To the people who are playing ArmA, how is it?

[Talyn 33]

>Did it meet your expectations?

No, its same OPF just with better graphics, even have old bugs in it, i expected OPF2 not this, and speaking this is not OPF2 is BS they wont gona make OPF2 next 2-4 years for sure, so maybe i stick with BF2 after while.

I’m fairly sure BIS made it well known thatâ€ofp2†was still in the works and that ArmA was more ofp 1.5. Surely after watching all the videos you could have seen the vast similarities. And if you were expecting it to play anything like BF2, maybe this isn’t game for you…

Many of us only wanted ofp with nicer graphics and improved animations. Considering there is absolutely nothing that has come close to it since.

>How's the AI compared to OFP?

Same dump AI only thing it doing good is dies.

Maybe on an individual level the AI isn’t great but how many games can you name with better AI? And the AI can be extremely challenging, even more so with a competent mission maker.

[AWDrift 0]

F.E.A.R's A.I. was pretty good, and so was the A.I. in the old R6 games. Quake 4 had good A.I. too, but the poor levels limited it so you had to download custom maps to see what it could do.CS:S's A.I. is very impressive when on higher difficulties too.

[Caaahl 0]

F.E.A.R's A.I. was pretty good, and so was the A.I. in the old R6 games. Quake 4 had good A.I. too, but the poor levels limited it so you had to download custom maps to see what it could do.CS:S's A.I. is very impressive when on higher difficulties too.

Yeah, but these are all games with really small maps (compared to sahrani), especially F.E.A.R. and Quake 4.

Btw, yesterday i had a nice coop with a friend of mine and the AI acted just cool. ^^ First we attacked the AI Base from a little hill 1000m away. After they spotted us, they gave hard surpression fire on that hill, and even after we were 50-100 m away from that hill, they still fired with this small kind of artillery (dont know the name right now). Ws pretty cool to run away, while you have impacts on your left and right.

We managed to get back to our base to rearm. Quite naiv, we wanted to go back on that little hill to atack again but, oh surprise, there was a patrol of 5 men and a tank, checking that hill in "aware" mode. We saw it with our binoculars and were like "This smart little bastards..."

Its hard to explain (did i mention that im german? ^^ ), but i want to say, that most of the time the AI acts pretty good and increases the immersion feeling. (this sounds gay )

[evilnate 0]

Btw, yesterday i had a nice coop with a friend of mine and the AI acted just cool. ^^ First we attacked the AI Base from a little hill 1000m away. After they spotted us, they gave hard surpression fire on that hill, and even after we were 50-100 m away from that hill, they still fired with this small kind of artillery (dont know the name right now). Ws pretty cool to run away, while you have impacts on your left and right.  

We managed to get back to our base to rearm. Quite naiv, we wanted to go back on that little hill to atack again but, oh surprise, there was a patrol of 5 men and a tank, checking that hill in "aware" mode. We saw it with our binoculars and were like "This smart little bastards..."  

Its hard to explain (did i mention that im german? ^^ ), but i want to say, that most of the time the AI acts pretty good and increases the immersion feeling. (this sounds gay   )

That sounds load of fun!

Was the coop mission a default BIS mission, or a user created mission?

[Caaahl 0]

I think it was a official coop mission. Its made for up to 20 people but we attacked with just the two of us . ^^ But we attacked ca 90 min before we got picked by a sniper on a rooftop.

[CanisDEK 1]

I played OFP a lot. I completed all the campaigns about four times each, but I played multiplayer.

The fact that ARMA has join in progress is just amazing, because that was number one reason the game never took off for real.

The game rund smooth for me with everything but AA on highest setting.

The movement is a bit quirky, which was true about OFP too. I have had a break from OFP for about a year playing BF2 (Project Reality since its release). This meant that the controls of ARMA felt very quirky and it took a few hours to adjust.

The reason it feels a bit quirky is that you can't easily move a tiny bit. Your characters moves in steps. But tapping the movement keys fixes this. I like the movement after I have gotten used to it again. I like the fact that you can't spin around in a split second, aim at a guy and hit him as easily as you can in BF2. After playing the campaign for hours and completing the training I see the quirky movement as a part of the gameplay.

