The Arma 2 + Operation AH thread of 'let's try this again'

[Lu]

Hey guys, just wanted to touch base, I may not be able to make it again tomorrow, im gonna try, but I promised my mom I'd help her with some stuff around her house.

Also for anyone here who has OA there is this really cool mod called "Day Z"

http://dayzmod.com/

It's post zombie apocalypse survival with a semi persistent world, you spawn where ever you logged out last time, you have to scavenge supplies and weapons which respawn in certain locations when there are no players around, there are no rules, no one can be trusted, etc.

The only problem is that coverage on this mod has BLOWN UP in the last week, I saw it near the front page of Reddit today, and finding a spot on a server is getting more difficult. This also means a lot of, for lack of a better term, casual players who don't seem to really grasp what makes this game cool, last time i played there where a bunch of people whining (and i mean WHINING) about some guy who was camping at an airport killing anyone who got near and stealing their gear.

That being said they have more than doubled the server count since i started playing about a week and a half ago.

it's still pretty early, but it's a really neat experience.

DAE remember this game? So underrated.

That mod sounds hilarious and cool. And killing obnoxious redditors is always a plus.

Hope you can make it, as we got a whole bunch of new maps to try out.

[dibs]

I'm going to join tonight. I failed the first aid training by shooting into the air too many times.

[brkl]

Training? What training?

[dibs]

Boot Camp in the single player menu.

[K-bohls!]

Ben has had trouble with landing on this aircraft carrier...

[brkl]

Boot Camp in the single player menu.

Pah, we don't need no fancy schmancy boot camp!

[Lu]

Was fun again, guys. Thanks for playing.

[dibs]

It was indeed a lot of fun. Maybe next time I'll be able to identify enemies from bushes and not have to practice my sniping on cows.

[brkl]

It helps to have visibility set really high. I've turned down most options apart from that and terrain.

[Armchair General]

Ben has had trouble with landing on this aircraft carrier...

To land properly Ben you need to press THE MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON. Jeez I have to tell you that like, every week

[brkl]

No Arma for me today, have fun guys!

[cyrix]

oh wow, I totally lost track of what day it was i just woke up to the steam event reminder sitting on my desktop!

A marathon session of FEZ lasted from Saturday night into Sunday evening kept me in the living room until I finally started passing out and crawled into bed for eight hours.

I actually went out and bought a spiral notebook because the pile of paper next to me was getting unruly...

I feel bad about missing 2 weeks in a row.

Wont happen again, unless I descend into madness deciphering FEZ.

[youmeyou]

Day Z really is blowing up and I might just have to try it.

Any thumbs playing right now? I hear the servers are always full, which might spoil things.

Still, everything I read sounds absolutely AMAZING. Basically a Stalker MMO. (Think of the possibility spaces!)

[Orv]

Day Z really is blowing up and I might just have to try it.

Any thumbs playing right now? I hear the servers are always full, which might spoil things.

Still, everything I read sounds absolutely AMAZING. Basically a Stalker MMO. (Think of the possibility spaces!)

I've been playing it for several hours a night since Tuesday.

Here's a synopsis of my playtime Thursday.

"So I spent three hours trucking around from Solnichniy, to Kamyshovo, through Tulga, Msta, Dolina, the factory between Orlovets and Polana and finally into Gorka to attempt a car repair in the dead of night.

We'd looted the grocery store in Polana, and all the other towns we'd passed through had been thoroughly ransacked, so we were all sitting pretty with your top-tier never-left-the-coast pubby weapon, the Winchester. Real beauty, that thing. So we're kitted out, ALICE packs, compass, map and watch, the whole nine. We decided to end the night by heading into Gorka from Polana and repairing the car. Turns out we need another tire so we head back (me in the lead ) to where I think the factory is. In fact, we run a whole circle around the factory without seeing it once, and end up back in Gorka.

Gunshots. A Winchester and two AKs.

We move into Gorka from the south, the up-hill side of town, and spot them in the barn/lumber yard area below the fuel tank in Gorka. I step into a three window for a moment (the log cabin lootable) and pull a CZ from my pack. My two compadres have moved into the industrial area where the gas tank is held, and are looking down the cliff for our new friends.

I see one, I give it a second for him to pull up to the barn he's about to enter and click. Winchester down.

The other two light out for the nearest cover, directly back into my friends. Winchesters and AKs open up. And then for a second, silence. I click again and it's down to me and the other AK. I get a brief glimpse of him, he's got a Kobra variant, so I decide to stick up the hill. It's a bad move.

Pow, pow. Thht, thht. Two hits in the wall behind me. I take a crouch-walking shot, miss and end the night satisfied with the experience but with a hole in my face.

This game just keeps delivering."

And I ended tonight by having a standoff on top of a giant tower in the main city with two guys, gunning down one with an AKS-74U and forcing the other to leap to his death by dropping a grenade on his head.

E: I lied about stopping for the night! I logged back in... for all of a minute and a half.

