ARMA 2 (OA) : DLC discussion thread

[Fred DM 0]

So what? If it's about gamplay and tactics and what not, everyone is all mature and grown up (and proud of it). But if it's about paying some lousy bucks for a great company that makes great games, you're all thirteen again (no money, no standards nor ethics, inadequate pocket money)?

as if it had anything to do with money :j: .

the Modern Warfare 2 mappack costs 'only' 15 bucks. anybody who's paid 40-50 bucks for the full game will certainly have 15 for the maps. does that mean everybody should buy it? does the fact that you can easily afford it override the fact that it is a total rip off?

it is the 13 year olds that buy all that DLC crap which gives the companies the idea they can sell anything. on xbox live you can buy friggin FIFA world cup clothes for your virtual avatar...

[jonneymendoza 10]

Inb4 the shitstorm about DLC now its confirmed that they will be charging for some of it. :rolleyes:

what does that do for modders? i mean if BIS release a DLC pack for brit army's and some modders release one for free thats equaly as good as the BIS one, why pay for BIS's one?

I have never seen a game offering DLC for a cost + have mod support for a game

[MrStregatto 31]

however as talked before,

People can buy the DLCs if they have a lot of content ( not only units, weapons, but also missions or campaigns ) probably the entire community will buy it.

However I hope only that those contents are similars like MW2 or BFBC2 for consoles.

[dunedain 48]

So what? If it's about gamplay and tactics and what not, everyone is all mature and grown up (and proud of it). But if it's about paying some lousy bucks for a great company that makes great games, you're all thirteen again (no money, no standards nor ethics, inadequate pocket money)?

Well I have standards and ethics I've been used to playing on PC ... I ideally buy a game and then an addon "expansion pack" about a year later which is enough big and good so almost everyone get it and so on the year after... not half a dozen of consolish DLC that fragment each time more the community!

I was 13 when I bought Ofp for ~320Francs "33€" a couple of weeks after its release, now I'm 22 and still at the university with way more money though, still that I do hate all that influence from consoles where you can sell everything you want at your price because of those 13 year old nerds that buy 70€ games with a whole bunch of outrageously expensive DLC ...

Worst being that even on PC some start to think all this is "normal", while more and more publishers kill modding on their game to sell as much DLC as possible .. :butbut:

Edited June 11, 2010 by dunedain

[Schancky 10]

I have never seen a game offering DLC for a cost + have mod support for a game

Microsoft Flight simulator...

[Mafia101 0]

Why complain about DLC be for there isn't any more info about it. Let's wait what will be price, what content it will include and then complain if needed... and also make the god damn DLC thread already!

[EricM 0]

Now that the cat is officialy out of the bag, I suggest to discuss the DLC issue here in order to avoid cluttering the OA thread,. If mods see it otherwsie, please delete/remove.

As a reminder : BIS confirmed that they will release paid DLC as a mean to finance further development, as sales of the core game on the PC platform do not allow for much additionnal free content.

Given the AAN pics, Brits are a likely contestant for one of the first DLC's.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm all for supporting BIS, but I would prefer a big release (sort of mini-OA) once in a while rather than being milked regularly for smaller stuff.

In terms or orders of preferences, I'd go for :

- Working 3D editor

- Big maps (hard to produce for single modders in a decent time-frame), possibly in different settings (Africa, China, India, South America, SE Asia) or the rest of Chernarus...

- Full new factions (with everything needed for a standard warfare scenario : car /truck / apc / tank / chopper / plane + infantry) : Narco guerrila, Asian, France, Brits...

- Quality campaigns with good voice acting, scripting etc...

- Era (50's, 70's, 80's..)

+ all the free patches and functions that you can fund with this money !

Edit : added campaigns

Edited June 11, 2010 by EricM

[Kristian 47]

I'm with you supporting BIS.

I bet BIS wont go and do non-free "units". Units will probably be the

free DLC, as with Ah64 in ArmA2. The DLCs that will cost some money, are likely

to have a new faction in them with few-o vehicles for it and infantry and weapons. If I see another "Zomg non-free DLCz will break teh community!11" post I will puke... :(

[Big Dawg KS 6]

what does that do for modders? i mean if BIS release a DLC pack for brit army's and some modders release one for free thats equaly as good as the BIS one, why pay for BIS's one?

