A campaign reshuffle..

[quicksand 0]

I`ve been reading lately that BIS is planning to include major changes in the 505 release and the framework for addons are already in Armed Assault as unfinished models etc.

I think that one of the most important aspect to make Armed Assault a belivable game is a new campaign.After playing the first two missions,I was dumbfounded.I found myself refusing to play further realising that the campaign was outclasses in every single aspect by a user made campaign for Operation Flashpoint:Retalliation,not to mention how a pale unworthy shadow it is compared to Cold War Crisis,Resistance and even Red Hammer(?!?!?!

There is absolutley no character development,no tense atmosphere,no intriguing plot in the Armed Assault campaign,it fails in every aspect including in highlighting what the game is capable of.

They once had the idea of telling the campaign as a story from the soldiers perspective.It sounds immensly better then what they actually did to it,proving further that it was a rushed and unpolished.

My point is,a weak campaign hurts BIS a lot more then the lack of a fighter plane or a DTM bike.In contrast most people that buy the game want to jump into the singleplayer expecting a compelling experience.

Do you think BIS should rework the campaign and raise it to a worthy status for 505 release or the future USA release or leave it at what it is?

[MehMan 0]

Rework definatley. If I had more time and a voice guy I'd actually try to outmake the current campaign.

[NeMeSiS 11]

Do you think BIS should rework the campaign and raise it to a worthy status for 505 release or the future USA release or leave it at what it is?

Yes, but we wont probably get that in the 505 release, unless they can work really, REALLY fast, but working that fast leads to bugs, which leads to more complaints, which etc etc..

I hope we get a better campaign

(something with the atmosphere of the first few CWC missions, oh and characters, the news flashes gave a nice twist, especially at the end but there needs to be more of a background story)

in a patch, but i dont think we will get that.

otherwise we need some retaliation-level user made campaigns that show what ArmA really can do, although by that time we already lost alot of (potential) players.

(The only reason im still playing it is the mission editor, my own missions and some user made ones, i barely play MP until i can find a decent COOP server with playable missions. If you are not a person who likes to look for user made content then it would be understandable when that person is dissapointed.)

IMO the mission we got with the game dont show anything of the ArmA potential, they all seem to be made within 20 minutes...

EDIT: Basically: I love the game, i hate the (official) missions.

[Jack-UK 0]

Dont have ArmA yet but i've not read a single positive comment about the campaign :P

I think its almost impossible that BIS will release a new campaign for the 505 release.. they have like 16/17 days till its on the shelves... and surely it would be in the hands of the publisher by now(?)

They're probably taking a break now before the patch.. then when its released.. they'll start working on the next one (including fixing any issues which should arise in the 505 patch)

But i'd LOVE a new *decent* campaign of the quality of CWC/RES. But Im sure it wont be at the very top of the priority list.

1) Bug fixes

2) Hardware performance tweaking

3) Multiplayer/netcode tweaking

4) Extra content

^^^^ Thats what i think

[Big Dawg KS 6]

There is absolutley no character development,no tense atmosphere,no intriguing plot in the Armed Assault campaign,it fails in every aspect including in highlighting what the game is capable of.

Well, I'm not sure how good/bad the campaign is, but I recall BIS saying something about not developing individual characters because they wanted the player to feel rather insignificant in the midst of a larger operation that they had no control over, and they didn't want there to be any heroes or things like that, so as to better portray the perspective of a real soldier in an actual conflict. It seems unique, and definately realistic, but of course like you said it doesn't make for a very interesting story. They did say they wanted to portray the brutal reality of war. War can be boring I guess and sometimes just a pain in the ass.

I don't disagree with their decision of that's the case, but I'm certainly not against an exciting, intriguing story along the lines of CWC and Resistance... even though I'm usually too busy spending all my time in the mission editor anyway.

