dragon01

Besides, if you take a look at this: http://world.guns.ru/assault-e.html and other pages on the site, you'd notice that most modern small arms (aside from handguns) come from US, Russia, Germany (H&K) and Belgium (FN). Most other are based on weapons from these countries, and/or only used by the military of their country of origin. There are, of course, exceptions (FAMAS), but they're not very numerous.

By the way, do you think that Poland will get it in a box before 24th November? While Steam is a handy tool, I prefer having a paperback manual for such complex games (not to mention the box looks good on the shelf).

It's a reasonable discussion about how to implement stealth killing. It might be a bit gross, but nobody says SpecOps are pretty. Anyway, I think that an experienced SpecOp can make sure that laryngospasm doesn't alert the enemy, for example by covering the severed windpipe with his hand (as he won't need to cover the mouth anymore). BTW, I wonder what a real SF member who was trained in that would have to say about this (I hope it's not classified).

It's "5. Move. To. That. Tree. 12'o clock." Also, when telling your driver to move some distance longer than one klick: "Team. Move. To. That. Bush. Very Far." :) That's the entire reason why I left HUD markers on for a short period of time.

Actually, ArmA AI is one of the weak points of the game for me. It could use a lot of improvement, especially regarding driving and flying. It also either cheats or acts stupidly. They have inhuman accuracy, recoil control, eyes around their heads and perfect hearing through walls or cannon fire. On the other hand, they can crash two attack helos into each other during an attack run or drive a tank off a cliff if ordered to go in the completely opposite direction. There's a lot of room for improvements, because I've seen better AIs, for example in Crysis. For example, they can throw grenades without killing half of their own squad, coordinate their actions with their teammates, can use mounted weapons even if the original gunner is killed and will leave the weapon if you attempt to flank it (this one is especially bad in ArmA, where you can walk up to an MG gunner from behind and he will just sit there, instead of getting up and fighting).

I agree with InstaGoat. Gameplay should be more realistic, but the training system could use updating. I heard that America's Army has a good training methods based on actual training procedures. In the first AII training, you could even point your (loaded) weapon at the instructor and get away with it. Also, there are aspects with are neither realistic nor very playable, for instance flight model in AII. Considering that the way aircraft handle now is both annoyingly difficult and completely unrealistic, I'd welcome a move in any direction (either make it arcade-ish, but more playable, or more realistic, and thus more playable). Hardcore flight sims are easy to learn and fly compared to ArmA flight model. ArmA is an infantry sim, which means that the biggest focus is on infantry. Vehicles also play a big part, but aircraft and boats are AI-controlled in most cases, so a simplified simulation would be fine for them. Though I'd like to see a sailing/flight simulator integrated into ArmAIII, it's not a priority. While sailing model is playable (though it feels like driving a car on the water), flying model is not.

A commander could detect units by satellite or UAV, but not tell if they're enemy or civilian. Also, camouflaged units would be difficult to spot.

ArmAII campaign is indeed really fun to the point at which Warfare missions starts. Then it becomes less fun, since Warfare seems to be designed for multiplayer (and thus unrealistic), not to mention heavy on the hardware and quite buggy. Though it's the last mission that is worst about that, other Warfare missions are tolerable for me.

Considering the futuristic setting, it's not unlikely that a real time satellite map will be available somehow. Just use it in conjunction with stock High Command system and you'll get an RTS you want (how good it'd be depends on BIS fixing the HC system and AI).

I don't think it'd be a problem. Cutting the arteries and wind pipe by stabbing a person in the neck, then pushing the knife out is (for what I've heard) a quite silent way to get rid of a guard (I've seen it referred to as a "Marine sentry removal technique").

Indeed. As you can hear, the only sound is the "ding" of the bullet hitting the target. You don't hear that with normal guns. I've heard about Russian semi-auto silenced pistol, but in that one, you'd still hear the action cycling (which is why the Welrod is manually operated). There's also a silenced version of Sten SMG, on which the loudest sound was made by the action. Exactly what I was talking about. Regarding complaints about heavy gear making noise, a specop sneaking up to somebody wouldn't wear as much as an MG gunner, who shouldn't be able to sneak around as easily (carrying MG belts, in particular, should ruin stealth, since they make a lot of noise. Same thing with loose bullets). Quick, silent kill with a knife is possible: Sneak up to somebody from behind, cover his mouth with one hand and jab the knife into his neck at the side, then push it forward, rupturing the throat. If nobody else is close, this should dispose of a lone sentry and if you hide the body, it shouldn't alert the guards too quickly, or even send them away on a search for the sentry. It could be used for making an opening in order to climb the fence, plant a bomb or steal something. Or, if you're taking down a small camp, you could eliminate the only sentry and kill the rest in their sleep. (if you're good enough, that is, such sentry would be more difficult to sneak up to). You couldn't take out the base like that, you'd get easily spotted and shot after relatively short time.

