Snake Man from PMC Tactical informed us that they have released their PMC Apache v1.1 for ArmA 2!
Its an AH-64 Apache gunship helicopter, ported from OFP to ArmA and now ArmA 2. This addon's purpose is to have simple, working and high performance apache for ArmA 2. It includes merged textures, normal / specular maps, damage textures.
It has properly modeled low resolution LOD to guarantee high performance even on heavy use. It does not have shadow which is the worst flaw at the moment. Three versions are included; multi role, close support and ground suppression.
Here we go again, back from Paris and after a night sleeping like a log. Here is my report from the June 4th Paris Lan Game Party :
First contact 11:30. Playing alone first solo mission. Nice smooth travel over the Green Sea offering a nice sight.But we are not here for sightseeing, the chopper is landing. I am following my team leader in the village. Some hostiles are spotted. I am really in a village. Shots are heard. My team leader turn around the corner of a house. I jump over a fence to follow him. He is shot down on the spot, cautiously I haul him back to shelter and try to give him first aid. Bullets are whistling around. I am in combat, shoot! Shoot! I am injured, a red haze blinding my eyes as I lay on the ground.
[about the pic : this camera shot is bad, but it shows well how I feel after being hit the first time]
First thoughts. Quite beautiful, the view of the water during the travel over the Green Sea is mouth gaping. The game is quite immersive from the start. The surroundings in the village are so full of details either modelled and textured that ArmA is looking a bit simple in comparison.
More experiments. 13:15. Playing alone an other solo mission ... after having eat a cherry tomato and a tasty small chicken brochette. Following my team leader near an airstrip somewhere in Chernarus. Surrounded by hostiles, weapons sounds all around, tracers everywhere. A target on the other side of the runway, target down. On my belly in the grass tying to find a new target, some grass before my eyes. Shit they have found me !
Second thought about the game. It's a rather different experiment from ArmA. The environment is denser, the sounds quite goods and the FX excellent. ArmA 2 is realistic, much more realistic than ArmA is. Nice, I can reload while walking ... .You can't play it the same way. The head swaying while running make me sick, but Franck, the "Snake guy" show me how to tweak it in Options. The blur when turning head is a bit heavy.
Playing again. 14:00. Playing first Coop Campaign mission. The briefing run smoothly, lot of slides showing strategical and tactical sit as well. Having chit chat after the briefing. Nice fly to target ... but here it shows to be harder than expected. Our team leader is telling base about some civilians around the target and asks to cancelled the aerial strike. The trigger happy guy on the other side of radio is arguing, we are having a problem. Some hostiles are spotted nearby. In a flash the team is down !
Still thinking. The game is rather difficult, playing the Campaign in coop mode is far for being a touristic travel. You must be over cautious while moving. The team leader must make decisions in real time and must be quite assertive about them. The chit chat after the briefing is fun [and more funny after a "translation" in French]. I had a bad experiment with on over bright face of one of my team mate in the briefing room.
Playing one more time. 14:30. Playing first edited mission by Rewan. We are jumping on the AAPV7 under our AI team leader. Running at high speed to Guglovo. Damn, the brainless chief don't tell the vehicle to stop and the team to disembark ! Half the squad is dead in seconds.
Thoughts about the AI. The AI on foot is, generally speaking, rather good on foot either friendly or hostile. The AI behaviour speaking about armour and commanding point of view is strange.
Playing coop again. 15:00. Playing first Warefare with all the player in the room. I spawn on base as an East side soldier, jump in an UAZ, got a strong point at milbase. We got a new mission assigned to Airport. Fighting an Humvee. CTD!
