[Official] ArmA 2 (PC) , Q2+ 2009

[_dandy_]

Did you know? Steam sales grow by almost 100% every year. That definitely tells you something, eh?

Irrelevant. Physical media, or no sale.

[Viper217]

Irrelevant. Physical media, or no sale.

well then here you go:

http://www.amazon.com/ArmA-II-Pc/dp/B002CU...1129&sr=8-1

[Sethos]

Patch 1.3 has just been released.

VERSION 1.03 HIGHLIGHTS

---------------------------------------------------

* Major AI tweaking and balancing (especially AI infantry can hear much less)

* Improved multiplayer and cooperative campaign (saving games, connection issues)

* Numerous fixes and improvements in the Harvest Red campaign

CHANGELOG:

Spoiler:

show spoiler

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Engine

------

* New: Functions getPosATL and setPosATL to allow controlling position relative to terrain.

* New: command line option -showScriptErrors introduced to show errors in scripts on-screen

* New: Direct analogue throttle and brake for airplanes now available.

* New: More flexible configuration of Flares in the config (brightness, size)

* New: Mission name (with * indicated unsaved work) displayed in the mission editor

* New: Keyboard shortcuts in the mission editor

* Improved: better handling of gravitation for shots (esp. for grenades)

* Improved: Building destruction

* Improved: Better airplane HUD visibility both night and day

* Optimization: Reduced frame stutter near map borders.

* Hotfix: Players are forced to reconnect after MP Load on server.

* Fixed: no particles effect when hit object with destructNo

* Fixed: grenade could destroy a building just by impact

* Fixed: grenades may explode only on the final impact

* Fixed: when a grenade bounces on a ship deck, the proper particle effects is shown now

* Fixed: missiles should pass through vegetation

* Fixed: Player connected to loaded game was sometimes frozen.

* Fixed: Game crashed when launched on a system with more then 8 CPUs/cores.

* Fixed: Possible crash with laser designator active.

* Fixed: Sometimes crew of a close vehicle was visible through the vehicle.

* Fixed: Infinite looping of commands 'Stop' in radio.

* Fixed: Leaning 'limits' do not work in TrackIR.

* Fixed: Clients were often endlessly stuck in 'Receiving...' window after MP Load.

* Fixed: Rainbow could be visible even with sun below horizon.

* Fixed: 3D Editor - civilian and resistance units did not work correctly

* Fixed: Sea surface was not rendered in NE area out of map.

* Fixed: Terrain surface was sometimes using wrong parallax map.

* Fixed: Grenade could sometimes destroy a building just by impact

* Fixed: Radio messages sometimes echoed

* Fixed: Team switch did not work when player died

* Fixed: Reduced AI detecting slowly moving enemy vehicles by ear.

* Fixed: Prevent killed AI units reporting who killed them.

* Fixed: After respawn in MP, player's tasks, diary content and skills are transferred to the new entity

* Fixed: Leaning 'limits' did not work with TrackIR

* Fixed: MP client frozen in Receiving... screen sometimes

* Fixed: Problems with saving and loading games in cooperative campaign

Missions

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* Fixes and improvements in most of the campaign missions (Into the Storm, Harvest Red, Bitter Chill, Manhattan, Badlands, Dogs of War)

* Improved: autosave logic to not save when it was not safe

* Improved: Eye for an Eye in Scenarios

Modules

---------

* Fixed: Warfare fast travel on clients was not using logistic values

* Fixed: Warfare money sending

* Fixed: Warfare HQ multiple reports

* Fixed: First-Aid: Action module caused healing scripts to run twice

* Fixed: Supply drop not ending (wrong vehicle class)

* New: First-Aid modules work with respawn

* New: First-Aid ability to stop healing

* New: Added ability to add Support Requests that do not expire.

* Improved: First-Aid modules more robust and faster

* Improved: Better support for side Resistance in SOM / ACM.

Data

---------

* Fixed: Invisible driver in UAZ (MG and GL)

* Fixed: AI soldiers were able to hear extremely well

* Fixed: various minor problems on buildings

* Fixed: rocks destruction effect changed

* Fixed: penetrability of some vegetation

* Fixed: collision geometry of A_BuildingWIP

* Fixed: react FSM core conversations

* Fixed: cargo animations in LAV25

* Fixed: indicators in Ka52 when using NVG

* Fixed: cargo animations in BTR

* Fixed: Warfare keypoint on Chernarus

Clocks in at 134MB.

