ArmA is just ... disappointing

[Rexxenexx 0]

Okay here goes my official complaint after playing this game non-stop since the german release.

In OFP, it was MUCH easier to have things work in MP when it comes to designing missions. I am guessing all of these problems are related to BI "streamlining" the net code. Granted it's possible that there ARE indeed ways to get the alarm trigger to play for everyone that should hear it, but it's humbling to strip the wiki, forums, and friends only to read "oh that bug has been around since OFP". Getting a AI controlled UH-60 to land seems impossible too, and I think I've tried everything short of installing someone's set of script files to import and implement just to get the f&*king thing to land for extraction!!

I used to have a feeling that anything could be thought up and done in OFP, but now it feels like I should take some drugs to dumb down my imagination levels to make another kill everyone in the base/town mission and end without proper extraction.. Or maybe take even more drugs and play evolution (NO OFFENSE EVO FANS I AM JUST SICK OF IT!! ) for f&*king ever!!!

Sure i've spent a full 12-hour-a-day-week making a kick-butt mission for my friends and arma community that has plenty of color and fun only to spend another week researching why things don't work in MP/COOP mode. Sure you devils at BI make us click the disclaimer about multiplayer mode sucking everytime we join. Please let me know if you are going to fix arma's multiplayer mess? OFP was fine in my opinion, keep the graphics, lose the chitty netcode (if that's the whole SP/MP mission problem.)

-Valuable Customer & fanboi

P.S. I am serious about the question suma, PM me.

Ditto!

It's not worth the effort if some commands work perfectly in SP and not in MP.

Point, shoot, kill, the end. That's all I feel like making for ArmA. Hopefully ArmA II will be better at launch.

I'm glad I bought Gears of War locally yesterday. I just returned it today because MS Live crashes the game if you don't start a game in 30 seconds, and if you do start a game the Live backend crashes and you have to Alt-Tab back into the game without closeing DrWatson's FTardBox. Live and learn. If a game has a MAJOR issue I'm not buying it.

BTW I traded GOW for Call of Duty 4. And Yes I did beat GOW before I returned it.

[Mehmehmeh 0]

Lesson learned is for me for sure to see the general opinion about ArmA 2 before believing all false propaganda, and just buy it.

Propaganda which I did believe when I bough ArmA 1.

I should have done so when I bought QG as well....

Either way, I have learned my ~30USD lesson already the hard way.

[Madus_Maximus 0]

Lesson learned is for me for sure to see the general opinion about ArmA 2 before believing all false propaganda, and just buy it.

Propaganda which I did believe when I bough ArmA 1.

I should have done so when I bought QG as well....

Either way, I have learned my ~30USD lesson already the hard way.

That's why there's such things as reviews. Most of ArmA's major faults and bugs were in many reviews out before the game went on sale or shortly after. And $30 isn't all that much considering most games retail at the $50 mark.

[Mehmehmeh 0]

Lesson learned is for me for sure to see the general opinion about ArmA 2 before believing all false propaganda, and just buy it.

Propaganda which I did believe when I bough ArmA 1.

I should have done so when I bought QG as well....

Either way, I have learned my ~30USD lesson already the hard way.

That's why there's such things as reviews. Most of ArmA's major faults and bugs were in many reviews out before the game went on sale or shortly after. And $30 isn't all that much considering most games retail at the $50 mark.

You are very much right about that.

Saying that, this game is far different from the common FPS game and even America's Army. And therefore I did not really bother about reviews at the most common sites.

ArmA, QG and I guess ArmA 2 can be the greatest game I have ever played, and to be honest I do still play ArmA on a daily basis.

But the way it is heading now, I find it more and more hard to enjoy.

It is not about money either since I can with ease spend 30USD on whatever without any worry.

It is more about that no one who's responsible for this game care about the same.

In my own exp. with other games made by large developers you would have a constant stream of patches or updates. At times you'd have to install a patch right after you have purchased the game.

But with ArmA?

No one seems to care really too much.

On top of that, and i do not really care about who's doing what, ArmA 2 is in development. In my opinion ArmA 1 should be finished first before doing a 2nd ArmA.

Because of that, I do feel ripped of.

I did not intend to buy a beta release of a game, but to buy a full working game with support if needed as problem arise.

Beside the bugs and crashes I do have, cheaters are another issue.