[MehMan 0]

Yeah, but with the CwC campaign that was quite the truth, at least for me, you were nothing. But here it's just.....meh. In CwC you cared if your team mates died or lived, at least me, heh, those little cutscenes where they are just talking or doing nothing, that brought a nice touch, showing that war isn't just shooting and killing. In most cases war is 95% boredom and 5% of pure fear. At least that's what I have heard many times. Might be very wrong, probably am.

[Hostilian 11]

They didnt want to develop any individual character, yet 'William Porter' has been blogging for how long?

Seems to me that its a lot easier not to do a cohesive campaign.

#C

[znashin 0]

I haven't played the campaign yet but I'm sure it could be worse. Does anyone remember the Soldner "campaign" Now that was bad.

[Easy_tiger 0]

I really hope that a revamped campaign is in the process. I enjoyed the ofp, red hammer and resistance campaigns immensely (with resistance being my favourite due to great featues like scavenging for weapons etc..).

From what i have read i am a bit concerned that the ARMA campaign is going to be a bit of a let down. I really do hope that i am proved wrong when the 505 release is out there!

[avi13 0]

ArmA current campaign is a disaster, it will not attract new players to the game..the only [i repeat, only] reason i played it from the start to the end [with the use of "cheats" to end missions that refused to end] is because i did not believe BIS would make such a crappy campaign and expecting every moment to turn the tides around which sadly did not happen.

On the other hand, i took a day to learn the bascis of mission editing in ArmA, made a simple mission of helicopters dropping troopers in a town, killing the local guard and killing more reinforcement.

That mission in my opinion, altho its extremely simplistic beats every single mission in the BIS campaign, and it shows ArmA alot better than the campaign and gives you an idea what ArmA is capable.

Missions like blowing up a bridge solo and taking out 4 tanks really doesnt do justice to this game, and certainly not when its the third mission in the game!

What makes it worst near the end you can "team-switch", meaning the 'fear' of death that existed in OFP is no longer there..I would occasionaly "give up" on a certain squad because its to far away from the objective and switch team to one closer and end the mission quicker.

Really hoping for a patch that will have a decent campaign in it.

[NoRailgunner 0]

+ Campaign/Single Player will be fixed too(some triggers and bugs).

+ Teamswitch is a little "feature" to play missions as another soldier or as an teamleader.

Markus Kurzawa says, “It is unfortunate that the German, Czech and Polish versions were released so earlyâ€. (read this AAZ meet BIS)

[NeMeSiS 11]

+ Campaign/Single Player will be fixed too(some triggers and bugs).

+ Teamswitch is a little "feature" to play missions as another soldier or as an teamleader.

Markus Kurzawa says, “It is unfortunate that the German, Czech and Polish versions were released so earlyâ€. (read this AAZ meet BIS)

Well bugs arent the biggest problems IMO, its just the campaign itself..

[Luciano 0]

Quote[/b] ]I haven't played the campaign yet but I'm sure it could be worse. Does anyone remember the Soldner "campaign"

And anybody remembers what happened to Soldner? Oh, thats right, it pretty much died out aka failure.

Quicksand I don't think you understand how marketing works. What will BIS get from making a better campaign?

The only way they will make one is if they sell it as an expation.

[NoRailgunner 0]

@ofpforum

Bugs arent the biggest problems in games/software ...whatever

...you forgot the /ironic /tags

[evilnate 0]

I'm pretty darn sure that BIS is focusing on fixing problems and making the game run better.

I would like to see someone (or a team) make a campaign that tops CWC or any other campaign once the bugs are squashed.

Remember, BIS has a relativly small staff when compared with other devs. Let's see how fast we can make a better campaign.

[johnnyboy 3744]

Love the game, hate the campaign.

Its a shame, because only the hardcore ofp fans (like me) will stick with it because of the editor, mods, and user made missions. I've been developing my own mission with voice dialogs, dynamic objectives dependent on character interactions, etc. I've probably have over 100 hours in it of developing and playtesting, and am loving it. But I haven't finished the campaign because it is so weak.

