MarvinTheMartian

Right, before any of you start to flame me and call me a nOOb...let me just say that i have bought OF, ArmA and ArmA2. I have been LOYAL to BI. But now i feel that they are just not listening, or just do not care. The game was released in June...as we all know the game was full of bugs and unplayable. In my opinion probably only 60% finished. This was AFTER they released it in Germany in an obviously "unfinished state". Whether or not this is true i am unsure...but in my opinion they released it in Germany first as they KNEW it was a LONG LONG way off being finished. Releasing it in Germany then gave BI THOUSANDS of play testers for FREE! After releasing it in Germany and having the ADVANTAGE of having all these play testers for FREE...why was the game still in such an unfinished state when it was released in the rest of the world? You had about 4-6 weeks after releasing it in Germany before we got it. It is now October, and we are into patch 1.04. For myself and COUNTLESS others, the game is now more unstable/unplayable than it was when it was first released! I'm talking about the "receiving" issue, the memory leaks...the totally RANDOM CTD that myself and alot of people are experiencing. The problems with i7 processors, the problems with more than 4 cores, the TOTALLY unplayable single player campaign, the performance problems...even on my quad core i7 @ 3.6GHz with 6GB RAM and a ATI HD4890. This is practically a state of the art system...yet performance is STILL appauling. The list just goes on and on. As i've mentioned i've been loyal to BI. But now i feel i just can't be loyal anymore. BI, you make claims that your game is a military sim. Yet none of your aircraft have countermeasures. You make claims that your AI is super intelligent, yet countless times the AI is obviously stupid. Many a time i have been running alongside an AI soldier thinking it was my team mate. And they have just not reacted to me or shot me. Sometimes they have even ran right past me...2ft infront of me...and STILL not shot me. Other times i have shot AI soldiers in the head and the rest of his squad fail to react. Just standing there as one by one i drop them all. Yeah VERY realistic! And before any of you say..."oh you must be playing it on an easy setting" ...NO...this is on EXPERT MODE. The game also has no physics?? No FLIR etc etc. But you claim that it's a realistic military sim. Essentially since your game was released, we the general public and your "paying customers" have been loyal and BETA/PLAY tested your game for you. I do not think myself or others on this forum are being "unreasonable" to expect a game which we have paid for to run and not crash for no reason every 5 minutes...especially 4 months after the game was released and after 4 patches! You make claims in your change log the the "receiving" bug was fixed! Well can you explain why myself and countless others are still experiencing it? Can you explain why myself and alot of other people can sometimes play the game for an hour or two with no problems, and other times not play for more than 5 minutes before we experience random and sporadic crashes to desktop. Why have the MAJOR bugs in this game not been addressed? I mean...are we being unreasonable here for wanting to have some kind of explanation? I don't think we are. Also, before any of you start to have a go at me...and say i don't know what i'm talking about. Well let me just say that i myself am i computer games developer. I am a 3d artist and have also been in the industry for 15 years. I have worked for some of the biggest developers in England. So yes i do know what i'm talking about. And i know fine well how hard it is to narrow some bugs down. I also appreciate that there are so many combinations of hardware in peoples PC's that this also doesn't help matters. But ArmA2 is just in such an unfinished state...it's comical. Also, Bi you have been doing these type of military sims for 10 years. OF, ArmA, VBS, VBS2 and ArmA2. So why after 10 years can you not release a game of the same type that works? Now BI are making Operation Arrowhead. Do you seriously expect a lot of people that bought ArmA2 to buy this game? I personally will NEVER buy another BI game again. And as i have said...this is a shame. As i DID consider myself to be a loyal fan of BI. To me personally, buying Operation Arrowhead when it comes out...would kind of condone that i was happy with the state ArmA2 was in. And i do not. ArmA2 was BLATANTLY UNFINISHED at release. So why should i have faith in OA? Codemasters bought the operation flashpoint name off you. And OF2 is coming out at the end of this week. This is their first attempt at a game like yours...and in my opinion it SOUNDS superior, and LOOKS superior. Yeah sure it prob doesn't have ANYWHERE near as many weapons and vehicles as ArmA2 does. But it has FLIR, vehicles have countermeasures, a 30km view distance, Superior lighting and physics. And according to alot of reviews...runs pretty well on mid range computers. I bet that it doesnt have sporadic crashes to desktop and is infinately more stable than ArmA2. If codemasters can get it relatively right in terms of look, game engine, playability and stability after their FIRST attempt...how after 10 years and countless versions of your game? And even selling the likes of VBS/VBS2 to various militaries throughout the world. How can you STILL not get ArmA2 to work and be stable...especially 4 months after release! :rolleyes: I haven't come here to bitch and moan for no reason. As i have said i DID have faith in BI. But that faith has been slowly eaten away...with lack of support. And to be honest...just not much feedback from you BI. I think i'm well within my rights to be unhappy at the way BI just seem to ignore the majority of complaints in your own forums. Or make claims that things are fixed when they blatantly are not (receiving bug to mention but one problem). As sad as i am to say this...roll on 9th October, for OF2. It may not have as many "features" as ArmA2, but i bet it CERTAINLY isn't plagued with as many problems, bugs, crashes etc etc etc. BI, look to yourselves when you realise that your loyal fans are deserting you. You only have yourselves to blame. you certainly wont be getting anymore of my money...and i think that's a shame. But deserved. :mad: I wouldn't be surprised if this post is deleted, locked or i'm banned by your over enthusiastic so called "forum moderators". People should be entitled to voice concerns over a game they STILL can't play ...4 MONTHS AFTER RELEASE. And believe me...if i could get a refund for your game from where i bought it...i would. As i'm sure countless others also would!

