ARMA 3

[Burning Bridges]

Yes those are good questions.

Theoretically Arma could make single tank modules that sell for 50$ and require a 300 page manual. Or rifles for 10$ like in that hunting sim I used to play. And you know what, many people would love it. But the problem is that it does not play well with their engine, if the units get overly complex they have to reduce the number of them and there goes the biggest strength of Arma.

Basically BI and ED do the same thing but with an inverse approach. BI delivers on the realistic quantity of entities on the battlefield and DCS on the quality of them. None has so far integrated both in a satisfying way, but it would sure be possible in the future, if you can manage to live that long.

 

[Matador]

We talk Arma 3 as a niche game and hardcore FPS as niche genre, when it was one of the most successful and sold PC exclusives of its time.

People is always craving for an authentic and hardcore FPS experience, like we can see on the success of Escape From Tarkov or Dayz, even you can argue about PU:Batllegrounds or Rainbow Six Siege.

- Arma failed on giving good shooting or vehicle experience, but succeeded on amount of content due to strong modding support, and flexibility to create a diverse set of player experiences. From mission creating enjoyers, mil sim communities, SP mission players, fast and small or big scale multiplayer, or survival and battle royale mods. Arma it's better than the sum of its parts because it's not bad on anything but it doesn't achieve excellence in any aspect either.

- Tarkov has the best animations, shooting feedback, healing system, sound and tailored mechanics to moment to moment FPS gameplay. But it has been a beta for years, and its formula and gameplay loot is incoherent with its hardcore vision. Ultimately is a game about twitch players with a lot of time to play becoming PvP superheroes building high tech arsenal in a harsh survival enviroment, in which that shouldn't be possible, nor the main goal of the characters. It's a joy to play but has a bad designed and poor progression path. Please just do a good SP campaign Stalker style and COOP expereince with those assets.

- Dayz has no content and it's aimless, but it's interesting to play for some time due to being a coherent hardcore survival experience, unlike Tarkov. No twitch channel can save your stuff on death, everyone lose everything when death happens. You have to respect that purity.

- PUBG succeeded in streamline a Battle Royale experience but rounds are too short for meaningful strategy and interesting maneuvering, and you are too much susceptible to RNG. It also spawned aberrations like COD battle royale or Fortnite.

So in the end nobody has succeeded to make the definitive experience on its own FPS sub-sub genre. But the success of them proves that the demand for hardcore FPS is very high.

 

[Matador]

Bohemia could make A LOT of money with a well done new ARMA game. Maybe they don't have the talent and/or the people remaining hasn't the passion to make that game anymore.

A shame, because Arma 2 and 3 are two of the most beautiful games ever made.

 

[Alienman]

Didn't Bohemia CEO say something that now that he have kids he wanted to make other kind of games, friendly games or some such ?

 

[Hace El Oso]

I know they said that ArmA 4 is not in development, maybe ~eight months ago.

Their version of the Real Virtuality engine used for ArmA is a much older one now, and the direction they chose to develop it for entertainment application was Enfusion (AKA trash). I have no expectations of what would come next, but honestly the modding scene for ArmA 3 is only just now reaching maturity so I am in no hurry.

 

[Konjad]

In this new DLC, you will take on the role of private military contractors and be deployed to a new desert sandbox terrain. Besides more content creation opportunities in the Arma 3 scenario editor, the Western Sahara DLC will offer several official scenarios and game modes to choose from. One of these is the open-world scenario "Extraction", which can be played in singleplayer or in co-op online multiplayer with up to four players. The scenario offers players the opportunity to serve as an operator for the ION Services private military company who are sent on a combat search and rescue mission after a war correspondent has been taken captive somewhere in the fictional war-torn desert province of Sefrou-Ramal.

Key features of the Western Sahara Creator DLC include:

• Sefrou-Ramal Terrain (100 km2)
  - Composed of completely new assets, as well as upgraded structures and objects from Arma 2 and Arma 3, Sefrou-Ramal is a province in the northeast of fictional Argana and is characterized by flowing sand dunes and desert architecture.
  
• Armed Forces
  - UNA peacekeepers, Sefrawi Freedom and Independence Army, Tura tribe insurgents, desert NATO forces, and the return of the private military company ION Services.
  
• 4 Weapons & 1 Static Weapon
  - IMIL GALAT and Velko R4 automatic rifle, SLR rifle, XMS bullpup rifle, and a fully remastered Arma 2 static weapon, the ZU-23 anti-air gun.
  
• 9 Vehicle Variants
  - New variants of existing Arma 3 vehicles such as the Zamak truck, AMV-7 Marshall Infantry Fighting Vehicle, Offroad pickup truck, and PO-30 Orca helicopter.
  
• Equipment
  - A gun drone with a modular weapon attachment system, a portable ballistic shield, and a variety of masks like dust goggles, a military-style headset, a ballistic mask, and more.
  
