A new Report in! featuring Designer Thomas Ryan, one of the campaign creators, has been published on the official Arma 3 website . Here are some extracts :
The campaign is being released across 3 episodes. What did or does this mean for your work; did anything change in terms of story or missions? [possible spoilers] I believe the episodic approach is allowing us to provide a much more polished experience on launch than we have in the past, as I believe the reception to Survive has proven. That’s not to say it’s been perfect, of course; work is still on-going to improve certain aspects of the individual missions, and fix issues that players have run into. We’ve learned a lot from the release of just Survive alone, the results of which I hope you’ll see in the coming episodes.
In terms of a direct impact on the story or missions, here’s another piece of trivia: the ending sequence to Survive was actually originally the opening to Adapt, with Survive ending as the survivors sailed away from the shores of Stratis. However, when we decided to go with the episodic approach, we believed this scene was better suited to end Survive and leave the players wanting more, thus we made it so. Throughout Survive, though, we made careful considerations as to what we wanted to reveal, or keep secret until the following episodes. We’re only at the beginning, after all.
The episodes are called Survive, Adapt, and Win. The first episode ‘Survive’ has just been released. Can you tell us how the theme of ‘surviving’ is incorporated? [possible spoilers] The global situation in Arma 3 pits NATO pretty much on the losing end, with an ever-growing competitor looming in the east; the Canton Protocol Strategic Alliance Treaty, or CSAT for short. We wanted things to go badly for Kerry and, by extension, the player. We wanted to test how they would react when faced with such situations. The AAF, whom NATO considered a (reluctant) ally, turns on them as they are pulling out, motives uncertain (for now), and decimates the majority of NATO forces left behind, leaving only the player and a few survivors to, well, survive. Stratis is a small place, and the survivors have very little time to put together a plan of action. Needless to say, not everything goes according to plan.
When thinking about what gameplay we wanted, we wanted the player to be on the receiving end of hell on a lot of occasions. We wanted him under-equipped and outnumbered though, sometimes, pulling through. However, most of their victories end up being partial. But Kerry, and the player, has to put a lot of faith in his superiors, and he only recognizes a few of them, if he knows them at all. Not, perhaps, the situation most soldiers want to find themselves in when faced with such odds.
Stories typically contain an introduction, body, and conclusion. Should we consider Survive as the introduction? How do you introduce a setting, story, and characters?
Survive is definitely the introduction. Adapt and Win will take what you learn here and push you harder, giving you more freedom and autonomy as you progress, as well as introducing you to the more complex aspects of Arma 3. Here, we wanted to teach you the basics; essentially, how to survive.
Apart from its technical purpose, its narrative purpose is to set the scene. We wanted to introduce the player to our world, to the characters he’ll see throughout the remaining episodes, and to start him off on the story we want to tell. We give the player a brief lesson on the global situation at the time. We then introduce him to certain characters and their motivations, though a lot is deliberately left unclear. Finally, we knew that the survivors had to get off Stratis by the end of Survive, and we set the wheels in motion, with all roads eventually leading the player to Altis.
The first campaign episode also seems a good place to start for newcomers. However, it’s not really like there are specific tutorials. What are you doing to ease these players into Arma 3?
Survive is definitely the starting point, intending to teach newcomers the fundamentals. Moving up through the tiers as the episode progresses, you start off with basic combat, before moving on to basic squad combat, and then some wildcards get thrown into the mix, such as mortars, underwater, and night-time operations. These really are the basic of basics in Arma 3, and you will need to be familiar with them to progress in the coming episodes.
Outside of our "learning through play" approach, we have also introduced a new, key mechanic in Survive: the Instructor Figure. An optional game setting, which you can easily opt-out of, the Instructor Figure is a system that gives the player context-appropriate assistance in missions where we deemed it necessary, presented in the form of in-universe conversations involving campaign characters. The idea was to provide tips that could help the player in some of the more complex situations, many of which we determined during our phases of focus testing. The idea was not to draw the player out of the experience by throwing him into some cutscene or presenting him with a book to read. Rather, we treat it as if it's almost a story event, which helps to keep the player immersed while also pointing them in the right direction. ... Can you already give us a few hints on what to expect in the next episode(s)? [possible spoilers] Well, without giving too much away, I will say that all is not as it seems. A lot of the questions you have been asking after playing Survive are there for a reason, and many will be answered as early as Adapt. As I said before, we are only at the beginning.
