lecholas

Deadfast, you made me want to jump into my car just to drive about 10 hours to the nearest Czech city in which I can buy the special edition and drive another 10 hours to where I live to play it. Anyway, it would probably be cheaper and faster than if I ordered it by mail (when ArmA came out I ordered it from Czech Republic, payed two times the price at which I could buy it in Poland one month later and received it about week after Polish version was released:j:). And the Polish ArmA2 publisher still has release date set to "year 2009."

Can anyone check if FreeTrack works in Arma2? Thanks in advance.

You surely don't mean it looks exactly the same as Arma, do you? There are some noticable differences like shaded terrain detail (not in Arma). And a few of smaller details like thickness and colour of countre lines. But I think you're right (if you meant that) and Arma 2 ingame map will be not much different than the one in Arma.

I hope this is how the map will look like ingame. It looks more like real topographical map than maps from OFP and Arma on which you could see every single bush and every single building (was it a shed or a toilet) or wooden fence. They were just too detailed. Using such maps was too easy and didn't give any real satisfaction.

We have all seen those videos. It's nice if the AI can move tactically before a contact is made but what the really important thing is if the AI can act tactically after the contact is made. So far we haven't seen any evidence of that kind of behaviour. I really fear (I do hope I'm wrong), that we can end up having the AI who nicely moves threw the landscape (watching angles, covering each other) but totally loosing it's mind when they see an enemy (not being able to take cover effectively, sending single squad members on suicide-engage missions). I'd love to be wrong.

It's been confirmed that Arma will not have native support of voice recognition but commanding menus are designed with compatibility with voice recognition programs in mind. How will it look like we have to wait and see for ourselves.

Just run FreeTrack (with TrackIR output enabled) and Arma with Armalib and run one of the mission examples provided by Kegetys (it's named sarasample6DOF.sara.pbo). You'll be able to use some vehicles with 6DOF. If you unpack the mission (it's pboed) you should see (with basic knowledge of mission editing) how to use it in your mission to enable it on other vehicles. Edit: Ah! I forgot to say you, of course, have to 3-point clip (or cap) to be able to use 6DOF (not a single LED model), but I assumed it's obvious.

BTW for anyone interested you are able to try 6DOF arma (via armalib) with FreeTrack as well.

And now, as we had heard that there will be weapon specific animations, someone can make proper coconut shells...

Well, I always thought about building positions and pathways in objects (builings, bridges etc.) as of something like proto-system of that sort. It's not much used by the default AI though. I wonder if that's not leftover from BIS' tests to implement more complex cover system. And to sum up OFP/Arma AI you can quote: Fire without maneuver is indecisive. Maneuver without fire is fatal.

Well' date=' it's not that easy. There were features that were supposed to be in ArmA but they didn't make it (suppression was one of them, I remember interviews in which BIS' members told us we would get that). But I'm still optimistic when it comes to suppression - there's VBS2 suppresed event handler for VBS (since VTK i think) so it's not impossible. Of course the question is if the AI will actually use suppresing fire not if they will only be affected by it. But I still hope for the best.

It was said several times there won't be working trains as well. But it appears that there will be some. BIS aren't that trustworthy ;) .

BTW this preview build doesn't have hand signals system implemented but we know that it will be in the final game (we could see it even in the official trailer). So maybe in the preview build there isn't the new AI as well? We had an official statement that in the preview build there weren't buildings destruction module implemented maybe we could have an officail statement on the AI?

"All, go to that Cow (Black & White) at our front." :eek:

I'm not sure how it is in USMC (maybe someone can comment on this) but due to constant and rapid changing of compass directions mentioned by Second and S!fkaIaC 12 hours system wasn't any more precise than new one appears to be. When we heard 'enemy at 3 o'clock' we couldn't just scan 90 deg. (persuming we could make a precise turn of 90 deg. in blink of an eye) to our right and be sure that we'll see the enemy there. We had to scan all our right. For some refference dyslecxi's tactical guide advises to shout "contact front", "contact right", etc.

