Why is everybody so satisfied with ARMA2 Engine?

[Faceman Peck 93]

Hey Guys,

I am currently following the growing discussion about DayZ and WarZ.....this is just the introduction, NOT the actual topic.

And arguments I am hearing frequently is: "We got a simulator-engine", "We got the great ARMA2-Engine"

I have played DayZ for quite a while now on my crappy notebook that dropps to 15fps very commonly, so I dont want to talk about pretty graphics, cos I dont have any :D

In my time as a gamer I played serveral FPS and tactic-shooters and I really dont see the bright part in this engine. It basicly works like any other FPS for me, except for pretty unusual hotkeys and an inventory-system that is so buggy and absolutely designflawed, that you could actually fire the designer only for that reason.

We got multiple terrain-bugs and doors that kill us or break our legs. Who wasnt killed by the horrifying door-of-death?

On the pro side we got some food, water and temperature mechanics in it, but apart from that I dont see the groundbreaking differences to an engine like any battlefield-part since BF2.

I am not an old ARMA2 player and just got here for DayZ some months ago, so please enlighten me :)

but its not an FPS its a milsim. I look at WarZ to be a failed carbon copy in many respects to the idea of this game. I never once got any WarZ on the radar until DayZ took off like wildfire. If you feel the need to reduce yourself to only comparing the two, there is no decision for me; Dayz will win everytime. So i have to ask, OP, is this your way of illustrating your dissatisfaction with Dayz because of its differences to WarZ (which I would be surprised if you were familiar with), or is this an attempt to let off steam in your frustration of Dayz play in general.

* a little side note, I find it hard to weigh your judgements on this game until you play it from a nice gaming rig and not a "crappy notebook." until then sir I hope the jury is not out....

[Odrama Vin Laden 18]

This game was not designed with the inventory in top priority. It is a military simulator, where you choose a loadout at the beginning of a mission. In real arma 2 it is actually pretty rare that I would have to interact with my inventory at all. Thats the thing people over look. Its more or less, just a placeholder to show what you are carrying. It wasn't designed to be an MMO/FPS inventory that needed to be frequently managed.

[dallas 5195]

I like OFP/ArmA's achievement system.

When you achieve something, it's a personal achievement, not just a tiny icon you unlock.

[#momo# 5]

Didn't read the whole thread. but the pros seems obvious to me:

- Big worlds with no borders. Which other fps shooter has maps with 20 on 20 kilometers? Every time I play another shooter I wanto to know: "What is behind this wall?" Only to find out that there is no way in the world to get behind that wall.

- Also, the scale of battles: You can have battles with 100 soldiers versus 100 soldiers on the same town, with a good cpu even more. You can fight a batlle for whole Chernarus. When a tank drives down a tree in Krasnostav and you get there from Elektrovasdok one hour later, the fallen tree is still there.

- Modability: DayZ is just one of many good mods for this engine. There are mods, missions, campaigns, bot for single and multy player... There are also custom units, custom weapons, custom islands, custom buildings, ... all for free.

- Weapon ballistics

- Not really engine related: But as a long term user, you know bis will patch their engine even years after release.

And yes it is a very perfomance hungry engine. But on the other hand, I bet Arma is not the only engine that looks bad on a notebook.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Gerty

[SillySil 295]

Oh but you can lean just a little bit sir. you can also aim off-center of your view. You could use this or if you don't want to pony up for it, there are homebrew variations. Or a webcam can work as well (I used this a bit, it works fairly well once it's set up. The TrackIR is better).

Here's what is essentially an ad for the TrackIR. If that doesn't sell you on it, nothing will. As a heavy Arma2 player, this was the single most important piece of hardware for me, hands down. Worth every penny. If you don't have a lot of pennies, there are alternatives that work fairly well (but still, nothing compares to the real thing). I am not affiliated with, paid by, or otherwise invested in this hardware, I'm just a huge fan, and can't see how anyone plays without it.

Why not just allow tap movement? It makes the game so much smoother. Seriously this "hold A for half a second to start moving to the left" makes me feel like I'm playing rock of ages.