FROM: Project Lead FROM: Project Lead TO: Arma 3 Users INFO: Tools PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION The positive reception of "Survive" has boosted team morale and excitement to make the "Adapt" episode a fitting continuation. Asset producers are finalizing the new sandbox content, for which we can finally share more teasers soon - including 3 added vehicles. That is not to say "Survive" came with just the campaign episode. Have a look at the full SPOTREP, and go in-depth with the cool blog written up by Creative Director Jay Crowe. Besides the second episode, what else are we working on at the moment? Coming up is the Arma 3 Tools release (read on for more) and a more traditional update of main branch later this month. INTELLIGENCE
In certain cases of multiplayer performance issues, the problem may be security software interfering with BattlEye's anti-cheat engine. The BE systems are designed to run alongside the game and should not cause significant performance drops. If you experience these issues please consider checking if tweaking security software settings helps. Or look for other programs that your OS may be running in the background and which can interfere (specifically memory scanners).
Some people struggled to work out how to start the campaign. We've hotfixed 1.04 to improve this a little by making double-clicking expand the campaign menu tree structure (besides pressing the arrow next to the campaign). Restoration of more obvious button methods is forthcoming. The main page had its Italian player community and a South African military equipment mod.
OPERATIONS
Petr Kolář has the following update on Arma 3's tools: "There have been many questions regarding releasing of the Arma 3 Tools package on our forums. We are still working on the package - mainly testing the stability at the moment - and it should be available as soon as possible. We have decided to take an approach similar to the release of the game - continuous staging of finished parts and enhancing the experience with later additions. The first batch will contain the basic tools with slightly enhanced functionality, but we feel that work on tools is a never-ending process. Some of you may have already found a new category in Feedback Tracker to report issues, and we've been asking around for wanted improvements on current tools. A general tools category has been added to the forums.
Primarily included in this first iteration are new versions of packing tools (new binarization for all the PhysX LODs e.g. / new config conversion with the new method of using arrays and all the current functionality). There also will be a new version of Oxygen 2, supporting PhysX and buoyancy LODs, together with some nice samples of models with commented configs. Visitor will not yet be added."
LOGISTICS
Before the release of "Survive", we mentioned intent to work on fatigue. This is about to kick off on devbranch. Designer Radko Voda will start publishing tweaks in the next few days, as well as to detail and discuss them on the forums. The goals are still to introduce better calculations and enhance authenticity of equipment affecting performance.
A commonly reported issue relates to surround sound audio setups. We are specifically looking into problems with center speaker volume during conversations in 3D space.
There have been a few changes to event handler handleDamage (and various others) - making it more easy to work with them. Designer Bořivoj Hlava explains the details in this thread.
On Friday 1st November 2013, Jay Crowe - Creative Director-Arma 3 - has reported this "A war on all fronts : Arma3 - Episode 1_" entry on the official Arma 3 web site.
Releasing the first part of Arma 3's campaign, The East Wind, represents much more than new gameplay alone: the launch is a splendid package of content and features. While the whole team has contributed to the ongoing support of the game - by way of a multitude of post-release fixes and tweaks - there are some stand-out additions that we'd particularly like to share.
Below, we'll cover a few in greater detail and talk a little about the basic ideas behind our first episode; be sure to check out our SPOTREP for the comprehensive run-down of all the changes and additions.
Episode 1: Survive
The first chunk of the campaign sets the stage and seeks to introduce some of Arma 3's gameplay basics without overwhelming new players or patronising veterans. Taking on simple subordinate roles in a variety of situations, players have the opportunity to develop their skills and familiarise themselves with some of Arma's unique controls and concepts. Along the way, those starting on lower difficulties will, by default, be offered extra guidance to help them complete their objectives by way of hints and advice.
We hope that 'Survive' finds a balance between throwing new players in at the deep end and supporting them to think about how to complete tasks within certain constraints. By 'surviving' the first episode, we hope you'll be prepared to 'adapt' to the more open and challenging gameplay that's in store for Episode 2, where the player is offered gradually more autonomy and authority.
Progress, Splendid Progress
Alongside Episode 1, some splendid new features have made their way into the game, which contribute to the overall feeling of the campaign. Light Shafts (a.k.a., 'Crespecular Rays') have enhanced the feeling of being in strong sunlight and dusty conditions. The first chunk of campaign gameplay in particular has really benefited from this graphical enhancement, which - to some degree - has helped to make a play-through feel fresh and new on a terrain with which many players will be very familiar.
The way we visualise rain has also undergone a modest overhaul. Rather than the old 2D texture technique, each raindrop is now created as simple geometry, which means they're correctly occluded by things like tree canopies, roofs, etc., and are illuminated by global light, which means they become more visible/coloured around things like street lamps and vehicle headlights. Together with the new SFX, it's a good step forward and helps us to create a new feeling in missions where it's raining. We look forward to making more refinements in future.
