ArmA II: Operation Arrowhead discussion thread

[manberries 0]

Mosin–Nagant would be great.

... Why would a nearly century old rifle that the Russians haven't used for nearly 35 years be a good thing to add? The above suggestions of actually used bolt action rifles is a much better idea. The reasons? They are actually used, far more accurate, and are an equivalent to the m24(and m40). I mean its super rare for even the most outdated armies or insurgents to use a mosin-nagant, so rare it makes military news. It would look pretty stupid to see people running around with a mosin nagant.

On that note, the RPD is somewhat on the fence in that regard as well. Some older armies do use the RPD, but the RPK is far more widely used. If you look at the current list of countries that have it in service, none of them include soviet break off countries. If I am correct that Takistan is a soviet break off that is near Tajikistan (notice the resemblance) then that point is relevant, if it is not then it makes some amount of sense to see a RPD in that area (still a bit iffy because of the list of countries that have it in service, mostly the Asian ones actually use it) .

[That guy 10]

From what we know, there might not be regular forces (OPFOR) in OA. what we do know, there will be insurgents based on Afghani people. insurgents in Afghanistan use any number of old Russian weapons including the AK, RPG, mosin, RPD, and even british weapons like the old .303 SMLE. Hell in some of the really under developed areas they might still use black powder rifles

besides just because a weapon is old does not mean it is ineffective. It lobs a large chunk of lead very fast at a specific area.

[Lhowon 10]

From what we know, there might not be regular forces (OPFOR) in OA.

If you look here and specifically in the "Features document" PDF listed there you will see a list of features:

FEATURES

2 NEW GAME ENVIRONMENTS

Takistan: 160 square km of Central Asia modeled with extreme

precision using real world data

Zargabad: 70 square km of extremely realistic environment

including full areas of dense urban CQB confl icts.

DEEP STORYLINE

The chance to enlist in various roles within the US Army from

basic infantryman to pilot and tank crew.

NEW FACTIONS

Amazing variety of local army and guerrillas.

NEW WEAPONS AND VEHICLES

AH-64 Apache, MH-47 Chinook, AH/MH-6 Littlebird, Stryker

variants, M3 Bradley, T-55, BTR-60, M113, UH-1H, FN FAL, FN

SCAR variants and many more.

ARMA II WARFARE MODE

Improved large scale multiplayer experience with elements of

real time strategy gameplay.

STANDALONE RELEASE

Operation Arrowhead does not require the original ARMA II.

^ See the red text. I suppose the local Army could be BLUFOR though...

Edited October 3, 2009 by Lhowon

[That guy 10]

There MIGHT NOT be regular forces in the OPFOR (unconfirmed at this point)

like you said, the regulars might be blue or Independent

[dm 9]

there will be insurgents based on Afghani people.

Am I the only one looking forward to that? I think it will be an excellent challenge (assuming they can sort some animations out) to try and tell the difference between non-combatants and insurgents. Frustrating? Yes. A challenge? Also yes.

Will also give good oppertunity to make missions/campaigns mirroring the difficulties going on over there at the moment. Rather than just trundling in guns blazing, you really have to think about what you're doing.

But ofcourse, because its still a game, we have the option to nuke it from orbit, just to be sure :D

insurgents in Afghanistan use any number of old Russian weapons including the AK, RPG, mosin, RPD, and even british weapons like the old .303 SMLE.

Yup, and I for one am ALL FOR some more variation.

M4's, AKM's (way more common than the 47) and the like are getting DULL. Every game and his dog has them, I'd like to see stuff like FAL's, mosins, G3's and the sort, get something different to stare at all the time in there!

[myshaak 0]

Hey guys! A couple of minutes ago some ArmA2:AH info ran in the Czech TV game programme.

See here:

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/209572242600026-game-page/?streamtype=WM3

(Not a good stream, maybe someone will find it (or upload it) on youtube...

The info is mainly in the second part of the show.

Since it is in czech, I'll provide you with some highlights:

• Jan jokes about FArmA being an actual sequel to ArmA2, full of a lot of cute animals, no more shooting, taking care of chickens, doggies and sheep instead :p
  
• AH will contain new story, new environment (fictional Afganistan-style country), new units, vehicles, weapons, choppers, tanks...
  
• The ACR (army of Czech Republic) will take a small role in story (based on the czech units serving in Afghanistan; you may notice some WIP stuff here - unfinished shadows and soldiers standing through the floor of the vehicle in the starting mo-cap position)
  
• The story is already complete, they're only tweaking it to fit it into campaign as best they can
  
• It takes cca 2 days to write a story/plot for one mission (meaning - not scripting a mission!)
  