Apart from that the trackIR and what it does with arma looks amazing.

[ThuggleS 45]

I'm not surprised you can't appreciate it on a system that can't run the game the way it is meant to be run (no offense).

With my 560 Ti and i7 2600K the game looks fantastic. The terrain, trees, sky, weather, rain, buildings - it all looks great. The player animations are good, the weapons look great, etc etc.

Yes, the few glitches can be annoying, like gates breaking your legs. But this is in Alpha, and I'd like to assume these types of bugs will be gone by standalone, probably even by Beta.

[void.false@gmail.com 300]

Please, show me another engine that can do this:

Over 1500 AI units are in this battle. 700+ U.S units attempt to defend their frontline under endless attacks from opfor. Every single thing you see inside this clip are completely real, dynamic and unscripted.

Edited September 7, 2012 by void_false

[KrystoferRobin 67]

Why not just allow tap movement? It makes the game so much smoother. Seriously this "hold A for half a second to start moving to the left" makes me feel like I'm playing rock of ages.

Apart from that the trackIR and what it does with arma looks amazing.

If you want to really get worked into a frenzy, kill the lights, get some good, comfy headphones, stick to first person and use a TrackIR. When you're running through Cherno and you can glance down side streets as you run from some jackass with a hatchet, it really gets the blood flowing. The incremental leaning is fantastic for keeping a minimal profile when you're trying to return fire.

I don't have to tap move because I have the lean thing going for me, but I've never felt it was that fidgety to get into a decent position. Again, I've had a trackir for a good long time now, I can make those tiny adjustments to my position with a lean of my head.

[aksuduud 64]

DayZ has actually shown me how good ArmA II engine is for what it was meant for, combat simulator. Sure, it lacks eyecandy like cool animations but bottomline its good.

[waffen-79 32]

ok mates I will defend the VR engine to death because I have spent almost 10 years on its games, of course I've played other games, but always comeback to play IL-2 1946 and ArmA 2 (il-2 was cumulative, ofp and arma series not, so I just use arma 2 co with ALL the other previous islands)

I can't even begin to talk about the immersion and other quality factors about the VR engine even before the trackir so I won't

I love Bohemia Interactive, the arma series and DayZ mod and I want them to win the Zombie Survival career

so I'm asking you forum mods and fellow community

Ask BI and Rocket, heck demand the following features:

1. Real Melee, with directional combat

2. Ragdolls, full featured havok or euphoria not "simplified ones"

3. Player/Character cosmetic customization, like APB, SR3, etc. (gender, clothes, facial and body morphs)

If you need time to tweak the engine code or legal issues to licence the havok or euphoria or apb player engine then take the time or sign contracts

I want you huys to win money and make an awesome game that I'll be playing but in order to do that you need to implement those features

[crushed293213 8]

I guess it's hard to explain if your playing on a notebook averaging at 15 fps.

For me, running on a decent rig, the graphics are great. One of the reasons that the Arma engine became well known was because of the AI that made for some amazing large scale battles without any scripting, although DayZ doesn't use this. For many people it's because of the weapon mechanics like bullet drop and so on. The weapons have a unique feel to them unlike any other FPS out there.

For every one of us that loves the engine though there's at least two others that hate it.

weapon feel? lol this is non existent in arma 2 engine. shooting weapons in arma 2 is as exciting as wiping on the toilet

arma 2 engine is horrendous, only good part is the open map and the graphics. movement, interface, netcode, scripting, terribad

also dont forget stuff like post processing making your game uglier and mouse delay, retarded performance etc etc you could go on forever

dayz and arma 2 are still good games tho

Edited September 7, 2012 by crushed293213

[Ipurgepeople 106]

You need to learn, to deal with the inventory. I had problems at my start too but now its pretty logical and if you know the 1-2 Bugs you can work around them ;)

I can handle it just fine. I never had any issues really aside from the learning curve involved.

Doesn't mean I have to like the piece of crap.