Helicopters are easy to control and if you use the auto hover function they are easy to land. I don't see much difference from OFP, but I have always been an infantry man, so perhaps I'm not the best to ask. The controls of the helicopters are good though and I can fly them easily with the mouse and also more easily that BF2 helis, which I hate controlling with the mouse. I haven't tried controlling the helis with my joistick and rudder pedals yet though.

The guns work great, although I can't seem to find out how to change the distance for the scope zero. The machineguns are a bit to easy to aim with when prone. It seems accurate compaired to real life, but from a gameplay perspective it's just too easy for multi player. The downside to them is you have to be prone... so I'll see how it works out in large battles.

As for servers I haven't tried playing on a server with more than 16 players which is a shame... this game is well suited for 50vs50 ... but we'll have to wait and see if such large servers are set up.

I am satisfied with ARMA, but there are bugs and performance issues for some people... plus the annoying mouse lag. But I am sure BIS will patch the game as they patched OFP.

But BIS, don't release the demo until you have corrected all the worst bugs, the performance issue and removed the mouse lag. The demo is important.

It's good that the game isn't released in the rest of europe and the US until feburary perhaps. That will mean a patched game and in turn better reviews.

[efefia 0]

F.E.A.R's A.I. was pretty good, and so was the A.I. in the old R6 games. Quake 4 had good A.I. too, but the poor levels limited it so you had to download custom maps to see what it could do.CS:S's A.I.  is very impressive when on higher difficulties too.

Yeah, but these are all games with really small maps (compared to sahrani), especially F.E.A.R. and Quake 4.

Btw, yesterday i had a nice coop with a friend of mine and the AI acted just cool. ^^ First we attacked the AI Base from a little hill 1000m away. After they spotted us, they gave hard surpression fire on that hill, and even after we were 50-100 m away from that hill, they still fired with this small kind of artillery (dont know the name right now). Ws pretty cool to run away, while you have impacts on your left and right.  

We managed to get back to our base to rearm. Quite naiv, we wanted to go back on that little hill to atack again but, oh surprise, there was a patrol of 5 men and a tank, checking that hill in "aware" mode. We saw it with our binoculars and were like "This smart little bastards..."  

Its hard to explain (did i mention that im german? ^^ ), but i want to say, that most of the time the AI acts pretty good and increases the immersion feeling. (this sounds gay   )

That sounds absolutley great. Anyone have any other examples of the AI in action like this, I'm sure we'd all love to hear about it.

Damn I can't wait to get my mitts on this game.

[Ori_b 0]

Some guys here mention FEAR AI as being good. FEAR AI is scripted and has a preatty shity dynamic behavior, all the pushing of chests and then crawling underneath are scripted and have no sence in doing so (seeing a guy in front of u pushing a chest and then crawl slowly to attack is rediculous).

but the worst thing is that they are limited to the areas where they spawn. Try to move back and they wont follow you, they will keep searching the same room again and again.

A far better example is FARCRY, the pathfinding and environment awarness of the AI there are amazing.

[frisk 0]

Arma reminds me allot of bf2 dont know if they used the bf2 engine or not but that seems to be the case

i played it today movement is a bit like in BF2 if you turn left for example then your view is turned first and your body reacts like a split second later

i played ofp and ofp resistance from the day it was out and i was waiting for 5 years now for the sequal

i can't say the game isn't good because i enjoyed playing it but for me it doesn't have what OFP and RES had and those 2 versions are over 4 years old can imagine you can make a much better game with new technics

when i finnaly got the game i was extreeemly happy and eager to start playing but now i'm a bit disapointed

[Peanut 0]

Arma reminds me allot of bf2 dont know if they used the bf2 engine or not but that seems to be the case

I can assure you they did not use the BF2 engine

Anyways

I think ArmA is great. I just set myself a mission of SLA troops against Americans and it's fun as hell. 3 squads of soldiers each site, SLA with UAZ MG and BRDM-2, BLUFOR with a Stryker and a Hummer M2 and a tank squad on each side all charging at each other. That's all on open field with some rocks. So you better run for the rocks. The sound and battle atmosphere are simply awesome.

