[Guest cholt]

I'm having a lot of trouble with the fast travel system.  It started out working most of the time and at this point I mostly just drive to my destination due to the fast travel available message never showing up for me.  The worst part is that the old man's home seems to be the worst location for fast travel not showing up.

[seacaptainjim 67]

Love it so far! A few snags but hey its an incredibly complicated Arma mission so I'm willing to forgive them all. 😉 (please don't start looking for the errors in my own missions - you'll be writing feedback for a long time)! 😳

 

 

Game play feedback:

I started out trying to incognito the whole thing but got shot a couple of times for a reason i wasn't given any feedback on. Maybe a line or two about what law I had broken so as to to better understand the mechanics. 

Maybe a confiscation of gear and 'jail time' mechanic would sometimes be an intermediate punishment for some minor infraction like walking or driving too close to a patrol... 

 

I've since just been rolling about fully armoured and armed to the teeth cutting my own tracks through jungle in order to avoid road blocks - which feels like i'm cheating.

 

I'd like a way of smuggling a pistol and a rifle through a check point if I remember to take off my combat looking gear and the thing isn't full to the brim with 12 AKs and 3 RPG launchers. - Again not a clue how to implement this? How did Fallout New Vegas do their holdout weapon check?

 

 

Fuel consumption:

Is it only the offroad pickups that have accelerated fuel consumption? I noticed that my start vic quickly used up its fuel and I dutifully filled up before

Spoiler

 

blowing up a shack 

 

Then abandoned that truck not long after to

Spoiler

deliver a Zamak to the doctor - wasting $90 worth of diesel! 

 

For a time I was driving a Quillin and a motor boat - both of which seemed to be on normal consumption rates. 

 

I don't dislike the accelerated consumption idea but i think a balance should be found between the OM rate of the offroads and the standard A3 rate and apply it universally.

 

 

Side Missions:

I found a body at

Spoiler

093060 and a diary with an attached side mission which i could not figure out how to read said diary

but this could well be a user error rather than a script error!

 

 

Sound:

The radio seems a lot louder than the voices in game. The car radio is also a bit obnoxious. Thanks for including the turn off.

The "you're near enemies" tension music is just a like bit off. Perhaps it needs a few stages of you're moving into an toasty zone and Aegis_Blues or a list of similar tracks start. Then when the SHTF we dive into No_Time_For_Questions and its ilk. 

 

Miller sounds a bit off and not as excited as he did on Stratis - not quite full Geordie. Is there a new VA?

 

I cant decide if Old Man is better a silent protagonist or if it would be nice to hear him interact with his callers and friends...

 

 

Saves:

I don't mind the sleeping bag save system - it reminds me of Kingdom  Come Deliverance - plus there's plenty of them about! Maybe a few more auto saves would be handy along mission stages but how easy that is do on such a open run about nonlinear mission...

 

I read above some one saying that a few saves to choose from at load would be good and i whole heartedly agree.

 

 

 

 

Keep up the good work and Its great to see Arma3 still getting some love from BI even though something called Vigor is now at the top of the forums...!

 

 

[Morbo5131 16]

9 hours ago, Kreu said:

@Morbo5131

I would not like a shared safehouse storage. I prefer that i have to fight with the equipment that is accesable to me in a certain region.
If i don't have the stuff i want at a certain place than i have to transport it there or i get it by attacking CSAT or finding a geo cache.
Implementing this feature would quickly result in constantly running arround with the same perfect loudout

 

I can understand your POV, and would agree with you if ArmA's inventory system weren't awkward as it is. The amount of shiftng stuff around makes inventory management tedious.

[Bobrus 29]

Another things:

1. Fast traveling does not consuming needed time. 

2 Silos destruction mission is broken. 

Spoiler

Yes, AI is fine, blows up the silos, Samjo is calling me, retreat, but! The task is stuck at the stage before attack, it never switches to next stage of task, so the task is never completed.  