Platform Additions
Of course, this release isn't just about our own story; rather, it represents another opportunity to provide yet more building blocks for the platform - new weapons, animations, 3D objects, scripted modules, etc. - each designed to grant content creators even greater freedom to produce and share their own work.
*Weapons & Optics In terms of weapons, the Rahim DMR is a 7.62 bullpup-type rifle, which offers new long-range punch to the CSAT faction. Alongside that, two new 'heavy' pistols were added - the 4-Five for NATO and the Zubr for CSAT. These add a little more variety to infantry side arms and also feature rails upon which accessories can be mounted.
Our new accessories take the form of optics and sights specially designed for these weapons. The designated marksman scope has a 6x/12x (2-step) zoom and features a top-mounted collimator for more effective closer quarters combat. The new handguns feature the MRD (NATO) and Yorris (CSAT) pistol collimator sights.
*Objects & Compositions A variety of new editor items have been added. These include larger objects, such as the decommissioned Hunter MRAP and cargo boxes, which were included to reinforce the feeling of the NATO withdrawal - tearing down bases and scrapping vehicles ahead of pulling out - and to provide more options for populating bases, etc.
Around 30 smaller items have been added, too, partly in splendid cooperation with the DayZ standalone team. Items like laptops, documents and medical supplies are now available, which really help mission designers to create the small details in richer scenes.
*Animations & Briefings More than 100 new animations are part of the Episode 1 package. Many of these are 'ambient', such as soldiers at ease around a base (patrolling, chatting, sitting on barriers, etc.), medics attending to the wounded, and so on. Together with the new objects/compositions, these help to create more believable and dynamic compositions, bringing quite static scenes to life.
The new briefing animations take two forms. Some are performance-captured scenes that can be carefully engineered (read: mercilessly hacked) to suit a variety of situations. Others are more generic moves that blend with a units default idle state, which can be played when needed during a mission briefing to emphasise a point and sustain visual interest.
*Characters & Protocol Episode 1 introduces players to a number of new characters. You can meet these guys in the campaign, or fire up the editor and explore the 'Story' section of each faction to find these new models. Highlights include the player, 'Ben Kerry', who has a unique head mesh and set of facial textures, 'Scott Miller' and his UK Special Forces team members, plus a few more besides.
The new British characters sport a new uniform and have their own En-GB protocol. When you place these characters, you'll find there are 3 new voice types from our actors, and one special Jayholder protocol (angry and splendid)! Despite, er, rumours to the contrary, all of the actors are indeed GBR nationals with accents from various parts of the UK. Apparently, there's something about the British accent which confuses players – "Australian!", "South African!", "Faaaaaaake!", etc. Just one of the costs of running an empire, I suppose.
*Music & Audio Some great new music has been composed to support the creation of distinctive moments in the campaign. Owners of the Digital Deluxe Edition will find 7 new tracks in their Steam Bonus-folder from the "Survive" campaign episode. In game, the music is deployed as 'Lead', 'Ambient and 'Event' tracks.
Aside from these, the data also includes a number of potentially useful audio effects, such as the background noises of vehicle decommissioning, ambient 'base' SFX of soldiers chatting, and subtle 'forest' sounds. These simple effects help to enrich scenes and establish a particular kind of feeling/tone, working alongside other elements like animations and objects.
*Modules & Functions Wherever possible, we try to build the campaign on reusable and extensible systems. Examples of useful modules include: the 'ORBAT' viewer (visualising the Order of Battle of military forces - great for establishing that 'big picture' feeling), 'Zone Restriction' (useful for creating no-go zones where it's appropriate), 'Instructor Figure' (our system of providing extra guidance on the battlefield) and 'Friendly Fire' (a configurable system that handles players killing civilians and friendlies).
There are also a bunch of interesting new functions - useful chunks of script that are centrally maintained. Some great examples include: 'BIS_fnc_buildingPositions' (returns the available positions of a given structure), 'BIS_fnc_isBuildingEnterable' (checks if a structure is enterable) and 'BIS_fnc_cinemaBorder' (creates cinema borders and handles disabling certain actions like opening the map, using the action menu, etc).
The documentation of these - and many, many more - modules and functions is an ongoing effort, and we hope to improve the process of making our internal documentation external. For now, it's worth remembering that the Functions Viewer (accessible from the pause menu in the editor) is a great tool for browsing these scripts. Much of the documentation can be found in the headers, which describe how to use them, what the parameters are, etc.