The envirionment in those youtube movies is just beautiful. But something to analyse: Radio protocol (clearly not finished yet - BTW anyone noticed how 'corpsman' is pronounced in one of the videos? shouldn't it be without 'p' and 's'?) is IMHO much improved. - reporting more than one enemy in one sentence should reduce radio chatter spam: "ENEMY Man and Machinegunner, front, close to us" (http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/958404/arma-2/images/arma-ii-20090420042213746.html) - more intuitive locations used in commands descriptions: "move 500, west", "move 500 south of Prigrorodki" (village name, I think), "ENEMY Man in Grishino" (village again), We have a bridge accross something which could (hopefully) be some kind of river (http://www.pcdome.hu/image.php?image=/gallery/3307/image67.jpg&caption=ArmA%202) The most sadening is that I could see next to no AI improvements (maybe only in pathfinding but it's hard to tell). No using cover in firefights, no cooperation of team members (only suicidal 'engage' command), no suppressing fire.

And maybe it's just the rating standards changed during those few years ;) . (Of course for better ones ;) ).

Great mission! I've finally completed it. I started it in previous version but couldn't finish it (and when I managed to beat the whole army of SLA attacking Eponia two times the blackhawk didn't land on the evac LZ). The new version has what I like the most in OFP/Arma - the feeling that you are not the main character, that the war is going on around you whether you participate in it or hide in some bushes. It also shows that Arma's AI can do a lot of things (but I suppose making it do this required from you a lot of effort) on their own. And the SF's AI is very nice (in Arma standards). I can only imagine how much work it took to force them to act resonably. Anyway, great mission. Thank you very much for your work.

There was an interview (in German unfortunately) in which we had a screenshoot which was suppossed to be from 3D editor but now the news on armedassault.info says that it was removed due to copyright issues. On the screenshoot we could see an Osprey, some buildings (all ingame, not in 2D editior) and at the bottom of the screen there were buttons: 'Load', 'Save', 'Restart', 'Clear', 'Preview', 'Edit in 2D map', 'x'. There was also a dialog in which there were options: unit (F1) group (F2) trigger (F3) waypoint (F4) vehicle (F5) marker (F6) intel (F7) mine (F8) soundsource (F9) The news on armedassault.info is here (I think it's about the article). Google translation of the German text:

Good decision. 3rd party programs are accurate, free to use, not resources hungry and I don't think we need anything more. Good to know that you keep in mind them while designing. I was affraid a bit that you won't remember about them while making the new command interface.

Well, this reply confused me a bit. I allways ignored discussions about 'is ArmA2 the same game that so called 'Game 2'' because I thought the answer is obvious: it is. But now the developers themselves say something from which we can infer that those are two different projects. Not that it matters that much, but I thought that ArmA was a side project (OFP 1.5) while the Game 2 (which I thought to be the same as ArmA2) was still in delopment from the days of OFP:R... So, as I understand it, ArmA2 project was started after ArmA:QG but it contains some work (we can read that it includes 'models', but is it solutions, code, etc. as well?) from original Game 2. And the original Game 2 was abandoned?

Lights in the buildings at night. Nice.

