There is a very big contingent of ArmA players who also think that ArmA Life is basically a bunch of people unzipping their flies and pissing all over what ArmA really is. I think that has to do with 75% of ArmA servers out there being AL, and the rest being empty.
My thoughts:
It’s an interesting dynamic for sure. The core BI devs on Arma are plainly into the milsim side of things. It’s part of their studio DNA. It’s what they want the Arma experience to truly encompass. (They literally bought a tank!) At the same time, the majority of MP players could not give a crap less about the combined arms gameplay. They want GTA roleplaying, zombies, and survival scavenging.
Yupp, pretty much hate Altis life and all those RPGs that it spawned. but then again, ARMA3 didn’t really live up to the hope s I had from spending countless hours in ARMA2OA Insurgency.
Course, the way things are going I’m sure Take Two will C&D them out of existence, so there’s that.
That said; That vice piece was a pretty great read/ad for the game.
Persistence is a strong draw in online communities. DayZ added persistence and Altis Life improved on that with more things to do and added rules to enhance interactions.
The goal of a military encounter is to kill the enemy, once they are dead you are done. The goal of these life / crime simulators is to exist and improve, often in the company of a small group of friends.
I play on an Australian server with an active admin and frequent and good updates. That leads to an adequate community. The quality of the servers varies quite a bit, I have been on some I did not enjoy.
Altis Life is not for everyone. I enjoyed it more than I thought, and will continue to play some more, so I thought I would share my experience with others. :-)
Good timing for this bump, by the way.
Coming June 22nd. Free to all Arma 3 owners.
My buddy and I are still legal. We met in a small town and bought driving, firearms and a single production license. I drive a nice SUV but he is still in a crappy hatchback. We both bought pistols and a few extra clips of ammo.
(We could have chosen to not buy licenses for our vehicles, weapons or jobs.)
We started life as concrete mixers, its a simple job. We have pickaxes and room in our backpacks and more room in the car trunk. The car has some extra food and water, repair kits, and spare fuel. We drive out to the rock quarry, fill our backpacks and the trunk with smashed rocks, then drive a few Km to the concrete mixer who processes it and bags it for us. Then its another short drive to someone who will buy our finished concrete, usually for a good price since let’s face it - this is not a sexy job that a lot of people want to do.
(We could have decided to make money from producing and hauling illegal drugs like meth or heroin.)
As we were pulling into the small industrial building on the edge of town to sell our load, another car pulled up and two guys with guns jumped out. I called out that we didn’t want any trouble, and they said hello and started to ask questions. I said “I am happy to help, but first you need to put down those guns”. My partner stayed behind the car, one hand ready to draw his weapon. They paused for a second then holstered their weapons, so I helped to explain what they had to do before they could sell finished concrete. They thanked us and drive off.
(They could have tried to hold us up, demanding our stuff and our cars. If we resisted they could have shot and killed us.)
We noticed we were near the diamond mines so we hopped into my SUV and drove over. It was busy. One massive truck was on the way out, followed by a fast car with extra muscle. Two more trucks were parked inside near the entrances to the mines. I pulled up slowly. A good sized helicopter started to hover overhead.
(People drive huge trucks to maximize how much they can haul, and get paid to do deliveries from town to town. Helicopters cannot haul much but they are very fast.)
My buddy stayed on lookout as I approached the other miners. Same routine as before, I called out, walked over slowly, asked them to put down their weapons, then we all agreed we didn’t want any trouble. My partner and I started use the pickaxes and collect raw diamonds.
(We could have been robbed while we were mining, or we could have forced the other miners to surrender, tied them up then stolen their trucks full of raw resources.)
One of the guys said his team had just told him someone was killing people and headed this way. He asked if we had guns, he couldn’t see the pistols we had holstered, I told him we were armed. We decided things were feeling suspicious, and our backpacks were full, so we drove off.
We needed licenses to process the diamonds legally. We found a license dealer further away at an airstrip with some shops so we headed that way. I only hit one road sign, it didn’t hurt the car but it bruised us a bit. An EMT truck went flying past us in the direction of the diamond mines with his sirens blaring.
(Players can take many roles, for example that of a medic that people can call if they have been incapacitated in a firefight.)
I didn’t see the cop on the side of the road. We pulled into the airport, parked nicely to one side, and then a black police combat vehicle pulled up behind us with his lights flashing. My partner backed off, I said “Howdy Officer” right away.
(I could have been an asshole and escalated the traffic stop, the officer could have demanded I surrender, tazed me or knocked me down if I resisted, or shot me if I pulled a weapon.)
