The ArmA Singleplayer experience

[quicksand 0]

O.K I always tried to stay away from judging Armed Assault to quickly and had my upmost faith in BIS ability to make unic games part of a genre of it`s own,but I can not hide anymore that I am getting rather worried about the direction ArmA is taking.

Let`s take a flashback to Operation Flashpoint a multimillion selling simulation.When it was released OF didn`t really offer much of a great multiplayer experience for me as it didn`t for my other friends.What it did offer us is a great platform with never seen before degree of freedom and ability to wonder huge areas.

And that made Operation Flashpoint a great game.What raised it to excelency was the single player campaign that was appreciated by magazines and all players alike.It really gave me purpose to see Armstrong`s background story,to see that he would scribble notes after every mission and write about his feelings,his worries and hopes alas his evolution from a mere private to squad leader.Because of that I never quit Operation Flashpoint,because of that I still felt the tension of every mission the tenth time I replayed the Cold War Crisis campaign and because of that I never accepted a loss from my team mates.

I hoped that Armed Assault would raise that level of immersion to a whole new level,bringing new interactivity,even more complex characters and a profound story line.At first the "Soldier left behind on a forgotten island to be transformed in a hotspot after Communist North invades the South" tagline seemed to remain true to the genre.But preview after preview came only to prove that the single player experience is overlooked and BIS is opting for an Rainbow 6/Ghost Recon feeling.

How is the player supposed to fear death and connect with his character when instead of the infamous screen of death in the middle of the most tensioned battles a fatal shot will greet him with a GUI that asks him what character would he like to switch to?

Also how can this be the Mission GUI for the Operation Sequal of Operation 1.5.This is a severe involution from the classic notebook that we enjoyed in OFP and it goes further to destroy the immersion it offered..

Armed Assault can be a great game.Armed Assault already has a loyal fanbase stemming from Operation Flashpoint's greatness.And while we fully realise Armed Assault can`t compete in graphic features with maze FPSs,what we do expect is for Arma to be the natural follow up to OFPs with no concessions.

Of course most people on the forums are dedicated on line players but please share your thoughts on the direction BIS is taking with Armed Assault sp and if you agree with it.

[PainDealer 0]

I've had same worries about character switching and stuff. would it feel like being an individual in war if you have multiple roles in one mission? that's what made OFP so special to me.

[berghoff 11]

=) I just hope you can just turn off the switch player feature.

[bravo 6 0]

=) I just hope you can just turn off the switch player feature.

as it was said before in some interview the player can change caracter and don't say player will change..

i believe this option will work too when player dies, wouldn't make sense..

[Heatseeker 0]

I agree, that GUI is weird and we can read the same text from OPF's clean sweep in it ?

I too hope for a imersive experience like 1985 was, it might be unimportant in a true simulator but the characters and the story add great depth and imersion to the SP experience.

It was amazing to lead those main characters thru OPFR, see them change, etc. (not Lukin, he sucked...)

We already know Arma's campaign will be short (bad thing), we already know we will switch characters mid game (even worse, arghh ).

The game overall is looking great but the SP campaign is not so promissing. OPFR has a great formula.. a mix of scale, realism and imersion, i hope BIS will not loose it.

[funnyguy1 0]

Personally I don`t care about the campaign..I do care about the SP aspect though...

I wouldn`t mind if ArmA cosnisted of some separate SP missions not connected wit eachother in any way...

There`s just one condition for me...Those missions have to be realistic, in therms of the game engine (AI, gfx, physics nad stuff), aswell as the mission design. I would really like to see some mature non-rambo style missions...but again...I`m repeating myself...

And of course I enjoyed both campaigns, CWC and RES...

[Guest Ti0n3r]

There's one thing I'm worried about; Will there be any main characters like in CWC & Resistance or will the campaign be full of nameless faces.

If you will respawn as another soldiers in the campaign when you die it wouldn't make sense to include any main characters. At least not any playable ones.

[Balschoiw 0]

It seems like the player switching when player is killed is some kind of automatic feature.

I don´t like it. There are/were MP missions with AI respawn, basically the same, and I always felt like it was some kind of bonus lives granted to the player. I don´t need a bonus life.

The ingame switching between different players may be a new option that can bring some new perspectives but the "bound" feeling to one unit gets somewhat lost imo.

[ziiip 1]

Who cares about the stock campaign? There will be hundreds of campaign, and I bet there will be at least one without player swithing and with a complex story. With the new features there could be wonderful campaigns.

BTW: that mission GUI looks awesome!!

[Guest Ti0n3r]

I care about the stock campaign. I love CWC & Resistance. They were and are the best ones ever made in my opinion. So I was hoping for something even better in ArmA.

[Acecombat 0]

It seems like the player switching when player is killed is some kind of automatic feature.

I don´t like it. There are/were MP missions with AI respawn, basically the same, and I always felt like it was some kind of bonus lives granted to the player. I don´t need a bonus life.

The ingame switching between different players may be a new option that can bring some new perspectives but the "bound" feeling to one unit gets somewhat lost imo.

Totally agree , switching yourself in a MP game with other squad mates INGAME would be cool.

But i still am tentative about the GR type spawn in the SP/ Campaign. I like the old OFP way better , be careful and play it or die. No second chances. The feeling you get after completing a mission that way is more fulfilling , then say after having died and spawned 5 times ..

