Armed Assault Video E3 Presentation

[GBee 0]

check out the 16min vid, there you can see a river and a lake (its the scene with the flying cobra).

Sorry to keep pressing the point, but all I see is an inlet not a river. You can even see that these inlets come to an end on the right of the screen in the Cobra scene, less than a kilometre from the sea.

[Dwarden 1124]

from OFPE

Quote[/b] ]The sea has fully simulated tides? Wave size and pattern change according to weather conditions at sea?

now with additional ArmAs improvement this really made "missions" on gunboats or deploy via fast boats more interesting

[dslyecxi 23]

Two more things I was thinking of.

One, the screen we've seen of the mission briefing (the part at ~40 seconds into the video) isn't necessarily anything more than a graphic made for the mission briefing itself. Meaning, you can't zoom/pan on it, and those arrows/shadings/icons aren't necessarily things that we can place through the mission editor. Once the player "loads" the mission, at ~1:45 into the clip, you see a more traditional map screen, and it's missing those arrows/shadings/icons.

Now, granted, that could all change in the remaining months of development. I would expect it to, but for now, I hope everyone doesn't mistakenly get their hopes up for something that may not be what it appears to be.

The second thing I wanted to point out was that, at 2:27 into the video, when the player goes to the AH-1, a bit of text pops up on the screen that says "Get in AH-1W as pilot". This is similar to the thing I mentioned previously, where text showed up at the feet of a dead soldier when passing close to it. Apparently this is a glimpse at how the "use" menu will be working this time around. More context sensitivity/ease of use, or so it would seem.

[Heatseeker 0]

The things that I've mostly wanted in OFP are:

MP Join in progress.

Newer updated graphics engine that takes advantage of DX9.

Multiple gunners.

Better collision model.

Those features above have been included and or been improved on since OFP. The rest is a bonus for me, I'm looking forward to playing on the new island with all these great new looking units and vehicles as the core stuff.

The problem with such big hits as OFP was in 2001 is they are so good it's hard to give people that same feeling again because OFP was such a breakthrough game in many ways, now a lot of people expect to much for future versions.

I will have to agree on this, Armed Assault will be a bigger and better game but it wont have the same impact OPF had in 2001.

Those who loved and still love Operation Flashpoint will be all over it but many expectations wont be met with Arma imo.

I will sure like it because i will use/play it the way i like it.

That means all CTI missions will be deleted from my MP mission folder .

[zaphar 0]

nice video, whoa there will be rivers!

Rivers? Not watched it all yet but I only saw inlets, nothing on a gradient.

One observation/complaint is that the transition between different animations can be a little too quick. They could be a little slower/smoother.

When going from standing to prone I would agree, however, I think that going from standing to kneeling should be fast. I base my opinion on doing it in real life. If you get up from your chair, into a standing position and drop to one knee, it takes about half a second. From going from standing to prone, it takes the half second to get in a kneeling position, and then like 1.5 - 2 seconds to lie down, if wearing gear, probably closer to 2. Getting up however might take longer, as it requires more work. So I would say .5 seconds for standing/kneeling, 2.5 seconds to go standing/prone, 3 seconds prone/standing. Maybe they could make it slower if you're breathing hard?

One of my biggest gripes about the AI in OFP is when they see you and then try to go to prone. This is one thing I've noticed about the AI that makes them easy to kill, since it gives you more time to react to them. There have been numerous times where I've been surprised by an AI around a corner but manage to kill him, because of this.

It may be a better to have the AI go to prone at far away distances, like 200m, and then for all distances under that, have the AI just shoot back as fast as possible, like human players do. I have noticed in OFP that the AI are good at fighting from distances, but suck when in CQC conditions. It sometimes seems like the AI have delayed reactions in CQC, the top priority of the AI should be to shoot any targets that are very close, that means, don't look at the enemy that is 50m up the road and run at him, it means, you see the enemy up the road from you shoot at him until he's dead or out of view then continue whatever action you were last doing. This would be done for everything <150-200m since, beyond that distance it is probably better to get cover and then start shooting.

The AI in the video looked pretty good except for how they reacted to the tank. In real life, I think most soldiers would run like hell and try to hide if a tank was heading down the road towards them, the reason being that a normal soldier is completely ineffective against a tank unless he has some type of AT weapon. Maybe the best option for non AT units would to have them hide on the other side of an object and have them keep adjusting their position to keep the than on the other side of what their hiding behind. I find it kind of odd when AI run in circles around a tank.

One thing that might be useful for the AI would be to hide on the other side of an object when they can't see what's shooting at them. This would be done in "aware mode"

The first shot would alert them, the second shot would allow them to figure out what direction they're being shot at from, and all successive shots would allow them to close in on you if they're advancing.

I'm not sure how difficult it would be to program this into the game but it seems like it would help out.

As for AI taking cover, they could use the knowledge of where they're getting shot at from and the code in OFP for the "find cover" command. That way they find the closest object and place the object between it and the enemy. If the AI can't see anything, have it either shift to one side or the other, or have the AI go to kneel quickly, just to see if it can see anything, if not, move to the next closest thing. This is just one thing that I can think of that might make the AI less likely to go running through the middle of a field.

