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  SITREP #00104 Official    

On April 29, 2015, Joris-Jan van 't Land has reported a SITREP #00104 on the official Arma 3 web site

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Licensed TKOH Data, Porting Experiments, Character & Gear Encoding, Netcode Optimizations
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION


The Release Candidate branch for update 1.44 will be opened very soon; keep an eye on our Twitter channel for the details. Besides the improved BattlEye anti-cheat software, there are a few more highlights. We've made several netcode optimizations that can help heavily scripted multiplayer scenarios, and we're switching to the open-source version of PhysX. The latter should let us discover the source of potential instabilities quicker in the future. Your assistance with testing the 1.44 RC is very useful to us. Please inform us about any new issues on the Feedback Tracker. And keep reading this report for some pretty significant Intel!

INTELLIGENCE


Our company, Bohemia Interactive, has generously released a huge licensed data pack for modders. The 15GB collection of archives contains the vast majority of binarized Take On Helicopters data under 2 licenses (including the Hinds DLC). There is a newly introduced Take On Public License Share Alike (TOPL-SA), which covers the creation of derivatives for Take On. But we've also released the package under APL-SA, meaning Arma modders can benefit as well!

You can download the goods via direct FTP links, but we recommend using our official Torrents. Another option is to subscribe to the (massive) "licensed_data_packages" branch of Arma 3 Tools. Various modders have asked us whether they can de-binarize the data within these licensed PBOs. Our goal is to stimulate the enrichment of the Armaverse with these releases. Therefore, we are OK with such use of the data, as long as the license is observed (Attribution, Noncommercial, Arma only, Share Alike for APL-SA). You can also go over the F.A.Q. for more information.

Encoder David Sláma has published a fantastic and comprehensive guide on the encoding / configuration of characters and gear in Arma 3. It covers some of the config basics as applied to characters, before digging into the nitty-gritty of characters, uniforms, vests, headgear, face wear, backpacks and ground holders. There are plenty of config samples and the guide may inform you about some hidden features for your own mods. Thanks David!

The second achievement we'll be looking at is "Meet and Greet". Sitting lonely at a global unlock percentage of 0.4%, this one could use some of your love. The vanilla game features 3 Faction Showcases (PLAY > SHOWCASES). Here, you can check out weapons (personal and static) and vehicles (ground, air, autonomous and water) at your leisure. A local announcer at each of these military expos will tell you more about the various assets. Whiteboards at each area can be accessed to open a map that lets you fast-travel between areas. In order to 'properly' finish these showcases, go to the Exit area and let the showcase end.

Each expo also features a little live event:
  • NATO: armored vehicle live fire exercise
  • CSAT: long-distance shooting range
  • AAF: fixed-wing touch-and-go demonstration at night

Encoding Lead Petr Kolář went fishing for trivia on the new Remote Designators. Here are the results: "The Marksmen DLC was not just about adding new weapons; several more assets were added with it - for example the Remote Designators. Those cute beasts deserve some love and that's why I bounced in with a question to the community about the differences between the sides. Different shapes and camo patterns are just the first step; NATO has better magnification options, while CSAT has faster servos and can withstand some more punishment. And did you even know that both versions have an initialization sequence when assembled (best to be seen in Arsenal) and both are different? The same goes for the movement of the pistons - one version uses all parts at once while the other moves one after another - it's just up to you to find out which side uses which ;)"

OPERATIONS


Insights into our Steam configuration have fueled some speculation that we'd like to clarify here and now. We are indeed experimenting with 2 ports of Arma 3. An external team has been investigating whether it would be possible to create (non-native) client ports to Linux and MacOS. Being external, this does not affect the core development team while it focuses on the Expansion. We should make it really clear that at this stage there are still very many uncertainties. We do not yet know when we'd release these, what their update cycle would be like, or any other specifics. In fact, it's still possible these ports will never see the light of day. There are several technical and licensing challenges to overcome. But, the chances of such ports have gone up from 0% for Arma 3. We'll be sharing more when we can!