[blaik_4@hotmail.co.uk 2]

Wow :D Straight in the face. No seriously, are you actually reading the opening post or are you just reading the title and half of the first sentence, before you rage boy?

As I said I didnt want to talk about graphics or some sort of performance issues, because thats all my crappy notebook (new ones on the way for godssake).

But it seems I could actually start a quite interessting discussion here. Thanks folks, you really showed me some good points why to love and why to hate this engine. And furthermore we get some overall impressions of what the people expect for the standalone version of this game, regarding design and handling.

Hey Guys,

I am currently following the growing discussion about DayZ and WarZ.....this is just the introduction, NOT the actual topic.

And arguments I am hearing frequently is: "We got a simulator-engine", "We got the great ARMA2-Engine"

I have played DayZ for quite a while now on my crappy notebook that dropps to 15fps very commonly, so I dont want to talk about pretty graphics, cos I dont have any :D

In my time as a gamer I played serveral FPS and tactic-shooters and I really dont see the bright part in this engine. It basicly works like any other FPS for me, except for pretty unusual hotkeys and an inventory-system that is so buggy and absolutely designflawed, that you could actually fire the designer only for that reason.

We got multiple terrain-bugs and doors that kill us or break our legs. Who wasnt killed by the horrifying door-of-death?

On the pro side we got some food, water and temperature mechanics in it, but apart from that I dont see the groundbreaking differences to an engine like any battlefield-part since BF2.

I am not an old ARMA2 player and just got here for DayZ some months ago, so please enlighten me :)

Yet you didn't come up with a better Engine?

And its still a Alpha, so bugs are common, Boy.

The mill sim engine wasn't made for Dayz, did this cross your mind, its a mod not a final.

Also you say you never played Arma 2? so who are you to judge?

The inventory UI is only clunky if you haven't used it enough, coming from Op flashpoint/Arma/Arma 2 it's second nature to me and others.

and no you haven't made a good discussion your getting flamed and noob agree with you sums on the thread imo.

[CM LEGION 29]

Worst engine since 2003? Wow, you don't play many games do you?

Play quite a bit, least play a fuck load more then you. Vanilla warcrafts is the only engine i can think of thats worse, so 2003. Maybe you have a few console titles that are worse, but as far as PC gaming goes, this is garbage.

Kinda got me thinking, you also got the lean mechanic and realistic vehicles. Even read somewhere you can top down a chopper in this. So its kinda bumped up from -googleplex/100 to like 3.4. Still bad, but now it can be worst engine since 2005.

Edited September 7, 2012 by CM LEGION

[colekern 1364]

Hey Guys,

I am currently following the growing discussion about DayZ and WarZ.....this is just the introduction, NOT the actual topic.

And arguments I am hearing frequently is: "We got a simulator-engine", "We got the great ARMA2-Engine"

I have played DayZ for quite a while now on my crappy notebook that dropps to 15fps very commonly, so I dont want to talk about pretty graphics, cos I dont have any :D

In my time as a gamer I played serveral FPS and tactic-shooters and I really dont see the bright part in this engine. It basicly works like any other FPS for me, except for pretty unusual hotkeys and an inventory-system that is so buggy and absolutely designflawed, that you could actually fire the designer only for that reason.

We got multiple terrain-bugs and doors that kill us or break our legs. Who wasnt killed by the horrifying door-of-death?

On the pro side we got some food, water and temperature mechanics in it, but apart from that I dont see the groundbreaking differences to an engine like any battlefield-part since BF2.

I am not an old ARMA2 player and just got here for DayZ some months ago, so please enlighten me :)

If I understand correctly, the Arma engine isn't powering the the bone-breaking, or the temperature, hunger, or, thirst. That was all added in later. As for the inventory, I don't know if that's built into the engine or not.

Edited September 7, 2012 by colekern

[schrapple 119]

I think the inventory is fine.

You think in real life ur gonna super fast get stuff out ur bag and pick things up..nope.

So ya I think it works well with it being clunky.

As for the engine, amazing. I'm not gonna complain cuz I enjoy it.

Are there better ones? mayb... but I'm happy.

