Prague, Czech Republic, Tuesday 11th March 2014

Bohemia Interactive has set a release date for the third and final campaign episode of their tactical military shooter and combined arms game, Arma 3™. Available on Thursday March 20th, players will be able to conclude the story of infantryman Ben Kerry - a soldier who’s been stationed in the Republic of Altis & Stratis as part of a NATO-peacekeeping mission.

Arma 3’s ‘The East Wind’ campaign consists of three episodes: ‘Survive’, ‘Adapt’, and ‘Win’. The final act follows the situation as it escalates further, with NATO forces in the Mediterranean on the brink of all-out war with the AAF and their strategic partners, CSAT. Given greater responsibility – and facing a more formidable enemy – players must deploy all the skills and experience they've gathered to bring the flashpoint to a resolution.

“The final installment of our campaign gives players the chance to experience combat on a larger scale than we've seen so far”, said Arma 3’s Creative Director Jay Crowe. “Tactical freedom - together with big, combined arms engagements - is at the heart of Episode 3’s gameplay, as we follow Ben Kerry’s story to its conclusion.”

The episode’s content package also includes three brand new vehicles. The first new vehicle making its way into Arma 3’s sandbox is the A-164 Wipeout single-seat aircraft. The A-164 Wipeout, successor to the legendary A-10, features improved performance and armaments, adding some real punch and some great new gameplay opportunities to the NATO faction. The other new aircraft is the To-199 Neophron, which serves as a great addition to the CSAT forces due to its agility. The To-199 Neophron is perfect for Close Air Support and taking off from rough terrain. The third new vehicle is a 6x6 mine resistant standard transport truck, named Tempest. Its primary role is to carry troops and cargo, and its modular design allows for several transport variants of the Tempest truck: cargo, refuel, medical, repair and ammo re-supply.



Last but not least, the Win campaign episode delivers a separate ‘Fixed-Wing’ Showcase mission, which introduces players to the new aircraft via a thrilling new scenario. The massive 270 km² Altis terrain has also not been left untouched. New points of interests have been added, with the highlights being an athletics stadium and ghost hotel compound.

The ‘Win’ campaign episode, including the new vehicles and other content, will be made available to all Arma 3 owners as an automatic update on Steam. To play through the first two campaign episodes, and experience the rest of Arma 3’s diverse offering, people can already purchase the regular edition of Arma 3 (44.99 EUR/39.99 GBP/59.99 USD) or the Arma 3 Digital Deluxe Edition (49.99 EUR/42.99 GBP/64.99 USD) from Steam and Store.bistudio.com. A boxed version of the game is also available at many of the major retailers.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: 'Win' devbranch & release, Weather for everyone, Zeus intel
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Internally we have just applied the 'data lock' for the 'Win' campaign episode and associated content (jets, truck, Altis locations!). We are no longer adding new things to this milestone, but focusing on getting it ready for release. The first public release moment is staging on devbranch, hopefully later this week. Then, on March 20th, we open it up to everyone - packaged as the 1.14 update.

As with the devbranch release of previous episodes, we would like to ask you to avoid spoilers for those waiting for the full release. We're appreciative of your feedback, but if you want to minimize risk to your experience and savegames - consider not yet trying the episode at this stage. It's only another week away.

INTELLIGENCE

Zeus is to be released as a game update not very long after 'Win'. Feature and technology development for that initial version is wrapping up with some pretty cool features. Zeus will have control over moving characters in and out of vehicles, fire support modules and context-sensitive waypoints. Beyond that, we will see how successful Zeus is once it's out there for everyone. We're seeing a good bit of excitement and a lot of us really enjoy playing it - so we hope to be able to support it more.

New audio configuration options make it finally possible to handle high rate-of-fire weapons fire better. Basically it's possible to have a sample with an intro, looping mid-section and outro. This was specifically needed for one of the new CAS airplanes, but it can be used in other places as well.

Inspired by similar work done in DayZ, our programmers have worked on weather and time synchronization in multiplayer (their state being distributed automatically across clients). A first version of this is available on devbranch.

