Freedom Fighters - AI repsawn at HQ bug still active.

[malau]

I remember this bug being reported aeons ago - where even after destroying all the Factories at the HQ, the AI just keep respawning out of thin air as if the factories were still there.
I am using the latest version (at the time of writing) of CO.

Will there be any more fixes for Arma 2, or is the team concentrating solely on Arma III now ?

[Hanzu]

The bug that you describe is not even the worst one for Freedom Fighters.

OMAC and kju have done a huge job trying to troubleshoot this mission. See this https://dev-heaven.net/issues/18491. The mission was already fixed partially fixed by a mission designer who is not the original mission designer but who was given predefined time from highest BIS authority to fix tens of old campaign and mission bugs for other missions. Unfortunately time ran out when Freedom Fighters was still not fully working and the designer had to continue on newer BIS projects. I totally undestand that, but still it is sad that this mission seems to be totally abandoned by the original mission designer who made it, I guess he is even more busy which is bad since we would need his help since fixes made to it have changed the functionality so much that I guess we all have lost the original idea what conditions should be achieved for it to end.

I believe BIS answer something close to that they are not promising to do more data fixes for old Arma2 stuff and mainly only those fixes for engine and AI that benefit A3 and TOH, but occasionally they fix some old Arma2 data too, but that needs a lot of intrest showing, good reproducing steps and any other information that might speed up the fixing process from the community to get something done.

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As personal opinion I will not get tired to emphasize how important even, when looking at the marketing, it is to keep official campaigns and missions working if new features break them. It is always a big turnoff for especially new players who just recently bought Arma2 from Steam or something and they run into something they can't workaround. So some of them feel their freetime was robbed when they wanted to finish something and could not, due some showstopped bug like Freedom Fighters neverending bug. Players often buy games recommended by their friends and well if the impression is bad due bugs then it is bad marketing. I have friends who have abandoned Arma2 due bugs and it is very hard to convince them to try again and even if they would be convinced to try again, they may have lost their original intrest and directed it to some other game meanwhile. I have played computer games since 1984 and well all I can say, nothing is more irritating than bugs that prevent you from finishing some original game, original campaign or original mission. As long as A2 is sold it should also have at least one who would be assigned to fix it. If fixing stops some day, maybe considering giving away fixing rights for missions to the community would be a good idea in form of custom patches only fixing data but not touching engine.

[malau]

Thanks for the reply. Glad to know that BIS (and everyone else) are aware of it.

It's sad to think of Arma 2 as being considered 'old tech' now - with A3 on the way.
It's a pity that BIS never did really put out a fully functioning product even after 3 years of patches. It does not bode well for Arma III, which will doubtlessly be even more complicated to QA.

The most annoying bug for me is the tank bug - when you just want to be a driver, in Flashpoint the crew would target and fire the main tank gun themselves whilst you concentrated on driving. In A2 you have to manually tell the gunner which target to attack, having to read from the list whilst steering round trees/obstacles in the heat of battle. What's the point of having a Commander if you can't put him in auto mode like in FP.

[OMAC]

Hanzu already knows this, but I very, very strongly agree with what he wrote above. It is most frustrating when you can't complete a LONG mission like FF that takes hours and hours to grind through, only to be utterly thwarted. malau, I and others (including PvPscene) agree with you about what you call the "tank bug." In 1.61 betas many months ago, Suma corrected the issue and made it work just as you mentioned, but many complained, and it was changed back, something that very rarely, if ever, occurs with A2 CO over the past 2 years. Too bad for us......