ARMA 2 (OA) : DLC discussion thread

[jblackrupert 14]

So are the "omg they're ripping us off" and the "omg its gonna split the community" and the "omg this is the end of arma/bi as we know it" things ;)

I'm not against DLC or the price.

Price isn't even the main concern from what I've seen.

It's funny though that many people who complain about way too many 24/7 domination servers are some of the ones telling the people not pleased about DLC that they are out of line.

Servers running DLC will descrease the number of places people have to play

no ifs ands or buts about it. Saying you "Don't have to buy it" is not true

if all the available servers switch. unless bohemia has some magic fix

you will have to buy the DLC to play on them especially if all the servers available to you because of ping make the switch.

I don't like Domination, I don't like ACE. remove those and the far away high ping servers and my list of servers is very very very limited. Throw in addons that I can't find because the browser don't give me the full name that makes things very difficult.

Bohemia has stated they have a plan in place to prevent people who don't want the DLC from being prevented from playing the game online.

I can't wait to hear it.

The Arma 2 browser list is a jumbled mess. I hope one of their plans is to fix it.

Bohemia has stated, the funds from sales of copies of Arma isn't enough to allow them to continue working on the game.

#1 answer I get from stores asking if they have Arma 2/OA. - "What is Arma 2?"

#2 Answer: "Our supplier can't get copies"

That needs to be fixed.

Edited July 27, 2010 by jblackrupert

[[GLT] Legislator 62]

I really doubt there will be more than 3 DLC packages during a year. After all it can't be all just reskins, but new 3d models. Also there's plenty of stuff that can be done. There're lots of armies out there, lots of modern conflicts to play and I could even imagine an official rework of OFP and ArmA I, not like the mods but maybe as a standalone rework of those games.

[Nicholas 5]

Bohemia has stated they have a plan in place to prevent people who don't want the DLC from being prevented from playing the game online.

Could you please redirect me to a statement from them that they said this? I don't recall them saying that, so a link would be nice. Thanks.

[Dwarden 1124]

let's summarize what was revealed just in this thread by us:

i suggest first to read what's already stated on the BAF features page

http://www.arma2.com/game-features/arma-2-operation-arrowhead-british-armed-forces-features_en.html ...

+ there is MP friendly solution :bounce3:

(read: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1693206#post1693206 )

+ engine related updates will be available to everyone

(read: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1693590&highlight=engine#post1693590 )

+ as the storyline is set into 2012, design decisions were made about equipment

+ fully new voice protocol with native speakers and various accents (~2+)

(read: http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1693323&postcount=97 )

(read: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1693227#post1693227

+ BAF content is newly made

(read: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1694308#post1694308 )

* while some models may base off some of our own models the result is new model not just some re-skin

+ the design and create phase for BAF was completely separated from Operation Arrowhead

(read: http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1694020&postcount=353 )

* thus any claims that this content was left out of OA are completely wrong and misleading

+ BAF will be available for purchase from Sprocket, STEAM and some other yet unannounced sources

(read: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1693244&highlight=steam#post1693244 )

+ pricing differences for regions explained:

(read: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1693836&highlight=price#post1693836 )

and now some hint from me :

+ the BAF campaign is longer than EW mini-campaign delivered with 1.05 for free

and of course naive is the one who think that's all ... :D

any reason people ignore above?

which is part of #1 post in BAF thread and was posted also as reply in same thread ?

...

[jblackrupert 14]

Could you please redirect me to a statement from them that they said this? I don't recall them saying that, so a link would be nice. Thanks.

Somewhere in the DLC released thread. Murak (Spelling?) I think was who said they had a plan but didn't go into any details.

Improvements to the game itself will be free to all but the soldiers and vehicles etc have to be bought.

Edit: See above post

[Nicholas 5]

any reason people ignore above?

which is part of #1 post in BAF thread and was posted also as reply in same thread ?

...

I didn't ignore it Dwarden. I didn't know it was modified. That was added AFTER I had already read it about 5 times.

When I go to a thread, I usually click "Last Page" so I don't scroll through all the same shit. The "Last Page" button takes you to the last page, you know, a lot easier than clicking the post, THEN clicking last page.

I didn't read everything in that post, because as I said I usually click "Last Page", which when I logged in which was a few days AFTER the post had been made there were already 20+ pages.

