ARMA & ARMA2

[Art Blade]

Ok, found out a little more about the game. The menu button I was always talking about is called "Waffenkammer" I think it is equal to the armoury in FC2 - whatever you purchased or unlocked shows up there and you can grab it. In my case there are some weapons, some characters (e.g. a medic), cars, Roosters... and a civilian helicopter (I think each part of the training missions gives you one vehicle of the kind, this time a civ heli).

I chose to try it and the game asks you "where: Utes (the small isle where your traing takes place) or the mainland (I forgot the name)" which goes for everything you want to test. Then you get beamed over where ever you chose, (edit: no, not from Waffenkammer... only the isle Utes available edit2 apparently random, just so happened that I got to fly in the mainland. Don't know if or how I can influence it) and I found myself sitting in a nice civilian copter. Of course those darn mini missions/tasks popped up, but this time I clicked "disable" to have some peace.

And this is where the cool part begins... you can concentrate on exploring the area, I chose to fly over it since I can :) I spotted a nice village and tried to accomplish a precision landing in a backyard of a house (see pic) and from there I walked, dressed as a civilian, a little around in the village. And then, take off for more exploring :) edit: which isn't too much, since the isle is small. I wish I could choose where to test, I prefer to test on the mainland, too.  :-\

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[Art Blade]

When I thought it was already quite tough what I saw so far, this rolls over the top. A big chunk of metal with rockets and bombs attached to it, at night. If you can't see much, don't worry, I couldn't either. I had nightvision goggles though, but that only turns black into green, not much of a change, really...

roosterpit, no wait, cockpit  ;)  I was cocking my head but didn't help, so I stared at the dashboard. Nice glow... the little whitish stuff to the right is the moonlit sea.

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[Art Blade]

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wreck coords x139/140 y041

As luck would have it, misty, rainy... yuck. Still, found an old castle and on the shore to the far east of the mainland, a decent wreck. Nice sightseeing so far. I like roaming in a copter  ;D

[gvse]

That's a good looking wreck! Hmm, if you like exploring so much I suggest you open the editor where you can select any character, any vehicle and any spot on either island. Then climb into the machine and take it for a spin. So far, other than miles of open fields, I have seen an old castle, a dam, a lumber yard, and a commercial port. Right now I am at my mom's on a different PC, and I can't post snaps. Anyhow, using the editor for free-roaming is dead easy, and I can give you a quick tutorial on how to create such a "mission" if you want.
Yesterday I also redid a part of the old mission I'd been working on, and this time it played out well. I decided to get rid of auto-aim and it has been a totally different experience: I had to be much more carefull and the tension was steadily rising. The crosshair is also different then, a bit more precise (I am not ready to get rid of that too yet). Once it is all done I will definitely upload the file here.
Oh, I discovered that you can give orders simultaneously to 2 or more characters if you hit the relevant F buttons at the same time (spacebar selects all of em, but I'm sure you know that).
On a sidenote, Art what sort of processor and GPU do you have? Also, do you get random stutter every now and again? I plan on buying a gfx285 in November but I am beginning to worry that my unoverclocked quad 2.4 will still slow me down :(

[Art Blade]

That's a good looking wreck! Hmm, if you like exploring so much I suggest you open the editor where you can select any character, any vehicle and any spot on either island. Then climb into the machine and take it for a spin. So far, other than miles of open fields, I have seen an old castle, a dam, a lumber yard, and a commercial port. Right now I am at my mom's on a different PC, and I can't post snaps. Anyhow, using the editor for free-roaming is dead easy, and I can give you a quick tutorial on how to create such a "mission" if you want.

This is the biggest city like thing I found:
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and yes, I'd like to know how to do a simple setup in the editor. I opened it today, but I didn't seem to be able to place anything, I saw there are options to the right, but nothing happened (except weather setup). Thanks matey  :-X

Oh, I discovered that you can give orders simultaneously to 2 or more characters if you hit the relevant F buttons at the same time (spacebar selects all of em, but I'm sure you know that).

Found that out too, and if you hit CTRL they keep in the focus and wait for more.

On a sidenote, Art what sort of processor and GPU do you have?

i7@920 and nVidia GTX260

Also, do you get random stutter every now and again?

The only stutter I had was when taking the picture above, likely it is a lot of data and I have everything maxed out (no AA though, fillrate 100% - more than 100 up to 200 made it stutter too). It was tolerable though, I'd hate to tune down the gfx since it isn't really so great even at max.

