ArmA II: Operation Arrowhead discussion thread

[Maio 293]

Their insignia is the 82nd Airborne Division. OMFGDELTA doesn't wear unit insignia when deployed.

Well the guys that got off the little birds did not have any noticeable insignia so I guess their delta .

[cm. 10]

Coooooooooooooooooooool

Thanks DM!

[EricM 0]

so I guess they're delta .

Does it mean we will have Chuck Norris to play with ?

If so, the takibans are soooo screwd...

[SWAT_BigBear 0]

The new buildings with all the ladders look interesting.

I hope AI utilizes them.

[Tonci87 163]

I hope the ladders arent just Eye candy, but really functional

[^Th0mas^ 10]

I know that Arrowhead is a ArmA2 expansion, but since its a "stand alone game" is there any hope that BIS have made the AI a lot better and fixed many bugs? Its Arrowhead the reason why they taking so long with 1.06 patch? I think that they might want to release 1.06 for ArmA 2 and Arrowhead at the same time.

[Steakslim 1]

Taking so long with 1.06? 1.05 just came out (figuratively), think of how long it took between that and 1.04.

[Whoatherefatty 10]

I would guess we might get 1.06 with the OA launch.

[Alex72 1]

I hope the ladders arent just Eye candy, but really functional

Looks like a lot of flat rooftops and balconies wich means hopefully we can spawn once again enemies on top there like in ArmA1 with the UPS scripts by Kronzky. Yeah yeah i know i mention it a lot, but i really miss that in ARMA2 with the great sloped roofs. :) Hard to get enemies on them hehe. Im sure the ladders work however if the AI use them remains to be seen. They do use ladders since years back just maybe not in a clever way.

Ive been hunted by AI coming after me on ladders although not often. And its prolly not smart coming after someone with a weapon up a ladder where he got up first.... :D

Th0mas: is there any hope that BIS have made the AI a lot better and fixed many bugs?

Umm ofcourse bugs have been squashed. Probably not all, but with BIS its an ongoing process compared to many others... And we are getting new features, functions and tech in OA wich might have some bugs as well due to their brand new. However we got a great system here wich you seem to have missed. Its about bug reporting. Click my signature picture and find out.

Edited March 30, 2010 by Alex72

[Liam!!!! 10]

This is something that has been bugging me for a while now...

But before I go onto it;

Forum police/Fanboys I will not satisfy your troll needs by replying to you if you talk to me like sh*t.

We are (or most of us anyway) paying for OA that basically just contains things theexcellent modding community have already given us for free (ACU US troops SCARs a more realistic looking FLIR, Des coloured Humvees Strykers Bradleys Insurgents desert map Littlebirds German army I could go on forever) and you are all so eager to soak this up.

May I ask why? :S

Please no stupid replys like "You don't have to buy it..." I know, I just can't see the logic behind this.

[SASrecon 0]

dont expect mirracles, we are talking about 1-10% better performance. Depends on HW.

Maybe we'll get even more, we can hopefully say goodbye to those red trees in the desert environment :D

We are (or most of us anyway) paying for OA that basically just contains things theexcellent modding community have already given us for free (ACU US troops SCARs a more realistic looking FLIR, Des coloured Humvees Strykers Bradleys Insurgents desert map Littlebirds German army I could go on forever) and you are all so eager to soak this up.

BIS-made stuff is always the best. Their job is to deliver this content and they have specialised design tools to make it perfect.

Whereas most modders are part-time modders, doing it as a hobby, not neccessarily delivering perfect content for example; the f-117a nighthawk mod was a project made till alpha stage and wasn't completed because fortran got bogged down with real-life matters.

And also with StalkerGB's british units, some guys were passing them-off as their own mods; since then he has had a lack of motivation to release fully-developed mods. (no offence meant)

With BIS this can't happen as they have an excellent anti-piracy system and their motivation is probably their pay, whereas modders here only recieve praise and possibly very small donations.

[xmongx 0]

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to support BIS financially.

[jakerod 254]

This is something that has been bugging me for a while now...

But before I go onto it;

Forum police/Fanboys I will not satisfy your troll needs by replying to you if you talk to me like sh*t.

We are (or most of us anyway) paying for OA that basically just contains things theexcellent modding community have already given us for free (ACU US troops SCARs a more realistic looking FLIR, Des coloured Humvees Strykers Bradleys Insurgents desert map Littlebirds German army I could go on forever) and you are all so eager to soak this up.

