Partially destroyed buildings in ArmA2... good, bad?

[madrussian 347]

Still awaiting my 505 copy (I'm in NA)... I've seen a bit about there not being many enterable buildings, etc, which is a definately a bummer.

But what I'm really dying to hear about is the partially destuctable building system.

A few general questions:

1. So roughly what percentage of buildings can be partially destroyed?

2. Do all enterable buildings undergo partial destruction?

3. Do any non-enterable buildings undergo partial destruction?

4. How many phases of destruction do buildings go through?

5. What's your overall impression of the partial building destruction system?

Some modding related ones:

6. How difficult does it appear to create your own partially destructable buildings, or convert single destruction stage buidlings into multiple stage versions?

7. Are any mod teams working on this already?

8. How many of you think we will eventually get entire cities of custom enterable partially destructable buildings from the mod community?

Any info will surely help out with this long and trying wait. Cheers! :)

[maddogx 13]

1. I'd say over half the buildings in the game can be partially destroyed. Most larger buildings in the major towns only have a single stage, while many smaller buildings have several descruction areas.

2. From what I've experienced, yes, but haven't tested it extensively.

3. Yes, absolutely. The ruins are then partially enterable, though there appear to be some geometry problems with certain buildings.

4. Most buildings can partially collapse in two or three different places before they collapse completely.

5. It needs some visual tweaking so that the destruction looks more natural, but otherwise it's not bad.

6. Depending on how much fidelity you want to put into it, it could potentilly take a lot of work. I'm 99.99% sure there are no physics involved, so all visible destruction effects would need to be created through animations and seperate destruction models.

7. No idea.

8. In my opinion it could be a while yet. It really depends on when we get the new tools.

[dvolk 10]

5. My impression after blowing up a building and walking 10ft into the air on invisible rubble has mostly been :rolleyes:

[madrussian 347]

Thanks for the responses. :)

50% of all buildings having partial destruction is actually way more than I had anticipated! Very cool indeed. :D

3. Yes, absolutely. The ruins are then partially enterable, though there appear to be some geometry problems with certain buildings.

So it sounds to me like non-enterable buildings go down all at once, and then are replaced with one of a number of ruins models... so you can't chip away at any un-enterable buildings, piece at a time?

I recall seeing that video a while back where they shot the corner of an solid un-enterable building out without destroying it completely, and then took cover in the newly created nook carved out from the solid building. It's definately not like that then?

Also, these resulting ruins, are they unique to the building that got destoryed, or does it seem very random what shows up when a non-enterable building goes down?

Regarding enterable partially destructable buildings, what's the survival rate like when a unit is inside and something takes out only a chunck of the building? Does it seem to matter where in the building you were located then the chunk goes kaboom?

[Finios 10]

I can't answer any questions as I don't have the game yet, but I wanted to point out this YouTube vid I saw the other day that shows the different stages of building destruction:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEGqQ4quLJM

[madrussian 347]

Nice video...

That appeared to be a non-enterable building getting chipped away at. Well one big chip at least. :D I would have liked to see what was left over when the whole thing went down, but he turned wawy a little too quick at that point.

[Cellus 10]

3. Yes, absolutely. The ruins are then partially enterable, though there appear to be some geometry problems with certain buildings.

I've entered several whole buildings and then had to climb over thin air. I assume this is the 'rubble' from if it were collapsed. Have had to crawl along with my head on the ceiling a few times. I don't know how many have ruins before they collapse completely like a controlled demo op, but there were more put in the 1.01 release, so I gather there is more and better on the way.

[djewt1 0]

I blew off the top of a control tower with machinegunners on it on a airfield, definitely a "wow that's cool" moment.

[Majormauser 0]

I think they improved quite a bit.