I need more CONTROL!!

[Kwato 0]

I don't defend the game blindly, I am far from a fan boy lmao. There are a lot of things that are wrong with the game. It is just that for me, the movement/animations are really no big deal compared to some other stuff, but apparanty that's a problem for a lot of people here.

I am not talking about you, but if you listen to some people on this board, it seems that they would like nothing more than to change the game to be more CS like. I like Arma because it is different, there are dozens of games that cater to the twitch crowd already.

You want to talk about things that are not realistic? Personally what bothers me is the fact that you can destroy an armored vehicle with grenades or small arms (I think that's completely ridiculous), the absence of foxholes, trenches, proper defensive positions...

And I recall a dev guy saying that the way anims can't be interrupted is a big part of the Arma engine, but I hope I am wrong.

[Stagger Lee 0]

Kwato: I totally agree with the things you mentioned. Those are things that hopefully can be corrected by modders. Personally I can't wait for ACE to be released. Control issues though would seem more likely to be corrected or altered by the devs themselves. I may be naive in hoping they'll read forums for feedback purposes, shrug.

[Second 0]

I would think brains would be used in situations where you believe you are safe to reload, start reloading, are getting shot at, STOP RELOADING AND GET THE HECK DOWN. Just sitting there continuing to reload while having bullets whiz past your head would seem to be BRAIN-DEAD behavior.

I haven't run to that kind situation in OFP or ArmA. If i get killed while reloading, which takes only couple of seconds, i would have died anyway as i'm not able to defend myself, even if there would have been possibility to cancel reload-animation. I don't see point... Well maybe teeny-weeny little one.

If canceling reload-animation is done by specific button or by action menu, most likely i would waste more time in canceling reload-animation. Example: "now where is that button... i did use it about half year ago, so was it H?" Slower than waiting reload-animation to finish (and shoot the bad guy).

If it's done by "press movement key"- or "press any key"-principle i and many more would start to whine that i ruin my reloading-atempts (and get myself killed) because i ,by accident forexample, press my "W"-key too early. Result: almost finished reloading is ruined!!!

[max power 21]

Let's face it, the idiosyncrasies of this game like having the avatar swagger around for a couple of minutes before he decides to go prone like you asked him to are bugs. Hopefully these will be ironed out soon!

[Stagger Lee 0]

I haven't run to that kind situation in OFP or ArmA. If i get killed while reloading, which takes only couple of seconds, i would have died anyway as i'm not able to defend myself, even if there would have been possibility to cancel reload-animation. I don't see point... Well maybe teeny-weeny little one.

If canceling reload-animation is done by specific button or by action menu, most likely i would waste more time in canceling reload-animation. Example: "now where is that button... i did use it about half year ago, so was it H?" Slower than waiting reload-animation to finish (and shoot the bad guy).

If it's done by "press movement key"- or "press any key"-principle i and many more would start to whine that i ruin my reloading-atempts (and get myself killed) because i ,by accident forexample, press my "W"-key too early. Result: almost finished reloading is ruined!!!

If you haven't run into that situation in ArmA I question whether you're even playing the same game as me.

There doesn't really have to be a separate reload cancel key, although it would probably work to have the same key you use to reload, cancel the reload by double pressing it.

There's an even simpler way. Pressing a movement key would not cancel a reload, pressing a change of stance button would. Reloading is normally accompanied by an animation. Just wait for the animation to be finished before attempting to change your stance if you don't want the reload to be cancelled. If you are too hasty that's your fault for being impatient. Either way you're better off going prone before reloading anyway.

I doubt most would have a problem with even movement canceling the reloading process. And there could just be a toggle for those who prefer to be sitting ducks for my bullet to their head while reloading. You would be welcome to it.

As others have said, I want to be in control of my character, I don't want to queue up orders for him to follow when he gets around to it. Or would you rather this be the Sims?  

[Le++ 0]

There's an even simpler way. Pressing a movement key would not cancel a reload, pressing a change of stance button would. Reloading is normally accompanied by an animation. Just wait for the animation to be finished before attempting to change your stance if you don't want the reload to be cancelled. If you are too hasty that's your fault for being impatient. Either way you're better off going prone before reloading anyway.

