SimHQ E3 Interview

[Antichrist 0]

I never have any problem playing on 1440*900 on my notebook, it even plays OFP and Oblivion smoother than with 1024*768

I do hope that, if you can play a game like Oblivion, you can handle ArmA as smooth aswell

One thing also, the 20 FPS rate doesn't state when and in how an heavy battle, I usually have 30 (OFP) but in some missions not more than 15

Well, I hope there will be a trailer soon

It is true. Oblivion does run faster in 1440x900 than in 1024x768 for whatever reason. Hopefully ArmA will be like that as well!

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Quote[/b] ]I think the real question is:

Is the support ai good enough that you can stay in one role permanently without any serious problems in game strategy?

If so, you can enforce the one life thing yourself.

If they were good enough in Flashpoint, surely they're good enough in AA. I just think being able to change characters defeats the whole purpose of a simulation - what's the good of playing as someone in a war zone if you're expendable, and can simply change bodies after you kark it? Anyway, enough trolling from me. I'm sure someone (if not BIS) will have the means to do away with this "feature."

[Antichrist 0]

Quote[/b] ]I think the real question is:

Is the support ai good enough that you can stay in one role permanently without any serious problems in game strategy?

If so, you can enforce the one life thing yourself.

If they were good enough in Flashpoint, surely they're good enough in AA. I just think being able to change characters defeats the whole purpose of a simulation - what's the good of playing as someone in a war zone if you're expendable, and can simply change bodies after you kark it? Anyway, enough trolling from me. I'm sure someone (if not BIS) will have the means to do away with this "feature."

Similar feature worked quite well in Enemy Engaged. You could switch between various helicopter units and fly the mission. It didn't spoil the experience, because as soon as you got shot down you could not complete the mission assigned to that particular helicopter anymore. Unfortunately for that to work you will need a fully dynamic battlefield like in EE, where you are actually have limited manpower and resources. I am also not sure how they are planning to implement that into ArmA.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

You make a good point. My main concern lies in the mindset of players who will be playing AA. For example, if the player can take hold of a scout, and has no idea where the enemy is, they can simple waltz him in to enemy territory as a nice living bait, then take control of the mechanised infantry squad's officer and steam roll the place.

Having multiple "lives" makes a wargame a lot less tense, and would probably (IMHO) make players a lot less concerned with saving their own skins, as one would in real battle.

[Friedchiken 0]

You make a good point. My main concern lies in the mindset of players who will be playing AA. For example, if the player can take hold of a scout, and has no idea where the enemy is, they can simple waltz him in to enemy territory as a nice living bait, then take control of the mechanised infantry squad's officer and steam roll the place.

Having multiple "lives" makes a wargame a lot less tense, and would probably (IMHO) make players a lot less concerned with saving their own skins, as one would in real battle.

I would definitely agree with this point.

Hopefully the game will make it so that every casualty hurts, bad.

While I will accept multiple avatars, I will try to preserve every man like he is my brother.  If anything, I don't want to see William nor Frank go down.  Kinda like preserving "Jops" in the Cannon Fodder series.

If anything, the multiple lives will give us a new perspective on the "taking command" routine.  Now we will get to see who comes into play after our officer avatar dies.

Plus: Operation Flashpoint is a world where players get to play the way that they want. It's facinating to see who plays tactically, who ammo spams, or even who purposely sacrifices his AI buddies in order to survive singel saves. As long as the game caters neatly with people who want to preserve their buddies, then I don't see why we necessarily need to take steps to prevent stupid singleplayer baiting practices. Veterans like us can make the game as hard as we like to, while allowing less frustration for new people. Plus some players might like to replay the campaign for a better, more survivable run.

[450R 1]

I like the idea of switching characters. In OFP, I always wanted to create missions where you could select your character at the beginning so you were able to experience the mission from multiple aspects ... helicopter pilot, infantry, truck driver, sniper, etc. It's a simple way of giving a mission even more replay value. I know it's possible just by changing a few things in the mission but having it integrated into the game is so much cooler.