Loving his time in the REPlight, Senior Designer Jiří Zlatohlávek is back with a bit of public brainstorming. The Laucher will be able to inform you that mods contain valid addon signatures. Such signatures are a way for server administrators to detect the use of modified addons (including those in user mods), and prevent cheating. The system is based on a private / public key pair. The Launcher team would like your ideas for a better icon or symbol, because the one currently used may not be clear or specific enough.

LOGISTICS


A small tag team consisting of Senior Designer Jiří Wainar and Senior Programmer Lukáš Gregor has recently investigated and optimized a specific area of the game's netcode. They focused on data transferred as variables via scripting, such as arrays, groups and nils. Jiří explains: "During the development of MP features introduced with Marksmen DLC - Dynamic Groups, Revive and Shared Objectives - we took a closer look at some parts of our MP code. We were concerned about the size of the data that are being transferred. We wondered if we could actually reduce the size of some of the data types that we felt were simply too large. As a result, with the new optimizations in place, we managed to reduce the size of data being transferred to on average ~35% of the original size (depending on the data type and situation)."

In parallel, we also started a series of long-term tasks focused on further network optimizations, both in engine and in scripts. So, if you are interested, stay tuned for more detailed info in future OPREPs

We've also added a set of script commands that will make it easier for scripters to debug their code and diagnose potential performance issues. diag_activeSQFScripts, diag_activeSQSScripts and diag_activeMissionFSMs return the active instances of those types of scripts, along with some details on their states. They were already used by some community creators to improve their systems.

The Steam Workshop now supports soft dependencies between items. You can specify whether your item requires game DLC or another Workshop item. Currently this will only work when subscribing via web or the Steam Client, but we're working on support in our Launcher.

Julien Vida, our Tools Commissar, has implemented a fix for potential profile data spam into the game. Prolonged use of several scripted AAR functions would store huge amounts of data to your profile, which would eventually cause slow-downs in the game. The game will now detect this situation, and offer to solve it. This solution is to remove the contents of the BIS_fnc_diagAAR_data variable. Since you may be using the data, we did not want to just automatically delete it.


  April 29th, 2015 - 16:08 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  SITREP #00103 Official    

On April 21, 2015, Joris-Jan van 't Land has reported a SITREP #00103 on the official Arma 3 web site

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: 1.44 Plans, Content Licensing, Game Capture Artist, Array Sorting
PRECEDENCE: Flash<

SITUATION


In the short-term we are looking towards the 1.44 update, which will focus on bringing the new BattlEye anti-cheat version to main branch. We've tried to implement it in an unobtrusive manner, as you can preview on Dev-Branch. Your help with testing it under all circumstances is going to be very useful. Specific feedback and suggestions can be shared on our forums. The rest of the update consists of miscellaneous fixes and tweaks. Meanwhile, we are solidifying our road map for the Expansion. The various departments are generating asset wishlists, analyses and concept art, beginning feature feasibility studies, creating prototypes, and of course, supporting production of the new terrain. After this planning stage has concluded, we'll be sharing what we can in a blog. Most details and specifics on the Expansion will not be discussed until the second half of the year however. We can tell you there is plenty to look forward to!

INTELLIGENCE


Bohemia Interactive 's publishing team is looking for a Game Capture Artist in one of our Prague offices. You'd be supporting our various games with captured gameplay footage, produce cool videos and show off the games on pretty screenshots. If you like the sound of that, please apply directly on our website for this or one of the other available positions.

We've begun highlighting the game's Steam Achievements on a regular basis. These meta-challenges can provide a fun extra motivation to explore parts of the game you don't normally visit. Or they can make you aware of features you did not even know exist. In the end though, it's all about bragging rights!

The first achievement is also the easiest one: "This is War". You unlock this by simply starting any scenario, mission, showcase, challenge or other form of playable content in the game. We added it to get a sense of the portion of people who've bought the game, and have actually tried it. However, the numbers are a little skewed. Steam's global statistics tell us that 58.2% of all Arma 3 players have currently unlocked it. Keep in mind that this achievement was introduced with version 1.20 (Karts DLC); no Alpha, no Beta, and not even the first period after release. The percentage also includes people who have played the game during a Steam Free Weekend. So, from the percentage alone, we can mainly get a very rough approximation of unlocks and how achievements compare to each other.