May I ask why? :S

Please no stupid replys like "You don't have to buy it..." I know, I just can't see the logic behind this.

If you really think about it, if we all saw it as illogical we never would be playing ArmA II. We would've had no reason to buy Resistance, no reason to buy ArmA, no reason to buy ArmA: QG, and no reason to buy ArmA II if you think about it that way. All they did was expand on units, terrain, AI, and game features exactly like what Arrowhead is going to do for this. Some expanded on them more than others but ultimately that's all they did. And I have been enjoying them ever since.

Edit: There is also the problem of incompatibility between addons sometimes meaning that maybe I can't use the little birds with something else for one reason or another. Someone might put armor values on their new T-95 ridiculously high and never fix it making it pretty much invulnerable to everything. Not much fun fighting against a T-95 if you can't destroy it. I'm not sure if this is still a problem or not in ArmA II since I don't get addons very often but it was a big problem back in the OFP days.

Edited March 30, 2010 by Jakerod

[Maio 293]

This is something that has been bugging me for a while now...

We are (or most of us anyway) paying for OA that basically just contains things theexcellent modding community have already given us for free (ACU US troops SCARs a more realistic looking FLIR, Des coloured Humvees Strykers Bradleys Insurgents desert map Littlebirds German army I could go on forever) and you are all so eager to soak this up.

May I ask why? :S

Because BIS cant change their content every time someone makes a new addon.

If you were working for bis and you spent a month making a propper desert vehicle pack , and the boss comes in and says: "scrap it , addon maker X just announced "desert vehicle pack " " how would you feel ?

[Defunkt 431]

And because unlike mods, what BIS releases is then standard for multiplayer.

[Flash Thunder 10]

I know that Arrowhead is a ArmA2 expansion, but since its a "stand alone game" is there any hope that BIS have made the AI a lot better and fixed many bugs? Its Arrowhead the reason why they taking so long with 1.06 patch? I think that they might want to release 1.06 for ArmA 2 and Arrowhead at the same time.

Anything that BIS can put in A2 from OA is going to be a big update, yeah im sure it will probably be patch 2.0 it will have all the fixes and enhancements except for the datadisk changes in OA.

Im excited but like others I really hope the AI utilizes all these ladders and buildings very dissappointed from the AI in A2.

also giving them some morale,reaction times, and more realistic accuracy, in A2 they're terminator bots even at 50% accuracy in the game options :eek:

Just expect a huge update bigger than 1.05 when OA is finally released.

[jakerod 254]

Im excited but like others I really hope the AI utilizes all these ladders and buildings very dissappointed from the AI in A2.

The AI use ladders in ArmA II. I was so shocked that they were doing it that I almost forgot to shoot the guy after he reached the top and aimed at me. Its fairly rare but I very rarely use them. It tends not to me smart. I almost hope they won't use them because i'm gonna get sick of guys climbing ladders every 5 seconds. Although in the right cases it will be good.

[EricM 0]

And because unlike mods, what BIS releases is then standard for multiplayer.

Quoted for truth. Everyone is expected to have basic BIS content in MP. No need to download tons of individual addons for one server and block them for another since it doesn't accept them.

Quality and consistency between units is also a big plus as you are sure they were made by the same professionals as the originals.

Then, there are also engine modifications which no modder can replicate and at last, it's a mean to support BIS so that they continue upgrading/patching/developping the game we all love.

[icewindo 29]

BIS-made stuff is always the best. Their job is to deliver this content and they have specialised design tools to make it perfect.

Whereas most modders are part-time modders, (...)

You might want to check your ArmA2 manual, credits section or compare some of the ArmA1 addons with the actual ArmA2 content. Because BIS-made stuff is apparently not always the best...

But I know what you mean, with a new game/addon you get a complete new package in top quality (lets leave out QG...).

Edited March 31, 2010 by Icewindo

[Smurf 12]

Standarts as described + Laser\FLIR\UAV Stuff (wanna see whose CoD\BF\"The game that shouldn´t be named" saying "We already have FLIR and Drones for ages.kkk..you game sucks") + Surprises!...

...and the most important, because BIS deserve my money.

[instagoat 133]

Aside from technical improvements, I as a pure singleplayer person really hope for a good campaign.

A nice, tightly written story, characters you can relate to in one fashion or the other, choices to be made (the more controversial/morally challenging/dramatic the better) and everything delivered in a nice package. OFP did that great!

