So America's Army on UE3 is coming to Steam, huh?

maddude0025 said:
I never played any of the games in this series. I read up on it and it seems like it'll be pretty cool, so preloaded it is!
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The key to this series - what makes it stand out above the crowd in that playing on public servers (IE., not clan or ladder servers) tolerable - is the 'honor' system.

If this is like the previous games, after completing the more-or-less offline 'basic training', you'll ultimately end up with something like 10 honor - it's persistent to your account. You GET honor by achieving objectives, staying with your squad, helping wounded teammates, etc. You LOSE honor by violating the rules-of-engagement (killing a civilian, for example), shooting teammates, etc.

Some servers will even set up a threshold that, for example, you cannot even join them without at least 20 honor....some are higher (I seem to recall a few 50 honor servers out there).

Another interesting thing about it is that your squad has so many slots for each 'class' (although that, in this game, basically just determines rank and weapon you carry - nothing different about your character, and every weapon in the game is perfectly capable of a one-shot-kill if aimed properly). One squad leader, a few fireteam leaders (with some fireteams being just riflemen, a sniper or two, and a machine gun or two). You request what slot you want. If another person requests the same slot...whoever has the higher honor gets it (the other guy is just a rifleman, then).

It kinda sounds like it would be unfairly biased towards long-time players, but it doesn't usually feel that way. True, the squad leader position usually goes to someone who's been around a while...but that's basically the way it should be (it's how it is in the real Army). The other positions are more open - it helps that the default rifles (the M16A2 or M4A1) are not gimped in any way in this game. They are really good guns.
 
I like AA, but I don't play it very much. The last time I played, it was "Bridge" on some private clan server, and I got like 4 headshots in a row with the M4 at like 75 yards or so. The shots were definitely hard, and I took my time aiming. So as far as I was concerned, it was their own damn fault for not seeing and killing me earler. But it happened that the team I was playing against owned the server.

So they kicked me. But it was fun, and I didn't lose any honor out of it. I guess they didn't think I was cheating, just screwing up the "balance" on their teams.
 
Already have it preloaded, I use to play the old AA a lot... fun game for sure, once you get the hang of things.
 
I played the beta the other day. If the beta is even remotely like the finished product, then they've totally ruined AA for me.
 
Umm, how did they ruin it? It basically plays the same minus the confirm kill and such.
 
Stiler said:
Umm, how did they ruin it? It basically plays the same minus the confirm kill and such.
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Lets see, they removed OPFOR guns (this sucks for server admins, opfor guns were alot of fun). You can't have a HUD and use AA, player movement mechanics are poor, sound quality reminds me of COD5, weapon models are poorly done, the menu system/class selection windows are confusing, and the games graphical quality is very poor. Just to name a few.
 
RiChess said:
Lets see, they removed OPFOR guns (this sucks for server admins, opfor guns were alot of fun). You can't have a HUD and use AA, player movement mechanics are poor, sound quality reminds me of COD5, weapon models are poorly done, the menu system/class selection windows are confusing, and the games graphical quality is very poor. Just to name a few.
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I have a hard time believing any of this about the sound and weapon models considering everything was created off of the actual weapons.

AA is my favorite shooter of all time. It's the first shooter that I ddin't have to deal with hackers. It's the first shooter that I was able to actually work as a team with my teammates - people that I met for the first time on whatever server I happened to be on.

I haven't seen anything but a few videos so far. The videos look good. I am really looking forward to the game.
 
Shadowspawn said:
I have a hard time believing any of this about the sound and weapon models considering everything was created off of the actual weapons.

AA is my favorite shooter of all time. It's the first shooter that I ddin't have to deal with hackers. It's the first shooter that I was able to actually work as a team with my teammates - people that I met for the first time on whatever server I happened to be on.

I haven't seen anything but a few videos so far. The videos look good. I am really looking forward to the game.
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I meant the weapon models, while accurate, are low res and blurry. The weapon sounds are accurate as well, but they sound muffled and indistinct. I've put about 400 hours into AA2, and I was really looking forward to AA3. I just hope the final version is much better.
 
Shadowspawn I sure hope that the final won't do this crap.
I have watched sooo many game sequels and this sounds like one that is trying to get away from the simulator and go to arcade.

I was a captain when I quit playing to go play BF2 and it was then that I learned what a good game AA was. BF2 is an arcade joke.
 
sparks said:
Shadowspawn I sure hope that the final won't do this crap.
I have watched sooo many game sequels and this sounds like one that is trying to get away from the simulator and go to arcade.

