Arma 3

[Eddo36]

http://arma3.com/

 

Probably the ultimate military sim as of this moment. Great fun, too. Who here plays Arma as well?

[Monte Carlo]

On the face of it, Arma is the ideal game for me and I should be all over it.

 

I tried it once. I simply can't get my head around that many controls and I ended up hating it.

 

So it's like my dream woman, but with acne. Very, very frustrating.

[Eddo36]

Many controls really? The tutorial covers everything.

[sorophx]

it's a piece of ****, and I have 500+ hours of it on record. Bohemia doesn't know what they're doing, they mismanage EVERYTHING. I just want some game developer to make a game that provides the same basic functionality so I could forget about Arma 3. because there won't be an Arma 4

[BruceVC]

Many controls really? The tutorial covers everything.

 

I haven't played it but there are several people at one of my customers who  are addicted to it and say its the best tactical shooter they have ever played. They want me to join there group and MP with them.

[Monte Carlo]

Many controls really? The tutorial covers everything.

 

I'm not blaming Arma, I'm blaming me. I just can't get into the level of stuff you've got to do at once to control your dude.

[sorophx]

when people say there's a high level of stuff you have to do to control your character in Arma they don't know what they're talking about. 

 

the biggest gripe people have with Arma's controls is the single-player part when you have to command a team or a squad of AI - that's a bitch. but otherwise the controls are similar to any other shooter out there, with a couple of features added (like free look, the ability to switch to secondary sights etc.). and that stuff greatly enhances one's experience.

 

unfortunately, these are the things Arma took from other games. everything else, especially stuff that is unique to Arma, is so badly implemented it makes my blood boil

[Monte Carlo]

OK, so I don't know what I'm talking about. Congratulations on your ability to jump inside my head and divine how my hand-eye coordination works.

[sorophx]

I wasn't talking about you, I guess I should work on how I construct sentences. it's a very common complaint on the BIS boards, usually from people who never played the game.

 

anyway, in almost 4 years of playing Arma I've only used 8 keys to control my character, and 2 more to control my weapon. that's pretty much what every shooter on the market has, hence my comment. 

Edited July 19, 2014 by sorophx

[Monte Carlo]

^ No problem. Maybe it's because I'm not a FPS shooter player, as a rule. And when I do I jack a console controller into my puter.

[sorophx]

that would explain a lot, yeah 

[Serrano]

http://arma3.com/

 

Probably the ultimate military sim as of this moment. Great fun, too. Who here plays Arma as well?

I've only played a little of Arma 2 but I agree with Monte. The tutorials, especially the one from Arrowhead  do a brilliant job of explaining things but beyond the basics there is still a lot to know that can bite you in the ass later. Medicine, compass, map, vehicles ect are all optional as far as being able to play go, but this isn't a typical game series this is Arma. Most of my time on Arma was spent waiting for a pickup and then waiting to arrive at the destination,  praying that the pilot had actually bothered to play the tutorial. Don't get me wrong, the game is aces when the majority of both teams know what they're doing and work together, but it's hard to find that level of play on public servers. Also, being a pretty authentic sim, you need to learn how to do things differently to other shooters,it takes a lot of time and patience to become even average at arma and understand how the game you're playing works, and if you're not even average you're probably going to spend ages getting to a fire fight then get taken out pretty quickly. Arma is very rewarding but a bitch to learn and you really do need more than the correct keys to get the arma experience people keep talking about.

 

Sorry for the typos, kindle autocorrect.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Serrano

[Malcador]

it's a piece of ****, and I have 500+ hours of it on record. Bohemia doesn't know what they're doing, they mismanage EVERYTHING. I just want some game developer to make a game that provides the same basic functionality so I could forget about Arma 3. because there won't be an Arma 4

What in particular ? I mainly tool around with the editor but have fun with it. AI is still terrible at driving and some movement. Been a while since I was on BIS though

[Lexx]

Driving Ai had improved extremely in arma3. Just to compare: in arma2 the Ai most of the time wasn't even able to get around corners.