Links

[Boz]

YAY!!!!!

[cropcircles]

A new developer's diary #3 : Team Command;

part 1 & 2

I'm a little uncomfortable in FPS perspective to aim at squad memeber with my rifle to move them to a different location. He did mention these are default settings. Also watched the 2nd video. That tank was moving like a Ford Mustang, also sounded like it had a hemi engine ! Thanks for the video. Looks pretty fun.

[jonhapimp]

Arma will never look as good as the latest gen FPS simply because no other game goes into the level of detail, physics and simulation allowing you so many options and realism. Considering that COD MW2 (which i can't wait for) or even COD4 or KZ2 look stunningly great, they are still arcade shooters. They are there to provide you with mindless fun. Simple in and out and since it's all linear and pre-scripted they can afford doing some super special effects and high quality graphics.

With this being said, ARMA 2 is not KZ2 but it certainly doesn't look bad. It look great, the explosions and everything in that world is realistic. ARMA 3 will probably look completely like real life if ARMA 2 looks as good as it does.

I'm really impressed with graphics nonetheless. The mapping, the textures, smoke, explosions, physics look and feel great or at least great enough to be completely immersed into the game.

Tell me a game today that can do this in a completely unscripted way and look this real:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khG8pVEmzO4.swf

Or an engine that can simulate war with 1500 AI units:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KK6Fo3Y0AU.swf

Or capture city/town combat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy_osU-eA8s.swf

I can tell you. Not a single one that I know of.

freaking great that looks amazing now i want this game, it's between this and an sidewinder x8 mouse :crazy:

[HawkMan]

So now that I bought the full version, how do I get my sniper not to jump off every building I order him up on, or I climb up with him, then I get forced back in control of the leader after I kill the target...

Is there some kind of Anti depressant pills I can equip him with or something ? I'm pretty sure his personell jacket did mark him as suicidal though, yet, give him 5 seconds on top of something tall enough to kill him, and he'll jump.

[Sethos]

My love for this game just keeps growing for each day that goes by :laugh:

Me and a dozen of other people were members of a Danish ArmA II community but the so-called 'leader' of this community went totally crazy, closed everything down and took the servers offline. We decided to create our own project, a little clan. First few weeks it was looking a bit bleak but now the hard work is finally paying off. Own website, server, we have high-ranking officers from the Danish military joining us and today we became the more or less official beta-testers of the Danish units for ArmA II, made by a guy called "Frandsen" which every self-respecting Danish ArmA II player should have heard of and even those who frequent the modding community should recognize his name.

Lovin' it :wub:

[HawkMan]

My love for this game just keeps growing for each day that goes by :laugh:

Me and a dozen of other people were members of a Danish ArmA II community but the so-called 'leader' of this community went totally crazy, closed everything down and took the servers offline. We decided to create our own project, a little clan. First few weeks it was looking a bit bleak but now the hard work is finally paying off. Own website, server, we have high-ranking officers from the Danish military joining us and today we became the more or less official beta-testers of the Danish units for ArmA II, made by a guy called "Frandsen" which every self-respecting Danish ArmA II player should have heard of and even those who frequent the modding community should recognize his name.

Lovin' it :wub:

did he make an anti depressants pill box mod for my sniper yet.

or at the very least a non auto save mod(since auto save will all throw him off any ladders he happen to be on, or a no forced switch to leader on objective complete chatter.

it's bugging the hell out of me, and making my sniper useless, even more since I prefer being a sniper but apparently the game don't think you should be leader and sniper, or at least not the guys who made the campaign, since if the campaign says your leader is one type of solder, then you are. and you can't switch leadership to the character of your choice. annoying.

sure these aren't problem in MP, but they certainly are in solo wich is also a part of the game. much like the missing counter sound I get error abotu between every mission.

[Sethos]

'ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead' Announced

Three years after the conflict in Chernarus, portrayed in the original ARMA II, a new flashpoint in the Green Sea region heats up and coalition forces led by the US Army are sent to Takistan to quickly restore peace and prevent further civilian casualties.