Continued work on autonomous vehicle technology has brought access to a real-time video feed from connected drones. It's still a work-in-progress, but should be available under Configure > Controls > Keyboard > Common > AV Camera.

OPERATIONS

Devbranch will soon be receiving an option in the multiplayer server browser to switch between master servers. The default will be GameSpy's for the time being, but you will now also be able to list servers via Steam. We are exploring further integration of Steamworks, and the enhanced functionality it brings to MP. The primary difference may be that Steam's implementation will find fewer servers through complex NAT. We are keen to find out precisely how many servers are affected by NAT issues, and whether these issues can be resolved via network configuration.

LOGISTICS

Check out last week's TECHREP and SPOTREP for info on the 1.12 update, servers and tools. Unfortunately we had to follow-up on Friday with a multiplayer stability hotfix. While that resolved the primary instability, we are still looking at other problems for 1.14. Apologies for the inconvenience; we are exploring better ways to handle large-scale MP testing ahead of game updates. Many of these issues do not show up in devbranch due to the slight differences in game / engine configuration.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
UNIT: Main Branch
ACTIVITY: Hotfix: 1.12 (MP crash fix)
SIZE: ~16 MB
CHANGELOG

ENGINE
Fixed: Multiplayer server crash opportunity
Fixed: Cursor target inside buildings
Fixed: clearWeapon\Magazine\Item\BackpackCargoGlobal commands no longer work on non-local objects (http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=17655). The change fixed some things, but caused too many issues in user-generated content. We'll look at another way.

In celebration of Arma 3's 'Alpha anniversary' (the Arma 3 Alpha was released on March 5th 2013), Bohemia Interactive has deployed a brand new M2A4 Slammer UP (Urban Purpose) tank variant (screenshot attached). Players have access to the Slammer UP after downloading today's automatic update for Arma 3 on Steam.

The M2A4 Slammer UP is the urban purpose variant of the M2A1 Slammer. Compared to the base version, it features heavier armor with reinforced rear of the tank and a remote-controlled turret. This weight increase had to be compensated somewhere, which is why the M2A4 is fitted with a less powerful 105mm cannon - compared to 120mm of the base Slammer.

Arma 3 pioneered Steam's Early Access form of development with the release of the Arma 3 Alpha one year ago. Working closely together with the community, Arma 3 also became one of the first Early Access games to celebrate its official release. Building further upon the game's solid foundation, Bohemia Interactive is still actively developing new improvements, features and content - among which Arma 3's final campaign episode and the Arma 3 Zeus DLC. The studio has also launched a €500,000 modding competition.

For more information about Arma 3, please visit the official website at www.arma3.com and follow Arma 3 on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The complete changelog of the new update (1.12) can be found here.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Alpha anniversary, Zeus intel
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Tomorrow will have been a year since the release of the Arma 3 Alpha. Thanks to your enduring support and the hard work of the development team, Arma 3 has evolved into a cool military package. And it continues to grow and mature. As a small bonus for this mini-anniversary, we're including a new variant of the Slammer MBT in tomorrow's update. The Urban Purpose variant features a commander machine gun turret, a smaller caliber cannon, shorter barrel, and enhanced armor.

The update will also sport improved optics for armored vehicles - giving them more unique and authentic styles. Alongside the game update, we'll of course be bringing the Server packages to the same version. The Arma 3 Tools suite is to receive more samples for various vehicle types, as well as a tool to extract PBO data.

INTELLIGENCE

Petr Kolár reports: you may have already noticed that new holders for various objects appeared in the Editor together with the Zeus Beta release to development branch. These are meant to improve mission making by adding a possibility to place weapons on specific spots, and not only for Zeus. It is easier for example to make your own firing drills with a wide variety of weapons on the ground around shooting positions. We have even added an empty one on popular demand, in order to fill it with stuff using initialization scripts. All weapons, inventory items, headgear, vests and uniforms should be available to use (and loaded with respective magazines in case of weapons).

