Why is this game not more popular?

[jblackrupert 14]

I've only tried a few times to play ArmA MP, basically it boils down to:

1. I don't have the particular mod setup the server is running (99% of the time despite having a 40gb ArmA folder).

2. I can't play without ACE/sound mods and some others like the PVP animation pack. After playing with mods standard A2 is impossible to play for me.

In the end ArmA2 is a strictly SP game for me, which is sad because it has so much potential.

Check the MP forum thread. you can find a few.

Islands that you need to identify when you get kicked are easy to find

it's the addons and mods that tweak the game that are a problem, mostly the names are so bloody obscure and never come up in a search of Armaholic.

Bohemia needs to deal with that. The browser and kick messages are seriously lacking.

I popup window with links to the addons/mods being run on the server would be nice.

[galzohar 31]

Simply a more descriptive server information box with clickable or copy-pasteable links would go a long way. Have been mentioned many times before. So far all we got is more space for the server name...

Even if missions are specific to a mod pack, looking at the script does not require the mods, and people who really want to try them out will get the mods required, and then possibly edit to remove the mod requirement. Maybe not. But in any case, if stuff are kept private then obviously nobody has the option to do anything.

[jaynus 10]

http://srv1.unitedoperations.net/mpmissions/

Check out our TVT series. They are a bunch of missions optimized for TVT at around 80-120 players. They use a framework written by three of our best mission makers (Sandiford, Krause and beta). Also, some of the larger co-ops there (redbear) show some interesting trigger based/wave spawning AI for larger co-ops. We usually play TVT when we are > 40 players though, as its just more stable because the AI *does* suck up resources.

Anyways, for the mission makers looking for good frameworks - have at it. That is our full PBO list currently on our servers. It is linked directly from our mpmissions list on our servers; so it is actively/instantly updated.

[Defunkt 431]

I've only tried a few times to play ArmA MP, basically it boils down to:

1. I don't have the particular mod setup the server is running (99% of the time despite having a 40gb ArmA folder).

2. I can't play without ACE/sound mods and some others like the PVP animation pack. After playing with mods standard A2 is impossible to play for me.

In the end ArmA2 is a strictly SP game for me, which is sad because it has so much potential.

Can anybody else see the irony in this? You cannot enjoy multiplayer because the game is unplayable without your own mod selection but it's equally unplayable because server-ops choose to host games with their own mod selections.

And it's all a bit sad because?

[jonneymendoza 10]

you can download and install all the mods for arma 2 and still wont be able to join a server. why? because some servers allow and restrict certain mods so u have to see which mods are acceptable or not.

this is the problem with this game. The appropriate way would be that you do not have to enable or disable mods. you just click and join a server, and the server will tell u what mods it uses and the game will automatically try and locate those mods in your arma 2 directory to see if u have them all. if u do have them all, it will load the appropriate mods before joining the game

job done. click and play. Thats whats missing so badly in arma 2. right now, u got to click on a server, see what mods they use and load only those mods in order to play

[dmarkwick 261]

Another minor fix/solution is that if the server detects you are using an unauthorised addon, that the addon is ignored and if necessary the default addon is used, without the nausea of having to quit & knit yourself a new shortcut :)

[Choki 10]

This game is improving day by day. IF in Arma 3 they improve the fisics of the game is Goty for shure

[sickboy 13]

re AI warping, it's true that fps / scheduling / network lag can increase the problem, while improved settings decrease the problem, but it can't be made gone 100%, at least not to my experience.

In my experience the best you can get is up to 400-600m no or reduced AI warping, which still makes long range sniping a problem.

Even on 100 mbit or 1 gbit lan, and as Zipper5, testing with a single group of AI placed in the editor.

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/1915

Edited April 27, 2011 by Sickboy

[Westsailor 10]

The appropriate way would be that you do not have to enable or disable mods. you just click and join a server, and the server will tell u what mods it uses and the game will automatically try and locate those mods in your arma 2 directory to see if u have them all. if u do have them all, it will load the appropriate mods before joining the game

I would add one thing to that... If you don't have a particular mod the server requires then it should give you the option to download it right then & there.

(didn't Counterstrike do this?)

[S-M 10]

Why is this game not more popular ?

139 pages of geeks arguing with geeks over how the game could be more geeky.

The average games player in this day and age does not want to become a Tefal-Head to be able to play his game, especially to be able to play online.

This is 2011, people just want to boot up and play with minimum fuss and if they cant, then they will move on to something else.

I like GRAW 2, but i have only ever played about 9 hours of coop on that game, why?

Because all the populated servers have custom missions, and when i tried to find out how to select the mission needed, i was told to download them all (wtf?) sorry but i have better things to do then manually click all them fooking links to download each one separately.

IIRC GRAW1 lets you download the required content straight from the server browser.

[maturin 12]

Because all the populated servers have custom missions, and when i tried to find out how to select the mission needed, i was told to download them all (wtf?) sorry but i have better things to do then manually click all them fooking links to download each one separately.

Uh, I can just download the mission once it starts, like loading a webpage.

And obviously BI isn't going to host the entirety of Armaholic. When you have a community that only plays the same couple missions, then things can be convenient. People want safety and familiarity, like a McDonalds franchise.

