royaltyinexile

Change log notes, v. 126281 :cool:

30-07-2014 EXE rev. 126204 (game) EXE rev. 126205 (launcher) Size: ~290 MB Read: Pretending to encourage freindly relations (while secretly corrupting their sports fans).

Thanks for the feedback. I certainly agree that it's a tough job balancing the simulation of one aspect in the absence of another. The simulation isn't and (whatever 'destiny' one might have in mind) can't be infinite, so, ultimately, it does come down to a set of choices about where to draw lines. I'd probably pick you up on the points about 'trained strength, more accuracy based on training', however, because - one way or another, compensating for recoil/sway, etc - you can learn to master in the in game mechanics. I don't think it's yet perfect, but one of the underlying goals of the Sandbox Dept's work has been to make the existing features (i.e., the previous weapon sway) less 'random' and, thereby, more open to mastering through experience: a veteran will have adapted; a rookie should be able to learn. If they're unable to, that's where we'd have failed - that's where we'd need to reconsider/refine/bloody well scrap our approach. Overall, I think we're on the same page when it comes to 'penalising' extreme loadouts. As I've mentioned before, the forthcoming introduction of Weapon Inertia definitely shouldn't make weapon handling more difficult than it currently is; rather, it should give us a tool to make it feel more 'natural'. If anything, the handling of some weapons should be a little easier as the mechanic lends itself to being more 'organic' - or, to put it another way, should be more intuitive / make more sense / enable people to learn and master. Best, RiE

I think that's a great summary (and, as a side benefit, I'm glad it makes you feel better, too :p). Obviously, things are 'easier said than done', but it's certainly the approach the guys want to take. Yeah, Oukej, what's taking you so long!? :cool:

Thanks for the post. This should have only affected development branch but, yes, it's unfortunate and it's definitely something we wanted to fix quickly. So quickly, in fact, it should have been addressed this afternoon. Best, RiE

Thanks for pointing this out; we greatly appreciate feedback to the very latest changes! The fatigue seems to be relaxed a lot: heavily loaded soldier (>80% load) recovers twice as fast as before and gains the fatigue with half the rate. To clarify, this was more like a bug fix than a relaxation: due to some nasty old code, it turned out that when a soldier was heavily encumbered, the fatigue decay approached 0; i.e. the time it would take to recover was, ahem, exponential. This was clearly undesired and we apologise that this sort of error made it through unchecked. There are some additional tweaks in effect, but I can pass on from Sandbox Design that these changes should be rather less noticeable: changes to parameters should, essentially, balance out the fixes to the underlying calculation. Tweaks lean towards taking longer to gain fatigue, and longer to recover from this. More significant tweaks will need to be made as we approach the introduction of Weapon Inertia. This feature was planned for 1.24 (Bootcamp Update), but was cut late in the day (indeed, we cut this after announcing it in the Bootcamp Blog - an error that we work hard to avoid these days). Ultimately, Weapon Inertia should mean that smaller weapons will be easier to handle, while larger ones will remain more of a challenge to wield effectively. On reflection, I believe that the (unavoidable) exclusion of this feature led to some (avoidable) oversights in terms of Weapon Sway itself: the mechanics (Fatigue, Sway, Inertia) are closely interlinked; removing one aspect and re-adjusting the values of the others led to some undesired effects (such as the overly-pronounced lateral sway). However, we also recognise that much of the feedback is simply a desire to play a different way. We're not afraid of the idea of 'The Platform' (indeed, we encourage it); however, our designers do believe that the core mechanics should represent a clear vision of the way we want to play. Consequently, while we're still keen to avoid a game option/difficulty switch, we are pursuing a Weapon Sway script command equivalent to enableFatigue; furthermore, we'd like to not only enable a binary switch, but offer scenario designers more options by introducing a multiplier parameters (i.e. a value 0 to n that increases or decreases the basic effect) to each of the features. Any further feedback to these points is, as usual, welcomed. Best, RiE

