Lethn

Well, its finally happened, my common sense went haywire when I bought this game off steam and I was saying "Don't do this, you know by buying more games off a piece of DRM software is a stupid idea because that company can easily dictate what games you can and can't play and when". I bought the game fine and installed it fine and I could even play it for a couple of odd days, then this happens, either valve has finally decided to power trip and remove the rights of the license that I legitimately bought or this is an error message they invented as a joke to get on my nerves and its a bug that will fix itself or be fixed somehow. Should I be complaining to valve here, or should I be complaining to the people who directly support this crappy software? For the record, I've tried simple things like shutting off steam and restarting it, checked the process taskbar for the .exe to see if Arma2 was still running in the background as some games do when they don't shut off properly, doesn't seem to be anything like that.

Sorry guys but after finally being able to get some decent games going with Operation Arrowhead ( yes I bought it, surprisingly painless to play on desert maps because of the lack of trees and decent U.S skins :D ) There's one thing that still bothers me. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but is Bohemia not aiming to make this a realistic shooter or as it has been said 'simulator'? If that IS correct, then why is it that in multiplayer games artillery is the magical IWIN button in Arma 2? The equivalent of the grenade launcher or the 'noobtube' as it is more commonly known in Modern Warfare or Grenade Spamming in most first person shooters? Here's a scenario I just went through, I drive rabidly towards a town and I get blown up by a helicopter. Fair enough, this is Arma 2, so the logical step would be to get AA. So I hop in another players plane for transport as I know the air whore will instantly start stalking us to get an easy kill ( This is after I got blown up in a shilka which didn't spot the chopper because of the annoyingly slow and buggy A.I ) I eject from the plane while it flies off as I hear the chopper behind us and take the git out with an AA launcher. Great! Even being able to live and yell a taunt over the global chat at the git for using such cheap tactics against us. First thing that happens after that is immediately the artillery spam kicks in, now I had already respawned at another base where this was happening so I switched to this one but low and behold they were targeting this one too. It is utterly maddening that there is absolutely no defense beyond randomly moving bases which is often a costly and tedious affair and also isn't guaranteed to work. So I have maybe three ideas in my head to offer up to the developers to get past this problem, surprisingly the air once you get round it is surprisingly easy to counter. You just need to get round the silliness of the A.I and just gun yourself though they seem capable of handling helicopters when they actually spot them. . Let us reinforce buildings - Let maybe players or commanders spend money or supply on actually reinforcing buildings so that they are indestructable like the bunkers to artillery shells. However maybe make it so that things like satchel charges or explosives will be enough to bring them down, this will force the enemy to actually make a direct attack instead of being so cheap . Make a player actually have to use their binoculars to sight the position for artillery like in reality - In my opinion players should not be able to randomly pick out a grid and fire away and just 'guess' the location of a base or enemy, this would encourage far more teamwork and organization if players had to designate grids to each other when using artillery . Let infantry dig in - I'm sure you've all watched band of brothers, if Bohemia feel this is too complex for their animators to bother with then at least put in a half-assed version. Have the 'dig in' option put into the menu and let players or A.I build their own little foxholes, you don't even have to bother with animations but this would make things far more interesting, it would be good if you could also use the foxholes like an emplacement and shoot out with your chosen weapon If you're going to go for realism then everything should have a weakness or counter to it, you can't have this RPG crap going on because in the end if you give people the giant hailstorm of death and they figure out it's the best weapon in the game then everyone is eventually going to use it. Hell even the Vietnamese won against the Americans and their stupid arty spam just by digging tunnel networks, I don't care if you find it too difficult to put in, if you're going to boast realism then aim for it.

<Abusive comments deleted> Also Whisper, yes there is stuff like repairing buildings that can be coded in missions, but why should it? Why can't we just give the code to everyone and then let people who want to have overpowered artillery shells in every warfare game come down around our heads? Frankly I just don't see the point in leaving it to the mods because that's just lazy and half-assed.

If real life isn't balanced then why is the U.S losing to the Taliban? By most of the other peoples logic here the Taliban should be losing because they don't have any tanks, ships or planes.