Andrew "Dslyecxi" Gluck has published an informative video about Marksmen's ASP-1 Kir Special Purpose Rifle. It's certainly not a weapon designed for every situation, but it does have unique strengths. The video does a good job of visualizing these, and explaining some of the basics of supersonic and subsonic projectile properties.



The same videographer has worked with us on a series of official Community Guide videos. We feel they do a great job of introducing various aspects of the combined arms experience, and looking awesome while doing so. If you've never watched them, go through this playlist, or watch them in-game from the LEARN menu.

OPERATIONS


Having released our third DLC for Arma 3, we wanted to take another look at our DLC strategy. Senior Designer Jiří Zlatohlávek has taken the time to write the latest OPREP on "Content Licensing". That is the name we've given to the technology at the heart of the strategy. Our approach to post-release support is often discussed on various Internet channels, and we've followed the debate with great interest. Read the full report for a brief re-introduction of our goals, a motivation for the business model, and an overview of changes and improvements introduced in update 1.42.

A hotfix for 1.42 was released on the main branches last week. It fixed a few Weapon Deployment issues, a problem related to encrypted server passwords, and controller hypersensitivity. We are still looking for more useful data on a reported server crash. At the moment our programmers cannot reproduce nor isolate the problem.

Scripters will soon have access to another common operation directly in the engine. Having to previously resort to slower scripted solutions, a future update will let you sort arrays much quicker.

LOGISTICS


Launcher programmer Jiří Polášek reports on a crash that is connected to the RadeonPro graphics card utility. Avoid the crash by disabling the utility, or by adding arma3launcher.exe to the compatibility list and setting "Disable API detection".

OPREPer Jiří has also done a clean-up pass of the Steam Workshop. The "Addon" tag is deprecated now that mods are supported, so most entries have it removed. He also removed the "Mod" tag for many scenarios which should not have it. We're investigating means of keeping the Workshop clean in the future, and letting it be a place where you can comfortably discover great new content. Jiří seems to have popped up all over the place this week.
Here he is giving a presentation on Advanced Game Design at the Masaryk University (Faculty of Informatics).

As announced last week, we have now disabled and removed the remaining Make Arma Not War Steam branches. If you had them selected, you'll have been switched to main branch.


  April 21st, 2015 - 15:23 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  SITREP #00102 Official    

On April 14, 2015, Joris-Jan van 't Land has reported a SITREP #00102 on the official Arma 3 web site.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Marksmen DLC Released, Update 1.42 Highlights, Workshop Mod Documentation
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Marksmen DLC is out! It has been rewarding to read your reactions to the update and the package alike. Things like weapon stabilization and the combat audio enhancements make the game feel fresh again. Many of our devs spent last Friday jumping on public servers to play with you. Others explored Steam Workshop for some of the first full mods and bigger addons appearing already. Considering the very many complex changes and moving parts in this update, we're quite happy with how the release went. It was modestly celebrated with Jiří Polášek's CAKEREP #000001. Also check out the official launch trailer (and unofficial B-roll), featuring one of the new music tracks recorded by our improvised Bohemia Interactive band. Owners of the Digital Deluxe Edition will find these tracks in the Bonus\Soundtrack\Marksmen folder of their game installation.

Yes, there are a few annoying (new) issues that we're working on resolving. These include some weapon deployment 'exploits', controller hypersensitivity and Linux server password troubles. We're not yet sure whether we'll be releasing a hotfix for those, or target update 1.44, but we'll be letting you know through our usual channels. Get the full 1.42 change log in its SPOTREP, as well as an update report on Arma 3 Tools in its TECHREP. There are a few hidden gems that you may not have even seen yet!