Let's continue last week's look at some of the cool aspects of Zeus:

• There is a strong potential for training. Team up with an experienced player and let him or her be a cooperative Zeus who runs you through improvised combat drills, navigation training, tactics, or anything else you can think of. This form of multiplayer training can be very intuitive and powerful.


• It is very easy to create custom scenarios which use Zeus technology in some way. Many things are possible, but it starts by simply dropping in a player character and a Game Master module (F7). Check out the documentation to learn more about setting up resource / unlock schemes, using custom add-ons, defining editable objects and areas, and more.


• The Zeus tech, especially when broken down to its smaller components and modules, can be used for other projects. Think of other game modes or features like spectating for example.

OPERATIONS

As we get closer to the release of the 'Win' campaign episode, the work on the new vehicles comes to its end. We are primarily tweaking the jets' flight models and getting the final sounds in place. A few new sound triggers in the engine will be usable for community aircraft as well: landing gear and flap SFX. Ideally we'll be staging the assets on devbranch next week.

Another small Task Force has been mopping up work on drones, based on player feedback and a few internal requests for upcoming scenarios. This forums post sums up what has been fixed / changed over the past few weeks.

LOGISTICS

Need some new wallpapers for your PC? Grab the new ones for the Make Arma Not War contest, or the splendid Arma 3 ones!

From the ReadMe.md file:

3-0-9A | 09 FEB 2014
Updated AI Caching component.

3-0-9 | 09 FEB 2014
Added AI Caching component.
Updated F3 Folk ARPS Group Markers component:
- Functions are now defined in cfgFunctions via description.ext.
- Fixed bug where marker was frozen despite the group still having members.
Updated F3 Folk ARPS Assign Gear Script component:
- Added uniform randomisation.
- MAT teams now use NLAWs or RPGs.
- Rifleman (AT) loadout tweaked.
- Rifleman (AT), MAT loadouts work when backpacks are disabled.
- Added mini grenades to many loadouts.
- Expanded engineer detachment.
- Split engineer role into two specialisms: demo and mines (both types have repair kits and mine detectors).
- Adjusted loadouts and outfits to reflect changes introduced in A3 1.10.
Updated Name Tags component:
- Added optional display of unit group (defined by setGroupID / F3 Folk ARPS Group IDs component).
- Added optional feature to display distance in metres.
- Added optional feature to display type of mounted vehicle for driver/gunner/commander.
- Drawing of name tags is now its own function defined in cfgFunctions.
- Fixed issue where name tag height for units in buildings would be incorrect.
- Fixed issue where name tags would display for enemy/neutral units in vehicles.
- Misc. improvements and tweaks.
Updated F3 Folk ARPS Platoons component:
- Added tank and attack helo groups to AAF.
- Temporarily removed JIP groups (for all factions).
Updated Mission Conditions component to adjust fog values.
Updated Buddy Team Colours component.
Updated Automatic Body Removal component.
Fixed ACRE Support component issue with spectator script.
Misc. typo fixes in various components.

Discuss at:
- BI Forums (http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?149231-F3-Mission-Development-Framework-(F2-for-ArmA-3))
- Folk ARPS Forums (http://www.folkarps.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=44)

Special thanks to all contributing comrade scripting heroes (especially comrades Head and Wolfenswan, CaseMonster and Black Mamba), and to all at Folk ARPS.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: OPREP - Refactoring anims, Patch incoming, Zeus intel
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Our offices were recently invaded by a Eurogamer.net Task Force. They chatted with our developers, and recorded an impromptu Let's Play Arma 3 Zeus. The video quality is not great due to their recording setup, but there is a sneak preview of two new vehicles. You'll see the CSAT CAS jet in action with work-in-progress animations and sounds. A vehicle we have not yet spoken about, and which is coming to the 'Win' episode, is the Tempest heavy truck. Further diversifying the factions, this vehicle and the usual variants for ammunition, fuel and repairs, will be added to CSAT (as an additional vehicle, not replacing their fleet of Zamaks; avoiding issues in existing scenarios).

The rest of the video focuses on Zeus, showcasing more of its features and being mean to innocent goats. Zeus development itself continues rapidly. A few new features are available on devbranch already: load-outs for ammo containers & remote control of AI units.

Finally, we're preparing a main branch update which should hit next week. This update precedes the release of the 'Win' closing act, still targeted for late March.

INTELLIGENCE

The Community Focus got refreshed with a diverse range of highlighted projects. Have a look at a promising dinosaur mod, as well as the Tactical Battlefield PvP project. Next is a salute to another Russian community and we wrap things up with a playthrough of Zeus.

Speaking of, let's repeat a couple of aspects of Arma 3 Zeus to address common questions:

* Zeus can be a physical character on the battlefield, or an almighty virtual presence.

* There can be multiple Zeus in one scenario, not just one. This allows for concepts like Zeus versus Zeus with AI, and for distributing the load of managing the experience across more people.

* Zeus can be both against or with the players or any mixture of that depending on the scenario.

* Zeus powers and abilities can be limited in a scenario (e.g. any 'supernatural' powers can be disabled).

* Starting with a blank canvas in Game Master mode is just one example of using Zeus technology. You can also layer Zeus on top of a fully scripted and pre-designed coop scenario. Perhaps in such case Zeus only influences the patrol routes of existing units.

OPERATIONS

Animation programmer Šimon Kolciter posted an OPREP titled "Refactoring Anims". He goes over a behind-the-scenes effort to bring some much-needed organization and structure to our web of animations. Not a lot of this work is visible to players right now. Basically it produces the same results but in a better way. It will however allow for a more robust starting point for new animation-related features over the next years.

LOGISTICS

We are currently recording the voice acting for the 'Win' episode. That also means we'll do two new Radio Protocols (voices). One of these is live on devbranch already, while the second one is to be processed and will appear somewhere between now and the episode's release.

UNIT: Šimon Kolčiter, Programmer, Programming Dept.
TO: Arma 3 Dev-Branch Users
OPSUM: Untangling the web: improving animations systems in Arma 3.

EVALUATION

Over the years - and across a variety of different projects - our underlying system of weapons and stances has been gradually extended to support new weapon types, actions, etc., bringing new gameplay and features to our players. However, it has now grown to the point of being relatively difficult to maintain.



Faced with a complicated 'spaghetti' relationship between game code and animation configs, which greatly increases the risk of potential problems, we've set out to refactor our system. Our objective is to make the process of managing and creating features far more robust.

DESIRED CHANGES

To achieve this, we've implemented a one way 'desire-based' system; i.e., the engine decides what stance/weapon is selected and sends the appropriate action to the animation system, which then selects the new animation state. The action represents either the desired weapon category (Rifle, Handgun, Launcher, Binoculars, no weapon), desired stance (Standing, Crouching, Prone) and weapon 'posture', which is determined by current AI state (safe, aware - lowered weapon, combat - raised).

Our goal has been to remove redundant actions that exist mostly to mimic different control settings or are a result of different implementation by different programmers adding different features requested by different designers over the last decade. Although we've managed to resolve most issues for players, making this work for the AI is slightly more challenging - the 'desired' states have to be determined by the engagement situation of a given character.

COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP

Before we started with the overhaul, we knew that the relationship between AI and animation states was rather complex. To work around this issue, our plan was to implement a new system gradually - first weapons, then stances, then postures - converting old systems to new step-by-step. However, we quickly discovered that some features rely heavily upon each other, and must be changed all at once; improving and making it work with ten (flawed) others - only to change things again - is simply a waste of time.

Because of the complexity of the work - and our commitment to keeping the game playable - our efforts are currently focused upon making fixes only, avoiding the potentially unstable changes for the AI until after some important milestones have been met. Once the overhaul is complete, cases where the AI seems unresponsive or unable to use some specific poses should be improved. One example of a fix already present is that AI can now use binoculars properly; they'll switch to them promptly when needed. We hope to make more progress in the near future.