Set into the new, visually attractive environment of hilly central Asia, Operation Arrowhead will offer realistic combat simulation experience in a modern day setting with unprecedented freedom of movement, actions and tactics. Players will enlist into various roles within the US Army, from basic infantrymen, through special operatives, to pilots and tank crew in this new installment in the award winning line up of military simulators for PC from Bohemia Interactive.

ARMA II Operation Arrowhead will be presented during the Gamescom; trade fair for interactive games and entertainment in Cologne, Germany 19th ? 23rd August 2009. Visit us at our stand in hall 4.2, stand no. L034.

"Bohemia Interactive is fully committed to supporting the existing ARMA II user base whilst also working on the expansion pack, this will not only allow us to introduce a new and original theater of war to the simulation series, but also improve numerous areas of the core game, for both the original game and the expansion, where we can go even further with adding completely new features" said Marek Spanel, Bohemia?s CEO.

Join the duty in ARMA II, this ultimate military simulator, and get a taste of what it takes to be a soldier in a modern warfare conflict!

Worthplaying

Bit early but again, I love this game and they could release an expansion a month, it wouldn't bother me.

[HawkMan]

If they're going to put my beloved longbows in the game, they better do it right, and it's flight control better be a million times better than what it is now, or I'll hunt them down with dull kitchen knives and give them what they deserve.

you do not take the longbow lightly, and it better be up to the quality of the old Jane's AH64 Longbow game, in every way and then some. If they're going to mess it up they can stick to that Comanche ****.

though shouldn't they fix the obvious bugs before they do addons.

[Sethos]

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=6803

They are constantly fixing bugs, patch 1.04 is already in the pipe and bug fixing is one of their main priorities. As for your flight control concerns, you can already go find your dull kitchen knifes, the flight model has pretty much remained unchanged ever since Operation Flashpoint, except a slight change in how the helicopter pivoted from OFP to AA. You're better off waiting for the mod tools to be released and the community to start working on realistic controls, Armed Assault also had a few addons overhauling the "air" controls and the entire feel of it.

That's the beauty of Bohemia Interactive games, the community will sort out pretty much anything they 'missed'.

[HawkMan]

Well I haven't actually done any mod stuff since.... hmmm damn... practically forever. And I even used to be pretty heavily into it back in the TA days.

And while I'll accept using mods to fix broken flight models, actual bugs though, like my suicidal sniper, that should be fixed by the dev, and fast. and I mean, sending your sniper up the tall factory building in the .. whatever mission, to take out the sniper is the obvious tactical solution. So you'd think they would have caught the at least 3 different bugs that make him suicide. but ah well, I guess they didn't pay much attention to the AI and solo game script side of things.

I hope online is a bit better than it was in other PC games though, only after buying UT3 on the PC, I realize how spoiled I've become by XBL. I just can't get past how annoying and archaic server hunting is, and manually finding a server that's not only low ping, has open spots, has players, doesn't use stupid mods and all that is. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

[Dwarden]

small shocking A2 related surprise quite soon :evil: :)

[Sethos]

small shocking A2 related surprise quite soon :evil: :)

Sounds interesting :)

[Sethos]

I'd like to give an honourable add-on mention, Sounds of War 1.0; http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=6902

Created by a member of the FDF crew which pretty much means quality and that seems to hold true with this sound-pack! He did an amazing job, I suggest any ArmA II player to check it out.

[Dwarden]

http://www.bistudio.com/developers-blog/ar...eased-2_en.html

From now on, the latest beta patches for Arma 2 are available to everyone from http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php including detailed change logs.

Arma 2 Beta is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It may be updated often and we use it to verify that a bug we are tracking has been fixed. This semi-automated release pipeline was designed primarily for our various external QA teams but we believe it makes sense to keep this open and transparent to the entire user community. However, please understand that it's released for advanced users only and for those who would like to give their helping hand with the testing and further development or simply to see what future versions of Arma 2 may bring.

If you're not interested in testing beta patches (which of course is completely understandable), please just ignore this message and act as if you never read it as there's simply no reason for you to bother about the beta builds at all. There is no need to start complaining about the open beta release policy as we believe it's doing no harm to anyone and can only speed up the entire development process. The complexity of Arma 2 has reached a nearly critical level, especially with all of the user addons and modifications, that testing of the game also requires a more agile approach and this is our attempt to address it.

