ARMA 2 (OA) : DLC discussion thread

[Flash Thunder 10]

DM is spot on

Where else can a game give you soo much fucking replayability and feature rich???!!

Just because the game doesnt run at 60fps on max settings for you doesnt mean its not worth it and a rich content game for the price tag.

DLC is nice if done correctly and BIS is doing it correctly (IE not taking content out of the original product and selling it a few weeks later)!

:)

[todayskiller 10]

Urgh, are you still here?

When was the last time you went to dinner? Went to a movie? Went to a bar? How much did you spend there? $40 on dinner? $10 on the movie? $100 in the bar? How long did it last? an hour? 2 hours? 4 hours?

That $50 for a years worth of gaming and then another $40 for a top up seems like a good investment to me.

I've bought every title BI has released, so lets say I've spent $350 on all BI products. I've been playing/modding/whatever for 10 years. Thats 35 dollars a year for entertainment. Fuck, I spend 3 times that when I go to a bar and that only lasts one night.

You greedy little bastards make me sick. "Oh noes, BI are charging too much! It adds up! They're soo greedy"

Do us all a favour and GTFO.

Not being a dick, and supporting what he said BUT...not all of us can go to the bars, or Drive ya know ;). (so investing $90 into a game is a lot for people without jobs or such)...But yeah, I get where you're going with that. Makes total sense

But yeah, DLC (not every month like Infinity Ward, but every 3-5 months) would help pay for their bills and such, as they work on Game improvements and such. :D :)

[rübe 127]

Not being a dick, and supporting what he said BUT...not all of us can go to the bars, or Drive ya know ;).

Well, then grow the *peep* up now, will you? :D

DM is spot on and everybody knows it. If I would calculate what an hour of BIS games (ofp/resistance/arma2) has cost me, I'm sure it would be below 10 cents.

Now go and try to get an hour of fun for 10cents somewhere else. Good luck with that.

Do us all a favour and GTFO.

[mrcash2009 0]

@Rolexman

I think you have made your points pretty clear, anything else? I think you have milked every conceivable angle.

[katipo66 94]

Yep, DMs spot on... i think i can officially say ive now spent more hours in the editor than in the Bar/dance floor...

Ok maybe not... but i dont see my self putting down this game anytime soon

[mercyne 10]

I dont think people should complain to pay a little extra this game is in constant development and we do not even have to pay for it and now we are asked to buy a optional DLC which is shitty cheap people start to cry about. But think abou this blizzard big MMO hit is also in constant develment and people 13 euro a month for that(forgetting the server maintence) people there but 1,3 DLC each month basicly to have there game develept. So please next your gonna complain about paying a little extra think about how much it would actuely cost us if we paided for all the after care of this great game.

[jblackrupert 14]

The price hasn't been the main reason for opposition or concerns about DLC.

It's the effect on the available servers left over running without if people aren't interested in the content of the DLC.

I have bought OA and waiting for it to arrive in the mail. I wanted it it anyways BUT. As soon as it came out the PvP servers in Arma 2 dropped to a grand total of 3 servers one of which in unplayable for me because of Ping.

The last 2 are empty 99% of the time and have been for several months.

I'm waiting to hear what Bohemia's solution to this will be.

Most other games companies have official vanilla servers running.

Adding DLC to Arma isn't a simple as other mainstream games. You have addons and mods and a server browser that really sucks for the new people. Arrowheads browser is an improvement but it's got a long way to go before

it's totally user friendly for everyone.

I know how to install mods and addons but it still can take me a couple hours of writing down obscure addon names, searching for them and downloading them

nearly half the time I can't even identify the ones kicking me from servers. God knows how the new people react to it. DLC will further complicate this process

unless Bohemia has some great idea we haven't heard yet.

I do have faith in Bohemia. I don't think their turning evil as a couple of people have said. but I seriously wish they would consider Advertising and promoting the game a little more first

before going the DLC route which is an extremely touchy issue in the PC world.

There are tons of older mature Battlefield vets who would likely enjoy modes like "Advance and Secure" and "Berzerk" but that side of Arma is never given any attention. It's always the hardcore simulation

side of things.

Bad company 2 and the DICE move to consolized games has pissed off a lot of them. Bohemia could tap into that market a bit.

