Prarie Fire discussion

[stburr91 1004]

18 minutes ago, bigshot said:

I do...i ONLY play coop (never PvP)...but most of the time I end up needing to play the Coop missions alone so Im mostly interested in playing coop mission where you can recruit friendly AI to play alongside and are not too difficult to complete for 1 person and a small team of dumb AI 🙂 If it had this sort of a dynamic AI mission out of the box I think Id be more interested. The campaign sounds like it's half way to being like this except that it doesnt offer AI team mates and is likely too difficult for 1 player...doesnt sound like theres much to do by yourself in the dlc. 

 

Yes, you don't get any AI team mates in the coop campaign, and yes, it is quite difficult to complete a mission by yourself. I played the first mission solo, and got killed at lease 6-7 times, and spent much of the mission running from the enemy. 

 

However, to be fair, the developers did say before the CDLC launch that the campaign was not really intended for singleplayer. 

[bigshot 64]

Just now, stburr91 said:

 

Yes, you don't get any AI team mates in the coop campaign, and yes, it is quite difficult to complete a mission by yourself. I played the first mission solo, and got killed at lease 6-7 times, and spent much of the mission running from the enemy. 

 

However, to be fair, the developers did say before the CDLC launch that the campaign was not really intended for singleplayer. 

Right, so I'm just wondering if there's anything for me to do with this dlc to enjoy playing it alone, out of the box without more 3rd party mods mods attached to it. 

[spooky lynx 73]

On 4/13/2021 at 8:37 PM, zukov said:

Why most people are so negative about CDLC?

Maybe because both released ones do not differ much from free user-made mods in terms of the quality and the quantity of the content and bug fixing speed.

Especially when the devs boast the assistance of the Vietnam war veterans and call this DLC authentic and then don't even bother with giving the proper names to Navy and Marines 'short' "Hueys" and Air Force "Phantoms"... IMHO this particular DLC looks incompleted and released in a hurry. Would it be a free mod - I would have absolutely no questions about the level of details and setting. But as far as it is a payed product - people have greater level of expectations.

[krzychuzokecia 719]

On 4/30/2021 at 6:09 PM, NightIntruder said:

What you gonna do with your frightening findings? Are you gonna protest in front of the Savage Game Designs headquarters with banners and slogans?

I'm just voicing my opinion as a potential buyer - there's nothing else I can do, but it seems, I'm not the only one who finds (more or less obvious) issues in a DLC that boasts to be "painstakingly designed with three years of oversight and advice from US Special Forces veterans" (quote from Steam store page). And these are just factual errors with art/assets - apparently (as other report) there are also issues that affect the gameplay, most notably sloppy pathfinding and lack of any meaningful SP experience.

 

However, once again, I have to ask: you're not dev, you're not related to devs, so why all the negativity in your posts? Since when pointing mistakes is a bad thing? What has changed in the so-called Arma "community" in last few years, that what was once not only expected, but even welcomed, is now met with hostility?

 

You're excited and happy to see a Vietnam setting in Arma 3 - cool, good for you. But I've been playing 'Nam games since BF: Vietnam in 2004 - later played both Vietcongs, Shellshock, Conflict: Vietnam, and all the OFP 'Nam mods (SEB 'Nam Pack, Unsung - y, there was one for OFP too!, Jungle Fever, VTE). I may be a quite demanding customer - but why I shouldn't be? Just because this DLC was made by people who previously gave us Unsung for free, doesn't give them any leeway now. Quite the opposite - if it's not way better than free mod, then why waste my money?

 

Speaking of money - I'm actually pleasantly surprised by the Polish regional price of 50 PLN (around 11 Euro). It seems like a just amount for a DLC for an already existing game, when there are games (developed from scratch) which are priced at 60-70 PLN (including "big" titles like Valheim and PUBG). Sadly, all my Arma-playing friends are in Euro countries, and as for now, none of them find the DLC to be interesting enough to spend (their regional price of) 20 Euro on it - and they are all 'Nam fanatics, who regularly play Unsung mod, and Rising Storm 2. I guess there's a whole wide world outside of BI Forums and official Discords, where "made by community members!" is not enough of a draw, even for the big fans of the game and theme.

 

I guess I'm conflicted now - from one side, I love the era, and I'd like to buy it when it's still priced at what I think it is worth paying for. On the other hand, I have doubts if the DLC is going to be updated - it's generally speaking finished (as opposed to GlobMob which felt really rushed, but at least gets regular updates - big ones at that too), and even IceBreakr, in his "official review", says it's "a great product that we all believed in from the start and polished it into a gem after so many build cycles". From what I've seen, it's a rough diamond, so I'm really worried if the dev team will continue to support it.