Thanks for the tip! Yes, we've taken a look at a bunch of community solutions, but, so far, we'd prefer to avoid scripted solutions for core features. As we mention in previous reports, the animation system is itself being refactored under-the-hood, which should give us some more (or rather, better maintainable) gameplay options. Development is ongoing in parallel, so while Helicopters DLC's RTD and Firing from Vehicles are the next 'big' features, progress is being made on our longer-term objectives, too. Best, RiE

While I agree that the dev-branch tweak came rather quickly, I don't think it's reasonable to suggest the mechanics have been reverted to the previous state. It's true that it takes time for players to adjust to the additional challenge - and this was part of our Sandbox team's objective: to enable players to be able to master weapon handling, while encouraging more planning and teamplay - but I think the adjustments that have been made are quite reasonable and don't negate the original goals. We agreed with the feedback that pointed out it seems unfair to introduce more punishing sway mechanics without offering players the ability to mitigate its effects through weapon stabilisation. It's fair to say (with the Marksmen DLC in mind) we are looking at the broad topic of weapon stabalisation, but we're not yet certain what aspects we're able to implement within the restrictions of our engine. It's therefore reasonable to make adjustments that work together with this. Aside from these tweaks - and with Arma 3 as a platform in mind - we're also looking at offering mod-makers more control over certain core mechanics. We're looking at script commands that enable the adjustment (up or down) the effect of Fatigue and Weapon Sway. The goals of the default, vanilla gameplay, however, remains the same as we shared a month ago: I don't think that's necessarily 'hardcore', but I'd concede that it does require some more engagement from players than other games. Everything is relative. Furthermore, additional adjustments will have to be made to the intensity of fatigue and sway once the Weapon Inertia mechanics are integrated. After a period of internal validation, we aim to test this on dev-branch for a good chunk of time. Of course, this will be supported by an OPREP that details the changes and fixes that have been made meanwhile. Best, RiE

I'd like to apologise again to those who have been affected by their broken sound modifications. Of course, it was not an easy decision to affect existing UGC, but we believe the longer-term benefits outweigh this (we hope temporary) issue. It's true that sounds have been somewhat under-prioritised in the past but, with our new audio team in place, we hope to move in the direction of better vanilla sounds and better configuration options for modders. Along the way, it's possible that existing solutions will become broken. We'll try to avoid that where possible, and provide notice to modders to that they can work around / adapt to the new standards. The fact is, if we want to make any progress with our sound engine (and we do), some changes must be made that may affect existing work. If you'd like to read up on more details/motivations behind the changes, our Encoding Lead provided some details about a month ago, which outlined the alterations and linked to some documentation. Of course, that's up to you - it's still a great game, after all. :) Maybe you can keep an eye on our dev-hub for future changes and we can win you back! ;) Best, RiE

The values can still be configured in the editor quite precisely; we think that carefully balancing the AI SKill is up to scenario authors, not by players using blunt and unintuitive instruments, which actually make it more difficult to improve the behaviour long-term. Oukej put together an OPREP on the topic to explain the changes in more detail. However, since this thread relates specifically to Fatigue, I'd suggest that the AI Configuration Thread would be a more useful place to provide any further feedback. :) I agree that fatigue (and it's related affects upon other mechanics) is a complex topic, which is why sandbox designer Radko sketched out the goals of the work here: OPREP: AI Configuration. There is, of course, more work to be done tweaking this feature; however, its goal are fairly simple and, we think, far from contradictory to Arma 3's approach. As we discussed in our Bootcamp Update Blog: Ultimately, given the growing nature of Arma 3 as a platform, there may be some division between those who believe such mechanics are an unnecessary impediment and those who believe they don't go far enough. While we've considered adding a game option switch, our Sandbox team is determined to produce a core mechanic that is fit for purpose; therefore, in the first instance, we'd like to avoid falling back upon this option/way out, and our devs will continue to work hard to make it splendid. Best, RiE

Hm, suffice to say, we consider Sway and Inertia to be two 'sub-components' of Weapon Handling, and work related to improving it further is part of Marksman DLC's feature set. Best, RiE