Plan of Attack
Before we unleashed Episode 1 into the wild, we first released it to the development branch. We'd like to thank all those who played early and provided feedback. This process helped us to make our final release more stable. While we couldn't include all of the feedback (a lot of which we would have liked to if we had time), we were able to fix a few really key problems that would have detracted from the player's experience. Thank you all for helping to make the release of this episode one of the most stable, polished launches in our series' history.
Looking forward to the forthcoming episodes, we’re set to continue to expand Arma 3’s sandbox with additions such as new vehicles and aircraft. In the meantime, other parts of our team are hard at work on creating an updated tools package, which we'll release more information about soon™. Central to our philosophy is improving and extending the sandbox - creating systems and features that are reusable or that establish best practise - but we're also passionate about telling our own story. With the release of 'Survive' we've sought to strike a splendid balance, and look forward to continuing this effort.
We hope you enjoy Episode 1 and our future instalments, and we're looking forward to playing the community campaigns in the near future, too! After all, the majority of our very own campaign team are community veterans themselves!
On Thursday 31st October 2013, Joris-Jan van 't Land has reported a SPOTREP #00013 on the official Arma 3 web site.
FROM: Project Lead TO: Arma 3 Users UNIT: Main Branch Game Update: 1.04 SIZE: ~1.4 GB * Campaign episode "Survive", * New weapons, * Light shafts, * Enhanced rain. Full report
Campaign Find it under PLAY > CAMPAIGNS > Survive Click the arrow to expand
Feedback You can help us by reporting issues on the Feedback Tracker
Korneel van 't Land has informed us about Arma 3 "Survive" trailer release.
Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday 31st October 2013
To reinforce the launch of the Survive campaign episode, Bohemia Interactive has released a brand new trailer for Arma 3. The first campaign episode – which introduces the conflict between the NATO, CSAT, and AAF factions – is now available as an automatic update on Steam.
In Arma 3’s campaign, players take on the role of Ben Kerry, a soldier who is a part of the NATO peacekeeping operation in the Mediterranean. Five years after the bloody civil war in the Republic of Altis & Stratis came to an end, NATO has started to withdraw its forces from the region - unknowingly creating the conditions for a Mediterranean flashpoint. Kerry's unit, 'Task Force Aegis' - together with a clandestine group of UKSF operators - is soon caught up in a situation beyond their control, and trapped in a fight for survival.
Besides new playable content, the first campaign episode also provides extra building blocks for Arma 3 content creators. These come in the form of new weapons, animations, 3D objects, and scripted modules. More free content, including new vehicles, is expected to be released together with the next campaign episodes. The exact release dates of the second (Adapt) and third (Win) campaign episodes will be announced later.
Arma 3 features the large open terrains of ‘Altis’ (270 km²) and ‘Stratis’ (20 km²), 12 singleplayer showcases, 3 factions showcases, 9 multiplayer scenarios, 10 firing drill challenges, more than 20 vehicles and 40 weapons, 5 factions, the scenario editor and modding support. The singleplayer campaign is deployed across 3 campaign episodes.
People can purchase the regular 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 Arma 3 is also available at many of the major retailers.
FROM: Project Lead TO: Arma 3 Users INFO: Survive!, Altis updates PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION
Almost there! "Survive" will be officially released this Thursday, and will be automatically downloaded like a patch. Many people have already survived on devbranch and we have enjoyed reading the feedback! A few critical issues were found and squashed (e.g. crashing in the campaign menu having user-made campaigns installed). With the broader release looming, here's a couple of things to keep in mind:
- Play now or wait for all episodes? Consider what play style suits you the best. Don't mind waiting for the next episode before continuing? Or would you rather consume the whole narrative in one go? - We recommend playing the campaign(s) on main branch. Devbranch is an experimental daily version that may cause the campaign to be work less well from one day to the next. More importantly - we cannot guarantee savegame compatibility when switching branches. - Mods are fantastic, but we have no method of testing how all or indeed any of them affect the campaign. We would suggest to play the campaign(s) using vanilla Arma 3 for the intended experience. - To be sure your locally installed data is not corrupted, please use the Steam client verification option. Non-SSD storage users may benefit from defragmentation. - Please be considerate and use spoiler notifications when posting feedback. Your fellow survivors thank you!
Have fun surviving, while we carry on with the second episode: "Adapt", tools and other good stuff!
INTELLIGENCE
Owners of (Digital) Deluxe Editions beware: your OST in the Bonus-folder will be updated with 7 tracks from the "Survive" campaign episode (alongside the release itself).