Edited July 29, 2010 by jblackrupert

[pipscouse 10]

I have to agree. The difficulties for non-techies like me around mods etc would have made me walk away long ago if I didn't love the game so much. I still haven't been able to crack mods.

[Flash Thunder 10]

What I dont understand is that people will bitch about DLC done this way, ala lots of content for a reasonable price, and they wont bitch about the monstrousity that was BattleField Bad Company 2's DLC

Dice "HAHA we already ditched the game but we had our "spare" janitor set up White pass map to use Noobtube cluster**** gametype. Only 5 dollars on Xbox live on Jesus day."

HA!

[desmondb 10]

Honestly with all the bitching and complaining in the British Armed Forces DLC forum, It wouldn't surprise me if that's the last DLC we'll see for some time, first when Arma II OA was announced they complained it didn't include any british units, now that their getting British units, their complaining there isn't enough units in it and its too expensive:rolleyes:

"if you give a mouse a cookie...he's gonna ask for a glass of milk..."

I don't get where so many people think BIS OWE them anything else...

[Dogtags 0]

First off my thoughts on oa are, too expensive for an addon, same price as arma2. Secondly it is obvious that the british forces were being developed in parallel to oa and yet a decision was ,are to make them an expensive dlc. Most dlc I have seen is between 3 and 7 dollars. I also agree that there has to be an addon manager built within arma, I hate trying to manage addon so I gave up and now just occasionally play vanilla. Bis really need to start looking at usability issue and that includes dlc.

[Rolexman 10]

#1 - They can't make improvements without cash, which DLC provides.

#2 - They can't get more advertising without cash, which DLC provides.

#3 - IF they come out with ArmA 3, I hope like hell it will be in 3-7 years, not 1 or 2.

You make it sound like they are on the streets peddling for $.

They're not homeless, by any means.

They just came out with a $40 expansion!

Like my post said, I've already paid $90 for this game. A2 and A2OA. If they want any more money from me, they need to make significant improvement and content on the game.

This should have been put with OA. The "nickel and dime" strategy is crap.

Your statements 1 and 2 contradict with statement 3.

---------- Post added at 06:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:08 AM ----------

Yeah whatever. And putting new official content on the market (read DLC) is in no way creating any attention/buzz (read: advertising). FPDR

Also, I'm sure that most of us would like to see a longer lifecycle for Arma2 (or any of their games), not a shorter one, given the choice.

But hey, believe whatever you want. :rolleyes:

the only people seeing these advertisements are us. I'm talking about getting NEW people.

see above post. you guys all think alike, i swear.

---------- Post added at 06:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:14 AM ----------

I dont think people should complain to pay a little extra this game is in constant development and we do not even have to pay for it and now we are asked to buy a optional DLC which is shitty cheap people start to cry about. But think abou this blizzard big MMO hit is also in constant develment and people 13 euro a month for that(forgetting the server maintence) people there but 1,3 DLC each month basicly to have there game develept. So please next your gonna complain about paying a little extra think about how much it would actuely cost us if we paided for all the after care of this great game.

Pay a little extra??? $90 isn't enough? You might be able to spend an arm and a leg on this game, but the casual Arma player won't. We need numbers for this game. The more the cost, the less the players.

Yes, BIS has a great game and great engine. But let's not forget, A2 came pretty stripped. It is the community addons that have given this game endless content, interest, and therefore longevity.

A2OA came with many new improvements and new content worth getting. BAF looks like something the community did and sold to them (I'm basing that on size, not quality). If this is the way it's headed, then this game will end up costing more than VBS2.

Imagine how much this game would cost if you were charged for all the addons made. We wouldn't be able to afford new computers (or anything, for that matter) for the next release.

The population would go way down on the MP servers and then, goodbye game.

---------- Post added at 06:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:35 AM ----------

Honestly with all the bitching and complaining in the British Armed Forces DLC forum, It wouldn't surprise me if that's the last DLC we'll see for some time, first when Arma II OA was announced they complained it didn't include any british units, now that their getting British units, their complaining there isn't enough units in it and its too expensive:rolleyes:

"if you give a mouse a cookie...he's gonna ask for a glass of milk..."

I don't get where so many people think BIS OWE them anything else...

Then they will understand what the majority wants. Hopefully, they act on it.

British units can and will be made by the community.