I have never seen a game offering DLC for a cost + have mod support for a game

Because hopefully you will look at the bigger picture. The money you use to buy that content from BIS will go towards further developing the game. Where as downloading the mod will benefit nobody but yourself. Also, it's highly unlikely that any community team can put out content on the same level of quality as BIS. But even if they could, BIS could do it faster and thus provide more of that high quality content than the community team could.

Now, please, no more discussion of DLC in this thread.

EricM was kind enough to open a seperate thread for this.

[Schancky 10]

Yeah. In my opinion, I think BIS should go down the same route that Microsoft did with their Flight/Train simulators. Let the community do their thing, but also BIS should release content.

I like the idea of them releasing factions tbh. Walking into the shop and buying the British Army faction, all boxed. Would be quite epic!

But, BIS would need to make sure that the units were of high quality, but also that there was enough in the addon to make it worth the money.

- Full new factions (with everything needed for a standard warfare scenario : car /truck / apc / tank / chopper / plane + infantry)

Ditto.

As a reminder : BIS confirmed that they will release paid DLC as a mean to finance further development, as sales of the core game on the PC platform do not allow for much additionnal free content.

Sorry, just out of interest have you got a link to the source of that? :)

Edited June 11, 2010 by Schancky

[jw custom 56]

I'll buy it as long as it's offering more than just a campaign which i wouldn't play anyway :p

Whats up with all the moaning about paying for content, there's thousands of players who gladly pays a fee every month to play their game!

[rübe 127]

It's simple, there aren't that many DLCs that aren't a total rip-off and BIS is now catching the flak.

Seems like this is indeed the general feeling:

it is the 13 year olds that buy all that DLC crap which gives the companies the idea they can sell anything. on xbox live you can buy friggin FIFA world cup clothes for your virtual avatar...

... not half a dozen of consolish DLC that fragment each time more the community!

ok, ok. I got it. You guys have never seen this concept (or a variant thereof) succeding. Again, as an extremely positively example I'd like to point to Imageline/FL Studio. Go figure.

Sure, they don't call it . But it's only a friggin marketing term, nothing else. One might label such business practices with more positive terms. So what? In the end, you won't buy a pig in a poke. Just wait what BIS has to offer. And if you've ever made bad experience with , then it's probably your own fault for not beeing better informed.

what does that do for modders?

Just imagine such a -pack would include a new world and with that all new objects, buildings, vegetation. I'm sure every world-modder would be extremely happy to see BIS introduce new "worlds" to play with. Why not a winter -pack? Linda objects in sexy snow-white anyone? I'm sure there are lots of other very interesting themes BIS could introduce this way, making the live of island modders much more interesting.

Edited June 11, 2010 by ruebe

[Big Dawg KS 6]

More pointless crap about DLC

Did you not see the new thread for discussion of DLC?

[MrStregatto 31]

I was thinking about the dlcs.

and I must say that i will buy the dlc if they aren't a dozen of consolish DLC that fragment each time more the community, as dunedain said.

[EricM 0]

Sorry, just out of interest have you got a link to the source of that?

Arrowhead FAQ

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Did any of you guys actually happen to actually READ what BIS said?

Not all of the DLC will be payed for, only more significant/complex "packages". Sound like BIS knows that if they're going to charge for certain DLC it's going to have to be quite worth it.

[Schancky 10]

Arrowhead FAQ

Official DLC plans and after release support

As usual, Bohemia will try to provide the best after release support as possible (as our past track record shows). This time, we also have plan to release some significant DLC for OA, more details about these plans will be revealed later.

Nothing about paid DLC there :confused:

[EricM 0]

Both free and paid DLC is planned for A2OA. It will be distributed through different online channels. We've always given a lot of content to our community for free, however, we would like to see if there is interest from our users to fund development of higher quality and more complex packages. Fundamentally, the situation of the PC market in general, and sales of our products in particular, limits our ability to produce new content funded by the income from sales of the core game alone, as we have done in the past. We understand that this is a sensitive topic to some of our users; however, I suggest to not start any flame wars: if someone does not like to pay for DLC, the easiest thing is to simply not buy it.

source

Did any of you guys actually happen to actually READ what BIS said?