Just because you haven't heard of me, or i dont make mods or missions...so what? Does that mean that i'm not entitled to be unhappy with for me personally an unplayable game? My claims based on OF2 are from COUNTLESS videos and several magazine previews/reviews. I can look at a video and come to my own conclusions thanks.

no of corse not. But it certainly seems like there are more people experiencing problems than people who are not.

Have you actually read the forums? Do you think i'm alone with my problems of unstability, unplayable campaign, bugs, CTD. The problems people are having...4 months down the line are still plain to see. And yes, i will always be civil. I'm expressing my unhappyness at a game i have purchased. I'm certainly not alone here that for sure. And as i've said...i was one of BI biggest fans. I'm just annoyed that 4 months later i still can't play for more than 5 minutes the majority of the time. I'm certainly not being rude or aggressive, as i know that doesn't solve anything. @ballistic09 - there are plenty of reviews from games magazines out there for OF2. They even say there are nowhere near the same problems as ArmA2. So yes i can base an opinion on what i have read from countless "reviews". Feel free to search for some of them yourself!

No of course not, but can it be as bad i ask myself? I don't think it can. At the end of the day...myself and the majority of people are still having serious problems. The game is still so unstable it's comical. Am i not entitled to be angry that i still can't play my game 4 months after release? ...if you think this is a pointless rant...then more fool you.

It's not because your joining a server that uses MODS you don't have is it? Also some servers don't allow custom sounds (.ogg) if over a certain size...(30k i believe) Just thought i'd mention that...as you don't give much information...other than you can't join "certain" servers. :)

@i69 Solving that isn't too hard. I believe it's called speed stepping. The processor will step down in speed if it's not being used. Look in the BIOS for your laptop to see if you can disable speed stepping. i.e. to always make it run at it's highest speed. Not sure at all if it will solve your problem, But i have an Intel i7 @ 3.6GHz and i have to disable Hyperthreading for ArmA2. It's entirely possible that spped stepping (if enabled) also screws ArmA2 up.

Instead of downgrading from vista to XP...why didn't you upgrade from Vista to windows 7 release candidate. It's free for now...superior to Vista, and runs ArmA2 much much better than XP or Vista.

