Second

AI does lean, funny that player's lean was left out :p Mod doesn't make lack of lean as much unpleasant as the fact that AI sees thru grass, well ofcourse this is personal point of view, i don't much use lean anyways but tend to move character to engage position and back to cover... Anyways back to grass-issue: It's same as ArmA at start, damn i hated to cross hills. Cladly BIS fixed it. Just hoping that CM does the same fix... Yeah i'm not holding my breath :p

I'm learning to use mission editor at the moment, so i'm very interested alright... Buuut, well, that takes all my free time at the moment. Besides my internet connection is grappy. :p

Are you member of Inquisition? Do you whip your self often? :D

Now first and foremost post ain't directed only to EricM but to all: I play OFP almost daily still. Unlike ArmA or ArmA2 demo. OFP, with WGL or FFUR&SLX, Liberation mod etc. Concerning why i play it: It's ruins immersion that i find out that i still play the same game with just improved outlooks. Some basic things broken, like AI's taking cover skills and lacking micro detail in terrain setting. Replace those with poor character controls etc. That is the main problem for ME. So I will mirror OF:DR to OFP [listens how fanbois starts howling. Feels amused]. OFP was something new but is getting old, maybe OF:DR will be something new again, seem like it wields such potential (unlike ArmA-series). Simple as that, and no matter how "badly" or "deeply" "offended" someone will feel about it. Really no reason to start howling about it, you will just make jerk out of yourself. Keep playing with ArmA2 by all means, i'm not taking it away from you, or judging you. But don't try to stuff you opinions to me about how ArmA2 is so super: i've tried it, tested it, judged it already.

Game is good. Got surprised because i didn't prepare for. That is indeed positive. I like the game. It' change from OFP-ArmA-ArmA2-line, where we basically still are playing OFP with bit improvements. I wanted to have lots more and atlest OF:DR seems to offer that. Campaign is decent, i like the setting. Artillery is great :) Time limits are okay if they wouldn't be overused and too tight! Come on! Artillery is decent, too fast response time however. Ofcourse it's arcade, even basic spotter stuff would be okay and add immersion. Tutorial? Firing range? Stupid that this wasn't included into game. Command ring is piece of sh!t, well ring it self is good. But the way commands are issued to men isn't, and that it halts character. And so is map commandind, bit better but not very usefull in the end. Best way seems to keep all men in one team and issue orders as team, in that way it works decently, isn't too hard for player to use and is fast to use. But i've played too much Full Spectrum Warrior and Brothers In Arms to love it. They have fluid system, which of course is also simpler when it comes to issuable commands. Same with inventory. Horrible. Switching for hand grenade and then switching it to smoke... Sucks. Commands are plenty covering almost all i can think of. Assault, clearing buildings, suppress, defend, fallback, flank etc. Finally i have got guys who have passed basic training and have bit advanced training as well, they are not fully learned, but better than fresh rookies in most games. AI combat abilities are good enough. I can order lots of things for my men and enemy AI ain't total idiot, even if many times moves out from cover and generally likes to be too easy target. Yet they seem to favor crawl of death instead of sprinting for cover. After campaign is finished i start to use mods. Blindness is main problems at them moment, mostly i guess they just don't have a glue on what is happening around them. Shooting accuracy's under suppression is bit too poor in my mind. Unsuppressed? Well i've got killed enough often to say that they can't hit anything, yet they are not snipers. They seem to handle close ranges very well, but long distances are weak part. People say that they get spotted even from 1 kilometers... Excuse me? I just wish they would. 200-300 meters seems to almost max. Weapons. Atleast zooming scopes has right trajectory. If target is 300 meters awat player does wish to use corresponding mark in sights. -I like the way recoil works. Rocks weapon around more than lifts. -Chinese assault rifle has some strange pause between single shots, douple tapping is not possible. But gun handles itself well in autofire so short bursts are good option. Chinese LMG (that bigger one) has just 3 units of 75 rounds mag? Stupid. -FLIR? Overused in campaign, but neat. -AT-weapon's reloading animation? Horrible to be honest, why there is not 'cease action'-option? Basically it's realistic, but... Oh and no disposable AT-launcher? Vehicles... Wasn't EGO engine for race games :D Anyways i don't care much, they get you from point A to point B decently. Terrain not as exposed as i thought, buuut it could offer more cover. MP? Couldn't care less. Keep monkeys in their locked gage. Please. Overall impression is good maybe even great once i handle system better and get familiar with editor. Hopefully CM will improve the game's interface somehow, inventory menu seems to be bugged. Too early to tell will it replace original OFP, it took half year for me to understand that ArmA isn't capable to replace it, with ArmA2 it became clear in two days to figure out that. And the ultimate question: Is it better "military simualtor" than ArmA/ArmA2? In a way it is, infantry side basically owns ArmA2. Vehicles... Too early to tell, but cars seems to back up idea that not. "Rules of Battle" aka will battles play out in realistic fashion and will some basic stuff work? Hard to say how well it works, will require lots of editor time to test it.

