r2101

well... agreed it would have been nice to have a more detailed damage system in place... actually i am leaning more towards the old opf particle/cloud system for smoke and explosions... about survivability of apcs... well... in opf i just toned down the law/rpg class a bit... two config values...hit&indirect hit (that was easier than changing i dunno how many different apc armor values *lol*). should do the trick in armed assault too... and make mech-inf a bit more use-/durable. and even without a more acurate damage system it worked quite nicely...sometimes a track got destroyed, sometimes the main gun was defective... and some of the passengers/crew were injured...but had normally enough time to bail out...

i would wish bis good luck with queens gambit... but... considering the rather unlucky start that armed assault had i doubt it quite a lot of people who purchased armed assault were somewhat irritated by the performance and unfinished touch the game had in its initial stages *sigh*... at least the people i talked to ... if i were to look into the future i would foresee that overall sales of queens gambit would probably be somewhere in the range of armed assault at max... most probably considerably less... for sure opf/armed assault/vbs deserves better.... an ingenious concept... and opf is the only game i play since years on a almost unhealthy rate and armed assault is a fine game in itself since 1.08 (at least on my system)... great patch-support from bis... but unless there is a gigantic pr-effort and computers will be considerably more advanced/powerful (faster grafx cards etc.) i see a rather bleak future *sigh* having uttered such a pessimistic outlook i would like to add that i really hope to be proven wrong and that queens gambit will be a smashing success

hiho... i think you misunderstood my idea of "the fun part"... i wasn´t trying to say that it is all fun, or war is fun (well it is as a game *g*)... instead i was refering to motivations and learning... and i think you will be able to integrate something better into your "memory" if you actually expirience it as interesting (which i refer to as fun)... and i think an interactive system is more "fun" / interesting as a normal diagram in a educational setting... might sound strange ... english isn´t my first language

interesting views into the making of vbs2... especially enjoyed the part about new ways of learning... i guess that is the exciting aspect about stuff like vbs/opf etc... it can be used as a tool to evaluate and monitor group dynamics ... communication processes... besides i could imagine that it makes a very nice interactive replacement for overhead projectors or the use of board and chalk *lol*... instead of just drawing a scene and discuss it you could set up an interactive movie depicting the same scene, watch from different angles...easily change parameters, try out different approaches etc... (the realtime editor has to be brilliant for that kind of stuff) the perfect visualization tool imho... and it is probably more "fun" than to just watch some dry diagrams/maps...and "fun" is important ...even in "serious" stuff... in terms of motivation and actually positively connecting with the subject... but in the end...i think the use of "pros" to teach other "pros" is what makes it serious or realistic...

36... got interested in operation flashpoint cwc a couple of years ago... got hooked on tactical shooters thru rogue spear and its expansions... so... flashpoint offered everything i wanted in a game... land combat, vehicles.. big maps still my favorite game today. play it a lot more than armed assault... btw... i read about having to have resistance to use addons... actually it is quite easy to "convert" quite a lot of opf 1.96 addons for opf cwc (1.46)... some advanced functionality might not work (e.g. event handlers) but quite alot works like a charm... e.g. replacing bis standard units with modern hyk us soldiers, same with russian units. or gettin an armed brdm into opf cwc anyway... great game...

what is awesome... the hdr/lighting and shadow effects... imho it truly looks beautiful... just watching a squad move along in a fullmoon night without clouds is breathtaking... the same goes for daylight operations and changing sunlight..nothing short of amazing ...congrats BIS!!!!! - the color selection *drool*... love it! imho the best implementation of realistic lighting and colors in a game up to date (i said IMHO *lol*)... - the SOUND effects (i know... i am probably the only one who likes them but anyway)... GREAT!!! i love the small arms stuff... all those crackles and whizzing bullets...neat stuff... imho those are really adequate when compared to the more hollywood like sounds used in other games... sure if people want more "meatier" sounds they might sound thin... but then again if you use more "meatier" sounds and have a couple of units firing you get a freaking bad sound imho (just like mixing music actually). i think BIS found a nice middle ground setting for that - the island... highly detailed... beautiful scenery...only downside is the somewhat unlogical setup with the two complete different enviroments...but that was probably included/chosen to allow for more gaming options/scenarios - the overhauled engine... it´s amazing that the engine can actually display much more complex enviroments with less lag than the old opf engine could archive with less complex enviroments... BUT (!!! quite alot of that new potential was somewhat wasted (IMHO...please don´t flame me to death *lol*) when BIS decided to directly compete with normal fps games in terms of eyecandy... at least for todays generation of gaming computers *sigh*... right now the new optimizations get somewhat eaten up by extreme texture & shading/object details... well i can still see it as an investment for the future...