It's a good feature provided we aren't forced to use it in certain ways, e.g. you HAVE to switch to the engineer to demolish a bridge and complete the mission. But then, OFP was never that way and I can't see BIS changing tunes.

[Chunder 0]

god, yo guys are hysterics.

We've been told UMPTEENTH TIMES that there will be up to 64 PLAYERS in EVERY INTERVIEW up till now, by placebo. FACT.

we have been TOLD the minimum specs and what it will RUN ON, stop SPECULATING on something that everyone has been TOLD what it will be.

Don't blame ArmA for not supporting Dual core.

Dual core at the moment is simply what it is: a sexy sounding name that aint mean much as of yet.

[Elite SEAL 0]

I don't know about anyone else, but it bugs me that in some of the recent shots you see some of the US Army personel wearing what appears to be the new Army Combat Uniform (ACU) and yet in others you see the older Desert Combat Uniform (DCU a.k.a. 3 Colour Desert Camo.)

It could be that its intentional, and that there are in fact multiple camo choices like you see with a lot of infantry addons these days.

Which I suppose would make sense seeing as the island in ArmAs has multiple terrain types.

But what about the OPFOR? will they also benefit from multiple camo types to fit into said terrains, one would hope so (or at least I do.)

P.S: I've seen woodland camo pop up a few times here and there, but maybe thats totally replaced by the ACU now.

[Guest Ti0n3r]

I think the mix of ACU and desert BDU is pretty realistic. I guees we all know that both ACU and BDU is used by US soldiers in Iraq.

[cozza 24]

well here wat I think. I think the Desert BDU is the Kings Rebulican Soldiers what ever the unit is called ? I dont know

[Dwarden 1124]

strange i thought the max view distance is 5/10km from one of previous previews ...

also there is funny misinformation "Armed Assault is essentially a public entertainment-ized version of the "Virtual Battle Space 2""

considering that VBS2 is not yet out it should be VBS1

[hardrock 1]

also there is funny misinformation "Armed Assault is essentially a public entertainment-ized version of the "Virtual Battle Space 2""

considering that VBS2 is not yet out it should be VBS1

Well, if they say VBS2, why shouldn't it be like that? ArmA isn't out yet either.

It's a bit silly asking information from BIS and then questioning every single bit of what they give, isn't it?

[shadow 6]

An update I saw at the SimHQ forum.

Quote[/b] ]

1) When we asked about system requirements for Armed Assault, Dr. Hoffmann told us that while the game engine isn't optimized to take advantage of dual core processing, it has been tweaked to take advantage of 64-bit processing (described as a "huge" impact on game performance) and larger amounts of RAM (such as 2 GB, which should equal faster load times and better texture use/better visibility).

Ondrej: While 64-b architecture performance is very good when running 32b code and it is possible ArmA is doing very well on 64b computers, ArmA is still a 32b application and there is no specific 64-b support. On the other hand, current video card drivers often contain significant dual core optimizations, and as a result the framerate can often be 20-30% higher on dual core CPU.

2) Although the GUI slider for visibility range can go out to 3000 meters, the sweet spot for fps and gameplay seemed to be around 1600 meters, which is over a half mile and quite acceptable for most tactical needs.

Ondrej: The GUI slider goes up to 10,000 meters, and 1600 meters is almost exactly a mile.

10KM. Yummi. I'm gonna fry my cpu and videocard for sure    

[Dwarden 1124]

@shadow , thanks ... that made me happy again (funna i i was just thinking about posting that with multithreading based drivers

@hardrock : this is first review naming VBS2 engine used in ArmAs so it's more like typo (of course until verified by another more usable source > (Shadow wanna throw word in?) ...

[shadow 6]

@hardrock : this is first review naming VBS2 engine used in ArmAs so it's more like typo (of course until verified by another more usable source > (Shadow wanna throw word in?) ...

I honestly dont know more than what has been posted for the public, but I would be very surprised if ArmA will be of the tech-level of VBS2 when Game2 is supposed to be that.

We've always been told that VBS1 with alot of the still in development upgrades are to be in ArmA (move around in moving objects etc).