RISK/REWARD

Although this work isn't without risk - for example, a (now resolved) issue where AI couldn't switch stance after entering combat mode, which unfortunately crept onto Dev Branch - we think it's vital for maintaining and building upon the system in future. It's our priority to make sure the game is always playable, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused when we fall short of that goal!

While the visible benefits right now are fairly modest, we hope to be in a stronger position in future and refine/add new features in a sustainable way!

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Zeus announcement, Zeus Beta release
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Last Thursday we unveiled the free Arma 3 Zeus DLC with a trailer to introduce the multiplayer concept. That was followed up with a livestream on Saturday to actually show a full session of it being played and to answer some questions. It was especially satisfying to do a sneaky devbranch release at the end! The whole stream is available online. Now that the Zeus Beta is out, its principle designer Karel Morický and programmer Filip Sádovský will be improving it, fixing reported issues, introducing new features, and bringing it towards the full release in Q2 (after the final campaign episode and the jets).

We would like to repeat our disclaimer for using devbranch: please consider whether you want to opt into it and experience the risks it carries. This is a daily and largely untested experimental build which can even be broken for an entire day. Of course we appreciate your testing and participation, but we believe devbranch is not for everyone. If you prefer a more stable and finished experience, you're better off waiting for the actual release.

"You release a mighty stroke of electrical energy that deals 10d6 points of damage to each player within its area."

INTELLIGENCE

A suite of wreck and corpse removal parameters for scenarios was documented on the Community Wiki (corpseXYZ and wreckXYZ).

Project Lead Joris-Jan van 't Land posted his Steam Workshop recommendation: 'Lion Claw' by KingoftheSandbox. His evaluation: "The author of this scenario uses various design tools to create a tense atmosphere: weather, time-of-day, fog and ambient combat or example. By applying the British radio protocols and character emblems, you also get a different experience to the more common American point of view. The scenario does not do something incredibly unique or new, but it nails the basics of Arma gameplay and is a lot of fun. Try egressing with your entire team in tact!"

OPERATIONS

The most recent area of optimizations is connected to burning wrecks and the damage they do to nearby characters. The way this was distributed in multiplayer and how it was handled far away from actual players was improved. More optimizations are on the way, and all of them together should help to get a more solid experience for everyone.

LOGISTICS

Since Zeus Beta is only available on devbranch, be aware that players on main branch will not be able to use Zeus-enhanced scenarios from Workshop yet (tagged as Zeus). Even the upcoming patch(es) will not add Zeus technology to main branch.

Zeus documentation is in full swing on the Community Wiki. Keep an eye on its main page and the list of scripting commands. There is a lot this tech can be used for, even beyond Zeus itself!

New sub-forums were added to share your cool Zeus stories and discuss editing with Zeus tech. On the Feedback Tracker please mark related issues with the relevant Zeus - XYZ categories. Cheers!

LATEST NEWS

Bohemia Interactive today announce their first planned DLC for Arma 3: Arma 3 Zeus. Made available in the second quarter of this year, the free Zeus DLC delivers a new form of multiplayer, in which players can take on the role of Game Master and curate the online battles of other players. The concept is further introduced in the DLC’s reveal trailer.



Improvisation is the ultimate key to success in Arma 3 Zeus. Inspired by popular tabletop games such as 'Dungeons & Dragons', a limited number of players can assume the role of Game Master, and influence the multiplayer experience of those with boots on the ground. Watching the battlefield from a bird's-eye view, wielding an intuitive real-time editor, Zeus can create, manipulate or expand mission content to generate new stories and a flow of challenges. The result is incredibly dynamic, unscripted combat gameplay - and multiplayer sessions which are filled with unexpected, challenging, and creative events.

The Zeus multiplayer concept works across all familiar multiplayer game types, such as Team Deathmatch and Sector Control, where players can either work with or go up against Zeus. The most distinctive game type in Arma 3 Zeus, however, is ‘Zeus Game Master’. Here, Game Masters are entirely free to create objectives, spawn units, and steer players across Arma 3’s massive Altis and Stratis terrains.