[jonneymendoza 10]

missions get automatically downloaded once you join server

[S-M 10]

On GRAW 2 ? :eek:

Are you sure? they have never ever downloaded for me :confused:

Maybe this is a Steam problem?

Nobody ever mentioned auto downloading when i posted up in the steam forums regarding the best way to get the needed maps :(

[maturin 12]

If you join a game someone else is hosting, the mission will download as soon as the game starts. Unless it's over a Mb in size, should just be a short loading bar.

[jonneymendoza 10]

On GRAW 2 ? :eek:

Are you sure? they have never ever downloaded for me :confused:

Maybe this is a Steam problem?

Nobody ever mentioned auto downloading when i posted up in the steam forums regarding the best way to get the needed maps :(

GRAW 2? ghost recon game? this is Arma 2 forum. GET OUT :D

[jblackrupert 14]

GRAW 2 was nothing but 99% Aimbotters vs. Trigger botters.

[76 0]

This game is beautiful to look at and is a very good sim as well. So why isn't more popular?

http://cerberus5.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=gotopost&board=general&thread=169&post=811

[celery 8]

It's no wonder, seeing how any kind of suggestion that the realism crowd interprets as dumbing down their ultimate military simulator results in being called the worst thing imaginable for them: CoD/Battlefield player who should go back and play said game.

Even a melee feature gets such responses, or not clipping in every single doorway, with these pr0 players thinking that the length of the gun had something to do with it.

Edited May 22, 2011 by Celery

[smookie 11]

@Celery + @76 link

Spot on.

At first I had an impression this community the arma has is rather a closed one, and less consistent. After closer examination the impression is gone, I am deeply convinced it is part of the problem. :) All the attitude of players towards newcomers or those who actually dare to complain and comparing them to COD kiddies is just ridiculous and has barely ever happened in OFP community

[dmarkwick 261]

Yep. The (vocal) realism nuts need to chill the fuck out and accept that it's a game first, with options for playability and modifications for realism.

[jonneymendoza 10]

yea i feel too many people who play this game think there in the bloody army. Thats why dont join a proper clan. tehy expect you to have no social life whatsoever and always play certain times a week or get kicked out

[Tonci87 163]

Dude, you have looked at the wrong clans......

[PuFu 4591]

Thats why dont join a proper clan. tehy expect you to have no social life whatsoever and always play certain times a week or get kicked out

really? where you got that from? I haven't had a proper A2 game in about 1 year(time issues), and my KH clan mates don't even wanna hear about me quiting the clan ;), so kicking me out...well, not even close.

Besides, most the public coop play (the one that a newcomer will first hit) is nothing but proper play, mostly populated by armchair generals who take themselves either too seriously, or not at all

[tom3kb 15]

Im thinking that arma is so close to realism as game can. Cod is like action movie with special efects with fast action.

In cod you run with your sniper rifle on not so big map and shot at enemy 10-30 m in front of you. Arma is more like real soldier live you hear gun shot if you dont have luck 1 bullet from 300m and you are dead. So you have 2 choises you love or you hate arma. I love this game.

[dissaifer 10]

At first I had an impression this community the arma has is rather a closed one, and less consistent. After closer examination the impression is gone, I am deeply convinced it is part of the problem. :) All the attitude of players towards newcomers or those who actually dare to complain and comparing them to COD kiddies is just ridiculous and has barely ever happened in OFP community

Good point. I came from a Battlefield 2, CoD, and then America's Army background trying to get the happy medium from people running and gunning to something with a little more strategy and found Arma 2.

My thinking was, cool, now people won't wander into incoming fire if they are getting shot at... I soon found out playing the campaign there is a huge learning curve, like Eve and the controls were not very intuitive (e.g radio commands/spacebar commands).

So, I spend hours and hours just trying to figure out how to play the game because the training was not great. Usually, this is a barrier for most players to have to put in this much time to just run around and shoot when they first get a game.

The next barrier was actually finishing the campaign, but eventually that got done and the story is what brought me through that.

So, what is left? Online multi player and the forums. I found the suggestion area and started posting some ideas that didn't get very far in the forum regarding the UI and controls. Some people love the style of commanding in Arma, I don't so I just ignore it most of the time. But it feels like if anything is changed in the old school guys are going to reem you a new one one the forum or threaten rage quit because of your stupid idea. So, for the most part I quit posting suggestions or even going back to view suggestions I posted because of the hate threads.

That left multi player... and where do you begin? Finding a server that you don't needs mods for is a start... new players usually don't think they need mods to play the game normally. Then there are the game types (which are all user made)... I remember getting into a game and having some guy yell about all the new players not knowing what to do... then quitting the game to find some old long video of a guy explaining how to play the game. Okay... :(

CoD, BF2, are good games, they are fun and easy to pick up and that is why they are so popular. Arma can learn some things from them, and they could learn some things from Arma. Hell, even the evil "don't mention his name" current OFP has a simple quick interface that I believe is better in ways because you don't have to memorize the command set to use it (... and here come the flames...).

You have to think about it... if there is a new guy that is willing to come to the forum and post ideas/suggestions to change the game or wants to know how to do something in the game, play it, how a game mode works, etc. They've already jumped through a bunch of huddles to get there and they are still willing to want to play the game, try to help them. They could have just put the game down and never played it again.

/off soapbox

:D