Hey guys,

I am looking for the opinion of current MM/TT players on adding more content to the server, including new units and islands, at this time. When I raised this with Doug he approved the addition of new islands, but was concerned about any issues that could come from untested mods (I was proposing adding some of my personal work then).

So I would only add popular, well-tested community units that would provide a meaningful gain in gameplay. Not 300 pointless variants of the M4, but stuff like helicopters with quick roping, new jets, desert camo Russians -- stuff that would diversify the kind of missions we play. I'm tired of killing that radio tower over and over! It's a shame not to take advantage of the great work being done in the community, since modding is what makes ArmA truly unique.

These units would be grouped into one download from SimHQ and go side-by-side with the islands. So it'd be something like @Duala,@Sahrani,@Quesh,@SimHQUnits. No hassle, no tracking down units from all over the place. I'll ensure that redistribution is permitted.

Such a pack wouldn't update more than once every 2-3 months (if that), so you'd only need to download it a very few times before ArmA 3 is released, assuming they stay on track. This is also a way of holding interest just in case A3 gets delayed again (and ArmA history suggests that it may well be). The addition of new exciting stuff may also prompt more mission-making activity.

So, let's hear it! Do you want this?

I am very much in favor of this. I have been playing here on SimHQ every Monday and Thursday for almost a year now and I enjoy the atmosphere and people here very much. And I love Arma 2 and will continue to play regardless of the decision here. There is not another game like it for that feeling of tactical co-operation in completing objectives.

But..the replay value of those objectives are definitley getting stale. I would hate to see people leave the organized sessions due to "been there, done that" syndrome. We have all driven the Bradley and the Humvee. We all know every square inch of the islands that we have. And we have knocked out more radio stations than Napster. When faced with this there are only two options - new content for said game, or play a different game. So I am all for new content.

Even though I am clearly an arma fanboy, I too would hate to see people not join due to missing content errors, or mods that cause people problems, so it would have to be a simple download and setup. Nothing kills a gaming session faster than configuration errors and disconnects. I would be happy to help with testing if volunteers are needed. I think the payoff would be worth it.

I'm in favour of this as well, things are starting to get a little bit samey now.

My personal shopping list!:-

Must haves

CBA, cos every mod seems to use it nowadays http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=6231

The following so mission builders can actually use ALL the buildings/objects in arma2:CO so we can make our own bases/vilas/camps/towns/checkpoints etc

MAP_EU = http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=6194&highlight=MAP_EU
[AS] Editor Update = http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=12898
Mr-Murrays ARMA II Compositions (place-and-go bases and checkpoints) = http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=13122&highlight=MRM_COMPOSITIONS

new units,islands etc

Isola di Capraļa = http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=12961
UKF Weapons Pack = http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=11513
Challenger 2 MBT = http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=11894
British FV432 Bulldog = http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=14679
UKF Landi pack (requires the below) = http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=7861
UKF misc = http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=11530
UKF Shared = http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=11529
Villas weapon pack (time to brings the russians out of the cold war!) = http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=9218

Its not a lot and nothing complex, just stuff that'll help add a bit of variety.

I am testing right now:

OH-58 Kiowa: intermediate attack chopper which fills the gap between Little Bird (dies easily) and the Apache (godless killing machine).
F-16: non-stealth fast mover which can carry a lot of ordnance.
Desert USMC infantry, Woodland US Army vehicles: USMC in Takistan, US Army in Chernarus (and the like).
Desert Russian infantry and armor.
Norrin's fast rope addon: fast roping from all transport choppers.

Some other stuff too but a lot of addons aren't quite finished or the quality isn't there.

@Meatshield: I checked out the Chally and the Bulldog. Bulldog caused a crash, and the texture and model quality on the Chally are pretty shabby. Was really hoping to find a nice BAF tank!

Agree that it would be a good thing to expand on the mods to assist with new mission building. I Like the idea of a Kiowa and the fast rope!

hmm the bulldog works fine my end, i did move the .bisign from the "key" folder to the main addon folder though so that might explain it?? And agree on the not so high qualitly tank, there is this one by the P:UKF so it'll be good quality, however i have no idea if the ACE2 bit can be removed or not (it didnt use to need it!) http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=7748

Do we really need the desert USMC? their pretty much identical to the US Army when you get down to the kit they use, woodland us army vechicles would be good though.

Also if the desert russian infranty is the same one as i linked to its prolly not a good idea adding it, brought my system to a crawl with only a few fire teams on the desert map, and the LODs were a bit funky

I'm in favor of new units/islands. I'd be interested more variety of units/islands. I'm kinda worn out on the desert theme. Are there any decent snow units/islands? That would certainly change things up a bit. In any event, I'm in favor of something new.

I'm unable to join your games but if an opinion was permissible I would suggest evaluating the Clafghan map, it's quite different to other ones and interesting terrain encourages a rethink of tactics. There is one known bug due to a wall texture pbo being misnamed - it has no material effect on game play other than a message being displayed at mission start.

Cheers

@Meatshield: No it's a different set of Russian desert units -- it's the same ones that are used in ACE.

@Saghen: It seems like there haven't been many snow unit reskins, though I've seen a few islands. I'll look around some more.
Edit: Actually if there aren't I will make a quick set, because I want to fight in the snow too. Retexturing is fairly easy if you don't try to get too fancy (i.e. change the camo pattern).

I have looked at nearly every complete map for ArmA, and have narrowed down a few choices. I am especially interested in maps with small file sizes.

I was previously considering Lingor, but several people have expressed concern about performance. Plus, a new version will be released soon. We may add it later.

I have looked really closely at Clafghan, and I really like it, but it has some serious problems with AI aircraft due to the terrain (they hit mountains more often than usual). I also think it is not well-suited to SimHQ's usual mission design.

Here are the maps I am currently testing.

Capraia (very small file, no issues, great terrain map)
Isla Panthera (interesting terrain, same map maker as Duala, big area but small file size)
Thirsk (interesting terrain, includes a winter variant)
Qom Province (more deserts, but with a different feel than Takistan, and some big green zones)

All of those are less 1GB total.

Units-wise I am testing:
2K12 Kub SAM and 1S91 search radar. Things other than the Shilka to blow up!
F-16 and Missilebox. New fast mover with big CAS possibility, and tons of new air weapons with interesting behavior.
F-22A. Air dominance fighter that can provide light CAS. Similar to the F-35, but no VTOL. Small file too.
Russian naval desert infantry.
Norrin's fast rope.
Woodland US army vehicles.
Desert USMC infantry (Binkowski).
OH-58 Kiowa. I really enjoy this unit; the model is a little dated looking though.

All these are under 500MB total. There's not actually that much other stuff out there that isn't part of a huge new-army mod, so this is some of the best.

Also the editor mods that Meatshield mentioned. They are like 2KB altogether. (Couldn't get that Challenger 2 to work for me!)

Would also like to include my small arms external ballistics mod. This removes the ridiculously bad and unrealistic subsonic suppressed ammo from SD weapons, and also updates other small arms to have more realistic velocities. Also adds a few different ammo types. Rockets and stuff are left the same (Straight flight forever) since there's no proper sighting system for them in ArmA. This is only a config update so there's not really anything to test and it's a few KB.