  • Most vehicle commanders can now use their personal weapons while turned out. That means tank commands can finally use their binoculars for example. 
  • Another great usability improvement is the ability to manipulate weapon attachments directly on the ground. So, you can now take optics directly from a rifle on the ground.
  • The in-game server browser has been given a few useful tabs that let you see recent servers and the servers your Steam friends are playing on. The old Internet / LAN toggle has also been replaced by tabs.
  • Servers can now also be hosted using Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) network protocols. If your network hardware supports it, this may help with routing and NAT issues.
  • And, of course, the new Publisher can upload Workshop entries of unlimited size and containing multiple files and folders.

INTELLIGENCE

Wanting to try End Game? You might try one of our officially hosted servers, which you can join directly by pressing "CONNECT" on the web page. Speaking of servers, not everyone is allowed to monetize Arma 3 servers. If you want to know who is, take a look at this overview.

We are going to be disabling and removing the special Arma 3 Make Arma Not War Steam branches next week. These were frozen in time at version 1.32, to give competitors and the jury a fixed game state to evaluate. Now that the winners are known, these branches are no longer needed. If you are still on them for some reason, you'll be automatically reverted to main branch when we delete them.

Bohemia Interactive has launched a new version of its online store last week. It uses an improved back/front-end that is more reliable, scalable, secure and future-proof. It also makes it possible to gift a game to someone else. This is the best place to buy our games if you'd like to support us (and you'll still get the games on Steam).

OPERATIONS

A few on-going interaction improvements have started to trickle into the game in 1.42. These are part of a larger effort to tackle core interaction mechanisms. Because they are so deeply rooted, it's going to take a while before we can really push them broadly. We don't intent to change default bindings until we can solve the collateral effects. Senior Designer Shobhan Roy expands: "The establishment of a top-secret Research and Development division has led an initiative to explore and improve the core player experience of Arma 3. An investigation into interaction has us first taking aim at the keyboard. New weapon switching actions have been added, allowing players to bind their infantry weapons to any key they desire. To increase the number of available options, we have also unlocked almost all hardcoded controls to better support this technology. Quickly switching to your pistol in a tight spot is no longer a thing of the past and you can also use these keys to switch firing mode too. But this is just the beginning! We are currently working on bringing this technology to vehicles as well, and expect to continue improving interaction on the whole to be Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Stay tuned."

On behalf of the End Game Task Force, Creative Director Jay Crowe has posted a message of gratitude on our forums. The mode has been well-received and we're keen to iterate on it more. Its developers are also working on making the editor modules available, and on publishing documentation for the mode, modules and functions.

LOGISTICS

Arma 3 1.42 and Arma 3 Tools 0.86 have brought with it the full switch to the new Steam Workshop and big mods. Being part of the Workshop team, Senior Designer Jiří Zlatohlávek has posted several good chunks of updated documentation. On the side of content creators, there is the Publisher. On the side of content consumers, we have the updated Launcher.

More than ever, it's important to present your mod well. There are several simple ways of achieving this in-game, and it can make your mod stand apart from the crowd! Show a unique logo in the main menu, set an overview imagine and text in the expansions menu, and associate all editor content with the mod logo. Tools Commissar Julien Vida has started cleaning up the documentation on this page. A sample will also soon be added to the tools suite.

If you encounter scenarios in which you cannot reload the Zafir or Rahim, update those scenarios or contact their authors to do so. Both weapons have been re-chambered. The old magazine classes still exist to prevent errors, but they cannot be loaded into the weapons.

  • Zafir: 150Rnd_762x51_Box (old) > 150Rnd_762x54_Box (new)
  • Rahim: 10Rnd_762x51_Mag (old) > 10Rnd_762x54_Mag (new)


  April 14th, 2015 - 18:18 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  Arma 3 Marksmen DLC now available Official    

Korneel van 't Land has informed us about Arma 3 Marksmen DLC release.

Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday April 8th 2015

Celebrated with a brand new launch trailer, Bohemia Interactive today released the much-anticipated Marksmen DLC for Arma 3. The new DLC adds seven new weapons, two scopes, remote laser-designators, ghillie suits, firing drills, and the Marksmen showcase scenario. The Marksmen DLC is accompanied by a major free supporting Arma 3 platform update, which implements game-changing features such as weapon resting and deployment, sound enhancements, a new multiplayer mode, and more.
Arma 3 – Marksmen DLC TrailerTrailer
DOWNLOAD VIDEO (MP4) "This trailer/video may only be displayed if it is behind an age-gate that: (1) is age-neutral (i.e., requires the user to input their date of birth or select it from a drop-down bar; (2) employs reasonable technical measures to keep underage users from re-entering their age after initially being denied access; and (3) does not display any ESRB rating information on the video player or the age-gate itself. Failure to implement these requirements may jeopardize your ability to obtain material of this nature from us in the future."



Hone your shooting skills and engage in ranged combat with the seven new weapons in the Arma 3 Marksmen DLC.

Seven New Weapons - Five marksmen rifles and two medium machine guns offer new opportunities for squad-based gameplay. The new weapons are:

•Cyrus 9.3 mm – a high power marksman rifle
•MAR-10 .338 – a high power marksman rifle
•Mk-I EMR 7.62 mm – a medium power marksman rifle
•Mk14 7.62 mm – a medium power marksman rifle
•ASP-1 Kir – a special purpose rifle
•SPMG .338 – a lightweight medium machine gun
•Navid 9.3 mm – a medium machine gun

Scopes - The AMS and Kahlia medium range scopes complement both the new and existing weapons.
Remote Designators - Two remotely-operated laser-designators can be used to spot and laser designate targets from afar.
Ghillie Suits - New ghillie suits for the NATO, CSAT, and AAF factions provide camouflage for various terrain types.
Firing Drills - Combine movement and medium range shooting in three new Purple Courses of Fire.
Showcase Marksmen - Use your new abilities and long range sharpshooting skills in a tense reconnaissance mission.
The Arma 3 Marksmen DLC is supported by a major Arma 3 platform update, featuring a wide variety of new content and features. The platform update is free for all owners of Arma 3.

Supporting Content
End Game Multiplayer Mode - A team-based multiplayer mode, containing experimental gameplay features such as Dynamic Groups, Shared Objectives, and Revive.
Showcase Firing From Vehicles - Experience the Firing From Vehicles feature in an actual combat scenario for both singleplayer and co-operative multiplayer.
VR Training - Three new courses to train up your weapon handling skill-set.
Virtual Garage - Examine and customize the extensive collection of vehicles in Arma 3.
Vests & Face Paints - Three new heavy and grenadier vests designed specifically for improved explosive shielding and ballistic protection. Nine new types of face paint are added to provide maximum concealment for soldiers.
Editor Objects - New shooting range objects for Arma 3 content creators, including VR (vehicle) targets, balloons, swivel and dueling targets, shooting mats, a shot timer, a bullet trap, and an air horn

Supporting Features
Weapon Resting & Deployment - Benefit from a passive bonus to your accuracy while your weapon or arms are near any stable surface. Deploy your weapon firmly using bipods for the greatest precision possible.
Improved Recoil & AI Suppression Simulation - Fire personal weapons with a greater feeling of power and authenticity. Observe Artificial Intelligence units suffer impaired combat efficiency when under fire.
Sound Enhancements - Be immersed by a richer combat sound scape in different surroundings, at a distance, and under incoming fire.

The Arma 3 Marksmen DLC is now available for 12.99 EUR/10.99 GBP/15.99 USD on Steam and the Bohemia Interactive Store. People can also purchase the Arma 3 DLC Bundle, which includes the Arma 3 Karts, Arma 3 Helicopters, and the upcoming Marksmen DLC, for 19.99 EUR/16.99 GBP/24.99 USD - saving them more than 25% over buying the DLC piece by piece.

Those who are completely new to Arma 3, but are looking for the complete experience, could purchase the Arma 3 Extended Edition. The Extended Edition includes the Arma 3 Digital Deluxe Edition and the Arma 3 DLC Bundle, and saves people 9.99 EUR/11.99 GBP/14.99 USD over buying the vanilla game and DLC bundle separately.

For more information about Arma 3, please visit www.arma3.com and/or follow Arma 3 on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.