what is dissapointing about arma? the available hardware for both sides... i would have wished for something more "complete"...or well...something more "logical"... e.g. the ka50 attack helicopter doesn´t seem adequate for a second/third world army... i am not too sure, maybe our russian friends could shed some light on it, but i always thought that the ka50 isn´t that widely used... always thought that hinds mi24 or mi17 etc. were available to the masses... and well... is the ka50 even that readily available in the russian army? probably more hinds aswell... seems unlogical to put such high end gear onto that island.... but then again don´t know too well about it... what about the balancing between the us and opfor tanks? are those t72s really a match for the american side? obviously in arma they are... personally i think that would be really onesided in reality (but then again... just my humble opinion).... so (as probably stated already a hundred times) i would have loved to see hinds, bradleys... and more russian gear. so much for the general setup... ...speaking about technical game-engine stuff... - pathfinding for vehicles... and acceleration... uhm... i was somewhat put off as i placed a stryker outside a town and then placed a waypoint to let that stryker drive into the town... damned... that thing accelerates faster than a regular car in real life?! and then it somehow managed to get "confused" on a crossroad in the city... PATHFINDING... - bridges (also a bit of an pathfinding issue *lol*) ... and truley interconnected with the new swimming feature *aarghs*.. not exactly a match made in heaven... first time i watched my squad avoid the brigde and enter the river was a classic WTF moment - ai behaviour & shooting skills... the more object-wise "dense" enviroment seems to confuse them... apparently to make up for it they became even better than in opf in regard to their sniper skills... i would have wished for a somewhat more advanced ai...especially in towns... all those nice new towns are somewhat ruined by ai that has no idea of taking cover/ utilizing the enviroment... - covering fire etc... *sigh* - ai has still no idea how to react to certain situations... e.g. avoiding contact with enemy armored units. or even worse sends out "specialists" to engage "normal" soldiers... charging snipers, machine gunners and anti armor specialists always make me cry (makes mental note disable ai target for those units could help) - aiming & vegetation fps lag... in opf the whole scenery would lag and amazingly the weapon sights would lag less ... when used... in armed assault it is the opposite... the engine pulls of more complex enviroments as in opf with less lag and starts to lag when using the weapon sights - shading options i would love to see an additional option in the shaders selection menu. i could easily live with shaders on very low (units, vehicles, building etc.) if i could have the ground textures shader still active.. - animations even with very high fps i get kinda slow motion dead animations...which look somewhat odd... changin between animations phases looks kinda stiff... i don´t have a problem with the movement of my own character (actually i like it) but watching a squad moving looks less fluid than in opf...and ruins the otherwise good animations imho... and now on to the awesome topic

yup... the night graphics are beautiful, love the shadows and the moonlight... it is err.... kinda creepy in a good way actually it is kinda distracting... i find myself quite often just watching the different shades of grey whilst the squad passes along and well... get shot nice... and then that brilliant urban patrol script yumm!

You have an ATI card and low texture settings. Makes sense. Have you tried to fill up your GFX memory? Go riding on sunny Sahrani for... half an hour BTW I made more testing with "high" textures and postprocessing off. FPS is ok but graphics memory still fills up, now only slower than before. Then fps starts to decrease and textures start to show up with horrible lag. ok, jogged thru the island with time acceleration... put textures to high... i get a performance hit when using high textures ( that was to be expected *lol*)... but even after quite some time there is no texture corruption / LOD / missing/wrong texture happening... and well i know how those errors would look like...cause i had massive problems with 1.02 (guess it was that patch)... causing me to shelve the game... 1.05 exceeded my wildest expectations... about the texture quality... of course there is a difference... but to me it is a good compromise between speedy fps and eyecandy... and (personally) i do not think that the low setting degrades the visual quality too much...but each to his own i guess... i think shading details are what makes trees and bushes uhm... "bushes and trees"... *lol*... dunno if it has any impact...i set non local vram to 0... hope the problems for you guys gets sorted out...it´s a brilliant game when it works (and it works since only a couple of days...since patch 1.05 ... for me)... greetings - r2101

hiho well the detected by triggers coupled with synced waypoints can archive (at least gamewise) was you are looking for... just set different triggers for different approachroutes, and use switch about that info sharing between units... on the one hand you could try to script it... which might be a tad complicated if you are just beginning (or alternatively wait for grouplink, infoshare scripts, which were available for good old opf)... keywords would be (best too look on em up on the community wiki, or the opf editing center): REVEAL, KNOWSABOUT and well some ARRAY handling could be handy too on a more practical note... units using the GUARD waypoint already share info about enemies troops spotted, and try (at least to some extent) to push adequate troops against enemy targets... additionally you could use GUARDED BY triggers... put some on the flanks of your approach route and you might be surprised where some of those enemy troops might show up... basically i would advocate a mixed use of guard waypoints and synced stuff coupled with detected by... might be the easiest route ... hope that helps...