• Open-World Scenario: "Extraction"
  - Search for intel and clues to return a kidnapped war correspondent to safety in a sandbox scenario featuring dynamically randomized contracts, which can be played in both singleplayer and multiplayer co-op with up to 4 players.
  
• Multiplayer Mode: "King of the Dunes"
  - An original spin on the popular community-made sector control multiplayer game mode “King of the Hill”.
  
• Multiplayer Mode: "Last Stand"
  - Defend against waves of enemies in a new co-op game mode for up to 4 players.
  
• Showcase: "ION Weapon Systems"
  - A VR training environment to test gear in various scenarios and prepare ION operatives for deployment.
  
• 2 Time Trial Races
  - Race across the Sefrawi sand dunes in the Vrana-Redstone Dune Rally.
  
• Additional Content
  - A digital camera, dromedary camel, refugee tents, and various new structures and props.

The Arma 3 Creator DLC: Western Sahara is scheduled for release
later this year
and will be priced at
$6.99 USD
(€6.99 EUR / £5.99 GBP). The precise release date will be shared at a later time. To be notified of Western Sahara's release, you can also add the DLC to their Steam wishlist via its store page.

In the next two weeks, Bohemia Interactive and Rotators Collective will host a small-scale,
closed beta test
for the DLC. Selected members of the Arma 3 community will be invited to participate in order to identify any remaining issues and test the new content on a wide variety of PC configurations before launch.

Creator DLC
is a label for original Arma 3 projects
made by third-party developers
and
published by Bohemia Interactive
. This program enables external talent to earn a financial reward for their work, while players get to enjoy more new quality content. So far, three other Creator DLC projects have been released: Global Mobilization - Cold War Germany (April 2019), S.O.G. Prairie Fire (May 2021), and CSLA Iron Curtain (June 2021).

To learn more about the Arma 3 Creator DLC initiative, and to find answers to some of the most Frequently Asked Questions, please visit https://arma3.com/dlc/creator. For all the latest Arma 3 news, be sure to like our official Facebook Page, follow our Twitter account, subscribe to the Arma 3 YouTube Channel, and join the Arma 3 Steam Community.

 

[Burning Bridges]

That might be a very good choice for a setting.

A desert will mean pathfinding isn't going to be an issue, the complete opposite of the Vietnam map where in order to kille enemies you can just wait until they swim through one of the rivers. I often just run them over with a Sampan.

 

[Hace El Oso]

It’s a return to the great legacy of interesting semi-fictional settings of the same variety as Pineland(

Spoiler

) like Malden/Everon, Sahrani, Chernarus, Takistan. No question that it being a desert will be much kinder on AI pathfinding, which is the entire function of the sim.

I’m almost as excited for the Galils coming with it, though.

 

[Konjad]

I bought Western Sahara DLC today on release, and...

WHY WOULD THEY RELEASE MULTIPLAYER WITH CONSOLE DEBUG ON?! PEOPLE ARE JUST KILLING EVERYONE VIA CONSOLE, SWITCH FROM NOON TO MIDNIGHT AND BACK EVERY SECOND AND SPAWN TOP-END VEHICLES TO NUKE EVERYTHING.

ON AN OFFICIAL SERVER

WHAT THE FUCK?!

 

[Konjad]

In a way, it's terrifying. Like realizing the infinity of cosmos.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Arma 3: Big Rigs edition?

 

[forumvisitor#451]

I am surprised Konjad still enjoys King of the Hill. It seemed to me after some time like wasted potential of what Arma can really do. But then again I am a big sucker for military simulations (and games from my country eh).

Btw Big Rigs have more consistency to its physics than Arma engine :D

 

[Wunderbar]

Introducing Enfusion Engine: The Modern Heart of Our Future Games

Today, we have something special for you. We would like to officially present our new game engine, Enfusion, to the world. It will form the core of Bohemia Interactive's future games. In addition to giving new titles from BI a modern audiovisual look, the Enfusion engine is characterized by multiplatform use, improved user-friendliness for players, and superior support for mod creators.

The new Enfusion engine has been under development at Bohemia Interactive's offices in Prague, Brno and Mníšek pod Brdy for 4 years (however, the idea for its creation and some of its foundations date back as far as 2014). Currently there is a team of 30 developers involved in it. In terms of time, investment and human resources, it has become in recent times Bohemia Interactive's most important project.

Multiplatformity and use of modern technologies
The Enfusion engine is cross-platform, and thus enables the concurrent development of games for PC, Xbox and PlayStation. PC and Xbox gamers will enjoy full DirectX 12 support. The core of the engine is the C++ programming language with a scripting language called Enforce (an OOP scripting language that gamers may have already encountered, for example in DayZ). Shaders written in HLSL are used for rendering.

