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

[Mr_Tea 0]

And with a few Patches, and one or two expansions we will have the perfect game. Not to forget the community made addons and mods.

The same way OFP\Res was the perfect game, until ArmA arrived.

In OFP 1.0 whe didn`t had the Apache, for example.

When i compare Arma 1.01 and OFP 1.0, than Arma is way better.

Arma is great. There are bugs left to fix, but think of what ArmA can be in a few month, or a year.

[EvEnLeaSe44 0]

hey guys, i'm about an inch away from completing my new pc and well i want to know what you guys think, if it will run good or not?

PC Specs-

Windows XP Pro SP2

Intel® Pentium® Core 2 Duo

2gig Ram

1 terrabyte harddrive space

Nvidia 7950 GT

[=BFP=Cheetah 0]

I suggest also taking a look in these threads:

Discussion about the perfect ArmA pc.

ArmA Mark, a thread pretty interesting for anyone who wants to know how their PC performs in ArmA.

Don't know enough myself for helping you with these hardware questions though. Have to refresh all my knowledge / update it myself as I'm going to buy myself a new system (want arma to run in (almost) full glory.

[Scrub 0]

I was in a couple of Coop's last night with Bratty, Cam51, St!ng, Karr and many others. Even with a crash on my machine, the server loosing it an hour later, and one idiot going on a TK'ing spree before being banned (or kicked, they talked about doing both, but couldn't tell as I was driving a Ural/dying at the time and it was loud), it was a wonderful experience. The VON works very well, quite responsive and clear. JIP is a Godsend, had no pauses questions or problems getting back in after the one time I dropped out. The AI was sneaky enough, getting behind our teams and attacking with a respectable aggressiveness. Might need better patrolling waypoints in the mission, but, when they found you, you knew it. The teamplay, of course, depends on who you're with. We had a good deal of people helping each other out and using organized cover. The bugs are still here, but not a huge problem. They did not detract when we got into game (sound proximity bugs were definately noticable, but not horrible). All in all a great time, only going to get better with the future patches. Congrats BIS! You did it. OFP with better interaction/capabilities/scale/beauty. Nice...

[Dallas 9]

ArmA nights! Pitch black, I love them.

[Mr_Tea 0]

hey guys, i'm about an inch away from completing my new pc and well i want to know what you guys think, if it will run good or not?

PC Specs-

Windows XP Pro SP2

Intel® Pentium® Core 2 Duo

2gig Ram

1 terrabyte harddrive space

Nvidia 7950 GT

Would run very good with 512MB videoram.

[WP33 0]

And with a few Patches, and one or two expansions we will have the perfect game. Not to forget the community made addons and mods.

The same way OFP\Res was the perfect game, until ArmA arrived.

In OFP 1.0 whe didn`t had the Apache, for example.

When i compare Arma 1.01 and OFP 1.0, than Arma is way better.

Arma is great. There are bugs left to fix, but think of what ArmA can be in a few month, or a year.

Nail, head. Exactly correct re: addons, patches and the future of the game.

The only issues I have are the mostly the same ones everyone else has, which is at least comforting knowing I'm not the only one! My observations after the first hour or two of gameplay, starting with the bad and just bothersome:

1. Speed to get on target is a pain and has gotten me killed every single time I get into a face-off with an enemy.

1a. General mouse-speed and precision issues. I've been playing with settings in-game and in my mouse set-up and have yet to find a real happy medium.

2. The usual enemy AI complaints. The game is hard and it doesn't need to be harder with sharp-shooter frontline infantry.

3. The recoil model for the rifles. It's too hard to get follow up shots on target, most notably with the M4. The drop from recoil is impossible to predict, and is too low, blowing any chance of putting a double tap into someone. If you don't hit with the first shot, you better find some cover. This will be the first thing I'm going to modify.

4. The slight delays sometimes between wanting to do something and your guy doing it is quite distracting.

5. The "load-screen" transition to the map screen and back while playing. Good way to get shot. That's probably just because the game has a lot of stuff to reload, but it's kind of irritating.

6. Not a game-play issue, but also of note is how the files are placed in the Docs folder, which is less worrisome than just a strange thing.

7. The mission editor seems a bit clunky and less intuitive compared to what I'm used to.

8. The 10-item loadout is still there, damn it. I have VBS1 and for more than a year there's been 18 mag slots open. Why couldn't they do that for Armed Assault?