hmmm...to add a bit to the confusion... 1.05 works like a dream specs: pentium d 3 ghz 2 gb ram ati 1900gt onboard sound so far 1.05 works best for me ... no sounderrors (better than opf infact... where i would "loose" my feet sometimes *lol*)! the new lod "fading" works perfect... no texture errors, no sudden pop ups.. etc... ingame settings: terrain detail: very low object detail: very high shading: very high postprocess: low af: very high aa: normal shadow detail: very high texture detail: low game looks beautiful... don´t care about the grass (and well that is the only thing which really drags fps down on my system)... difference between low and normal or high textures isn´t that obvious (at least to me)... it´s good with normal textures aswell but even better with low textures...only visible difference is with very low... (which is a bit yuck indeed *lol*) even postprocessing is playable... but i prefer some additional fps oh ...resolution is 1024x768... i don´t use any maxmen switches ati thingie is all set on "let the application handle it"... very happy customer right now... p.s. nope...i am not a fanboy. infact i shelved armed assault... after the first patch or so... just got curious about the 1.05 update patch, and thought...well lets give it a try... and woooh!!! nice!!! "felt" performance is on par with opf in reasonable sized scenarios...e.g. 3-5 squads for each side, couple of support units (armor, soft skinned vehicles, a chopper or two)... must be a nightmare to patch with all those different results so far?!

in order to get more "careful" defenders/attackers just disableai "target" and set "combat" and "open fire&engage" at will... ai units try to stay in cover and won´t attempt suicidal attacks anymore... downside... they might even decide to wait it out instead of attacking *lol* very nice for "static" defenders. works like a charm in opf also nice as a mixed attack force. some "more active" units without disableai and others with their ai disabled. ah...and don´t use stuff like seek&destroy... give em guard waypoints as targets/destination... should enhance the target spotting ability a bit (sharing informations ...) don´t think that the basic ai got much enhanced in armed assault... but i have quite high hopes for more controllable parameters... btw that non spotting bug in obvious situations is a tradition straight from opf

the perfect pc for armedassault isn´t made yet...imho... wait til a couple of "new generation" grafx cards hit the table (and come down in price too ) upgrade then... together with a fast dualcore cpu and generous amounts of ram memory.. don´t upgrade before...that p4 singlecore thing won´t really push armedassault into new heights... neither the 7600 card *sigh*. at least my 3ghz pentium d coupled with a ati1900gt and 2gb of ram doesn´t really cut it in terms of performance... anyway...happy xmas

well... i guess we can only wait for the patch... btw...oswald... the screenshot made my day.... i am crying...had to laugh too much to all the ppl posting tips... before completly changing system configs...chipsetdrivers etc... just lets wait for the next patch. if other demanding apps and games don´t make your current puter act up it is probably more likely that the current crop of problem is more engine related than pc related... just mho...

