Some ?s before I buy ArmA II in the U.S....

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

Hello All,

Those of you have SUPERB memories may recall what's written below, as it was first keyboarded on April 16, 2007! A few modifications have been made to the original post, but the core concerns are still there.

My concerns for ArmA II are the same as they were for the first ArmA, which I sadly never felt compelled to purchase due to the answers I recieved. So, anyway, read away, and I look forward to reading your answers. Thanks in advance (and I've missed you guys!).

With the release of ArmA II in the U.S. being so close, I'm looking for some feedback before I consider buying the title. I've been a long time OFP fan, but our money situation is pretty slim right now, so I'm not just going to run out and buy it because of its relationship with a game I know and love.

(1) Does the AI effectively lean around cover?

(2) Is the AI capable of effective close quarter combat?

(3) Do they take advantage of enterable structures during a battle?

(4) Can the AI strafe? Please note that I am not hoping for "Counter Strike" or "Half-Life" type strafing tactics, but something that is realistic. In OFP the AI could never strafe so they were stuck doing their painfully "slow pivot on heels" maneuver before they could bring their gun to bear on their target, when it would've been much quicker and much more believable for them to strafe just a teeny tiny bit to take out an enemy in a more reasonable and sane fashion.

(5) Do the AI scan their environments more thoroughly than in OFP?

(6) Do the AI wisely use smoke grenades?

(7) Do they use suppressing fire, and suffer from its effects when directed towards them?

(8) Does aiming down one's sights "disorient" the player? I found that OFP's greatest drawback was how easy it was to lose one's target when the weapon's sights were brought up to the eyes, especially in close quarters battle situations.

(9) How does the AI compare to OFP's when the revolutionary SLX mod is being used? SLX elevated OFP in a major way to me in regards to the AI, and in creating a believable combat environment where AI is trying to rescue downed comrades. How does ArmA II compare?

(10) How robust is the ballistics system? For example, is small arms fire capable of penetrating 2+ layers of interior walls, trees, and the like? I'm hoping that penetration values extend far further than in ArmA, as rounds will certainly penetrate more than cardboard and tin shacks!

As one can see, my concern is not so much on graphics, as gameplay is much more important to me.

I'll be looking forward to your replies!

Kyle

June 26, 2009

[EvenLease 11]

Hello All,

Those of you have SUPERB memories may recall what's written below, as it was first keyboarded on April 16, 2007! A few modifications have been made to the original post, but the core concerns are still there.

My concerns for ArmA II are the same as they were for the first ArmA, which I sadly never felt compelled to purchase due to the answers I received. So, anyway, read away, and I look forward to reading your answers. Thanks in advance (and I've missed you guys!).

With the release of ArmA II in the U.S. being so close, I'm looking for some feedback before I consider buying the title. I've been a long time OFP fan, but our money situation is pretty slim right now, so I'm not just going to run out and buy it because of its relationship with a game I know and love.

(1) Does the AI effectively lean around cover?

(2) Is the AI capable of effective close quarter combat?

(3) Do they take advantage of enter able structures during a battle?

(4) Can the AI strafe? Please note that I am not hoping for "Counter Strike" or "Half-Life" type strafing tactics, but something that is realistic. In OFP the AI could never strafe so they were stuck doing their painfully "slow pivot on heels" maneuver before they could bring their gun to bear on their target, when it would've been much quicker and much more believable for them to strafe just a teeny tiny bit to take out an enemy in a more reasonable and sane fashion.

(5) Do the AI scan their environments more thoroughly than in OFP?

(6) Do the AI wisely use smoke grenades?

(7) Do they use suppressing fire, and suffer from its effects when directed towards them?

(8) Does aiming down one's sights "disorient" the player? I found that OFP's greatest drawback was how easy it was to lose one's target when the weapon's sights were brought up to the eyes, especially in close quarters battle situations.

(9) How does the AI compare to OFP's when the revolutionary SLX mod is being used? SLX elevated OFP in a major way to me in regards to the AI, and in creating a believable combat environment where AI is trying to rescue downed comrades. How does ArmA II compare?

(10) How robust is the ballistics system? For example, is small arms fire capable of penetrating 2+ layers of interior walls, trees, and the like? I'm hoping that penetration values extend far further than in ArmA, as rounds will certainly penetrate more than cardboard and tin shacks!

As one can see, my concern is not so much on graphics, as game play is much more important to me.

I'll be looking forward to your replies!

Kyle

June 26, 2009

1. Yes, they kill me alot like that :(

2. YES! god again i get killed alot because of this.

3. Not to sure, I've seem a couple AI go threw a big house'ish looking building so good question. lol

4. not sure what you mean. i know AI turn rather quickly to suppress and murder me.

5. God yes! Its hard to even get up on enemies that turn, look around, turn, look around. I tend to get smoked pretty good!(move cover to cover!!)

6. Hehe. i was gunning at a squad of enemies on a multiplayer match and saw a smoke grenade get thrown out, not sure what happened after that(damn sniper)

7. There suppress like NO other! i was trying to kill a AI leaning around a corner and he just kept shooting in my direction it was SO hard to get a shot on him!!

8,9,10 will get back to you on that. (or someone else will answer better then me)

[BaseJumper 10]

Just download the ARMA 2 demo !

Its available everywhere now! including STEAM.

only about 3 Gigabytes in size..

Try the demo out yourself, today!

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

I downloaded the demo last night before I went to bed, as it was going to take two hours to complete.

Tried installing it half an hour ago, but it refuses to install due to an error that's worded like "all files aren't going to the same directory..." What the...?!

How can the installer not put all the files where it wants it to?

And now that I know that the AI actually leans around corners...! Aagh! SO frustrating!