I think we all did. The question is what would you be ready to pay for ? What quantity/price ratio ? etc... and what would be better left to the community.

Edited June 11, 2010 by EricM

[Fred DM 0]

here are some negative examples of DLC on the PC:

- Atari; Test Drive Unlimited; Mega Car Pack: had decent value/content, but horrible marketing; was available only on a few selected electronic distributors; could be paid for only by credit card; had DRM (key & install limit, reportedly).

- Atari; Neverwinter Nights 2; Mysteries of Westgate: a good quality mini-add-on, but again horrible marketing; was delayed 2 years (!) because of DRM implementation; only available from a few electronic distributors, could only be paid for by credit card; DRM heavy; no longer (legally) available since Atari EU closed down.

- EA; Battlefield 2; Booster Packs: content OK, but horrible marketing; retail version contained only a download code, no disc; few people bought it, hardly any servers ran them. ended up being included in a patch for free.

- UbiSoft; Prince of Persia; Epilogue: the actual ending of the game, offered as paid DLC for consoles only. not released on PC.

- UbiSoft; Far Cry 2; Fortune's Pack: poor content, available only through Steam, compatible only with Steam versions of the game.

- Bethesda; Oblivion; various DLC: little/poor content, initially available only through their own webshop (credit card only) and riddled with DRM. later also available DRM-free on retail disc (heavily pirated).

i could go on and on with Dragon Age, Mass Effect 1 & 2, HAWX, GRID, MW2, AvP and others.

positive examples are rare:

- Rockstar; GTA 4; Episodes: exellent content/value, available on disc.

Edited June 11, 2010 by Fred DM

[Schancky 10]

Thanks :o

[Clavicula_nox4817 0]

I don't have aproblem supporting them. I have been playing their games since 2001. If they can give me that amount of entertainment, then I can send a few dollars their way from time to time.

[Jezza5555 10]

I don't have aproblem supporting them. I have been playing their games since 2001. If they can give me that amount of entertainment, then I can send a few dollars their way from time to time.

Well said and likewise. I doubt it'll be a new tank every week like the console DLC format. More likely a pack here and there.

Just as long as they keep the community up to speed so the modders dont get put off with duplicate equipment.

I dont even think the modders would be too upset with BI making money from addons as its all for the good of the game/BI.

Infact I hope they get the modders involved...BUT as i said they must keep them informed because if they're building say a french pack the modders dont want to be building the same only to be duplicated by BI's effort.

[Schancky 10]

BUT as i said they must keep them informed because if they're building say a french pack the modders dont want to be building the same only to be duplicated by BI's effort.

But, if BIS make, lets say a french army pack, they can charge for it (which personally I would pay for). But people who don't want to pay for the DLC can still play with a french army pack if the modders still carry on their work. It works out best for everyone :)

[Nikoladis 12]

I would pay for more campaigns, as would my friends I reckon...

Its not that I dont like the community campaigns..its just not quite the same as a cool official campaign.

[Colossus 2]

Not very fond on DLCs in general to be honest. Normally DLCs means short meaningless missions or bad quality stuff for large sums of money.

But I wouldn't mind a AC-130, British troops, etc. for this game, no. I'm probably too much of a fanboy to deny that temptation. :p

If it's distributed in a manner I would buy it in, of course. No need to burn the DLC on a CD or requires Steam to be runned, for example.

Just pay and download, put it in the AddOns folder via a installer of some sort and run the game.

On the other hand, I do not wish to suppress or harm the mod community by downloading such content. It is vital for this community to keep mods and

addons alive and well. This is what has kept Operation Flashpoint, ArmA, ArmA 2 and BI, for that matter, alive for so long.

**Nevermind, this part of the discussion has gone a bit overboard after my initial post. I'm sure the modding community will do fine either way.**

As long as DLCs doesn't mean the death to the mod community I'm for it.

Edited June 13, 2010 by colossus
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