We have evaluated the Arma 1 public beta versions system used in the past and tried to improve it, not only to allow much faster cycle but also to avoid unwanted userbase split in multiplayer (we will try to maintain compatibility between various versions in multplayer to achieve this).

We make the beta builds for testing only, but it will also allow community developers to test their own content in new versions of the game before it's released officially in stable and tested patch form. For the public beta patch, we write code and post the results frequently, so anyone can join our testing process and report bugs. However, Arma 2 Beta might introduce some new problems from time to time and may not even start properly, so please do not download Arma 2 beta builds if you're unwilling to put up with problems to help with the testing of the game and stick with the latest official release instead.

We tried to create the whole beta program in as user friendly a manner as possible, but feel free to post your suggestions here.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

-----------------------------------------

- ANY ORIGINAL VERSION OF ARMA 2 from 1.03 (including Steam version)

- DirectX 9 March 2009 is required

HOW TO INSTALL AND RUN THE BETA PATCH

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Run the patch exe to apply the patch setup automatically (you may be prompted to choose your exact version in some occasions).

* It will install all beta content to a mod folder "Beta", including the beta exe (that has to be run properly with working directory set to the main game installation, see below for more information)

* To launch Arma2 beta patch you need to go to the main game directory and click on shortcut "Launch Arma2 Beta Patch"

* You can configure your Arma 2 with Beta Patch including other mods etc., just make make sure that:

in your ArmA Shortcut start-up Target line;

- You are running the Arma2.exe from your "beta" folder.

- You have "beta" in your modfolder as in -mod=beta

example: "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\beta\arma2.exe" -mod=beta

- Make sure the shortcut's "Start In" section refers to main "Arma 2 " main working folder and NOT "Arma 2/beta"

example: "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2"

You can always run your Arma 2 final version in the main Arma 2 folder if you use default application shortcuts, start menu or run the regular arma2.exe without the beta mod folder.

[Huleboeren]

I'd like to give an honourable add-on mention, Sounds of War 1.0; http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=6902

Created by a member of the FDF crew which pretty much means quality and that seems to hold true with this sound-pack! He did an amazing job, I suggest any ArmA II player to check it out.

Will it work online?

beta snip

Yeah I was playing with a guy today that was running the new beta

but the rest of the server was on 1.03 final :s

[Sethos]

Will it work online?

Of course :)

[Dwarden]

lot of screenshops from upcoming expansion : http://dslyecxi.com/screens/ArmA2/Arrowhead/

[Sethos]

There's also an interview http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=6934

Is there going to be a functional FLIR system out of the box (everything has heat based textures)

Jennik: Yes, there will be a FLIR system. We have one of the most sophisticated FLIR simulation systems already done for VBS2 and we will bring it in Arrowhead to fans of ARMA2 too.

Will the game have Functional IR lasers (PEQ units) like in vbs2? Or Flashlights?

Jennik: I'm glad to say: Yes, and yes.

Those features got me really excited, the recently released community FLIR addon is pathetic and a proper, fully working FLIR is most welcome. Oh and IR Lasers is almost a must if you're making a game with the US Army.

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

Is the Multi-player for ArmA II better than the single player? I'm playing the single player at the minute and it's a bit dull (IMO). I know the multiplayer on Armed Assault was good, but haven't had the chance to play online on 2 yet.

[Sethos]

Is the Multi-player for ArmA II better than the single player? I'm playing the single player at the minute and it's a bit dull (IMO). I know the multiplayer on Armed Assault was good, but haven't had the chance to play online on 2 yet.

Definitely, you just need to find a decent clan or a regular server and play some proper co-op with some voice, proper teamwork etc. it's the only way you should play this game. Despite being a massive fan I haven't even bothered touching the single-player portion of the game yet.

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

Cheers Sethos, that's a relief :laugh:

[Dwarden]

new public beta available on usual place ... http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php

[59088] Mouse lag can caused by GPU render ahead buffer be limited using GPU_MaxFramesAhead=N in ArmA2.cfg.

this may help even more to users who got issues with mouse 'lag' ...