Arma 3

[Spudly]

So, I joined a crowd of gamers who originally got together to play Arma 2, but have branched out into loads of others, ranging from EVE to Battlefield to Minecraft to of course, the recently released Arma 3.

Lots of people complaining about bits and pieces to do with the release, but I have to say, if you get onto a well run server - and the crowd I game with have very well run servers - the gameplay can be phenomenal.

Took this screenshot today while we were running an insurgency mission on our public server. It seems I've managed to solve the problem of my soldier having an abnormally large and easily targeted head.

https://i.imgur.com/jvJ5hO3.jpg
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The Old Apprentice

[Hetzer]

Does it run like a pig even on a high-spec rig like the last two did?
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[metalangel]

I've been with the series since the original Operation Flashpoint and ArmA3 has a very tough act to follow considering how incredible ArmA2: Combined Ops was.

Been enjoying the alpha, beta didn't really add much, now the 'full' release is missing tons of stuff and they've just released what I can only assume is a colossal patch, so much so that I actually don't have enough space on my Windoze partition to actually download and install it.

A silly and slightly boring video of my friend and I messing around in the alpha here if anyone's curious.

If anyone is thinking of using aircraft, I strongly recommend a 360 pad or similar. There are good kb+m helo pilots out there but not many.
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Previous: 2002 Honda CB500 (sold), 2007 Suzuki SV650SK6 (crashed), 2005 Yamaha FZ6 Fazer (sold). Currently bikeless
"A faired bike will get you 10x more clunge than a unfaired one." -Marlboro Matt

[Spudly]

It does struggle at times yeah, but all in all, I'm finding that even my fair to middling system is getting reasonable frame rates on good servers with a couple of tweaks.

When you consider Altis itself is 200+ square kilometres of incredibly immersive and detailed landscape, plus buildings and environment, then add in the physics and other pieces of simulation, it runs extremely well. That said, even BIS admit there is plenty to do with optimisation.

The release itself was a bit of a damp squib and yeah, the number of weapons which came with the final game was less than impressive, but, BIS have also announced that they will be releasing the entire Arma 2 content library to the community as well as constantly adding new content to the finished game.

The real jewel of this game is Altis. Go onto Google maps and do a search for Lemnos, or Limnos. For legal reasons, BIS had to rename it, but that is the island of Altis. If you go a bit south, you will find the island of Stratis, which is also impressively modelled in the game.

Metalangel, drop in to our server one day, filter for igghq in the server list. If you want to join TS3, it's ts.igghq.net.

We are running a version of insurgency which we've modified a bit for our purposes. Fire your rifle three times on the base and you get kicked. Carry on, you get a ban. Tolerance level for twattish behaviour is extremely limited. It's a good server.

We also run proper tactical evenings, where we run missions designed by members, sometimes using mods like ACE and ACRE, but other times just running vanilla. Arma 2 and Arma 3, the first Arma 3 mission was on Thursday night and was a blast.

tl;dr Yeah, it has some bugs, but overall is incredibly immersive and a shitload of fun.
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The Old Apprentice

[krarkol]

I've played the alpha and the beta.

Alpha was pretty much unplayable and lagged when the guns started firing. Beta ran brilliant on my aging machine though.

I find the controls a lot better than OFP, ArmA or ArmA 2 as the animations and everything else just feel a lot more fluid than before.

I love a good tactical server but find them difficult to come by.

When I get 3 I'll have to pop onto your server sometime
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Bandit 600 - deaded

[Going]

Now to convert my user missions from Beta to the release.

On the Alpha release, one computer had frame rate problems in a mass firefight.
In Beta, it was when setting off about 50 mines (It was the smoke).

Now to finish of my little campaign.

[metalangel]

[Spudly]

@krarkol, feel free mate! The public server can be a little chaotic at times, but that's the nature of public servers really and as soon as one of us gets on and starts kicking the problem children it settles down.

@Going, I'm just getting into mission creation myself. Trying to figure out how to make a bloody floodlight on a pole at the moment. Either that or use the streetlamp_f object which is on the map, but isn't in any of the unit dropdowns.

@metalangel, nobody knows what the campaign is like, as BIS haven't released the campaign yet. They say they will release the campaign as three separate DLCs, the first one probably in October, when we can also expect a fairly large content update as well.

People are really pissed off at BIS for the way they have done it, and I guess I can understand that to an extent. However, I bought it in Alpha, for £20. I'm finding the true joy of a sandbox game like this is what you make it. Quite often a few of us will set up a server and run through self made missions or missions downloaded from Steam. We are also exploring various mods and so on, which increase the number of available weapons and so on to play with. Once the Arma 2 content has been properly released that will be immense.

IGG have a few levels of gameplay. They have a "company" structure which gets together and plays various Arma 2 and 3 missions together, but apart from using somewhat correct radio discipline and so on, they aren't rigid about it. Think Shacktac but less formal. Lots of fun, a lot of banter on teamspeak and so on.

If you don't want to play in that structure - and lets face it, some don't - there are servers with different game modes. I'm starting to get sucked into the company, but it's time and family which dictate that. There are also casual Sunday night missions, where someone will put a mission on the server, we all jump into teamspeak and organise ourselves into having a giggle.

The other thing worth looking at is AiA, which is an incredible mod. Essentially, it drags all of the Arma content from OFP, Arma 2, Arma 2: OA and so on, into the Arma 3 engine.

Chernarus looks gorgeous. Just plain beautiful. It's always been my favourite map, but in the Arma 3 version of the engine it's just lush.

AiA is still a bit of a work in progress, but there have been rumblings that BIS will give it a load of support, which could be a real boost.
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The Old Apprentice

[Knightsy]

[metalangel]

Rumour I heard about the story is that you play as an SAS officer who gets stranded and has to survive alone/carry out covert missions until you rejoin the main force in pushing them darn Iranians back.

This is the same plot they used in both OFP and OFP: Red Hammer as well as the main ArmA2 campaign (being left behind during a retreat) and it's really tiresome. The appeal of ArmA for me has always been that it properly simulates the rank and file soldiery while every other game does the commando special forces one-man army types.

I'm also hoping for a proper aviation campaign this time. Eagle Watch in ArmA2 was an amazing mission (no spoilers!) but was just that... a mission.
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Previous: 2002 Honda CB500 (sold), 2007 Suzuki SV650SK6 (crashed), 2005 Yamaha FZ6 Fazer (sold). Currently bikeless
"A faired bike will get you 10x more clunge than a unfaired one." -Marlboro Matt