Arma Reforger my thoughts...

[teabagginpeople 398]

I have played Arma Reforger for quite a bit now. Only game I am playing on PC at the minute. This is brief and I know leaves out many bugs.

 

Firstly I will say I am slightly Bias, having played Arma from the end life of 1 up to 3 and being the soul reason I built my PC's, have all the games and DLC.

 

First the cons. 

Been widely reported the connection issues, a shame really, has ruined the reviews and enjoyment of of the game.

 

Lack of content and the price to be a beta tester, essentially. This for me is not so bad and I will tell you why as someone who does not pre order.. If a dev said to me when they showed off them shots of the new engine in December "hey, would you pay 30 euro to play on this".. I would have said hell yeah and I can guess many others would have too , this I am sure of. Been a long time between Arma and I understand that with the new Engine seems worth it tho so far, so I was happy to buy. It is not a bad business move by BIS and I would have voted on that move myself and gladly took the flack with a pinch of salt. 

 

OK the pros.

They listened to their supporters. I am hoping they are pushing the envelope and are looking to go further.  

Gone is the extra clunky. Climbing over obstacles has added a new dimension to the battlefield. No longer easy pickings just looking only at the gate of a compound when in vanilla Arma, danger in every corner. Movement is greatly improved and animations great. The driving is great fun again more animations buffed, and can't wait to see what more they have up their sleeve. Radios, proper working radios.

 The only things holding Arma back was its availability and how bad it ran, clunky bits aside. Arma 3 came out in 2013 and still had people buying DLC to now, why? because it gave players something other games didn't, couldn't or wouldn't.  

 I was apprehensive that they might do as all the other short sighted games companies seem to be at and wreck their game trying to be more casual and appeal to an audience that does not exist, Battlefield 2042. Dice just cannot read the room, it baffles me how oblivious to it they are and from the end product it seems they no longer understand what people once loved about their games.  These should be obvious but it seems too many Devs and games companies cannot see the shit through the stars. 

So far Arma Reforger stuck to its guns it is Arma, no mini map? just a compass, ha ballsy. I applaud the decision maker for some good fun getting lost in that map, banding together and figuring out our location, I say map, a work of Art.

 

The Map-

I never really got to enjoy this map as much as I should, as it was before my time and I had not the pc to run it great even if I wanted to. The Map in Arma Reforger is a thing of beauty, I cannot stress that enough. Thanks to a flipped jeep and no mini map, I got lost going across some fields and coming across random houses, then I got lost in the beauty of the Island. The levels of little details from a lawnmower in the garden, scenes  crafted with love. Driving around this in the rain is so god damn good. 

 

The Sounds-

No gps no mini map, finding a fire fight off in the distance just on sounds alone, the adrenaline as you are under fire or explosions going off. So nice, they had already started these improvements in Arma3 with the sound and it is only getting better. Congrats and hats off to the sound guys, out there recording and bringing that extra level of immersion.

 

My hopes.

I hope they do Arma Reforger + 4 and the supporters of the game proud by upping the ante and not shying away. They have seen how popular the mods like Ace and that were, making the game a deeper experience, obviously adding aspects of them in Reforger. I know Reforger is not Arma 4 but it is damn fun when it rocks and feels exactly like an Arma game should minus the trash 😄. When they solve them connection issues it will ramp up. I hope they work on Ai and give it a serious boost for all the cool co op missions and single player people (I love both MP, Co Op and single) and get it nailed down for Arma 4. They have to see all the youtube players on them Milsim missions using AI.  It will be worth the effort.

 

You can shit on my opinion all you want, I insist. Have fun.

[David ArmAstrong 11]

Dumbing down ArmA (Flashpoint through A3) to market to consoles has been tried before, BIS's ArmA Elite and The Codemasters attempt with Dragon Rising,  it didn't turn out too well for either release. Times have changed and the console market is worth going after as a business decision. That said, the limitations of console controllers is a very big challenge for the devs to create a simulation that is even a small fraction of what A3 is today. I appreciate the need to upgrade graphics as A3 is 8 years old. A3 is still the best mil sim available today. I wish them luck. I have been a BIS uber-fanboy since 2001. I can't thank them enough for the decades of good times and forming bonds with ArmA army brothers all over the globe. Honestly, I am hopeful, but not too optimistic at this time for what this may mean for A4. Trying to condense all the keybinds and thus features of ARMA into the limited number of binds possible on a horseshoe controller seems very challenging indeed. 
Good luck BIS.