Senior Designer Karel Mořický will attend a Czech Game Developer Session in Prague, held between 8 and 10 November. He's going to be speaking about Steam integration and working with the community. Several other team members are also set to attend the event.
It was probably clear to most people, but just to make sure: recent Tweets on our official accounts were snapshots from the "Survive" campaign intro video - and not real-life political statements.
OPERATIONS
In his recent Report In!, Martin Pezlar hinted at a few upcoming Altis updates. He has posted some more details in the forums so you can plan ahead when designing your own scenarios.
Slightly related: we are seeing questions about the object IDs which get updated every time we update the environments. We've opened a thread on the forums to ask you how you are using object IDs and how we may work together to not have to rely on them.
LOGISTICS
We recommend you avoid using the old campaign unlock cheat (in the campaign menu) for "Survive". It will unlock the list of scenarios, but progression will not work splendidly.
The lack of knowledge regarding authors' rights, such as asking for permission and terms of use among the community as a whole is now a concern. A lot of websites and other community resources use different standards towards the ownership rights of a content creator, and sometimes lack a knowledge of the legal and moral standards that have been a pillar of our community for many years. This is especially true for people new to BIS' games. To address this purpose the Addon Makers for Authors' Rights (AMAR) has created a website that gives insight into how the issue of authors' rights is handled and perceived, and how someone can use third party content within all socially acceptable boundaries.
Dear players, addonmakers, (game) server & website hosts and all others in our dedicated community,
Addon Makers for Authors' Rights (AMAR) is a sizeable group of content creators for games developed by Bohemia Interactive with a common interest in informing the community about the do's and don'ts of content usage and sharing to support mutual understanding and cooperation efforts. For this purpose we have created a website containing Frequently Asked Questions and useful information about ownership rights, permission requests, terms of use and other related matters that can help addonmakers to use already existing content with the permission of the original creator(s) to save time.
We hope that you will find this information useful to expand your knowledge and support your fellow community members. The website can be found at the following address:
Korneel van 't Land informed us about Community Guide: SITREP II release .
Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday 24th October 2013
In continuation of the official Community Guide series, Bohemia Interactive today published a new video SITREP (II) for the recently released tactical military shooter, Arma 3. Thanking all those who participated in the Arma 3 Alpha and Beta, Andrew Gluck (better known as Dslyecxi) from ShackTactical reflects on the game’s release, explores the launch package, and looks at the future of Arma 3 as a platform for official and user-made content..
In similar fashion to the first video SITREP, this new Community Guide recaps development and celebrates the splendid release milestone. While scanning the horizon, Dslyecxi also discusses Bohemia Interactive’s dedication to supporting the game with new updates and content – including the singleplayer campaign, of whi ch the first episode will be deployed on October 31. Player-created scenarios, mods and add-ons are another point of focus, one which the studio hopes to push to a next level with additional tools, documentation, and the further integration of the Steam Workshop.
In co-operation with Andrew Gluck from ShackTactical, Bohemia Interactive is creating a series of videos to explain some of the basics of Arma 3. Previous Community Guides already explored infantry combat, multiplayer teamwork, helicopters, sniper and launcher teams, and combined arms warfare. The upcoming season of video guides will focus on a specific range of Arma 3-related topics.
Arma 3 is now available for purchase on Steam and Store.bistudio.com for 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). A boxed version of Arma 3 is sold at many of the major retailers.
Jester814 from the 15th MEU Realism Unit made another great showcase video for Massi's USSOCOM units.
Massi has submited this USSOCOM Rangers, NAVY SEALs DEVGRU and DELTA addon on our Forums.
I’m updating the USSOCOM pack with new multicam textures, and the introduction of Ranger units in full multicam uniform and gear. Also unit’s organization in the editor has been tweaked, and the dedicated server fix is no more required for those units. This addon is a retexture of NATO, and Independent units, It adds several camouflage uniforms plus custom made headgear and retextured gear in order to represent US Army 75th RANGER, DELTA Force and Navy SEAL DEVGRU units ...
v 1.1 date 28\SEP\2013 - added Ranger units in multicam with multicam helmets\vests - Ranger recon units in multicam use a mix of Ranger green and multicam equipment - New Multicam textures - Dedicated server fix no more needed - Better units organization in the editor - Introduced "@mas" addonfolder to include all my addons, other addons will be integrated in next updates
So this is it, I have come full circle, my first rifle release was the SA80RIS and it was AWFUL, which is why I was forced to remake it, vanilla style.
This rifle comes in two flavours, one with the normal rail for the iron sights and Susat scope, and one with a picatinny conversion for use with most of the scopes in Arma 3, not all of them, some of them just don't look right.