Thinking about the pro and the cons in game. This game is a rather different game from ArmA. It can't be played like ArmA. Some items in the game are unpleasant, the heavy HDR causing glares, the lods from some objects aren't great, thinking in particular about the lod from the "red tree", the AI behaviour looks strange in various situations. On the other side, the game is quite playable, quite complete, quite beautiful. The game is realistic, difficult and can't be played in a hurry directly out of the box, you need training for yourself, tweaking for your Options. It's probably more a military simulation than the previous ArmA. Of course, it need some patching but is far more playable than ArmA the 1st at release. I have enjoyed playing ...
Time to speak to Jan Prazak . The guy is quite communicative and passionate about the game, he is living the game. So we have a talk about the game and about BIS projects. Bohemia Interactive is still working on the game, knowing it must be patched and updated. So there will be an international patch at the end of the month. There are some projects about modding tools but Jan is a bit evasive about them. Asking about Visitor3 successor [remembering I am a map maker myself!] there are not definite plan about it, for the already existing Visitor4 is a hardware already sold to BIS military customers, maybe an enhanced Visitor3+ version. Speaking about Jan, he saw something he must test on the spot, but alas, it was too late, time to close the session, to end the Lan Party.
Thanks again to 505Games, to Bohemia Interactive, to 505Games team, to Jan Prazak.
We have been invited by 505Games to take part in the ArmA2 Lan Party in Paris, today June 4th. Thanks again Marlène.
It has been a great and eventful day. Our head still buzzing after 6 hours in TGV and 6 hours gaming, we do need some time to build a coherent review about what we have been feeling, seeing and hearing. But here is a quick summary of the Lan Party Event.
At 11:00, gathering in front of Milk web cafe gaming room were members from the Press, on-line or not and members from the French ArmA community. After having been greeted by the 505Games Team, Jan Prazak from Bohemia Interactive has made a short global presentation about the game and spent some time in showing features from the High Command mode with Franck Poulain assistance.
And the the long awaited time started ... playing ArmA 2 ! Playing Solo Mission, Playing Campaign.
Then, most of the time playing on Lan, in Cooperative campaign, Cooperative and Warefare modes.
Norrin has released a MP Compatible Fast Rope addon on the BI Forums.
Description 1. Allows an AI pilot to move to a waypoint and then AI in cargo and players automatically rappel to the ground once the fast ropes are deployed. 2. Allows player pilots to fast rope units in cargo at their whim.
Gaia has released an ArmA2Debug Console on the BI Forums. Hello, I improved my unofficial debug console from ArmA1 and ported it to ARMA 2. Since I'm not planning to continue working on it, feel free to improve it as you wish.
Stavanger has informed us about the release of a new ArmA 2 review on the ePrison.de web site. Of course, as the preview is all in German, you must show some language knowledge ..., but the game evaluation is easy to understand - Bronze Award and 83% scoring- and if not, you can have a look at the screenshots from the review showing interesting details about the game.
Marcel from the Invasion 44 Mod has informed us about the release of a YouTube showing port of content from ArmA Inv.44 Mod to ArmA 2
Hey guys, I just wanted to inform you we've been porting content of the current upcoming Inv44 mod for ArmA, to ArmA II. As said, this wont mean we won't release for ArmA itself, as we still work hard to make it final we just enjoyed watching our content in Arma II. That said, we couldnt keep it to ourselfs.. enjoy:
I44_John from the Invasion 44 Mod was adding later :
We (Invasion 1944) have some people that got the German release version of ArmA2. So someone decided to put the addons in ArmA2 to see how it would work out. All of the files were put in unedited. There are some issues, like (hidden) selections not working anymore, the ODOL model format may have changed (ODOL models of the soldiers didn't work, only MLODs), some sounds are screwed up, but all in all the straight-forward port seems to have gone through with a minimal amount of problems. Videos of the experiment can be found on our Youtube channel : http://www.youtube.com/invasion1944 P.S. This doesn't mean we will switch to ArmA2 right now, we are in the process of wrapping up the ArmA release. We just wanted to see/prove how easy it would be to port stuff :)
Having played the Morphicon released version, the German Armed-Assault.de web site has published a comprehensive review ... in German, if you haven't such language knowledge, have look at their ArmA 2 trailer ... to have a glimpse of the feelings of the games from an ArmA player point of view.