Even if I do manage to find a server to play on with ppl on it, and i do not crash for hours. Sure as hell many times someone will come in and spoil the fun no matter.

What is being done about that?

Yeah, 1.09 is supposed to have some anti cheats protection according to BIS.

How long time will it take before that is broken? And when that happens, then what? Back to where we are now.

As far as I know anti cheat is a continues task, not a one-time-fix.

I would rather fork out 100USD on this game if that is what it would take to have someone to at least care about the game from the Dev's side.

This game made by America's Army ppl, that would be something great.

[-Total- 0]

Actually, my clan was talking about ArmA last night and our disappointment as alot of us got it and really gave it a shot.

A couple of us played OFP, but we didn't approach ArmA as some sort of OFP2. We wanted a completely new game and got it.

We played invite-level competition in America' Army and all of us competed in other previous games as well. Hackers are part of life in both pubs and match play. They will never go away, so just accept it as an occurance you will run into at least weekly in any game. Example: Hacks are already out for COD4 lol!

Our disappointment was in the community and the lack of Player vs Player and the love of Evolution or Evolution inspired mods. We got tired of only seeing people play AI.

In ANY game, once you figure out the scripted behavior of the AI, it's easy to beat. That's why it's AI.

So, ArmA, instead of being the End All of massive battles, has become the game that my clan, like many others, unistalled due to the community's love of playing a predictable oppenent - the AI.

[cross 1]

a) some league like IC ArmA don't AFAIK (that much at least)

@Second & Q..

Yes the http://www.ic-arma.com is not a league or clan at all. I'm a member of kellys heroes but I play ic-arma guys each Saturday. If your time is limited you may want to give it a try.

We will start the new campaign#2 this Saturday. Generally there are around 75-80 ppl palying it. max is 105 last campaign.

Doesn't matter if you are a meber of a clan/squad or not, you go to the site, select one side, register, post in new recruits. They put you in to a squad depending on what you want to do (armor-infantry-pilot etc..).

Two sides clash over 3 objectives determined by the last winner. We have some discussion in the side forums anout the strategy to be applied for each objective and each one has different terrain and needs specific methods. We talk about how, when, if to attack, from which direction, how to defend etc...

Each army has a general and couple of HCOs and each squad has a leader. And for each battle each squad has specific orders and tasks to accomplish. They may change during the battle if thins are going different than expected.

Battles are held each Saturday at 1800GMT for 3hrs. You may join in the middle and leave whenever you need to etc...

----------

Apart from that yes it is really hard to find good missions with a scanario. The are either "clear this town..OK clear...now clear this one..oh you did it..lets see if you can clear the next one" type or the new Sahrani-Life RPG like (instead of fighting you do delivery jobs )

In general, in Kellys-Heroes we avoid running Evolution or kill'em all missions as there are many copies of it around already. We have missions mostly done by our mapping members and they have some scanario in most of them.

hope this helps...

[Zero_uk 0]

My Probs With ArmA .........

After Almost A Year Of This Game Been Released

And About 4 Or 5 Patches ... !Damn I Lost Count!

The Game Still Randomly Crashes.

Also After The Big Build Up To QG I Buy The Game

Just To Find Out That The Damn DC-3 Cant

Turn On The Taxiway And It Jumps Around Like

Some Sorta Rabbit

But Other Than That ... Its An Awesome Game

[bangtail 0]

My Probs With ArmA .........

After Almost A Year Of This Game Been Released

And About 4 Or 5 Patches ... !Damn I Lost Count!

The Game Still Randomly Crashes.

Also After The Big Build Up To QG I Buy The Game

Just To Find Out That The Damn DC-3 Cant

Turn On The Taxiway And It Jumps Around Like

Some Sorta Rabbit

But Other Than That ... Its An Awesome Game

I must admit that I dont usually go in for games like CoD 4 as I prefer OFP/ArmA's size and scope but my hat is off to Infinity Ward as it is probably one of the best Military shooters I have ever played.

Quality from start to finish! You actually feel like you are there. It's a shame that BIS don't apply the same work ethic to their games instead of announcing a new game before they've finished their existing one.

I think many gamers will be waiting before buying ArmA 2. I know I dived in and bought 2 copies of ArmA but that wont be the case this time. Ill have my ear to the ground for a week or two before I buy ArmA 2.

Once bitten, twice shy

E

ArmA sold well on the strength of OFP. ArmA 2 wont sell well on the "strength" of ArmA. Rest assured!