Freferd has it right. APCs are very lethal if they are part of larger unit, which have dismounted. What dismout see it informs to BMP in 0.0000001 seconds (don't count zeros as they don't matter ;) ) Their ability to spot is heavily dependant of dismounts seeking targets for them... Unless they get shot at. If IFV is alone, it's more blind. I'm not sure how much in ArmA2, but i've ran quite a deal in flank of M1A1 and it doesn't seem to register me at all. One shot from RPG-7 at it and i'm toast. This are main problems in BIS's engine. In reality you don't have borg-effect (telepathy sort of) or instant "i know from where you fired at me". In reality, well i haven't been inside that kind vehicles much, just tracked truck hauling us on arctic heights, so i can't tell much anything first-hand. But from users i've understood big thing are thermals. I've heard stories form gunners how they are spotting how AT-guy in their sector (this in exercises, so no killing involved) readies AT-launcher into work and gunner even can spot mishandlings. Thermals are "unfair", but ArmA2 doesn't have them so don't worry about the,. Rule of thumb in reality is that if barrel is pointing at you you better seek good cover and remain hidden, ofcourse there's commander who has his own periscope and it's azimut can be harder to see. Yet, even modern vehicles have just few guys doing spotting with resticted FOV, and it's not healthy to leave vicinity of dismounts which are covering blind sectors which still consists large part of vehicle's vicinity. Older BMP-s don't have such luxury as thermals so it can be considered to be very much more blind. All in all this piles down in luck, commander's and gunner's and driver's sectors are considered by ArmA if i understand it right. Main problem is that how well they will spot you, gunner has bigger zoom but narrow FOV, commander sees in larger FOV but naturally FOV is still limited (if they don't stick their heads up). driver see to front, but not very well i think. As general rule of thumb. I don't know are they balanced. Main problems lies elsewhere (as mentioned earlier).

Yeah. That is my impression as well. They may have bit better eyesight and hearing abilities, maybe even better camoflage value in configs, i don't know. Their "right" place might be in front. Or not. I use most useless in that role so that if they run into enemy ambush the weakest link dies. It's however healthy idea to check their skills. It's reasonable to assume that guy having SF logo has higher skill-level, so it might be good idea to give them something vital equipment like AT-weapon, sniper rifle or MG. But scenario designer makes decisions about skill-level, high skill ain't something they get automatically.

Your right! Shooting wastes bullets. Ramming them to death with APC is much more cost-effective solution. ;) Or forcing them to eject from fast moving car... Preferable having APC to follow your car. Sadly there no ragdoll physics or "vital organs popping out under thread"-animation :(

And i'm more eager to get copy in my hands. Buuut lovely ladies at post office have forgotten that i happen to exist and really wish to have that copy. Happens with p0rn too. Read thread about it, and they seem to have morale multipliers and all for firing accuracy. Suppression is going to be needed to get close or alive across open space. Nice. Good news is that these kind small but important tweaks can be made already now, atleast for AI part.

I dont' know is it worth it. I mean even now i don't control my gun but it's the damn playing character with his: "uuuu! I'm kneeling, maybe i should start touching my self down in my pants."... Or atleast something like that. Which lead to fact that sights are miss-aligned pretty much all the time. And overall blurred iron sights with AK was problem in ArmA, atleast i didnt' like it a bit. Front pole isn't supposed to vanish.