Another try. A few more. 
 

Spoiler

1. Samjo calls off the attack when "my" team dies, but the second team is still fighting. 
2. Samjo calls off the attack when the silos are destroyed, but the explosion kills most of the Syndicate fighters. It does make any sense. Why are they blowing themselves up...

Task is also never switching to next stage. 

Then I was pissed, so I tried to reload my second autosave, which was saved before my arriving to Cerebu, but! Instead of this game loads some autosave from the first checkpoint from the beginning of the mission, so, hours of gameplay came to nothing 😡

[Rydygier 1330]

On 12/20/2019 at 4:46 PM, Rydygier said:

 

Not yet, but that was my last idea for the next time. 

 

So, tried stealth at night. Slow crawl and darkness seem to help. Perhaps it is based on knowsAbout factor...

 

Spoiler

There's a mysterious body with some diary to be found on the Cocoa Island, at the cache, however when diary item is picked up, no notes to read appear anywhere, intel log for this find stays empty. Not clear, what to do with this...

 

Not sure, if/how much it is an issue, and how to remedy, if so, but the fact is, checkpoints often can be ridiculously easy bypassed by going offroad etc. If that's a problem, perhaps checkpoint staff should react seeing such an attempt?

 

Also I can confirm serious FPS drops (below 30) at towns (could be Tanoa itself thing).

 

General note about black market economy: there's too much advanced weaponry to be found at the corpses or in the caches. If obtaining advanced weaponry for free is easy, there's no point for buying such stuff (and no motivation and joy when enough money is obtained to buy something fancy). If limiting access to the weaponry is difficult due to realism - many firefights around, each body means a rifle etc. Then ammo can be made rare and/or expensive. 

 

Another thing: from my own experience, it could be good idea to make some aspects of gameplay optional/customizable at init. It could work nicely for free saves issue (some people require them to actually enjoy the gameplay, some on the contrary, why not to please both?), there could be an option to choose density of random fights, weapons to be found, enviromental stuff like the weather etc. etc. 

 

Also, if that's the truth, what I've read, that fast travel means leaving current vehicle behind, it should be otherwise IMO - currently assigned vehicle should be moved along with me. Player often will have some valuables in the vehicle. 

 

So far enjoying this mission a lot. 🙂

[slowrider8 41]

Adding to previously mentioned feedback on checkpoints, not only are they particularly easy to just drive around, but some can be completely driven through at high speed with no resistance at all, no threat level rising even. I used this to get past the checkpoint on the bridge to get to the southern island. 

[froggyluv 2136]

1st off - Havent played more than a few minutes because  honestly have been buried behind code for too many years and want to "just play" and not think about whats behind the curtain. Figure it will take a few go arounds for bugs to be smoothed out and then ill jump in feet first in my ol man trousers and bed slippers

 

That said reading on the feedback about checkpoints, rising/lowering threat levels - there are alot of incognito-type scripts around i wonder if they are using any of them or similar inhouse solutions? The game has always needed more of an ambiguous threat reaction something like:

 

 

Now of course its hacky, but the point being you had 3 chances with warning to enter these guards areas with weapons raised or else..blast em!

 

Props for finally releasing this old promise - sadly its release was fortold in an ol biblical prophecy so earthwide destruction is now imminent

 

[IndeedPete 1038]

Spoiler

Also can't finish the "Install Flash Drive" task. I uploaded the virus, even at the base Miller recommended, and the stick is gone from my inventory. But the task didn't check.

 

Edit: to make it even worse, I'm now getting annoying calls from Miller that I should finally adress that task.

Edit2:

Spoiler

Just to follow up on this. It seems the task to take the stick does not get checked, not the one to actually upload anything. The stick respawned for me and I can pick it up again but I cannot progress this questline.

 

[Kreu 16]

I have a problem with the main quest.
 

Spoiler

I found the evidence in Haircourt and got tasked to take it to Keystone. But once i arrive there i can't give it to Miller.
I also have stuff from the "destroy fuel depot" mission. I found it right next to the entrance. But i can't give this to Miller either.

 

[darkChozo 133]

Ran into a weird dupe bug. I had stolen a CSAT patrol boat, and had stored my usual gear in it so I could wear a diving suit. When I went to put my normal stuff on, it worked, but my gear wasn't deleted from the vehicle inventory and the stuff I was taking off was deposited on the ground. I could keep putting on the same equipment to continuously generate vests and uniforms, inventory included.

 

Also, there seem to be a lot of inventory bugs and wonkiness. Most if not all of them are probably just platform bugs (not being able to change equipment while in a vehicle is a classic), but the amount of inventory management in OldMan really shines a light on them. Just to list some:

• General unresponsiveness in inventory updates. You try to move something, it only moves after a couple of seconds.
• The aforementioned issue with inventory in vehicles. Sometimes you can't move equipment, say, between your vest and backpack in a vehicle for no apparent reason. Or you aren't able to swap out uniforms/vests/backpacks.
• Objects swapping places when you move an item. Particularly annoying when you're trying to sell a bunch of one type of item.

[IndeedPete 1038]

I've now finished it, I think.

 

Spoiler

Coming back to my first two posts, I skipped the stuck questlines, cheated, and went onto the CSAT island by myself. Blew up the dome and then stole a VTOL to get to Miller. Tried both obvious ways: following him and finishing the mission, or killing him to get the vaccine. I could finish the former but the latter wouldn't give me a final task or anything. The good Doctor just took it and then told me to use some Mini-Sub somewhere. I just ended it there because I got no task with further info.

 

Pros:

• Nice idea. Tanoa lacked good SP content. I finally got to explore the map and discovered some cool new places for myself.
• Scenes are nicely curated. Lots of details. I like that. Finally, a map with some ambient life on it.
• I spent most of the time driving around and dodging checkpoints which was actually the most fun aspect for me.
• The sort of humanitarian questline was the most interesting to me, unfortunately it was also the shortest.
• I haven't had a look at the implementation yet but I'm sure there's a lot of good stuff for other creators there in terms of assets, functions, frameworks etc.

Cons:

• The performance is fairly bad as one would expect in an Arma 3 open world mission. FPS were frequently jumping around between 22 and 45. Sometimes for no apparent reason, i.e. low frame rate in the middle of nowhere.
• The voice acting is a mixed bag, ranging from alright to awful. Miller's speaker is doing a sterling job as usual. The rest of the cast not so much with the locals being hillariously bad at times.
• No free savegames are just bad practice. Kingdom Come tried to push that and I cheated around it. Same here. If you want to make the player consider his decisions more carefully, find another way to do so.
• Phone calls always seem to come in at the wrong time. I.e. I found a piece of intel in an enemy base and then got into a big firefight while like two people are calling to tell me something and I just don't have the time to listen to them. I've missed like half the important convos that way. Would be better if we had a system like in GTA where the player can deny calls until later.
• Unfortuantely, the mission shows what's still wrong Arma:
  • The action menu that just needs to die so badly (placing explosives while trying to open doors).
  • Wonky AI behaviour, getting spotted through walls.
  • Not being able to unfuck situations like being stuck in rocks, flipping cars, boats stuck on the shore etc.
  • The inventory system which still doesn't allow you to change gear when sitting in a vehicle (most of the time at least) and is generally clunky to use. Even more so when there's a shop system attached to it.
• The accelerated fuel consumption is unnecessary. I had other missions before where I naturally went bingo fuel just because they took so long.
• Fast travel does not come at any risk or cost. Also, it doesn't seem to work from the Old Man's home. Not sure if intended becasue one can fast travel to it.
• The Syndikat calls for attacks are a bit annoying. I didn't even take part in any of them.