Recta DP has released on the BI Forums a changelog of the upcoming Beta patch v1.01 for the German version originally posted on Gamestar.de.
Changelog
Engine * AI improvements: collision avoidance, MicroAI communication, suppress fields * Improved: AI coordination in combat * Improved: automatic VTOL vectoring. * Improved STOL takeoff/landing control * Improved: shot simulation * Enabled taxiing for Mv22 * Fixed: weapons inside vehicles were sometimes white. * Fixed: Some crash opportunities * Fixed: flickering textures sometimes * Fixed: muzzle flashes and other alpha objects cutting into the water. * Fixed: long cutscene animations could cause bad LODs/textures. * Fixed: Terrain LOD causing white dots
Communication * radio chatter improvements * generic conversations about known targets improved
Campaign * music soundtrack added to more places in the campaign * various improvements in cutscenes * improved Star Force transport service (player can better command it, occasional problem with Star Force froze on spot fixed) * on screen notification for each evidence collected added * various smaller fixes and improvements * some missing dubbings fixed * improved cooperative play in the campaign
Environment * Improved sea rendering * Various smaller fixes and improvements
Sound effects * effect for player near big explosion (beep in his ears, temporarily deaf)
UI * improved GPS support (RCtrl + M when GPS is available) * tasks without map (J key by default) * list of players without map (P key by default) * improved rendering of perihperal vision simulation (dots on the screen edge simulating real world field of view) * leader icon displayed on screen permanently for Regular difficulty * tasks faded out to be less intrusive in the middle of the screen
Models * fixed cargo compartments in aircraft (cargo should not switch positions with pilots during flight) * fixed camera position for BTR and T90 gunner optics views * fixed view gunner lods for turned-out crew in wheeled vehicles * improved hand animation for AA laucnhers * twisted arms for AA missile launchers * fixed fire geometry of billboards model * tractor and bus sound changed * added sign on hotel building * fixed municipal house ruin * changed texture on G36, fixed MG36 icon * fixed gunner animation on BRDM-ATGM * improved model of AK-107 * improved enviromental reflection map * improved A10 gun cursor * fixed T34 icon texture, fixed optics and turret stabilisation definitions and added exhaust smoke
Marek Spanel, Bohemia Interactive CEO, has released this message on the BI Forums : After many years of hard work, with recent weeks being really extreme, tomorrow ARMA2 1.00 is shipping in the stores across Germany. Note that German version is in German language only!
Our next plans:
* we plan to release patch 1 for the German version very soon
* in the same time we are also finalizing an updated version of the game that should be the version to be released later next month in other territories (including North America, the official announcements coming soon)
* there is a lot of work ahead to fully support the editing and multiplayer community (full editing tools, command references, dedicated servers) which will keep us busy next few months
Fasten your seat belt, turbulence ahead. Landing on Chernarus imminent for first passengers. Thank you for your support and wish us luck (and I wish you your stay in Chernarus is as pleasant as possible).
An interactive map of Chernarus has been released on the official ArmA2 web site. You can have a global view on the 1/100 000 map, on click you can get a 1/25 000 map with much details. On some areas, the pointer will open a window showing a pic of the zone and a "learn more" link will get you to previous released infos on various part of the country.
