*** ArmA II Thread - OA, CO, PMC, BAF ***

Caporegime
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not really even on maxxed settings a reasonable machine will handle it with ease and it will still look dated it is half way through 2012 and this game was out in 2009 :D
 
Soldato
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3paragu ace and no ace servers for domination games and 15thmeu servers which do a lot of mission based coop. once you play this on a proper coop server and not one full of cod rambos, the game really comes into its own.
 

bJN

bJN

Soldato
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One of the youtubers I sub to has posted allot of Arma II vids lately and although it does look quite realistic in terms of a lot of walking about with not much happening, then sudden fire fights, the main thing putting me off is whenever he looked down his iron sights there was a very distracting popup with any trees, they seemed to suddenly grow extra leaves out of nowhere whenever he zoomed in. Please tell me this was just down to his graphic settings and that this type popup can be totally removed, such that looking down your iron sights does not change the level of detail to this degree.

Probably because he was using low AF settings - most GPUs will handle that being pushed up quite a bit - it's the AA that really nukes the FPS (and in my opinion makes the game look too 'blurry')!
 
Soldato
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ArmA2/OA seems to be semi niche and that many people turn away after trying out the vanilla story or coop but to me, this really is the worst part of the game, remember this is my opinion.

In fact, everything about the vanilla game and public play is what I hate about the famed DayZ, I've played plenty of mods and survival modes but what days does unique is persistance of gear and you're pretty much again other players who want your beans, I'll give it that much, but depth and replayability... it doesn't go all that far after a while.

I wouldn't even recommend public play on domination server and the like, there just something you never get outside of a proper arma community who have structure and maturity.


When you start playing with people like United Operations, Shacktac, 6th Sense etc it's a game changer, I never play the campaigns anymore, I've tried them but it's not why I play the game.

Playing with 130 people in team vs team or close versus AI is a sight to behold, you aren't wandering around thinking what the hell is going on, where do I go? who do I shoot? where is everyone? like a lot of new players do in public servers.


not really even on maxxed settings a reasonable machine will handle it with ease

This is completely dependant on so, so many variables, high AA is a kicker, as is post process (I don't use PP) and depends on what fine is to some people. 30 seems to be fine for a few, 50+ for me. Object detail on some maps on max too. Chernarus, the default map has got to be the worst perfomance wise and all 3rd party ones blow it out of the water for me.

Also depends how many people you play with, a 4 player coop where you don't host can net you 70-90 fps on most things max, hosting is the problem though as you're running lots of AI in the background and I get 25-40 on a mission I would 70-90 not hosting.

Probably because he was using low AF settings - most GPUs will handle that being pushed up quite a bit - it's the AA that really nukes the FPS (and in my opinion makes the game look too 'blurry')!
Did some testing yesterday for other purposes and object detail changes how... well, detailed stuff will look from range and zoome in/out, a low setting of this while making popping up a lot more apparent.
 
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Soldato
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Did some testing yesterday for other purposes and object detail changes how... well, detailed stuff will look from range and zoome in/out, a low setting of this while making popping up a lot more apparent.

This is the thing I am talking about, whenever he looked down his sights it took like a whole second for object detail to "dissolve" in. Might not sound like much, but it I know I would find it very distracting if it couldn't be turned off, as I am usually always looking down the sights for the extra zoom. I appreciate a lot of games have this type of LOD effect, but the slow way it updated the view each time really turned me off tbh. So, from what you say, if you ramp this particular setting up to the max, this can be removed completely, at the expense of fps of course?
 
Soldato
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This is the thing I am talking about, whenever he looked down his sights it took like a whole second for object detail to "dissolve" in. Might not sound like much, but it I know I would find it very distracting if it couldn't be turned off, as I am usually always looking down the sights for the extra zoom. I appreciate a lot of games have this type of LOD effect, but the slow way it updated the view each time really turned me off tbh. So, from what you say, if you ramp this particular setting up to the max, this can be removed completely, at the expense of fps of course?

Yeah, but not at ridiculous ranges, like 1mile shots from a sniper rifle etc.
 
Associate
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Played it online at release and it was fun, mainly because it was PvE servers and lots of people. I gave up playing Arma 2 online mainly because of the elitist community that was left, it was impossible to join a server with a friend that would allow flying or access to content unless you were an admin etc, and constantly got kicked/banned for not doing what the server admin wanted you to do. Somewhat ironically the Arma 2 community complains about lack of players are now complaining about Day z popularity :rolleyes:. I'd probably still play it online if it wasn't like that.
 
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The original Operation Flashpoint was very flawed (I still have nightmares about the clipping issues) but it won Game of the Year because it was truly revolutionary in many aspects (game play and programming technology) and had a good story-based campaign. The first addon, Red Hammer, was pretty crappy because it was developed by Codemasters (almost no input from BIS) and was simply greed trying to milk the GotY OFP. They redeemed themselves slightly with Resistance (developed by BIS, not Codemasters) which did fix some of the major bugs, gave a new island and had a reasonable campaign.