Sure, BIS doesn't owe anybody anything, but we are their supporters. Without us, there is no them. Whatever happened to the customer is always right?

I am glad to be a supporter of this series, since the first OFP, and I hope my opinions help out in some way, positive or negative.

Edited July 30, 2010 by Rolexman

[TechnoTerrorist303 10]

wall of text

We know your opinion on DLC now kk thx

If you don't want it don't buy it. All mp servers won't magically start running missions requiring british uinits, the various popular ones out there running vanilla will still exist. We know you don't like DLC and like a mod has already said, stop trying to change people's opinions to fit in with yours.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Perhaps BIS dont want to split the community with each pay DLC they gonna release?

Would you like to be forced to buy each DLC only to get a few significant improvements with each release?

Or would you like to have them for free or as a bigger addon/standalone release like OA?

Perhaps BAF DLC content is mainly made to fit with OA campaign and to make most of the people who requested british stuff+missions in vanilla OA happy? ;)

In the end the choice of using community made content and DLCs is made by customers. If you are afraid of a "only DLC" supported servers - you should communicate with the mission makers and server admins.

New gamers are not going away because of additional content (free or paid doesn't matter) - they are leaving because of bugs, issues and performance problems.

[Lhowon 10]

DLC is a business decision. Them doing more will be determined by how well it sells, not how much people complain.

[Engioc 10]

Quote from the Q&A:

"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."

I'm with this. I will buy all BIS DLCs, if they add good amount of new stuff, example: A small new faction, like Brits :rolleyes:

Totally agree, I am looking forward to more DLC and I dont mind paying for it as long as its good quality. I think DLC is a great way to keep this game fresh for a while yet.

[jblackrupert 14]

New gamers are not going away because of additional content (free or paid doesn't matter) - they are leaving because of bugs, issues and performance problems.

They're also leaving because of the difficulty trying to join servers running addons and mods.

Since Arma 2 came out I have gone through 30-40 sheets of paper

writing down obscure names of addons and god knows how many hours

hunting for them.

The success rate of actually identifying those addons and downloading them goes down more and more every week. I've actually given up even trying now.

Sales and online numbers are suffering because the browser/addon system has been neglected for so long.

I'm also sick of hearing a group of elitist idiots saying "Good, it keeps the COD kiddies out" blah blah blah. No, it's killing the game and causing BIS to scramble for new sources of money

because sales to the old crowd of people who would buy Arma 2 toilet paper if it was available aren't cutting it.

Edited July 30, 2010 by jblackrupert

[[GLT] Legislator 66]

@jblackrupert:

You aren't using Armasan? :eek:

As for the DLC I think it'll have the same "impact" as every other community addon to the mp community.

[Rolexman 10]

I see that "jblackrupert" is the ONLY one posting on here that sees "eye to eye" with me.

The rest of you are so "BIS is GOD", that you don't realize, that what you are supporting, IMO, is the downfall of this game.

Another thing, this advice, take it or leave it, is for BIS. It is not meant to diminish sales or support for this game. I did not say to "boycott" the BAF DLC. I believe it is the wrong way forward and am expressing it, because I want to see BIS and this game to succeed. Hey, I could be wrong too, and I will be the first to admit it, if I am.

BIS NEEDS NEW PEOPLE PLAYING THIS GAME. The numbers they have now are dwindling, and with more costs and restrictions, therefore less user-friendly, more numbers will drop. The standalone pack for A2 may have brought a little more life, but is short lived, if they don't fix the problems with the game.

BIS should be leaving the, more than willing, community to make the addons, and concentrating on making the game more player friendly (movement), performance tweaks, and certain other enhancements to enable more mod-ability, without sacrificing the realism and complexity, that we all love about this game. That and advertising will bring more numbers to this game and more money to keep this simulation going.

Everyone posts that "this game looks awesome", but when they get it, they are frustrated with the controls, movement, and "plain and simple" connecting to a game to play. For instance, there should be a way to join a server, and if you don't have the content required, it should give you the choice to DL it from a server and put it in the proper place from in-game.

The lack of numbers on the MP server shows the proof that this needs to be implemented.

A couple of bucks from us isn't going to save this game.

I'm all for a new Arma game every year or 2, as long as it has some good updates and continues to improve on user friendly problems and brings the population up on the MP servers.

