GC 2008 Press Coverage

[Praelium 0]

The new sounds probably come later. At this point I'd rather BIS worry about improving the AI and campaign.

Speaking of the AI, that video looks good. The grass looks a bit strange when you lay down but BIS will surely fix that. The AI looks good, though the real test will be in an urban setting.

[Colossus 2]

I won't worry too much yet, they got a long time ahead. Besides there is probably alot of features that wasn't implanted in the GC08 build because it wasn't complete/playable, like the 3D editor.

[sparks50 0]

Well I do worry, hehe.

[Dwarden 1124]

well i think it's better speak sooner than too late ...

[Brendon 0]

but so far AI looks very promising can't wait to see finished product.  

It looks the same as ArmA to me. You can get the AI units to do that in ArmA with individual commands. I would assume for a scriting guru this would be relativly easy to do. Lying in the middle of a road is not good and pointing your weapon at a fence which is only 10 feet in front of you is also not good.

And for the love of all that is holy can we not have the exact same sounds from ArmA. I've paid for them once already i don't want to have to pay for them again. I could say the same for the animations but i know, WIP.

Yeah the sounds were terrible in ArmA. They should just pay a sound modder to implement some of the best modded sounds from ArmA. Some of those mods for sound in ArmA were beautiful!

[jakerod 254]

but so far AI looks very promising can't wait to see finished product.  

It looks the same as ArmA to me. You can get the AI units to do that in ArmA with individual commands. I would assume for a scriting guru this would be relativly easy to do. Lying in the middle of a road is not good and pointing your weapon at a fence which is only 10 feet in front of you is also not good.

And for the love of all that is holy can we not have the exact same sounds from ArmA. I've paid for them once already i don't want to have to pay for them again. I could say the same for the animations but i know, WIP.

Yeah the sounds were terrible in ArmA. They should just pay a sound modder to implement some of the best modded sounds from ArmA. Some of those mods for sound in ArmA were beautiful!

I would imagine that sound modders get their sounds from various sources which when then (most likely) need to be paid. I highly doubt every sound modder has the capabilities to mod every sound in the game. Who knows though maybe that isn't how it works.

[Brendon 0]

well i think it's better speak sooner than too late ...

Thats why peoples voices are strong here. We rather have them hear us and address these concerns now, since the game is in a Alpha/WIP stage!

[mr.g-c 6]

Suma said once in the Sahrani-Radio Interview, that he can not understand why the community didn't liked the stock Arma Sounds and rather liked one of the, at this point appearing, soundmods (i guess it was Frommz).

A few sentences earlier (or later) he said that he even doesn't play games like Arma at all/don't like them anymore and want to develop/try-out something else.

May sound like "bashing" now (I don't mean it offensive - everyone should be like he is and i absolutely accept that and BIS you still make a unique game which is even 2 year after releas still exiting), but who wonders after such a statement from the developer-lead, who makes (probably) the decisions what to implement and what not ?

I personally feel, that the Sound makes around 30% of the overall athmosphere for me, and thus it is a very very very important issue for me.

I really pray that we will hear for Arma2 something different and that the sound-engine gets tweaked/added new features*, so that at least Sound-Mod makers can do it better.

* New features could be sound altering depending on the actual environment. So when you are in the woods for instance and fire a shot, you can hear the reverb over miles and very long (5sec.+) - ever heard a hunter?

And other sound alterings like having multiple engine sounds (choppers for instance the distinctive turbine-sounds and the blade/airfriction sound).

Regards, Christian

[Maddmatt 1]

Suma said once in the Sahrani-Radio Interview, that he can not understand why the community didn't liked the stock Arma Sounds and rather liked one of the, at this point appearing, soundmods (i guess it was Frommz).

A few sentences earlier (or later) he said that he even doesn't play games like Arma at all/don't like them anymore and want to develop/try-out something else.

That is definitely not what I heard when I listened to the interview

You're really twisting his words around.

He's not the BIS sound guy anyway

But anyway I also hope to see improvements to the sound, not just the sounds themselves but the sound system.

[sparks50 0]

Its actually more usual with non-gaming developers than you might think, it is the cause of many lame game play solutions.

[mr.g-c 6]

Suma said once in the Sahrani-Radio Interview, that he can not understand why the community didn't liked the stock Arma Sounds and rather liked one of the, at this point appearing, soundmods (i guess it was Frommz).