after having some time with current release... patched... about the ai... well you don´t have to put the sliders up to the max to make them sharpshooter-like... but imho this was the same in opf. actually i think the default skill levels are a tad higher than in good old opf. all in all i did like the infranty engagements (enormous potential... will be a great game with a few patches) til i switched back to opf *sigh*. aiming got a tad harder than in plain old opf imho... but that isn´t wrong imho. actually i tought it was too easy in opf to snipe with an assault riffle thing is (again imho im not talkin absolute truth here, and of course my opinion is open to discussion...before i get flamed to death) that it is a balancing problem imho. if aiming becomes harder for the player... well maybe it should have become harder for the ai too? at least that is what i did to my plain vanilla opf config... increase the dispersion values for the weapons, but also increase sensivity values for the ai. and from what i have read mods like wgl do something similar... what was a show stopper were e.g. tanks. couldn´t play with tanks. soundwise that is. no problem with loud sounds, could have overlooked the fact that i can´t get the direction ...again soundwise. but digital clipping is ... yuck... again i am not dissatisfied with the infranty weapon sounds... love the crackle like effects and such. i think this is a improvent. but that is just my opinion. putting a couple of tanks on the map became a sonic nightmare *megasigh* but all in all the soundengine, and especially the compability with most soundsystems in use, needs a lot of testing and tuning imho. about ai in general... movement in towns looks "better" to me than it was in old opf. but some of the "tested" new ai behaviour has - imho - alot to do with the fact that there is much more "micro-terrain" in armed assault. (compare the operation flashpoint editing center discussion about cover) there are so much view obstructing things in armed assault (great btw) that the ai just isn´t so exposed as in opf imho. whereas flanking got them easily killed in opf, because you could see without a problem what they were trying to do.... in armed assault it is not that easy anymore some of the driving problems could be based on that imho. just too much objects for pathfinding; but that is an assumption positiv (and that is very positive! is the island and the new soldier modells... beautiful... actually beautiful doesn´t describe it adequately. the new island is just lovely crafted. a lot of effort went into the island and i am completly stunned. congratulations bis!!! i love the blue newspaper/postboxes (now that is what most of you wanted to know...right...how are the new postboxes...but believe me...they are magnificient!!... hdr... positive.. works (in daylight that is) wonderfully... truly adds another dimension to opf... no more static lighting. getting blinded by bright sunlight is a very nice addition... hdr negative... at least i think the problems are based on hdr... textures on walls turn "grey" in houses, same in some vehicles... overlightning (prolly wrong word...srry no native speaker here) graphical presentation... positive... as i said...the island is beautiful, most of the objects look positively gorgeous. soldier modells and animations rocks! negative... sloppy performance...even after the patch... lod/texture errors are still present (quite a lot actually). sometimes textures don´t get loaded at all *sigh*. but well... the patch was a great improvement... was unplayable - out of the box - before... tank modells don´t look too good to me... at least if you see the enormous increase in detail with the soldiers... tanks didn´t make a comparable leap imho ah ...and btw... my machines specs... pentium d 3ghz, 2gb ram, fast hds, ati 1900gt graphics card... very clean (new) windows install, drivers up to date... no it´s not my computer... other demanding games run extremly fine...e.g. oblivion, fear, falcon, swat4 etc... and no..no spyware, resource hungry antivir apps in the background...it is a dedicated ...non multiplayer box ... i think... it will become a great game... it has tons of potential...one of a kind... if the quirks can be worked out (it has tons of bugs too *sigh*)...that is... the german release was rushed imho... it wasn´t ready (read non finished imho) for release imho (lotsa scripting errors in the single player missions, somewhat excentric graphics engine etc.). more a late beta... prolly some developer/publisher contract thingie... christmas and so on but i am patient and quite happy awaiting the next couple of patches... i guess armed assault is here to stay in the meantime i am back to opf

maybe interesting for first time installers. i installed armed assault and the patch directly afterwards... ...before even playing it once. as a result i wasn´t able to start the campaign at all... crash to desktop... i uninstalled / reinstalled and started a game with the unpatched version. waited til the resulting slideshow got into the campaign and exited. installed the patch and voila... works like a charm (almost) can´t really comment on the helicopter issues... just did a quick test... handling is different... but then again i am not that interested in helicopters. a tad more troublesome is imho the inability of the ai to navigate bridges *sigh*... that would be really nice if this could be adressed in the next patch me as a commander crossing a bridge and the team jumps happily into the river... well ok, it is supposed to be tropical island (sort of)... maybe the heat btw i think the infantry ai did improve quite a bit (apart from that river hopping thing)... very nice surprise vehicle sounds... hmmm... it is ok.. as long as there is one tank around... a tank platoon can be ... disturbing; seems as if the audio engine gets overloaded (distortion... slight hint... a compressor, soft limiter could help infantry fire fight sounds... wow.. brilliant...no issues at all... even the "crackle" like sounds are there... wonderful... and that with intel high definition onboard audio sound ...quite surprising... much better than what i remembered from flashpoint lod-issues... imho mainly due to shader-stuff... brought shader level to bare minimum and no more wrong textures or sudden changing textures etc... a bit sad, cause i thought my grafx card would shine with shaders (ati 1900gt). well but the game is still beautiful imho... runs like a charm with full textures, lots of aa at 1024x768 (full post processing included) that is with the patch of course. without the patch it is more like seconds per frame really looking forward to that brigde navigating patch great game!