The audio-visual design of games developed on the new engine will therefore be future-proof. Optimizing the resource utilization of modern processors and graphics cards enables smooth operation and stable rendering frequencies even in demanding simulations. The developers have also devoted their efforts to a substantial improvement of the network code, promising an even better multiplayer experience.
Enfusion Workbench – all developer tools together
One of the main advantages of the Enfusion engine is its clarity and user-friendliness for developers. Thanks to the Enfusion Workbench toolkit, they will be able to easily modify the attributes of the game or mod under development. Enthusiastic community content creators will get their hands on the same professional tools used by developers at Bohemia Interactive.

Enfusion Workbench modules:

• World Editor: this is where our virtual worlds are created.
• Particle Editor: visual effects editor.
• Animation Editor: editor for configuring character and object animations.
• Script Editor: place for writing and debugging scripts in the Enforce language.
• Audio Editor: editor for audio effects and music.
• Behavior Editor: editor for defining the behavior of game-controlled characters (AI).
• Procedural Animation Editor: editor for simpler, game-driven animations.
• String Editor: editor for language localization.
• Layout Editor: editor for creating game user interface
• and others.

The workbench is also closely connected to the backend systems of Bohemia Interactive, including its own workshop. Thanks to this, it serves as a robust tool not only for development, but also for the composition and distribution of mods for all games that run on the Enfusion engine.

Future and public release date
The development of the Enfusion engine is far from over with today's announcement. Its gradual evolution remains Bohemia Interactive's top priority. The engine itself, along with developer tools and user documentation, will be released to the public soon, along with the first official playable demonstration of its features. Bohemia Interactive is not considering licensing the Enfusion engine to developers to create their own games at the moment.

But you are here for cool screenshots, showing the new engine's capabilities, right? Here they come! These have been snapped by our artists just last week, all captured in real-time, using Enfusion's built in 4K screenshot renderer that takes a specific scene and captures it at 4K for one frame. The sceneries are set on one of the benchmark terrains that we've built with Enfusion. While we're not quite ready to reveal anything more about our future games, we're really hoping that this little visual sneak-peek will make you excited about what's to come. Enjoy!

https://www.bohemia.net/blog/Introducing-Enfusion-Engine

ARMA 4?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Landscapes look good, but the question is if they manage to create an AI that could actually operate in them...

 

[Hace El Oso]

After seeing how neutered the ‘Enfusion’ version of DayZ was, I can’t believe that this is going to be anything good. In large part because it is built from the ground up for consoles, and no console could ever handle ArmA.

 

[Alienman]

After seeing how neutered the ‘Enfusion’ version of DayZ was, I can’t believe that this is going to be anything good. In large part because it is built from the ground up for consoles, and no console could ever handle ArmA.

In what way? Not played the new DayZ.

 

[Hace El Oso]

In what way? Not played the new DayZ.

I played the ArmA 2 mod, tried the standalone in the early days and then finally tried it out of curiosity after the supposed 'full release' including the Enfusion engine, and I was shocked. Visually the draw/render distances and 'simulation bubble' around a player are many times smaller, while performance is worsened. Ballistic simulation is nonexistent. Vehicle simulation is less realistic. There's no existing base of AI programming for it, I can't imagine that if they start over from scratch that it will be improved over what we have in ArmA 3. A3 has already lost some amount of functionality itself with general AI driving having gotten worse since release. In short, there is every possible indication that they have built themselves an 'engine' to power PvP console-friendly shooters.

 

[forumvisitor#451]

That was to be expected, really. Gut feeling tells me ARMA 3 is the last true ARMA.

We will see how it goes, skeptical point of view is that Tencent invested in BI and they probably want BI to work on some F2P PVP bullshit. So no more AI in ARMA, limited sandbox, paying for features little by little, etc.

I still give them benefit of a doubt. They are czech bros and made fantastic sandbox.

We shall see their next move.

If nothing, ARMA 3 will still be here and supported by community for years.

 

[thesoup]

In what way? Not played the new DayZ.

I played the ArmA 2 mod, tried the standalone in the early days and then finally tried it out of curiosity after the supposed 'full release' including the Enfusion engine, and I was shocked. Visually the draw/render distances and 'simulation bubble' around a player are many times smaller, while performance is worsened. Ballistic simulation is nonexistent. Vehicle simulation is less realistic. There's no existing base of AI programming for it, I can't imagine that if they start over from scratch that it will be improved over what we have in ArmA 3. A3 has already lost some amount of functionality itself with general AI driving having gotten worse since release. In short, there is every possible indication that they have built themselves an 'engine' to power PvP console-friendly shooters.

Man I started disliking DayZ when it became too casualized by mass appeal back when it was a mod and this sounds absolutely horrifying and unrecognizable.