Shit happens, you know? Well, obviously you must not.

Hell, I said please AND thanks, but someone(Not directly referring to you, Dwarden. It can be anybody.) has got to come in and be an ass when someone kindly asks a question.

Edited July 27, 2010 by Nicholas

[Rolexman 10]

jblackrupert - I think i'd have to disagree with that.

Advertising might raise sales at launch, but it could also effect the long term sales in a negative way.

If it was advertised as much as other big name titles, it would result in alot of people buying it with little to no knowledge of the series or what to expect. Let's face it, people are stupid and will buy things before doing the research because of pretty pictures or fancy features.

We see this on an almost daily basis here at the forums - Someone watches a youtube vid of A2 and think it's all guns and glory. Next minute they're here telling us the game sucks because they can't jump.

So yes, it would raise sales at launch, but look at the flip-side. Let's say (random number) 10,000 people buy it as a result of the advertising. As we know the game isn't for everyone, so we'll assume that about 30-40% loved it.

That leaves over 5,000 people who didn't care for it. I'm sure more than a few would be foaming at the mouth with anger too, and alot of them will go around to various forums, including this one, to vent their anger and warn other people not to buy the game.

As mentioned earlier, people are stupid and don't research themselves. There may be another 10,000 people out there wondering if they should buy the game and these people might stumble upon the negative reviews from people who bought it purely on impulse, and end up ignoring the game entirely.

I realise that advertising could help, but i would actually argue that the best form of advertising is and always will be word of mouth. For games like this you want a mate's honest opinion, not some exaggerated piece from a reviewer who doesn't own the game and only plays it for a week.

Every business wants to make money, but i'm glad to be supporting a developer who puts developing a quality game ahead of their desire to make money off the general public who buy things without thinking.

Funny? Activision made mint on MW2 sales. Why? ADVERTISING!!!! People saw the "eye candy" and didn't realize the game was so limited and pure garbage until after they bought it.

BI has a great game, less the quirky movements (so many people complain about (stairs, ladders, movement, etc)) that can be fixed. If they'd just advertise, it'd be great. I am hoping that they are making pretty good off of Govt military sales too.

Best Buy, gamestop, EB games, etc should be carrying this game!!!!

The devs should be fixing the problems with this game, one being stated above, and let the community make the add ons. This will prevent the DLC break up of MP gaming on the servers.

ADVERTISE!!!!

[NeMeSiS 11]

Funny? Activision made mint on MW2 sales. Why? ADVERTISING!!!! People saw the "eye candy" and didn't realize the game was so limited and pure garbage until after they bought it.

Most people who bought it didnt think it was garbage though. ;)

[Placebo 28]

I didn't ignore it Dwarden. I didn't know it was modified. That was added AFTER I had already read it about 5 times.

When I go to a thread, I usually click "Last Page" so I don't scroll through all the same shit. The "Last Page" button takes you to the last page, you know, a lot easier than clicking the post, THEN clicking last page.

Why not click so you go to the first new post since your last visit to a thread?

[BeerHunter 0]

Funny? Activision made mint on MW2 sales.

Beg to differ.

12M Sales - no profit

Activiision only reported GROSS sales , not NET after all costs. Besides , they are supplementing their earnings by charging for DLC , and not $10 either..look up their pricing.

Considering a one page add in a game magazine can cost up to $250,000 it doesn't take much to appreciate that word of mouth (game reviews etc.) is your cheapest and best bet.

Edited July 27, 2010 by BeerHunter

[kylania 567]

Servers running DLC will descrease the number of places people have to play

no ifs ands or buts about it. Saying you "Don't have to buy it" is not true

if all the available servers switch. unless bohemia has some magic fix

you will have to buy the DLC to play on them especially if all the servers available to you because of ping make the switch.

MISSIONS determine if you can connect to a server with addons (unless the server requires the same addons, which is not the default). Unless the entire community starts making and playing British missions exclusively, this DLC pack will not decrease the places to play.

You can connect to a server which is running ACE + DLC + your mom's addon with any stock client and unless the MISSION requires any of those you won't have problems connecting while other missions are in play.

Anyway, as Dwarden pointed out, BIS does have a magic fix.

;1699892']This is gonna screwup the online community.