Well, it'd be up to BI to actually make it work and work right. This implementation should work from theoretical standpoint, but given the BIS "traditions" on that subject, it has potential for some hilarious bugs, of which some will most likely be seen in the initial release. But then, it's by no means restricted to close combat. AI should only try to clobber anybody in case of being attacked with a knife and finding out about it early enough, but given it's AI we're talking about, and a BIS game, it's likely that it'll occasionally do some irrational (and funny) things. And I agree that it'd need new animations, but there's a lot of room for improvement in the current system.

These two videos don't demonstrate silencers used for stealth. These demonstrate silencers used so the shooter won't have to wear bulky ear protection. And bullets are still supersonic. This pistol: http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg/brit/welrod-silent-e.html is even better than James Bond-style silenced PPK. It makes no sound at all when firing (only when cycling the action), so completely silencing a weapon is possible. With subsonic rounds, plenty of distance from the target and some ambient sound, a shot from a regular silenced weapon can be mistaken for a car door slam. Specops weapons, like VSS Vintorez or AS Val would most likely be even quieter (Spetsnaz also has the MSP pistol, which is said to be as quiet as Welrod). So, enemy engaging after hearing one silenced shot from 50m away should not happen. They should notice the body, look around in confusion, perhaps start running, but not return fire perfectly aimed at the player. As for knives, it'd be nice if there was a "stealth kill" animation, allowing for quietly taking down a target after sneaking up to him. Also, knife usage should heavily depend on fatigue. Try running 100m in full combat gear, then still having the strength to effectively stab somebody. Rifle butt attacks, pistol whipping and plain old clobbering somebody with a fist would be useful for defending against getting stabbed if you're surprised and not have the time to pull the knife out. Fatigue should also affect stealth, if you're breaching heavily, you're going to be audible from a greater distance. So much for COD-style "knife running" if that's implemented. If you try that in AIII, and you'll ineffectually take a jab at the target's neck, get the knife knocked out of your hand, then get socked with a fist or whatever the target was holding at the time. Exactly what you'd expect to happen in real life. If you want to attack somebody with a knife, you have to surprise him from behind and have enough strength to quickly kill him. Military personnel is, for most part, trained in disarming an enemy with bare hands, so frontal attack would work only on civilians (and you shouldn't do that to them anyway).

I think that it would be great if AIII featured an improved voice system for AI. Even new OFP games did that better (or so I heard). Perhaps BI could try a similar way of improving the voice, using whole phrases instead of words.

I know about that. The point I was making was about the problems that could arise from VBS not preparing soldiers to face female enemies. I made this point in response to the posts above mine, regarding the "morals" of having female hostiles. I've talked about women as squadmates in the army earlier in this thread (or was it another, about the same thing in AII?). And of course, women in non-"direct combat" roles (like pilots) should be seen even within USMC.

Note, from a distance, in a "future soldier" gear and full body armor, you'd have a hard time telling a male from female. And TBH, if VBS2 doesn't force recruits to fight women as well as men, then there's a hole in the training system. Granted, it won't matter when fighting radical Islamic sects (where a woman picking up a gun would have been considered a blasphemy), but Libya did had Kadaffi's female bodyguards fighting the rebels. If an US soldier would be reluctant to shot such bodyguard, he'd end up having to explain that to Chesty Puller himself, in heaven. A realistic simulation will account for all such factors, most real world armies include females, and insurgent forces can take them as soldiers as well. Also, there's no difference between a man and a woman in military. Male of female, they're all soldiers. Gender doesn't matter, only rank does. I think that it should be reflected in ArmA.

I'd like to see them used by special forces. Not necessary, but they have my support.

And officers, don't forget that in most places, an officer school does a good job at educating people. Conscription tends to attract uneducated and poor (as well as people with "questionable" past), because they have no other option. That was the case in Polish army as well, everybody avoided being conscripted any way they could, so those who got into military like that were usually poor, uneducated and, TBH, quite stupid. Since women weren't conscripted, there were very, very few that went there. Hopefully, this is going to change after abolishing conscription, since now, the army is trying to be much more professional. On the other hand, old habits are hard to break, and it'll take time to get rid of the negative reputation Polish military has. Of course, the above does not apply to officers at all, and press had written an article about a female officer serving in Iraq (and I'm certain she wasn't a "desk ranger" kind of officer). I imagine that in armies with better reputation (like U.S. Army or USMC) women would be more common on enlisted positions.