What would happen if you were reloading while standing? For example, after finishing an enemy group you do a tactical reload to have a fresh magazine in the rifle. Since no enemy remains you have no need to crouch or prone for the reload. Suddenly a guy next to you drops from sniper fire. What do you do?

It's hard to fully simulate a soldier with a mouse, keyboard and a screen. I do believe ArmA has done quite a decent job at making me feel in control of a real soldier, and not some super-human carrying dozens of weapons and still jumping that most FPS present. Of course, some aspects could be polished some more (notably the inventory system, which is by far to rigid), but the overall control is fine.

On the specific note of movement control, and going prone after sprinting, I must say I like BIS's solution. Going full flat after a run is rather unrealistic - most often you plan where you want to end up and slow down before-hand. This extra two-three steps before going prone are just that. It takes some practice before you manage to fall where you meant (especially important when bounding overwatch), but now it seems perfectly natural to me. In cases of sudden fire, I try to run for cover - laying flat in the middle of the road has little effect on one's survivability.

Anyway, I think this is just a matter of personal preference, so take my post as just that...

[Stagger Lee 0]

Le++: I'm not sure I follow. If you are standing and in the middle of a reload and your mate drops from a shot from a sniper, your immediate reaction would be either to drop to the ground, or sprint evasively to the nearest cover. This is a perfect example of why you would not want the game to force you to continue standing there for those precious seconds reloading as if nothing in the world were happening.

As for getting used to the extra several steps the game makes you take before diving into the prone position, sure anything can be gotten used to. It really sounds like you're trying to convince yourself that lack of control over where you fall is a good thing. Sure it's better to find cover than drop right in the middle of a road. But I shouldn't have to dive three steps earlier than I should just to end up where I wanted in the first place. It's awkward, clumsy, and hurts the immersion a bit for me, and for more than a few others based on the responses this post has received.

[Second 0]

As others have said, I want to be in control of my character, I don't want to queue up orders for him to follow when he gets around to it. Or would you rather this be the Sims?

If your talking about queue up orders then we are mixing games... You know this forum isn't Sims or Gothic III (Great game! ) forum

Anyways:

Yes i'm in control of my character, with different set of rules than usually, but it doesn't matter. OFP's and ArmA's way is still most natrual that i've run across. Are these things (reload and dashing) changed or not, it doesn't matter as it's just minor issue.

[Stagger Lee 0]

Yeah I was exaggerating when I mentioned queing up control orders, but it's actually not much of one. In fact it would be easier if we could queue up orders than deal with the control delays inherent in their design.

Glad to see you've been able to convince yourself that they have implemented the perfect control system that mimics reality exactly. Looking forward to taking my time lining up a good headshot for you while you're performing the reload movements like a robot, frozen in place not able to do anything about it.

[smellyjelly 0]

Ok, allow me to explain why I don't like not moving when reloading.

When playing Armed Assault, or any game for that matter, I am the character. When I place my character in the middle of a city full of enemy tanks and hit play, I'm putting myself in that situation.

A great thing about Armed Assault is the freedom us players are given. We are able to fly planes, helicopters, drive tanks, cars, and boats. Each one of them are at our disposal to use however we want to complete the mission. Should I take the tank and storm in, or bomb everyone with the jet?

But there is one problem, we aren't able to control our player properly. If I absolutely need to move to better cover when reloading, then I should be able to.

So here are my two request:

1. Being able to walk when reloading, and as a result, the reloading will take just a tiny bit longer.

2. Being able to roughly aim in middle of crouching and standing up.

Another idea is bending over a tad when looking down while jogging/sprinting, which will be usefull when when running behind cover that leaves the top of your head showing. It would be an alternative to crouching, which limits our speed. This would not.

[celery 8]

1. Being able to walk when reloading, and as a result, the reloading will take just a tiny bit longer.

2. Being able to roughly aim in middle of crouching and standing up.

Another idea is bending over a tad when looking down while jogging/sprinting, which will be usefull when when running behind cover that leaves the top of your head showing. It would be an alternative to crouching, which limits our speed. This would not.