Yeah. Player will always have expert skill, little to do in other ways but with autoreport it has to do a lot. There's just too much variables at work. I dont' get much effect from autoreport in my tests, but that probably is because at start sides are just barely over 100 meters away from each of other. Autoreport has little to do in that case as they pretty much see each of other anyways. Yet. Difficulty setting seems to have little effect. Firepower has much more to do with it. My test scenario is kinda no-brainer. Put two squad and leave 100 meters of space between them, no waypoints. They will start killing each of other immediatly at start of scenario with their maximum capacity. I'm outsider and observing action. Results: Similar squads with similar firepower (i used CDF, another as red) is where you see difficulty setting's effects very clearly, but more there's difference in firepower more it dictates the results. Novices seems to be able to beat experts even with small edge in terms of firepower. That is because it doesn't seem to affect the accuracy of shooting (as has been said), so even if experts have edge on other sides it still piles down to accuracy of fire, in which difficulty setting has little to do. In more complex situation things can be different. Hard to say as one doesn't know what effects difficulty level has. Do they have better/worse morale, do they see better and break tunnel vision, are they faster on trigger, do they follow orders faster, do leaders issue more commands etc.

Based on demo difficulty setting has little to do with anything. What ever the difficulty setting is and in which ever side player is results seems to be always same. Bigger squad (more firepower) wins. One idea springs to mind. You don't advance so your squad won't advance, as a result enemy moves and your squads just fires. I'm not familiar with current .FSM, but best i can guess at the moment. This is basic and effective winning tactic from days of OFP. And simple too: can be issued with three keys pressed in split second. As a hint: leave your self out of both squads and watch results from some distant place with binoc or something. Or just don't give them waypoint that way they don't need to move anywhere. However leaving your self out of it is more reliable way, less room for errors (which have potential to be many).

AI probably. I've understood it is stated to be high priority and patch should be ready in few days. Yeah, i still wouldn't hold my breath for it as it wouldn't be first patch which can get bit delayed.

Oh. It was just one person, i got impression that these were several peoples posts. Well in that case then it might score medicore. anyways that is beyond my point. All i'm saying is that there lurks idiot in everyone of us, which more or less often happens to pop out. No need to feel superior about that.

One (theoretic person) gives small amount of money (theoretical 50€ or something like that) and that makes him free to act like an idiot who doesn't need to be ashamed of what he has done and how he is acting? But if one doesn't give money while he's quite mildly criticizing someone's work so he's the idiot? Come on. At least i don't BUY my right to be idiot, if i'm idiot i just happen to be an idiot at that point of time.

Vilas wrote: LOL. I just remembered how certain persons turned from fanboiz to whinerz and became constant pain in forums [takes long look at someone special] I REALLY had to ask myself with one particular:"Just how F**king stupid that guy is? Warning levels and all and he just doesn't take the hint to shut up. Instead he starts to rave about same subject for hundred of time" So yeah, it happens. And if i recall i was whiner back then, but this guy was something special even among the whiner class. As a side note from news i've read that in Britain they have found public servant with just half of the brains. And people couldn't tell that.

Flarmapoint 2: Are those bumps on hill (lower picture) real bumps or just texture? My tactical eye peels for cover from enemy observation and fire.

But is Morrowind (which was bigger than Oblivion), Oblivion or Fallout relevant as only part of cells were loaded? I think 9 cells were loaded into memory at one time and from rest just landscape and cities (ruins too) were visible... Not sure about forests. Now. If we start to talk about HUGE games, should we bring Elite up from days when pentiums weren't even thought of. It's so old that i don't remember was it Amiga 500 with which i played it. You had whole universe in one 0.7 Mb floppy disk. Or Arena (first RPG from Bethesda), but compared to Elite Arena is miny-tiny. Buuut i don't care. OFP already had large enough islands, i could have settled for much smaller but for guys liking planes those would have been bit too small. Overall it's like with c0ckz: size is overvalued, ladies likes how one uses them... That is what they tell me.