So I take it Whisper that you think that everything should be made by the mods instead of the games developers who actually made the engine? What about the problems with the A.I of which there are many? What about implementing a more sophisticated cover system that allows players to take cover properly instead of just tilt to the side slightly? I think the only thing new I really saw in player movement was the ability to roll when prone which I really liked. What about the way nearly all the vehicles suddenly slow down dramatically when going up a gentle slope? What about the shooting the A.I does? If you are telling me that is all a problem with the mods then that's just a bloody joke and if the majority of the player base as well as the developers think this then I may as well quit playing because the game will be a ghost town in a year or two anyway. The way some of you lot are trying to mock me about pointing out perfectly legitimate problems with the game is ridiculous. Oh, I just thought of something, why not actually make it so you can repair buildings? I'd really like to see that put in and it would solve the problem I have with artillery, but no I bet you'll just say it takes too much coding to do it. Games developers and playerbases that shoot down ideas that would actually add variety and less tediousness to a game claiming that it would "Take too much complex coding" or "It would cause lag" simply don't last long in this industry. You seem to think that I am some sort of spoilt jackass for wanting to be more challenged in a game and actually have some sort of chance of survival when another player attacks me. The reason I say that artillery is cheap, perhaps even cheaper than air is that it is an attack where you can't even fight back effectively. Thankfully air can be shot at when you're a player with AA the A.I is just unfortunately rather useless when it comes to spotting them. Now fine then, lets forget about 'balance' lets forget about 'realism' so stop accusing me of not knowing what I'm talking about. Let's look at this from a purely 'fun' perspective, is it honestly fun to be randomly killed and have the entire teams base wiped out by a bunch of shells randomly falling out of the sky where the enemy has just simply guessed where you are instead of actually having to physically go there and check? Actually, don't answer that last part, you're probably just going to troll me again. p.s. The other game modes are fucking boring, I'd like to see warfare done with just players vs players and A.I squads, forget the whole resistance thing :p would make things go a lot faster too, I've just seen the whole typical 'Go find that person and kill them' scene a million times.

When I go up a gentle slope even in a light vehicle and only get a speed of 10 then yes, this game really does need better physics in my opinion.

There's no point in even posting on official boards if fanbois half the time keep constantly putting words into my mouth. You don't seem to be even reading my posts properly so I'm not even going to bother genuinely responding until you do it properly. By the way if you tell me that vehicles having an extreme amount of difficulty going up a gentle slope in sunny weather is 'realistic' I'm seriously just going to lol. Instead of accusing me of stupid things, try and come up with a genuine argument for NOT having any of this stuff in, either that or get lost, because I'm not going to bother wasting my time with people like you anymore. I want a game that's fair and balanced I don't want to see magical "I win" buttons hidden in places for players who play a bit longer than the others to find, I don't think that's much to ask, every time you guys make comments like "You just want to play it your way" you only make it seem to me that you want to keep things the way they are because you've found an easy way to win matches without much effort. Reminds me very much of the bickerings I've had on MMORPG forums and even with the GM of a certain game claiming that their pvp system was 'balanced'.

Please don't turn this game into Modern Warfare 2. Besides, I'd personally like to see Bohemia put some decent descriptions in of the weapons and vehicles that aren't just military gibberish, some of us don't serve in the armed forces you know.

How about you lot actually make some arguments on why it is balanced currently instead of throwing annoying and sarcastic comments my way that only help my argument even more if you're so bothered by me proposing ways to survive artillery strikes?

I love how people keep blaming scenarios or mods, that's stupid, this is a blatant problem with game code which mods normally can't solve. Shifting the problem over to the mods is going to make it worse and worse as the game gets popular, if more and more people play this game then things like this are going to get easily noticed.

Hurp Durp but in case you didn't notice it can be unfair for either side rather than just the one without having the artillery spam.

Ragdoll ftw The one thing I loved in Counter-Strike Source was shooting an enemy in the head and seeing him simple fall down limp to the floor, lmao I think that's what kept me playing for so long.

There you go Bohemia, RL reference to support adding this stuff on AK47's http://www.ak-47.us/AK47_Sights-Scopes.php

If Bohemia put that piece of shit on Arma 2 then they're going on my games industry enemies list which is extremely long as it is. p.s. I'm convinced onlive.com is just a way for Microsoft to avoid paying taxes by making an internet currency

That'd be an extreme improvement right now selecting for vehicle A.I is very tedious, there are some things that Bohemia put in which really just don't make sense.

I don't think they should stop patching game performance though they should make A.I the second highest priority on their list of things to fix up. There is nothing wrong with the engine by itself but there are plenty of things that are annoying about it, the context menu in particular pisses me off especially as commander since it seems to hate me and doesn't act like a context menu should most of the time.

My latest escapade with A.I in Arma 2 recently made me /ragequit I was driving an avenger as Blufor and had the A.I taking care of gunning. So naturally I assumed even if Engage at will didn't work all that well they'd have the sense to target the air units if I came across one right? WRONG! I see a helicopter and immediately target the thing, the avenger aims and does absolutely nothing to prevent itself and me from being obliterated. The worst part about what happened to me and what made me rage quit was that the damn helicopter did sod all! All the scumbag player did was blast me with ground missiles after taking all the time in the world to line up the shot. It is blatantly obvious now there are two main things missing from the A.I in Arma 2. . A sense of what is in front of them, A.I driving is still extremely bad, anything that takes even the slightest bit of co-ordination like making a U-Turn in a road after hitting a rock will take several minutes for the A.I to figure out . A sense of self-preservation, the A.I seriously needs to feel a need to keep itself alive in a combat situation, most of the mistakes made are just down to sheer stupidity and not caring about the lives of themselves or allies a targeting system won't cut it if there is no urgency in aiming. Danger should make them smarter not dumber, I find all it is is aware but with the silly movement going on where they attempt to stay in cover only to get run over by a rampaging tank that can easily be seen by any player. I hate to say it Bohemia but even mainstream A.I is raping Arma 2 right now, at least the mainstream games make sure what they put is at least half-functional when they put it out on sale. I'm getting sick to death of wanting to have the A.I do my driving for me or my gunning for me and getting punished for it for no reason when you claim it is one of your most advanced features in the game.