I'd like to see VBS style playback/mission recording. It shouldn't be difficult to include in the "civilian" version (IIRC, both ArmA and VBS use the same engine), and it would really be useful for making movies, tactical analysis and watching the simulation in full glory (for instance, if High Command missions would be improved, this should provide a great way to watch units fulfill your orders). Also, I'd like to see the game dump screenshots to a folder, which a lot of much older games do. Right now, it's "make screenshot, ALT+TAB to image editor, paste it, ALT+TAB to ArmA again", which is unwieldy.

I haven't found a similar pool/concept, so here's an idea I came up with. In ArmA II, weather seemed to be purely cosmetic, only minimally affecting the gameplay. I'd like to see a better system implemented in AIII. In real life, temperature, humidity and rain/snow have a large effect on person's fatigue. For example, in a hot and humid environment, it's more difficult to function than in normal temperatures. Because BI implemented in-game uniform changes, it might be nice to see winter and summer uniform variants implemented, with actual in-game effect. Perhaps they could even add an ability to adjust cuffs and collar on the uniform according to temperature (at least in case of MCCUU, I found that this does matter much more that I thought). There's also a matter of rain and snow, especially snow could make even normal walking difficult. Rain could create mud which would greatly slow down infantry (especially if they're weighted down) and sometimes prevent non-tracked vehicles from moving through it at all. Combined with wind, it could greatly increase fatigue (just try walking in the strong wind and rain, it's far more difficult than in any of them alone). Double the effect for hailstorms. There's also the matter of vehicles being affected by weather. Anybody who ever drove a car in winter can attest how much this affects it's handling. Off road handling, of course, should be much more affected. It was done in a mod for AII, so I'd like to see it in AIII. Since vehicles can be towed, I guess that they could also be dragged or pushed, which I'd like to see implemented in case of icy/muddy environment. I'd also like to see sliding on the wet/icy road, in AII you could drive like a madman in a rainstorm and not end up spinning and plunging off the road. Then there's wind, which should not only affect smoke (like in AII), but also ballistics, sailing (in AII it only affects waves) and fatigue. It should also be easier to set in editor. Of course, ice and hail effects, as well as winter uniforms, wouldn't be really useful for Lemnos, but rain and varying temperatures, as well as wind effects would. Now, that was my opinion on the subject. What do you think?

I'd really like to see large, movable ships. While Nimitz carriers do operate beyond the horizon for most of the time, you could do a mission where you can see large ships leaving or entering port, or a sea battle with Nimitz battlegroup maneuvering, for instance in an island cluster.

At the end of this mission (forgot the name), you can take Matilda from Dixon, he says that it should work well against UAVs. The problem is, it doesn't, as the ammo he gives you are HE slugs, nor buckshot (which would have made this mission much less frustrating). Is that a bug, or is it supposed to be like that (in which case it's pretty stupid, and it should, IMO be patched)?

I've managed to shoot down all but one (after many replays), and in the later mission this one was very effective at killing bad guys (though they finally shot it down, but after that, the mission was rather easy). Anyway, I just wondered if it wouldn't be a better choice to give player some buckshot instead of slugs. If you have a PK, AA-12 isn't that useful.

Tried with a borrowed PK. Not easy, and I got shot annoyingly quickly. maybe with AA-12 this would be more effective. But still, pellets would feel more approbate (as of now, you never get to really use them). You don't go hunting birds with slugs loaded.

Then check out Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 and Ghost Recon. New Operation Flashpoint might also be for you (if you believe what Codemasters say about it). I never played them, but I heard that they're just that - a middle ground between realism and gameplay. ArmA is a hardcore tactical FPS, a true millitary sim, in fact (USArmy actually uses Virtual Battlespace 2, a version of ArmAII for tactical training). There are other, less realistic FPS games on the market which are not like CoD, but also not quite like ArmA. IIRC, new OFP titles are not liked out there exactly because they're this kind of games, rather than simulators like original OFP. Also, there's the matter of modding ArmA into less realistic shooter, if you made an OFP addon and a campaign, you could look into making a "less realistic, more fun" mod and perhaps a campaign for it.