I'd say that I judge the Soviet Union to be a republic of evil because it is so, not the other way round. But of course its only metaphorically because morality can be strictly applied to acts of an individual person not a state. Well, that's your position (not a fact) that there is no absoulte truth in morality. "Just because you judge that there is no absolute truth based on moral ground it doesn't make it so." Hmm, would you say that Nazi Germany wasn't evil? That it was only grey as everything else? Those within the Soviet sphere of influence, but not constituents of the former Soviet Union. Like (I'm taking a shot in the dark) your country, Poland. Did I guess right? If you are saying that the USSR put pressure on them, which amounts to indirect manipulation or control, that is true. But then the same has to be said about the United States and NATO. To say that Poland (or any any other of Eastern European countries) was just under Soviet pressure just like USA and NATO is (sorry, but it is) complete ignorance. Did any of Western countries have large Soviet military presence on its territory? Was the politics, education, economy (and as a matter of fact almost every sphere of social life) of any of Western under constant control of secret police (UB/SB in Poland, Stasi in DDR, Securitate in Romania, StB in Czechoslovakia etc.) which was in turn controlled by Soviet secret services. Well, yes. They just happened to have opposing views. USSR thought that every its citizen should be invigilated, could be killed or tortured at any time for not accepting the regime etc. Western countries on the other hand thought that every its citizen is an individual who has its rights (to live, to travel, to have freedom of speech, with certain exceptions of course). Well, let's don't judge those opposite views. The Soviets considered this doctrine failed after the Second World War (if the biggest war in mankind's history couldn't start a spark for a global socialist revolution, nothing could). Besides, the war was never supposed to be brought westward by the USSR but from within, by the proletariat of the Western nations themselves. Civil war, in essense, was the idea. Any historian will tell you that as soon as Stalin was out of the picture, Soviet foreign policy mindset underwent a colossal and permanent change. No, not every historian will tell you that. Soviet war machine's military doctrine was allways offensive. Even in '80 there were still military plans to roll on the Western Europe. You're right -- both sides are bad. Political ambitions are always based on greed and paranoia (help me to find an example of an exception). Therefore, it can be said that all political and, consequently, military action is bad. Well, I can't even imagine what kind of argument could provide to prove this general thesis. Yes, for many people it epends on perspective. E.g. most of Germans at the beggining of the Second World War supported theirs countries actions. But some did not. Both options were equally bad? Since you venture to speak for them, please share with me -- what horrible things did the USSR do to BIS studios? I think the reason that the USA and USSR are portrayed as the good (former) and the bad (latter) is almost purely financial. Explanation: The English-speaking sector of the games market is by far bigger than the Czech, Russian, German, Spanish, etc. As it happens, most of the people who speak English also live in countries harboring decades of anti-Soviet sentiment. If you were marketing a game, would you want to offend the biggest customer population, or to play into our stereotypes? Well, I can be wrong, but I think I remember Maruk saying something similar in one of the interviews some time ago. I didn't say USSR did horrible things to BIS but I said they did them to Czechs (read about Prague spring or StB). You're probably right here (not that there weren't defections in the other direction also -- there were). The quality of life in the socialist bloc was worse than that in the Western nations. I doubt that so many people were hopping over the Berlin wall to make a political statement. They were trying to go to a better, wealthier state. It's the same here in the States with regard to immigrants from Mexico. Lots of people come here, legally and even illegally, because it's easier to live here. Not because the evil Mexican dictatorship creates an unbearable life for the citizens. Â You really belive it is the same as with Mexico? Very clever! Â Â In either case, they must have changed it since the first screenshots. For example: http://www.arma2.com/images/stories/gallery/ArmA2_Ingame-35.jpg You're right here. Those uniform badges do look similar to Ukraine's flag. Well, someone started talking about the USSR so the discussion went on that topic. Of course Russian Federation is a different thing and we could now start discussion about it So let's better get back on topic now Â

Which East European countries are exactly you talking about? Not controlled by USSR? That's right. And as it was an international socialism its purpose was to spread around the world. That's why USSR's doctrine was war for peace and socialism. Really, it has always amazed me that so many people here always wanted to play OFP 'from the other point of view'. But I always explain it to myself that it's like the fascination with the Empire in the Star Wars universe. People sometimes want to play the bad (dark) side. But it's out of the quesition who was the bad guys. So why BIS made USSR the bad guys and the USA the good guys? I think it's because BIS is a Czech studio. Its members lived in socialistic Czechoslovakia (they are old enough). They really can tell who were the good guys and who were bad. People from the West usually have no idea about the life in so called Eastern Block countries before 1989. But you don't need to go into to much detail to understand it. You can ask yourself: in which direction people were escaping (risking their lifes! threw the Berlin Wall? Was it east or west? If Western countries were comparatively bad as USSR the traffic should be both ways the same... Flag of Chernarus is similar to Ukraine's one? In what respect? That it is rectangular? Chernarus: Ukraine: