ArmA 3 - Alpha release March 5th!!

[Flogger23m]

WHOO....haven't played this much due to feeling like a massive lack of content compared to ArmA 2 (which I guess is to be expected), and the community has been a little slow to adopt it over ArmA 2 it seems.

I like some of the improvements, but the futuristic theme really makes me uninterested in the game. Most weapon mods so far seem to be crappy ports of crappy ArmA 1/2 level weapons.

Until a good mod like ACE comes out which replaces all future stuff ArmA 3 will probably sit on my HDD.

 

[Spidey329]

I like some of the improvements, but the futuristic theme really makes me uninterested in the game. Most weapon mods so far seem to be crappy ports of crappy ArmA 1/2 level weapons.

Until a good mod like ACE comes out which replaces all future stuff ArmA 3 will probably sit on my HDD.

Agreed. Also, they've made big improvements in a lot of areas but overlooked obvious things in others. It seems a lot of stuff was left unfinished or removed because of the want/need to hit this release window.

 

[Flogger23m]

Agreed. Also, they've made big improvements in a lot of areas but overlooked obvious things in others. It seems a lot of stuff was left unfinished or removed because of the want/need to hit this release window.

The changes to the mission editor, including a switchable 2D to 3D mode (Jane's USAF did this in 1999) did not make it. They did change the UI... but I don't see that as necessary. I hope by release more changes but sadly I doubt it. We still can't move while pulling out a sidearm either.

Doubt a mod can change much like that, but with some better content (will be hard to get that quality though) I can see myself spending some time in game. For now, I'll just wait.

 

[Droc]

I have only put a few hours into it despite going for the most expensive version as Im a huge ARMA fan.
I hate the alpha map and dont care for the future weapons or vehicles. Give me rust.
My squad has 3 ARMA3 wasteland servers(the good smatra ones) so I figure Ill migrate over after smatra gets a version out on the big map.
For now I still stick to my C4G wasteland servers in A2

 

[Flogger23m]

The map is okay but I do not find it very interesting either. Good news is this is the small one, which is about 3 times the size as the small ArmA 2 map. The large map is supposed to be about 2-3 times as big as the ArmA 2 map if I recall.

 

[MavericK]

One of the main problems has been that a LOT of the features the developers teased long ago have either been indefinitely pushed back or axed entirely. The community is actually pretty divided, with a lot of ArmA veterans turning away from ArmA 3 entirely.

I think eventually it will hit a level where it is great (same went for ArmA 2...I bought that around release and barely played it at all until like 2 years later when OA came out), but it's probably going to be slow. At least they fixed the movement and (sort of) the grenade usage. Those things alone make me want to switch over after having played some more ArmA 2 recently...the movement just feels so painful.

 

[the X]

I have only put a few hours into it despite going for the most expensive version as Im a huge ARMA fan.
I hate the alpha map and dont care for the future weapons or vehicles. Give me rust.
My squad has 3 ARMA3 wasteland servers(the good smatra ones) so I figure Ill migrate over after smatra gets a version out on the big map.
For now I still stick to my C4G wasteland servers in A2

come play some Borderlands 2 with meh

 

[cageymaru]

http://www.twitch.tv/donrockwilder/c/2758153

My buddy Donrockwilder's highlights from last night.

 

[shifty68]

One of the main problems has been that a LOT of the features the developers teased long ago have either been indefinitely pushed back or axed entirely. The community is actually pretty divided, with a lot of ArmA veterans turning away from ArmA 3 entirely.

I think eventually it will hit a level where it is great (same went for ArmA 2...I bought that around release and barely played it at all until like 2 years later when OA came out), but it's probably going to be slow. At least they fixed the movement and (sort of) the grenade usage. Those things alone make me want to switch over after having played some more ArmA 2 recently...the movement just feels so painful.

all the devs need to do is make a badass map the community has always done the rest.

 

[Droc]

come play some Borderlands 2 with meh

I still play A2 every night. A2 smatra wasteland is, IMHO, the best gaming experience I have had in years. I have +800 hours in wasteland currently.

 

[shifty68]

I quite like playing wasteland its rather relaxing ( well how i play is) the only thing i don't like is the quality of the guns you get. i wish there was lower quality weapons. and less ammo for them.

 

[Spidey329]

One of the main problems has been that a LOT of the features the developers teased long ago have either been indefinitely pushed back or axed entirely. The community is actually pretty divided, with a lot of ArmA veterans turning away from ArmA 3 entirely.

I think eventually it will hit a level where it is great (same went for ArmA 2...I bought that around release and barely played it at all until like 2 years later when OA came out), but it's probably going to be slow. At least they fixed the movement and (sort of) the grenade usage. Those things alone make me want to switch over after having played some more ArmA 2 recently...the movement just feels so painful.

I bought the beta at $45 to support the genre. But I will say that after hanging out on the forums, the community is very divided. As you said, a lot of the teases from long ago are not there.

- Dynamic lighting is broken (iirc, something about # of lights available)
- Weather has no ballistic/vehicle effect
- Content is being removed (F35)
- AI is hit or miss. They do jumbojet turns indoors.
- UI never got needed improvements for the contextual things.
- Can't change weapons while moving nor is there a bipod.
- Vehicle physics are very weird.
- Can't shoot from moving vehicles.
- Midrange textures and camo at distances.

What's interesting is that a lot of these (including enhancing shadows and camo at distances, midrange texture, contextual UI) have a lot of interesting ideas on how to improve or add the feature efficiently. But they seem to be ignored.


I hope someone is able to port the Take On Helicopters physics over, as it'd be fun to fly those in singleplayer for a true simulator experience. From what I've been reading, they significantly dumbed the vehicles down to focus on infantry combat.

Also, I literally see no reason to do the futuristic approach besides giving them the ability to use the excuse of "well, that's the way it is". No jets for CAS? "Well, in the future, CAS is done by UAV's." Or "future jets engage at such long distances that dogfighting is non-existent and engagements happen too far away for the size of the map". It stands to reason that engages will come closer as the future goes, as new technologies by other countries lower the maximum range of jets (ie: stealth). It's like when the US decided to go gunless from the F4 with the same ideology. What happened there? The other side had advanced fighters that could out maneuver (or close the gap) the AA missiles. Whoops.

 

[MavericK]

all the devs need to do is make a badass map the community has always done the rest.

True, but I guess I (and many other community members) were hoping that the features people really want would be included in vanilla this time around. However, BIS has basically outright said that they want to leave that stuff "up to the modders" to finish...which for some things is understandable, but for others is just a slap in the face.

I personally don't even mind the "futuristic" nature of the game at all (it's not like you're using laser guns or anything), but the lack of long-desired features and now appearing that the release will have far less content than ArmA 2 had on release (in terms of vehicles/weapons/etc) is a little troubling. I'm sure BIS will gradually add more content, but how long until we get the game we should have gotten in the first place? They've already admitted that development time has been so long because they changed their focus several times during the development process, which is why we have relatively little in terms of content at release.

 

[shifty68]

Well just wait until ace comes out that will fix every thing

i don't mind futuristic weapons and vehicles. but i definitely prefer old school weapons. i didn't even like playing blufor in A2 my favorite weapons were the enfield the makarov and the rpg 7 lol

 

[Flogger23m]

One of the main problems has been that a LOT of the features the developers teased long ago have either been indefinitely pushed back or axed entirely. The community is actually pretty divided, with a lot of ArmA veterans turning away from ArmA 3 entirely.

I think eventually it will hit a level where it is great (same went for ArmA 2...I bought that around release and barely played it at all until like 2 years later when OA came out), but it's probably going to be slow. At least they fixed the movement and (sort of) the grenade usage. Those things alone make me want to switch over after having played some more ArmA 2 recently...the movement just feels so painful.

Agreed. After playing ArmA 3 the movement and even weapons feel very, very bad in ArmA 2. Especially grenade throwing. ArmA 3's grenade throwing still lacks a lot but at least it is far better than ArmA 2's.

Can you list some of the features that got axed? I have not been following it that closely as of late. The lack of a GUI loadout editor in the mission editor makes me less inclined to play the game.

Get mods, install them, make sure they work. Create loadouts on a .txt file, minimize the game and copy/paste long string of text per player for loadout. Want to change it a bit? Look up the weapon class name. Not something that makes me happy especially since the futuristic content bores me.