 

[veles-zv 176]

If they add in mouse and keyboard support with the ability to use custom key binds like on a PC game, I don't see much of problem with them, the consoles are just gimped computers on the high/mid  low end of performance. however console players on crossplay games seem to have horrible latencies, I dont know if this is due to netcode issues communicating to each user on different os or they all use wifi. 

[Kristian 47]

9 hours ago, David ArmAstrong said:

Dumbing down ArmA (Flashpoint through A3) to market to consoles has been tried before, BIS's ArmA Elite and The Codemasters attempt with Dragon Rising,  it didn't turn out too well for either release. Times have changed and the console market is worth going after as a business decision. That said, the limitations of console controllers is a very big challenge for the devs to create a simulation that is even a small fraction of what A3 is today. I appreciate the need to upgrade graphics as A3 is 8 years old. A3 is still the best mil sim available today. I wish them luck. I have been a BIS uber-fanboy since 2001. I can't thank them enough for the decades of good times and forming bonds with ArmA army brothers all over the globe. Honestly, I am hopeful, but not too optimistic at this time for what this may mean for A4. Trying to condense all the keybinds and thus features of ARMA into the limited number of binds possible on a horseshoe controller seems very challenging indeed. 
Good luck BIS.

 

I'd say BIS is doing really well actually. A3 has (so far, if content is directly compared) almost more actions than A3. (comparing a HMMWV to a HMMWV, for example). Already in this pre-release testbed of sorts you can turn on lights, high beams and hazard lights. A3 had a single keybind for "lights or no lights". A3 had lots of keybinds because "that's how it's always been", but boy am I glad BIS is going trough the trouble of making actions contextual or otherwise simply work better or more intuitively. Walking speed adjustment is no longer an awkward toggle switch, but seamless transition with the roll of a mousewheel. Grenade launchers work as independent weapons, without having to press F for certain amount of times, only to misclick it once more and having to browse trough rifle firemodes again. Reforger's LAW is an actual single shot weapon, unlike  A3 NLAW which for some reason could be reloaded. 

 

Reforger is already so much more immersive, and it's only getting better from here on in and towards A4. 

 

Realism and immersion isn't measured by the amount of keybinds available 😉

[zukov 490]

the world editor is a jewel !
Now you are able to make a map! (no terrain! map!) no huge nonsense terrain for a bunch of players but funny maps!
the terrain tool in Arma 3 is atrocious! Bulldozer sometimes work sometime no (often no) the orrible P drive is gone!
Now need just for a tanks and helicopters and add the cold war CDLC already made for Arma 3

[froggyluv 2136]

On 6/15/2022 at 10:46 AM, teabagginpeople said:

The Map-

I never really got to enjoy this map as much as I should, as it was before my time and I had not the pc to run it great even if I wanted to. The Map in Arma Reforger is a thing of beauty, I cannot stress that enough. Thanks to a flipped jeep and no mini map, I got lost going across some fields and coming across random houses, then I got lost in the beauty of the Island. The levels of little details from a lawnmower in the garden, scenes  crafted with love. Driving around this in the rain is so god damn good. 

 

This. Love the no Player marker on the map -because orienteering and getting lost on such a finely detailed map is just a joy. Heard Marek say he is (the last?) strong supporter of "purist" gameplay -that being less, HUD, less help, one save -old school OFP style. Who knew Maruk was the OG

[teabagginpeople 398]

On 6/16/2022 at 8:10 PM, froggyluv said:

 

This. Love the no Player marker on the map -because orienteering and getting lost on such a finely detailed map is just a joy. Heard Marek say he is (the last?) strong supporter of "purist" gameplay -that being less, HUD, less help, one save -old school OFP style. Who knew Maruk was the OG

A man after my own heart. I do hear people joining  the servers " hey my first time here". It does not matter because when there is fun to be had and bullets start flying, they pick up that stuff pretty damn quick, no need for the hand holding. It is really cool driving around in the game, other cars going by and people with maps out :D. You see the game differently, because you see the world around you in it,  not just constantly blindly following a line on a GPS or HUD marker in the distance.