 

[Matador]

I will never forget the summer I discovered Arma 2, maybe 9-10 years ago. Playing a lot of great user campaigns, downloading weapon and unit mods, discovering new beautiful community maps like Isla Duala, playing around like an authist with ACE features, tinkering with the editor making basic scenarios and surviving in Dayz mod with a friend, crawling for hours in Chernarus to outmaneuver snipers and bandits.

I can say that the discovery of Arma sandbox was the best gaming experience of my life. Just adjusting AI parameters, include scripts and tune other's missions code was a source of joy.

Last year with the boredom in the COVID confinements had great time playing MP missions with forumvisitor#451 a lot of afternoons.

This is my only real contribution to the community. It's a very good mission, which I dedicated a lot of time made last year when I had a lot of time, which I chose to dedicate to give back ARMA just a little bit it gave me.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2024456044



I even had the honor to be included in the best Ravage mission list from this great Arma youtuber:



Playthrough from him:

 

[Carrion]

How much worthwhile single-player content does Arma 3 have at the moment? Any must-play unofficial campaigns or missions? I'm mainly interested in good old infantry stuff in the vein of OFP, but I'm open to other suggestions as well. Also, which of the DLC should I get? I'm not really into the idea of paying over a hundred euros for useless crap like being able to drive go-karts.

 

[Matador]

How much worthwhile single-player content does Arma 3 have at the moment? Any must-play unofficial campaigns or missions? I'm mainly interested in good old infantry stuff in the vein of OFP, but I'm open to other suggestions as well. Also, which of the DLC should I get? I'm not really into the idea of paying over a hundred euros for useless crap like being able to drive go-karts.

The game Main Campaign is pretty good and infantry focused. Today I´m tired but will assemble a SP recommendation list this weekend.

For DLCs APEX is mandatory, because Tanoa, the map it includes, is fantastic and with surprising good performance.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/395180/Arma_3_Apex/

 

[Alienman]

There are a couple of campaigns that are excellent, especially with added mods. They enhance the game, and are mandatory for me now. The mods seem to work with most campaigns. At least, the ones I have tried so far.

Here is a collection, I made for Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2370206918
It works in mulitplayer too. I made a post about the mods in the collection, here on my blog, I explain them all, what they do etc.

Of the official campaigns, I have tried. The vanilla one is good. The Apex one is okay, the first couple of spec op missions at least. The "Tac-Ops Mission Pack" is damn good, and I really wish Bohemia would make more of these. The "Laws of War" one is fine, but it's not really focused on battles, like the other campaigns. Still interesting, though.

Otherwise, two fantastic custom campaigns, I have played are:

The Bay Of Hugeris [Continent in Arms] - Huge campaign, with two fictional countries duking it out. One NATO like vs. A communist one. You get to play both sides. Good story, and background lore. Works fine with the mod collection above.

Battle of Norway - Operation Weserübung - Another big one. It's WW2, the setting is the invasion of Norway. You play as a paratrooper officer, and you have to lead your men to victory, through forests, enemy bases, and villages. Also works fine with the mod collection. I did a short impression write up about the mod here, if interested.
------

Edit:

Almost forgot. My own little creation: Stratis Attack! - Unfortunately not completed. But the campaign got 4 pretty tough missions, and a narrative to link them.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Currently my favorite campaign is Antistasi Plus on Altis, because at the end of the day Altis is still the best map.

A few friends and me have played a couple hundred hours over the last year and it never gets old.

 

[Alienman]

Antistasi is fun, but I find it requires people to play with. It's almost impossible solo, thanks to "manpower". I can never get it the revolution going, solo.

 

[Matador]

Antistasi is fun, but I find it requires people to play with. It's almost impossible solo, thanks to "manpower". I can never get it the revolution going, solo.

Agree, same thing with Vindicta, a mod with very cool ideas, but you get overwhelmed playing solo.

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2185874952

I wish a mission in this vein balanced and designed for SP.

 

[Burning Bridges]

What we found is that you must use AI squads. What otherwise happened is that 2 guys were taking on 30-40 solo and then defend against wave after wave of counterattacks. This either becomes impossible or drains your energy.

We also learned that bringing enough AA launchers and shooting down helicopters quickly is key (because the AI loves to bring all their reinforcements by air) so we always begin the mission by preparing vehicles full of weapons and ammo and calling out approaching helicopters.

I think once I learned how it works I could play solo, but it wouldn't be much fun.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Agree, same thing with Vindicta, a mod with very cool ideas, but you get overwhelmed playing solo.

I first really liked Vindicta because of the flexibility (you can switch factions very easily), but with time I found that it is very repetitive, mostly just capturing police stations and bases. For a while it was great though.

The unique thing about Antistasi is that a lot of things can happen and every new version changes something. Of course after a long time you have seen practically anyting but you still dont know what exactly will happen, or what higher war levels have in store.