• New "Bagpack" system, some kind of equipment management of team-mates (wohooo!) and most likely an extension of inventory (just my guess)
  
• Now some really HOT stuff: not only the game will allow random weather and random time settings.. you'll also be able to fight in a completely random town! The designer is working on a procedure that will allow a random town generation! (CQB ftw, yay!)
  
• The players will be allowed to tweak some town generation setting and even save it to get the same result again (some seed variation, or something like that)
  
• Another HOT stuff: FLIR showoff! They show it off on a cold Apache and pointing out the parts that starts glowing when they started the engines (with a little time acc on)
  
• Soldiers will be also visible on FLIR (well, duh...)
  
• Takistan (VERY hilly, cca 160km2), elevation map and vegetation map (precise map created by German botanists showing where and what kind of trees grows there, used for vegetation covering the terrain)
  
• Time period: between spring and summer (some trees will be blooming)
  
• Linda demonstration (also very HOT stuff), mathematics at it's best
  
• Right before the end of the show the reviewer comes to the studio all beaten up... claiming he got that for asking mil-sim creators too many stupid questions (my guess: he got hit by the Placebo-Hammer)
  

The reviewer says they'll keep on monitoring the ArmA2:AH developement very closely and will provide us with new info when possible.

Edited October 3, 2009 by Myshaak
some typos, making it more readable..

[nkenny 1057]

Any bugfixes or features of consequence?

- Grenade Launcher shooting by AI

- Streamlining of control interface; which has tons of redundant buttons and presented terribly.

- revision of the AI interface; which has seen no changes to accommodate post-Iraq warfare.

- Vehicles and damage; 9mms can kill tanks :P

- etc etc

'new units' really mean nothing if the way the are utilized isn't updated.

[Muahaha 10]

Hey guys! A couple of minutes ago some ArmA2:AH info ran in the Czech TV game programme.

See here:

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/209572242600026-game-page/?streamtype=WM3

(Not a good stream, maybe someone will find it (or upload it) on youtube...

The info is mainly in the second part of the show.

Since it is in czech, I'll provide you with some highlights:

• Jan jokes about FArmA being an actual sequel to ArmA2, full of a lot of cute animals, no more shooting, taking care of chickens, doggies and sheep instead :p
  
• AH will contain new story, new environment (fictional Afganistan-style country), new units, vehicles, weapons, choppers, tanks...
  
• You'll take a role of a soldier serving in the ACR (army of Czech Republic), based on the czech units serving in Afghanistan (you may notice some WIP stuff here - unfinished shadows and soldiers standing through the floor of the vehicle in the starting mo-cap position)
  
• The story is already complete, they're only tweaking it to fit it into campaign as best they can
  
• It takes cca 2 days to write a story/plot for one mission (meaning - not scripting a mission!)
  
• New "Bagpack" system, some kind of equipment management of team-mates (wohooo!) and most likely an extension of inventory (just my guess)
  
• Now some really HOT stuff: not only the game will allow random weather and random time settings.. you'll also be able to fight in a completely random town! The designer is working on a procedure that will allow a random town generation! (CQB ftw, yay!)
  
• The players will be allowed to tweak some town generation setting and even save it to get the same result again (some seed variation, or something like that)
  
• Another HOT stuff: FLIR showoff! They show it off on the cold Apache and pointing out the parts that starts glowing when they started (a little time acc on)
  
• Soldiers will be also visible on FLIR (well, duh...)
  
• Takistan (VERY hilly, cca 160km2), elevation map and vegetation map (precise map created by German botanists showing where and what kind of trees grows there, used for vegetation covering the terrain)
  
• Time period: between spring and summer (some trees will be blooming)
  
• Linda demonstration (also very HOT stuff), mathematics at it's best
  
• Right before the end of the show the reviewer comes to the studio all beaten up... claiming he got that for asking mil-sim creators too many stupid questions (my guess: he got hit by the Placebo-Hammer)
  

The reviewer says they'll keep on monitoring the ArmA2:AH developement very closely and will provide us with new info when possible.

AWESOME! Can I pre-order now???

I just hope and pray they add After action review also. Can't wait...

[El Kostlivec 10]

[*]You'll take a role of a soldier serving in the ACR (army of Czech Republic), based on the czech units serving in Afghanistan (you may notice some WIP stuff here - unfinished shadows and soldiers standing through the floor of the vehicle in the starting mo-cap position)

If I am right, he just mentioned that ACR will take some small role in story, not that you wil take a role of ACR soldier.

[myshaak 0]

Any bugfixes or features of consequence?

- Grenade Launcher shooting by AI

- Streamlining of control interface; which has tons of redundant buttons and presented terribly.

- revision of the AI interface; which has seen no changes to accommodate post-Iraq warfare.

