ARMA 2 (OA) : DLC discussion thread

[SEALVI 10]

I wonder how this will be distributed. I'd buy it if there was some type of integration like XBL's Marketplace.

[Fred DM 0]

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 and run the game.

you realize that it would be pirated to death then, don't you?

the Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 DLC is mildly protected through the requirement of online authorization, yet it's still pirated up and down the 'bay. even the DRM-riddled Atari-DLC is easily available illegally (it's pretty much the only way to get it now, anyway, as Atari EU is no more).

no way BIS would just release it in pbo-format or an unprotected exe. which leads us to the question of the kind of copy protection they might use...

[lone.wolf 80]

I will not have any problems with paying for DLC content, if it just is of the normal BIS quality and quantity... And by seeing the price for OA then DLC will of course also be of reasonable price...

[Colossus 2]

you realize that it would be pirated to death then, don't you?

I suppose I should have written that a bit differently. In any case, I'm no expert on the matter of DLC distrubution. Of course, how you do this safely is up to BI and whoever is distributing these DLCs.

[Nikoladis 12]

I guess I would also pay for BIS to convert the A2 models to be fully Termal imaging compatible.

[walker 0]

Hi all

Will BIS provide a route for those who make good enough community content to profit from it as DLC?

Kind Regards walker

[That guy 10]

I am sure BIS is going into this situation with both eyes open and a well mapped plan. they need to

I think BIS should not call it "DLC", but call them mini expansions or something. They have said they want to make larger high quality bundles. for for example, the first one could be the brits bundled with a small campaign, and maybe a new map or extra weapons or something. the packs will need to be more complete in order to compete with modders. if bis were to just release a weapons pack, or a truck pack, i doubt many would buy it as the community already have mounds of such things available.

after all there are alot of great addons out there, but there is a severe lack of missions to use them in. yes there is the editor, but a full premade mission, or campaign to go along with content is much more appealing

but i am sure they have this mapped out already

[pauliesss 2]

As I said before, I have absolutely no problem with paying for quality DLC. :cool:

[dm 9]

If I see another "Zomg non-free DLCz will break teh community!11" post I will puke... :(

this times 25234341245234134514 bajillion.

[Fred DM 0]

As I said before, I have absolutely no problem with paying for quality DLC. :cool:

and what 'quality DLC' have you paid for in the past? :confused:

[Mafia101 0]

you realize that it would be pirated to death then, don't you?

the Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 DLC is mildly protected through the requirement of online authorization, yet it's still pirated up and down the 'bay. even the DRM-riddled Atari-DLC is easily available illegally (it's pretty much the only way to get it now, anyway, as Atari EU is no more).

no way BIS would just release it in pbo-format or an unprotected exe. which leads us to the question of the kind of copy protection they might use...

My guess will be that .pbo-s will be encrypted like VBS modules and can be decrypted only using valid key. Since they have similar system I see no reason not to use it.... just mu guess :)

That basically means that, if you try run content that is reserved someone else in your software it will not work.

Edited June 11, 2010 by Mafia101

[scubaman3D 0]

This is only worth something if BIS is upgrading the engine, itself. Save thermal scopes, there isn't much in OA that is anything better than what the community has already created. This is the problem when you're trying to catch up to your fans, rather than being on the leading edge.

If selling off DLC can bring in the money they need to fund engine improvements, I'd support this - but the way the FAQ reads is that they want the DLC sales to support DLC creation.

[Fred DM 0]

My guess will be that .pbo-s will be encrypted like VBS modules and can be decrypted only using valid key. Since they have similar system I see no reason not to use it.... just mu guess :)

That basically means that, if you try run content that is reserved someone else in your software it will not work.

so, that requires online activation?

see, we're already entering the territory of intrusive DRM. and that's exactly what i'm trying to avoid.

[rübe 127]

I think BIS should not call it "DLC", but call them mini expansions or something.

Exactly.

I hope for neat, coherent scenario packages as in

• a new world, if not two where the second one is 100% proceduraly generated and to be populated by BIS modules. Though the world needs to deliver really new objects: vegetation, animals, buildings, ..., all ready to be used by island modders too!
  
• a new faction (or two opposing ones)
  
• a new little campaign in this extended armaunivers (a bit of story)
  
• and some missions.
  

This is only worth something if BIS is upgrading the engine, itself. Save thermal scopes, there isn't much in OA that is anything better than what the community has already created. This is the problem when you're trying to catch up to your fans, rather than being on the leading edge.

I really don't think so (though the idea is, that the core game or engine of course gets supported in the meantime). Such a complete and coherent extension of the armaunivers (as suggested) is nothing that the community could easily deliver. Take only the situation with buildings, vegetation or animals.

Edited June 11, 2010 by ruebe

[Flash Thunder 10]

Is this a thread in which I can state what I Would like to see from DLC packs etc?

Actually I think BIS should call them mini expansions instead kind of like the booster packs but with more content in BF2.

I personally want,

AC130 fully modeled which also comes with a Module This I think would justify itself as a nice new addition worthy of DLC.

Reload animations, fast roping DLC just sayin

US Navy Seals and SAS complete with Special forces campaign/scenarios

[jonneymendoza 10]

Microsoft Flight simulator...

What else? Diddnt even know you can mod that game.

i much rather pay £20 for a full new map, new campaign and a few new content then to pay £5 for a Brit soldier pack.

Sorry but i too not a fan of buying DLC's and their are not many companies that offer DLC's AND moddable games.