"So a friend and I dominated Cherno on US7 for a few hours this evening. It ended with a weird firefight on top of the tall grain building in Cherno that I logged out after fixing myself up with, because it attracted a lot of attention (Grenades will do that).

So I log back into a US hardcore server just to see if I can catch anyone on that building, and lo and behold there are three flares popped down-coast of Cherno. I take a look and see a group of three survivors. They get engaged by a bandit on the inland side of the Cherno gas station, and I open up with my CZ.

Suddenly there's the crack of another CZ down and to my left somewhere and I quietly freak out, but keep sending rounds downrange. So does the other guy, and as far as I can tell he takes out one guy. I drill the last survivor through the armpit and suddenly stand, gaining a bandit skin.

I take a minute to prone, back further back onto the roof and chuckle at the survivors talking in chat. I log the fuck out, terrified of what shit may be getting zeroed on me or the other CZ that opened up.

TL;DR - A minute thirty of gameplay more tense than most things I've ever experienced in gaming"

Edited May 12, 2012 by Orvidos

[cyrix]

Day Z really is blowing up and I might just have to try it.

Any thumbs playing right now? I hear the servers are always full, which might spoil things.

Still, everything I read sounds absolutely AMAZING. Basically a Stalker MMO. (Think of the possibility spaces!)

I've been playing it for several hours a night since Tuesday.

Here's a synopsis of my playtime Thursday.

"So I spent three hours trucking around from Solnichniy, to Kamyshovo, through Tulga, Msta, Dolina, the factory between Orlovets and Polana and finally into Gorka to attempt a car repair in the dead of night.

We'd looted the grocery store in Polana, and all the other towns we'd passed through had been thoroughly ransacked, so we were all sitting pretty with your top-tier never-left-the-coast pubby weapon, the Winchester. Real beauty, that thing. So we're kitted out, ALICE packs, compass, map and watch, the whole nine. We decided to end the night by heading into Gorka from Polana and repairing the car. Turns out we need another tire so we head back (me in the lead ) to where I think the factory is. In fact, we run a whole circle around the factory without seeing it once, and end up back in Gorka.

Gunshots. A Winchester and two AKs.

We move into Gorka from the south, the up-hill side of town, and spot them in the barn/lumber yard area below the fuel tank in Gorka. I step into a three window for a moment (the log cabin lootable) and pull a CZ from my pack. My two compadres have moved into the industrial area where the gas tank is held, and are looking down the cliff for our new friends.

I see one, I give it a second for him to pull up to the barn he's about to enter and click. Winchester down.

The other two light out for the nearest cover, directly back into my friends. Winchesters and AKs open up. And then for a second, silence. I click again and it's down to me and the other AK. I get a brief glimpse of him, he's got a Kobra variant, so I decide to stick up the hill. It's a bad move.

Pow, pow. Thht, thht. Two hits in the wall behind me. I take a crouch-walking shot, miss and end the night satisfied with the experience but with a hole in my face.

This game just keeps delivering."

And I ended tonight by having a standoff on top of a giant tower in the main city with two guys, gunning down one with an AKS-74U and forcing the other to leap to his death by dropping a grenade on his head.

E: I lied about stopping for the night! I logged back in... for all of a minute and a half.

"So a friend and I dominated Cherno on US7 for a few hours this evening. It ended with a weird firefight on top of the tall grain building in Cherno that I logged out after fixing myself up with, because it attracted a lot of attention (Grenades will do that).

So I log back into a US hardcore server just to see if I can catch anyone on that building, and lo and behold there are three flares popped down-coast of Cherno. I take a look and see a group of three survivors. They get engaged by a bandit on the inland side of the Cherno gas station, and I open up with my CZ.

Suddenly there's the crack of another CZ down and to my left somewhere and I quietly freak out, but keep sending rounds downrange. So does the other guy, and as far as I can tell he takes out one guy. I drill the last survivor through the armpit and suddenly stand, gaining a bandit skin.

I take a minute to prone, back further back onto the roof and chuckle at the survivors talking in chat. I log the fuck out, terrified of what shit may be getting zeroed on me or the other CZ that opened up.

TL;DR - A minute thirty of gameplay more tense than most things I've ever experienced in gaming"

My thoughts as someone who played this game before the introduction of humanity, or bandits:

The humanity meter in the UI is awful, it works fine once you know what it is but from a design perspective it is meaningless. its a face, is it a head wound indicator? a sanity meter? maybe you can get infected now? no it's a morality meter, how does that icon make sense, hopefully they can find a better way to convey that info.

The new starting pistol is great. The old revolver was overpowered, less ammo but it one shot most zeds. The makarov creates a nice sense of panic when your trying to take down a charging zombie.

If there is a way, they should disable the global chat in game, direct (distance based) chat only. Isolation is part of the experience.

Also it sure seems like there are way less zombies than there used to be, but maybe that just cause there are more players killing them.

