ArmA3 blog and new screens...

http://www.bistudio.com/english/company/developers-blog/285-scanning-the-horizon-arma-3-in-2012

http://www.bistudio.com/images/stories/arma3/screenshots/Arma3_screenshot_1202_20.jpg

RENDER TO TEXTURE 100% confirmed. Look forward to the highest fidelity mod aircraft, MFDs, rifle scopes, and more! This opens up an absolutely huge number of possibilities.

http://www.bistudio.com/images/stories/arma3/screenshots/Arma3_screenshot_1202_18.jpg
http://www.bistudio.com/images/stories/arma3/screenshots/Arma3_screenshot_1202_27.jpg

Improved lighting system confirmed. Volumetric clouds, better shadows, greatly improved spotlights and flashlights.

"We have reworked our animations using completely new motion capture recordings. The result is the most realistic animations ever achieved in the series, as well as additional gameplay features."

"We have adhered to a strong focus upon backward compatibility throughout the development, meaning we (and of course even you) are in a position to get older assets into A3 very quickly, just with few tweaks here and there. There are, of course, the new features which would require additional settings."

Back to Takistan or whatever possibility, all but confirmed by BIS themselves. Looks like all of you guys that hate the future and have no imagination for technological progress will still be able to enjoy ArmA 3. Who would have imagined that ArmA 3 would be just as extensible, customizable, and backwards compatible as always?

Community Alpha after E3 then full beta. If there is server support, I hope SimHQ can run the A3 Alpha so that we can contribute to testing. Otherwise, we'll have to figure something else out, because I'm going to test the heck out of this and do my personal best to make it the finest war game on the market. Since I started with OA, this isn't really a chance I've ever had before, so I'm pumped.

<sarcasm> But it's got railguns in it! </sarcasm>

Looks and sounds fantastic! I can't wait

<SARCASM MODE OFF>

Yes, I do have problems with future settings, rail guns, etc... and yes, I have "no imagination for technological progress"! For what's worth, in the future "soldiers" could be fighting with sticks, rocks and slingshots -> "IMAGINE" a worldwide collapse such as Nuclear War -> So about this for your "future technological progress"/imagination?? Do you have problems with my oppinion regarding ArmA3?? If yes, GET A LIVE!!

Regading the "backward" compatibility: I have no doubts that some old ArmA2 weapons, vehicles and other models can be ported to ArmA3 (ArmA3 will be "moddable" just like their predecessors)! But that won't be that "straighfoward" as you or even BIS claim! This sort of "backwards" compatibility ALWAYS existed (from OFP to ArmA1 and from ArmA1 to ArmA2) but in order for this to happen there must be MODDERS that could do this and even so the old ArmA2 models:
-> Must BE MODDED to work properly in ArmA3 (with "minimal" capabilities and with no problems)
-> Will NOT have the same quality (graphical for example)
-> Loose the new capabilities (BIS stated this in the blog entry) such as the ability to change sights, uniforms, etc... for example.
-> Even if some modders would want to bring units of ArmA2 to ArmA3 there's no garantee that all or most units (in order to made a believable/balanced current and realistic scenario) will EVER be ported to ArmA3! Just look to "OFP:Cold War Crisis" mod made for ArmA2 and just how long it's been on works and still it isn't finished (and there's a chance that even after ArmA3 is released that this mod isn't completed for ArmA2).
-> Etc, etc, etc...

So and like I said, I will get ArmA3 in the day that I get:
-> A complete set of current (or past) weapons/vehicles/models for "both sides" with the same capabilities and quality that ArmA3 stock units will have, nothing more, nothing less!!

Fortunally for me there's a game in the works that's based on the ArmA2 OA engine that models WWII (Eastern Front) and that will "cater my needs" better than ArmA3!
Someone has a problem with this?? Well, tough luck!!

</SARCASM MODE STILL OFF>

*rattels "money for new computer" tin*

Good stuff - even if I would prefered old/current weapon systems but I'm sure the talented community will fix that with time (if BIS don't)!