There really isn't much to say about it, textures could use some work, but for now it's at least presentable and ready to play with. It's missing some lods, shadow and actual level of distance, I'll sort all that in the coming days, I've also included a bikey etc for server play.
For those that may get confused, I know I did at some point, the picatinny version will not be able to equip the susat scope I made (which I must work on to finish at some point), but the vanilla version will, but not the other scopes etc.
FROM: Project Lead TO: Arma 3 Users INFO: Report In!, Config Arrays PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION
As a final test before releasing campaign episode 1 next week, we are still considering to stage it on devbranch this Thursday. Whether it will happen, depends on evaluations of the latest version today and tomorrow. If we do go ahead, we would like to again request of you to try to keep spoilers to a minimum while reporting issues. Thanks in advance! For the majority of players we would recommend playing the campaign on the main branch instead. This should produce a more stable experience throughout, not risking new issues due to the daily and experimental nature of devbranch (e.g. potential savegame incompatibilities).
A new Community Guide video is coming up shortly. Korneel van 't Land describes: "Thanking all those who participated in the Arma 3 Alpha and Beta, the new video reflects on the game’s release, explores the launch package, and looks at the future of Arma 3 as a platform for official and user-made content.". We also noticed the folks Down Under at AIE Games hosted an Arma 3 booth at the expo with perhaps the most relevant of names: Armageddon Expo!
INTELLIGENCE
The lowest quality setting for clouds will be removed from the game. This was the only setting disabling fully the new cloud technology. It caused artifacts and did not help gain significant performance.
Curious what it took to bring you the awesome Republic of Altis & Stratis environment? We've posted a new Report In! with Environment Martin Lead Pezlar. He delves into the process of making a virtual game space, and shares some thoughts on the rather more unexpected and troubling adventure he and comrade Ivan Buchta went through.
Scripting command documentation continues via the Community Wiki and forums; have a look at the next batch.
OPERATIONS
Petr Kolář, whom you may know as the Lord of the Bounce, has an interesting and more technical update for modders among you: "We are steadily working on a new tools package, and we have made a new major feature that may be interesting for many community content creators. Filip Sádovský has prepared a new version of cfgConvert which is able to handle arrays in a different manner - adding new items into an array is now possible even without knowing the array itself, by defining array[] += {newItem}; This is extremely useful for adjusting shared arrays for example for weapon accessories or the infamous class Throw with its muzzle[]. The option is already working on the executable level, but the tools are needing to be released to make the configs binarizable.
LOGISTICS
Last week we pointed out a rare issue with large profile data causing menu freezes. The solution mentioned then was perhaps not the best way to go about it. A better method is to execute the following from a script or editor debug console:
This is only needed when you experience very long delays when opening the pause menu, and your .vars profile file is upwards of 100 MB. We may do this clean-up via a patch automatically later, but do not see evidence of a lot of you being affected.
Jester814 from the 15th MEU Realism Unit made a great showcase video of Massi's NATO SF\Russian Spetsnaz weapons pack.
Massi has released this pack to equip his SF units.
- Those weapons are meant to equip my US, UK, Italian SF and GRU Spetsnaz unis - Weapons have custom ammo and magazines - Weapons have custom UI pics - Weapons have custom sounds thanks to LordJarhead! - Weapons have A3 features : optics, torch, suppressors and IR capable, rotating muzzleflash, custom handanims and anims. - Weapons have dedicated ammocrates - The pack includes few dedicated optics (PSO, Acog, Aimpoint, Sniper optic) and suppressors - The pack includes unit's dedicated backpacks - Light Anti Air launchers (AA NLAW and AA RPG32) - Classlist included in folder
A new Report in! featuring Martin Pezlar -Arma3 Environment Lead- has been published on the Developer's Blog .
While the development team is hard at work to deliver the first Arma 3 campaign episode, the game’s massive islands have already been deployed. Considered as the crown jewel of Arma 3 by many virtual combatants, we talked to one of Altis’ masterminds, Environment Lead Martin Pezlar!
We're often asked to let some of our people talk about what it's like to develop a game at BI. 'Report In!' gives you a more personal perspective on our team, a more detailed look at the way we go about our work, and fresh information about our ongoing projects.
In his role as Environment Lead, Martin is responsible for the massive terrain in Arma 3. His team’s ambition resulted in a landscape of over 290 km2 - surpassing all previous BI games (comparison image). However, not only scope, but also level of detail and lighting were pushed to the next level. Mix in a bizarre adventure in Greece, and we have more than enough ingredients for a Report In™ dev interview!