[jakerod 254]

check out the 16min vid, there you can see a river and a lake (its the scene with the flying cobra).

Sorry to keep pressing the point, but all I see is an inlet not a river.  You can even see that these inlets come to an end on the right of the screen in the Cobra scene, less than a kilometre from the sea.

At what point does an inlet become a river though? Is it once it is 1km in or is it once it goes from the north shore to the south shore because if it goes from the north shore to the south shore then the island becomes two islands and the inlet/river becomes a strait.

Hopes:

Elevated Water

Elevated Objects (in regular ofp/ofpr you couldnt raise buildings on top of one another in wrpedit, wrptool or visitor)

AI that is improved in CQB not perfect though

Better graphics

Stablization

[zaphar 0]

oh i love the sound of that...

ooh errr.. there are many multiplayer modes.. err... Capture the island .. err. where a side has to take over the entire island against the AI or other players.. ths island is very big. errr.. and you can play for hours, days, weeks, .. err.. and still not complete it..

Ahhh cant WAIT!!!

sounds like fun to me

[Scrub 0]

Quote[/b] ]Jakerod

Advanced Member

Group: Members

Posts: 1041

Joined: July 2002  Posted: May 16 2006,20:55  

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Quote (GBee @ May 16 2006,15:18)

Quote (Web(13) @ May 16 2006,20:09)

check out the 16min vid, there you can see a river and a lake (its the scene with the flying cobra).

Sorry to keep pressing the point, but all I see is an inlet not a river.  You can even see that these inlets come to an end on the right of the screen in the Cobra scene, less than a kilometre from the sea.

At what point does an inlet become a river though? Is it once it is 1km in or is it once it goes from the north shore to the south shore because if it goes from the north shore to the south shore then the island becomes two islands and the inlet/river becomes a strait.

A river typically flows from a freshwater source to the salty ocean.  So if the river starts at a lake in the mountains (for waterfalls, j.k.), or a lake that's on just a slightly elevated plateau, it could flow all of ten yards for that matter, and be called a river... Though most OFP'ers would call that an 'elevated inlet'  

[jakerod 254]

Dictionary.com

Quote[/b] ]River: A large natural stream of water emptying into an ocean, lake, or other body of water and usually fed along its course by converging tributaries.

Dictionary.com

Quote[/b] ]Inlet: A recess, such as a bay or cove, along a coast.

Therefore technically it is a river or an inlet seeing how water in flashpoint does not really 'flow' at all it could be either. Not to mention it serves the same purpose either way ingame.

[Scrub 0]

Of course you get it that I was not expecting your unit to go taste the digital freshwater either, right?

[jakerod 254]

Of course you get it that I was not expecting your unit to go taste the digital freshwater either, right?  

What you can't taste the water? I could've swore I saw that in an interview. Well screw this im outta here. Just kidding I could never leave a BIS game.

Seeing how I have kind of dragged this offtopic I will shut up now.

The 1m 11s E3 trailer was amazing for me and I watched it several times. I cannot wait for this game.

[zaphar 0]

Quote[/b] ]They do need fine tuning but they are still the best a.i. i ever played with/against.

I agree when you're talkin' about unscripted AI.

the only problem I have with the AI is when they ignore things, like when they see an enemy but ignore them, that's where I see the problem.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Great video... I like very much. That narrator has a bloody monotonic drawl, though. No offense, but jeez, turned the sound off almost straight away.

I wonder if you can get plugged in the parachute this time.

Pity about the fixed aim, I enjoyed being able to see over my shoulder and what not. Blast eh.

Was highly impressed by the shadows of the rotors shown in the Cobra. Obviously, the Army is giving its riflemen piloting courses in USMC craft, but that's a moot point.

Good to see standing players are somewhat less vulnerable that OFP. And I like how the AI walk with weapons ready, rather than just going prone every 5 seconds - that really pisssed me off.

As I've said 15000 times, character switching = gay. Not nitpicking, merely an opinion. If you're going to shaft me, do it via PM.

I hate those double beep two way radio sounds. Are they realistic? Seriously, it sounds horrible. I preferred the small burst of static at the end of OFP radio messages.

Grass is awesome. The terrain is beautiful... I thought I was in Rockhampton for a moment in there. Animations look nice and smooth.

Can't wait... most of the things I have fears about can be fixed. <sigh> I can rest easy, tonight.

[Randy 0]

A lack of ragdolling has absolutely nothing to do with animation transitions. Like martinovic said, OFP had smooth and realistic looking transitions between animations.

Why would Arma take a step backward and suddenly look like Unreal Tournament in the animation department?

Why jump to conclusions like that? It's entirely within reason and completely logical to assume that they're still working on transition animations.

Some of you have so little faith in BIS, it's incredible...

I don't believe there was a conclusion jumped to in this case.

I merely compared the animations witnessed in the recent E3 demos to a game released many years ago and asked the question, why would they take a few steps backwards in terms of believability?

