ArmA is just ... disappointing

[Marshal 0]

Well, after being away from PC gaming for about 18 months, I decided to buy ARMA as it was only £14.99 to see what it was like. Many of you may know me from the old OFP days when I ran the TNT league.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, my XBox 360 recently went up in smoke so I was looking for something to play while my 360 was away being repaired.

I installed ARMA and soon realised why I abandoned playing PC games a while back. First of all I decided to install the game to the latest patch. The game in the box was 1.4 so I patched from 1.4 to 1.5. That was where the problems began. Although these were official patches, it couldn't find certain files which were supposed to have been there from the original install - same happened when I installed the 1.5 to 1.8 patch, it crashed half way through and told me to re-download the patch again.

So, I decided to just play the damned game and see what it looked like. It wouldnt run on my 3.2ghz system with a Gforce 6 and over 1gb of ram on high settings. It was even laggy set on normal. So I play for 5 minutes, and eventually get out of the jeep and run up for the first encounter. Aiming was like trying to shoot in a jar of treacle. the graphics were very old school compared to anything Im presently playing on the XBox.

So summing up, OFP was brilliant for its time, but is no competition for FPS which are coming out now. Graphics are old and frame rate is ridiculous.

Thank God my 360 is only away for a few more days because PC gaming is nothing compared to the ease of using a console. There is no hassle with compatibility or patching. We can all talk to our opponents easily and the community is awesome.

I will be returning ARMA back to the shop for a refund as I don't expect to continually keep patching (as was the case with OFP) when I can buy games for the 360 that play straight out of the box with no hassle at all.

[Dwarden 1125]

u so naive man

{evil grin over XBOX360 live game patches}

[drewb99 0]

We can all talk to our opponents easily and the community is awesome.

I refuse to believe you've ever touched Xbox Live. For giggles try playing PGR4 without being spun by someone who says you deserve it.

[Thunnder Bunny 0]

I keep hearing peoples problems on flying with a mouse and keyboard....and I couldn't even do that in OFP. I mean barrel rolls and other maneuvers are impossible with standard KEY/MOUSE...aren't they?

A flight stick is a must buy, with games like this. Even a cheap one will make flying around so much easier.

And I must admit I thought ARMA's flight controls were broken at first , but having adapted ,I no longer have problems at all.

ps...LoL ,360 Gamerz. Enjoy your (tic tac toe box)....X & OOO.

[Major Fubar 0]

Lets stick to the topic at hand, please.

[Rista 0]

I keep hearing peoples problems on flying with a mouse and keyboard....and I couldn't even do that in OFP.  I mean barrel rolls and other maneuvers are impossible with standard KEY/MOUSE...aren't they?  

A flight stick is a must buy, with games like this.  Even a cheap one will make flying around so much easier.

And I must admit I thought ARMA's flight controls were broken at first , but having adapted ,I no longer have problems at all.

It's not about the money, really. I could buy a joystick but I don't want to use it in this game. In OFP, driving and flying with a mouse+keyboard was absolutely fine. I'm all for realism but I just want to sit, relax and enjoy the game. Having a joystick and steering wheel+pedals attached to my desk while I play is out of question really, especially since none of my friends own such and we mostly play the game in LAN.

For a simple test of broken vehicle controls in ArmA, just try driving a motorcycle in ArmA and do the same in OFP. You'll see what we're complaining about.

[TThor 0]

The AI that know where you are hiding even when you need a scope or binocular to see them they are so far away. Fire a shot in there direction and they will return fire and most likely manage to wound you even though they have no weapons equip with optics.

My brother still refuses to use AmA when we get together, OFP only. He hates the way the grass and the gun sights were modeled in AMA and the changes made to the chopper controls.

I have tried to duplicate some of my favorite OFP missions with the AmA editor, but sadly they just seem to play better in OFP. You can't sneak into enemy territory when the AI always seems to know where you are.

I just ordered Queens Gambit from Go Gamer, I hope it plays better then AmA.

TTHOR

[SeppSchrot 0]

It is true that in OFP you can't fly sophisticated maneuvers like loopings and Immelmann turns with only mouse and keyboard. The trouble is, in ArmA even the basic ones became very difficult.

(I like the new helicopter flight model though.)

Even more disturbing is the driving/commanding of tanks.

In OFP, you can easily drive with arrow keys and with the mouse you can report/assign targets by rightclicking them with the cursor.

Now I have this strange aim cursor as infantry soldier but it disappears when it would be most useful (as tankcommander).

I can show it up by pressing the spacebar, but the cursor is magically stuck in the middle of the screen. Very useful

The worst thing to me is when I right click by accident something the gunner starts to shoot and WTF he does not stop.

In OFP you just rightclick somewhere else and it "No target" is ordered. The gunner turns back to 12 o'clock.

Damn, I really hate this new "interface" in nearly all aspects.