The good:

1. Absolutely beautiful.

2. The models are detailed and accurate.

3. The lighting looks great.

4. The scenery is impressive.

5. Runs pretty smoothly on my machine (AMD 4000+, 2 GB RAM, 7950 GT KO, possibly soon to be AMD FX-57 and 8800 GTX) with the settings pretty high.

6. The sounds rock. Nothing like getting pelted with 5.45x39s and pissing yourself trying to get away. The general atmosphere and ambiance are well done.

7. The controls. I like the "double tap" method of doing some of the functions. Especially nice since you don't have to hunt all over the keyboard for keys.

In my opinion, the good does outweigh the bad, overall, but I'm not 100% in love with it just yet, only because the things I dislike are very noticeable and detract from gameplay. I have never really played any OFP, so I can't speak to what it may have been like in its original iteration. I've had VBS1 for the last two years, however, and since VBS2 is likely not going to be available to the public, I decided to go with Armed Assault because I loved the experience BIS/BIA put together. So far I'm generally impressed and will be a true fan once expansions, addons, patches and the tools for me to create my own content become available- it'll probably be unbeatable.

[DaSquade 0]

Quote[/b] ]8. The 10-item loadout is still there, damn it. I have VBS1 and for more than a year there's been 18 mag slots open. Why couldn't they do that for Armed Assault?

I don't have the game yet (should be here tomorrow or during the week). Must say i didn't really payed much attention to the screenshot of the weapon (ammo) inventory, so this is indeed (for VBS1 up-to-date patched users) a bit of a bummer i guess . I thought BIS/BIA learned from each others mistakes or updates. Lets hope in one of the future patches the amount of slots will be increased.

OFFTOPIC: God, i will miss Jackals (bugged after patch) medic seal...i could requipe the hole squad and still put up a 2h coop mission .

[evilnate 0]

I don't think there is a "official bug thread" so here are the bugs I found so far that I haven't been able to fix myself.

1.) The AI doesn't drive very well still. When they drive cars, or strykers for example they have a hard time going from piont A to point B offroad even if there is no obsticle in the way. This makes it very difficult for them to stay in formation.

2.) The AI doesn't fly very well. I placed a few BMPs in Parisio and had a group of 2 cobras "seek & destroy" a 100M diameter with default formation. One of the HUGE churches crashed into the chopper (stupid churches!

3.) The sound technology that is used to simulate objects blocking/muffling sound waves is too drastic/extreme. For example if I am behind a tree and there is a BMP on the other side driving 50 meteres (or less) away it goes from LOUD to very quiet to LOUD again after it moves past the tree. The same is true for other aircraft, although this seems like it should be a easy tweak for the people who know the code.

4.) AI Issue: When I am the squad leader and I tell me guys to open fire or even engage at will, they don't allways attack - even if they are the ones that notice the enemy.

5.) Not a bug, but I have to agree - I really do miss the way we were able to fly helos. MUCH funner, but oh well.

There are other bugs but I forgot them. ArmA is awesome, very difficult to go back and play coop missions with my american friends that don't have arma yet. Keep up the great work BIS.

[Guest]

Quote[/b] ]

5.  The "load-screen" transition to the map screen and back while playing.  Good way to get shot.  That's probably just because the game has a lot of stuff to reload, but it's kind of irritating.

Maybe I am missing something but I also read (cant find the link anymore though, but it was posted here I think) that it doesn't always load slow?

Sometimes when you exit the map you move in-game instantly.

Now am I wrong with this or is there a difference in exiting the map? (sounds weird I know).

I dont have the game so I cant try this myself yet.

Quote[/b] ]OFFTOPIC: God, i will miss Jackals (bugged after patch) medic seal...i could requipe the hole squad and still put up a 2h coop mission   .

Other than the Lotto this was the other thing that made us like you so very much indeed!

[Morbid Angel 0]

Well, I just played the campaign some more and I can only say it is probably among the worst single player campaigns I have ever played, to a large portion thanks to the god awful AI and scripting that is simply hilarious.

I played the side mission where you are supposed to take out an enemy officer who is in some heavily guarded hotel. Right so I approach without getting spotted and suddenly it says objective complete .. wtf? So the officer died .. and I didn't even get to see him. Then it gets even better .. as I am on my way to the extraction point, the enemy AI suddenly starts taking potshots at me from all angles. How the hell do they know where I am out of a sudden when before I passed guards without being noticed?

Ok, scrap that I thought and went to the other side mission where you are to eliminate hostile presence in some town. Me and my team of 3 other AI approach the enemy and within 5 seconds my squadmates die. Right. Then I die for no apparent reason too. Obviously was spotted again when I should not have been. Scrap that too.

