Update 14-04-2020: today we have released the 1.98 update for Arma 3, which brings the Old Man scenario to the vanilla platform (loaded by default). We will soon be emptying the Steam Workshop item and leaving it as deprecated just for historical context. You are recommended to unsubscribe from the item already, or at least to not load it into the game. We also recommend starting a fresh play session, instead of continuing from any old save. There have been many improvements and fixes, often thanks to your feedback. Kudos to all of you for sharing your thoughts with us. We will of course still be reading this thread for potential improvements in the future 👴
Original post:
Hi community!
As you may have seen from our announcement, we have today published the Bohemia Incubator beta version of Arma 3 Apex: Old Man to Steam Workshop. We've taken a bit of a different approach due to the nature of this experimental singleplayer open-world scenario. Anyone on Arma 3's main branch can subscribe to the item for free, however you will need to own Arma 3 Apex, since the scenario takes places on Tanoa. During the coming weeks we will be eagerly reading your feedback and evaluating whether we can add Old Man to the vanilla platform in 2020. The data is distributed under the APL-SA license, so that community developers can explore and possibly extend it for their own creations. This also means we will not be using encrypted EBO files now or later. Note that some of the extra platform additions, such as the static M2 .50 MG, will quite likely be added in Arma 3 update 1.98 regardless. Check out the full announcement for all the details!
How to play the scenario?
Subscribe to the Workshop item.
Wait for your Steam client to download and install the data.
Start the Arma 3 official Launcher (using main branch).
Visit the MODS tab.
Load Arma 3 Apex: Old Man (Beta).
Press PLAY to launch the game.
In the game's main menu, go to SINGLEPLAYER > SCENARIOS.
Select Old Man and press PLAY.
Known issues?
This beta version is still a work-in-progress, so please consider whether you want to jump in now or rather wait for a later version.
When we inevitably update the scenario with fixes, older (mid-scenario) saves may no longer load. Unfortunately there is no way around this.
Consider making a local back-up copy of the 'mod' files in order to finish a play-through (more details here) ⚠️
While we've set up the data for eventual later integration into the platform, note that some details may have to change.
We don't recommend to base your own content or mods on specific class names or file paths yet for example.
Most of Old Man is not yet localized, although we do have translations in progress. Various English texts may still see iterations.
Where to share feedback?
Here! Please use the spoiler widget when discussing plot points.
You can post concrete issues with reproduction methods to Feedback Tracker.
And the Workshop item itself also has several pinned discussions for various types of feedback.
Thanks a lot for your input. Have fun!