Yes, sorry about that! Features related to animations carry the risk of unexpected delays, and - given that it's such a core mechanic - we wanted to ensure that even the first dev-branch release is in the right condition. Basically, Inertia and Weapon Sway are closely related but separable. What you see in dev misses any of the inertia experimentation. Radko is poised to pen another splendid OPREP on the subject soonâ„¢. Best, RiE

Full Report

One of our team is currently preparing a more detailed report about weapon sway and fatigue. Once these features hit dev-branch, we plan to share it and gather feedback (we're currently evaluating what we're ready to roll out. Hopefully more details in today's SITREP). We know it's going to be a tough mechanic to get right, so we want to at least be clear about what the intention is and, ideally, iterate on some details of the implementation. Best, RiE

FULL BLOG POST Hello, all! Ahead of this week's planned dev-branch staging, we wanted to share some details on our next major release: Bootcamp Update. In short, it's a mix of tutorial-oriented playable content, splendid sandbox additions, and new/refined features. Since there are a number of important/complex new updates, we're keen to get it to dev-branch soonâ„¢. As usual, this version represents a WIP build and may be incomplete or unstable, so, unless you'd like to offer splendid feedback, you might want to hold fire until the intended full release in July! Best, RiE

Yes, we plan to release a devblog on the topic ahead of its dev-branch staging. Like Zeus DLC, it'll also be supported by some dedicated web page, marketing assets, etc. As we said in the roadmap, Bootcamp Update is built around bringing tutorial content to new (and existing) players, refining some core mechanics (fatigue, weapon handling), and integrating the game launcher and Steam Addon Workshop support. Plus a few splendid extras. :) Overall, it's being worked on in parallel with the DLCs, expansion, and general/continuous updates so, by necessity, it's a fairly modest package, but it's shaping up pretty nicely so far! Best, RIE

Full Report

Small correction: appreciated by the community and development team. :) The flight model is part of a free platform update, along with new XMLs for each helicopter (i.e. not just the new ones). We intend to release this functionality to dev-branch ahead of the official release of the DLC. Best, RiE

Yes, alongside some improvements to other aspects (sway, fatigue), this is related to weapon handling updates in progress for Bootcamp's feature set. We'd expect to share a more detailed overview of what's changed (improved/fixed) and why in the run up the the dev-branch release. Best, RiE

For now, at least, these DLCs will only be available digitally via Steam and our own store. Sorry for any inconvenience, physical media wasn't a viable option at this time. The expansion is also included in the Supporter Edition package: :) Best, RiE

...AHEM! OMG WTF LRN2REED N00B! Best, RiE

FULL BLOG POST Hello, all! Joris and myself, with the support of our team, have put together an Arma 3 'development roadmap' blog, which sketches out our medium and longer-term objectives. Our goal is to introduce a number of new developments, presenting a fairly high-level overview. Over the next few weeks and months, we aim to expand upon several aspects in further detail! Until then, we'd like to thank your for all your feedback and support which has truly helped to make Arma 3 splendid. Best, RiE

Full Report

Apologies for taking so long! The presentation PC we used for the stream: Hope to see you all at another splendid livestream soonâ„¢ :cool: Best, RiE /thread

The Arma 3 devteam welcomes you to their 'Zeus Gameplay Reveal' hangout, taking place on February 15, at 17:00 UTC. Live from Bohemia Interactive's Prague studio, the session will be streamed on Arma 3's channel on Twitch.tv. The session is expected to last about an hour and a half. Karel Moricky (Zeus Design Lead) and Filip Sadovský (Zeus Programmer), will be hosting the hangout, supported by Jay Crowe (Creative Director), Joris-Jan van 't Land (Project Lead), and Thomas Ryan (Senior Designer). They'll be joined by a whole host of other developers for a splendid MP showdown! Based on our previous livestream experiences, we welcome you all to submit questions in this thread - some of which we'll try to answer during the livestream. For general discussion, please use the general thread - we'd like to be able to select about 5-10 questions from this one! :cool: