Operation Arrowhead: The questions and answers thread

[W0lle 1052]

So please make it "done"...

Arma 2 (like also ArmA) wasn't done at release! Both games were pretty unfinished.

Unfortunately neither you nor me decide what is called done but the publishers do.

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Unfortunately neither you nor me decide what is called done but the publishers do.

Indeed.

Isn't it interesting though how so many things can be blamed on the publishers...? :rolleyes:

[Thunderbird 0]

How funny it would be to have on your target line something like:

"C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA2 Operation Arrowhead \arma2oa.exe" -mod=@ArmA2

I just love it.

A game becoming a MOD, I don't remember having seen that previously.

It does usually go in the other sense, heh.

-------------------

Cheers W0lle for the efforts and dedication, not the first time you get involved in such a positive way, and this exclusively for the community.

-------------------

Regarding people's complaints, well they are quite understandable and are somehow 'takable'.

(As long as they are put in a constructive and objective manner).

Regards,

TB

[dingyisun 10]

I just love it.

A game becoming a MOD, I don't remember having seen that previously.

It does usually go in the other sense, heh.

That actually reminds me of the original OFP: vanilla version stopped working on my laptop when I got a new system, but the FFSX 2007 2.5 mod worked brilliantly and kept me entertained until I got ArmA II. :bounce3:

PS, with regards to the lasers from the PEQ units in OA, does this also mean that the AI will be programmed to use lasers to designate targets for the player/other AI units? That would be freaking insane (the AI laser designation in CoD4 was basically the only highlight of that game in my opinion).

[Undeceived 392]

Unfortunately neither you nor me decide what is called done but the publishers do.

Yeah, you're right (the time of buying products from a certain publisher has passed). But I can't believe that it was only the fault of the publisher.

But since I have no clue... Forget it.

Anyway - I'm looking forward to the expansion!

My only hope is that it will be like what Resistance was for OFP... An addon which is so good that everyone will buy.

Queen's Gambit really wasn't exactly brilliant. And not everyone bought it. So I can understand people that say that the comm was split a little bit. This was different in Res times.

It only depends on BIS - oh no, I'm sorry! Of course it only depends on the publisher :rolleyes: if this expansion will be bought by everyone or only by a few.

I hope the best...

[Raj 0]

Originally Posted by Undeceived

So please make it "done"...

Arma 2 (like also ArmA) wasn't done at release! Both games were pretty unfinished.

hmm i'm already used to play unfinished BIS games...:D:Dexcept for OFP which was/is still a great finished **cough** game...

Looking forward for the expansion pack...

[rasdenfasden 12]

Look at Arma, where are promised patches?

Look at Arma2, every community, every press is yelling about Bugs of Arma2, ratings are poor. I remember Flashpoint had 9.5/10 or 10/10 while Arma2 reaches maximum of 7.5.

Bohemia! What happened? Were Arma2 sales poor? Is it because of lack of time?

Maybe sales are poor because of low ratings?

Maybe Arma2 was released too fast?

Way better than Arma :D

I think the ratings are lower because of the overall way the game community is these days. OFP wasn't exactly finished on release either, yet back then the tactical shooter was a pretty big market, and there were quite a few of them around.

Nowadays most of the series in this genre have either died or gone the generic-FPS way. The general gaming crowd nowadays plays easier, simpler games, and the many reviewers aren't fond of this realistic style of gameplay any more, hence lower scores. Even Red Orchestra, which was stable at release got some pretty low review scores and that's all thanks to realism. It's just a niche genre now, you can't trust those reviewers any more when it comes to this kind of games.

In fact, the only recent games of this genre have been Arma 2 and AA3, with Red Orchestra 2, OFP2 (both hopefully sticking to the genre) and of course OA coming up.

[dunedain 48]

A game becoming a MOD, I don't remember having seen that previously.

It does usually go in the other sense, heh.

Maddox Games did this with Forgotten Battles and Pacific Fighters "~1 year and half between both", then about 2 years after PF they released 1946 sort of final product with everything from both games and the 4 addons out, near 300 aircrafts !! :eek:

6 years after FB, they still polishing their game with updates including tweaks and new content.

I really hope that Arma2 will get such good attention. :rolleyes:

Even Red Orchestra, which was stable at release got some pretty low review scores and that's all thanks to realism. It's just a niche genre now, you can't trust those reviewers any more when it comes to this kind of games.

Not really, plus that the press "only PC" I read always talk highly of this game, even if it's like you say niche game and I do agree that unfortunately there is not many alive.. For what happened to R6 and Gr let's blame that evil French publisher named Ubisoft.. :(

Edited August 21, 2009 by dunedain

[icewindo 29]

Normally I'm a diehard Bohemia fanboy, I've been playing since the first OFP demo, but this is just horrible, sorry.

It seems like they are putting all the stuff missing and wanted by the fans in ArmA2 into the "new game", a game based on the patched ArmA2.

Also, this will once more split the community. QG atleast had backwards compability, but a new game? There's none.

Ivan Buchta proved himself in the Red Harvest Campaign? Sorry, but it was more like a failure on all fronts, the first missions were okay, but then the missions got a) bugged and b) ridicolous. While a) should be clear for everyone, in b) I'm talking about the warfare use which totally destroys the "simulation".

Yep ArmA was - according to the ads and stuff - a simulator, I don't see how respawns and money, the whole warfare stuff, fits into any SP campaign.

Give us some Resistance campaign quality! I want a vehicle/weapons pool, units gaining experience, realistic missions and no warfare.

I will buy it, for sure, but only with a bitter aftertaste.

I also feel sad about the quote when he says that ArmA 1 would be "finished". Hey, atleast reupload the latest beta patch and rename it as final, we are still waiting for the final patch...

[Undeceived 392]

Normally I'm a diehard Bohemia fanboy, I've been playing since the first OFP demo, but this is just horrible, sorry.

It seems like they are putting all the stuff missing and wanted by the fans in ArmA2 into the "new game", a game based on the patched ArmA2.

Also, this will once more split the community. QG atleast had backwards compability, but a new game? There's none.

Ivan Buchta proved himself in the Red Harvest Campaign? Sorry, but it was more like a failure on all fronts, the first missions were okay, but then the missions got a) bugged and b) ridicolous. While a) should be clear for everyone, in b) I'm talking about the warfare use which totally destroys the "simulation".

Yep ArmA was - according to the ads and stuff - a simulator, I don't see how respawns and money, the whole warfare stuff, fits into any SP campaign.

Give us some Resistance campaign quality! I want a vehicle/weapons pool, units gaining experience, realistic missions and no warfare.

I will buy it, for sure, but only with a bitter aftertaste.

I also feel sad about the quote when he says that ArmA 1 would be "finished". Hey, atleast reupload the latest beta patch and rename it as final, we are still waiting for the final patch...

+1

Thanks for this post! This is 100 percent what I think! Especially this:

Give us some Resistance campaign quality!

Edited August 21, 2009 by Undeceived

[Undeceived 392]

Who wants to buy me a new system?

Me

not! :p

About your first question: It seems that it will be both: An addon like Resistance and a single game (for those who don't have Arma 2).

But it all seems to be a little bit unsure to me (I didn't get it yet, I think).

[sniper pilot 36]

I don't understand, will this function as an upgrade to Arma2 like Resistance did to ofp, or will we wind up with two separate games (and communities)? It sounds awesome, though. Who wants to buy me a new system?

It's going to be like Resistance, you know how resistance added features to OFP like Bikes and Pistols?

[Colossus 2]

As much as I dislike being off topic:

Both versions will still be patched and there is no need to buy OA if some don't want to. The new features, well, it should be possible implemented trough mods in ArmA 2 as this OA is engine-wise exactly the same, as I've understud it.

Ok, say that they'll take away the new features and the capability play this without ArmA 2. What then? It would probably cost about the same, it is still a expansion pack filled with two maps, a campaign, units and weapons. It would perhaps get released a few weeks, maybe a month, earlier, but would that be a good thing or bad thing? As the release date is yet to be revlealed we wouldn't know if this would have any effect.

The features introduced here were WIP at the release of ArmA 2. Release dates the publishers are more in control of then BI. You all know about deadlines and how important it is to keep them in order to get the full satisfaction and, perhaps in this case, full economic backing or recompense from the various deals BI had to sign to get ArmA 2 released.

I understand why these features are included in a expansion pack, rather in a patch. There must be a understanding that this is still a business, a business that have employees that work on this for a living. I'm afraid that this isn't a charity that gives away many workhours of labour for free, not when it is their payed hours they have been using. It can't be just expenses, it also needs an income to sustain the workforce. Blessed as we are with a mod community there shouldn't be any doubt we can also rely on them to make fine features such as these. However, there is only the grim reality that there are two sides to this: a hobby and a job. This shouldn't stop the mod community to make even greater features, some may end up in this profession themself after gaining knowledge used to create inspiring mods for ArmA 2 or any other game.

Yes, ArmA 2 have bugs in many forms, however, it seems to be forgotten that this is a large game with many known and unknown features. Thousands of script strings to be taken care of and developed each week, and come to think of that this a small company with very few people involved (compared to DICE, CryTek or what else there is). We need only to help and identify these bugs so they can be treated. Not by whining, but detailed discription of the bug. As for visual bugs, they have already described that the designing part of the team moved to complete OA. I hope they will return to fix the visual bugs once OA is finished.

Stand-alone or not, this expansion is coming.

I think I left something out and if you find anything missing, do tell. :bored:

Edited August 21, 2009 by colossus

[Vultar 0]

Big sorries but I just don't feel like quoting.

@RasdenFasden

No, you're wrong. Would you give a high score to an unplayable game?

Arma2 is playable but needs strong patching and many out-community people think this is still beta and are waiting for final....

So BIS, Patch, optimise and have fun xD

@Undeceived

Yeah, so please make it "done"

+1 +1 +1

@Icewindo

The river of your words fullfill my ears with pleasure like a bird's music every sunny morning.

Now something from me

I DO think that we should make a POLL... (by 'we' I mean W0lle of course)

...I am pre voting, what I will say now can be a bit... well... you name it

I don't think about expansion pack with extended engine to Arma2, I think about patches to Arma2 and in next year or two...

...yeah year or two is hell of a time to polish the game...

and then based on polished game make another one! Arma3 possibly...

And now the strong part...

I think that instead of using Arma2 or Arma3 (f*ck it, delete! xD)

BIS should use JUST

Operation Arrowhead

Thank you for attention. I am looking forward to poll.

[jakerod 254]

Normally I'm a diehard Bohemia fanboy, I've been playing since the first OFP demo, but this is just horrible, sorry.

It seems like they are putting all the stuff missing and wanted by the fans in ArmA2 into the "new game", a game based on the patched ArmA2.

Also, this will once more split the community. QG atleast had backwards compability, but a new game? There's none.

Ivan Buchta proved himself in the Red Harvest Campaign? Sorry, but it was more like a failure on all fronts, the first missions were okay, but then the missions got a) bugged and b) ridicolous. While a) should be clear for everyone, in b) I'm talking about the warfare use which totally destroys the "simulation".

Yep ArmA was - according to the ads and stuff - a simulator, I don't see how respawns and money, the whole warfare stuff, fits into any SP campaign.

Give us some Resistance campaign quality! I want a vehicle/weapons pool, units gaining experience, realistic missions and no warfare.

I will buy it, for sure, but only with a bitter aftertaste.

I also feel sad about the quote when he says that ArmA 1 would be "finished". Hey, atleast reupload the latest beta patch and rename it as final, we are still waiting for the final patch...

And yet at no point in the Campaign were you forced to really use Warfare.

Small Spoiler about Campaign

With the exception of Badlands, you always had the choice of not taking command and just performing the recon objectives. Even in badlands all you had to do was go to towns, kill the people there, standy by a bunker and deploy the HQ. You didn't have to buy units or equipment you had the option to. No one forced you to command the armies, buy and build tanks or anything like that. You had the option of grabbing a uaz and driving to your objectives. The only thing Warfareish that you had to do was destroy the enemy base (DoW) which is also a normal objective. It was all about how you wanted to play it.

[Thunderbird 0]

The 'Warfare' Mode doesn't have its place in the single-player gaming.

Not just a matter of taste, but It is indeed, a 'story-killer' for those of us who rather prefer SP than MP.

Regards,

TB

[Potatomasher 0]

The 'Warfare' Mode doesn't have its place in the single-player gaming.

Not just a matter of taste, but It is indeed, a 'story-killer' for those of us who rather prefer SP than MP.

Regards,

TB

Indeed. It's like suddenly the immersive story driven campaign ended and you got 2 warfare missions and then bam ! The end.

[EricM 0]

I LOVE warfare... in MP and standalone missions.

But it was really a bad choice in a realistic story-driven campaign like harvest red.