[jantenner 0]

OFP is dead - ArmA is undead at best < this is true for about 99.999999999% of people

the other 0.000000001% happyly play ofp or more probably arma!

good arma players

[Pulverizer 1]

Oh really? I'm quite positive that more than zero point zero six six people think OFP/ArmA is still alive and kicking arse. Like at least a thousand total.

[SeppSchrot 0]

EDIT:

Nevermind.

[Grodin 0]

I find it very disappointing this thread has 60 pages while the positive thread has only 15

[Frontix 0]

Well Armed assault is a litle bit a failure .so thats why there are more post here .

sry to say but it is what it is .

I aint saying ARMA is a bad game . its just not a sequal to OFP !

[-Total- 0]

It's a disappointment for me, but not because of anything to do with the AI. Personally, I could care less about the AI or the driving of vehicles. I never had a problem with vehicles. I have a joystick. The trick to flying or driving anything is throttle control (do you get in your car at full throttle and keep it full throttle around turns and corners?). ArmA has more realism with it than OFP did. OFP was ridiculously easy in comparison. The best they could do is assign keys for throttle position (0%, 10%, 25%, 60%, 75%, 85%, 100%) to make it easier on keyboard.

My disappointment is how ArmA could be the single most challenging player vs player game in it's genre, but the pvp part gets pushed to the side.

AI will NEVER react as humans do!! AI will do what they are programmed to do - react with the options scripted in. Until things like surprise, imagination, and a bit of anxiousness can be duplicated in the scripting, then the AI will be exactly what they are now - computer models reacted as per the programming.

Humans on the other hand are unpredictable. They are not scripted. They have imagination. They adjust. They are creative.

AI-centric was cool for OFP, but the focus on AI is going to kill ArmA....if it hasn't already.

[cain2001 0]

Just want to make a comment about this thread who got locked. http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=69023

I dont see how a problem such as why around 500 active MP players choose not to play ArmA can be pointed to a thread where the discussion is about the cammo colour of the rifles! (not really but kinda)

This game have lost 50% of the community that regular play online. ArmA servers have around 100-600 people playing at the same time, if they would have listen to the ones doing uprisings they would easily have 1000 people playing on a good night! Now these players turned to other games such as GRAW2, CoD4 and CYRIS.

Maybe time to listen

[Abbe 0]

listen!?

By now the most dissapointing thing about ArmA must be that most of the old OFP community has been placed out in the cold. BIS, if they wanted, have had almost a year to fix the most troubblesum areas regarding PvP. I think they've heard our complaints, we're just not playing the right game in their mind.  

/Abbe

[Black Shadow 0]

My biggest complain is about MULITPLAYER:

->> OK, it can handle a 100 people but what machine can handle this?

->> Why the hell netcode is so screwed up and when single person try to join the server whole server and all players are in HUGE lag?

->> Why the BIS still don't release a really good tool which can stop the cheaters and hakcers? They can't add any programs which will control the files of the game?

[cain2001 0]

My biggest complain is about MULITPLAYER:

->> OK, it can handle a 100 people but what machine can handle this?

->> Why the hell netcode is so screwed up and when single person try to join the server whole server and all players are in HUGE lag?

->> Why the BIS still don't release a really good tool which can stop the cheaters and hakcers? They can't add any programs which will control the files of the game?

Ive seen that the next patch will contain anti cheat stuff, but i really hope they make run smoother too. Ive have numerious times now fired at targets from a close range (100m-200m) and seen how my G36s bust bullets dosnt hit him. The crosshair is right on him, I had 5s make the perfect shoot but there seems to be impossible to do it. Best thing to kill someone is just shooting next to him quickly and using many bullets. Singleshots aint possible it seems. I know this has alot to do with my frames but when standing still at a non moving target? Dont think so!

[Dudester 0]

@cain2001

Thats because the bullet spread when using the scope is a joke, you shoot and the bullet spread is like feet apart.

I have to laugh when i think of the amount of time it took Bis to ruin this sequel to ofp. All they really needed do, was update the graphics. Fix the bugs from ofp and add a decent anti cheat programe. I honestly belive people would of been happy with that.

Instead however what they did was-Totally ruin the control system to Player/Vehicles. Make the ai just as annoying. Allow cheats to ruin the game. The list of complaints is just endless. Thats why there is virtually a post in this thread everyday.

Fair enough if Bis dont want to address these isuses, but don't expect me to rush out and buy the Queens Gammybits. Why the hell should i spend more money when they havn't even fixed the first fricken game.

[Frontix 0]

if they would listen then listen to this BIS ! .

Why not give us what we want .

Add a patch where we can choose the controles . choose the way we fly the way we walk .

put an option for old shool ppl .

Like everybod said .. U knew that many ppl are playing OFP for over 6 YEARS !! C'mon those people are dedicated so what u do u make total new game but u did not listen to the community !! .