[Private Evans 498]

@bigshot

 

to be honest, without using third party tools and missions, there is not much to do for you if you are looking for sp/coop/PVE content that you can play on your own with some AI buddies.

I tested  some of the new made ALIVE Missions ( showcases) today which worked pretty good with AI though. 

Again I hope for some improvments regarding AI pathfinding on the map so that also solo players will be able to enjoy this awesome dlc a bit more 🙂 

 

I am playing and testing now for 3 days in a row having a real blast ...had not so much fun with Arma 3 for a long time !!!

 

nothing more to add from my side 

 

 

[bigshot 64]

1 minute ago, Private Evans said:

@bigshot

 

to be honest, without using third party tools and missions, there is not much to do for you if you are looking for sp/coop/PVE content that you can play on your own with some AI buddies.

I tested  some of the new made ALIVE Missions ( showcases) today which worked pretty good with AI though. 

Again I hope for some improvments regarding AI pathfinding on the map so that also solo players will be able to enjoy this awesome dlc a bit more 🙂 

 

I am playing and testing now for 3 days in a row having a real blast ...had not so much fun with Arma 3 for a long time !!!

 

nothing more to add from my side 

 

 

 

Understood...what about that Mike Force mission? Sort of like a CTI with an AI commander on your team? Wonder if this is good for one person to play with?

[NightIntruder 710]

2 hours ago, krzychuzokecia said:

However, once again, I have to ask: you're not dev, you're not related to devs, so why all the negativity in your posts?

LOL, Krzychu.... I always assess the interlocutor's motivations, regardless of his arguments. Your arguments made some sense, but your motivation? What was the point of discussing the "historical correctness" issue regarding a few minor details in public right before the DLC's release? What was it supposed to change or what to show? Don't even bother answering, I already know the answer as you gave your motivations to me on a silver platter in your replies. And no - I wasn't aggressive, you just stood yourself up and that triggered my funny comment,  that's all. EOT.

[Valken 622]

13 hours ago, krzychuzokecia said:

Speaking of money - I'm actually pleasantly surprised by the Polish regional price of 50 PLN (around 11 Euro). It seems like a just amount for a DLC for an already existing game, when there are games (developed from scratch) which are priced at 60-70 PLN (including "big" titles like Valheim and PUBG). Sadly, all my Arma-playing friends are in Euro countries, and as for now, none of them find the DLC to be interesting enough to spend (their regional price of) 20 Euro on it - and they are all 'Nam fanatics, who regularly play Unsung mod, and Rising Storm 2. I guess there's a whole wide world outside of BI Forums and official Discords, where "made by community members!" is not enough of a draw, even for the big fans of the game and theme.

 

I agree with you 100% but let me answer your question:

 

It is not fully accurate, it has bugs like the AA guns NOT penetrating one of those harder than Kryptonite Tanoa trees, but the overall value was worth it to me. I paid TWICE what you would have paid for it.

 

I can say I measure ANY value by the amount of time I would spend on it. So far, I have 4-5 hours of enjoyment online in COOP ESCAPE @ 20 USD. That is  ~ 4 USD per hour. That is about the SAME price for a mantinee movie, at half price where I am.

 

I personally have only BEGUN to enjoy it because some of my favorite servers have it installed and players are playing right now.

 

When I am online with a group of 4-10, knee deep in the jungle, old tech gear, trying to survive and reach the end game, I completely forget all the inaccuracy. I can say those hours are incrediblely IMMERSIVE. The next step for me would be to go half or full VR/AR. I was actually sweating during each combat phase especially in the dark, with no NVG, but footsteps and voice all around us. It was nerve racking which is the opposite of ARMA with high tech gear.

 

Also, as I have said previously, I think I only saw 10-15% of the map. What I saw was detailed rich, probably inaccurate in terms of historical reference, but good enough for the experience. 

 

Lastly, I'm also also a big fan of Vietcong and its sequels and still have good memories of those first experiences back then. I feel this game in first person with a VR goggle set would be insanely killer. Even without VR, the slow advancements towards our objective was riveting, to me.

 

The only negatives or positives were that there were no smell of burnt gun powder, soggy jungle, cooked bodies, scorched earth or the sweet scent of napalm, nor the buzzing mosquitoes, nor the wet soaked boots causing foot rot, nor the real body fatigue (well, some due to bad sitting posture for a 3 hour game session). I have the heat and humidity where I am located though. 

 

Everything was right there. 

 

I think the SOGPF team should do a FREE weekend and let everyone try it. I advised this for all cDLC and DLC because if we never allow  potential gamer buyers to try the content in full glory, some of them will fence wobble and never appreciate the experience the developers were trying to present.

 

There is absolutely ZERO lost of sales from free demo days. It only drives more sales for GOOD products. CRAP products can go back to the drawing boards and become purchase worthy. That is how the world works.