Tell the people a little about yourself. What's your role? How long have you been with Bohemia Interactive? Which projects have you contributed to and what is your favourite BI game or mission?
Greetings! My name is Martin Pezlar, perhaps better known by my nickname ‘Maxell’ on the Internets. I’ve been working as a Lead Environment Artist for 2 years now. Before that, I worked at BI as a regular Environment Artist, also for about 2 years. I was recruited back in 2010 from the ranks of the Quake 3/Doom 3 map design community. My first task at BI was to develop Takistan for Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead. I then later worked on the smaller Shapur map (Arma 2: British Armed Forces) and Proving Grounds (Arma 2: Private Military Company). Naturally, my favourite BI game is the latest, most polished, and most beautiful instalment in the Armaverse: Arma 3.
And can you give us some random facts about yourself?
I love life, surprises, fast motorcycles, perfection and efficiency, intelligent humor and having the sun shine on my back. I hate laziness, human stupidity, and arrogance.
Can you start by explaining a little bit about the terrain development process?
Phew! Where to start! The terrain development process is kind of a marathon – it’s a massive task. Let me try to capture the most essential stages.
First of all, you have to have a clear goal: what kind of map do you want to create, what should it look like, what features should be present. This means you always need to do some rock solid research. All of this drives the initial analysis and design, which is then evaluated by all of the Department Leads, the Creative Director and the Project Lead.
Once everyone and everything is aligned, we move on to build a very basic map prototype. This is just a quick, low-quality terrain mesh with low resolution textures and simple mockup buildings. It helps to test the in-game scales, proportion and overall feel. Once everyone is happy with the prototype, we move ahead and start preparing a list of all the assets required for the final production version of the map. This again involves a lot of analysis and spreadsheets, which ultimately serve as the battle plan for the Art and Environment Departments.
Finally, when these documents have been approved and finished, the real, high quality, production of the required assets can begin. Simultaneously, the creation of the landscape itself, the map layout, the sculpting of the terrain, and the satellite textures is starting. Then, *crash-boom-bang*, 2.5 years later, we have a brand new game world.
FROM: Project Lead TO: Arma 3 Users INFO: Campaign episode - Survive, Rain, Fatigue PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION
The final stages of development of the first campaign episode - "Survive" - are wrapping up this week. Splendid voice-acting and animation work has made its way from recording & processing into the game - bringing it all to life. Together with our various testing teams, we are playing through the episode many times to find potential issues ahead of the October 31 release. Meanwhile, other members of the team are working on the second episode, previously teased content additions, tools, and a number of unannounced additions.
INTELLIGENCE
Not one, but two Workshop developer favorites have been shared since last week. Artist Martin Valášek put forward 'Metal Clone Boss' by Mr Cookie. Web developer extraordinaire, Jervant Malakjan, landed on 'The Great Altis Highway Race' by ٨ήģεỈ.
The Community Focus widget was refreshed on the main website landing page with a mix of cool user efforts!
To clarify a few things after the campaign release date announcement: it will be a singleplayer-only experience. We've also seen discussions about the scope of gameplay changes based on what was seen in screenshots. Don't expect big core gameplay overhauls released alongside the campaign. As suggested by some of you, the campaign contains a few more 'staged' situations involving custom animation work. That is not to say there will not be a load of cool additions to benefit community designers. Many new animations, sounds and objects can be used; something made easier by the new modules designed by folks like Jiří Wainar.
Scripting documentation continues to be updated via the forums - this week with a suite of inventory-related commands.
OPERATIONS
Today is a pretty big day on devbranch, with us staging the "Survive" sandbox content and new rain technology! By sandbox content we mean the new weapons, characters and static objects - basically everything except for the campaign scenarios themselves. The latter may be staged for a brief period ahead of release, but we are still evaluating that option. If we do, we would kindly ask you to not spoil the experience for others with any discoveries made in devbranch data.
Oh, the new rain is a big step forward if you ask us! This first stage on devbranch finally does away with some of the old rain's limitations. The effect feels more 3D since it uses particles all around you, rather than mixed animated 2D layers. It also factors in occlusion better, so that it does not rain under objects. The way the rain is lit looks especially cool when viewed in front of a vehicle's headlights at night for example.
Following the release of "Survive", we will start a targeted tweaking of fatigue and its effects on devbranch. Some of the prep is done already, but it cannot be rolled out now without risking final testing of the first campaign episode. The goals are to introduce better fatigue calculations so that your equipment has a more authentic bearing on your performance - e.g. running up a significant slope / carrying heavy equipment. Once this gets on devbranch, designer Radko Voda intends to discuss the details on the forums.