I also use a 4890 (with the 9.8 drivers) and Windows 7. Since patch 1.03 it is a lot more stable for me. And i certainly do not experience what you are experiencing. @ ceeeb - I would say that re-installing the OS is a bit of a DRASTIC thing to do. But it may work. Is your GFX card or processor overclocked? If they are, try clocking them down a bit. Also try going into you ATI panel and set the GFX card fan speed to something very high...at LEAST 50% fan speed. If your letting the software control the fan...this may be the problem, as it usually defaults to something VERY low. Also check you have the latest ATI Catalyst drivers installed (9.8 came out about 1 week ago) ...failing all this...it is entirely possible you have a faulty GFX card or some other hardware :(. But if all your other games are fine...this prob isn't the case. Have you got an old gfx card you can test it on? Or failing that can you borrow one of a friend for 5 minutes to test. At least you can rule out the gfx card if you put a different one in and it doesnt crash anymore. I would try reinstalling GFX drivers and reinstall the game BEFORE you try something as DRASTIC as re-installing the OS. And if your going to go the whole hog and install the OS again...grab yourself a copy of the 64bit Windows 7 RC. and install this. I would also try playing with no mods loaded (if you currently run any) and also take all or any target line commands out of your ArmA2 shortcut. So it just reads something like:- "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\arma2.exe" and not something like:- "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\arma2.exe" -nosplash -cpucount=4 -mod=@VopSound_2.1 -mod=@DFS_FPScounter Also try testing this on ArmA2 1.01 (i.e. reinstall ArmA2 BUT DO NOT INSTALL ANY PATCHES) I know it's a lot of work...to try all these solutions. But the only thing you can do is try to narrow it down by a process of elimination. I would DEF start with the GFX card though. DEF try a different card ENTIRELY if you can. It would be helpful if you could list your specs too matey. it's hard to try and help people when we have no idea what specs you are running. Yes sure we know you have a 4890...but what about processor, OS, amount of RAM too. :) Don't know what else to suggest...I hope you get it sorted out, if not hopefully patch 1.04 will address performance issues and magically fix it for you!

Im also using the retail DVD version and as ive said it's still happening to me.

yes me, my windows 7 is 64bit.

I think the problem has been outlined by a few people now. I myself seem convinced that the AI can see you through foliage/trees/smoke...i have complained about it myself. I know that it does appear to hide you at first to SOME degree (not much at all in my opinion), but as a lot of people have mentioned...it "appears" that the moment you are detected EVERYONE knows EXACTLY where you are. I've read in various other threads on this forum that this is because once you are detected, the AI will put a "marker" on you. This means that even if you run 1000m metres away and aren't being chased, the AI will STILL know where you are. Even if you have ran off miles away from where you were "detected" and lie down in very tall grass etc. Then enemy still knows exactly where you are. I don't know if this is true, but after playing the game every day since it came out and reading various other posts, i would say that this appears to be the case. It would be nice if you could run off again and hide. If your not being chased, and no one has seen you move to your new position...then the enemy shouldn't know where you are...sure they may know an approximate area where you "could" be! But after testing this...i still "appear" to be found instantly and shot dead. I would like the AI to be realistic without it being made totally dumb! As i say, i'm not 100% sure if this is the case. But since patch 1.03 the AI do appear to be extremely dense at times. Can we not have the AI working without it being "dumbed" down as a quick fix? As that's what appears to have happened in my opinion. As sometimes now i can shoot a group of soldiers. one by one they fall to the ground dead. With a soldier right next to them who frankly seems "oblivious" that the guy right next to him has just got a bullet through the head...repeat this process until all stupid AI are dead. WTF? It didn't appear to be this bad in 1.02. And judgeing by previous posts i'm not the only one that thinks so. Bohemia PLEASE PLEASE do not dumb the AI down. Please do not cater to the COD/Quake/Unreal run and gun people. Who instantly moan and say the AI is way to hard. We just want them to react properly and not have super human abilities. We don't in turn want them as thick as a plank of wood.

I am also STILL getting the black receiving screen occasionally in patch 1.03. I thought this had been fixed? It couldn't have, as i and others are still getting it. :confused:

If your referring to the HT, yes...you can turn it off in your BIOS somewhere. :)

I've also got a quad core i7. Before patch 1.03 if HT was on for me, ArmA2 was VERY unstable. After 1.03 i can have HT on, and it seems alot more stable...it still CTD occasionally. But nowhere near as much as it did. Can't honestly say i've noticed any MASSIVE difference in FPS with it on or off though. Quad core i7 @3.6GHz 6GB Corsair TriChannel DDR3 RAM ATI HD4890 1GB It would be good if we could find out whether to have it turned on or off though, once and for all. This debate seems to be going on and on.

