ArmA II: Operation Arrowhead discussion thread

[nomdeplume 0]

MW2 earned ~ 1 000 000 000$ due to wise PR.

That's almost entirely from console sales. PC gamers are much more discerning. ;) Anyway, Arma is more of a niche product and I like to think/pretend that BIS aren't the kind of company that would trick people into buying a game they won't like, unlike some other ConMasters.

Seriously, I think they just don't excel at Western style marketing; as you note most of the Eastern European developers work in a similar style. But then also it seems that most all of the decent sims that come out these days are from Eastern Europe. Probably not a coincidence.

[abel 0]

i agree, but good advertising campaign != bad game, but == wider demand.

[maddogx 13]

i agree, but good advertising campaign != bad game, but == wider demand.

Well, if the rumored release date of June 30th is true, that's still over two months down the road. Maybe they'll really start hyping it up sometime around the end of may, when they're fairly sure there won't be any delays. Marketing costs money after all, so you don't want to be hyping something now, then end up pushing the game back another three months only to find that people have forgotten about it. Especially if you're a small developer. :)

[SASrecon 0]

Well, if the rumored release date of June 30th is true, that's still over two months down the road. Maybe they'll really start hyping it up sometime around the end of may, when they're fairly sure there won't be any delays. Marketing costs money after all, so you don't want to be hyping something now, then end up pushing the game back another three months only to find that people have forgotten about it. Especially if you're a small developer. :)

That's so true.

They're releasing small updates at long intervals (such as videos and previews) for the community to spread the word; eventually they'll really start shoving out the really good hype :p

[icewindo 29]

Well, if the rumored release date of June 30th is true, that's still over two months down the road. Maybe they'll really start hyping it up sometime around the end of may, when they're fairly sure there won't be any delays. Marketing costs money after all, so you don't want to be hyping something now, then end up pushing the game back another three months only to find that people have forgotten about it. Especially if you're a small developer. :)

As I said in a previous post, we don't need tv spots like MW2, BIS doesnt has that money, right, but what's stopping them from reassigning a trainee from the coffee machine to creating small ~1 minute long atmosphere trailers e.g. showing Special Forces walk through a village, a carbomb going off etc and release them once a week like in DAO or ME2 months before the release and build up a hype.

They did that in parts for ArmA2 with the small NAPA trailers etc. and news broadcast, that was going in the right direction, but they seem to have dropped it for OA.

This doesn't take alot of time or ressources while the impact might serve "the purpose" as it will serve a more regular mentioning in the press and reach more (constant) attention and BIS would have total control of the footage.

Edited April 16, 2010 by Icewindo

[abel 0]

Agree with Icewindo) Pleeeease)

[maddogx 13]

From what I understand, the existing trailer is supposed to be the first of many. Okay, it's been a couple of weeks, but there are surely more to come.

[abel 0]

New ARMA II beta patches are available at http://beta.arma2.com again after little break (ARMA II version 1.05 is required).

4:30 PM Feb 3rd via web

BI "little break", "soon", etc rock!!)

[Alex72 1]

BI "little break", "soon", etc rock!!)

You think posting like this will speed up things? Starting to feel like ADD hyper in here. Let them work in peace and go play some ARMA. We dont want it rushed. At least i dont.

[maddogx 13]

You think posting like this will speed up things? Starting to feel like ADD hyper in here. Let them work in peace and go play some ARMA. We dont want it rushed. At least i dont.

^^ This. It's like driving somewhere with little kids in the back of the car, asking "are we there yet?" every two minutes.

[abel 0]

ok, but why they post such things then?

[ohara 0]

Because different newspapers and webmag worldwide recived some info in different time and also webmags are faster then paper mags that need prepare printing, there is some press embargo to be fair to all that people. So be patient please. We are not sleeping, its just question of coordination and timing.

[nomdeplume 0]

Well they did post a beta around the 1st of Feb so it was probably in reference to that. Don't know why they stopped again, it's a little bit disturbing but I suppose at this point one could assume they're all fully committed to getting OA out the door so maybe we won't see anything until then.

Or hopefully we'll see new betas soon to road-test improvements relating to OA. Not the new features but maybe AI changes and the like. Fingers crossed.

