FROM: High Command
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: 1.64 RC Started, Tanoa Structures Improvements, Valve Anti-Cheat
PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION
Testing of the upcoming
main branch update "1.64" has begun last week. Bringing several
improvements to the
Apex Protocol campaign and aiming to improve the
stability of the game, it also brings a handful of small tweaks, which will benefit everyone (more on them later in this report). Everybody is encouraged to
try the RC build on their own, and to visit the
dedicated forums thread or the
Arma subreddit thread for more information. Don't forget to
provide feedback, and report issues to our
Feedback Tracker, it is being monitored actively by our QA.
INTELLIGENCE
The
SOF Tactical Realism group receives a shout out this week for some of their splendid
pictures and
screenshots posted on Twitter. This community focuses on
milsim sessions and even organizes
public training events. Players can register on
their forums to get a complete picture of the group and to enlist for some of their operations. Players can also head over to the
SOF profile on Arma 3 Units page to receive more unit Intel.
OPERATIONS
The Art Department in Team Mike has taken it upon themselves to improve the structures of Tanoa. Responding to community feedback on Tanoa, they're now working on a way to better communicate the
accessibility of buildings. Creative Director
Jay Crowe expands on the topic:
"Of course, the terrain is already released and many splendid community scenarios are already built. With this in mind, the improvements focus on the addition of simple models, such as locks, barricades, etc., placed in the immediate proximity of doors. We hope these will be consistent and recognisable, without unduly affecting any existing community content; players should immediately know whether or not the building they're looking at can serve as a hide-out." As the work is still at its beginning, we
don't expect to release it with the 1.64 update, though bits of the changes have recently started to appear on
Dev-Branch.
As already mentioned in the Situation section, the upcoming update contains
several minor but useful improvements to the game. Searching in the asset browser in Zeus was already mentioned in one of the
previous SITREPs, but there is more to be seen in 1.64.
Ballistic values of most
weapons were tweaked to better correspond with their real-life counterparts. This ongoing effort of Sandbox Designer
Radko Voda should bring more fun, yet
keep the lethality of Arma's gameplay. With the arrival of a Senior Sound Designer
Tomáš Bayer, we are introducing new
dry sounds for various vehicle and static weapons as well as working on
refactoring the footsteps technology. The third example is
advanced fog in
Eden Editor. While going through the Environment Attributes, players can now select
multiple parameters and set the fog in the scenario to exactly match their expectations. With the setting being
immediately preview-able, building a moody and immersive scenario has never been simpler. Kudos to Senior Designer
Karel Mořický for the implementation!
LOGISTICS
Recently, we have partly introduced the
Valve Anti-Cheat (Game Ban) system to
Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead and
Arma 3. Our partners at
BattlEye have connected their anti-cheat program to its
Steam counterpart. It essentially means only one thing. Players who receive a ban via
BattlEye will now also be
banned via VAC and will not be able to ask for a
refund of the game. If you don't cheat,
VAC will in no way interfere with your experience, VAC is only used to flag
Steam accounts for hacking, it is still completely up to
BattlEye to prevent hackers from joining protected servers. This measure is aimed
strictly against hackers who would purchase the game, try out their hacks, get banned by
BattlEye and ask for a refund via
Steam only to continue on a new
Steam account minutes later. With VAC, such an
exploit of the system
will not be possible. Unlike
BattlEye, which is global to all our games, the Valve Anti-Cheat ban is
always game-specific; players
will be able to play other games on Steam. In case a
BattlEye ban is lifted, the VAC one is lifted as well. More about the Valve Anti-Cheat can be read on their
FAQ page.