First ARMA impressions

[charliereddog 9]

But that has been discounted above mate. I would agree, but if it was wind, ALL shots would be pushed, not just the close ones. In fact, the effect would multiply the further away the target was, not the nearer.

[Ian Malcolm 0]

Theres a bug where when u come out of the water , u have no weapon lol.

It's not bug. It's a feature. After more then 1 minute of swimming (didn't measure that), you'll drop the weapons because they are too heavy to swim with. Only handgun will stay with you

[Sith 0]

*  Theres about half the vehicles that there used to be in vanilla OPF, theres not even a eastern side plane. :P

Are more vehicles being saved for a "special edition"? Any news on porting OPF custom models into ARMA?

Everybody gather up for a head count:

OFP 1.0     -  ArmA

Jeep         -  HMMWV

.....          -  HMMWV M2

.....          -  HMMWV Mk19

.....          -  HMMWV TOW

UAZ          -  UAZ

.....          -  UAZ DShK

.....          -  UAZ AGS-30

UAZ Res    -  Landrover

.....          -  Landrover M2

5t Truck    -  5t Truck

5t Truck Open   -  5t Truck Open

.....          -  5t Truck M2

Ural          -  Ural

.....          -  Ural Open

V3S Res    -  5t Truck

.....          -  Stryker ICV M2

.....          -  Stryker ICV Mk19

.....          -  Stryker ATGM TOW

BMP-1       -  BMP-2

.....          -  BRDM-2

.....          -  BRDM-2 ATGM

M113        -  M113

.....          -  M163

ZSU-23     -  ZSU-23

M1A1        -  M1A1

M60A3       -  .....

T80           -  .....

T72           -  T72

UH-60       -  UH-60

.....          -  UH-60 GAU-17

Mi17         -  Mi17

.....          -  MH-6

AH-1F       -  AH-1Z

Mi24         -  Ka50

A10          -  AV-8B

.....          -  AH-6

PBR MkII    -  RHIB

.....          -  CRRC

Boat         -  PBX

M2 Machinegun   -  M2 Machinegun

M2 MachinegunE  -  DShKM

.....          -  M119

.....          -  D30

And that's not even counting civilian vehicles

[jaffo 0]

Mate of mine brought back a copy from a business trip so I borrowed it yesterday to have a play for a couple of hours... wish I hadn't!

Incredibly disappointed is all I can say; OFP's gameplay appears to have been sacrificed for eye candy and you'll need a Cray to see that properly!. It's like they stripped the enjoyable stuff out of OFP, left all the cr@p in, added some more and slapped a coat of DX9 on it.

Player movement feels sluggish and delayed, especially when trying to aim. The helo control is too awful to mention. There are lots of pointless fiddly controls to bind keys to when a much simpler modifier system would have been far better (like most mods use). The UI is terrible, making it a chore to change binds and slow to alter visual settings. The way sound is affected by trees etc is also bizarre but I didn't have the game long enough to test that further.

Frame rate is all over the place (AMD 64 3200, 1GB RAM, 256MB 7600GT), from acceptable at a place like the airport to unplayable in heavily built up areas and forests, even on mediocre settings. The grass, which I had said from the start was a bad idea, doesn't appear to be switchable and it provides no cover from distance so is totally useless and just seems to be another burden on the frame rate.

Having had a brief play of the game, I just wish BIS had stuck with the original intent of taking the improvements and tweaks from OFP:E and adding them to OFP to make a nice budget interim game before Game 2. Imo, they've tried to do to much and failed as a result.

If there is one single piece of advice I would give to my fellow players, it's wait to try a demo before buying this. Unless there is a major patch before the 505 release, it won't be on my shopping list come February.

PS. There is one thing in ArmA that is an improvement over OFP and that is the ability to bind the rudder to the keyboard!  

[Pimmelorus 0]

Quote[/b] ]Player movement feels sluggish and delayed, especially when trying to aim.

I had the same opinion as you before. Lowering the graphical settings removed this. Just don't stress your comp to the limit.

[colt 0]

When people talk about the controls and player movement being sluggish; Is this because of player momentum has been implemented or is it because of input delay or something else?

If it's momentum, I think it's just a case of becoming used to it and taking it into account when you perform an action. If that's the case it's fine by me.

If it's input delay or something is screwed then it sounds a bit ropey to me.

:Q:

What happens if you sprint and immediately hit the walk backwards key?

Is the change in direction immediate or does your character take a couple of steps to slow down come to a complete halt before walking backwards?

[Daniel 0]

Jaffo

Don't get that last bit, you mean other than OFP's default "X" and "C" keys that controlled rudders?