LOGISTICS
If you have frequently used devbranch and you experience lag when opening interface menus (such as pressing Esc to open the pause menu) - this may be due to your profile data storage being huge. That, in turn, may have been caused by redundant diagnostics data having been stored while using devbranch. The solution is to create a new profile, but obviously be careful about losing your settings and progress!
Korneel van 't Land has informed us about First campaign episode for Arma 3 release date.
Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday 10th October 2013
Bohemia Interactive today announced the release date for the Survive campaign episode of Arma 3. Dropping in as free DLC on Thursday October 31, players take on the role of a regular soldier stationed in the Republic of Altis & Stratis.
“Our first campaign episode, ‘Survive’, introduces players to Ben Kerry, a regular soldier who’s part of a NATO peacekeeping mission in the Mediterranean. Following a couple of years of uneasy cease-fire, this US-led deployment is now in the process of a staged drawdown. The vacuum left by withdrawing forces is being rapidly filled by the opposing CSAT faction, creating the conditions for, one might say, a flashpoint” , explains Jay Crowe, Creative Director on Arma 3.
“Of course, it's not just about our own story, but another opportunity to provide yet more building blocks for the platform - new weapons, animations, 3D objects, scripted modules - each designed to grant content creators even greater freedom to create and share their own content. Looking forward to the forthcoming episodes, we’ll continue to expand Arma 3’s sandbox with additions such as new vehicles.”
Arma 3 features the large open terrains of ‘Altis’ (270 km²) and ‘Stratis’ (20 km²), 12 singleplayer showcases, 3 factions showcases, 9 multiplayer scenarios, 10 firing drill challenges, more than 20 vehicles and 40 weapons, 5 factions, the scenario editor and modding support. The singleplayer campaign is deployed across 3 free DLC episodes after release.
People can purchase the regular 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 Arma 3 is also available at many of the major retailers.
FROM: Project Lead TO: Arma 3 Users INFO: Firstlook AAR, Documentation PRECEDENCE: Flash SITUATION
This past weekend the two Dutchies in the development team visited Firstlook expo in The Netherlands. It was great to meet up with some of the Dutch multiplayer communities (like Tangodown), modders (e.g. the lads behind Arma 3 Life) and individual fans. Kudos to MSI Europe for hosting us. Thanks for visiting and helping to support the game!
We did two main stage demos on a huge screen and audio setup - and it felt great! The crowd probably suffered temporary hearing loss when Korneel van 't Land ambushed the audio technicians by firing the Slammer cannon at maximum volume! The smoke machines kicking in on stage when we threw smoke grenades in-game was a nice touch also. The first part of the demo was an introduction to those new to Arma, but we concluded with a few upcoming content teasers. Confirmed to arrive with the first campaign episode: the Rahim CSAT marksman rifle with DMS marksman optic, 4-five pistol with MRD optic, and the Zubr revolver with Yorris optic. We also showed concept work for the CSAT CAS airplane and a new AAF IFV - part of the additions scheduled for the other two episodes.
Eager players will have observed we are approaching the four week mark after release. First contact with the campaign will happen this month, but it needs a little more time to polish and get final voice acting in. The exact release date for the 'Survive' episode is going to be published this week. As per usual, we'll be staging (part of) the content on devbranch first.
INTELLIGENCE
Version 1.02 on main branch was hotfixed with a new executable to address the most common cause of a multiplayer crash. We know there are still other circumstances for a similar crash. Investigations continue and some of the crash opportunities have already been addressed on devbranch.
BattlEye server 1.177 has introduced handy tools for admins to load script and event filters specific to certain scenarios.
OPERATIONS
In case you were wondering why devbranch activity is a little lower than normal: we are on yet another data lock - this time for the first campaign episode. General bug fixing continues, but we are more cautious about making changes in the core game - wanting it to run well as a stable platform for the campaign.
Now autumn is upon us, we've taken on the challenge to improve our in-game rain a bit. Devbranch users were confronted with early prototype work by accident but umbrellas were swiftly deployed. It's looking very promising, so keep looking up at those clouds for the proper reveal when it's ready!
LOGISTICS
Various devs have been busy with documentation and other forms of support for modders. Dental encoder zGuba has posted a 101 guide for tank configuration on the Community Wiki. Designer Druid continued by explaining the parameters for the wing vortices effect on fixed-wing aircraft. And finally, as of today on devbranch, a different method of configuring weapon attachments is supported (backwards compatible).
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Armed Assault info site is closing
A new home of sorts for