Be prepared to get replies telling "that's just not tactical, a good soldier doesn't get in those situations!"

[NeMeSiS 11]

1. Being able to walk when reloading, and as a result, the reloading will take just a tiny bit longer.

2. Being able to roughly aim in middle of crouching and standing up.

Another idea is bending over a tad when looking down while jogging/sprinting, which will be usefull when when running behind cover that leaves the top of your head showing. It would be an alternative to crouching, which limits our speed. This would not.

Be prepared to get replies telling "that's just not tactical, a good soldier doesn't get in those situations!"

"It requires engine changes, wont happen"

[DieAngel 0]

what about more control for helicopters?

The controls for the collective are horrible with everything else than a keyboard -_- .

[max power 21]

what about more control for helicopters?

The controls for the collective are horrible with everything else than a keyboard -_- .

The x52 is an excellent joystick. I highly recommend it.

[blackdog~ 0]

I bought the X-52 after reading a lot of positive feedback on this forum and I have to agree...

[kestrel7e7 0]

Let's face it, the idiosyncrasies of this game like having the avatar swagger around for a couple of minutes before he decides to go prone like you asked him to are bugs.  Hopefully these will be ironed out soon!

The infamous retarded avatar animations are a fundamental part of the OFP/ArmA engine and the OFP/ArmA experience. People didn't mind it 6 years ago in OFP, hell, they loved it and so did I, but 6 years have passed and I'm not really interested in being a retro gamer, struggling with a broken animation system. Avatar control is the most important part of a game, yet alone a sim, yet BIS completely ignored it and wasted their energy on ArmA's superficial graphics to trick us into thinking we were getting something new. Does this sound like a developer dedicated to realism above all else? Willing to sacrifice gameplay and fancy graphics to achieve it?

[max power 21]

The infamous retarded avatar animations are a fundamental part of the OFP/ArmA engine and the OFP/ArmA experience. People didn't mind it 6 years ago in OFP, hell, they loved it and so did I, but 6 years have passed and I'm not really interested in being a retro gamer, struggling with a broken animation system. Avatar control is the most important part of a game, yet alone a sim, yet BIS completely ignored it and wasted their energy on ArmA's superficial graphics to trick us into thinking we were getting something new. Does this sound like a developer dedicated to realism above all else? Willing to sacrifice gameplay and fancy graphics to achieve it?

LOL.

Okay...

I hope you don't mean to get me to agree with you on those far off points. I was saying that the weird behaviour like walking around after you hit the prone button is a bug. I don't think that those are integral to the game engine. You sound angry and bitter. If it makes you so angry, you should spend your time on a different game and come back in a few months and see if anything has changed.

[DieAngel 0]

what about more control for helicopters?

The controls for the collective are horrible with everything else than a keyboard -_- .

The x52 is an excellent joystick. I highly recommend it.

I know i own one myself, but even the cheapest helicopter game is offering to map the collective to the thruster axis properly.

Seems arma was designed with keyboard users only in mind :/

[Stagger Lee 0]

Yeah hopefully they fix that. Joystick control for air vehicles needs to be improved, especially since this game has received the attention of some dedicated flight simmers lately. Not that the flight model is anything near a real combat flight simulator, but armchair pilots tend to enjoy the concept of supporting groundforces in multiplayer environments. Even www.SimHQ.com has been covering this game quite a bit. They even have a mission design contest and you can win a TrackIR Pro bundle:

http://www.simhq.com/_contests/contest2.html

[4 IN 1 0]

speaking of planes, may i hijack a bit to talk about cars?since ArmA car control is more or less a direct pot from FP, one of the most hated thing in using these cars with mouse and keyborad is that it always auto center itself, it wouldnt be a big problem for keyborad/keypad as its what they always do in a racing game, BUT for the mouse?