Foxhound from Armaholic has released a thrilling report by Rock-RKSL about the London 505Games Press Event. The full article need to be read and read again on the Armaholic web site. Here are some extracts :
... System specifications: ... For anyone worried about having to upgrade for ArmA2 my best advice is to wait and see. If you have a dual core processor already lowering some of the game settings to "normal" or "low" is likely to give you an extra boost in performance even if you don't have a cutting edge PC. ... The Changes: What's new? The game engine ... The biggest change is the engine optimisation. It isn't something that hits you immediately but its something you come to realise. In Armed Assault the object density was quite low to maintain performance. In ArmA 2 there is just so much more going on around you that you have to spend a moment to wonder if the PC you are playing on isn't hooked up to a server farm in the next room. OK, so its not mind blowing ultra realistic graphics but the sheer number of moving grass objects, trees and detailed shaded/rendered objects is very impressive and while the demo PC was a good spec I was very impressed to see the engine could handle it easily. ... Command System Following on from the interface changes, you now have the ability to control large groups of AI. The method we were shown was frankly one of the most impressive parts of the demo and there were lots of "WOW" moments. ... Capability: Game Logic Modules This was another "WOW" moment. There has been much forum chatter about the screenshots showing AI dragging or carrying injured people from the battle field. All this capability is down to a library of Game Logics, each performing a set function. It was very briefly demonstrated but the pace of the demo didn't really allow for too many questions at that point. But the idea is to place the appropriate game logic, then link unit to the game logic. The AI will perform that action coded to the game logic ... AI: Artificial idiocy or Intelligence I suppose this is the most hotly anticipated area for a lot of people. Has it improved? Well I have to say "Yes!". How much has it improved is really hard to see without some serious testing. ... The Editor I'll cut to the chase here. There is no VBS2 style real time editor that I found and believe me we poked around all the settings and options a lot. ... Campaign Again this is another area that made me smile and pay closer attention to what was said. Many people criticised Armed Assault campaign and SP playability. From what I heard and saw I really don't think that's going to be the case here. ... Summary There's a lot of good, not much bad and no really ugly. There are a lot of impressive features in this game. Huge amounts of subtle detail really, I'm usually fairly cynical about marketing claims but ArmA2 is the first game in a long time that has actually made me say "wow" out loud and in public! ...
As we, at Armed Assault.info can't attend to the ArmA 2 Press Event in London we will try to give you a glimpse at what happened, was shown and said on this event.
First of all, have a look at Questions and Answers on Twitter@ ArmA2PC. There are many questions and answers, here is just an example of what you can read :
Can you confirm the presence of the "helicopter carrier"? Is this a "static vehicle" or it moves,uses some "weapons" for support ? It's a static vehicle Will there be different reload animations for each weapons or are they all the same like in ArmA1? There are a number of different reload animations for different weapons including anims for mounted weapons being reloaded How is suppressive fire implemented? Does the AI use it against you? AI use supressive fire against you and other AI. It effects things like aim (weapon sway etc). Is the reviving & healing restricted to medics? Non medics can provide basic first aid and can also carry injured comrades from the battlefield to safty. Will there be a demo before release? We will hit GM next week, plan is to release demo before launch.
We jump into a mission scenario and I can instantly see the graphical improvements. The detail of every object is much higher compared to Arma 1 and the new hemispherical lighting system makes for a very real and enticing environment.
Anyone watching cannot help but become instantly immersed in the vast landscape and then wonder at the infinite possibilities available before us with the mission editor alone.
But before I get carried away with my own imagination, lets see what Bohemia Interactive have come up with to entertain us.
So we have arrived in Chernarus as marines to provide a peacekeeping force amongst the civil unrest with multiple factions fighting for power and territory. The campaign begins on an aircraft carrier just off shore of Chernarus. As a member of Razor team, a rapid reaction forces team we are deployed to take control of the situation.
This is where I can see the appeal of the campaign is far greater than Arma 1, which had a linear approach with main and secondary target in phases one after the other. The campaign in Arma 2 is much more organic and has many variables that affect the outcome of your success and failure. You will have multiple options to choose from at each step of the way. How you collect information from local civilians and friendly faction members will be vital. All conversations and key information is stored in a handy diary log for you to refer to when planning your next move. The new dynamic conversation system with other people opens up a new dynamic of adventure. Upset them and they may be hostile towards you, be helpful and they will help you.
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