Not understanding it will do more harm than the DLC itself...

Edited July 27, 2010 by kylania

[Two Dogs 12]

This is gonna screwup the online community.

[Simon C 0]

;1699892']This is gonna screwup the online community.

You say this after you quoted Maruk in the other thread, asking him about the planned method of NOT screwing up the online community? It's been said several dozen times at least that it WILL NOT impact online play. :rolleyes:

[jblackrupert 14]

I'm not talking about just print ads. Videos showing ALL the modes of play Arma has to offer. Full HD detailed interviews and gameplay.

The videos that came out from the media copies were mostly standard definition, blurry , laggy as hell garbage.

All Bohemia had to do is give copies to the popular Arma video makers (IE Richiespeed)and whammo they'd have had a ton of exposure before the release date.

The big song and dance about hitting 1000 members on the Steam group leading to

a surprise that nobody even noticed until someone asked if that screenshot was supposed to be it.

Most of the promotion is just preaching to the converted.

the people who will buy the game anyways and would buy Arma 2 toilet paper if it was available.

A ton of the people who have heard about Arma think it's nothing but super hardcore

mega-simulation, drive 30 minutes to the battle, need 3 keyboards and 6 hands to operate.

A little bit of showing off the other modes of play would be wonders to counter that

there are tons of Battlefield vets tired of the run'n'gun bunnyhopping crap

and would be interested in Advance and Secure or Berzerk if they were shown off.

Showing CTF, DM and TDM being played wouldn't hurt either. Modes that anyone

can learn and play in under an hour.

Bohemia was very lucky that several of the PC Gamer magazine staffers play Arma

otherwise they wouldn't have gotten as much coverage there as they did

the other mags and sites jumped on the bandwagon.

The PC gamer full page stories however did pass Arma 2 as much more complicated

then it really is IMO.

The other issue is distributers. Getting DVD copies of Arma is nearly impossible

in a lot of areas. Video game store employees a lot of the time have never even heard of it let alone find distributers with it.

- Advertise - There are hundreds of Free alternatives to magazines. Mags are going the way of the Dodo anyways.

- Get reliable publishers

- Recruit some of the top video makers and pump out gameplay videos

- Patch and re-release the Arma 2 demo - It's generating a lot of negative reviews

Yes the current patches removed the demo bugs. but trying to convince people to spend money and find out is hard.

Buggy games regardless of the developers reputation for fixing them scares people off.

- Make an appearence at Gaming shows.

Bohemia should also make an effort to de-throne that gawd awful "America's Army"

or replace it altogether using their contacts from VBS2.

---------- Post added at 03:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:09 PM ----------

MISSIONS Unless the entire community starts making and playing British missions exclusively, this DLC pack will not decrease the places to play.

...

I could distrupt play a bit when a bunch of people are kicked when the DLC missions are loaded.

Likely the DLC servers will have their dedicated crowd ready to go keeping the server flowing when people get kicked but using Armacalypse as an example. When we swithed to the AAS pack (800MB+ file)

it took nearly a month of spamming in game messags to get

people to go and get it.

Very annoying when your trying to play and people are repeatedly trying to join and the admin and others are trying to catch their attention with the "Download the AAS pack!" messages.

Edited July 27, 2010 by jblackrupert

[spooky lynx 73]

It was said that many of us will buy DLCs with content having enough quality for its price. But looking at the situation with debugging of original ArmA2 and OA I doubt that BIS can make now something significantly better than modmakers.

[gossamersolid 155]

I could distrupt play a bit when a bunch of people are kicked when the DLC missions are loaded.

Likely the DLC servers will have their dedicated crowd ready to go keeping the server flowing when people get kicked but using Armacalypse as an example. When we swithed to the AAS pack (800MB+ file)

it took nearly a month of spamming in game messags to get

people to go and get it.

Very annoying when your trying to play and people are repeatedly trying to join and the admin and others are trying to catch their attention with the "Download the AAS pack!" messages.

It's fun enough as it is when my server has right in the title "COMBINED OPERATIONS", then we get many players every day trying to join and getting kicked for missing CAWheeled2_LAV25 (ArmA 2 Content) so they are magically thinking they will get in with OA.

/facepalm

[mercyne 10]

Lets me put it like this there is no way i am not buying the DLC i mean its not expensive at all adds new contect.

