[Game] The ArmA 2 thread (hurr hurr, no Armed Assault 2)

[Flogger23m]

How are the British Forces and PMC addons? Do the require ArmA 2 AO?

Do they bring any new additions to the game such as proper animations, better AI, ect.?

 

[Amerikaner]

How are the British Forces and PMC addons? Do the require ArmA 2 AO?

Do they bring any new additions to the game such as proper animations, better AI, ect.?

No none of that I think it's pretty much just models, textures, voicework, and missions. I have the Brit pack. I like it but it's worth really depends on how much you want to play Arma with Brits or if you want new missions. I'm not sure about requirements.

 

[DraKon2k]

Just a quick question: Are the british forces & pmc dlc packs better than ArmA2/OA in SP? (As in actually working) I'm always kinda on the brink of reinstalling ArmA2, but in the end I'd only do it if I knew there was some extremely polished SP.

 

[LemoN]

better AI, ect.?

For better AI, download the ZEUS AI mod.
Incredibly AI, especially in urban environments.

 

[Flogger23m]

No none of that I think it's pretty much just models, textures, voicework, and missions. I have the Brit pack. I like it but it's worth really depends on how much you want to play Arma with Brits or if you want new missions. I'm not sure about requirements.

Thanks for the reply. I think I will skip them then.

 

[Colt .45 killer]

For better AI, download the ZEUS AI mod.
Incredibly AI, especially in urban environments.

Finally got my copy of OA and got ACE installed and the 7th pack and a few other things, hopped on to do a small town clearning mission and it was a blast. moved into a compound and got surrounded, the AI (Zeus AI) performed a good flank, however we fought them off and continued towards the town, clearned it one way, went to double back across town and found the AI were already moving back in to try and hunt us down. Cleared the other side and all the buildings then went back to one of the land rovers the local taliban had used, comandeered it and got back to our vehicle, from there to base. Over all about 3 hour mission.

Really impressed with the zeus AI, leaps and bounds above the AI that I remember from original ARMA ACE days.

Then there's the guns, ACE + Robert Hammer weapon pack ( which wasent working for me properly ) is a lot of guns. even ACE alone is a lot of guns, had quite a nice bit of fun using the G3A3 and the FNFAL.

 

[LemoN]

Yup.

Now try combining the ZEUS AI (which is small scale squad tactics) with the UPSMON mod (which is large scale unit tactics and enables AI squads to communicate with each other and perform large scale flanking attacks etc.).

Mind = blown

One thing that really keeps impressing me with the ZEUS AI is how well they behave in urban environments. They'll take position behind windoes, on balconies, roofs, etc. and will also cover multiple arcs of a compound. At one point I actually saw 2 mg gunners lay down supressing fire on a house, one grenadier lobbing shells in the compound behind it and 5 more guys leapfrog across an open field to throw in some frags and storm the house in the end.

It worked!

 

[Dwarden]

No and no.

That's NOT how Steam patching works, and retail patches often are even slightly larger due to additional stuff like pictures or even music for the installer, additional stuff that nobody needs (such as xfire included in many patches) etc.

Steam usually gets told to download and replace x files. BIS simply hits Ctrl+A and finished their Steam patch.
Also, people should defrag their drives after each ArmA update on Steam, as they spread out your ArmA2 files over your entire hdd, increasing load-times by quite a lot.

i assume You don't know who I'm

sometimes wonder why people tends to argue about things they not understood

after we (I) released 10 titles on STEAM i probably should know how STEAM patching works

and btw. our retail patches are 10 to 100 times smaller

now the irony about size :
our retail OA patch installer contains OA patch + A2 patch + BAF patch + PMC patch + 2xinstaller of BattlEye and ofcourse complete directX
and yet it is still smaller

so still wanna teach me how STEAM patching works?

 

[Dwarden]

How are the British Forces and PMC addons? Do the require ArmA 2 AO?

Do they bring any new additions to the game such as proper animations, better AI, ect.?

yes both BAF and PMC add need A2: OA

all engine improvements are part of game patches to keep game compatibility for all users ...

so let say both BAF (1.55) and PMC (1.57) bring some new features into engine then all users get it in the synced game patch

all users also get as part of the patches the Lite version of DLC which ensures MP compatibility
the main difference between full ownership and lite version are SP missions, campaign, ability to host default MP missions and then quality of sounds and textures which is reduced in Lite (watchable, hearable but not HD)

 

[KrazyKraut]

It's cheap on steam today, but without any addons. Can you play the mods with only vanilla-ARMA2?

 

[LemoN]

i assume You don't know who I'm

Nope, I don't.

Maybe this is how ArmA2 patching (on steam) works, but this certainly is not the "usual" way to patch things on steam.

Else I'd re-download 10gb every time Empire gets a patch.
And if in case you work for BIS, I love what you are doing (and have bought every single thing you guys put out), but fcs, get your steam releases sorted. And don't tell me it's all steam's fault, other games/companies magically don't have these problems.

 

[Dwarden]

Nope, I don't.

Maybe this is how ArmA2 patching (on steam) works, but this certainly is not the "usual" way to patch things on steam.

Else I'd re-download 10gb every time Empire gets a patch.
And if in case you work for BIS, I love what you are doing (and have bought every single thing you guys put out), but fcs, get your steam releases sorted. And don't tell me it's all steam's fault, other games/companies magically don't have these problems.

the patching is same across all titles which use STEAM patching system

so if Empires replace 1GB of files, You will get 1GB download minus compression

on and btw. i work for BI and oversight all STEAM releases so arguing is 'futile'

 

[LemoN]

the patching is same across all titles which use STEAM patching system

so if Empires replace 1GB of files, You will get 1GB download minus compression

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant.

So how come that I download 2,5gb via steam and retail users only dl 300mb?

 

[Dwarden]

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant.

So how come that I download 2,5gb via steam and retail users only dl 300mb?

cause we rox

in short it's how the STEAM patching system works ...
and if You still dont get it i fear You cry on wrong grave

 

[LemoN]

cause we are better

...

Right, so that's why every steam release of yours is botched?

Anyway, are you guys looking at implementing some of the changes that various AI mods have done? Would be quite nice!

 

[Dwarden]

...

Right, so that's why every steam release of yours is botched?

Anyway, are you guys looking at implementing some of the changes that various AI mods have done? Would be quite nice!

what You mean botched ?

also there are constantly AI improvements if you read changelog

 

[LemoN]

what You mean botched ?

Well, things like DLC not being "unlocked" for hours after purchase, which happened to me with BAF, heard the same about PMC.

No offense, but I think there's a reason why even people who love steam will yell at potential ArmA players "DO NOT BUY VIA STEAM!".

 

[Dwarden]

Well, things like DLC not being "unlocked" for hours after purchase, which happened to me with BAF, heard the same about PMC.

No offense, but I think there's a reason why even people who love steam will yell at potential ArmA players "DO NOT BUY VIA STEAM!".

well but what that does have with BI ? it's not our service in first place

 

[Nimsky]

Nah I'll take the ease of installing the updates through Steam. I haven't had any problems with installations or mods and I don't find Steam to affect my performance. I love Steam.

I like Steam as well but you'll agree that Steam is kind of a resource-hog. It takes a long time to load and uses quite a bit of memory running in the background, not something I'd want when I'm running an already demanding game. That's one of the reasons why I always recommend Sprocket, because you don't have to run a separate program in order to run the game.

And I'd say that simply downloading a 400 Mb patch is much easier and faster than being several hours 'behind schedule' (if not more than that) while waiting for the patch to appear on Steam. It has happened several times when we were getting ready to play an ArmA 2: CO session and one of our Steam users couldn't play because Valve or BIS hadn't updated the Steam version yet, while the rest of us were already in the briefing screen. There's even a long-running thread on the BIS forums about the various problems people are having with the Steam versions.

Sprocket > Steam, when it comes to BIS games for sure.

 

[Dwarden]

@Nimsky You aware that the retail patches (not the DLC ones) are compatible with the STEAM version too?

it's just not 'officially' supported route