Flogging A Dead Horse

After the much anticipated 1.38 update that BIS claimed to have "MP server optimizations", cautiously optimistic I ran the update last night and guess what... yep, the game still runs like a pig with an unplayable MP FPS :j: After reading the many posts about Arma's engine I think it's now time for BIS to be honest with its customers and admit that the current Arma III engine has run its course instead of promoting premium DLC for a game that many of us with newer builds will never be able to enjoy and realistically be able to play. IMO BIS are doing nothing but giving its customers false hope that this MP FPS issue will be resolved. Even if BIS manage to squeeze a couple more FPS out of the outdated engine it's not going to give anyone any significant improvement and it's unlikely to be noticed.

For even the most optimistic of fansboys, I'm sure they'll acknowledge that if the devs could indeed fix the MP FPS issue it would have been significantly improved with this latest update given that they claim it contained MP server optimization. Asking their customers to report back with results and acknowledging that SP may actually lose a couple of FSP tells me they're trying to squeeze every last ounce out of the outdated engine with counterproductive results.

If this game runs like a pig on newer systems I should imagine BIS will be legally required to warn potential buyers, otherwise people would have paid for a product that's not fit for purpose. I only paid £20 for Arma III, but the money I invested in a new rig and server not to mention the hours of time learning to script and creating missions has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

The way I see it is either the devs are incompetent, or the engine has ran its course. Either way, it's BIS' moral and legal obligation to warn potential customers that some may find Arma III unplayable. Perhaps even consider refunds for purchases made within a certain time period. Nevertheless, the game's broken - albeit for some.

Oh good. Another rant thread. This forum needs more of those.

EDIT: As a side note, I read "MP server optimization" as connection/ping improvement, not a magical FPS increase.

EDIT2: Assuming your signature specs are right Infiltrator, I genuinely don't understand how you can have such issues. Your rig outstrips mine by some distance, yet I have no issues in MP or SP (unless there are 50,000 AI running around, but that would have the same affect on anyone's PC, regardless of the game/engine).

Someone suggested making a dedicated rant thread or sub-section on the forums. Maybe it's time, these threads are really starting to annoy me.

Someone suggested making a dedicated rant thread or sub-section on the forums. Maybe it's time, these threads are really starting to annoy me.

That might be because everything's relatively going nice and smoothly for you and your gaming experience.

Well, the general rant threads don't bring up anything new. So why not just bunch them together as with other topics?

Gotta shake my head whenever the rant drifts towards "legal responsibility". This is a video game. A video game. Now if the game just straight up don't work for a majority, maybe you'd have a case if company just outright ignored complaints and banned forum opinions, you know, like Codemaster did :)

Oh good. Another rant thread. This forum needs more of those.

EDIT: As a side note, I read "MP server optimization" as connection/ping improvement, not a magical FPS increase.

EDIT2: Assuming your signature specs are right Infiltrator, I genuinely don't understand how you can have such issues. Your rig outstrips mine by some distance, yet I have no issues in MP or SP (unless there are 50,000 AI running around, but that would have the same affect on anyone's PC, regardless of the game/engine).

It's alright.There is bunch of people who like reading your responses.I sign under this.

It was more about the server performance and not 20fps boost for clients (Though could be in some cases dunno...).

I genuinely don't understand how you can have such issues. Your rig outstrips mine by some distance, yet I have no issues in MP or SP (unless there are 50,000 AI running around, but that would have the same affect on anyone's PC, regardless of the game/engine).

Because there are probably much more factors affecting FPS, including mission design, mods performance, individual settings, net connection quality, amount of players... It's not so rare - players ranting in wrong direction (not saying, that's for sure the case here, although its quite possible). What seems rare is well prepared, taking all, what's needed into account performance issues report, I guess.

Infiltrator_2K can you tell us your server specs and what type of mission you are running. Might give us a better chance of actually troubleshooting the issue.

It's alright.There is bunch of people who like reading your responses.I sign under this.

http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Are-You-Not-Entertained-Gladiator.gif :d

Because there are probably much more factors affecting FPS, including mission design, mods performance, individual settings, net connection quality, amount of players... It's not so rare - players ranting in wrong direction (not saying, that's for sure the case here, although its quite possible). What seems rare is well prepared, taking all, what's needed into account performance issues report, I guess.

Its always "lets blame BI!". Its never "Oh, I'm running 40 mods that might conflict and cause me issues, maybe I should address that", or "I'm downloading the entire internet at the same time as trying to play a game online, why am I getting lag?", or my personal favourite "I've shot this guy 20 times with this chicken gun I just downloaded, why hasn't he died?! Everyone knows high-velocity avian-matter kills with the precision of a neutron bomb!"

BIS has been focussed on improving server performance because the claim was that server FPS impacted on client FPS. We certainly had some evidence to support that, we have seen that once server FPS dropped that client FPS was also impacted so it seemed like a reasonable response. But obviously now these fixes are finally dropping they aren't really having the impact they need to. I don't think its fair to say this is flogging a dead horse, its actually feedback on something BIS just did and evidence that it hasn't worked as intended. People might be fed up of this type of feedback but I can assure you people are more fed up of giving it than you are of reading it.

Please continue the discussion here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?187697-Arma-3-%28release-candidate%29-1-38-128916-stress-test-MP-%28MultiPlayer%29/page4

Also please try to include the topic of your post in the thread title.

Thanks!