[abel 0]

Thx for answering, ohara, NP) That is what we always want and welcome - direct replies from BI team)

Edited April 16, 2010 by abel

[jw custom 56]

Thx for answering, ohara, NP) That is what we always want and welcome - direct replies from BI team)

You sound like it's the first time happening, maybe you should read more around the forum :rolleyes:

[Zipper5 74]

^This. People just can't seem to grasp that a developer would be so communicative with their community. Can't blame them given today's standards.

[funkee 0]

So communicative? LOL. Go to EA or ED forums and see how communication between devs and community should be. On these forums there must be a global event to read something from developers.

Backing OT - where do I find some vids of Operation Arrowhead?

Edited April 17, 2010 by funkee

[teaboy 11]

So communicative? LOL. Go to EA or ED forums and see how communication between devs and community should be. On these forums there must be a global event to read something from developers.

Backing OT - where do I find some vids of Operation Arrowhead?

Lol you can add Ubisoft to that list aswell, there wasn't any communication from them on the silent hunter 4 forums at all, even the official apology for the DRM fiasco did not appeared on the offical forum either.

[Tonci87 163]

I have one Question. Will it finally be possible to shoot out of driving Cars while sitting on the passenger Seat? This Feature is really needed if we are going to play in urban Enviroment

[maddogx 13]

I have one Question. Will it finally be possible to shoot out of driving Cars while sitting on the passenger Seat? This Feature is really needed if we are going to play in urban Enviroment

A while before Arma2 was released there was an interview with one of the Spanels on Sahrani Radio where people could send in questions for the devs. I asked exactly the same question, and the answer was that the feature might be included. Of course we all know it wasn't in Arma2, but maybe it will finally be in OA. Like you said, it would make sense for the new environment, and it is well known that BIS are working on new engine features.

I'm crossing my fingers. :D

[That guy 10]

regarding the shooting out of moving vehicles feature, during that interview (or one of the interviews) i believe he said it would be relatively easy to implement for human players, but the task of teaching the AIs to be able to do it in a convincing manner was the major stumbling block

they way the current AI aim, they will be able to shoot you between the eye wile going 50 down a bumpy road ;)

we dont want that

[Laqueesha 474]

regarding the shooting out of moving vehicles feature, during that interview (or one of the interviews) i believe he said it would be relatively easy to implement for human players, but the task of teaching the AIs to be able to do it in a convincing manner was the major stumbling block

they way the current AI aim, they will be able to shoot you between the eye wile going 50 down a bumpy road ;)

we dont want that

Maybe it can be implemented so that only human players can use it, such as the auto-hover feature on some aircraft.

[teaboy 11]

When they have AI gunners standing up through the roof of a HMMV firing a machine gun, then all the have to do is add the animation of the AI pointing their rifles out of the window when enemy AI are near, because id expect its just the same as having AI standing up through the hole in the roof, only the hole in the roof would be a window and the machine gun on the roof would be their rifles pointing out the window.

So all they have to do is write the code that allows the AI animation of pointing a gun out of the window (when enemy is within the 90 degree line of sight from the window) the firing and aiming AI code is there already, just change it to limit their ability to turn to say 45 degrees each way from the central postition of the window whilst firing out the window.

Jesus if they can have guys standing out of the roof firing machines guns then it can be that bloody hard to have animations and AI code for firing out of a simply window.

[Tonci87 163]

Yeah I also think that. This is a Feature that would be really fun to have in MP.

[jakerod 254]

When they have AI gunners standing up through the roof of a HMMV firing a machine gun, then all the have to do is add the animation of the AI pointing their rifles out of the window when enemy AI are near, because id expect its just the same as having AI standing up through the hole in the roof, only the hole in the roof would be a window and the machine gun on the roof would be their rifles pointing out the window.

So all they have to do is write the code that allows the AI animation of pointing a gun out of the window (when enemy is within the 90 degree line of sight from the window) the firing and aiming AI code is there already, just change it to limit their ability to turn to say 45 degrees each way from the central postition of the window whilst firing out the window.

Jesus if they can have guys standing out of the roof firing machines guns then it can be that bloody hard to have animations and AI code for firing out of a simply window.

You apparently don't understand the way it works. The .50 cal on top is coded and modeled into the humvee model. The .50 cal isn't the guys personal weapon. If you were to try to make it work that way you would have to make it so that the M16s are always shown aiming out the windows. There might be away around that though I guess. Problem number 2 is what happens if the guy has a SAW instead of an M16? That means you need to have a crap load of models each one with different weapons sticking out the windows.