- Vehicles and damage; 9mms can kill tanks :P

- etc etc

'new units' really mean nothing if the way the are utilized isn't updated.

I transcribed pretty much everything they said, so.. what I wrote they said and what I didn't write they didn't say.. but that doesn't mean they do not plan any other features for AH. The reviewer most likely was not a person creeping on this forum so he didn't know what we would kill to know..

[thesun 14]

AFAIK there was no mention about us playing as our (czech) soldiers, only that they'll be there, tha main story will be about US Army.

[myshaak 0]

If I am right, he just mentioned that ACR will take some small role in story, not that you wil take a role of ACR soldier.

Yep, you're right, I tried to translate it on the fly and most likely made some more mistakes, nothing crucial, hopefully... Anyway, corrected...

And welcome to the forums ;)

AFAIK there was no mention about us playing as our (czech) soldiers, only that they'll be there, tha main story will be about US Army.

Yeah, yeah, see above... :)

[Bush 0]

Did you notice that they had a couple of xbox360 dev kits there, for example at 12:44.

[p75 10]

Excellent vid...

[mr_centipede 31]

Is there a youtube version?

[myshaak 0]

Is there a youtube version?

Not that I know of.. :(

[4 IN 1 0]

Did you notice that they had a couple of xbox360 dev kits there, for example at 12:44.

maybe instead of porting ARMA2 to 360, they plan to port ARMA2:AH?

still great news none the less

[TimRiceSE 10]

maybe instead of porting ARMA2 to 360, they plan to port ARMA2:AH?

still great news none the less

That would make sense, since (hopefully) OA will be the point where the "maturity" of the engine makes it pretty much bug free and optimised....

[-=seany=- 5]

Thanks for translation Myshaak. Sounds sweet, love the sound of this town generation, very cool and innovative.

[myshaak 0]

Thanks for translation Myshaak. Sounds sweet, love the sound of this town generation, very cool and innovative.

NP.. and yeah, I like it too. I wonder how much polishing will this feature get. So far it just seems like placing buildings close to each other - very cool, but still not cool enough :) I believe that A2 devs said in one of their earlier videos that they have spent some time studying infrastructure and how do the cities grow.. so I hope there will not only be buildings in what seems to be a reasonable town pattern, but also roads AI will be able to use and maybe some vegetation.

And again, my dream of "ArmA Island Generator" is coming closer to reality! It would be cool to have a randomly generated terrain, set ground textures based on the surroundings, height and elevation, put some towns and villages into suitable areas, let them grow a little, connect them with roads, add foliage... SimArmACity...? ArmA Tycoon...? Aaaargh, I've got to stop dreaming! :D

[Zipper5 74]

Is someone able to put that video on to YouTube? I'm really wanting to watch it, but for some reason, the video plays for a few seconds and then it stops, and the audio continues to play. No new video footage is displayed. I've let it buffer for a while, but it makes no difference.

Really want to see the FLIR. :(

[MehMan 0]

Meh, I want some info that I actually don't know already. I want to see engine and design changes. Not just new content.

[Flash Thunder 10]

I want an estimated release date because I can't wait for this game to work properly the gameplay is going to be very immersive especially with FLIR and LINDA. :D

If I recall correctly one of the BIS Devs said that when Arrow Head Ships the engine will be almost fully optimized and complete, thats when I think BIS will do a port to consoles, and thats when my PC will be able to run this game well on Awesome graphic settings. :dancehead:

[Steakslim 1]

I want an estimated release date because I can't wait for this game to work properly the gameplay is going to be very immersive especially with FLIR and LINDA. :D

If I recall correctly one of the BIS Devs said that when Arrow Head Ships the engine will be almost fully optimized and complete, thats when I think BIS will do a port to consoles, and thats when my PC will be able to run this game well on Awesome graphic settings. :dancehead:

We may see a patch around the release incorperating any optimizations that are applicable to ArmA2 as well, since ArmA2 units and maps will be portable to OA. It'd make sense at least since they mentioned that is what they were going to do when patching the two.

[wardi8880 10]

Is someone able to put that video on to YouTube? I'm really wanting to watch it, but for some reason, the video plays for a few seconds and then it stops, and the audio continues to play. No new video footage is displayed. I've let it buffer for a while, but it makes no difference.

Really want to see the FLIR. :(

I have the same problem, but if you right click on the video and select options, and under "network buffering" switch from "use default buffering" to "buffer x seconds" and change the value to 60 (the max possible i think) you can watch a lot more of the video (60 s maybe). if you buffer from different points in the video u shud be able to watch the whole thing lol :)

im using google chrome btw

Edited October 3, 2009 by wardi8880