Base building and scavenging is OK by itself, but it should have been more subtle.

The whole fake money to buy 3000 dollar tanks by killing 20$ spetznatz was an immersion killer IMHO.

[sniper pilot 36]

So hopefully we won't see warfare in OA's campaign. I still remember in an OFP mission where you leave your platoon and go scouting on everon and return and the whole basecamp was built.... Ah good times.

[icewindo 29]

The 'Warfare' Mode doesn't have its place in the single-player gaming.

Not just a matter of taste, but It is indeed, a 'story-killer' for those of us who rather prefer SP than MP.

Regards,

TB

Yep there's nothing wrong with high command missions though, there's one stock SP mission where you are in control of some infantry squads and an APC, I really liked that one.

No money, no respawns, no warfare, but several squads to control, I had to be pretty tactical on that one to minimize casulties, the mission was exactly how I would have prefered the later missions of the Red Harvest campaign.

[jakerod 254]

Yep there's nothing wrong with high command missions though, there's one stock SP mission where you are in control of some infantry squads and an APC, I really liked that one.

No money, no respawns, no warfare, but several squads to control, I had to be pretty tactical on that one to minimize casulties, the mission was exactly how I would have prefered the later missions of the Red Harvest campaign.

I agree I would've rather had it that way too. The funny thing is when you depbo the mission that you're talking about and look at the number of enemies there were you go "Wow! That was it?" There are very few enemy men on the map. Whenever I play it, I tend to lose my cobra to crashing into a tree more than I do enemy fire.

EDIT: I just realized something. If you made the right choices in the campaign the last level is actually like that mission in regards to you being the high commander but not actually building units. The only thing is that you're objectives are very spread out so it takes a while for your men to get to each one.

Edited August 21, 2009 by Jakerod

[spooky lynx 73]

People keep posting like ArmA2 is obsolete and abandoned just because a expansion is in the work... it's been said over and over that BIS are working on the issues.

Looking at ArmA1 we all saw, how they worked...

I feel like the community, us, is who suffers because of this. BIS suffers too.

BIS suffers? From what? Thousands of people, who hoped to get the reincarnation of Flashpoint, spent their money on another beta. And after this even praised the developers for houndreds of times. So, devs have their stable income no matter they release, what's the problem?

Thousands of script strings to be taken care of and developed each week, and come to think of that this a small company with very few people involved (compared to DICE, CryTek or what else there is). We need only to help and identify these bugs so they can be treated. Not by whining, but detailed discription of the bug.

Here is the key words: a small company. So, this is the major reason why so many people again and again worry that after all we'll get both game and expansion unfinished. IMHO. Ans as for bugs... They were described thousands of time, but... OFP, ArmA1, now ArmA2... Again old good bugs and limitations.

[whisper 0]

A whole team of island designers, models designers and mission makers is now OUT OF WORK at BI because they have finished, apart from the ones hunting the remaining bug (work which is tedious, but nothing compared to actually build the thing)

A whole team of developpers is actually hunting bugs in ArmA2, fixing mouse issues, concentrating on preformance for next patch, you name it. With the help with something around 1/4 of the 1st team mention.

What do you think BI staff is going to do? Ofc, they are going to put back their art team to work. And as they lack the dev team, this art team needs to work on existing engine

=> There you have your expansion release announce.

Does this mean no more patch for A2? NO. They just started a public beta program, ffs! Do you seriously consider this as "stopping support"? oO

AS for the "OFP was perfect" motto : I just laugh at the concept. How quickly you forget things, guys.

OFP 1.00 MP was unplayable, as simple as that. For anyone, because the netcode was borked.

Don't you guys remember that OFP could reformat your hard drive at times (upon hosting VoIP or smtg of this extent). Reformat a HDD! Do you ever saw A2 do this?!

3 words : rose tinted glasses.

All is not perfect, but this expansion is all but bad news. Simply a bunch of otherwise unemployed guys at BI

[Thunderbird 0]

Hear hear...

[Jorge.PT 10]

Does this mean no more patch for A2? NO. They just started a public beta program, ffs! Do you seriously consider this as "stopping support"? oO

Interesting that you point that out, my Armed Assault is still in public beta and they explicitly said that there would be more patches for it... so yes, knowing BI, a consider that.

Here you have the beta patch 1.16 for Armed Assault, from the public beta program: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=5428