CherokeeJack

I too am against jumping in a simulation game like OFP. I can tolerate it in a more arcade-y game like BF2 (and even then, just barely; bunny hoppers in that game bug the hell out of me), but OFP should definitely not have a jump option. I'm sure BIS thinks this as well, and will not implement that feature. Having said that, however, it would be nice to have a way to get by small obstacles without having to walk around them. I'm all for climbing; that would be great for urban battles and stuff like that. Also, maybe a "hop forward" option could be good, where the character just hops a small distance forward? This could be useful for hopping over holes in the ground (like gutters and ditches), and jumping from rooftop to rooftop (if the distance is reeeeeealllly small). And after you hop, you can't go prone, crouch, or sprint for a couple seconds? Swimming could be good too, but only for certain classes of soldier, like Black Op. I'm tired of being just stopped cold by water that goes barely above my character's head. This could also open up new mission opportunities, like raiding a ship or swimming across a river to flank an enemy position.

Yeahhhhhh...good luck with that. As for me, I will give my discs a place of honor in my "Hall of Fame" collection of games that were boss, but have gone past their prime. It shall join the distinguished ranks of Terra Nova, Heretic, C&C 1, Red Alert 1, and many other wonderful titles.

I think BIS didn't implement complete reloading animations for the sake of flexibility. This made it so that they didn't have to create separate reloading animations for each individual weapon. Also, since they probably thought from the start that OFP would be very mod friendly, they probably left them out to decrease the amount of work that modders needed to do in order to create new weapons. I'm sure we wouldn't have weapon packs with 20-30 individual weapons in them if the authors had to make reloading animations for each different weapon. That said, I would really like to see complicated weapon animations as well, but I don't think BIS would be able to without reworking their point of view, animation and weapon systems. However, there are some animations that I think could be included easily: - Reload animations for bullpup weapons. - Reload animations for regular shotguns (putting a few shells in it). - Pumping animations for shotguns. - Holding animations for weapons with foregrips.

God must hate me. Here's why: Earlier this evening, I was downloading the Woodland pack. Everything was going great. It was downloading fine until the 60% mark, at which point our phone rang and my mom picked it up, disrupting the internet connection and the download, which I could not recover after she was done on the phone. Tough break, but not something that's wholly unexpected. I began it again, and left. I returned a bit afterward to find that my download was almost done! I was really happy and ready to start OFP-ing it up with the new content. I was shaking in my chair with anticipation as it reached the 99% mark. Then the phone began to ring. Cursing under my breath, I yelled to my mom downstairs to not answer the phone. Unfortunately, it was not in time. My mom picked it up, again disrupting the connection and download, which had only .4 of a megabyte left to go. ARRRGGH!!! And here's the kicker: It was the WRONG NUMBER!!! I must have angered the OFP Gods somehow, so I will make an offering of lamb's blood and 5.56mm rounds on the next full moon. Here's a screenshot of my defeat at the hands of Earthlink DSL: http://img487.imageshack.us/img487/7844/dammit5xk.png

I had that same problem with the 81.84 drivers. I reverted too.

Cool idea. I'd really like to be able to carry an additional weapon for CQB and stuff like that, for when anti-armor stuff isn't needed. Something besides a sidearm. My only problem with this would be balance--what would stop a player from carrying two ultra-powerful weapons at once? Maybe a weight system could be implemented or something, so players can't carry two heavy weapons at once. I'd like to see that in Game 2.

Full pack for me. Want to see FFUR working in snow and desert terrain!

When I went through this cutscene recently, during the part of the missions where the Resistance soldiers are supposed to come in, kill the Russians and rescue you, the Russians actually killed all the Resistance troopers and I just sat there in the tent while I waited for the mission to end!

For me: UNKLE DJ Shadow DJ Krush RJD2 Massive Attack Roykskopp Kruder & Dorfmeister Hendrix Cream Placebo Occasionally break out Weird Al's "Poodle Hat." Love "Angry White Boy Polka."

Maybe strategic-level decisions will be carried out by the AI based on a Radiant AI (Oblivion)-esque system where the AI "Generals," or whoever is leading the armies, is only given general goals and objectives, but goes about accomplishing those in a nearly unscripted way?

I doubt that any international relationships will be harmed or affected in any way by the release of this pack. Maybe by this discussion, but not by a mod for a videogame. EDIT: Pack looks great, by the way. It'll be interesting to see the hardware of these two nations. Awesome job, and keep it up!

Since it's last minute, like Placebo said, I don't think that we'll see AI soldiers leaning around corners in OFP:E, but that would be something cool to do for ArmA. Hopefully that's implemented.

3.4 Ghz P4 1024 MBs DDR RAM 256 MB GeForce 6800 Ultra 160 GB HD SB Live! 24-Bit

I'd really like the environment to affect how players go about their business. Wind affecting flight would be quite cool. As for the mud idea, I think it could be fun, but only if mud appeared in likely places (i.e. not randomly) after a rainstorm. Likely places might be certain locations at the bottoms of hills, along well-traveled dirt roads, or maybe in craters (imagine dynamically-created craters like in Far Cry turning to mud during a storm--very cool). Also the mud should dry up after a day or so (depending upon weather) and should only SLOW certain vehicles down, not stop them outright. Adjusting windage for rifles would be quite cool as well, though only if it's done right. In addition to the afformentioned benefits to the sniping community, it would make long-distance shooting a bit harder, and sort of put more emphasis on maneuvering into place and finding a good firing position. Maybe on lower difficulties a little 3D arrow could appear in the corner of the screen, showing the direction of the wind relative to the player character? Realism/Difficulty fiends could turn it off and target enemies the old-fashioned way.