On top of the diverse range of official Zeus scenarios that will be available, Arma 3 Zeus can also be implemented into player-created multiplayer scenarios.

"The best thing about Arma 3 Zeus is how naturally it fits within the game. Dynamic combat, massive islands, and editing features - it was all there. But now we've added an interface which gives players full control over the multiplayer experience", said Zeus’ Design Lead Karel Moricky. "The Zeus system is pretty modular too, so community creators can easily use it in their missions. Or take it apart and turn into something completely different. There are no rules, only those you make yourself.”

While the reveal trailer already gives a taste of what to expect, the Arma 3 development team will also be hosting an official ‘Arma 3 Zeus Gameplay Reveal’ livestream this Saturday, February 15th, at 17:00 UTC. During the livestream, Zeus’ Design Lead Karel Moricky and Arma 3’s Creative Director Jay Crowe, alongside other core members of the Arma development team, will be giving a one-hour demonstration of how it is to play as Zeus and what it’s like to be one of Zeus’ subjects. The session will be streamed live from Bohemia Interactive’s HQ in Prague onto Arma 3’s Twitch.tv channel.

For more information about Arma 3 Zeus, please visit zeus.arma3.com. Also be sure to keep track of the Arma 3 social channels (Facebook, Twitter) and stay up to date of all the latest developments.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: OPREP - Analogue control, Community Wiki upgrade
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

One of the on-going development tasks to improve the Arma 3 sandbox focuses on controls - specifically analogue vehicle controls in this case. Encoding Lead Petr Kolář has written the second OPREP on this topic. He discusses changes that have been released on devbranch, and which greatly improve control over cars when using analogue peripheral devices such as steering wheels, joysticks or joypads. These controls are in addition to the standard set (catering more for keyboard and mouse), and need to be configured manually for your device. Get behind the wheel and try it out!

INTELLIGENCE

Head on over to the main Arma 3 website to check out a fresh batch of highlighted community projects. There are two videos, a promising custom terrain and a shout-out to a Spanish community.

OPERATIONS

The Make Arma Not War website was updated with an additional set of Frequently Asked Questions, and the corresponding answers! Collected from many different channels, the answers try to provide more general information for participants, but also Intel on distinct topics such as third-party content, licenses and data packs.

Some of you have already noticed that various armored vehicles have had their reticles changed. The change has incidentally 'leaked' into devbranch today and is part of larger effort to enhance the reticles for all armored vehicles. Our Task Force is still working on polishing them, so expect the current leak to disappear until the whole batch is ready soon.

LOGISTICS

Our web team has upgraded the Community Wiki to a new version. It contains fixes, enhancements and makes registration less painful. An example of information you can already find there is about the Arma 3 asset samples. In the Arma 3 Tools package on Steam you can already find samples of various vehicle types, with more on the way.

UNIT: Petr Kolář, Encoding Lead, Encoding Dept.
TO: Arma 3 Dev-Branch Users
OPSUM: Re-inventing the (steering) wheel: improving control over driving in Arma 3.

EVALUATION

While keyboard and mouse may be the preferred choice for most infantry missions, flying and driving often benefits from specific peripherals. That’s because, unlike keyboards, steering wheels offer 'analogue control': not just the simple left-straight-right, but a much more precise degree of control.

Recently, we've made some small additions that should offer more control over our vehicles. We wanted to improve the experience of driving in Arma 3 – bringing it up to date with what our players have come to expect - and we're still st(d)riving for more!

TAKE THE WHEEL

Up until this point, our implementation didn't take full advantage of analogue control. However, taking inspiration from similar work done by Bohemia Interactive Simulations in VBS, we've now introduced an alternate handling mechanic. Our own programmer, Filip Sádovský, recently implemented an improved way of turning vehicles in our engine.

Keyboard controls themselves stay the same as they were before: pressing turn keys gradually turns the steering wheel, which prevents over-steering the vehicle. The difference is found in using an analogue controller, like a steering wheel. Turning is transmitted to the vehicle in 1:1 ratio, meaning that the rate at which your vehicle switches from a straight line to a full turn depends only on how quickly you turn the wheel. You'll need to configure this in the Controls sub-menu.