So I ignore the side missions and go for the main one where you mount TOW Humvees with your squad. We approach the seek and destroy location and basically my squadmates aren't doing anything. I order them to fire on the BRDMs but nothing happens ... except both our Humvees being blown up that is. Yay! Fun fun.

Now that leaves me with one serious question for BIS - did you EVER bother playtesting your campaign? As it stands right now, it is not playable with the scripting errors, AI flaws etc what not. If anything the singleplayer is one heck of a source for frustration and nothing but a waste of time.

[WP33 0]

Well, played a bit more and as an addendum to my earlier post, a few major issues pop out.

1. The night vision sucks. Ass. Others had mentioned it and seeing it first hand it's a very obvious problem. In the dark, away from light sources, the NV acts like daytime vision does, lightening and darkening (which is annoying enough). At times it's nearly useless because it gets so dark and at others it gets too bright. No rhyme or reason to it.

2. Patch the AI, please, please, please. Unless you lower the enemy AI abilities in the profile, they will dust your ass off in a hurry. I didn't know the Russians had that many frontline Spetznaz...

3. Why can't I access any unPBOed missions in the editor? I am used to being able to alter missions on the fly, but now I can't find the damn things or they just never appear. C:\Documents and Settings\WP\My Documents\ArmA Other Profiles\WP\missions is where mine live, what gives? (maybe I'm just being stupid on that one, though... )

So far I'm split between and with this game. As I said earlier, maybe there's hope for user mades and patches.

[twisted 127]

seeing as the thread i started got closed i'll take a minute to repost my opinions on the game.

it is a much better combat simulator than OFP. IMHO in fact its much better than nearly every other game I've played.

the way weapons work is great. maybe recoil seems a bit little in some weapons but just great.

helicopter is twitchy. so is jet. old plane is fun to fly. but i think thats the controls that are fucked and not giving proper control and it's not the actual flight model which seems more real that ofp.

AI is dangerous. unfortutnately the AI seem to sometimes know where you are when they shouldn't and need equalising. Good news is my AI squad nealry always kill and attakc the enemies at the right time (and if not then a 'watch that dierction' or 'engage target' commands solves the problem)

graphics are sensational. lovely. runs pretty smooth on my AMD 4 3200+, 2GB RAM, Geforce 7800GTX great at 30+ FPS @ 1024x768 resolution. the blur and simulated 'human vision' really are immersive.

there are some sound bugs that prevent orders going through to soldiers.

Another great aspect of this game is the way the soldiers move, they feel human and not unaturally machine fast or terminator like. BIS really have taken the time to observe real soldiers and implement the movements here - and it makes the game great in a big way for me.

IMHO if BIS had to make the heli and jets as realistically responsive as possible and tone down the sometime too super AI shooting ability I'd be even more satisfied with the product than i am now.

[Digit 0]

Heyas,

Maybe someone who has Arma could give me some insight on the performance. I did a quick search and didn't find anything of use

The FAQ says:

-What are the minimum specs?

2Ghz CPU, 512MB of RAM, 128MB video card is the minimum spec.

Recommended are:

3Ghz, 1GB RAM, 256MB video card.

My specs are

3.4 Pentium 4.

1GB RAM

Ati Mobility 9800 (256Mb)

It's a Dell Inspiron Gen 1 Laptop, but maybe someone has a desktop with similar specs, and can offer some thoughts on your performance? (screenshot maybe).

Thanks for any help, like I said I didn't want to start a whole new thread for this, so sorry if it's in the wrong place.

Cheers,

Digit

====

Forum fly...

[WhiskeyBullets 0]

Well your system will not be able to run armed assault, even with the top of line cards out today it can barley crank out a constant 30 FPS.

Your in the same boat as most of us here

[frederf 0]

I don't think the night vision "sucks ass" myself. I'm pretty sure that modern NVGs have a "light balancing" feature in them that will dim the whole display given a bright surrounding and brighten the display if it gets really dark... just like real eyeballs.

Also I found that the HDR effect of seering green and pitch black when putting on and taking off the goggles was annoying.... until I realized that this is right. Staring into inky night and then putting bright glowing shit to your eyes is going to be blinding, same with the dark of night in the reverse...

and then I noticed the blinding effect happens when you go from inside-vehicle-with-NVGs-on to outside-vehicle-with-NVGs-on and I got annoyed again. Grrrr.