Then it might be the britisch army instead of the dutch but still by buying it you support your game and when this

DLC thing works i am pretty sure they will make more of them resulting in alot more contect for a already great game.

Maybe in the future the community gets to pick which the next DLC will be about and what should be in it.

And aslong as the DLC stay within a reasable price I am sure alot of people will buy it.

So by buying you are not only getting new contect you are also supporting the your game developers

and if they keep funded they will keep working on it. And that is something we would like to see right?

Scrap money-making with crappy, overpriced DLCs. Do a useful addon instead! Im sad that BIS is falling so low to think about that, but money rules, I guess...

BIS is not a orginasation where volenteers work people need to get payed. Paying cost money so : No money = No payment = No workers = No game?

Edited July 28, 2010 by mercyne

[Rolexman 10]

Lets me put it like this there is no way i am not buying the DLC i mean its not expensive at all adds new contect.

Then it might be the britisch army instead of the dutch but still by buying it you support your game and when this

DLC thing works i am pretty sure they will make more of them resulting in alot more contect for a already great game.

Maybe in the future the community gets to pick which the next DLC will be about and what should be in it.

And aslong as the DLC stay within a reasable price I am sure alot of people will buy it.

So by buying you are not only getting new contect you are also supporting the your game developers

and if they keep funded they will keep working on it. And that is something we would like to see right?

BIS is not a orginasation where volenteers work people need to get payed. Paying cost money so : No money = No payment = No workers = No game?

If they want to make more $$$, then they need to make improvements on the game, do some more advertising, and come out with Arma 3 in a year or 2, not invest time with addons. They have a community that does that already. Cheers for that!!!

$10 here, $10 there, adds up fast!!!

I've already spent $90 for Arma 2 and the expansion pack. That is enough for a game. I spent $90 in this game, rather than just $50 or less, because it is a great game, and because of the community addons. It is way more than I spend on any other games.

I want to see BIG game improvements and enhancements before investing money like that again. Invest time in player handling and movement. That is the biggest complaint with this game. (Stairs, ladders,etc) I have gotten somewhat used to the movement, but new players feel handicapped when they move in this game. It's frustrating and they quit.

I will support BIS, with new game purchases, advice, and spreading the word, but not with DLC. It WILL spread MP thin.

[Darkhorse 1-6 16]

If they want to make more $$$, then they need to make improvements on the game, do some more advertising, and come out with Arma 3 in a year or 2, not invest time with addons. They have a community that does that already. Cheers for that!!!

#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.

[jblackrupert 14]

You need to spend money to make money

[call_911 10]

No differnt than EA/Dice with boosters. Anything to help em out an help improve the game overall I'm for it.

[rübe 127]

If they want to make more $$$, then they need to make improvements on the game, do some more advertising, and come out with Arma 3 in a year or 2, not invest time with addons. They have a community that does that already. Cheers for that!!!

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:

[jblackrupert 14]

No differnt than EA/Dice with boosters. Anything to help em out an help improve the game overall I'm for it.

EA boosters were available in stores

Battlefield and the boosters is heavily advertised

EA has official vanilla servers running in several countries as backup

Battlefield servers are click and join, no worries about addons with obscure names to hunt for.

The browser is simple to read by anyone.

DLC will add another hurdle for the new people.

Euro forces and Armored fury were actually a failure. EA gave them away for

free because customers were pissed to find no servers running them.

[CG Man 0]

Im all up for it the more they add to ARMA II the better and the reason why the new content is so high quality is because they have talent and talent costs wages the devs have to eat and pay bills too so as long as the content price is scaled fairly theirs no problem. £10 for a new faction is a bargin. The free addons from the public are great but land vehicles are very rare and most are reskins or updated Flashpoint 1 vehicles. The new Uk DLC looks superb top quality models and textures.

I know a lot are already complaining about a lack of the Challanger II tank in the DLC but they made this faction for use in an Afghanistan enviroment and the Challanger MBT is not used in Afghanistan but we all would of really liked it.

Edited July 29, 2010 by CG Man

[dm 9]

$10 here, $10 there, adds up fast!!!

I've already spent $90 for Arma 2 and the expansion pack. That is enough for a game. I spent $90 in this game

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.