Yer the inventory system is just like real life, I can't remember the number of times I've tried to put something in my backpack and it just disappeared from existence because there wasn't room for it in the backpack.

[blaik_4@hotmail.co.uk 2]

Yer the inventory system is just like real life, I can't remember the number of times I've tried to put something in my backpack and it just disappeared from existence because there wasn't room for it in the backpack.

name a time you were running from zombies? or jump into a heli and fly it?....list goes on. Its not all real believe it or not.

[- Valkyrie - 89]

This game has just 2 main "Realism categories" which I gonna list here, which separates it from the perk having shit games where you can grenade spam or run around with a sniper killing players 2m away which are using assault rifles.

1) Bullet Drop with Zeroing option - Way better presented then in BF3 where they added a lets say "arcade" bullet drop and no zeroing option, you have to guess and aim higher then the target. If someone doesn't know how to use mil-dots, they are fucked. And here you actually can't see the bullet being presented as a yellow banana flying towards your target in a rainbow curvy line. You wait to see where it impacts.

2) AI - If you run, not using cover, or poke your head out for more then 3 seconds you are dead. No health packs, no health boosting death streaks or anything else. Shot to the head = dead, Shot to the upper torso/neck = dead. Generally 2 shots to the torso = dead. AI aiming precisely and spotting you on over 200-300m distance. Not running towards you in a suicide manner with no brain. Enemy artillery firing at your sniper position after you are spotted by enemy binoculars.

3) Realistic vehicle and weapon controls. On most servers, if you choose any class other then a pilot/navigator you won't even get the option to get into a plane/helicopter. You surely won't be able to snipe or fire your weapon in mid air while falling from the sky and not to talk about shooting an Jet fighter or Helicopter pilot then jump from the cliff/building and get into it while its falling down, then flying away with it. (SERIOUSLY, BF3 DAFUQ!) The aiming and weapon control in general feels so harder and more realistic.

+ The tons of other realistic stuff that this game has and BF3 and COD can only dream about. (only real shit thing is the 3rd person option, which should be removed in ArmA 3)

Edited September 7, 2012 by - Valkyrie -

[schrapple 119]

name a time you were running from zombies? or jump into a heli and fly it?....list goes on. Its not all real believe it or not.

Wow, really missed my point on that one didn't ya.

[bad_mojo (DayZ) 1204]

-Proper ballistics

-Open world

-Long view distances

-Dynamic weather

-Good lighting

-Realistic damage model

-Editor

-Support for mods

-Constant updates

-Real looking maps

-DayZ

just a couple things off the top of my head.

[gywidion@msn.com 80]

I just love the flexibility of the ARMA 2 engine. A lot of different game play options to enjoy.

The inventory system is being changed so no real comment on it until I see the new one.

[schrapple 119]

Seems to me that everyone has missed the big one, to put it simply " What other engines would even allow you to mod enough to make something like day-z?"

[blaik_4@hotmail.co.uk 2]

Wow, really missed my point on that one didn't ya.

No, I got it.

You were talking about unrealistic circumstances, I set out two more, to high light the fact its still a game.

Just think before you do something in the inventory its what the whole game is about thinking before it happens.

[Dynami 18]

3 things I'd like to see in the next Arma engine:

1) exploding heads

2) ragdoll physics

3) better optimization

Everything else is fine!

[schrapple 119]

No, I got it.

You were talking about unrealistic circumstances, I set out two more, to high light the fact its still a game.

Just think before you do something in the inventory its what the whole game is about thinking before it happens.

I don't think buggy is the right term (unless you count your ammo refilling by itself), I've never had anything just vanish it has always been because I have done something wrong. But clunky, yes absolutely.

The inventory system is a lot like the rest of the game, fair but very unforgiving of mistakes. Instead of telling you that you can't move something it just makes that thing vanish, once you learn those sorts of lessons the hard way it is bearable.

Nope you missed it, I see what you've done wrong though (well two things really). You've not only failed to read the entire thread but you've also assumed that your interpretation of someone body's post is more correct than what the poster actually said.