[cross 1]

ArmA sold well on the strength of OFP. ArmA 2 wont sell well on the "strength" of ArmA. Rest assured!

------------

Seconded...

Well..they had thousands of beta testers for Arma2 . So they are now aware of all the engine and network probs. And if they dont have them resolved in Arma2 and have some improvements on AI and gameplay than BI will be in a really tough situation in 2008/2009.

I also wonder how they will succeed by focusing on console, and selling mil-sim to 10 yr old console players. It is known that FPSs and RPG (unlike fighting and sports games) are not console type of games.

So...they used their credit on Arma, and I don't think community will give them another chance as you just said if they fail with Arma2. They will probly go benkrupt.

[TankCommander 3]

My first and only 'complaint' is that after going to a local EB to glance around I see the Queens Gambit box for $40. That's not the problem, it has a god awful cover. I can't believe they used the cover some chump put together in a minute which was stolen from I think dyslexis vid. Worst cover EVER. Perhaps a good indication of the general art direction surrounding Arma? *hints at all the oddly coloured units etc.

[Madus_Maximus 0]

My first and only 'complaint' is that after going to a local EB to glance around I see the Queens Gambit box for $40. That's not the problem, it has a god awful cover. I can't believe they used the cover some chump put together in a minute which was stolen from I think dyslexis vid. Worst cover EVER. Perhaps a good indication of the general art direction surrounding Arma? *hints at all the oddly coloured units etc.

If you mean the 505 box with the guy running then it was decided for BY THE COMMUNITY. People voted for it, it won. Why people then complain about the thing they voted for I don't know. It's not the best cover ever but it's not exactly the worst either.

[TankCommander 3]

As I remember the voting system was flawed in that one person could vote as many times as the liked for any cover. Basically the vote wasn't fair and it turned out the poor looking cover sitting in the back somewhere won because nobody bothered to vote it down. There were a great deal better pictures than the one with pixelated grass in it.

[Un_FriendlyFire 0]

I love ArmA when its going well and working like a functional game. But too many times ive lost a mission because of computer players just spinning round or refusing to get back into their vehicles. The lack of enemy AI also depresses me I thought these kind of bugs got sorted with 1.08?

[Dudester 0]

Madus

Can up explain why multiplayer has hit rock bottom. I ask this because alot of my friends need to know. Some like Arma, but they are short on servers. They try to connect to a ctf and there is none. they ask me "where are they" So what do i say?

[Madus_Maximus 0]

Maybe it's the communities apparent infactuation with evolution coupled with folk cheating on public servers.

[Dudester 0]

Maybe it's the communities apparent infactuation with evolution coupled with folk cheating on public servers.

Thought you could think of somthing better then that, but no problem. I'll tell them.

[Junker 0]

Madus

Can up explain why multiplayer has hit rock bottom. I ask this because alot of my friends need to know. Some like Arma, but they are short on servers. They try to connect to a ctf and there is none. they ask me "where are they" So what do i say?

Id say "START YOUR OWN" because thats what everyone else isnt doing and thats why there are none.

People are just searching for CTF - PvP servers when there is a lack of them, IF YA BUILD IT THEY WILL COME

[.kju 3240]

Dudester there are many reasons:

<ul>

[*]Alpha release state of ArmA

[*]Vista

[*]Bad drivers for vista (mainly GFX cards)

[*]ArmA is a very hardware sensitive game (= very very many problems)

[*]Hard to track down hardware problems of ArmA (= no good error messages of the source of the problem (hard to improve))

[*]Gameplay more """realistic""" and less fun (for the casual gamer)

[*]Animation transition bugs

[*]No mouse control for vehicles and planes

[*]Very very strange and no PvP suited flight model

[*]Massive recoil for some infantry weapons

[*]Late release of the linux server

[*]Bugs related to the MP environment (reassign, beaming issues, etc)

[*]Unfriendly design of the MP elements (lobby, JIP)

[*]No battlefield1942 type maps available

[*]No mokra / saint pierre maps available

[*]Public game destroying cheats

[*]Small players base in general due to target group of ArmA (too complicated)

[*]Complicated controls in ArmA (default setting is not really well suited for the casual gamer)

[*]Sound problems of ArmA (EAX and hardware supported options buggy for many sound cards / drivers - not only the fault of BI ... creative just suckz)

[*]Graphic settings are not comprehensible - no demo function, hard to see what gives you FPS, almost zero explanation of the settings

[*]High hardware requirements of ArmA - ArmA engine isn't scalable to older systems - you need to have a certain technology or you are out

[*]Not tutorial mode for ArmA (the well hidden tut missions don't count) - very hard to get into the game for newcomers

[*]Problems with sprocket or other download portals

[*]Problems with buying ArmA in general

[*]No world wide release

[*]Bad press of magazines

[*]More important bad press by gamers and OFP fans

[*] many many more reasons

[xxbbcc 6]

Dudester there are many reasons:

<ul>

...