 

I like arma3 a lot. It's offering only improvements over arma2 and I like the setting and all that jazz. Also I feel too lazy to complain about everything, so I just take it how it is. :>

[sorophx]

What in particular ?

well, one things that drives me crazy, and that is very revealing is how they fix bugs and broken features.

 

they have a site for reporting bugs. anyone can browse through it and upvote/downvote bugs and feature requests. the idea is to help the devs prioritize issues. well, so far the most voted for issues have not even been considered. instead, the company keeps fixing small bugs that don't even manifest themselves 80% of the time. 

 

there could be many reasons for that, but my guess is: they just can't afford to take their programmers off of DLCs or whatever they're doing, so programmers just get to fix small bugs when they have some free time. and the latest updates support this, because both Zeus and Virtual Reality were made by a two-man team in their spare time. and then BIS presented it like "free DLC" to the players.

 

this is where my mismanagement comment comes from -- when major features are added by one programmer, who works on them overtime, and the rest of the company does god knows what, it's obvious something is very wrong.

 

the whole development cycle for Arma 3 was like that, they had scrapped features and started from scratch, as if making a completely new game, and not the next iteration in a established game series. 

 

and then you see their producers post things like (I'm paraphrasing), "yeah, we did promise to get that feature in, but turns out we can't; let's just hope modders can do it" -- hello, am I the only one who finds this not only strange but unacceptable? a company that runs a business openly admits it doesn't want to spend its man-hours on a feature, because there's a chance a mod will come out for it - great business practice.

 

to wrap this up, I'll name two things that make this game unplayable for me.

 

first, damage model. and it's also helps to see how the design process goes inside BIS. one of the new features compared to Arma 2 was the ability to wear equipment like helmets and vests. one would expect BIS to make them actual body armor and not just a way to make your character look pretty.

 

well, BIS decided to stop half way, it does make your character live a little bit longer, by adding HP. yes, the "most realistic infantry combat game" uses hit points and health potions.

 

so, when you get shot in Arma 3 -- and it doesn't matter what part of the body gets shot, the effect is still the same -- you lose HP, without body armor you lose more HP. even if you get shot in the head, it doesn't count if you get shot in the temple, face or neck, your HP just gets lower. body armor isn't stopping bullets, it just makes you more resilient. 

 

now, when you're wounded you get certain effects that make it harder to shoot, how do you make them go away? you drink a health potion! in form of first aid kits. you just use a FAK, and your character becomes healthy again. and you can do it as many times as you want. get shot a 100 times, heal yourself 99 times, and you're still good to go.

 

second, how AI reacts to wounds. and this is a game breaker. when you shoot an AI, he doesn't get all the effects of being wounded, he doesn't care, he's a bot with perfect aim. but he's also a bullet sponge, just like you. so what happens is you get a jump on an enemy soldier, place 2-3 bullets into his chest, and then he just turns towards you, shoots you in the head, and you're dead. 

 

this isn't such a big problem when you engage the AI at longer distances, because their aim can be adjusted, and at 400-500 meters they're not so deadly. it's still stupid, though: you hit someone in the head and he keeps returning fire. but at close ranges there's no chance for you to survive unless your aim and reaction time are perfect.

 

ok, I'll have to stop because if I don't I will go on and on.

[Lexx]

Btw. They are advertising arma3 as "military sandbox" and not simulation. They are aware that the game isn't on par with a true simulation.

[sorophx]

that's a more recent change in their marketing approach. everything prior to Arma 3 was marketed as a sim. and compared to Arma 3, Arma 2 really feels like a sim, only for the fact that enemy AI don't have any protection and die as a regular person would - from 1-2 well placed shots 

[Lexx]

You make it sound as if this happened last week, but the "sandbox" thing is since the game is running in alpha.

[Malcador]

Ah ok, I see that. One good thing..well ok the only good thing the new Flashpoint games had was that radial command menu for your squad, was quite convenient.