[Scrub 0]

AI skill tests  (sorry for the long post)

Just got off the editor.  Set up a situation on Ramadi where I was a NS Pilot in the middle of the runway with a west basic platoon at the N end.  I'd fire a few shots to get their attention and try to make a stand in the village.  After a run or two I'd step up the AI's skill level and run it again.

Just plopping a squad down will get you the lowest skill levels on all except for the first two or three units (officer and team leaders).  With this set, I had to send a hail of bullets downrange and wound a guy or two before they'd give me the time of day. (not easy at range with a snubnosed AK).  I started running to the village and they popped a decent amount shots my way until I was out of sight. I waited some time for them to follow.  A single unit came over the hill toward the point I broke contact.  Killed him with little fanfare and the others moped over like cattle to the slaughter.  No fun.

With skills at the halfway point, the group faced me the second a shot pinged on the ground before them.  Most got down, and after an unlucky soldier got winged, sent a storm of pretty well placed shots in my direction, got lightly wounded.  A few units were already moving up, and I did my run to the village.  I had to stop by some boulders to return fire at the units that were already coming over the hill at me (one unit heading in an intercept, one trailing to my rear)  I made it to the village and just got to the west walls to defend as 3 units were charging up the final rise to the village.  One was unaware and ran into my bullets.  The second stopped for a minute and shot at my position, so I moved.  In the end, the charge of the cattle was a bit more lively.  I still killed them all, though the odds were pretty good if I did the same again I'd get nailed.  Truly 50% settings for my personal skill level.

Now at maxed skill levels, the AI hides and I wait on the runway for them to return fire.  I wait for some time and the sneaky bastards that have spread out and scurried their way to a fire position open up and kill me in a shower of bullets.

*take two*

This time, I'm able to run.  The fire is concentrated and coming in heaps.  Wounded in the arm, I know I'm in trouble.  There are many units already heading to cut me off, and they try hard to pin me all the way to the village.  One stays on the hill and suppresses, several are now out of sight running the last stretch to the west wall.  These are no cattle.  I fire on the nearest, he's wounded, drops and returns fire forcing me to lean back behind the wall.  I hear a distant *thump* and change positions to another opening in the wall, the grenade lands close to where I was and I only get wounded again.

I see the wounded soldier crawling to cover and am able to nail him before he's totally hidden, and another unit not far behind.  More suppressing fire and I fall back to the next set of buildings.  Leaning out I see three more units have moved up and they drop me.  The feeling from that struggle was awesome.  I'm going to try hanging out in the 50%-75% skill level, as that seems where the AI really start to wake up, and below the supersoldier settings.

[pajama 0]

In my unintelligible opinion, just wait a bit for the DX10 cards to role out in good numbers next year with everyone jumping to Vista. If OFP and Armed Assault are the only foreseeable games you'll be playing in the next 4-5 years or at least until Game2 comes out, you'll be very happy at the current rapid price drops on the Nvidia's 7### and Ati's x1### graphic cards.

Or you can see all the current performance issues in another way around, what BIS and friends have done is "future proof" the ArmA game engine. Hey I mean OFP is not even at it's peak performance point yet, I’m still getting hits even with my '05 top of the line machine. Hardware still has a lot of catching up to do with OFP.

[buddhiraja73 0]

AI skill tests  (sorry for the long post)

Now at maxed skill levels, the AI hides and I wait on the runway for them to return fire.  I wait for some time and the sneaky bastards that have spread out and scurried their way to a fire position open up and kill me in a shower of bullets.

*take two*

Nice test Scrub. Testing the AIs at different skill levels, with the situation being same, is very interesting.

I have a question regarding the AIs at the highest skill level -- are they using cover properly while fighting, in the manner you are doing ? I had asked this question before but nobody answered.

More AI tests will be interesting reading for those of us who don't have the game yet.

[Sgt_Eversmann 1]

had a very strange situation yesterday while playing on ramahdi.

I made that little town into a fortress with DSHKs, a BMP, Soldiers, RPG Soldiers, AA Soldiers and Machingunners.

US Soldiers had to seize the town, there we're special forces squads, Strykers, Humvees and for air support 2 Blackhawks.

ok let's roll:

I started as the driver of the humvee, I approached the city from the north street from water, the other units from east, south and west.

My leader who was the TOW Gunner of my Humvee, spoted the BMP and took it out. Then the humvee got hit by mg bullets, my leader and I jumped out of it and ran for cover. The 2nd Humvee was hit by an RPG and both Personal Died.