[evilnate 0]

I get to answer my own question and give my own feedback!

AMD 64 4000

ATI x1900xtx 512

2GB DDR PC3200

2X 72G WD Raptors (10k rpm)

Audigy 2

Win XP SP2

Settings:

View Distance = 1200

Terrain Detail = High

Object Detail = High

Texture Detail = High

Shade Detail = Very High

Post Process Effects = Low

AF = Very High

Shadow Detail = Disabled

AA = High

Resolution = 1680X1050

Average FPS in dense forest = 37-45

Average FPS in dense city with combat = 25 - 35

Overall opinion of the game is that I absolutely love it!!! There are some bugs but some are minor and I will post a list on a bug list if I can't find a solution on my end.

[Julian 0]

I downloaded Arma last night took me an hour which wasn't to bad, at first I couldn't get it to start but the downloaded version you want to be online to activate your license.  I got the germ to english patcher from sickboy, which works!!!

 After configuring my controls as best as I could to how I had them in OFP, I have to say there is room for improvement, I really didn't care for the menu to much, they instead of putting the controls in the action menu like they were in OFP they make you add new bottons to press.  Like the others are saying here the movemnet is kinda of quriky, not simple and solid like OFP.

  Flying is a challenge, of course I havent exactly figured them out to well yet according to how I want them.

the shooting sounds from the m16's and the guns alike I have to say don't sound relistic enough, the grenade explosions suck,  as with the rockets and missiles they are missing the ecp,wgl, and ffur type of explosion, and lingering smoke which i like.

Half the time I can't see the enemy, unti I get shot.

Well thats the sucky part of ARMA, now for what I did like:

The graphics are breathtaking, I really enjoy the lighting effect in the game.  The commanding of the soldiers if you are squad leader is the same as in OFP, and if you hit space bar there is another menu that comes up, so that was great, I know the menu pretty well so I got around easily with that.

The animations of the soldiers are pretty good a lot better, the soldiers response, or I should say the radio sounds better.

The Landscape is Unbelievablly realistic, no lag from it, I went for a dive up the coastline on the island and the veiw was great!!!!, much better, the game just looks ausome no matter what time of day it is unlike in OFP, in OFP you would have day that were breathtaking if the sun was shining just the right way, all depends.  But arma is like it all the time!!

After downloading the game an playing it I've been going to all the arma website, and I wonder waht is all the US players waitng for. I personally felt like I should have bought the Disc version instead of downloading because of the little loading every once in a while but I can still burn it.

Overall Like OFP its moddable, and can be upgraded, so Its worth the purchase, why wait for the english version when you can get it patched by sickboy's patcher it works great!!

thats all. hahaaa I got ARMA

     just kidding good luck to you

[Mora2 0]

I played OFP a lot. I completed all the campaigns about four times each, but I played multiplayer.

The fact that ARMA has join in progress is just amazing, because that was number one reason the game never took off for real.

The game rund smooth for me with everything but AA on highest setting.

The movement is a bit quirky, which was true about OFP too. I have had a break from OFP for about a year playing BF2 (Project Reality since its release). This meant that the controls of ARMA felt very quirky and it took a few hours to adjust.

The reason it feels a bit quirky is that you can't easily move a tiny bit. Your characters moves in steps. But tapping the movement keys fixes this. I like the movement after I have gotten used to it again. I like the fact that you can't spin around in a split second, aim at a guy and hit him as easily as you can in BF2. After playing the campaign for hours and completing the training I see the quirky movement as a part of the gameplay.

What ya mean by tapping the movement keys??

[twisted 128]

I bought ArmA online yesterday. it is absolutely brilliant. far better than anything i played before.

it is hard. and that is good. it is supposed to be a combat simulation - and gets closer to this than any other game.

even the heli's seem better to me (although many won't agree)

thing i like best is the way the characters move. no robot instant moves but rather feels like a infantry man. great absolutely.

i find recoils a bit low, especially for m249 and PKM. and for a few assualt rifles.

the graphics are phenomenal and it plays surprisingly well on my athlon 64 3200+ and geforec 7800GTC and 2GB RAM. at 1024x768. which is good enough.

good one BIS.