I plan on buying a gfx285 in November but I am beginning to worry that my unoverclocked quad 2.4 will still slow me down :(

GFX285 is overkill  :) yet I think it's fine with your quad. Could reuse the vidcard anyway should you get a new PC. My rig costed like 1,200€ a microstar Erazer it is, ready-built.

[gvse]

K, thanks for all the answers.
Now, for the editor. Once inside it, select units to place single item/character, or groups to place... groups ;). Then double click anywhere on the map to drop the unit/group, and you will see a new window with a number of options. Select e.g. blufor (for the us side), then from the menu below select what you want: men, men(fr) - spec-ops, ship, buildings, etc. You can also adjust whether they are in cargo/formation, their skill, where they are facing, etc. The important bit here is that selecting a unit as "Player" gives you control over the avatar, "non-playable"=out of your control, "Playable"=you can switch to the unit in case your "Player" unit dies, etc. Once you do that you should see the option "Preview" on the right hand side, so go and preview what you have! :)
It took me a long time to figure out how to put ammo crates on the map. Well, hit unit, double click on the map to open the unit window and, instead of opfor/blufor, select "empty," and this gives you access to yet more vehicles, ammo crates, etc. Now you should be all set for exploration! :)

[Art Blade]

Excellent!  :-X Going to check that out, and maybe I'm going to consult the manual (if there's anything useful in it).

It's fun to discuss that stuff with you and the rest, and I hope everyone else reading here enjoys it too :) We'll keep you posted up, peeps  ;D

[Art Blade]

Alright, managed to enter the editor, double click puts down units or items, and preview allows for playing around. Used a "civilian, male, businessman brown, colonel" as player, put a special ammo crate and special weapons crate down and a blufor combat copter entity. Grabbed mp5sd after playing with marksman rifles, and shot the crew of the copter. I dragged them out, climbed into the machine and took it for a spin  ;D

[Art Blade]

just something for those waiting for a walking man's impression (dunno what that lollipop is... but the big tank to the right looks like it contains flammables  :) )

The MP5SD has three modes of fire: single, 3 rounds burst, full automatic. The silencer works. Sounds more like a blow pipe than anything.

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[Art Blade]

one more, because I think it's both beautiful a view in a village, and fun to see a guy with cap and gun (me, disguised, using the editor) ...and casting a nice shadow

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[gvse]

The big tank does contain flammables but don't expect to blow it up with that gun (as in FC2)! You need satchels with explsoves or an rpg, I think.
Yeah, I like the fact that mp5 has all the firing modes (unlike FC2) and the understated sound is kinda wicked, considering the gun does deadly damage.

A sidenote again: I was thinking of what you said about gtx285 being overkill. Well, I do play at the 1440x900 resolution and perhaps this gpu is indeed too much? Would you care to recommend anything else or refer me to another kind soul on this forum who is tech savvy and would give me some advice?

[Art Blade]

I was just teasing you a little about that card ;D

With a better card you can change to a better resolution, and until november prices will fall I think. I wouldn't say it's too big a card for your CPU, if you can afford it easily, go get it. Else, check the GTX260 - every game so far works maxed out, and my  CPU is a little too much for todays games. The i7 is basically a quadcore @ 2.67GHz but it has additionally four virtual cores, making it an 8-core. Most of the time only two of them are quite busy, the rest of them is slightly bored.

We have some older tech discussions, maybe you can find something here, and here and there or start a new topic. Best in the Off Topic board, then. Hope it helps :)

[gvse]

Thanks, and I will check these threads too. :)

[Art Blade]

Alright, I had another look at the white car's speed (I chose a red one though, same brand anyway). Interestingly it has a 4-speed automatic transmission but no hand brake, goes up to 80km/h, and has a top speed (some kind of turbo, hit forward+shift, or E) of nearly 100. It uses up fuel and can be refuelled... I just did so in the pic (just drive by and wait - refuels automatically)

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[Art Blade]

I'm going to believe that not all here looks "wooden" or that the graphics are not so great.

Some textures are rubbish (rocks on the beach, look at them in the ship wreck pic, floor tiles, concrete walls) like one texture for all, repeatedly all over (you can see some floor tiles, which I tried to hide mostly, in the lollipop pic). If you crawl on grass, the grass falls down in flat sheets as if kicking over thin walls of paper, with a grass motive drawn on them.

But then this... :)

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[PZ]

Great pics - a couple of things:

• Are there people (soldiers or civilians) in the city, i.e., does it exhibit signs of life?
• I love the gas station - worked in one as a kid and still have fond memories.
  

[Art Blade]

Are there people (soldiers or civilians) in the city, i.e., does it exhibit signs of life?

I don't know yet.