Then a Blackhawk was shot down and went down like in the Movie Blackhawkdown (Awesome to see but poor Soldiers in it). Some AIs from the Blackhawk survieved the crash. The blackhawk was northeast down of the town. Then a Stryker drove directly on the crossroad stopped. I made my self around the town to the stryker and suddenly the stryker was shot at...

but not from an AK, it was one of the Crew Members from the downed Blackhawk shooting 2 magazines at the stryker...

I looked and saw that between the stryker and him there was a DSHK. So he shot at it and I think he wanted to destroy it but the DSHK Gunner was already the so the Stryker was hit.

and another thing I noticed:

the this setunitpos "up"; command doesn't work any more...

the units still went prone when enemys are incoming.

Evers

[chipper 0]

My system specs

AMD Athlon 3000+ XP

1GB DDR RAM

External USB Creative 24-bit Soundcard

XFX GeForce 7800GS 256mb (AGP Card)

My settings:

1280x1024

1200m viewdistance

Terrian Detail: Low

Object Detail: Normal

Texture Detail: Low

Shading Detail: Normal

Post processing: Low

AF: Set to 16x from Nvidia control panel

AA: Disabled (don't need it at 1280x1024)

Shadows: High

Blood: High

Sound

EAX: On

Hardware Accelration: Off

---

I must say even though I can't run ArmA at higher detail settings like I was expecting to it still looks really great especially at 1280x1024 resolution and higher. With an average of about 20 FPS which is fine for me.

Forcing my AF to 16x makes the game look really great too without a huge FPS hit.

But for me the setting that makes the biggest FPS hit is texture detail. If I bump mine up to normal it becomes unplayable, but that really doesn't matter because I can hardly notice the difference.

Also post processing when set to high can look really cool but FPS will drop considerably.

Shadows when turned off can cause a huge FPS gain but I really want to play with shadows to keep It realistic.

If you are running at resolutions below 1280x1024 you'll notice the jaggies more and setting AA to 2x/low can fix them without to much of a FPS hit.

Shading detail at very low makes the terrian/water textures look smooth and flat instead of rough bumpy, I recommend to keep it at least at low setting.

Terrian detail doesn't really do anything at all IMO it's best kept at low/very low because I haven't seen the slightest change in the terrian unless I set it to very high and I might see a little bump pop out of the ground with a minor FPS hit.

Object Detail I set at normal because at low/very low to many objects disapeer at a distance normal is good cause it's not to laggy and I still see most objects in the distance.

Blood doesn't make a difference in FPS so I keep it on High.

For sound settings it's best to leave EAX on by itself or have both off. Both on or just hardware accelertion causes sound glitches and bad sound quality.

I'll comment on the gameplay another time....

[Digit 0]

Ok thanks very much for the reply about the performance. That's very nice to know. My copy will arrive shortly and I am holding off buying a new PC until Jan/Feb when I get back from my Christmas hols in the UK.

This is pretty much THE game I am waiting for, and it would really rain on my parade if I couldn't actually play it when it arrived hehe. Also thanks to the poster about the AI tests, that was a very interesting read.

Cheers!

Digit

====

Forum fly...

[Sgt_Eversmann 1]

my system:

2400+ AMD

1GB DDR RAM

Sapphire X800 GTO

nForce 2 Mainboard

Settings:

750m Viewdistance

Shadows, AA, AF -> OFF

Post Processing -> LOW

Terrain, Texture, Object, Shading -> Normal

Blood -> High

1024x768 32bit

It's not the yellow of the egg but it runs ok...

could be better thogh.

As soon as there are big battles, or much scripts running, like in the begining of the campaign it's unplayable.

I just do sightseeing on Sahrani an do Battles on Ramahdi.

Gotta play around more with the settings.

[ZIKAN 0]

Just got the german version this morning, I played about with it for a few hours. Had a quick blast online in a coop.

I must say i am very pleased so far (bugs excused).

It is not a bad as some people would make it out to be. For sure I havent investigated enough yet, but I am enjoying what I have seen in a limited amount of time.

my pc specs:

2800 athlon

1gb ram

GF6600gt

My in game default resoloution was 800x600, but I have upped it to 1024x768.

Regards the advanced settings everything is set to normal apart from:

Postprocess- low

Anisotropic Filtering- low

Antialiasing- low

Blood- high

visibility is currently @ 1200

With these settings it seems to be very stable. I will be tinkering about to see if i can improve the overall quality.

[divriest 0]

Hi guys,

I've got an intel 4 @ 3,0 Mhz, 1,5 Gig and an ancient Radeon 9600 video card.

Am I in trouble?

Thanks for the replies,

rob