So ARMA is great for me, but not for most of my friends who want the game to be fun out of the box (i.e., not hardcore game geeks willing to hunt for user made missions or make their own). This will hurt ARMA sales.

Let's hope that they make a great campaign for a future expansion pack.

[Nephris 0]

Quote[/b] ]Remember, BIS has a relativly small staff when compared with other devs. Let's see how fast we can make a better campaign.

That i the point the campaign lost quality .... a mission normally takes a mapper about 2-3 weeks (idea/story/scripting ,well BIS didnt here really/assembling/BETATESTING!!!.

So that means a Campaign of about 20 missions will take a mapper (if he works almost alone) about one year .....

Probably .... and just Probalbly the BIS misison designers have not had the time (we know the reason why).

So a quality user made campaign will take its time .... quality not quantity is the point of sight!

So i don´t expect a real good (mini)campaign (don´t forget sounds/voices) before summer 07 (don´t mind how many mission are involved)

[b_ringer25 0]

so 505 comes out in like? Februrary 13?

[Rebel Man 431]

so 505 comes out in like? Februrary 13?

nahh, they say Februrary 16.

[b_ringer25 0]

so 505 comes out in like? Februrary 13?

nahh, they say Februrary 16.

i just pre-ordered from 505 so i can play it in the US... LOL

[znashin 0]

Quote[/b] ]I haven't played the campaign yet but I'm sure it could be worse. Does anyone remember the Soldner "campaign"

And anybody remembers what happened to Soldner? Oh, thats right, it pretty much died out aka failure.

Quicksand I don't think you understand how marketing works. What will BIS get from making a better campaign?

The only way they will make one is if they sell it as an expation.

You're twisting my point and mis-representing the truth.

1.My point was soldner's campaign was much worse than arma's.

2.Soldner didn't die because the campiagn was bad, it died because it was ~40% of what it should have been. I sill bought it and persisted playing it for a couple of weeks. I'd say arma is more like 80-90% of what it should be. Although I liked cwc, played it through a number of times and would like to see an even better arma campaign, alot of people would still buy arma even if it didn't have a sp campaign.

[Luciano 0]

Quote[/b] ]2.Soldner didn't die because the campiagn was bad, it died because it was ~40% of what it should have been. I sill bought it and persisted playing it for a couple of weeks. I'd say arma is more like 80-90% of what it should be.

Well to me ARMA is 20% of what it should have been. The AI is 5% of what it should have been!

The way MP handles 45%

The SP part of the game 10%

The point is soldner died fast, and so would this game if BIS doesn't pull it together. Im guessing they have a few months left till people really stop giving a damn about ARMA.

[Jack-UK 0]

Quote[/b] ]2.Soldner didn't die because the campiagn was bad, it died because it was ~40% of what it should have been. I sill bought it and persisted playing it for a couple of weeks. I'd say arma is more like 80-90% of what it should be.

Well to me ARMA is 20% of what it should have been.  The AI is 5% of what it should have been!

The way MP handles 45%

The SP part of the game 10%

The point is soldner died fast, and so would this game if BIS doesn't pull it together.  Im guessing they have a few months left till people really stop giving a damn about ARMA.

Im pretty certain the 505 Patch has been heavily worked on, so hopefully it will have some very good fixes and updates...

Also hopefully the editing tools wont be *too* far behind so we can get those leet modders giving us some more pixels to destroy =)

[Guest]

I like the campaign story and the message behind it. But it was way too buggy +short. Seems like the story wasn't based on one single character either?

[4 IN 1 0]

@Darkninja

i like the ofp campaign very much(thats why i hope the Cold War Rearmed to be very good too)

ARMA campaign isnt all that nice but due to the fact that i didnt expect it would be kickass i didnt disappointed by it, anyway it just too buggy and short

and yes it is not based on a single character.