I've got mixed feelings over the sluggish movements. It's a huge issue to debate, and momentum would have to be extremely skillfuly implemented to get away with it.

[DodgyGeeza 0]

Mate of mine brought back a copy from a business trip so I borrowed it yesterday to have a play for a couple of hours... wish I hadn't!

Incredibly disappointed is all I can say; OFP's gameplay appears to have been sacrificed for eye candy and you'll need a Cray to see that properly!. It's like they stripped the enjoyable stuff out of OFP, left all the cr@p in, added some more and slapped a coat of DX9 on it.

Player movement feels sluggish and delayed, especially when trying to aim. The helo control is too awful to mention. There are lots of pointless fiddly controls to bind keys to when a much simpler modifier system would have been far better (like most mods use). The UI is terrible, making it a chore to change binds and slow to alter visual settings. The way sound is affected by trees etc is also bizarre but I didn't have the game long enough to test that further.

Frame rate is all over the place (AMD 64 3200, 1GB RAM, 256MB 7600GT), from acceptable at a place like the airport to unplayable in heavily built up areas and forests, even on mediocre settings. The grass, which I had said from the start was a bad idea, doesn't appear to be switchable and it provides no cover from distance so is totally useless and just seems to be another burden on the frame rate.

Having had a brief play of the game, I just wish BIS had stuck with the original intent of taking the improvements and tweaks from OFP:E and adding them to OFP to make a nice budget interim game before Game 2. Imo, they've tried to do to much and failed as a result.

If there is one single piece of advice I would give to my fellow players, it's wait to try a demo before buying this. Unless there is a major patch before the 505 release, it won't be on my shopping list come February.

PS. There is one thing in ArmA that is an improvement over OFP and that is the ability to bind the rudder to the keyboard!  

Well put, agree on every level.

Forgot to mention that the forest areas are near unplayble and more of a pain in the arse to play.

[dreday 1]

To whoever it was talking about zeroing weapons, i agree with the points made regarding tank sights, but under no circumstances (unless we've been given total control of both attitude controls on the scopes to zero them in ourselves) should a rifle bullet ever go left or right of the target. Sure, it may drop short or over shoot, which is why the focus is there on the M21 as you say.

Wind.

This could also be the cased by standing (laying) on the surface that is not perfectly flat (a slope).  Then again, I don't have a game myself, so for all I know it might very well be a bug...

Peace,

DreDay

[Goldenwings2002 0]

You'll just have to face that it's time to build a new computer. Stop trying to get by with the old stuff and buy some new.

[jaffo 0]

Daniel @ Nov. 24 2006,16:18)]Don't get that last bit, you mean other than OFP's default "X" and "C" keys that controlled rudders?

LOL, I'd never noticed that. I think I must have always had a contradictory bind cos I could never get it working right! Thanks for putting me straight Dan  

[Ian Malcolm 0]

Forgot to mention that the forest areas are near unplayble and more of a pain in the arse to play.

That's strange. For me are the forests way faster than cities

It looks like it acts way different on different configurations.

[DodgyGeeza 0]

I think its something to do with everything in the forest being given a shadow.

[Daniel 0]

Daniel @ Nov. 24 2006,16:18)]Don't get that last bit, you mean other than OFP's default "X" and "C" keys that controlled rudders?

LOL, I'd never noticed that. I think I must have always had a contradictory bind cos I could never get it working right! Thanks for putting me straight Dan  

Ah, no probs.  

Quote[/b] ]It looks like it acts way different on different configurations.

This is all pretty confusing for someone that's trying to think of a machine to buy before Christmas.

[GabKa73 0]

We all will just have to face that it is no different with ArmA than it was wit OFP. Lots of bugs and whining with the first release and a much improved, better balanced and much more playable version by the time it hits the US market. And the differences between OFP Cold War Crisis and OFP: Resistance were just overwhelming and the later was a completely different experience.

The real difference between OFP and ArmA is that there is an experienced modding community that will bring some needed improvements and addons in a much shorter time period. So maybe we can expect some tweaked addons/configs before the first official patches get released. Just wait till the german version gets out and more modders get their hands on it.

[DodgyGeeza 0]

without these "whiners" Operation Flashpoint would still be a buggy peice of crap.

[whisper 0]

I think its something to do with everything in the forest being given a shadow.

Worth a try of different "shadow" level in forest and see the FPS difference, then.

If it's like "sea" level in Lock-On, then it can give quite big results :P

EDIT : It may be a lil parameter difference in different config, like this "shadow" level, that pushes the engine to the limit. If "high" shadow uses a completely different rendering method than "medium" shadow, it could impact much than the parameter seem to imply

[leckig 0]

It's kinda depressing to see that people are accepting the fact they'll have to wait '5 years', for a game they spent 40E on, to be what they expected it to be in the first place... What's this attitude all about?

