WhoCares

Unfortunately I don't have a proper link, but today there was a reportage on German-Swiss-Austrian TV on computer games, and it also covered BI/ArmA3: 3sat: Videospiele - Revolution einer Generation There was a part on various computer games and how they portrait violence, e.g. GTA V and Call of Duty, with scenes of torture and murder, and soldiers ignoring laws of war. The latter part was explained and discussed by Christian Rouffaer, whom we know from http://makearmanotwar.com/jury/christian-rouffaer. He then travelled to Prague and together with Ivan Buchta they showed alternatives like they are in ArmA3, e.g. that when the player kills civillians, he gets attacked by his squad/allies (something we already have since OFP ;) ) Overall, a quite interesting and objective reportage, also discussing some positives in computer gaming; not the usual stereotype-bashing. Edit: Link to the reportage (german): http://www.3sat.de/mediathek/index.php?mode=play&obj=51770 The "relevant" part described above starts at ~31mins, ArmA3/BI start at ~34mins.

One TEL. That's all. And to use Buk on its full abilities you need radar too. Where's it? So you accept the possibility that the separatists may have at least some components of a Buk system. Alas, you made a little mistake in your attempt to identify that vehicle in the picture, it is not a TEL but a TELAR, so a launcher with radar, capable of autonomous operation:

I don't know about the financial possibilities of the OP, and how he would rate the value he gets for his money with the various high end simulations. And whether he is interested in deep and serious but rather expensive simulators, or still looking more for high fidelity entertainment in the sim genre. And neither for others that may read this thread with a similar interest. I am not really the right person to speak for SBProPE or compare it with VBS2 or DCS, as I have very little experience with the first, and none with the others. I think the price tag on VBS2 is ~500$, and when it upgrades to VBS3 owners of VBS2 will not get it for free either, I guess. Same as we had to pay for OFP, Resistance, ArmA1/2/3, Arrowhead and the other expansions. And when I look at the DCS price tags I will also quickly reach 100$. What I actually get and whether SBProPE is worth the 100$ for me, well, I am currently evaluating just that for 9$. But I think the fact that it is "derived" from a professional simulator that is used by defense agencies around the world qualifies SBProPE for an entry to the list of the best other mil sims, next to others like VBS and DCS. Oh, and I just remembered a very special mil sim, and very different from all the other stuff that has been mentioned here before: SAM Simulator A "realistic to the switch" simulation of russian SAM system from the cold war era. Photorealistic graphics ;), historical missions, 3D AARs via Google Earth, ... And the best: It is for free! Costs nothing! It helps if you can read russian in cyrillic letters, but I can't and still managed to be successful... well, sometimes, ... a little bit, ...... Just yesterday an interview with the creator has been released: Hpasp interview Last but not least, I already linked to it above: if you want to have a look on different military simulators, the SimHQ forum is a good address to get an overview. Its primary focus is on flight sims, but it also covers other (military and civilian) areas as well. And a very last (I hope): as the OP also opened the door for space sims, Kerbal Space Program deserves to be mentioned. While maybe not that serious on the surface (the Kerbals), with the underlying mechanics it is still a fairly accurate simulation, ... ... or so they say, as this is the third simulator I am talking about, but that I have never touched myself. But I guess that's the level of expertise that you have to expect on an internet forum :cool:

Another mil sim worth mentioning is SteelBeasts Pro Personal Edition (SBProPE), basically the tank sim equivalent to VBS2 with a version for governmental organisations and the PE for the public. For 9.50$ you can get a monthly license, for 115$ a perpetual license (with USB dongle). I am just testing it based on the monthly license since last weekend and while just scratching the surface I can already say that it has a lot of depth. Offline and multiplayer, it covers small skirmishes with a single tank up to ~battalion size engagements. For that purpose it also models a lot of other units, IFVs, APCs, infantry, helicopters, artillery, recon, ... apparently most also providing different levels of player control (but I haven't touched that aspect yet). You can have some quick 5min action, but even basic platoon level missions often last more than 30mins and there are many youtube videos of battles that last well above 1h, in rotarenegs youtube channel is a good range of different missions. The graphics are not ArmA3 standard, but as a battlefield simulation that focussed on vehicle combat it seems to be very good. But as I am just testing it about a week, I 'd better leave it to somebody else to praise its merrits...

Yepp, ToM looks actually quite nice. But Mars? *cough* there is no Mars without *cough* Olympus Mons *cough* Just think of it, Olympus Mons + those armed rovers => ultimate "King of the Hills" :rolleyes:

Thought after almost a year it is worth to post another update: RoF has just been updated to v1.030, also adding 3 (or better 2.5) new planes, Halberstadt D.II, Roland C.II and a british variant of the Nieuport N.17 (overwing Lewis gun instead of fuselage mounted Vickers). Since the last post, there have been a number of other interesting additions, esp. the Channel map, with a flying boat (Felixstowe F.2A) and a float plane (Brandenburg W.12) - with the last update also supported in the career mode, with Belgian units and Gotha's over England. Right now there is a big sale ongoing (until 3rd of April), with a significant discount on most of the content (except for the latest additions). But be reminded that you don't need all the planes and gimmicks to enjoy the game, be it in single player or multiplayer.