[James Bonds 0]

First off, Free new content = amazing. Not only is it free but it is a new unique way to play Arma 3. I've played about 3.5 hours so far and I gotta say it is so cool to see an RPG mode with economics, fast travel, and missions sort of reminds me of Far Cry or GTA. Now I will say there are some issues including saving, the road checkpoints, missions, and FPS. 

 

Issue #1: Saving
First, let me start with saving, right now the scenario only autosaves at certain points like when you complete an objective which is very irritating at times when you've traveled very far only to die and due to poor saving have to travel that same path again and again till the next save point. 

 

Issue #2: Checkpoints
Next, I will talk about the road checkpoints and missions, overall the road checkpoints are cool and add to the game as they make you have to think and adjust your play style but they tend to break sometimes and simply not work. At every checkpoint, there are these drones that scan your vehicle and for this to happen you must first drive on the specific path which triggers the script and its mostly hit or miss and sometimes this happens with missions making it impossible to move on. 

 

Issue #3: FPS
Now a quick note on fps, why is it so low? I understand low fps on multiplayer servers but this is a single-player one person scenario to me it just doesn't make sense but it does not ruin the experience since I'm so used to low fps in Arma 3.

 

Issue #4: Radio Chatter

The radio chatter, while you are in trouble with CSAT or the Gendarmerie, gets very irritating as it is simply an audio loop.

 

Suggestions
Finally, I'd like to give you some suggestions. First, I think they could add in the holster weapons script with CTRL + H. Second, the flip vehicle script and the tow script would also be nice. Third, Co-op would be an amazing addition. Lastly, the AI could be a little bit smarter.

 

That's it for me I think overall this is a great mod and I believe it will be amazing once it officially releases. Very excited about this one!

[froggyluv 2136]

Agree on the specificity of the Checkpoint stop -was pretty confused where exactly they wanted me to drive up to and got murdered a few times. Perhaps tighter pointing animations and more distinct stop zone (Giant X) unless of course.. you want them to murder us o.O

[darkChozo 133]

36 minutes ago, James Bonds said:

Issue #1: Saving
First, let me start with saving, right now the scenario only autosaves at certain points like when you complete an objective which is very irritating at times when you've traveled very far only to die and due to poor saving have to travel that same path again and again till the next save point.

 

I've mentioned it earlier in the thread, but try sleeping more. Sleeping is free at caches and cheap at safehouses, doesn't take up any time, heals you to full and saves the game. You can even create saves anywhere by waiting with a sleeping bag in your inventory. It's super helpful if you know you're about to get into a fight.

 

I wouldn't be opposed to a manual save option, but the current save system is sooo much better if you know how powerful sleeping is.

[clausewitz 1]

Just a thing about delivering the Malaria medication to Dr. Drabek:

 

I bought a box of medicine at the Black Market and handed it over to the doctor. But the task is not terminated.

 

What's the problem? Does he need more than one? There's no hint about that.

 

I started again from last savegame but same result.

 

How to satisfy the doctor's needs?

Edited December 23, 2019 by R0adki11
added spoiler tags

[Bobrus 29]

2 hours ago, clausewitz said:

Just a thing about delivering the Malaria medication to Dr. Drabek:

 

I bought a box of medicine at the Black Market and handed it over to the doctor. But the task is not terminated.

 

What's the problem? Does he need more than one? There's no hint about that.

 

I started again from last savegame but same result.

 

How to satisfy the doctor's needs?

 

Spoiler

In the task, there is a hour countdown means how long actual supply of medicine lasts, then doctors patients dies. You need to keep him supply continuously to the point when... it has something to do with the cure. 

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, froggyluv said:

Agree on the specificity of the Checkpoint stop -was pretty confused where exactly they wanted me to drive up to and got murdered a few times. Perhaps tighter pointing animations and more distinct stop zone (Giant X) unless of course.. you want them to murder us o.O

Just watch guard's hands, he will tell you when you should stop. I have never problem with it. 