I"m not saying i hate ARMA but today i canot play it with the same feeling as in OFP .

do somting before its to late .

Well we have to admit when ARMA Came out 70 % of the OFP Community was taken away to ARMA .

Today more then the halft of them dont play ARMA anymore .

The main reason and i will always say that !!

They should have worked together with Codemasters on a Sequal!

The only thing that arma can save are we ! Addon makers and more if they lose that , Then u can really pack your bags and make games like DOOM ! .

I will keep my OFP CD and i hope Codemasters will bring us a total new game cause many will wait for them now .

Will they make a game like OFP 1 ? we dont know .

We can only hope for it .

And ARMA 2 ? . C'mon guys they fucking worked years on a sequal to OFP and now they alrdy annouce a new game ?.

Fuck it ! same game . same engine .

I will see what BIS brings with ARMA 2 . I hope this time they Listen ! .

BIS . !! PLAY OFP AND THEN PLAY ARMA AND THEN WORK ON ARMA 2 ! THEN U KNOW WHAT WE ARE TALKING OF

Greetings FRONTIER ! AkA Frontix.

[wika_woo 182]

I find it very disappointing this thread has 60 pages while the positive thread has only 15

and still counting....

nuff said...

[Frontix 0]

Indeed .

To protest i puted this site online .

its not mine but i will stay alive forever !!

OFP WILL LIVE

[Balschoiw 0]

Omg.

Greetings Bals ! AkA Balsi.

[SpetsnazWarriorX 0]

Obviously I have the same gripes as everyone else, but for me the absolute killing point for ArmA (to which I often find myself simply exiting a mission and firing up good ol' OFP in relief) has to be the radio chatter. It sounds so bad... so horrendous... so incredibly terrible... everything negative beyond belief!

Granted, OFP didn't have amazing chatter (and was very limited in many ways), but it always did what I needed it to do during missions. Didn't sound too disjointed and clunky, either – for 2001 at least. But ArmA's chatter just sounds like a bunch of fast-spoken individual words tacked together, with an annoying "bip-bip" at the end. Plus, there's no end to them! I feel like saying "SHUUUUUUUT UUUUUUUUP!!" (like Arnie in 'Kindergarten Cop' ) after 1 minute of my squad yelling "Two!Target!SOLDIER!!At!One o'clock!", etc.

Just bad voice acting.

Oh, and the campaign still has yet to draw me in like CWC, RH and RES did. It feels like a very cheap movie with a half-assed script and no real beginning. Whereas with OFP, I felt genuinely engrossed in those campaigns – as if the success of the missions really was down to me and my squad command tactics (RES especially). There was a beginning, a middle and an end. I felt satisified from start to finish.

I've had ArmA for 2 weeks, and I've barely touched the campaign through lack of interest in the story! I don't know what's going on in Sahrani (other than some reporter broad yapping about a war that suddenly broke out), nor do I care. On Everon, Malden and Nogova I actually wanted to know – with keen interest – what happened next.

[PolishGI 0]

Wow...  just reading this thread...  very little to add as it would be redundent...

If I can ask, who was it that thought putting your player profile and saved missions into a second location was wise?  My Documents?  Come on...  Leave all the game files in ONE location...  or if you must, all the player to choose where this secondary location will reside.  But again, this is the basis of most complaints, don't mess with the original recipe, just make it better...

Also, I am disappointed with the island making software...  It is not very intuitive and its output makes for some very large file sizes.  I am part of a MOD that is working to construct a "jungle environment" and with using BI objects, it is nearly impossible to create such an environment without creating tons of lag on a computer system.  Mind you, this is a computer system that chews up and spits out ArmA on a normal basis (performance wise).  So now we are going back to the drawing board and will make our own vegetation (as we have in the past) so that it is more efficient that what BI provides so that our large islands can run on a lower spec machine.

It is troubling to see a software program come out as a sequel to a great and well respected game such as OFP and not live up to expectations.  It is concerning to me that BI finally felt it necessary to work on this "sequel" when they were running out of money, nearly broke.  So you crank out a game, pass it out to the Euro fans 70% complete and let them find the bugs.  The fact that the early patches are several hundred megabites is amazing...  those are not patches/tweaks, those are files to re-write game files that should have been corrected prior to release.

Then the time delay with the tools...  Let's face it, the ability to MOD OFP sent this game through the clouds...  and for BI to hold onto them for so long...  rediculous....  Do we know where "Linda" is?  (vegetation program)  I have not heard of this program in some time...  no wait, will it be released for ArmA2?

I'm sorry, but my pendulum is swinging back to OFP2 and Codemasters...  BI is obviously flying by the seat of their pants and have no direction or timing...  I realize they are a small company...  but you took a golden ticket and lost all momentum with ArmA's release...

I hope Codemasters is watching this...  and learning what not to do...  It will be a shame if they are unable to captialize on BI's misfortune.  Competition is a good thing...  it only benefits the consumer, us...