I am sure they had valid reasons to hold them back, but I would have loved to have the "Shooting Range" and "Night/Lighting" showcases they exhibited at last years game fairs - both focussed on infantry as well, so... :(

There is one very positive thing regarding the future setting - there is little to no discussion with respect to the performance of this or that unit/weapon/vehicle. And no discussion of NATO 5.56 shall do this damage compared to WarPac 5.45, or 7.62x51 vs 7.62x39, or how many rounds are required for a kill, etc... Silenced all those wannabe weapon experts with one shot :p The only ones who might still bother are the PvP balance fanatics - and by "virtue" they don't argue on the base of real preformance but are more concerned on whatever kind of relative balance.

On monday they found an american 500lb bomb at a construction site in Munich/Schwabing. As it could not be disarmed ("booby trapped" fuse, maybe M123A1) they brought it to detonation this evening. This is a video of it from ~300m away: http://vimeo.com/48399328 :popcornsmilie: Google maps has a fairly up-to-date sat image of the area, you can already see the gap where they now found the bomb. In the past there was a cellar bar that I visited occasionally - in Streetview it is still there. First reports indicate that some of the nearby buildings might be fairly damaged, despite all efforts to dampen and direct the blast. The building vis-a-vis has been constructed just a few years ago - I guess the Starbucks might be a bit rearranged... :ill:

If you just want to have platforms to start and land planes from, I guess you can just as well build those carriers as static models. A problem I see with any seaborne vehicle is with the damage model. i am no expert on the subject, but I think in ArmA2 we dont have fluid mechanics and the vehicle damage model does not support damage to the hull in a way that it would affect buoyancy. With the revisioned damage models in ArmA3, a different water handling (do we get rivers?!) and PhysX, there might be more possible- ah well, one can dream... :rolleyes: For simplicity reasons I'd suggest to "seal" a simple container maybe with some "interior" - put it on the sea and shoot some holes in its wall below the waterline from inside. If you get believable results for that, you can start with your destroyers, carriers and submarines...

Check out the multiplayer section - others have already asked the same question. => Ninja'd by Placebo... I'd assume he has ArmA2 CO as that's what is required for DayZ. As others already said, MP is mostly COOP = PvE(nvironment), and that usually in closed groups on locked servers, as it can easily be spoiled by random players. Popular modes on open servers are often largescale "Capture the Island", either as TvT (Warfare) or TvE (Evolution). Smallscale squad/platoon sized and in a small confined part of the map are nowadays mostly left for other games - in the past there were also things like Team Capture the Flag (Hexenkessel); you will also find some such missions and templates in your MPMissions folder and when you host on your own (you can do that on your own by "hosting" a LAN session - some missions can also be tested/played alone and against AI) or check the editor, but you will have a hard time finding a server that runs such missions... After you familiarized with the MP commands, you might join a free public server and vote to run such a mission - if you are lucky you get more to join you; sometimes it just need someone to start a game to attract more to it...

Posted this over in the DayZ forums, but fits here even better... If there is just 10% of DayZ players that try ArmA and 10% of those actually like it and become "Armaholics", then I don't see the bad thing in that. Attraction of CoD kiddies? They will come anyway, as they came with the launch of ArmA2, ArmA, OFP - media coverage and the like always did that with the launch of a new game - some stayed around and adapted, the others left after a few days/weeks/months. And DayZ has already done that "damage", as it already attracted those and some (hopefully many!) will get ArmA3 anyway, disregarding whether DayZ will come as a mod for it or as a standalone game based on the engine. Flooding by Noobs? We were all newbies 11 years ago, but one of the most friendly and helpful communities got us around the rough edges and the learning curve - I hope there is still something left of that community instead of looking down as a simmer on those ordinary gamers... I also hope there is still some room for new players in the ArmA community - disregarding of their background! In fact, I think the sim in ArmA needs more players, and DayZ is a chance to attract people and convince them of its qualities, that would otherwise not look at it. The only valid concern might be that the development might get more and more influenced by DayZ, disregarding the sim. But with VBS2 behind, I don't see that happen either. Eventually, there might be that step that ArmA and DayZ become different threads of the engine, but I hope that day is still far away, as I see them both benefiting from each other, more so then I see a negative infulence...

It would be nice to have a chance to make private markers on the map. (Direct channel markers can still be seen by nearby players) While it is inspired by DayZ, it would also be benificial to any such concept of a persistent world, carrying the same character over to different days and on different servers. In such environments it would be nice if such (or even any) markers made by the player character carried over as well (but that might be out of BIS "responsibility", but in the hand of the mission/environment creator).

Not sure whether somebody has brought this up already, but there is a real region called Bukovina, nowadays part of the Ukraine and Romania. Could make sense to send the czech to their brethren from austro-hungarian times. And when you have a closer look on this old map (click to enlarge), you can find a city called Bistritz in the lower left corner of the map, nowadays Bistrita in Romania. So it could be an area map and an urban map again, like Takistan/Zagrabat. Maybe the map designers are still in an early phase of their work (filling the gap that is a result of the ArmA3 delay due to PhysX3 update).So instead of showing an unfinished map, they replaced the fall vegetation of (parts of) Chernarus with the new summer vegetation - just a wild guess, of course. The question of the opposition is a good one, considering that the ArmA2 models are not fully compatible with OA (thermal imaging).

Originally not Paradox games, but as Paradox has bought AGEOD I am owner of some of their products, AGEODs American Civil War (AACW) Rise of Prussia (RoP) Both based on the same engine, free demos with limited scenarios available. Not playing them lately, but while they have a steep learning curve, "Easy to play, hard to master". they can be a lot of fun (also against AI).