I have been playing Bohemia games since OF and ArmA, but only recently joined the forums for ArmA2. So don't flame me for being a n00b as i'm not. Just wanted to clear that up, as i've seen a few forum veterans having a go at people who "appear" to have just come on the scene and started to moan. :D Also i hope this post is in the right place! As happy as i am with patch 1.03 in some respects, i feel there is still room for major imrpovements. I can appreciate that Bohemia want to address performance issues and CTD issues over cosmetic ( gfx errors etc ) issues. This is fine and totally understandable. However, i have to confess to being majorly dissapointed in the fact that some of the main bugs/problems and a lot of these cosmetic issues seem to have just been ignored. Just making the game look bad and unfinshed in general, and spoiling my immersion in the game. Let me explain what i mean:- 1) It is my understanding (from playing and what i've read on these forums) that the AI can see straight through the grass, trees and the smoke grenades! I know they see straight through the grass and the smoke...not sure about the trees. My point is this...there doesnt seem to be any fix for this at all in 1.03. What is the point in having the grass and smoke grenades in game? if they AI can see straight through them? What is the point in them? They serve no real purpose at all...other than cosmetic/eye candy and to make the game look pretty. If the AI can see straight through grass and smoke...why should i have grass turned on? Having grass turned on is effectively giving the player a HUGE disadvantage...i.e. i lie down in the grass...i cant see the enemy...but BANG...i'm dead. They saw me from 200 metres away even though i'm in long grass and can't see anything myself. The same goes for smoke grenades from infantry and tanks. Many a time i have put out lots of smoke grenades only to be shot by someone/something that sees me. Even though i am surrounded by smoke and cant see ANYTHING myself in a full 360 degree circle. The same also goes for tanks etc. Lots of times i have seen tanks put out so many smoke grenades i cant see ANYTHING. I can't see the tank at all. Yet he instantly sees me through his own wall of smoke and shoots me dead? Does Bohemia even plan on addressing this...ever? 2) Night vision stars...The night time stars in game are great and as i've read somewhere there are apparently about 9000 stars in the night sky...all meticiously placed in the exact real world locations as it were. That's great Bohemia...well done. But can i ask why you OBVIOUSLY spent a hell of a lot of time getting the stars to be so correct and look so good, but fail to address what they look like in night vision goggles? The stars in NVG are jusy WAY WAY over the top. They appear to be about 20 times bigger than what they are when your not wearing NVG. I know alot of people have complained about this problem...so why hasn't it been addressed? Surely it's not hard to tone down the size of the stars in NVG? I'n my opinion they should only be about twice as big in NVG. I know some of you may well reply saying it's realistic and they would be that big? Er??? They look like big splodges in the sky and REALLY make the game look bad. Surely not a big fix to do, but one which would INSTANTLY improve the look of the game. Will this ever be addressed? 3) Flares and NVG...to be honest i can appreciate that you wanted to make the flares flicker as they do in real life. But at the expense of making everything else flicker very very badly in NVG...why did you bother? If flares go up and i'm wearing NVG, the flickering is ludicrous. One second it's normal the next...huge sections of landscape/trees/houses/people are flickering strobing between lit and not lit. Massive sections of the environment go black...totally black...then jump back to normal lighting a few times a second. It looks awful, and it is a serious strobing effect that frankly RUINS my experience of night fighting and gives me major headaches after about 20 mins. I know in patch 1.03 you've changed the flares apparently so i'm not sure if this is truly adressed. But it seriously spoils night fighting...and at present i don't even bother to play when it's night time. Which is a shame as it's a very atmospheric part of the game. I love the night time tracer fire etc, the paranoia of it being dark, the tone it sets in game. But then it's totally ruined as soon as a flare goes up, gives me serious headaches and i quit the game. It's probably just as well i don't suffer from epilepsy!? (a lawsuit waiting to happen maybe?) :eek: 4) Not sure if this is definately the case...but why do tanks etc "appear" to see me in the dark? It's pitch black...i'm hiding in a forest...i'm looking at the crew who are turned out in a tank. None of them have NVG on. As far as i can remember none of the tanks have an NVG system built in. So if the crew and the tank dont have NVG...how the hell can they see me 300m away in a forest? Especially when there aren't even flares going up, and i'm not firing weapons...so muzzle flash? Maybe they heard me or someone else with nvg has seen me...and reported my position to the AI? Just i swear sometimes i think..."how the hell can you possibly know where i am?" :D 5) Still no countermeasures in the game what so ever??? Not exactly the realistic military sim that you claim when not one of the aircraft in game have any counter measures. Does this intend to be addressed? I know that the missiles in game are meant to be I.R. and in real life (apparently) you wouldnt get a lock tone or anything...but come on! For the sake of playability surely you can address this. Currently you have absolutely no way of defending yourself in an aircraft. Even a lock on tone of some description would be helpful, as at present you don't even know if your flying into or away from danger. And before any of you say...use your radar. Well if i'm flying a MH60 sure i can see the red dots...but i cant target anything to see if its a tungusta im flying towards! Many a time i have been shot down 2 seconds after take off...cos there is a tungusta outside my main base. Surely this needs to be addressed, or are Bohemia just going to wait for the community to address this...as they did for ArmA? These are what i consider major annoyances. I am as a say, very grateful for patch 1.03. But i can't help being amazed the problems i've listed above that i and a lot of others are complaining about have still not been addressed at all. As i have said i can appreciate Bohemia want to address other "more important" issues first...but come on...please please don't forget about the "cosmetic" problems too. Especially when some of them spoil an otherwise BRILLIANT AMAZING GAME. I love ArmA2 and am blown away by how good it is in a lot of respects, but i am also baffled at how bad it is in other respects. If this was your first or even second militray war sim you could be forgiven for problems/bugs. The fact that you have been making this genre of game for about 10 years...and also make VBS2.0 which you seel to various militaries around the world say to me that you should have this format ABSOLUTELY NAILED by now. Come on Bohemia...we know you can do it. We or at least i and most of the other people on these forums have faith in you. Once all these problems have been addressed i'm sure ArmA2 will rightly win accolades. I patiently await the next patch. :)