The policeman kept his assault rifle out the whole time. He told me I was speeding, which I hadn’t been paying attention to, and asked to see my licenses. I shared what I had and he commented that it must be tough being concrete mixers (gee, thanks). He looked into the car and luckily we didn’t have any contraband in the trunk. We made some small talk, he alerted us to some trouble out by the diamond mines, and then he let us off with a warning,
(The officer could have given us a ticket and a fine, or could have arrested us and taken us to jail to serve a sentence that is usually 10 minutes long. We could try to break out from jail.)
We drove off with the raw diamonds in our bags. We passed another few vehicles on the road. We stopped for gas, bought some snacks from the market, and ate them before we got hungry or thirsty.
The diamond processor was pretty quiet. It was up on a small hill, so we took turns keeping a lookout while the raw diamonds slowly got turned into finished diamonds. Once we had processed diamonds it was easy enough to sell them. We passed another few cars along the road, and saw a few people in the small town we drove through.
(Instead of selling the diamonds we could have used them to craft items like electronics, in a system where you can craft more advanced weapons, armor and accessories.)
We bought new guns and finished the session with some target shooting out in the wilderness, practicing with semi vs full-auto mode on our small SMGs, and drawing and reloading our pistols.
Next time, we are going to find some lockpicks and figure out how to steal cars. I will play dumb and approach people, get them to put their weapons away, then my partner will draw his SMG on them while I try to pick the car lock. What is the worst that can happen? ;-)
New DLC
Previously referred to under its codename “Orange DLC”, the Arma 3 Laws of War DLC adds a new faction called IDAP (humanitarian aid organization), mini-campaign (“Remnants of War”), Van (multiple variants with over 20 liveries), Utility & Demining Drone (multiple variants), APERS Mine Dispenser, clothing and gear, time trial challenges, and more. The package will be supported by a free Arma 3 platform update, which highlights include: refined cluster strikes, the simulation of Unexploded Ordnance, the ability to drop (custom) leaflets from the sky, two new Showcase scenarios, emergency and medical supplies, decorative objects, and extra Steam Achievements.
But still no female civilians.
“Battles are ugly when women fight.” - Santa Claus, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
I forgot that this is out now.
I’ve found Antistasi is OK for solo play but is still geared to larger groups of people playing MP together - plus it’s bloody tough. I’m trying out Overwatch (e: d’oh I meant Overthrow) which is a bit more lenient.
The Laws of War campaign is actually super interesting.
It’s, surprise surprise, a ‘narrative walking sim’. You are an ex-army explosives specialist working in a humanitarian NGO deactivating mines, and the central conceit of the story is you are doing an interview with a journalist, explaining the civil war on Altis, etc etc. While you listen to their conversation, you do stuff like walking around, tagging mines, deactivating them, driving, etc (the walking sim part). In addition there are hot points in the map that you can interact with them, having them a brief (10-20 seconds) reminiscence in ‘real time’ (the game changes to a ‘before war’ perspective of the same place instantly, and then returns back). In five of these reminiscence are playable missions, but only in three of them you get to fire people, and in each case it’s just a short firefight, so the focus is in the narrative.
So, how’s the narrative? I liked it. The most important point is that it doesn’t try to impress with a epic war drama story nor with a melodramatic style, not it’s overbearing with the poignancy of the suffering of war. it’s told by a third party, on past perspective, in a neutral, natural tone, with seriousness, about two simple civilians that get involved on the war. It’s all done very realistically in how it’s told and the type of messy conflict it tells, so it successfully makes you believe on it, more than if they would have tried to be melodramatic. It doesn’t only tell, it also shows, for example I liked how the first flashback was in the role of the mechanic, only knowing he is returning to home to search his lost brother… and before you get to know more, baam, you are dead. By a mine, like one that used your own brother.
It also intermix some plot threads and conversations related to the laws of the war, but isn’t sanctimonious about it, it also tells how things are complicated in a war, with both sides taking vengeance against the other, and how when survival is at stake, people tend to ignore them.
I haven’t checked this out yet, but if it’s canned missions = no sale. Bohemia has never created a campaign set that isn’t full of wonk and jank, and after playing stuff like WLA and Antistasi, wonk and jank won’t cut it.
Edit: to hell with that, this is the real update!!!1111
Dev diary for the Tanks DLC:
Tanks DLC is out.
Confusing. It doesn’t feel like they ever actually released much content for Arma 3 and they’ve moving on already? To what?
Could you explain this statement, please?
Campaign and in-game variety in ArmA2 vs. ArmA3.
Hmm. Okay.