  April 9th, 2015 - 09:35 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  SITREP #00101 Official    

On on April 7, 2015, Joris-Jan van 't Land has reported a SITREP #00101 on the official Arma 3 web site.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Marksmen Release Week, Dev Diary #2, BattlEye
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION



Fellow virtual soldiers, get ready to unfold your bipods. We've reached the week of Arma 3 Marksmen's release. Tomorrow we'll be updating main branch with version 1.42 (the platform update) and all Marksmen DLC data. The target window opens at 20:00 here in the Czech Republic. That's a bit later on the day than usual, but we'd like to coordinate things properly with our Steam H.Q. comrades across the ocean. If you'd still like to participate in last-minute testing, switch to the Release Candidate branch using access code: Arma3Marksmen142RC. You'll also benefit from not having to update with the rest of the world on release day. Do note, however, that this branch may still be updated a few times, so consider your bandwidth.

Still not sure what makes up the premium package and platform update? Creative Director Jay Crowe is here to lay out all the splendid details in his Arma 3 Marksmen blog post. What new weapons and items will be there? What playable content will be added? What is free and what requires DLC ownership? What does this huge update mean for every Arma 3 player? Find your answers here.

INTELLIGENCE



Another great resource for getting your Marksmen Intel, is part 2 of our developer diaries. Where part 1 looked at the new assets and features, this one goes over the playable content. Watch and listen as we describe the showcases, challenges, Virtual Reality training courses, VR Garage and, of course, End Game multiplayer. Special honors go to our Design Lead Jaroslav Kašný. Besides performing as Elite Tier 1 MOCAP Operator in the video, he's the one who has led the playable content design team to produce these highly enjoyable game modes.

A new weekly photo shows Sandbox Design Lead Lukáš Haládik in his captain's cabin. Being in charge of the sandbox assets for Marksmen DLC, he's making sure your latest feedback is processed, prioritized and implemented where relevant. The passionate gunsmiths, armorers and shooters on Dev-Branch have not only helped Lukáš' team to catch bugs, but they've also pointed out nice little details and special effects that we were able to incorporate over the past few weeks.

Project Lead Joris-Jan van 't Land (hey, that's me!) has recently attended the international Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to speak at a panel titled "Gaming the Laws of War". Together with people from different fields, he discussed integrating the Laws Of Armed Conflict into games. Is it desirable? Is it possible without impacting on fun too much? The Arma team certainly believes it's both desirable and possible. Without it being a formalized design philosophy, the Arma games have always tried to show these aspects of warfare with respect, while maintaining player freedom. There is a lot more that could be done in this area, and it offers a strong potential for meaningful gameplay and narrative. This panel is just an introduction to the theme; there is a lot more to be said. If you're interested, check out the video recording and slides at the GDC Vault.

OPERATIONS



We'd like you to meet End Game. Some of you have met at a few low-key social gatherings, but she's ready to greet everyone now. Part of tomorrow's 1.42 free platform update, End Game is a new multiplayer mode that has turned out to be a lot of fun to develop and play. The Early Access approach has yielded some significant iterations to the concept and underlying framework (that you can use to create your own variants). Mode architect Nelson Duarte has submitted an OPREP to go over all aspects with you.

LOGISTICS



We should clarify a few points from with regards to the new BattlEye service implementation. First of all, the new approach is not for update 1.42, but rather the update after that. We've only just started testing it on Dev-Branch, though it seems to be working well. Secondly, you'll still be able to use BE (servers) without the Launcher. You'll need to either let the game restart itself upon connecting to a BE-enabled server, or start BE manually. Programming Lead Ondrej Martinák has posted some details on our forums. Why would we make things seemingly more complicated than they were? The new approach is more effective at stopping common attack vectors, by wrapping itself around the game from launch to quit. We'll also point out again that the BE service is optional, though you'll not be able to connect to BE-enabled servers without it.

Vojtěch Schubert in our Publishing division has set up three useful Steam Workshop collections for Make Arma Not War winners, finalists and other entries. They let you quickly subscribe to any entry currently submitted to the Workshop. Once full mods make their debut on Workshop after update 1.42 and the new Publisher, we'll try to update these collections with the remaining entries.


