JAMerica

When you find the "perfectly" developed game, with no aspect overlooked, let me know. I'll find you someone who will disagree with you

2-3 years between titles is fairly standard, and as pointed out, $40 every couple of years is nothing. I really don't think anything is terribly broken in ArmA (except VOIP). It is what it is, there is really nothing else like it, and it's damn fun. And yes there is always room for improvement.

Having a framework that allows the community to "fill in the content" is a massive plus IMHO. Communities can define the content to their needs and preferences...from BF2 style play (although a little clunky) to RTS to milsim and all shades in between. This avoids having to just settle for what the developers think you will like. In this regard, I think BIS has more than earned their $40 bucks from me...and again in a year or two (or three )

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Jamerius (Feral Druid)

jex

Coming out with buggy games and then not fixing them is also a good way to loose business. If a game needs to be fixed, it should be fixed. Only in the software industry do we allow this kind of behaviour and as customers of the gaming industry, we put up with it as long as patches are forthcoming. We don't know the financial situation of BIS or what other income they are generating to make claims that patching will make them run out of money. As it stands, Arma needs work doing to it which we should demand? If we don't and put up with this kind of behaviour, we are just paving the way for software houses to release buggy games that they'll never fix. If they wish to take this route then they deserve to go out of business - there are plenty more dev teams out there that will step up.

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Jex

Dslyecxi

If you want to ignore the countless fixes and multiple quality patches that have come out for ArmA, be my guest. I'll have no part in a discussion initiated with such a biased view of things, though.

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tHa_KhAn

In comparison to other games, I don't think ArmA is considerably less complete than the norm. Outside of Evolution and few other missions, I don't have any odd issues that wouldn't be experienced some time in a BF2, Doom 3, etc. What I do find unusual, is the expectation that there is going to be some kind of lifetime support. My hardware setup(depending on ATI driver) gives me a great experience in game on every mission. I still occasional have crashes, but mine usually occur when exiting the game. VOIP is the only thing promised, that's not delivered and even that is debatable because I have nothing but positive experiences testing it.

PC games have always been extremely buggy when compared to console games and they always will since their has to be more compatibility for hardware and software setups. When every other games stops crashing or behaves 100% of the time as expected, then I will be upset with BIS for taking my money. I think this thread needs to focus on the gaming industry as a whole and not BIS because all the problems stated, apply to all games I have yet to see a support forum completely empty.

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jex

Sorry what bias are you referring to in that quote? I made a logical statement that happens to be a fact. I can offer no bias on facts and I don't understand what you are trying to say, or are you referring to my entire post? If so, perhaps you can point out where I am using such obvious bias? Do you disagree that if a software house continues to throw out buggy software that it won't fix that it should keep its client base?

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Jex

Magnum50

D, I know you got contacts, and fully respect your opinions and comments, but I have some too, and I know for a fact that they wanted it in ArmA...and still looking to implement it in upcoming games.

and this forum, and any other forum I post is, is all speculation, if you don't directly work with a certain company... it's not spreading rumors, or false hope... it's called 'what I would like to see", and as a gamer... I have all the rights in the world to post my opinion/wants of an upcoming game.

thx you

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Magnum
www.gettacticaldammit.com

Dslyecxi

BIS supports their games. They've patched ArmA repeatedly, to good effect. It is not perfect, but you're jumping from "not perfect" to insinuating a doomsday scenario where they aren't supporting their products at all and are just shoveling out bugware. It's a bit dramatic, but perhaps you didn't intend for it to be read that way.

As to your comment about there being "plenty more dev teams out there that will step up", it certainly hasn't happened yet. This is a pretty niche genre as things go, and since OFP's release the only game that has compared to it has been ArmA. I don't think this will change anytime soon.

I can't even imagine AAR happening based on past discussions about it. It's completely unlikely. As to RTE, I have serious doubts about that. In any case, expecting those to show is a recipe for disappointment. There were plenty of things in VBS1 that were "expected" to show in ArmA that never did. Until they announce it, I would put zero stock in either an RTE or AAR happening for ArmA2. The RTE has a sliiiim chance of happening, but the AAR, as mentioned, would be going too far into VBS2's lane.

You post your opinions, I post mine. That's how it's always worked, and in this case I disagree with your views on things.

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Magnum50

I'm sorry...was referring to the RTE, not the AAR... good information that THAT tool was wanted in 1, and may be in 2... but again, NOT CONFIRMED.

and again, It's not a post of my opinion, it's a post of what I would like to see in it...

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Magnum
www.gettacticaldammit.com

boudreux

Magnum, this RTE function you speak of when just about be the perfect thing ever in communities like ours. Imagine a knowledgeable, trustworthy person in charge of that! OH my word. Thanks for explaining that, and I hope that we somehow do see something like that added. Of course, I understand what Dyslx is saying, and they need to keep certain features out to keep their lucrative military clients happy with their expensive products.

Yes, ArmA is rough in many ways, but we all obviously enjoy playing it, and it is the only and best of its kind. We can't have 10km viewdistance, 400 square kilometers of playground, and still have the gloss of R6/GRAW/BF2. We all understood that when we started playing. BI has shown us nothing that would make us think they'll abandon support for ArmA, and even if they would, I definitely got my $40 worth! I can't wait for ArmA2, and whatever features/improvements it has will be worth it. It'll still be the best/only of its kind.

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jex

I was generalsing on game developers - I wasn't necessarily pointing fingers at BIS - they are patching Arma at present so they do not fall into this catagory.

Lead pursuit continue to patch Falcon 4: Allied force whilst working on their next project and contine to communicate to the numerous forums out there, plus reply to emails they receive. These are the kind of developers that we should be encouaging. Eagle Dynamics also had great contact with the community when they were making LOMAC.

There may not be the developers out there yet for something like arma and we don't need them as Bis are doing a good job. It would be great to see the community take up the project (like the guys who are trying to produce Fighter Ops - community guys who decided to make a Flight Sim the community wanted (whether it surfaces of course remains to be seen)). I'm not sure the gaming industry has what it takes to do what we want it to - if there were some bright sparks in the community who got together to make a realistic, tactical warfare simulator we might see something more akin to what we want. I'm always left feeling that, even though games are good, they always seem to miss things and I find myself saying, "it's a great game but wouldn't it be better if it had..." (much like your piece on looking at all the different games out there (Ravenshield, Vietcong, OFP, etc).


I'm not really that bothered if it shows or not. It would be nice, but I'd much rather have the time spent on the playing of the game rather than concentrating on the after part.

In Falcon we have an AAR and all that entails is talking about the mission we just flew, what went right, what went wrong and how we can improve things the next time out. There's no reason why we can't do this now - we don't need a tool, though it could be helpful.

That's fine - we can't always agree with each other - if we did, there would never be any progress

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Jex

Taxi

Probably right, in the mean time they launched the www.arma2.com site, unfortunately no cues on changes, functionality etc. Guess it will trickle through bit by bit.

Dslyecxi

Well, the 3D editor has been confirmed. I won't expect VBS2-level functionality until it's implemented - my initial cautious view would be that it will have the OME from VBS2 but not the RTE functionality.

Additionally, it's going to be a true 400km2 map, instead of the "400km2 Sahrani" that was actually just 250km2 of real land mass.

Oh, some shots and video here. I'd buy it for the island alone:
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~csucje/arma2/

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boudreux

Good stuff Dslyecxi!

Loved the Hind cockpit, the rabbit, and the main menu backround

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Gogeta

lol X Fillets 2 xD

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|TG-4th| Gogeta