I was a captain when I quit playing to go play BF2 and it was then that I learned what a good game AA was. BF2 is an arcade joke.
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Careful what you say, BF2 is like the holy grail to some people! :eek:

That said, I completely agree :D I really hope they haven't abandoned the realistic gameplay in favor of a more arcadey style. I'll stick to AA2.X if that's the case.
 
The fact that its going to be run off of Vac makes it worth my time. I loved the original, but always felt like there were a few shady types on the servers. This will help at least put my sorry skills to rest and just accept that I suck and not everybody cheats.
 
sparks said:
Shadowspawn I sure hope that the final won't do this crap.
I have watched sooo many game sequels and this sounds like one that is trying to get away from the simulator and go to arcade.

I was a captain when I quit playing to go play BF2 and it was then that I learned what a good game AA was. BF2 is an arcade joke.
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BF2 vanilla is indeed an arcade joke. Mods like Project Reality, however, blow most commercial FPS games on the market out of the water.
 
lloose said:
The fact that its going to be run off of Vac makes it worth my time. I loved the original, but always felt like there were a few shady types on the servers. This will help at least put my sorry skills to rest and just accept that I suck and not everybody cheats.
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A few? That's a huge understatement. Even servers with active admins were still banning people left and right. I guess since it's a free game it is more enticing to cheat.
 
I've never played any of the AA games. Do they have single player? I know the testing/tutorial is but what about game play?
 
bigdogchris said:
I've never played any of the AA games. Do they have single player? I know the testing/tutorial is but what about game play?
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Unless they changed it in AA3 it's all online multiplayer. At one point they added (terrible) AI enemies for some little coop missions with other players.
 
I am preloaded and ready to be unlocked. Anybody know if it'll be unlocked at midnight?
 
lol. It will most likely be sometime tomorrow after 12 noon. (EST)

valve time sucks...
 
lloose said:
The fact that its going to be run off of Vac makes it worth my time. I loved the original, but always felt like there were a few shady types on the servers. This will help at least put my sorry skills to rest and just accept that I suck and not everybody cheats.
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It's Punkbuster, not VAC.
 
I had major problems with the game glitching/frame rate issues on a powerful system.... and it seems others have been having the problem (atleast in beta)
 
I'm very excited for this game!!! Called off work today due to being sick. Good timing.

I played the shit out of AA back in the day. This new engine is a great reason for me to get back into it!
 
That game took away about 3 or 4 years of my life, was even a beta tester for about 3 years. Played the fileplanet beta, and i cant wait. As far as the issues with it right now, its my understanding that the beta build is about 12 builds behind the final release and is being used basically for a stress test build. Game goes live in 4 hours. Woot!
 
Hey guys, the game will be going live at 2-3pm EST

I've been beta testing it for a few months and it's really come a long way. If you loved AA2, you will love AA3 and it's improvements/additions. :)

Oh, and the FP beta IS behind on the beta builds, but just by one. The 'real' betas are currently using the release build and it's surprisingly smooth (considering how 'wonky' the builds were just last week).
 
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gravityparade said:
I played the AA3 multiplayer beta. It sucks donkey balls.
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Yeah, those who dont like to play things that are more realistic tend not to like it.

I wonder though... did it have any Ubisoft Rainbow 6 type moves? I mean the 'duck behind cover'-right mouse button.
 
How's performance? I remember the original AA performed really badly on my GF4 Ti4200.
 
ex0du5 said:
How's performance? I remember the original AA performed really badly on my GF4 Ti4200.
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It's actually quite good.

Over the last week, the beta builds have been somewhat laggy (especially the servers), but last night I played some matches with the newest build (most likely the one being released in a few minutes), and it was shockingly smooth.
This was on the Ranch map, though.

The worst lag I've seen is on Impact, which I didn't get to play last night... so here's hoping the performance increase over the previous beta builds remains for all maps.
 
I'm restarting Steam like a madman. It just says "validating files" and then nothing happens. Servers must be getting quite a workout right now from the release and tools like myself constantly trying to hammer in.

Update: Steam is currently too busy to let you launch the game.
 
Yeah, unfortunately there's a day-zero patch that wasn't pre-loaded so we're stuck downloading the damn thing...

Sigh.
 
If the download numbers \ percentages are correct, the "patch" is about the same size as the preload. Fail.
 
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