  April 7th, 2015 - 18:23 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  OPREP : End Game Official    

On April 3, 2015, Nelson Duarte has reported an OPREP : END GAME on the official Arma 3 web site.


UNIT: Nelson Duarte (@Nelson_G_Duarte), Designer, Playable Content Design Dept.
TO: Arma 3 Dev-Branch Users
OPSUM: Introducing Marksmen DLC's new MP mode

With Marksmen DLC, we want to introduce a new multiplayer mode that offers something a bit different to our previous work. Although not completely tied to the new content, our focus was to offer players a simple but hopefully interesting concept that encourages and rewards cooperation, which would also enable us to test out a few new teamwork-oriented MP systems.

The mode is called End Game, and its basic premise is to provide 'hybrid' gameplay or, simply put, a mix of multiplayer game types: Co-op, PvE and PvP. We'd like to give you a brief introduction to this upcoming multiplayer mode, it's related systems, and the type of gameplay you can expect from all these things when put together!


Have a look at the full OPREP : END GAME

  April 4th, 2015 - 17:03 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  Arma 3 - Marksmen DLC Developer Diary : Part 2 Official    

Korneel van 't Land has informed us about Arma 3 Marksmen DLC Developer Diary : Missions & Multiplayer video release


Arma 3 Marksmen DLC Developer Diary : Missions & Multiplayer
Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday April 2nd 2015

Bohemia Interactive today released the second developer diary about the upcoming Arma 3 Marksmen DLC.

While the first developer diary explored the new weapons and free platform features, this new developer diary takes a closer look at the new showcase scenarios, training courses and firing drills, Virtual Garage, the new End Game multiplayer mode, and some of the experimental multiplayer systems.



The Arma 3 Marksmen DLC includes seven new weapons, two scopes, remote designators, ghillie suits, firing drills, and the Marksmen showcase scenario. The DLC will be accompanied by a major platform update, which will be free for all people who own Arma 3. The supporting update will introduce weapon resting and deployment, improved recoil simulation, improved AI suppression, various sound enhancements, a new multiplayer mode and showcase scenario, suppressor and bipod weapon attachments, heavy and grenadier vests, nine additional face paints, and Virtual Garage.

The Arma 3 Marksmen DLC will be available on April 8th for 12.99 EUR/10.99 GBP/15.99 USD, and is available for pre-order exclusively at the Bohemia Interactive Store with a 10% discount. People can also purchase the Arma 3 DLC Bundle, which includes the Arma 3 Karts, Arma 3 Helicopters, and the upcoming Marksmen DLC, for 19.99 EUR/16.99 GBP/24.99 USD - saving them more than 25% over buying the DLC piece by piece.

Those who are completely new to Arma 3, but are looking for the complete experience, can purchase the Arma 3 Extended Edition at Bohemia Interactive’s official store. The Extended Edition includes the Arma 3 Digital Deluxe Edition and the Arma 3 DLC Bundle, and saves people 9.99 EUR/11.99 GBP/14.99 USD over buying the vanilla game and DLC bundle separately.

For more information about Arma 3, please visit www.arma3.com and/or follow Arma 3 on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.


  April 2nd, 2015 - 13:13 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  SITREP #00100 Official    

On March 31, 2015, Joris-Jan van 't Land has reported a SITREP #00100 on the official Arma 3 web site.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: MANW Winners, Marksmen Pre-Order, Launcher Updates
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

100. One hundred. This is the hundredth time you may be reading one of these SITuation REPorts. A little over two years ago, we launched this development channel alongside the public Alpha. We're grateful to those of you still with us! We're also excited for all of you new to the game, especially since last week's massive sale. If you are new, this is where we share reports of various types about on-going Arma 3 development. SITREPs are change logs for our main branch updates. OPREPs are more in-depth blogs about a particular feature, technology or theme generally. You can follow these reports in the Dev Hub, or in the game's Launcher for example. Good to have you along for the ride!