 

I can say that SOGPF is, personally, worth double your local buying price or wait for sale so you won't have buyers remorse spending more on a DLC than a beer, movie or pizza. 

 

[L3TUC3 32]

I'm enjoying this so far. The only thing I'd like to see change for the official servers is to make it easier to vote/change to a new mission because I'm having a hard time finding any dedicated servers that aren't stuck on mission 01. It appears the vote mechanic disables after a while.

 

I managed to get the vote to work on empty servers, but this means waiting for ~5 minutes while the vote timer goes.

[NightIntruder 710]

3 hours ago, Valken said:

I can say I measure ANY value by the amount of time I would spend on it. So far, I have 4-5 hours of enjoyment online in COOP ESCAPE @ 20 USD. That is  ~ 4 USD per hour. That is about the SAME price for a mantinee movie, at half price where I am.

This is in fact quite a reasonable way of measuring the value of money within the entertainment sector. What's more, you didn't even take into account the replayability of this title in its different forms, and if you would do, it would turn out the game is almost for free. You, however, deprive people of their "rights to critique" and "expectations" towards this DLC using this sort of reasoning, do you realize that? 😉 Soon, you might be accused of alleged affiliation with the DLC devs! 😂 Anyway, I bought the DLC on Friday, and not even a twinge of regret. I'm gonna learn all the aircraft and then look for cool milsim community to have great NAM fun.

BTW, is there any list of aircraft hardpoints and weapons so that I could modify some addons for direct use with the DLC's weapon systems?

[EO 11277]

It's disappointing there's no "official" posts for Prairie Fire here on the Forum, whereas Global Mobilization has four pinned posts for sharing information/feedback.

[nkenny 1057]

@EO
Their own community site seems fairly active. https://community.sogpf.com/

-k 

[EO 11277]

I'm aware of that, I signed up a few days ago. The question is why is the "official" forum being overlooked, otherwise we are just talking amongst ourselves here.

[nkenny 1057]

I'd hazard the guess that it is a well-meaning oversight to funnel players to their own site. Their game, their rules. 🙂

-k 

[EO 11277]

Yep, and it makes sense for them to do that, but for Bohemia's part there should be pinned posts here on the Forum for each CDLC that's published, I know the Arma 3 franchise is nearing the end of it's life-cycle but these CDLC'S are still creating revenue for Bohemia, and as such these CDLC's should be officially recognized here on the Forum too.

[nkenny 1057]

I agree. It would be good to have a stickied overview post of some kind. 

[Valken 622]

I wanted to ask this since I just remember in ARMA 2 and 3 builds of Unsung had sniper trees! Is this in SOGPF?

 

I don't want spoilers but please do not say "no". Say maybe if yes. :)

 

Or we can supplement with Unsung Redux?

[EO 11277]

@Valken Sniper trees are in, they can be found in the Editor under Vietnam Objects/Structures > Fortifications (PAVN) There a few variants, some occupied, some unoccupied which is nice. 

[cenkcnk 0]

do you know if some domination servers available? I got really used to this game mode.

[Ex3B 266]

https://armedassault.fandom.com/wiki/Cam_Lao_Nam

 

Looks like its almost entirely jungle, with very little urban terrain. What are those holes(?) in the top left?

 

[spooky lynx 73]

On 5/9/2021 at 8:56 AM, Valken said:

I think the SOGPF team should do a FREE weekend and let everyone try it. I advised this for all cDLC and DLC because if we never allow  potential gamer buyers to try the content in full glory, some of them will fence wobble and never appreciate the experience the developers were trying to present.

If I'm not mistaken, Compatibility data pack from the Steam workshop has all the units available in the editor. So anyone can look at them and test at some other maps.

[EO 11277]

28 minutes ago, Ex3B said:

 What are those holes(?) in the top left?

 

Those "holes" conceal the tunnel networks. 

[papanowel 120]

Does anyone knows how to disable a booby trap?

I have the trap kit but beside the noose when approaching a trap. There is no possibility to disarm it.

Am I missing something?

[haleks 8212]

I'm surprised to see how few people talk about the Ambient Conversation system... To me this is probably the best feature : such an underrated and oversighted thing, and yet it is what makes me enjoy the DLC so much - the AI is starting to feel alive, in Arma!

For years I've been avoiding making missions with AI companions (or replace them with robots in my own scify settings), but this changes everything (I'm already working on a Remnant showcase). I'm having a blast leading my men in those jungles, that is hands down the best surprise to come with PF.

And it demonstrates in spades how "small" immersion tweaks can go a long way... I really really hope BIS is taking notes for the next game.

 

My only complaint : the system could use more variety for the "safe" behaviour, for those long quiet walks in the jungle, and maybe a "shut up a minute" command (although that should be easy to script).

[zukov 490]