like the trooper part in the game, the mouse are suppose to be your hand movement, IRL when you turn your wheel it will stay there as long as you keep you hand that way, but in the game, when you turn you turn your wheel slight, then it return back to the center, i dunno what you guys think, but its just pure un-nature to me, you cant oversteers, there's no understeers, you cant use any of your comment sence about how to drive a car in this game, if i have one thing i could fix in this game, this will be it

edit: i dunno what you guys think but if the mouse control for vehicals act more like a joystick then i think it would save a lots of work on tweaking control of vehicals

[Stagger Lee 0]

Yes you're right the auto centering steering with the mouse for vehicle control is very aggravating and makes it simply a chore to drive anything. Staying on the road should not be this difficult. Personally I just use the keyboard to steer and use the mouse to look around, but I have to double tap Alt for free look every time. Would be nice if we had an option for auto freelook with mouse when entering a vehicle.

But if mouse control were better for steering and it didn't auto center I would probably actually use it for that.

[4 IN 1 0]

Yes you're right the auto centering steering with the mouse for vehicle control is very aggravating and makes it simply a chore to drive anything. Staying on the road should not be this difficult. Personally I just use the keyboard to steer and use the mouse to look around, but I have to double tap Alt for free look every time. Would be nice if we had an option for auto freelook with mouse when entering a vehicle.

But if mouse control were better for steering and it didn't auto center I would probably actually use it for that.

i have give up the Bullcrapfield 2 FM a long time ago so correct me if i am wrong, but aint BF2 mouse handles more like a joystick sometime?

[Maddmatt 1]

1. Being able to walk when reloading, and as a result, the reloading will take just a tiny bit longer.

2. Being able to roughly aim in middle of crouching and standing up.

Another idea is bending over a tad when looking down while jogging/sprinting, which will be usefull when when running behind cover that leaves the top of your head showing. It would be an alternative to crouching, which limits our speed. This would not.

Be prepared to get replies telling "that's just not tactical, a good soldier doesn't get in those situations!"

"It requires engine changes, wont happen"

Not really. Maybe an extra control mapping to bend over while moving, but it's mostly just animation work.

Besides, just because it requires engine changes doesn't mean that it wont happen. Most bug fixes require engine changes.

Not saying that I think those suggestions are important, just pointing out something which should be obvious

[NeMeSiS 11]

1. Being able to walk when reloading, and as a result, the reloading will take just a tiny bit longer.

2. Being able to roughly aim in middle of crouching and standing up.

Another idea is bending over a tad when looking down while jogging/sprinting, which will be usefull when when running behind cover that leaves the top of your head showing. It would be an alternative to crouching, which limits our speed. This would not.

Be prepared to get replies telling "that's just not tactical, a good soldier doesn't get in those situations!"

"It requires engine changes, wont happen"

Not really. Maybe an extra control mapping to bend over while moving, but it's mostly just animation work.

Besides, just because it requires engine changes doesn't mean that it wont happen. Most bug fixes require engine changes.

Not saying that I think those suggestions are important, just pointing out something which should be obvious

Well, walking while reloading with an animation would require rather large changes to the animation system (probably, if it was a small change BI would have done it anyway), right now you can have only 1 animation playing at the same time. You could make a 'walk forward while reloading' animation, but in that case you wouldnt be able to stop walking until you are done reloading, which is even worse then not being able to walk while reloading.

[4 IN 1 0]

1. Being able to walk when reloading, and as a result, the reloading will take just a tiny bit longer.

2. Being able to roughly aim in middle of crouching and standing up.

Another idea is bending over a tad when looking down while jogging/sprinting, which will be usefull when when running behind cover that leaves the top of your head showing. It would be an alternative to crouching, which limits our speed. This would not.

Be prepared to get replies telling "that's just not tactical, a good soldier doesn't get in those situations!"

"It requires engine changes, wont happen"

Not really. Maybe an extra control mapping to bend over while moving, but it's mostly just animation work.

Besides, just because it requires engine changes doesn't mean that it wont happen. Most bug fixes require engine changes.

Not saying that I think those suggestions are important, just pointing out something which should be obvious

anime work is the most part i assume, but a engine code change might needed as well

sometime i think, BI have their own motion capture workshop, why not using it to death?

ofpforum tell the most important part through, unless a complete rewrite of the animation part to make them more adductive, we are all sitting ducks here