As i said in my first post, i've been playing these games from Bohemia for years and years. I do also consider myself a "fanboy" as it were to some degree. Although i take pride in NOT jumping down the throats of people that make sensible comments about a game they have bought and are unhappy with. It's called freedom of speech people! What frustrates me, is that alot of the issues i have listed are well known. I haven't even began to go into the performance issues. And to be honest i haven't had time to thouroughly test 1.03. These are just things i have noticed instantly right from the off. But how loudly do we have to SCREAM as a LOYAL community, before Bohemia start listening and addressing the MAJOR frustrations in their products? As i also have said i love the game, i think Bohemia have achieved a marvelous thing in ArmA2. Sure there are performance issues and slight bugs. But it sure is frustrating to keep reporting these bugs...then wait 6 weeks or however long for the next patch...only to discover most of the main problems still haven't been addressed. :(

Well yes taking off would be suicide and stupid IF I KNEW IT WAS THERE. The point i'm making is that if you don't know it's there...your dead. Simple as that. It would be NICE to have some warning for playabilities sake. i know it's a military sim. but alot of the faetures aren't EXACT. You have to change some things to keep the game playable. Whether it's realistic or not. And if the community can make really good ECM mods, why can't Bohemia. What military aircraft are made nowadays without some kind of warning/ecm system? ... not many if any at all i can tell you.

I voted that i haven't seen any real improvements. AI still sees "appears" to see through grass/foliage/smoke grenades Stars in NVG still looks absolutely ridiclious. Shame after you go to such lengths placing 9000 stars in real positions and make them look awesome without NVG. But turn on NVG and they are far far far too big. And glow almost the same size as the moon. It's just looks wrong, don't think much of the artist who said this was ok! Still no countermeasures what so ever for planes/helis. Flares in NVG cause so so many probs (dunno if this was fixed in 1.03 tbh) There the main problems to me, and most of the community. A lot of people have been maoning about these, as well as performance issues. The only thing i have noticed performance wise, is that it seems slightly more stable with hyperthreading turned on, on my quad core i7. Still so many issues to sort out Bohemia, and from what i have read already regarding 1.03 it's causing more problems than it's fixed? 6 weeks we've patiently waited...for what? :eek:

Yeah i didn't know if it was right...which is why i said "apparently" It was just what i had read in other posts in this forum. I may not understand how a real ECM (electronic counter measure) works or the exact mechanics... But i do know i'd like somekind of warning system. I'm sure the majority of people will understand what i'm trying to say in regards to the missiles point. :D