Arrowhead should first and foremost be a game, and I think many people won´t even get into the game if the singleplayer content doesn´t deliver. I didn´t figure out the Editor in OFP until about a year into having the game, for example.

And what keeps people in the game is a challenge which is fair, engaging, and which motivates them to push on to see the end of it.

Harvest Red was too ambigoous, and trying to do too much at once, yet the missions still felt short to me, now that I´m almost finished with the campaign. Some missions felt artificially stretched because you had to constantly reload because a teammember died, or because you took a bullet yourself.

I´m more afraid that the Campaign and Missions will fall short of the standard Operation Flashpoint set (which is pretty high bar, admittably. Maybe I´m also biased because it´s the fondest childhood gaming memory I have): in the content departement, I´m 100 % sure that BIS will deliver, and deliver like never before.

My two cents.

Edit: Linearity aside, Eagle Wing did it right (how could I even forget this?). It´s cinematic, and if you can tie the realism together with the cinematic experience and non-linear gameplay á la Manhattan, Arrowhead will be fantastic³, I think 8) Had to add this for the sake of completeness.

[^Th0mas^ 10]

Agreed. You shouldnt not have to restart because a team mate dies.

[nomdeplume 0]

I think the big problem with allowing team mates to die but still retaining the story aspect is that you have to deal with continuity problems. What if guy X is supposed to say something at some point to advance the story, but he's dead? So now you have to have a recording of every line of dialog for every character which might need to say it... and what about backreferencing events that happened earlier in the campaign? If someone in your team is meant to get killed to add to the atmosphere, but they died earlier due to a stray bullet, you need someone else to get killed and references later on and have to be that person instead... it just seems unworkable, if you want characters to use the same voice throughout the campaign.

IMO key characters will still have to be protected from dying somehow, so that means either: making them invulnerable; preventing them from ever being present in combat; or ending the game if they die.

I don't really like any of those options, but the first one is definitely no good for a game like this. Having the story-centric characters only be present "between" missions is maybe workable but really limits how involved you can get in the game (since all your brothers-in-arms are anonymous replaceable clones).

We really need a good voice synthesis system so you don't have to physically record a billion lines of dialog... one day, one day.

[Alex72 1]

^^ Exactlly. Some people think its so easy to create campaigns it seems. Lots to think about to get the story working. Im sure the OA campaign will be good. ARMA2 campaign isnt bad, and BIS have now heared us on the forums praising some parts and complain about others so im pretty sure OA campaign will be good.

[instagoat 133]

I think the big problem with allowing team mates to die but still retaining the story aspect is that you have to deal with continuity problems. What if guy X is supposed to say something at some point to advance the story, but he's dead? So now you have to have a recording of every line of dialog for every character which might need to say it... and what about backreferencing events that happened earlier in the campaign? If someone in your team is meant to get killed to add to the atmosphere, but they died earlier due to a stray bullet, you need someone else to get killed and references later on and have to be that person instead... it just seems unworkable, if you want characters to use the same voice throughout the campaign.

IMO key characters will still have to be protected from dying somehow, so that means either: making them invulnerable; preventing them from ever being present in combat; or ending the game if they die.

I don't really like any of those options, but the first one is definitely no good for a game like this. Having the story-centric characters only be present "between" missions is maybe workable but really limits how involved you can get in the game (since all your brothers-in-arms are anonymous replaceable clones).

We really need a good voice synthesis system so you don't have to physically record a billion lines of dialog... one day, one day.

Well, Operation Flashpoint did this in two ways: the characters you were with (Kozlowski & Co.) could get shot in a mission, but would be up again in the next. For example in the first mission, my whole team was shot up. In the second mission, they were back up again talking about their rifles.

Then they had the story relevant characters who appeared only in cutscenes, who were working from behind the scenes anyway as they were high command. (Guba, the two Guerillia leaders on Everon as examples).

The main character the player needs to attach to is is the one he is playing, though, so at least those should receive some focus. Which will be difficult, but if it´s done right people will remember their names YEARS after playing the game. ie, Gastovski, Hammer, Armstrong and... the guy who crashes on Kolgujev (I guess I don´t remember him because I like to win???).

I agree that doing voiceovers and scripts for a game like this has got to be a pain in the backside, and is probably a time consuming and expensive process. Still have my hopes high that there´ll be something great coming my way when I install OA. :P

And even if not, then I´ll be disappointed for a while, and then go back to community made campaigns and missions, of which many are quite fantastic too.