Well, we know that Game 2 is going to contain RPG elements (in fact, the preview posted on ArmA.dk describes the environment in Game 2 to be sort of Morrowind-like), though exactly which ones it will have are anybody's guess. Myself, I wouldn't mind it at all, though it would be really cool if it were optional. Now I'm really curious to see exactly how RPG-like BIS is willing to make Game 2.

It does that already, methinks! Blow up a tank from several hundred meters away and check it out.

Bet Tonal would look very pretty if it was updated to ArmA standards. The DSAI and radio chatter from ECP would be welcome as well.

Maybe once the player has reached a certain rank or completed a certain number of missions, he can be given the choice to stay on the ground, fighting with his men and following orders from HQ, or take on a strategic role in HQ itself, directing amounts of troops that increase as the player distinguishes himself by completing missions? Maybe BIS will meld the two by having a BF2 style Commander element?

If it's just performance and AI improvements that come with this enhanced editor, count me in.

God, I hope so! If ArmA featured nothing BUT improved, optimized DX9 performance, I'd throw down $50, take it home and be happy as a clam.

I played it and liked it just as much as CoD 1. Has a real cinematic feel, and it's quite atmoshpheric with all the battle chatter and gunfire and smoke and stuff. All the smoke played hell with my framerates, though. I have a feeling that the missions will remain just as scripted as they were in the original, with these new multiple approaches to the missions used to fool players into thinking that it's open ended, but I'm going to approach this new one like I approached CoD 1: An interactive series of mini World War 2 movies. I'll probably buy it when the price drops, or borrow it from one of my friends.

Agreed, 5133--Yours is a good idea, Skew, but I think the developers should simulate the confusion and din of battle by using effects and sound to influence the player directly, instead of imposing artificial limitations on his character. I think this could be done by having explosions, bullet whizzing, gunfire and such significantly louder relative to the non-combat environment that surrounds the player before a battle. For example, if a player is walking through a field, he hears his own footsteps, those of his squadmates, chatter, and other ambient noises at a normal volume. Then a bullet flies past the player, giving off a "WHIZZ" sound effect that is at at least double the normal volume, making the real-life player jump out of his seat! Hopefully, while he does this, he taps Z and goes prone . If there's an explosion near the player, his vision should be blurred and there should be a ringing in his ears. If the player character has been doing a lot of running, we should hear heavy panting, as well as the panting of those around him. The confusion can also be escalated by using long-lasting, drifting smoke that covers the battlefield and obscures everything. I've never been on a battlefield, but I would imagine that there's a lot of smoke after a while. Sources would include fires, explosions, smoke grenades, surrounding terrain (i.e. dust and sand being kicked up by rotor blades and such), RPG launches and prolonged gunfire. After that, it's up to the player to pick out his targets through the smoke and engage. Maybe allied soldiers could have their "allied" label disabled if they're obscured by smoke, and the player can only judge based on how they act or what they say? Maybe we could get rid of the labels altogether? The player can be further confused by enemy behavior, especially in urban environments. Enemies should lean around corners, run from cover to cover, give covering fire and stuff like that. Close engagements should be fast and furious. Also, there could be civilians in the battle zones that behave very differently. They could run around confused, cower in a corner, or maybe even take up a weapon and join the fight, who he or she attacks depending upon his or her attitude toward the fighting factions? Another way to add to the experience would be to make the player's life mean something to the player. In regular shooters like HL2 or Halo, life doesn't really mean too much because if you F up, you just respawn from your last save point, which can be anywhere. I think BIS understood this when they implemented their retry/1 save system for CWC. If you have to restart 1000 meters away from your objective when you die, you suddenly become more careful so that you won't have to go through that again. RPGs give life value by implementing penalties for the player character if he or she dies. I'm not sure how a game like Game 2 would do this, but I think BIS was on the right track with the present system. My point here is that a player's "composure level" should depend upon the player himself, not his character, and that how he feels and acts on the battlefield should be influenced by visual and auditory effects, as well as tactically-skilled AI and a life that has value.

Lovin' these new screenshots! Sarah looks great, but I wonder what it's supposed to be based on, geographically? To me, it kind of reminds me of Israel, especially with that farmland in the background of the third shot. BIS makes me drool...

I've been playing your campaign for a few missions and I think you've done a great job overall! I only had a few problems. I think I remember some text being in Spanish in a couple cutscenes, and being dumped onto the main menu after completing a couple missions, but overall you did an excellent job with this. I hope you decide to make another one!

I definitely hope for AI improvements as well as improved vehicle physics. I'm not too sure that the ability to drift around corners in a BMP is entirely realistic... The graphics changes are important for me as well, especially the lighting improvements. It gave me hope to see a soldier's shadow actually get shown on an individual forest tree in an OFP Elite video, and I hope that nighttime lighting has improved as well--the light given off by headlights/searchlights on vehicles, as well as static streetlamps isn't very pleasing to the eyes--my eyes at least. Here's hoping for the best, but I'm not too worried--BIS knows their stuff.