stburr91

Alright guys, I just released the mission, OP updated. Special thanks to Lexx for his work creating the awesome desert terrain, and campaign that was the inspiration for this mission.

On foot the whole time. Because the map is so small (2k x 2k ) I had to get creative making the map seem like a different part of the Malian desert from the campaign. It meant putting little settlements over the map, and you zigzag across the map as you go. Because of that, if I gave the player a vehicle, it would be too easy for them to break the mission. Because you're moving on foot, the mission does start a little slow (action wise), but hang in there, I promise there will be no shortage of action. In fact, I wonder if there may be too many enemy soldiers. If you think there are too many bad guys, let me know, I can certainly tweak things. I hope to have the mission out in the next couple of hours.

Guys, I should be able to have this released tomorrow (Friday). Here's one more WIP pic. Franklin using a SPAR-16 short barreled light machine gun.

I'm already on it guys. Lexx's Dunes terrain has a dust storm function built in, and it creates a nice effect.

Some pictures from my upcoming prequel mission to Lexx's Arma 3 Dunes campaign. People won't recognize this as the same map from the campaign. Dunes The Informant Mods: Arma 3 Dunes

Thanks man, I hope the people that played the campaign will enjoy this one as well. I wish I had more time to create a more detailed story line, and more variety to the game play. However, I think the mission/story still does a nice job of filling in a few of the details leading into the campaign. Here's a few more pics from the mission.

Yes, but as I said, it's light on content compared to the Apex expansion, with minimal new content, however, it's the same price as Apex. If Contact has less than half the content of the last expansion, shouldn't it be half the price? If you guys want to pay a premium for a minimal content, be my guest, but I won't, I will not reward bad behavior. I agree. It took me years to warm up to the future setting of A3, but now I like it. With all the ports of more contemporary assets, and the more futuristic stuff from A3, we have a great palette to choose from.

My problem is less about aliens, although I don't care for the concept, but rather the noticeable lack of content in this expansion compared to the last one. It's important for everyone not to get hung up on the aliens, but focus on the larger issues. One, that they chose a concept that they knew (they have admitted as much) would not be embraced by many in the community. Two, that they chose to put out an "expansion" that is extremely light on content, and that has little actual new content. I agree with you that BI has been a community oriented studio, I hope that it will continue to be so in the future, we shall see.

The discussion is to state what people like, and what they don't, the hope is that this will help shape decisions by BI for future projects. I didn't make the posts about Contact that I did to whine about it, I made those posts in the hopes that BI doesn't put out a project like this in the future.

The last information we got from a BI developer was October of last year, and he said Arma 4 is years away from being announced. I purely guessing, but based on that, Arma 4 would be at least 3-4 years away.

Only using the advanced flight mode. I wish that the standard flight mode would allow it.

Mods: Arma 3 Dunes

So I want to display a logo on the screen during the mission intro (singleplayer mission), and I can get it working, but it displays the logo much smaller than the logo's actual size. I want the logo to display in it's full size. The logo size is 512 x 256 It is displaying onscreen much smaller, here's a pic of what I'm getting. Here is what's in my description.ext class RscTitles { titles[]={}; class intro { idd=-1; movingEnable=0; duration=4; fadein=1; fadeout=1.9; name="intro"; controls[]={"title1"}; class title1 { type=0; idc=-1; size=1; colorBackground[]={0,0,0,0}; colorText[]={1,1,1,1}; font="PuristaMedium"; text="Arma-3-logo proper size.paa"; style = 0x30 + 0x800 sizeEx=0.15; x=0.2; y=0.4; w=0.6; h=0.168; }; }; };

I plugged in different numbers into anything I thought might make a change. I changed the Size, the H, and W variables, it seemed to have no effect, I keep getting the logo displaying the same size. And yep, I go back to the editor, and then hit, "Play Scenario" again.

Well, fair enough, we all have different interests, and exceptions for any new content. While I do enjoy a good SP campaign, I also expect new content, and a new terrain, in a unique/new setting, with all new structures for something priced as an expansion. It's all good man, I hope the campaign is as good, or better than you hope for, and that you enjoy playing it.

Yes, I didn't compare the campaigns of the two expansions because we don't know what the Contact campaign will be yet. However, it's a very safe bet to say that the campaigns will be quite similar in size, and in development time. Let's be honest here, to make up for the content difference, the Contact campaign would have to be a 30 part campaign, with a yet unseen level of production value, and storytelling.