A few sentences earlier (or later) he said that he even doesn't play games like Arma at all/don't like them anymore and want to develop/try-out something else.

That is definitely not what I heard when I listened to the interview

You're really twisting his words around.

He's not the BIS sound guy anyway

But anyway I also hope to see improvements to the sound, not just the sounds themselves but the sound system.

Maybe hes not the soundguy, but he(and Marek) decides what to spend time/money on and what not.. also who knows if the sound-system was not made by someone external? (keyword outsourcing). And he could be the one who decide if to spend additional money for it or not.

Anyway, here the new Arma2 covers for the game-boxes:

http://milpictures.com/english/arma2_2e.html

They really call it "the ultimate military simulation". Hmmm....

I really will start a new wave of suggesting/supporting/military-advisory tomorrow as i see there are a lot of things definitely not "ultimate simulated military wise".

Who ever wants to help me is welcome to do so (guaranteed bash-free )

[Maddmatt 1]

Anyway, here the new Arma2 covers for the game-boxes:

http://milpictures.com/english/arma2_2e.html

They look great to me. I don't like the flags in them though

Nice to see a Russian cover as well.

[jakerod 254]

Anyway, here the new Arma2 covers for the game-boxes:

http://milpictures.com/english/arma2_2e.html

They look great to me. I don't like the flags in them though

Nice to see a Russian cover as well.

Also not a fan of the flags but the rest of it looks good. Cool that there is a russian one. (aka my entire post can be summed up by reading matt's)

[Brendon 0]

I definately like the first box the most. I don't think they should call it ArmA 2 though, asking people on other boards about it, they didn't like the first ArmA and wouldn't buy this one.

Since ArmA one wasn't so good, they need a new name to associate this with. It wouldn't be so bad even if they just called it "Armed Assault: Conflict in Chernarus"

"The Best Military Simulation to Date!"

ArmA is a strange name.

They should hire me as PR!  

[lwlooz 0]

Hello there,

On the Commander Mode:

Very neat command engine you have there. I especially love the RTS like replies when you click on a unit

But I very strongly disagree with hardcoding this into the engine,i.e every mission.

The strong point of this engine is modability , and this can be done by scripts , which also means there is no reason I could not use it

and write my own command engine and marker handling system.Introducing script commands that make that easier of course like one that makes a marker follow a unit/object automatically

or being able to link markers to units in the mission editor is of course a completely different matter

On the AI:

That video makes me even more optimistic .

If you guys at BIS have figured out how to make an AI know what cover is and what "Covering a Sector" means , that is brilliant! That is the basis for proper combat.

But please don't stop there! Reap in the benefits.

- As far as the CPU allows have them constantly check their position for "cover value" even if they are static/holding/defending.

That way AI that gets shot at relocates. (Withing the constraints of their current orders/waypoint of course)

- Even tho it is hard to tell in the video , it seems that the engine still handles the soldiers in a singular fashion.

Or to rephrase that the AI Squad-Leader still hasn't got the ability to give one "task" to more than one soldiers , that means use a selection of soldiers at one time.

I do bet that clever people like you could write a force-allocation algorithm or improve yours so that the AI thinks how many man are required for a certain task.

"How many man need to guard that flank" for example.

But as long as the "4, Engage that all by yourself and suffer death" routine is gone , that would be an improvement .

- Goes along the same lines really , but the AI should try to keep together without bunching up. Easier said than done , I guess.

- Also if the AI can evaluate danger and enemies I guess , it should also be able to do that for friendly units close by and act accordingly. Friendly Forces situational awareness I guess.

On the Command Interface:

From the videos I couldn't notice any changes yet , which isn't that bad since I loved the OFP command bar and command menu , I hope that comes back.

While of course any additional options to the command menu are always welcomed , I guess the 2 main things I am still missing while commanding is

A) Being able to command proper subgroups and

B) a better context-based command-system that goes along with the command-menu (A Dual-System sort of). That means the commanding you do with your mouse clicking on stuff.

A first start would be programming in a popup-menu so you can come up with more advanced context-based orders.

Example: -Select Fireteam/Vehicle or Unit -> Click on Something -> Supressive Fire -> High Rate,Medium Rate,Low Rate.

Silly Example but I hope you get the idea.

Whatever you do the design goal of the rest of ArmA2 development time in my unimportant opinion should be to come as close as possible to a command interface(of course with fitting AI) that even a hardcore PvP CTF gamer would have fun with and would be effective with it.