[echo1 0]

In that interview they were talking about there being Marines instead of the army. Anyone know what the deal with that is? After seeing the ACU, I believed they were army

[Heatseeker 0]

But what about the OPFOR? will they also benefit from multiple camo types to fit into said terrains, one would hope so (or at least I do.)

P.S: I've seen woodland camo pop up a few times here and there, but maybe thats totally replaced by the ACU now.

This worries me too, in OPF east and west were kind of balanced and most people even liked playing on the east side, Arma seems more US focused, the fashionable ACU cammo (yuck), the vehicles. I find it strange to see a modern conflict involving modern US troops and 80's style russian forces.

I definetly want russian forces in Arma but for the campaign's plot i think they should come up with new opfor armed forces.

[hmmwv 0]

All units shown till today are of the US Army *but* the AH-1W Supercobra that belongs to the US Marines.

Sincerelly I don´t know why they have decided to include it in the game instead of the AH-64 Apache, the Army combat helicopter.

Perhaps they´ll include Marines? mmmm I don´t think so...

Oh, and the most that I like of this game is that it´s US focused

[meyamoti 0]

Wonder...if its US Army why didn't they just make a new apache and include it rather than the super cobra? Haven't seen the new trailer yet,waitin for download..

I'm sure they'll work on the russian forces more,currently their mostly showing US because thats kinda what appeals to most people,then again note how Russia's got more vehicles and they seem to look more refurbished for that note...hey HMMWV,did you spot in this pic- http://ofp.gamepark.cz/news/pics3/armaavid7.jpg

how one humvee is the one that is used and the other is the testing one? It's kinda wierd because the "actual" humvee in the front looks better "polished" (not shine) than the one behind it.

[hmmwv 0]

Yeah I noticed it and posted it in other thread. The TOW Humvee is the old prototype, exactly the same model used in OFP. I hope this will be fixed.

[echo1 0]

Wait, maybe they were talking about 'Game 2'. I have seen some screenshots of Marines in Game 2 previews. They were talking about both games in that interview

[hmmwv 0]

It´s going to be that. Because Game2 is focused on US Marines.

[Elite SEAL 0]

well here wat I think. I think the Desert BDU is the Kings Rebulican Soldiers what ever the unit is called ? I dont know

After seeing the trailer, I'm beginning to think your right on that guess.

As you'll note that all the "US Army" personel with their ACU camo, have M4's in various configerations (mostly with Aimpoint optics) the occasional M249 (sadly unscoped, would've been nice if they had a para version with Aimpoint/Elcan.)

From what I'm aware its more common for US troops to use the M4 these days (aswell as "kitted out" M16A2s/A3s or A4s, someone will undoubtedly correct me on this), espiecally in Iraq.

And yet at the end of the trailer as the camera flies further forwards and you start seeing the guys wearing the DCU's (3 colour des cam.)

They all seem to be equiped with a variety of M16A2's in various configs, and most surprisingly of all Kalashnikov PK/PKM's.

So its most likely is as you say Batdog and that these guys are part of the "Kings Republican Guard".

Which I guess would make a lot of sense, seeing as how the US are supposed to be supporting these guys.

So I'm guessing the US have supplied them with the DCU camo gear, aswell as a number of M16A2's and perhaps a few US vehicles/aircraft.

Certainly a change from the Resistance side in OFP with their varied uniforms (or lack there-of.)

[ArchangelSKT 0]

Yeah that would be cool if they`re the kings Republican soldiers, hm I wonder if the "King" will be a unit in the mission editor..maybe an easter egg   .

Or what about a fun mp mode called "Kill the king"  

Seriously though I like the fact that it seems that we get at least more then two "types" of soldiers, it made quite a difference in OPF to have the resistance fighters in it.

[Big Dawg KS 6]

I believe Placebo called them the "elite King's bodyguard," where did "King's Replublican Guard" come from?

Anyways he also said that there are actualy 2 different Southern Sahrani forces, the guard and regular forces, the latter with older, out-dated American equipment. The guard will use more recent American equipment and vehicles (qouting Placebo).

So, some of those vehicles might not be operated by US forces, you don't know. I think we'll have to wait until we get more information before criticizing the equipment.