[xnodunitx 0]

Arma reminds me allot of bf2 dont know if they used the bf2 engine or not but that seems to be the case

i played it today movement is a bit like in BF2 if you turn left for example then your view is turned first and your body reacts like a split second later

i played ofp and ofp resistance from the day it was out and i was waiting for 5 years now for the sequal

i can't say the game isn't good because i enjoyed playing it but for me it doesn't have what OFP and RES had and those 2 versions are over 4 years old can imagine you can make a much better game with new technics

when i finnaly got the game i was extreeemly happy and eager to start playing but now i'm a bit disapointed

Your incorrect in your information,in bf2 when your character moves,their entire body moves,this means weapon,view,all that. And unless you have AA set to have crosshairs centered,then you should experience it like OFP.

[Timblesink 0]

Arma reminds me allot of bf2 dont know if they used the bf2 engine or not but that seems to be the case

i played it today movement is a bit like in BF2 if you turn left for example then your view is turned first and your body reacts like a split second later

i played ofp and ofp resistance from the day it was out and i was waiting for 5 years now for the sequal

i can't say the game isn't good because i enjoyed playing it but for me it doesn't have what OFP and RES had and those 2 versions are over 4 years old can imagine you can make a much better game with new technics

when i finnaly got the game i was extreeemly happy and eager to start playing but now i'm a bit disapointed

Your incorrect in your information,in bf2 when your character moves,their entire body moves,this means weapon,view,all that. And unless you have AA set to have crosshairs centered,then you should experience it like OFP.

Actually, in BF2, when you turn quickly, from the first person view it will stay centered and you won't notice anything (unless you really pay attention, where you'll notice it actually stops for a second to let the rest of the character's body catch up), but looking at someone turn, you'll notice the top part of their body turns before their legs do.

[Antichrist 0]

ArmA will be fun at version 1.46 or something....

[frederf 0]

Does anyone else feel terribly alone playing the single player campaign? Too many YOU vs T72x300 missions. It's Medal of Honor all over again. Apperantly infantry were so easy that they had to throw 50 BMPs at you at a time to make it interesting. Although I think the enemy infantry is hard!

The defensive line repulsing the attack mission actually felt like a team effort. Kudos.

The 'speshul ops' missions are kinda rediculous. You with a non-silenced weapon with just 2 clips and barely enough AT to kill the 10 tanks you need to and alone go up against 100 troops and 100 tanks in some mission no USMC soldier would ever do.

A lot of the single/training missions are kinda broken. I could get a 10 minute repeating speech out of the rifle range instructor while I was hands off the controls. In the AH-1Z training mission the gunner is entirely busted. Often he'll wait a couple minutes before acknowleging weapon switch or fires. You could easily queue up the entire rack of hellfires to be fired, count to ONE HUNDRED, then all of a sudden he decides to shoot them all. The lockable practice tanks flickered in and out of being lockable. You'd get an order to hellfire a tank but can't lock on to him at all.

[buddhiraja73 0]

Maybe on an individual level the AI isn’t great but how many games can you name with better AI?  And the AI can be extremely challenging, even more so with a competent mission maker.

Even though AIs in general have improved significantly in the last 3 years, it is true that the AI I have seen, in any and every game, does silly things. I don't mind that in a 2006 AI. BUT one thing that the 2006 AI does well is UTILIZE COVER REASONABLY WELL while fighting. From the videos that I have watched so far, this is the area that looks suspect in ArmA. Players who have played ArmA -- are you happy with the way the ArmA AIs utilize cover ?

The group strategies and tactics in the ArmA AI look promising. If they can utilize cover better and more OBJECTIVELY, they will look much more realistic.

[Sdstorage 0]

Bought the download version two nights ago and I think I am hooked all over again. To be sure, ArmA is far from perfect. There are bugs with sounds not playing, there are bugs with textures not loading properly, there are bugs with AI clipping through vehicles. So far, none of these have got me to stop playing (except one issue I will address below).