[Friedchiken 0]

Who cares about the stock campaign? There will be hundreds of campaign, and I bet there will be at least one without player swithing and with a complex story. With the new features there could be wonderful campaigns.

BTW: that mission GUI looks awesome!!  

True... I guess.

And I would also side with the idea that the new pre-mission GUI is cleaner than the original OFP one.  I don't want the engine to forcefully render an island animation while I select missions.

However, it would have been cool imo if the menu was fully 2d, with a picture art of a military desk, and then the GUI would be a notebook that you could "flip through" to select your mission.  Clean and authentic.

I'm not really a fan of the 3d menu, too much time to load compared to a 2d one.  Then again, those island animations were a good way to show off the scenery.  It's just that maybe they spoiled the "intel" of the island.  Plus you could just explore the place yourself, in a fast flying aircraft too.

I also agree that maybe such a campaign would be a good "tutorial" for new players.  I just want this stupid respawn system to be chosen by the mission designer.  Mission makers should be able to permanently disable this feature, independent of difficulty settings.

The question is though:  At some point will I be able to play a mission where I can roleplay as a real life soldier in a real life situation?  Is it possible for me to make a mission that mirrors closely to the internet released footage of today's wars?

And most importantly, can I use this engine as an authentic simulation of training?  Can I make a real patrol mission, MOUT situation, and event recreation?

Plus: This new respawn system in the game will help the new people and reduce frustration, but it is really important in my opinion to preserve the feeling in some missions that you should keep you head down in quaking fear (as in "shiiit I forgot to make that save 40 minutes ago").

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]Who cares about the stock campaign? There will be hundreds of campaign

I do care as even for OFP there were not "hundreds" of campaigns.

I can count the number of good OFP campaigns on 4 hands.

I do not like the idea of just seeing ArAs as a good modding or editing platform. I want more of a game than just a new engine and some features. I want to see the improvements in action and that means it has to come with a good campaign.

We know that OFP got modded a lot and we know that this is what kept OFP alive, but only to rely on custom content for ArAs is a bit to dissapointing for me.

When OFP came out people were busy editing with OFP itself. OFP units, ofp addons, ofp editor.

ArAs should provide this functionality aswell. I want to spend the first months with ArAs without any addons. ArAs should be big enough to satisfy us for the moment as OFP did. We all know how hard it was to get the tons of addons (some people are still on low bandwidth connections you know) and the error messages we received when we connected to servers that had custom addons and all that confusion that resulted of this.

I expect that BIS give us a complete product with a large variety of units and features. That´s what we pay for. We don´t just pay for a new version number.

Modding is nice and dandy but people saying that they are only going for ArAs to mod it somewhat miss the point imo. ArAs is supposed to be a complete product for all users, not just a modding platform.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Don't fret about the stock campaign, listen to ZiiiiP. Hell, once we missioneers get the jist of what to do with AA's editor - the BIS campaign will be irrelevant. I promise you that.

[Friedchiken 0]

Good point, though it seems that BIS is developing the campaign with new players in mind.  I think that 12 missions will be more than we expect, with the extra support missions tacked to each one.  Also, I hope each battle takes some time to complete, because I don't think it's all that realistic to be able to completely overwhelm a town in less than half-hour.

I think that as vets, we will need to tolerate the fact that death will not be so feared in the default campaign.

However, I hope they will have lots of single mission that reflect the reality of VBS1.  I would love to play missions where you fail if you lose a team member.  I mean, we have the luxury of restarting the mission right?

Point is: I really really want a documentary, not a movie.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Hell, he might have a funny name, but FriedChiken read my mind.

[NeMeSiS 11]

Don't fret about the stock campaign, listen to ZiiiiP. Hell, once we missioneers get the jist of what to do with AA's editor - the BIS campaign will be irrelevant. I promise you that.

Eeeeer, the game still needs to be reviewed and sold, and the argument

"Well, the standard game sucks but there will come some mods and theyll fix most of it in some time"

isnt very good to sell things...  

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Of course, but noone knows it sucks yet, do they? The better campaigns are a bonus!

[Friedchiken 0]

Of course, but noone knows it sucks yet, do they? The better campaigns are a bonus!  

False (a good campaign is critical), I think the main package needs to be complete for the newbies. If BIS is marketing the main game for people who don't have balls of steel, then I think it's a great idea. I think that people who want to gradually learn how to play will love the addition of teammate spawning over OFP's rambo slaying. Character switching might even allow the newer players to choose how they want to play. I just don't want BIS to force the player to respawn due to ridiculous slaughter runs.

However, some of the BIS single missions should have no respawns to show how OFP1 really played. I would appreciate it if BIS could include missions where the player would want to send a poor sob AI to "investigate" these suspicious looking bushes, because my PERMANENT avatar finds breathing a very VERY enjoyable activity. Another use for a point man! ^_^;

And I love how people "mis-spell" my name with an extra "c".

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Not to sound selfish, but I'm not buying AA to attract newbies! Though I agree, BIS does need the $$$.

However, like in your post, I mentioned the fallacy of using an "expendable" AI as a scout to find the enemy, before coming down upon him (the enemy, that is! with full force. This scenario has me turning my nose up at the BIS AA campaign.

[Placebo 29]

O.K I always tried to stay away from judging Armed Assault to quickly......

How can you judge something you haven't seen, haven't played? You can't, so the whole reasoning of this thread is moot, judge the game when it comes out.