Patch 1.02 Satisfaction Survey

[suma 8]

I have tried to read the patch feedback thread, however the thread is way too long and disorganized for my busy and systematic brain. :) That is why I start this Patch 1.02 Satisfaction and Stability Surveys.

I will leave comments enabled for now, but please, keep your comments short and factual, otherwise I will disable them and leave it as poll only.

[cm 0]

It was good, but didn't fix enough campaign issues. I still can't finish it because of bugs.

[armatech 8]

Great improvement's but still lots of bugs such as

No sounds inside of SU34 cockpit

Random Terrain has no objects placed (grass,trees,building)

Would like to see the MH6 back

[MBot 0]

The patch was ok. A small step into the right direction.

The campaign seems more playable now but still has bugs. Now being able to somehow play with less bugs unfortunately also opens a clearer view on more elementary design problems of the campaign.

[maddogx 13]

For the most part, I think this patch did a lot of good. Performance has improved for me and the MP experience was definitely better than before. Here are the main things I'd like to see in the next patch:

- Full implementation of FSAA. Performance and visual quality of very high FSAA is much better than 200% fillrate, but I really can't live without my shadows :).

- Better lag compensation (non-local movement interpolation) in multiplayer. From what I can see there is still a "jittering" problem in this area, especially when riding as passenger in a vehicle that is local to another client. The interpolation needs to be smoother.

- Remove LOD pop-in effects, especially on grass. When walking forward, you can really see the grass clutter increase in front of you. This should be made smoother, perhaps with an alpha fade-in.

- Improve grass visibility effects, both for the player (distant grass) and for the AI (viewblocking).

[charliereddog 9]

To tell the truth, i hadn't had the game long enough to notice the difference.

[wiper 0]

Thank you for the patch and for that survey too, Suma !

Voted for the second point, as there still are some issues I hope they will be solved in the near future.

Although I posted them in the Buglist thread I'm glad to take the opportunity to post here the most obvious ones I notice, or still notice in 1.02.

my biggest concerns:

• driving group AI in convoy mode in safe mode on roads still somewhat messy (difficulty setting 'Veteran')
  
• script errors still not displayed in the hint window
  
• FindCover returns nothing (Nullobject)
  
• various stonewall 3d objects at DevilsCastle have wrong collision/firing cylinder shape, cant shoot near of them despite clear LOS ! example screenies )
  
• chopper AI still often too aggressive(?) pitching down resulting in a crash in nearby slopes ahead.
  

others:

• new waterbodies (lakes, ponds): IsSurfaceWater=false; SurfaceType returns type of the ground below.
  
• x FadeSound y seems broken, only 0 or 1 for y seem to be a valid state -> no fading effect at all (since 1.01)
  
• car horns not audible on different machines in MP mode
  
• no more SP respawns possible ? player cant TeamSwitch to another playable unit after death in SP mode - introduced in 1.02 ( bug or feature ??)
  
• chat input line partially overlap with message outputs - introduced in 1.02
  

suggestion:

• option for widening and loosening AI formations - a must have feature for the currently brilliant state of the game, isnt it ? ('very tight', 'tight', 'normal', 'loose' and 'very loose' comes to mind, whereas 'tight' seems to reflect the current situation i'd say.)
  

Edited June 23, 2009 by Wiper
added issues

[Helmut_AUT 0]

Was hoping for a bit more performance improvements (not just option to disable shader, real better performance for same things, also CPU/AI related performance optimizations), and it introduced an error where graphics can be blurry with PostProcessing LOW or OFF (see offical bug tracker item).

But overall, pretty good and going in the right direction.

[von_paulus 0]

Was hoping for a bit more performance improvements (not just option to disable shader, real better performance for same things, also CPU/AI related performance optimizations), and it introduced an error where graphics can be blurry with PostProcessing LOW or OFF (see offical bug tracker item).

In spite of having the same problem I think this was a really good patch. I see great improvements in terms of game fluidity. The game is now much more smooth in my PC.

Thanks.