[odjob 0]

Tried installing it half an hour ago, but it refuses to install due to an error that's worded like "all files aren't going to the same directory..." What the...?!

How can the installer not put all the files where it wants it to?

Try a downloadmanager or torrent, downloading (big files) with IE or Firefox seems to corrupt the file.

[dmakatra 1]

(1) Sometimes, yes. Not always. But that is acceptable, seeing the dynamic structure of this type of games.

(2) "Capable" is a difficult word. They still suffer from problems, but it's at least ten times better than OFP/ArmA.

(3) They navigate through buildings better if ordered to do so, but I don't think they autonomously take advantage of them.

(4) Yes.

(5) Yes. They cover each others arcs, move tactically. It all depends on their combat mode though. A lot of people that are complaining about the AI are just ignorant and don't realize how to properly command and/or setup the AI.

(6) No. Haven't seen anyone do it anyway.

(7) Yes. Makes fire fights really interesting actually. This feature actually gets your adrenaline flowing even after 8 years in the series. :)

(8) Don't know how you mean. You can always enable crosshair/shrink the floating zone if that's what you mean.

(9) Haven't played SLX in OFP and only briefly in ArmA, but I can say that I am overly impressed by the ArmA 2 AI. I myself had AI improvements as the no-contested no. 1 priority of improvements wanted in ArmA as well as ArmA 2. ArmA's lack of improvements quite disappointed, but ArmA 2 as more than made up for that disappointment.

(10) I haven't checked it thoroughly, but it seems improved compared to ArmA. This combined with the suppression makes for really intense fire fights. :)

[binkster 0]

I downloaded the demo last night before I went to bed, as it was going to take two hours to complete.

Tried installing it half an hour ago, but it refuses to install due to an error that's worded like "all files aren't going to the same directory..." What the...?!

How can the installer not put all the files where it wants it to?

And now that I know that the AI actually leans around corners...! Aagh! SO frustrating!

Sounds like you need all the downloaded files in the same directory... Like what ever files it came with plus the installer.

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

Thanks for all of the detailed feedback I'm getting on my gameplay questions! If I get a few more as detailed and as positive as I've been getting then it's a sure bet that I'll get my hands on ArmA 2 as soon as I can afford it! :)

And that will be quite a feat, as I haven't purchased a brand new game at "newly stocked" prices in, what, five or six years? :D

I'm sad to hear that Firefox and IE have the tendency to corrupt large downloads. The very thought of having to bit torrent it... I'm going to start that method ASAP, but it'll be quite a while till it's done downloading. :(

[MulleDK19 21]

Thanks for all of the detailed feedback I'm getting on my gameplay questions! If I get a few more as detailed and as positive as I've been getting then it's a sure bet that I'll get my hands on ArmA 2 as soon as I can afford it! :)

And that will be quite a feat, as I haven't purchased a brand new game at "newly stocked" prices in, what, five or six years? :D

I'm sad to hear that Firefox and IE have the tendency to corrupt large downloads. The very thought of having to bit torrent it... I'm going to start that method ASAP, but it'll be quite a while till it's done downloading. :(

Just get a real browser. Get Chrome.

[doc_no1 0]

Firefox 3.5 i used for downloading the demo from gamershell.com...no problems with install or such,,,dont blame firefox might not be their fault. :)

Demo rocks.

[BaseJumper 10]

Get the ARMA 2 demo from STEAM..

http://store.steampowered.com/app/33920/

[echo1 0]

Just get a real browser. Get Chrome.

Yup, an unfinished beta-grade rip-off of Opera with serious question-marks about privacy is such a better choice compared with Firefox :icon_rolleyes:

One thing of many I like about the AI compared with OFP/ArmA is that they don't always go prone to engage an enemy (if they see you close by, they'll shoot while standing up). Seems so much less robotic than the behavior of the original games.

[binkster 0]

Free Download manager works great.... This has increased all my download speeds too rather than using IE or Firefox. It can make several connections to download. I suggest FDM for anything not just downloading ArmA2 Demo.

[Kyle_K_ski 1]

Thanks for all of the advice. With SO many people using bit torrent to download it, it took just as long to get it that way as it did from my first method. And this time, it worked!

Unfortunately, it looks like I won't be able to play this game in a reasonable fashion until I get a new rig, which won't be for a VERY VERY VERY long time.

The first ArmA looked quite good during the demo, so...

I'm going to post a question here that I might create a separate thread for in the first ArmA's forum. Here it is:

Since I can now get ArmA, the Gold Edition for super cheap, is it worth the purchase with the mods that have been released for it, or am I better off reinstalling OFP with the mods that were beloved by me?

And, if the first ArmA is highly recommended, could anyone advise to me The Best mods that improve...

(1) AI behavior

(A) Use suppressing fire

(B) Lean around corners/edges

© Fight within structures soundly

(D) Rescue/administer first aid to comrades

(E) Replaces or enhances vocal interactions between

units during combat (for ALL sides)

(2) Ballistic properties

(A) Rounds penetrate believably

(B) Affected by wind

(3) General physics

I'm not looking for something super duper robust here, but certainly something that will address some of the silly things I saw in ArmA's demo, such as tanks driving ON TOP OF wooden road barrier posts instead of snapping them like toothpicks or driving them completely down into the ground.

*It might appear that I'm looking for a realism mod, and if all of the above fits the description, and you know of a good realism mod, then I'm all for your words of wisdom regarding it.

(4) Awesome "must play" missions where the player's involvement is as an infantryman.

(5) Awesome "must play" campaigns where the player's involvement is as an infantryman.

While I enjoy the other avatar aspects of OFP, my one true point of interest is infantry.

Thanks again for your help, and I look forward to your replies. Yours!

Kyle

:D

Edited June 29, 2009 by Kyle_K_ski