Yes, I do give BIS the courtesy of my faith that the animation system is a WIP. But, against the possibility it is not, I am simply expressing my concern over an aspect of the game that is seriously defficient in light of other excellent aspects.

There can be no arguement with this, for it is simply a statement of my intent and an explaination as to why I bring these things to light.

In regards to the notion that a smooth animation transition system would make indoor environments non-negiotiable: that is untrue. The Rainbow six games, beginning with the first up until the present had very believable animations, smooth transitions, whilst retaining utmost control.

Make no mistake, a believable, smooth and functional animation system is within the capabilities of even the smallest of developers and has been for many years now, I won't list precedents.

I predict that some will read this and take it out of context, therefore once again: Yes I know there is 3 months left of development, the animations could be WIPs, but they might not be.

It is best to express concerns while there is still time for them to be addressed, defending a flaw and labelling the concern invalid simply buries it and lessens the chance it will be seen to. It is non-constructive.

[Friedchiken 0]

Quote[/b] ]I wonder if you can get plugged in the parachute this time.

Would be darkly hilarious, but unlikely for mission design reasons. But I wonder if there are now any systems in place to prevent bunched up ejects, as soldiers hitting each other's parachutes is funny looking because we all know that in reality very bad things happen as a result.

Quote[/b] ]Pity about the fixed aim, I enjoyed being able to see over my shoulder and what not. Blast eh.

Didn't the guy in the video look over his shoulder independenty of the gun in one part of the video? And then I hear this rumor that un-fixed aim is an option under difficulty, but I could not confirm that.

Quote[/b] ]Was highly impressed by the shadows of the rotors shown in the Cobra. Obviously, the Army is giving its riflemen piloting courses in USMC craft, but that's a moot point.

Obviously BIS has some pilot models handy. In fact, I would go so far as to hope BIS gave pilots only a handgun and smoke grenades, as even if there are parachutes, the pilot should not have a rifle ready to storm the battlefield. A handgun only kit would prevent most players from ejecting over the conflict zone as an insertion method.

Quote[/b] ]Good to see standing players are somewhat less vulnerable that OFP. And I like how the AI walk with weapons ready, rather than just going prone every 5 seconds - that really pisssed me off.

Myself, I would like to see more kneeling instead of proning. Crawling in a cluttered street sounds really rocky and painful. Personally, due to stupid habits of childhood, I know very well that crawling in the wilderness is also very painful for the hands stomach. I even grabbed a handful of... sticky noodle balls one time

Quote[/b] ]I hate those double beep two way radio sounds. Are they realistic? Seriously, it sounds horrible. I preferred the small burst of static at the end of OFP radio messages.

I like it because it reminds me of those convoy radios in those videos. Though maybe this should be an option for easily irritated people.

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]I hate those double beep two way radio sounds. Are they realistic? Seriously, it sounds horrible. I preferred the small burst of static at the end of OFP radio messages.

Radios that use crypt mechanisms do sound that way. The bleeps are carriers for the code, so receiving radio can automatically switch to corresponding decrypt code.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Thanks guys - in that case, I can put up with it.

[Stendac 0]

Radios that use crypt mechanisms do sound that way. The bleeps are carriers for the code, so receiving radio can automatically switch to corresponding decrypt code.

That's cool.  Those radios remind me of the Nextel cell phone radios.  

I'm not worried about the animation transitions since BIS is definitely smoothing it out.  

I could learn to like the character switching.  Although it does look a bit jarring.  It probably takes a few moments to situate yourself with your surroundings.

It's annoying that the video cut out just as the demonstrator was increasing the visible distance.  The video demonstrates why BIS didn't release a demo yet.  They still have a few months of hard work ahead of them.

The game really does look like OFP.  I'm getting it.

[meyamoti 0]

Indeed...and those animations..I dont think I'v seen such smooth walking animations...it looks so natural and the soldiers even move up and down alittle.

[gonk 0]

So what were the specs of the PC that was running the Demo at E3 ??

[Blake 0]

Lakes connected by small streams or rivers, now that would be something, especially if not affected by tides...

[berghoff 11]

Yea, now it just is a gaint flat sheet going up and down. Hmm I wonder if OFP:E has a "lake" on Nogova never checked really.

[Guest Ti0n3r]

Yea, now it just is a gaint flat sheet going up and down. Hmm I wonder if OFP:E has a "lake" on Nogova never checked really.

Nope, it's affected by the tide just like the sea

[Journeyman 0]

Great video... I like very much. That narrator has a bloody monotonic drawl, though. No offense, but jeez, turned the sound off almost straight away.

Yep! A salesman with that kind of drone will sell nothing! I hope BIS wasn't using hime to present the game to potential publishers...... or was he?  

Maybee it just sounded worse because of that background din!  

[Espectro (DayZ) 0]

Yea, now it just is a gaint flat sheet going up and down. Hmm I wonder if OFP:E has a "lake" on Nogova never checked really.

Nope, it's affected by the tide just like the sea

uhm... But rivers are affected by tide in real-life as well, no?