The humanity system and becoming a bandit:

The humanity metric is interesting as a kind of reputation representation, but the way it's currently implemented I really don't like. Turning into a bandit (which actually changes your appearance in game) forces a red vs blue, survivors vs bandits mindset, and that is not what made/makes this game interesting.

Before you couldn't tell who you could trust, and inversely you could betray someone at anytime if you had to for survival (or just wanted his gear). The bandit shift, has caused factions to coalesce mostly in the form of groups of bandits just holding towns (and thus supply respawn points) killing any survivors that get near.

The survivors still can't really trust anyone because all bandits start as survivors and change after killing a bunch of people, so the odds have completely slid in favor of just being a bandit if you want to survive, so most people just seems to be murderers now. Before the alliances were fluid everyone was just wandering, trying to survive, every encounter with another survivor was tense and slow until you decided whether you were going to fight or work together, at least for the time being. now it just feels like mayhem, skewed towards murdering everyone you see.

A thought on the humanity/reputation system:

What if instead of the bandit skin there were like community message board things in each town that displayed the name of currently logged in players and their reputation, that way there was still a way to keep track of good vs bad players but in the moment you still don't know who to trust.

TL;DR: the UI needs work, black and white morality systems are bad.

[Orv]

See, I think Day Zed is less a zombie apocalypse game and more a Paranoid Douchebag Simulator. Or, if you prefer a "How humans would behave if the world went to shit" sim. Even if he hadn't added the bandit system, I gather there were already people basically functioning as bandits anyway. Day Zed (DayZ sounds weird to say quickly) is less about surviving zombies, because anyone with half a brain simply doesn't fight the entire town of zombies to get things done, and more about "Is that guy trustworthy?" "Is that dude going to shoot me in the back if I save him from zombies?"

I think I can agree that the current implementation of the bandit/humanity system could use some work, but in the end I think it's a vital part of the way the game is played at the moment.

For instance, my friend isn't a bandit at the moment. I am. We were holed up on the roof of The International (actual tallest building in Cherno, I was mistaken) and we saw a guy going to loot the guys we had killed a few minutes ago. So my friend went down and interacted with the guy. Except I did the talking. I wasn't a known bandit at the time, I was just the guy who had snarky remarks for everyones problems in chat, and helped the new guys understand the ArmA interface.

So he goes down and does all the motions and pretends to be the one talking. But I'm doing the talking and lining all this up. So they team up and start moving down the street from my view point. My friend suddenly stops, and I say in Side chat "Woah, hold up. Did you hear those shots?" Well there weren't any shots, at least not until I shot the guy in the head from up high.

I've started playing Day Zed less as a zombie simulator and more of a "How much of an devious asshole can I be?" simulator. And to be fair, that's maybe not how the game is meant to be played (though the main developer is a sanctimonious asshat who wants you to ragequit his game anyway), but it has delivered some of the most memorable and adrenaline pumping "HOLY SHIT!" experiences I have had in gaming, and I've only been playing it less than a week.

[cyrix]

So my mother just called to let me know she volunteered me to drive my aunt somewhere, I have to leave in 10 mins and I have no idea how long this will take.

Can't very well say no today though can I...

Hopefully i'll just be a little late.

[Lu]

That's a shame, but hopefully you'll be able to join up. See you soooooon.

[Scratch]

So, uh, on sort of a "spur of the moment" thing, I just bought the ARMA II: Combined Operations package off steam.

Within the group of our most regular players, I suppose that just leaves Brkl as the only one without Operation Arrowhead then? Sorry Brkl if my impromptu purchase potentially forces you to get it as well.

[brkl]

It could sense it coming.

Actually I'm not sure how often I'll be able to play. My summer job starts in a week's time and it's nights, and I'll be working weekends often. I'll play when I get the chance, and I can get Arrowhead when I need to.

[thefrozenpoison]

I just picked up the combo pkg off Steam, and began familiarizing myself with Arma controls. I'd love to play some DayZ with fellow Thumbs.

[Orv]

I just picked up the combo pkg off Steam, and began familiarizing myself with Arma controls. I'd love to play some DayZ with fellow Thumbs.

I'd be happy to play some. Just be aware I am a bandit, and basically in this for killing idiots and being smug.

[SirPocket]

This was alot more fun then i tought it would be. Im considering buying OaH.

Ill be joining up the next sessions for sure!

[Scratch]

On a completely side note, I remembered Lucien saying something about an ad for a game that somehow made use of the acronym F.A.G.S. I knew what he was talking about but just could not recall what the game was or what the acronym stood for.

Just this morning it occurred to me that it was this:

And now that I think about it, makes sense it was for a CoD game. This particular marketing push didn't last very long though:

http://i.joystiq.com/2009/11/01/infinity-ward-pulls-fight-against-grenade-spam-ad-in-light-of/

[Lu]

Yes! And then they made a mock PSA for Bad Company:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=K2Qpui1hYBw