The game feels different than Flashpoint. I am not quite sure what it is. The mechanics are very similar. The vehicle interaction is almost identical. The graphics are better in every regard even on low-end systems. So what is it that I found so different?

Aiming is a lot harder. Engaging over distance is a lot harder. All the rifles seem to be zeroed to a particular range (for example, I would guess the M4A1 Aimpoint is set for 100m - 200m) and it is difficult to hit targets beyond that. The AI shoot a lot more, too, I notice. It makes for longer fire fights, which is nice. I had a lot of troube hitting targets at 500m with the M24. I think it is likely an issue of practice.

The battles feel large. The sounds (if they are working for you) are immersive. The tank shell explosions, bullet cracks, snaps and ricochets with near constant grenades (boy do the AI LOVE to use them this time 'round! make for a very chaotic battlefield. There are dozens and doezens of units running everywhere in some of these missions.

The land vehicles are, for the most part, unchanged. Though cars and trucks seems very sensitive to turning. I saw almost no difference with tanks (though they may have adjusted the M1A1 armor values to be more in-line with T72 balance purposes, I am not sure). The introduction of the commander machine gun is a welcome addition.

Air vehicles are another matter. I found them rather difficult to control. This may be more realistic, I cannot say. I found the original OFP air vehicles very difficult at first. It is certainly possible I will get the hang of these new ArmA ones with time. I do wish they would bring back the cursor when flying tho, it was very useful for targeting purposes.

Multiplay is a great joy all-around. I tried joining other peoples' games, hosting my own, joining in progress, coop, flag fight, and deathmath. I had low pings, no crashes, no disconnects and no significant problems. I did notice that in one game I could not see my tank gunner (I was the driver) fire his shells, but that is cosmetic. A great relief from the original OFP online play days when crashes and game breaking bugs were all too common.

Now for the only issue that has forced me to quit out of a game and restart. I do not know if this is ArmA related or simply due to my system specs. Occasionally and more likely to happen while in cities, I would get complete polygon/texture corruption rendering play impossible. It may have been heat related, but I do not think so (3 case fans). After exiting and restarting the problem would usually be gone. I am still tweaking my settings, trying to find a good middle ground.

I've been playing at 1024x768 with most settings on Low except for Blood on High with AF and AA off.

My system:

P4 3.ghz

1 gig ram

ATI 9700 pro

SB Audigy 2

Overall, I am very glad I got the download. ArmA isn't perfect, but it is only going to get better.

[Stag 0]

Never mind.

[frederf 0]

Quote[/b] ]Aiming is a lot harder. Engaging over distance is a lot harder. All the rifles seem to be zeroed to a particular range (for example, I would guess the M4A1 Aimpoint is set for 100m - 200m) and it is difficult to hit targets beyond that. The AI shoot a lot more, too, I notice. It makes for longer fire fights, which is nice. I had a lot of troube hitting targets at 500m with the M24. I think it is likely an issue of practice.

I agree about the aiming. It takes a looong time to aquire a target. I seem to be wanting more speed over long traverses of my gun but much finer control over getting the crosshairs lined up just perfect (grrr, shooting 2 m in front of someone @ 200m, then up a "notch" and 2m beyond.. grr!

This isn't a strict complaint because I'm glad it takes longer to acquire and fire on targets with a rifle. In OFP it was too fast (compared to RL, as is my understanding) but boy is it frustrating to lose gunfights to AI because they are turning their sights faster than you! And I'm glad about 400m M16 engagements being harder (vs OFP).

They say the AI uses "surpressive fire" and I have yet to see it. They shoot lots of bullets but only when they think they can hit me. They never fire in my general direction.

[mattxr 9]

All tht i can say about ArmA is im never going to back to OFP!

[sickboy 13]

All tht i can say about ArmA is im never going to back to OFP!  

AWWWW - YEAHHHH! You and me can talk!    

Give this man a medal  

Can't wait for SWAF missions

[stigern 0]

Arma is really nice, I can just dream away and drive trough the landscape