Edited December 23, 2019 by R0adki11
added spoiler tags

[R0adki11 3949]

@clausewitztry to use spoiler tags as per our forum rules, not everyone may have played the mission yet.

[R0adki11 3949]

3 hours ago, James Bonds said:

 

Issue #3: FPS
Now a quick note on fps, why is it so low? I understand low fps on multiplayer servers but this is a single-player one person scenario to me it just doesn't make sense but it does not ruin the experience since I'm so used to low fps in Arma 3.

 

Not sure what your on about FPS, are you running other mods? Whats your PC spec like?

 

Quote

Suggestions
 Second, the flip vehicle script and the tow script would also be nice. Third, Co-op would be an amazing addition.

 

Why would we need a flip vehicle script, if you crash your car perhaps learn to take care of it better.

[clausewitz 1]

2 hours ago, Bobrus said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

In the task, there is a hour countdown means how long actual supply of medicine lasts, then doctors patients dies. You need to keep him supply continuously to the point when... it has something to do with the cure. 

 

 

 

 

Just watch guard's hands, he will tell you when you should stop. I have never problem with it. 

found out something useful:

 

Spoiler

 

When I delivered three items of medicine the doctor has been satisfied and the task ist accomplished. Unfortunately there's no hint how much he needs.

OK, trial and error 🙂 

 

 

[Kreu 16]

7 hours ago, James Bonds said:

Now a quick note on fps, why is it so low? I understand low fps on multiplayer servers but this is a single-player one person scenario to me it just doesn't make sense but it does not ruin the experience since I'm so used to low fps in Arma 3.

@James Bonds
I am by no means an expert on this subject. But i do create missions by myself and i can tell you that certain scripts can have quite an big impact on the performance.
It might be that quite a lot of scripts are constantly running in this Szenario. Testing the knowsabout value OPFOR units have about the player, Testing if the player is holding any weapon, spawn scripts for all the ambient units and civilians. Each time these units spawn they have to get initialized and start moving to their waypoints and start their pathfinding.
Im pretty sure there is a lot going on in this mission.

@darkChozo
I also like the current saving system. I only miss having more than one slot for my save points. Currently if something breaks the mission and it gets saved you gotta restart everything.

[XerXesCZ 89]

6 hours ago, Kreu said:

I also like the current saving system. I only miss having more than one slot for my save points. Currently if something breaks the mission and it gets saved you gotta restart everything.

 

Oh, but there are actually two autosaves present in this scenario, the newest autosave and the one before it.

[TheLegendaryMX 0]

Hey Bohemia Interactive Team!

First of all: Thanks for that; it's great! I like the opportunity to have a SP mission which isn't only war-based; and it's also a great story (so far I've played yet). Please make missions like this on every map and please bring the mechanics and functions into the mission/ Eden Editor to allow us to make story missions by ourselfes! (Like sleeping, Time-skipping, money, better Intel, ...)

Please make the following points (better):

- more Auto-Save-points or saving after waiting

- (we'll se, for the moment no more)

 

I love you all! Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Sincerely

TheLegendaryMX

[Godis_1 63]

THis is a great scenario! I really like the sandbox-style gameplay together with a good story to follow. The given freedom on how to approach missions is good. However, there are still some minor things that you might want to consider.

At certain points of the story could be more auto-save points.

The mission where you have to take photos (at the abandoned CSAT camp) seems not to trigger progress properly - or I'm just missing something. But I've been searching the whole town, and besides of 3 photos I was able to take, there's nothing left anymore, and the mission doesn't continue. After closing and reloading the game, I was able to take another photo and continue the mission. though it would be better to at least mark the entire area in which we have to search, with a bigger circle or something. Because it can be pretty annoying to not knowing where to look approximately.

So far the balancing seems pretty well. It's not too hard, not too easy. But I have to play it through first to be able to give better feedback.

Btw I love these immersion adding features, like the checkpoints. It adds a good feeling.