Edited July 30, 2010 by Rolexman

[Zipper5 74]

They're also leaving because of the difficulty trying to join servers running addons and mods.

Uhuh. Well, call me an elitist if you want, but that's simply laziness. It hasn't changed since OFP, but since Arma 2 people have started to call it difficult. That's more to do with how well Arma 2 seems to have sold compared to BIS' previous games, bringing in more of the new generation of gamer.

Many mods and addons are named appropriately so that you can get information from the filenames. You can find the author's tag, and you can get an idea for what the addon contains. Then simply do a search on any of the community websites and look for the most likely candidate, download it, and try it out. I remember way back when with SP campaigns on OFP.info requiring really obscure and old OFP addons which I managed to find working links to simply by following the same method.

The rest of you are so "BIS is GOD", that you don't realize, that what you are supporting, IMO, is the downfall of this game.

Why then have OFP, ArmA and Arma 2 all been successful financially with the use of the same system? Granted, OA has made some significant improvements to it.

BIS should be leaving the, more than willing, community to make the addons, and concentrating on making the game more player friendly (movement), performance tweaks, and certain other enhancements to enable more mod-ability, without sacrificing the realism and complexity, that we all love about this game.

Oh yes, because people haven't been bitching about that attitude more than anything else, have they?

The lack of numbers on the MP server shows the proof that this needs to be implemented.

No, it shows that other things need to be changed not related to BIS, but I've already gone down that road with no impact.

A couple of bucks from us isn't going to save this game.

What needs "saving" about it? I don't think anyone has thought it's in any form of peril...

Edited July 30, 2010 by Zipper5

[jblackrupert 14]

As for the DLC I think it'll have the same "impact" as every other community addon to the mp community.

It will but this time instead of just an error it'll ask you to whip out your credit card. Unless of course Bohemia's as yet to be detailed "Plan" is

some great and wonderful fix.

I'm not opposed to DLC. but dealing with the reasons people are not buying copies is more importent.

Advertising, promoting modes of play that would appeal to more people. AAS would appeal to the Battlefield crowd angry

as they watch their precious Battlefield turn into consolized crap.

Currently Bohemia is just preaching to the converted. Too much time, money and effort is going into selling the game to people who will already buy it.

Walk into a lot of stores and ask about Arma. You get blank stares.

Ask people if they play Arma and it's the same.

It's not that people aren't interested. it's because they don't even know it exists.

[Zipper5 74]

It's not that people aren't interested. it's because they don't even know it exists.

Well, it's not the kind of game that that many people should know exists, unlike games like HALO: Reach and COD: Black Ops. But BIS have been advertising, short of giant billboards and TV spots. They've done full page magazine adverts in popular magazines like PC Gamer and Maximum PC, they've made trailers and got them on major websites like YouTube, GameTrailers, etc. They've even got PC Gamer (the US staff at least) constantly mentioning and featuring Arma 2 in their magazine. You want them to start blowing money on giant billboard ads and TV spots? That seems very pointless to me.

[jblackrupert 14]

It hasn't changed since OFP

You don't see a problem with this?

Are you still using 8-track tapes?

Do you draw your water from a well?

Does your cellphone come with a shoulderstrap?

[[GLT] Legislator 66]

It will but this time instead of just an error it'll ask you to whip out your credit card. Unless of course Bohemia's as yet to be detailed "Plan" is

some great and wonderful fix.

Well ... what if BIS sells ... let's say 100.000 DLC downloads? And what if ... well, there'll only be 10 servers using missions having DLC content? Would that be so bad?

Let's face it ... most public servers are running the same missions all over again so it might be easy to filter servers without DLC. I'm sure BIS will take of a proper filter function so it'll be up to the player to hide servers running DLC. I don't think vanilla A2/AO servers or ace2 servers will disappear the moment DLC got released. Private servers are different anyway as they usually got their core players.

On ther other hand I can image map packages made by the community tributing only the DLC content.

[Zipper5 74]

You don't see a problem with this?

What makes it so difficult? Note filename, do Google search for popular community website, search for it, find, download, install. Problem solved.

I can understand the current gaming generation finding that too difficult, but then again, they also allow a $15 map pack lacking any real fixes to a game riddled with issues to become the highest selling DLC of all time.