[*]Gameplay more """realistic""" and less fun (for the casual gamer)

...

I mostly agree with you Q, but I don't think "more realistic" would be a problem if all the rest were not there. I deeply despise ArmA by now (haven't played it for a long while), but not because of "more realism", but because of all the other issues which make the game nearly unplayable.

I'm at a point where I don't care about even 1.09: it likely won't fix a lot of major issues and it'll probably be the last patch. Because of this, there isn't a lot of chance that I'll even bother downloading it. I might be wrong, but I rather spare the time it takes to download/install than to waste it on this pitiful game.

Coming from OFP, it really makes me sad.

[madine75 0]

[*]High hardware requirements of ArmA - ArmA engine isn't scalable to older systems - you need to have a certain technology or you are out

[*]ArmA is a very hardware sensitive game (= very very many problems)

I've got an older Athlon 2500+ and a 7600GS, which is hardly a high spec machine, and I play ArmA just fine. It was also playable on the 9600Pro I had in the same box previously.

[*]Complicated controls in ArmA (default setting is not really well suited for the casual gamer)

[*]Gameplay more """realistic""" and less fun (for the casual gamer)

I don't consider ArmA a game that's really suitable for the casual gamer. I must confess, I've got a G15 keyboard and I've mapped some of the radio commands to the G-keys, but I like the default key mappings for the most part.

[Sh1fty 0]

I bought ARMA a few days ago, and I have to say that I'm extremely dissapointed. Playing around in the editor with some downloaded addons might be fun for an hour or so, but eventually I wanted to try some of the missions, so I started the convoy ambush mission, which is similar to the co-op mission in the original flashpoint, desert ambush I think it was called.

This is why I dont like armed assault. Even though the game world is huge, the limitations and bugs of the game limits the players action. There are tons of things possible, like blocking the road with the vehicle, ambushing from one of the houses and so on. So I started by going to the woods, and planted one mine and about 3 satchels. The convoy arrived, but the BMP was only immobilized by the mine, accompanied by a weird BIP BIP like a truck going reverse. It didnt even explode, not even after some time. Ofcourse it kills me. So I try again, go to the houses with the car and plant two mines this time. Sure, the BMP is immobilized again, but after like 5 seconds it blows up, killing me with it, even though Im safe in the house, and not standing by a window or anything. So I hide in the grass, and yet the soldiers see me when they disembark, and kill me instantly. And I hide behind a big pinetree, yet they still see me and kill me. By then I'm so mad and frustrated that I actually shut the game down and play some BF2. Yes, BF2. And I do love realistic games, and OFP is still my favorite, but BF2, unlike ARMA, actually works, and it's a forgiving game and I can do whatever I want in that game, without getting stuck, shot when I shouldnt be able to and so on.

And gosh, the main campaign is so bad! What were they thinking of?

rant rant rant

[enven 0]

Pretty ticked about my CTD's lately.

[NeMeSiS 11]

So I try again, go to the houses with the car and plant two mines this time. Sure, the BMP is immobilized again, but after like 5 seconds it blows up, killing me with it, even though Im safe in the house, and not standing by a window or anything. So I hide in the grass, and yet the soldiers see me when they disembark, and kill me instantly.

Patch to 1.08

[Sh1fty 0]

So I try again, go to the houses with the car and plant two mines this time. Sure, the BMP is immobilized again, but after like 5 seconds it blows up, killing me with it, even though Im safe in the house, and not standing by a window or anything. So I hide in the grass, and yet the soldiers see me when they disembark, and kill me instantly.

Patch to 1.08

I have 1.08

[njmatrix 2]

yeah I purchased ArmA twice (once the german version then the dvd from the US) and I can say i would rather play OFP. Waiting on OFP2 i think it will show BIS what they should have done with arma