What if you ordered a plate of spaghetti in a good restaurant, but the ingredients were only added every 10 minutes? Would you sit there and happily pay for that? Even worse, would you get up, go to the kitchen and start cooking it yourself?

   

this explains why it is soooo suprasingly hard to find publishers of ArmA. They dont believe in unfinished products.

[GabKa73 0]

without these "whiners" Operation Flashpoint would still be a buggy peice of crap.

You don't necessarily need to whine to report bugs.

[Shashman 0]

Well, I'm very disappointed, reading all these negative reviews...

I don't understand why there should be so many stupid bugs in ArmA, if we have such an experienced modding community.

We have these forums, the community has been expressing their wants and wishes for ArmA every since news first came out about the developement of the game. BIS can see what people have been modding, which mods have been most succesful, what people would love to have changed, which engine limitations there are, which parts of the game work perfectly and don't need changing...

We shouldn't have to rely on the community to fix these mistakes BIS have made in ArmA, and they appear to have made loads. The modders are there to improve the game, make it more interesting, add content, but not to fix BIS' mistakes.

[Average Joe 0]

Placebo mentioned BIS have been working flatout without teabreaks for over 2years. So maybe they were so tired they missed the lil things?

[GabKa73 0]

It's kinda depressing to see that people are accepting the fact they'll have to wait '5 years', for a game they spent 40E on, to be what they expected it to be in the first place... What's this attitude all about?

What if you ordered a plate of spaghetti in a good restaurant, but the ingredients were only added every 10 minutes? Would you sit there and happily pay for that? Even worse, would you get up, go to the kitchen and start cooking it yourself?

this explains why it is soooo suprasingly hard to find publishers of ArmA. They dont believe in unfinished products.

I don't know what you expect here. I would understand your complain when you where talking about a multi-million-budget game like bf2 with a ten-times-bigger dev crew backed by a multi-billlion-publisher with a multi-million-pr-campaign.

This is a small developpement team here with no money backup from any publisher during production time. You need to give it a little more patiens.

[HitSqdhaXor 0]

Well from all this "speculation" I will call it, seems to be alot wrong with this new version of the game. It appears that the community has spoken out and said that they prefer the original OPF over the current buggy Armed Assault. Is this True?

Did Bohemia drop the ball on this one?

Also .... I am amazed at how great the English writing is coming from Czechy community. You would think that we would have an English/American version of the game already?!?!?!

Anyways ... thanks for the bug reports and complaints. I was going to order a German version of this game, but I think I will wait for the bugs to get worked out before I spend my hard earned money on a "beta".

Back to OPF with me.

[Shashman 0]

It's kinda depressing to see that people are accepting the fact they'll have to wait '5 years', for a game they spent 40E on, to be what they expected it to be in the first place... What's this attitude all about?

What if you ordered a plate of spaghetti in a good restaurant, but the ingredients were only added every 10 minutes? Would you sit there and happily pay for that? Even worse, would you get up, go to the kitchen and start cooking it yourself?

   

this explains why it is soooo suprasingly hard to find publishers of ArmA. They dont believe in unfinished products.

I don't know what you expect here. I would understand your complain when you where talking about a multi-million-budget game like bf2 with a ten-times-bigger dev crew backed by a multi-billlion-publisher with a multi-million-pr-campaign.

This is a small developpement team here with no money backup from any publisher during production time. You need to give it a little more patiens.

Not when we pay the same as we pay for something made by one of these "multi-billlion-publisher with a multi-million-pr-campaign"

[leckig 0]

It's kinda depressing to see that people are accepting the fact they'll have to wait '5 years', for a game they spent 40E on, to be what they expected it to be in the first place... What's this attitude all about?

What if you ordered a plate of spaghetti in a good restaurant, but the ingredients were only added every 10 minutes? Would you sit there and happily pay for that? Even worse, would you get up, go to the kitchen and start cooking it yourself?

   

this explains why it is soooo suprasingly hard to find publishers of ArmA. They dont believe in unfinished products.

I don't know what you expect here. I would understand your complain when you where talking about a multi-million-budget game like bf2 with a ten-times-bigger dev crew backed by a multi-billlion-publisher with a multi-million-pr-campaign.

This is a small developpement team here with no money backup from any publisher during production time. You need to give it a little more patiens.

did BIS said that? Did they say: hey, we will sell you a beta version so then we can use the $$$ to improve it? I dont think so...

The only thing they did is they decided NOT to publish the demo so people dont really know what they buying.