Many congratulations to the winners of the Make Arma Not War modding contest! Your entries have shown what can be done with the Arma platform, and hopefully motivated more people to explore their ideas. You've amazed us with the quality of the work, and the sheer scale of the content. We look forward to continued updates to your content, as we're sure, does every player out there. Our compliments as well, to the finalists and other entries who did not win this time around. Of course it can be upsetting not to win after so much effort, but it was nice to see some of your respectful reactions to the winners. Thank you for the hard work. Going forward, we believe there will be great opportunities for every modder out there. We have big plans to support that in 2015 and beyond. Pending a few technical confirmations, we intent to share specifics in the coming weeks.

INTELLIGENCE

You wanted a discount on DLC? Your chance has arrived with the Arma 3 Marksmen DLC pre-order. Exclusively on our store website, you can now buy the Marksmen DLC separately at a 10% discount. Until its release on April 8, you'll have unrestricted access to the Beta on Dev-Branch.
Another point of access to the whole Marksmen DLC package and the 1.42 platform update, is the Release Candidate branch on Steam. Enter access code Arma3Marksmen142RC in the "BETAS" tab and help us test the RC version before it gets released. Do note that this branch may receive daily updates, and you'll not be able to join main branch multiplayer servers. Your reports are always welcome on the Feedback Tracker.

A modest celebration of the Make Arma Not War winners took place during last Friday's live stream, hosted by Associate Producer Matt Lightfoot and Marketing Communications Lead Korneel van 't Land. The most recent weekly random photo shows Matt setting up for the technical challenge of working with various different mods. This situation caused some issues during the stream, but we hope you got an idea of what made the top winners so deserving of their prizes. If you'd like to read up on how the winners were selected, visit the rather lengthy rules page. Highlights of the stream included suppressive bottle cork fire and elite piloting skills by a community player named Tomahawk. Of course the best way to experience the winning MANW entries is to check them out for yourself!

We've received a question about creating one's own radio protocol for the game. Rather than answering the specific question, Senior Designer Karel Morický felt it would be more useful to just share a large chunk of its documentation. It's quite a huge endeavor to create your own protocol, so be warned! More documentation reaches us via Encoding Lead Petr Kolár, who has written up how to configure weapon bipods. There is a sample available in the Arma 3 Tools Dev-Branch as well.

OPERATIONS

As we said we would, last Thursday we made Arma 3's Launcher the default way to start the game in Steam. We should clarify that the game and Launcher are still separate applications. You can completely bypass it, and use the game directly or use your own launchers for example. The Launcher is a much more user-friendly shell for configuring your start-up parameters, and most importantly, for setting up your mod mix. Your feedback on the forums is very useful. We're using it to solve certain advanced use cases that you've alerted us about. As an example, we're considering how to deal with custom applications that try to start the game via special Steam links, but which currently see their parameters being eaten or corrupted. Another problem case is joining servers through the Steam friends list. If you're a user of the Play withSIX launcher, check out this tip for compatibility. Should you really not want to use the Launcher, you can use parameter -noLauncher, or make your own shortcuts to the game's executable of course.

On Dev-Branch meanwhile, we're testing a new big iteration of the Launcher. This is the version that prepares the game for the switch to the new Steam Workshop version mentioned last week. At the moment we know there are some cases of subscribed mods unwilling to update. Unfortunately it looks like this is an issue in the Steam Client that we're trying to resolve with Valve. The work-around is to unsubscribe and subscribe again, which we'll try to automate if no other fix is possible. We're also going to test a new version of the BattlEye anti-cheat engine in the Launcher this week. It will provide a more robust and thorough detection of hacks and cheats. You will be able to still opt-out, but that will not allow you to connect to BE-enabled servers. Toggling BE on and off, as well as updating it, will now be handled via the Launcher.

LOGISTICS

In case you were wondering why our recent Dev-Branch updates were so sizable: it's likely because of the Marksmen DLC EBO files. These encrypted files are probably confusing Steam's delta-patching a little. This should normalize once we get the DLC released.



  March 31st, 2015 - 21:12 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  



 
 
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