Once BIS dumped Codemasters, they worked on Arma (the development of which was heavily diluted by working on an Xbox version of OFP). My theory is that without the financial backing of Codemasters, they had to release Arma very prematurely in order to get some cash in and keep themselves afloat. As far as I know, BIS have never admitted to this, but having watched all of these developments, it seems pretty obvious to me. Although the Xbox development helped their programming technology (and provided a bit more revenue for them), Arma was seriously broken and it left a lot of us disillusioned.

Next came ArmaII (which is what Arma should have been if it had finished its development cycle). It still has huge potential, but has taken a long time to get ironed out fully and for computer technology to catch up with it; I largely ignored it because my Q6600 simply couldn't handle it. Only now that I have an i5 IB, can I properly investigate ArmaII. I'll have to give this DayZ thing a go some time.

However, ArmaII still lacks the polish that most mainstream gamers expect, its learning curve is very steep and the game play is too challenging for most (not a run-and-gun kind of game).

I'm expecting a lot from ArmaIII as I think they finally have enough financial capital and experience behind them to develop it fully. The emphasis on polish this time around should ensure a better acceptance from the mainstream, as evidenced by the fact that it was voted one of the three most interesting games at the past E3.
 
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I enjoy Arma 2 and OA immensely, I've also played Arma 1 briefly although it is not as enjoyable for me.

I started playing OA ACE today, didn't seem like a radical departure from the default game but I'll see how it goes.

Is ACE for original Arma 2 still popular?
 
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I'm a massive fan of these games, I can't recommend them more highly they represent so much value for money its unreal, the mission editor alone is worth the price of admission IMO.
I know people who when they first started to play complained about clunky controls or how slow the game can feel, but everyone of them who has persevered now barely play any other military combat games, once you get into them there really is nothing that comes close, the Battlefield & COD series of games are Arcade style shooters, the ARMA series of games are Military Simulators! too get the most out of them expect a steeper learning curve.
 
Soldato
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I'm a massive fan of these games, I can't recommend them more highly they represent so much value for money its unreal, the mission editor alone is worth the price of admission IMO.
I know people who when they first started to play complained about clunky controls or how slow the game can feel, but everyone of them who has persevered now barely play any other military combat games, once you get into them there really is nothing that comes close, the Battlefield & COD series of games are Arcade style shooters, the ARMA series of games are Military Simulators! too get the most out of them expect a steeper learning curve.

I don't know how people can complain about the slow combat, do they want every bloody FPS to be balls to the wall action? Its a nice change of pace, and besides when you actually get into combat its crazier than most games, and when you actually nail an enemy, especially when your under heavy fire, it actually feels satisfying, like you did something good.

Whereas on most shooter's, each person you kill is just one tiny sheep in a giant pasture.
 

HR4

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Its far from overlooked, BIS forum will open your eyes.

Operation Flashpoint with code masters was not the first OFP.
BIS have made lots of games but the arma series consist of; original OFP pc only, OFP Elite on the original xbox console only, Operation Flashpoint (Dragon Rising) went into legal wrangle over rights etc with codemasters console/pc, then came the true successor to OFP which was Arma pc only, then came Arma 2 pc only, Arma 3 pc only, is in production now.

They also made VBS/VBS2 both simulators for government use, but there is a lite VBS2 available complete with Editor, a fine sim..

Arma series is by far the most realistic war game/sim available imo, I play in a group of around 30 of us, and A2 is a big part of the overall game we play.

I have OFP (original), OFP Elite original xbox, OFP Dragon rising (sorry but I kept it although never play it now), Arma, VBS2 lite, Arma 2 (plus OA, BAF & PMC), and a rig waiting for Arma 3.

PC is the best format for Arma as its just too large for a console to play as it was intended to play.

I bought a 360 just for Dragon Rising as I wanted to see what the console version was like, it was not BIS at work here it was Codemasters, a complete washout of a game, not along the series idea.

The ‘Editor’ is BIS’s finest achievement imo and making missions, as I and a couple of others do for the group we play in, is what makes arma series so great. (dragon rising console did not include a editor).

Ace is a must for arma/arma2 (ace 2), acre is team speak, quote from their readme “the most realistic and immersive radio system within the current gaming world”.

As a group we play around 200 mods inc islands, over 400 mods are on my storage hdd, so the game is possibly the most supported of pc games around.

The must 'ai' mods are GL4 and SLX mixed, some parts taken from each. They have been copied since by some, but never bettered imo.
There are lots of other ai mods that we use for stance animation etc, but those are the main two..

You need a fairly good system to run Arma 2, but not, as some people will tell you, one from NASA..;)

Oh and yes there is another A2 thread on here...

Edit; forgot to mention all the added bits like Operation Arrowhead, CO, BAF, PMC etc, but really they are all A2 based. Plus of course Iron Front, although not a BIS game it uses the A2 engine.
.
 
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