Arma 2 @GC (Screenshots + Info) Options

[Deadeye]

Screenshots taken from the Gamestar.de Preview

To Discuss these screenshots please head over to THIS Forum Thread.

[Deadeye]

[Deadeye]

Screenshots taken from the Gamestar.de Preview (High-res collected by Acci)

To Discuss these screenshots please head over to THIS Forum Thread.

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Pictures + informations released by Maruk :



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[Deadeye]

ArmA 2 press Kit + Infos + Screenshots






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To Discuss these screenshots please head over to THIS Forum Thread

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[Deadeye]

Presentation at the Games-TV.com stand :

Link to the video :
http://vimeo.com/1581577

Link to our news + Download

http://www.armedassault.info/index.php?cat=news&id=1191

Small summary by Raptor (BIS Forums)

Sofar some Facts.

The BIS employee admits several times that stuff is not finished some parts aren't working and so on.

In the first minutes (beside the screen presentation) he said the same as we can read in the pdfs. ( island, vehicels, story and so on)

4:45 : landscape in CZ.
towns are smaller, but more real. That's because the townstructure is more detailed.(buildings, streets aso.)

5:56 min. he goes on with the realistic weapons...

6:50 introducing the mountainbike.
The mountainbike is wiggleing like in real and the missiondesigner placed some downhilltracks (prepared some missions).

7:25 Animals in ArmA.
Missiondesigner have the possibilities to place animals in the map. (comment: I understand, that the animals aren't present on the map, so the missiondesigner must place them for their missions, I think its the same with the civilisation )

8:44 introducing the KI scene.
4vs4
(comments: you see the new KI)
he said that he can start the same scenario three times and the ending will be different.

11:10 introduced the possibility to destroy every thing, but not the ground. They tried to integrate the newest vehicles.

12:20 MP. They are several Mp Types and ofcause the warfare mod.

12:58 scripting engine with more than 1200 scripting commands.

13:20 Warfare for 32 players. but sofar the playerlimit is server limited ( eg. USMC palyed in Lan 120 players)
They work on the Netcode to improve it more.

Last sequences:
You can see the Ki still have probelms.
The Release in Germany is Q4 2008.

To Discuss these screenshots please head over to THIS Forum Thread

[Deadeye]

Armabase.de Questions/Answers Üart 1

Translated by telejunky (Administrator @ armabase.de) :

Is there a basic change with the scripting commands oder language? Are there new features for the editor?

Yes, besides a new bunch of scripting commands and simplifications (e.g. automatic completion) there will be some kind of database. There you can read for what this or these codes stand for and copy them if needed right to the editor. For many users it sounds very simple to put the VBS 2 3d editor into ArmA 2, but it is a different System, Marek told. There will be some kinde of 3D Editing but not in realtime like the Army is using. Snakeshit should know this better.


How about beta testing? Will they launch a demo?

Nope, it seems that there wont be any beta for public/ chosen people, only the team itself. But Marek said, that a demo will be aviable for public. He cannot answer if it will be released before the the actual game is released. We are still hoping to test the demo before we bet our money on the wrong horse.


Did they improved the A.I.? E.g. handling convoys, taking cover.

Compared to ArmA 1, the new AI with its “Micro-AI” the artificial soldiers are able to park unused vehicles besides the road. They can lean round the corner or use suppressive fire to frighten the enemy. Therefore the A.I. is on its way to be a charmant and fair enemy.
This new “Micro-AI” is rather the brain on the near battleground, its causing some more natural and tactical events.


What System is needed? How does a System running ArmA 1 smooth challenge ArmA 2?

Basicly smooth is spread to different opinions. If you are a lucky guy and you owned a dual core cpu with some mainstream cards like (X1950Pro/2600XT/7800GTX/8600GT, equal wether DX 10 or 9), then you should be able to run ArmA 2 smooth with a resolution of 1280 width. I am not able to estimate other things. Necessary needed is a graphics card with shader model 3. There are people out there using a large scale monitor, but they only use mainstream cards – according to BIS you have no to be frightened. There will be a function implanted that will better upscale low resolutions.


How is the engine using more than one cpu core?

Sorry, but I cannot say it very specific. But I do know, that the performance drop form two to one core will be significant. Persons, who overclocked their old Pentium 4 to the orbital speed should have a chance , too.

Generally, ArmA 2 could run even on older systems. Due to the cpu evolution, newer architectures are mostly based on two or more cores, so that odler cpus with only one core do not naturally have the performance which is needed. BIS wont hear the complaints of people getting 9-0 fps with their old Celeron…


How are the civilians? Are the any kinds of rpg elements? Is the player able to change his abilities?

There is something really new: with only a few code it is possible to activate the civilian- and wildlife. After that you can find people in villages of Chernaurus, which flew of conflict zones or they do have a daily cycle. They drive, talk to each other or go into their houses at evening.

There is no possibilities to change your abilities. If you collect every Mission the campaign, the “story time” will be something around 2 weeks. So it would not fit to the story if your characters got more muscles etc…But they have different “load outs” for their specific jobs.


How ist he new dialogue system?

With this new feature you are able to get informationes by civilians where the enemy is supposed to be. It will be a kind of answer system you know from adventures.

The dynamic campaign

With the above mentioned communications menu you can also warn people. It is to you if you are strict to the plan and attack the tank in the village, where civilians are. But you can also warn the civilians or abort the mission. Marek told me, that your decision really makes a different ending to the further campaign. As you already know it: Every decision retight its consequences.