It's not comparing apples with oranges at all, using these principles is the exact same as it is in singleplayer as it is with multiplayer the only difference is that you have to upload the stuff to a master server and make sure the whole network updates properly. If you want me to use an example of good multiplayer modding then fine, look at valve, as much as I detest their business practices sometimes they have made one of the most easily accessable and simple multiplayer engines in the market. Not only that, they've made it so that it is incredibly simple to set up your own dedicated servers for the game as well and even provide developer software to use. Copyright issues my arse, I bet most modders would be delighted to see some official support going into what they've created. Unlike most corporations gamers and modders aren't a bunch of greedy leeching scumbags so I bet the most they would have to do is agree to putting them in the credits and that'd be that. It's hillarious how the people who object to my ideas object to it even when I am soley wanting to at least have the option available so people can freely use it without being punished in an almost fascist dictatorship way.

@MadDogX It's one thing to create a relatively simple editor for singleplayer missions and multiplayer missions and to let you edit game modes. It is another thing entirely to actually code the game to the point where absolutely anything can be cleanly edited and put up as an entirely modded version of the game. Oblivion and I'm almost ashamed to say Fallout 3 ( Because of how blatantly buggy and glitchy it was ) are actually designed with modding in mind you can quickly put in a merchant in any area you want for instance without too much bother. There is also the problem of compatability MadDogX if Bohemia don't pick up the slack in areas or officially support certain mods ( Why not put the actual skins in multiplayer for people to freely use if they have no problem with their accuracy? ) then it will segregate the communities who want to play with certain mods on their game and it will mean that it will take longer for the game to get a good multiplayer player base up and running. I have plenty of idea of what I'm talking about, if you're going to disprove me at least have the decency to do it through facts rather than obscure quotes and smartass comments.

Hire some programmers who actually care about optomizing the game instead and then I'll be impressed. Every publisher company out their has a huge ass marketing team and the games they make are absolute crap, make sure your product works properly before you try and sell it.

I want a god damn game mode that DOESN'T involve Americans for once too, I posted a thread about this awhile ago and people practically mocked me with posting up army skin mods and pretty much said "Here you go, go play by yourself". Forget campaign, seeing some non-american factions go against each other would be instantly refreshing. Adding to that I think American weapons and uniforms are just unbelievably boring, you don't have any of the uniqueness that the Russian army has like the Shilka and BMP or the AK weapons and the like. Since the Americans all look like clones and since you can't freely pick what class you want your often stuck with the skin no one likes lmao. One thing that Bohemia COULD do is actually make it so that we change it so that the players can select what skins they want before hand in the options menu or something and then select class in-game while keeping their preferred skin, maybe even having it so that clans can put on their own individual batallion patches or something and be a part of their own respective countries. I'd much rather see bohemia do this because then the content could be available to everyone rather than just lazily saying "Let the modders deal with it" and then having the community segregated because people want to play the original game by itself and there are others who want to have all the mods. Having a modding community only works when the game is specifically designed around modding and personally I'm beginning to think that Arma 2 wasn't designed well enough with it in mind.

Time is clearly an issue in Arma 2, there's no way anyone can disagree the amount of time it takes just to pull off one match of CTI is just mad. I've been playing the game much longer now and the main thing that strikes me particularly when playing commander is how insanely long it takes to get up supply. Even when you have literally half the map conquered the supply given in the game is surprisingly minimal and often that is what causes the game to last so hideously long and make getting upgrades take forever to get the resources for. Why not let the commander trade $ for S? Or maybe even vice versa if they build up enough of each? This would drastically reduce the amount of sitting about and waiting for new upgrades and it wouldn't be so much of a game mechanic change that it would take away the original code. The reason I suggest this is because for some reason you get far more $ and because you are a commander all it does is sit there most of the time since you need S mainly for upgrades and buildings.

lol 'fragile' balance and yes I guess I am sometimes I wish there'd be more servers on this game using the original stuff but I guess all the bugs and such need to be fixed in the original game before that will happen. I'd like to point out that forcing players to wait for several hours in order to get something so simple as a light factory is pretty game breaking in my view. Not only does it stop players just simply hopping in and playing the game for even 30 minutes but classic RPG stuff like this ends up severely imbalancing multiplayer because you will inevitably give players an unfair advantage/disadvantage because it will always be the ones who play the game longest that will win rather than those who actually have the best skill that will win. This is something that I have learned after playing MMORPGs and RPGs for many years and finding in the most extreme situations that if you attack a level 60 player as a level 1 player then even when by all logic you should be winning because he is just standing there doing nothing you will lose the moment he decides he's had enough and decides to hit you back. This is why I despise things like respawn times and being forced to wait in order to get certain equipment, they give unfair advantages to the other side especially if they already have said equipment and are respawned.

WW2? Am I the only one whose absolutely sick of WW2? I'm sorry but gtfo and give more cold war stuff please, Or some other era of history that doesn't have Americans touting their victories all the damn time and making Russians all look like evil communists.