Maybe true, but I think we're all a little guilty of that, we all want content that appeals to us personally. While I would have never picked an aliens theme for Arma, truthfully, I don't doubt that the SP campaign with the aliens will likely be decent. My problem with Contact is the lack of content for an expansion, and the decision to re-use structures from arma 2/Dayz to essentially create yet another Chernarus. For me personally $25 isn't a lot of money, and I would gladly pay that for an expansion, but Contact isn't really an expansion, it's just another DLC. I could easily just plunk down the money, and get some new content, but it's really the principal of getting what you paid for.

Yes, but the flip side is that there are people that have their dial so stuck on "Maximum FanBoy" that they can't see that they are being charged for an expansion, and not even getting half an expansion worth of content. Couple that with the fact that there is not much actual new content, and if you already own DayZ, you are literally being charged for content you already own. A quick comparison of the Apex, and Contact expansions. Terrain Apex: All new structures Contact: Mostly re-used structures, including Arma 2/DayZ structures that look old, and dated Weapons Apex: 13 new weapons Contact: 5 new weapons, mostly non-military Vehicles Apex: 10 new vehicles Contact: Only a small drone, and an Arma 2 ported tractor Game Engine Updates Apex: Too many to name Contact: None that we know of at this point Comparing the two expansions really highlights just how little content there actually is in Contact, and much of that content is not even new. Contact is way overpriced compared to the previous expansion. Frankly, if was glaringly obvious that the people working on Arma had no idea what was going on after Jay Crowe departed. There was absolutely no plan for Arma 3 post Jay Crowe, and no plan for delivering Arma 4. Things were so bad that they were not even capable of delivering a campaign (The Old Man Project). Hell Lexx, you created a campaign, and a terrain in 7 days.

You can count on me Lexx. 😉

I just watched more video of the new terrain, my thoughts. If you would have shown people this terrain a month ago, without telling them what it was, everybody would have said it was user made, and there's no way this was official content. The A2/Dayz buildings look so out of place in Arma 3, they clash so badly with the Arma 3 structures, and some of the new buildings. I just can't shake the feeling that this terrain is an Arma 2 port (which in many ways, it is). So obviously this isn't feedback to improve this new terrain (it is what it is at this point) but feedback for future projects. That feedback is, do better next time, do much better. If you want us to pay for terrains, make them to A3 standards, with the A3 art style.

I don't believe there are going to be any engine enhancements with this DLC. It seems that some of the prop objects, and some old un-used textures for uniforms will be added to the game for everyone.

I decided to wait before posting, and after sleeping on it, here are my thoughts. I hate posting this, I generally try to be positive, but there just hasn't been anything to be positive about since Jay Crowe left, leaving Arma floundering with a lack of leadership, and decision makers that are out of tune with the community. First, like many, I'm not a fan of the alien concept, but ignoring the aliens... let me talk about the rest of the content. Well, lets just get this out of the way right from the start. I have bought all of the official A3 content, gladly, and being eager to buy new content, $25 isn't a lot of money for an expansion, but.... This is not even close to an expansion, truthfully, it's about half an expansion, with a full expansion price tag. This isn't about the price, I'd gladly pay $25 for an expansion, this is about getting what you are paying for. So, moving on. The new map. Sadly, this is simply yet another Chernarus (that's now 7 Chernarus maps for those of you at home counting). The new map is mostly buildings from Dayz, so if you bought the standalone Dayz, congrats, you just paid for the buildings ....twice. Yes, BI just charged you again for content you already own. The vehicles. Well there are no real vehicles. Sorry, but a little drone, and a f**king tractor just doesn't cut it for an expansion. Seriously BI, a f**king tractor, that's just adding insult to injury. The weapons. Yeah, not much there either. The rest of the content is mostly reskins, and small objects. Hell, reskins, and small objects DLC would have been an much more accurate description of this project. I want new content as much of the rest of you, and until more recently, I liked the direction Arma was going, and was eager to buy their content, but not anymore. I no longer have any faith that BI (with it's current leadership) is capable of creating decent content, and that is really unfortunate since BI has failed to plan for delivering Arma 4 anytime soon. God, I hate being "that guy" complaining about Arma, I really want to like the new direction Arma is going, but I just can't get on board.

For anyone interested, here's a video of the new map.

I didn't give a statistic, I said I'm one of many. Did you not read the thread? The clear majority of people said they don't care for the alien concept. In fact, very few (in this thread) have embraced it. People prefer military content in their military games....who'd have thunk it.

He didn't say that. He said aliens would be more appropriate in another franchise, which is completely correct. I am one of the many people that don't think aliens are right for the Arma series. If Arma 4 is as far away as the developers are suggesting, Arma needs an expansion, are real expansion that is consistent with the core of the series. I could be wrong, but if this expansion is aliens, or something similar, I expect it could very well end up having as poor of ratings as the GM DLC.