/KC

If you're so set on not buying it then why keep posting in Arma3 threads???

Troll me twice, won't get trolled again.

Can any of the older players here give me an idea how large the SimHQ turnout was back when ArmA 2/OA were new? This will help me start planning missions so I can have some ready to go early.

First mission I make will be an armor assault with the rail gun tanks. See you there.

12 to 15, and the missions were all simple infantry squad based missions... we didn't start adding tanks and planes till around 18 started showing... oh how I miss the early days of squad based missions, no fancy scripts and long nature hikes.

Tao, all those launch missions are still on the server.

Look at the numbering as a reference as to the release time of the mission. For example:

CDF Raid 01, USMC Assault 01, DZK Defend 01 - A very early mission, likely the very first of it's type. And the missions get newer from there. We dated them serially back in the beginning.

Note that a few early missions were BIG because we were not sure how much excitement there would be. It was not uncommon for there to be an initial crowd over 20 players right off the bat. So we built one or two mega missions to cover us, if that happened.

I thought perhaps the very-original originals had been lost during the ACE period or something, so I wasn't sure about those. Good to know. 12-20 about what I was expecting.

I think it'd be a shame not to take full advantage of the new Java scripting system and vehicle assets -- how can I resist.

Actually, Mag is referring to Arma 1 numbers. Those days we rarely topped a dozen players for the first year or so. Part of that was distribution issues, with imported versions and Sprockets digital DL and all that crap.

When Arma 2 came out, and on Steam, it was BIG. We had over 24 many nights. I recall 28 once I think. We ran into MAJOR issues of coordinating with that many. The VOIP in-game wasn't working right, so we didn't have that to use like we do now. There were attempts to get TS split into subchannels like that other big Arma site does, but we really never got it right. Fortunately for that problem, although not overall I guess, the turnout leveled off back to under 20 pretty quickly and we were able to just stick with one TS channel again. Prior to OA it rarely broke a dozen, then OA brought the numbers back up and thanks to patches and mods and missions it seems we've really not seen it drop to pre-OA numbers since.



The Jedi Master

Actually your probably right JM... I remember with ArmA1, we were going to hold off for 2, but then once it was released 1 was history... and that continued our growth.

BTW guys...just FYI, to clear the air... We don't know yet what ArmA3 is really going to offer, I'm betting we don't see it till at least next year, at least... but when it is officially and finally released, I will be taking over the main admin duties. I will see who's interested and re-build a admin team and a mission making team. I will test missions before they are uploaded... and for the first quarter after release, 4 motnhs...give or take... we will not use any add-ons and mods... we will play the game as released and designed to get people a chance to solve all those persona issues, and maybe a patch or two...

The missions will be the old squad co-op style missions, along with flight missions and armor missions all as a unit... later will we move to joint task force type stuff... all that will be discussed and decided when we have new info...

so for now... enjoy ArmA2, and our SimHQ server, and it's hundreds of missions.

Will you also be running Tactical Thursday?

Initial player counts when both ArmA2 and OA were released were quite high. I recall 25 on some of the first nights. Things dropped off afterwords, though - gradually with ArmA2, quite quickly with OA. 25 on opening night with OA, 15 the next would not be an exaggeration.

The frustrating thing about building gigantic missions for the start was that they'd only be played once or twice. A lot of effort went into building them, but many of those opening missions have not really been touched since then. I think it'd be smart to make use of scaling for the first round of missions - I built a script that handled this quite easily.

Not having played MM for some time, I am kind of out of touch with what kinds of missions people are enjoying. What do you want to play when ArmA3 comes out?

There's gotta be another Kelly's Heroes mission.

I must admit that the fact that some of those larger missions are impossible with fewer numbers is frustrating. I really liked some of those big missions and played them maybe twice, and not for a long time now. Sigh.



The Jedi Master