I apologize for repeating myself constantly over the years , but for me the ultimate state of gaming doesn't mean running with no realistic movement restricitions ,

reloading on the go with a PERFECT!! reloading animations holding my virtual gun in an absolutely awesome manner going past some wounded soldiers screaming in pain

while looking for a female civilian I can pick up with my HMMWV which is modelled true to realizm to the last bolt so that you can open all hatches and d00rs Roxxor! ...

But actually consists of putting down huge amount of AI soldiers commanded by humans in a MP mission who then fight it out in a reasonable manner and I can't do that properly yet.

[Dwarden 1124]

I definately like the first box the most. I don't think they should call it ArmA 2 though, asking people on other boards about it, they didn't like the first ArmA and wouldn't buy this one.

Since ArmA one wasn't so good, they need a new name to associate this with. It wouldn't be so bad even if they just called it "Armed Assault: Conflict in Chernarus"

"The Best Military Simulation to Date!"

ArmA is a strange name.

They should hire me as PR!  

Quote[/b] ]

The word arma in Latin as well as Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese means "weapon".

~ 13th century French knights, arma also referred to 'the valor of a fighter' ...

maybe that's why

[Brendon 0]

Not too good to sell a game with a latin meaning most people don't know!

[moricky 210]

But I very strongly disagree with hardcoding this into the engine,i.e every mission.

Don't worry

[Commando84 0]

I think they will rework the sounds, imo feels like Arma 2 is alot of redesigns and remaking of content. Imo they could have ported over everything from Arma 1 and changed the textures and made a new island and campaign and called it a day. But they didn't, Bis actually put down the work to make a whole bunch of new vehicles like the UH1 chopper and lav apc ect.

I would like to tell Bis everyday how beatiful Arma 2 seems like right now..

btw about developers said being tired if making Ofp / Arma series games , if they told they wasn't so much into fps games its not strange imo, many developers and game designers play ALOT of games and see patterns regular players can't dream of seeing.

In a perfect world the game developers always have "love for the game" but you can't expect them to always be in a constant happy to work feel, they are people too with feelings and they can get tired sometimes too. I've been part of a group in school and we made a game and yeah some mornings weren't so grand as i had imagined game development would be.

[EricM 0]

I don't like the flags on the artboxes... Not only does it add an unnecessary cheesy patriotic factor, but the placement in the composition is weird and distracting...

Actually none of shots seem perfect for me, but I like elements on all of them, especially the "Russian" version (but get rid of the flag too...). And I prefer the "grunt" versions to the "SpecOp Sam Fisher-like ones...".

If there's one flag to be put, it's probably a Chernarus flag... (maybe even burning...).

About the AI videos : not "groundbreaking" but definitely a better feeling. They seem to move better, like knowing what they are doing, use more cover etc... the guy in the middle of the road was weird, but the other one hiding behind the log was nice.

[sparks50 0]

Those covers look great, much better looking than the Arma ones.

[Zendjir 0]

I just watched the AI video....and am not very optimistic .

It looked eerily similar to stock ArmA AI; Lying in the middle of the road, waiting for the enemy. The fight in the forest consisted of the AI-guy running around and going prone once in a while. I did see some use of cover by AI sometimes, but no convincingly better AI . I mean....there are mods in Arma that make the ai better than the one in this video . Let's hope it improves and that this video was not a good representation of actual AI behavior. Otherwise...no ArmaII 4 me.

[mattxr 9]

Anyway, here the new Arma2 covers for the game-boxes:

http://milpictures.com/english/arma2_2e.html

They look great to me. I don't like the flags in them though

Nice to see a Russian cover as well.

I like the one with no flag, the huey and the building and the 2 soliders.. thats hardcore.. i hope that cover comes around my way..

[Viiiper 0]

They really call it "the ultimate military simulation". Hmmm....

I really will start a new wave of suggesting/supporting/military-advisory tomorrow as i see there are a lot of things definitely not "ultimate simulated military wise".

Who ever wants to help me is welcome to do so (guaranteed bash-free    )

Ultimate as in the last of... no more the end, as no one else is making public military simulators, I would say it's a fair statement.

viii

[Shadow NX 1]

Great covers there, really well done.

I can live with the flags, i guess in europe we get the no flag one.

Hopefully they give the box a light 3d stamping effect and bit gloss, would surely look good in the stores next to all the other game boxes.