- The tutorial/bootcamp showed none (ok, imagine civilians walking across a tank driving school or a shooting range, with armed rookies at w@&k lol) But there was this one mission (that was "house of death" where red and blue body-shaped cardboard targets popped up, red=enemy blue=civilian).

- The editor has the options to place civilians (so I don't see any unless I put them in), resistance fighters, and soldiers. You can see me dressed as a civilian the pic prior to the gas station (the gun doesn't quite match though, but I had control over his mind and body ;) )

So it's at least it's possible.

But the one mission when my team got themselves chopped up in their own copter... I didn't see a soul.

Maybe someone else knows?

[PZ]

Interesting... the reason that I asked was that your city screen capture reminded me of an ancient game by Maxis called SimCopter in which you were a heli pilot on various missions within the Sim world - kind of a lame game, but I really liked it at the time. ;)

As someone has mentioned about FC2 - it would be nice to have at least some areas that were populated with civilians which would need to be considered when mission planning.  :-X

[Art Blade]

I had SimCity first, and later SimCopter, and could fly over my own cities :)

[PZ]

lol, I was cleaning my office to re-organize it a bit the other day and I found the old SimCopter manual - brought back good old memories of trying to get it to run on the first generation Pentium machines - 90mhz, and the game play was choppy (no pun intended).  I too flew over my own cities - was fun.

In fact, I installed SimCity 4 Rush Hour on the gaming PC to see how it runs, and it is amazingly smooth - almost had the urge to continue playing, but FC2 was beckoning me to pillage the world.

[Art Blade]

The editor allows for creating at least small scale villages, there are houses, fences, and lots of small items, traffic signs etc. Probably a military SimCity/Copter mini game in itself  ;)

[PZ]

That would be the cool part - us having the creative liberty to design our own SP experiences (kind of like SimCity), and being able to upload them so that others may enjoy.

[Art Blade]

I start liking the editor. I just pick a vehicle, create a group, and because I don't know perfectly well what to do, sometimes just shoot the driver so the seat is free. Or take command of the driver. I haven't figured out how to give them weapons to spawn with, I need place an ammo and a weapon crate and help myself in game. However, starting to make fun. That's all, then click preview...

Exploring a foreign country, somewhat Russian, could be done this way or another. Would you like to ride on a train (that probably never knew the station your're hanging out waiting for it)...

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or have some fun cross-country, with a personal driver and a hand-picked vehicle waiting for your command...

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... you open the map, click somewhere and make it an order "drive to that location." Then grab a coffee or a whisky, and perhaps a smoke, lean back, and enyoy the ride  :)

[gvse]

Hey guys. Yes, there are civilians in the game, but so far their behavior has been limited to standing about, running for their life, screaming and squatting. The editor lists different occupations for the locals, like doctor, secretary, bla bla, and hooker :). The funny thing is, the game crashes when you play as a hooker and approach a soldier (the punishing hand of god?); nothing happens if you try it the other way round ;).

As for giving your soldier a customized loadout, I couldn't find out how to do that either; hence, I always need to place ammo crates and help myself to whatever I fancy.

Yeah, the easiest way to have a scenic tour is exactly what you have described. You can also place a waypoint in the editor and then select "next way point" from the menu once in game.

[Art Blade]

thanks :) I've tried waypoints and even used music on approaching them LOL. But I noticed I have to be careful, the waypoints "belong" to entities (ie team leader, 2nd unit etc). Not sure if that is very important, though.

I also noticed the AI isn't exactly fit for driving vehicles. Besides other things. When you allow yourself to be driven around in a "cab" of sorts, you'll soon feel the urge to pull your gun and at last shoot the driver right on the spot in the head and spit on it:
  My driver(s) find it amusing to take some shortcuts literally cross country, which isn't a bad idea (thinking of FUEL), but then, on a deserted road with two lanes (which they drive fastest on) they think "oh? this isn't a straight road? A few degrees off, perhaps? Why, let's brake to full stop and try find a way out of that maze."
  The next variant would be dashing off at a bone-breaking speed just so they can't  brake when they should. Leading them to smacking into traffic signs (or even get stuck between two poles of a big sign), ramming down fences, going waaaaay off track - which is extremely annoying because vehicles tend to slow down very much when off road - and fighting their way back sloooowly.
  At least you can shoot the driver and get the job done yourself, which is refreshing sometimes. Especially nice when driving boats.. man that's fun, the black rubber boat  ;D

About selecting (also playable) characters, you get a selection that starts with "male" but - no females LOL! So you found a lovely dame and she brought the virtual walls down, eh!  ;) Reminds me... have you got some new screenshots to share with us?