[S!fkaIaC 10]

1.) still have "Receiving..." bug, but dunno if 1.02 was intended to contain anything to improve this

2.) After 4 hours crCTI on 1.02 I can not say that I recognized a real improvement of AI driving wheeled vehicles. Maybe some more words in the change log what EXACTLY was changed would help us testing. But the overall impression is still that AI drivers bumping and bouncing their way in a fuzzy manner.

3.) I love the MP server selection window that large. Tiny change - huge effect.

4.) Still have the flickering textures many times reported

5.) regognized during a crCTI session a truck that made it somehow on top of a barrier made of those large sand bags. Truck was constantly clipping into the bags and flipping into the air while rolling - was not looking very natural.

Was looking like the flickering and flipping of the 130 in this test setup

6.) "- Added option to disable various post-process effects (bloom, blur etc.) " Thanks for providing this, I prefer to create my own blurr by having a beer or two while playing ;) :D

[mcvittees 0]

I voted 'good', but really I haven't put in enough hours to see all the bugs others have reported.

Remaining issue: AI leader reporting targets hundreds of meters away through buildings / hills (i.e. no line of sight). Presumably enemies can do this also.

I appreciate the fact that you have created this poll Suma - thank you! You guys are doing, and have done, a great job with ArmA2!

Edited June 22, 2009 by mcvittees

[topeira 10]

it's important to make such a poll. BIS needs to know how the patch handles on ppl's rigs. should have been done with 1.01 as well.

i hope the later patches will have polls as well if BIS can learn from the input of the community.

to me, the most important thing that needs to be addressed is the AI. they need to know a better use for cover and see less through grass.

also perhaps spot prone targets slightly slower too. in day light it's hard for me, the player, to spot proned AIs in grass. i expect the AI to have some difficulties too.

thanks for caring, BIS :)

Edited June 22, 2009 by topeira

[buddhabang 10]

I voted 'good', but really I haven't put in enough hours to see all the bugs others have reported.

Remaining issue: AI leader reporting targets hundreds of meters away through buildings / hills (i.e. no line of sight). Presumably enemies can do this also.

I appreciate the fact that you have created this poll Suma - thank you! You guys are doing, and have done, a great job with ArmA2!

Referring to AI seeing through walls and all the rest of it. I can confirm this also, in the campaign mission, my buddies can see enemies for like 500 meters, sometimes much more, and i definitely can't see them. Also while on domination yetserday, a T72 shot me a through a buidling, after all the hard work to get there undetected. It's a little bit frustrating. Cheating AI..lol.

But you guys are doing a great job...Keep up the good work.

One more thing, in the acampaing mission, after i joined NAPA forces, i was

no longer able to command my squad...They'd acknowlege my commands but they won't budge. Please help!

Edited June 22, 2009 by BuddhaBang

[sirex 0]

good patch. dealt with alot of issues.

hoping future patch allows official german->english unlocked.

AI shooting through grass is biggest game problem, imho.

edit: the idea of an alpha fade in of new LOD is brilliant by the way. trees "popping up" sucks.

Edited June 22, 2009 by sirex

[cr0wn3r 10]

Patch installed without a hitch.

Definate improvements. The most obvious and frustrating issues are still with the AI which the patch has maybe improved, but it's still often very flawed. It's often brilliant as well, but still....

troops situational awareness is often very unreal... increadible sighting distance and spotting enemy through thick foliage when LOS is unlikely or just not there.

drivers must have mostly bribed the examiner when they passed their test

helicopters still crash needlessly in to trees when under no enemy pressure

troops really don't like going upstairs

Amazing to get the patch out so quick though. Great work.

[pauliesss 2]

Was hoping for a bit more performance improvements (not just option to disable shader, real better performance for same things, also CPU/AI related performance optimizations), and it introduced an error where graphics can be blurry with PostProcessing LOW or OFF (see offical bug tracker item).

But overall, pretty good and going in the right direction.