In mil-sim it's reasonable to assume that you don't go wandering. Quess why? Because then you become deserter and militaries usually dislikes them and in good ol' times hanged and shot "wanderers" :) Maddmatt: Main problem is with ArmA2's campaign. When reviewers seems to say that they had to use cheats to finish several missions as some trigger or script broke. Well it's unplayable to most (not for those who uses mostly editor or MP). I don't know does engine itself have bugs, i don't think so, atleast demo seems polished enough on that side. CarlGustaffa: Yeah. This is true. Dunno about ArmA2, but ArmA had it's wave of videos putting AI totally down. Remember that video where enemy stood behind building and AI after AI ran into his fire sector along previous AI's footsteps and got killed almost into same spot as previous? Well AI wasn't very skillful in the first place but yet that downgrading wave was pretty dirty. Many times it seemed that AI doesn't do anything more than just runs or crawls.

I disagree somewhat. It's easy grasp by mundane mind. I've "coded" with C-64 bit less 20 years ago, then i got lazy. By OFP i started to learn scripting and in year or so i was able to create pretty complicated scripts, not pretty or cpu friendly, but things which altered gameplay experience some deal. Info was there and language's basics were easy to learn. So even if it's bad in coding standards then again it's easy to understand with zero background (at least i think it is) and that means you have much bigger masses which starts to mod things and eventually someones (more the merrier) will publish something innovative and new, someone (more the merrier) will look into it and things gets more polished and thought out in the process. As a result you then will have SLX and it's kinds. That is what i think, right or wrong. I don't know. Yeah. I was talking about modding with that. Overall i think that missions should be as script free as possible. It will just makes mission more strange. Extreme examples could be scripts affecting AI behavior, vehicle performance, kit restrictions etc. Scripting which runs mission are naturally okay, if missions haven't been overcomplicated by use of scirpting. Keep it simple stupid, as the saying goes. I prefer plain and simple triggers which forces me to keep mission structure simple, but that doesn't make me pro at making missions.

I think i recall wave of bannings and locked threads, but that's nothing unusual when hordes of n00bz and ex-fanboiz-current-whinerz with broken dreams storms gaming forums, when something gets released.

Yeah. I remember one post from ArmA disappointment thread saying that most read and posted threads were picture and video thread... Says something to me, not to everyone for sure. Interesting to see in deed how interested todays "mil simmers" are about outlooks of game. Yeah i used " and ". I ordered OF:DR, interesting to see how it turns out. I personally prefer still game's which have same age as OFP has, Vietcong (quick battles only as campaign doesn't work on Vista it seems), OFP, Thief, Morrowind etc. I mean those games and that time had some how most of things closely 100% set. I'm probably stuck into that era for rest of my life, however i try to break the cycle. COD4 managed to do something right, Brothers in Arms as well, Medal Of Honor (Pre-Pacific assault i called it yet Medal Of Humor, not anymore). All have potential but all fail to some degree. I don't think that OF:DR is going to be any better, but hopefully it has those few things set to impress me. Overall this mil-sim-mastur?ation is starting to get, once again, out of hands. I recommend people to take some sort pills which eases mental stress, or call you kinder garden, school or even job that you won't make it tomorrow. Alcoholism is rather good short term solution, but it can get out of hand. Okay here it comes: COD4 would be considerable option as tool to train infantry soldiers to perform basic drills and stuff, IF producer it would include support and instructor tools. [starts to listen distant howling] Medal Of Honor: Airborne has too complicated controls.

Hmm... [looks thru mirror at himself while trying to hypnotize himself] [ends looking thru mirror at himself. Sighs as mark of relief as now he is sure that he will like ArmA2. He went thru fanboismication, or something like that] Iiiii wiiiilllll liiiiiikkkkeeee AAAArrrrmmmmAAAAAA2222 noooooowwwww. Muuuuusssstttt haaaave braaaainz. [goes and starts ArmA2 demo, plays thru one skirmish and quits because he still hates the terrain and the way firefights are to be played because of it] Seem that i dislike it still. And changes are that OF:DR is just the same (that this wouldn't turn into pure ArmA2 bashing)- EDIT:4 in 1 Wrote; Well i've probably been in moon then. Sure it's not 100% accurate, or even 75% (i don't know), but it's closer to my experiences than what i get from ArmA or from ArmA2 demo.