DLC's will definetly seperate the crowd even more

[MavericK96 0]

I'm all for DLC if it provides a decent amount of content and also helps BIS to continue to give us awesome support for this game. Honestly I think they've done so much for just the cost of the game alone, I feel like I should be paying more for it anyway. :cool:

People are turned off by the idea of paid DLC because usually it's one or more of a few things:

1) Expensive for what you get

2) Total money-milking crap

3) Released instead of free DLC, not in addition to

4) Lack of modding support due to paid DLC milking efforts

I can't see BIS doing any of this, so I'm not worried. I've always thought the pricing on their products has been extremely reasonable.

[jonneymendoza 10]

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.

It doesnt matter if they can bring it out faster what matters is modders can do the same thing for free so who in their right minds would pay for DLC? not many and how will that do for teh community as a whole especially clans?

People with DLC can play wioth people that dont have the DLC? doubt it so it will split users even more. Just look at how great ACE mod is.

im all for supporting BIS and all but DLC is not the way to go. developing expansion packs like this, IS THE WAY TO GO. keep it that way BIS and dont make us pay for a new tank :(

[Fred DM 0]

I'm all for DLC if it provides a decent amount of content and also helps BIS to continue to give us awesome support for this game. Honestly I think they've done so much for just the cost of the game alone, I feel like I should be paying more for it anyway. :cool:

People are turned off by the idea of paid DLC because usually it's one or more of a few things:

1) Expensive for what you get

2) Total money-milking crap

3) Released instead of free DLC, not in addition to

4) Lack of modding support due to paid DLC milking efforts

I can't see BIS doing any of this, so I'm not worried. I've always thought the pricing on their products has been extremely reasonable.

this is true. OA is very reasonably priced for all the new content it offers. other companies would have called it a sequel and priced it accordingly.

but you left out 5) Copy protection and DRM. nobody these days releases DLC on the PC without some sort of DRM. and in some cases, it's pretty intrusive.

[jonneymendoza 10]

Is this a thread in which I can state what I Would like to see from DLC packs etc?

Actually I think BIS should call them mini expansions instead kind of like the booster packs but with more content in BF2.

I personally want,

AC130 fully modeled which also comes with a Module This I think would justify itself as a nice new addition worthy of DLC.

Reload animations, fast roping DLC just sayin

US Navy Seals and SAS complete with Special forces campaign/scenarios

That i wont mind but go look at Forza 3's DLC's or infact any console games DLC's. £5 for a few cars? lol

[scubaman3D 0]

Take only the situation with buildings, vegetation or animals.

I mean features, not content.

Stamina, packable backpacks, wounding, crew served weapons, auto-ranging in vehicles, scope/sight adjustment SACLOS guidance, LOAL/LOBL new GUIs and delayed lock for weapons like Javelin and Stinger, armor simulation, better sounds and more robust effects, and the list goes on.

These all were developed in community content first and BIS still either isn't implementing these, or is only partially implementing them.

Hell, even if we could get just a few of the commands from VBS2...not even content, but just the ability to develop some features. One I can think of off the top is "use personal item" (aka, shooting from helos and hmmwvs), this would be a huge improvement.

Edited June 11, 2010 by scubaman3D

[SaOk 112]

I think the DLC would be great if there is still full mod support. With the addons, there could also be more campaigns and missions. I would pay 50$ for 30-mission storywritten campaign that follows a basic single infantry soldier trought more and more challenging tasks.

Edit: Thanks for moving this post to right thread.

Edited June 11, 2010 by SaOk

[Richey79 10]

Hi all

Will BIS provide a route for those who make good enough community content to profit from it as DLC?

Kind Regards walker

This isn't such a bad idea, particularly for the stuff produced by larger, more professional teams. Maybe a relatively small proportion of released stuff could go this way, like the model some flight sims have successfully used.

Bis produced DLC:

Pros (imo):

- Paying Bis to continue expanding with quality stuff for the engine is almost pure win, as long as they don't start locking down modding possibilities. This is highly unlikely to ever happen, although in the Q&A they suggested that they still need to formalise terms of use for more models they might release as examples for the community. Hope they don't start to clam up on this front!

With the amount of Arma 2 fans who show an interest in getting VBS, there certainly seems to be a market for high quality elements that expand A2 at a much lower price point.

Cons (imo):

-(Possible con) Copy protection. I can't see this being a problem, though, since they can work with Bia and use their experience with protection for VBS. Would be a problem if they moved to force everything to be Steam integrated, or if the new models are locked-down so the community can't mod them.

-Forced to keep up, or give-up on MP / Multi-player dies by a thousand community splits.

-For the million companies who have handled paid DLC badly, I can think of maybe the flight-sim community and Bethesda (Fallout 3) that have handled it reasonably well. ...And Bethesda gave us the phrase 'horse armour'.

Edited June 11, 2010 by Richey79

[jw custom 56]

I think the DLC would be great if there is still full mod support. With the addons, there could also be more campaigns and missions. I would pay 50$ for 30-mission storywritten campaign that follows a basic single infantry soldier trought more and more challenging tasks.

Whats wrong with the DLC thread :confused:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=100338

[EricM 0]

BIS can output stuff that the community wouldn't be able to, for lack of time and resources : new big islands with custom linda vegetation (winter, tropical...), new campaigns with full voices, mocap cutscenes etc...

Real life often get in the way of community projects, slowing them down (when they are not simply cancelled or left WIP). It's very hard to be able to output a complete and consistent addon pack.

There is definitely a market for things where the community cannot compete for obvious reasons : they can't dedicate 8 hours a day on it for 6 months !