+1

I hope there will be more performance improvements, and also, a small bugs need to be fixed too, you can find them in this thread:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=74694

Even small things like these are important in game like Arma2.

Hope there will be some more optimization of drivers from NVidia and ATi too.

Thank you BIS. :)

[^Th0mas^ 10]

In short:

Patch is good. AI driving and bug fixing still needs work.

[laggy 0]

ArmA2 is a true masterpiece, combining the qualities of OFP and ArmA1, while excluding their weaknesses. More than I could ever hope for.

For me and many others the performance issue is the only problem. Minimum/recommended system specs are still not accurate. Hope they soon will be.

[Potatomasher 0]

Overall i was happy that the patch came so soon, but i wished for performance fixes. If that's even possible considering my rig is old.

[SergeK 10]

Installed right away, and I did notice some improvements, BUT! I noticed a significant decrease in FPS. I have a decent rig, AMD 5200 X2, Geforce 9800GT, and 4 gigs ram. And I can barely play Multiplayer an mostly low graphics and Single player on mostly normal, Both of which on Low Resolution.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Not bad, but Arma2 could and should be much better. What about the "Game of the Year" Award? :)

Just curious - did you got the time to play some missions of the campaign and some other sp/mp missions? What kind of things developers from BIS would like to see in Arma2?

[BaseJumper 10]

For multiplayer: Does ARMA 2 depend heavily on CPU or the GPU ?

Or system Memory ?

[vojtzech 2]

Ok here are bug's i noticed in this new patch:

1. AI seems to be worse on foot then it was in 1,1 patch to me. They're stucking and just staring at me sometimes but sometimes they're able to snipe me with smg on long ranges. The big issue is also that they mostly shoot 1 - 3 rounds and then they just stare... Some issues mentioned above were present in the prev version also but i wasn't encountering them that frequently...On the other hand they're better in driving now.

2. While playing "Counter attack" (2nd single mission) mission I was stuck in healing until the injured one died. And that dialog with CDKZ member in the building was started even when I was on different stair level.

3. In 1st single mission the scenario was completed without me saving the CDF prisoners.

4. In 4th single mission while description says "Coordinated attack of multiple USMC groups" I was the only one attacking the rest was sitting like ducks on their start positions. The mision wasn't ended after clearing the vilage on my own. But that's something I remember well from OFP and first Arma. Mission restart will probably solve it

5. While playing Armory on Utes as a BMP gunner - the shader effect (you see darker and a bit blurry thru the gunner view) was still activated even when I dismounted the vehicle or even mounted on a different one. I had to exit armory and enter it againt to make it dissapear. I encountered this one just once by the way.

6.In the mission when you capture Lopotev after seizing Chernogorsk I had a little problem with the final cutscene... after killing the guards and razor being saved by the second SF team where should the mission end. I was still playing, team wasn't responding Akula stood still in the warehouse and everyone were invincible. It wasn't possible to pause the game and return to the menu. I had to ALT - f4. After starting the game again and loading the autosafe it worked.

7. Since update to 1,2 I'm encountering much slower loading times of textures and more graphic glitches such as blinking textures and stuff...

That's everything I can remember. I'm really loving the game even when it needs a bit patching. Thank you BIS. I hope my bug report is going to be helpfull at least a bit :-)

Edit.: And this one I encountered when I paused during the cutscene on the ship. Cutscene started from the beggining and animations were bugged...

Edited June 22, 2009 by Vojtzech
Additon

[Edgecrusher2112 10]

I'm just disappointed with the performance more than anything.

I've got an Intel Core Duo E8400 3Ghz, 4870 x2 and 8GB RAM but it's pretty much a slide show regardless of the settings I use. It's enough to stop me playing the game at the moment really.

[Gonzo89 10]

I'm just disappointed with the performance more than anything.

I've got an Intel Core Duo E8400 3Ghz, 4870 x2 and 8GB RAM but it's pretty much a slide show regardless of the settings I use. It's enough to stop me playing the game at the moment really.

Make sure you defragged after the patch, it massively improved the stuttering for me.