Another inherent advantage of analogue control is that you can turn the wheel a little over a long distance, whereas achieving the same effect using a keyboard requires hitting the turn keys repeatedly. A combination of both is most often the best solution: you can drive with your keyboard not being any hindered and still ready for fight, but you may opt for wheel/stick anytime you see fit.

TURNING POINT

However, there's still more to be done. For example, turning sharply at high speed can sometimes result in unintentional physics effects with the car rolling all over the place. To address this issue each vehicle will require some tweaking, which risks creating some new issues in other areas we may not even think about (i.e., breaking convoy behaviour in some missions).

Comprehensively addressing this issue is a little beyond the scope of this initial improvement. We consider it as having reached a milestone, even according to strict testing and supervision of Senior QA Ninja Ondrej Kužel, and consider the benefits to outweigh the potential problems. For now, we're satisfied to make a small but useful change for a relatively low cost; that being said, we always aim to do better!

There is a lot of potential under the hood - one day we could even see serious races even in Arma 3 - but, as always, it’s a question of balancing our priorities and trying to make the most useful and interesting gains for gameplay and authenticity. We are, as always, eager to hear your feedback on the matter and are grateful for it. Together we may try to make Arma 3 a better game for everyone!

Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday 06th February 2014

Bohemia Interactive today kicked off the third season of their official Community Guide video series for Arma 3™. Walking through the preparation, insertion and extraction stages, Andrew Gluck (better known as Dslyecxi) from ShackTactical explains what it takes to conduct a successful helicopter-borne air assault.


Previous Community Guides explored topics such as infantry combat, multiplayer teamwork, helicopters, sniper- and launcher teams, and combined arms warfare - with the goal of introducing people to some of the basics of Arma 3. The complete Community Guide playlist is available on Arma 3’s official YouTube Channel.

Arma 3 is available for purchase on Steam and Store.bistudio.com (44.99 EUR/39.99 GBP/59.99 USD). There is also a Digital Deluxe Edition available (49.99 EUR/42.99 GBP/64.99 USD), which includes digital extras such as the Arma 3 soundtrack, maps of Altis and Stratis, a 350-page tactical guide, and a Steam version of the original Arma: Cold War Assault. A boxed version of Arma 3 is sold at many of the major retailers.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Community Guide season 3, OPREP
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Later this week we'll be premiering the third season of the Community Guide video series created in cooperation with Mr. ShackTactical himself: Andrew "Dslyecxi" Gluck. This episode will take a good look at Air Assault movements - inserting and extracting ground-based forces, by helicopters in this case.

In terms of development we are steadfastly progressing on all the tasks we mentioned before: daily and hilariously fun testing sessions of the new multiplayer 'thing', full production of the "Win" closing campaign act, and other new content. Another huge bit of technology that is getting a lot of attention is Steam Workshop for add-ons. Via the Make Arma Not War contest, you may have seen that we're busy working on this. We obviously started with scenarios, but it would be great to get add-ons in as well. It's a complex task, but we do have good progress. When we can be more certain of how things will work (e.g. publication from Addon Builder) and when it will see the light of day, we'll let you know.

INTELLIGENCE

A few new scripting commands have been documented on the forums, in part by Killzone Kid. Thanks!

OPERATIONS

Designer Radko Voda has kicked off a new kind of report in the Dev Hub: OPREPs. These reports are meant to share some insight into the goings-on of devbranch: new features / technologies, tweaks and the reasoning for them - behind-the-scenes Intel generally. The first OPREP discusses "Soldier Protection" and how we've tried to make the various forms of protection matter more, what we plan to do in the future, and how the factions differ in their approach to body armor.

LOGISTICS

In the previous SITREP we mentioned an update of the Make Arma Not War rules. In summary, the "Registration" section was rephrased to emphasize that entries remain the Intellectual Property of those who submit them. And, based on popular request, Community Base Addons were made the only exception allowed to be included as dependent third-party add-on. Take a look at the full rules section here!