The campaign is not an “On Going War” with its automatic generated mission as we were told in the past. Considering that BIS wants to tell a story with the protagonist of the razor team, it is not that very dynamic, but more interesting how the story of the conflict grows up.

What about the equipment? Are we able to attach different moduls to our weapon?
Nope, weapons are not build modular, so you are not able to attach anything like scopes or flashlights. But the animations of the weapons are awesome: every single mechanical part is animated! Wow! I think there will be a video soon

best regards

telejunky form armabase.de

Furthermore the Armabase Team recorded a short video of the "High Commander" Modus :

Quote undeceived @BIS Forums :

The video is about a so called "High Commander Mode".
It has a length of 10 minutes, featuring a cool introduction by the armabase.de guys (although the noises are pretty loud) and also Elton (a silly german comedian... ) playing Guitar Hero at the end.

Link to the video : http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPviguWivU4

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And last but not least W0lle visited the BIS stand and wrote a personal review after playing Arma 2 for a while :

I visited BIS at the GC on Friday. And what I've seen in the more then six hours was anything then I expected. Even though it was an early version, it was running very stable on both PCs except the one or other CTD. Compared to ArmA this is something totally different while familiar at the same time, with different lightning effects depending on the weather situation and time of day. You literally can feel a rain coming in for example. You might say "We have that already" but it's still something different and hard to explain actually. Lightning comes from different sources like street lamps, vehicles or the light of the moon and stars.
A much better AI then what we have now, even though not completely done yet. I've seen fightings going on in the woods and each time I've seen the same scene the behaviour of the AI was different.
Here are some of the things I remember:

- Even more realistic tides and stars
- Village signs are in cyrillic
- Better animations then we have now
- Improved lightning, no more shining vehicles when sunlight falls on them
- More fractions on each side: USMC vs. Russia and also two local fractions on each side
- Very dense road network with a lot of dirt tracks going into the landscape. I played around with it for like an hour, driving and running around in Chernarus. I got lost several times, despite the dense road network
- No trains, the tracks are just to improve the scenery
- No rivers or streams but small lakes
- Most buildings are not be enterable, but almost each one is destroyable. If they get too much damage they collapse like in ArmA
- Very nice church with incredible details
- Many, many different vehicles, actually too many to remember but: Crossbike, Mountainbike, BMP-1, BMP-2 and BMP-3, T-90, Avenger HMMWV, Mi-24, Kamov, PV3S, Ural with ZU-23, Tunguska, LAV-25. The editor menus are full of different vehicles and these in different configurations
- The BMP-3 has 3 gunner positions (2x front MGs, 1x main gun), the Mi-17 has gunners in the side door, rear door and the front.
- M1 with loader position, without a loader the gunner must switch to loader position and reload, then switch back to fire
- Both F-35 and Osprey take off vertically, but not sure if the AI can too
- Aimpoint optics looking much better now
- Player can interact with all units when he is near them and AI starts to forget about things, example:
Some russian tanks passed a village before.
If you ask someone in the village about tanks in the area after two days, they might say: yes there were 4 tanks going through yesterday
If you ask them 2 weeks after they passed, they might say: Yes there might have been tanks but i can't remember
- Campaign can be played with up to 4 players. It's not limited to that but because in the campaign there are only 4 members in the force recon team.
- Womans and many other civilians, old and young ones which fit perfectly into the area
- Civilians randomly move around in villages. While i was walking around in a village suddenly some russian patrol was there while the area was clear as I started
- Animals: Dog, Rabbit, Boar, Sheep, wild pig and a few more
- Editor is the same one we know already but has now a debug console where you can do all kind of stuff like pausing the game and fly with the camera around
- The command interface is slightly different, like order your men in a vehicle is now: Select them -> 9 –> Complex command -> Get in vehicle
- The vehicles are extremely detailed, like moving instruments, retracting gear, electronics in the wheel well, scratches
- Wounded units roll on the ground in pain
- Wounded or dead units can be dragged or carried
- Dualcore support, one core is used for the Micro-AI

Overall it looks and feels much better then ArmA, even if you consider that it's an early version. In fact, I haven't expected it to be like this

I was at CM too and what I've seen there was anything then impressing. Most of the time you either seen render images or video stills. At BIS I've seen a game running in front of me all over the time, paused only to show some details. A game I was able to use, to drive or walk around in it and not just a huge presentation with selected stuff. I was able to say, show me this and can I see that and it was shown to me. No chance for BIS to show only what has been done yet.

Big thanks to Marek, Jan and the Idea guys for a great day, their patience with me and the chance to see and use ArmA2 live.

To Discuss this new footage please head over to THIS Forum Thread

[Deadeye]

Once again the Armabase.de team has released a video from the ArmA 2 GC presentation. This time Ivan Buchta showed them the old/new AI.

In fact the new AI is the Old Ai, but in Arma 2 the AI system has been improved a lot. Furthermore the so called Micro-KI has been added, which allows the AI soldier to react more realistic in a battle. That means the soldier will decide to flee when he is outnumbered, the soldiers take cover and secure their surroundings without receiving a command from the player. The Ai also use hand signals.

Another AI system that has been improved is the pathfinding. For example AI vehicles will drive on the right side of the road, there won#t be a collision with incoming traffic anymore.

Link to the YouTube Video : http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=hZblVD855jY&...ex.php?cat=news

Thanks to the Armabase.de team and of course BIS (especially Ivan Buchta) for showing them WIP ArmA 2 in detail.