Arma 3 - APEX - NEWS and SPECULATIONS

[graemeshute 218]

Lets not forget the disturbed birds flying off when the Predator was hunting his prey in Predator 1. Birds being scared away by movement may be very interesting when you sneaking through the bush...that added to varied light and dark areas. With the fear of walking into an ambush. I hope thats what they mean better jungle.

[old_painless 182]

hm, did I read somewhere that DayZ was working on this thing with birds taking off when people pass by them ?

[da12thMonkey 1943]

Make them sporadic or rare! I see pigeon and sparrow every day in life so barely notice them yet ill never forget then day I saw a toucan in the rain forests of Costa Rica - foster that I say.

 

I'd agree with making it rare.

 

When I went inside the jungle in Brunei I didn't see much wildlife at all, no matter how hard I looked. You can hear it everywhere but a lot of the time it's too dark to pick out what things are behind the leaves, and most things live high up in the trees so you can't see it. Or things only come out at night.

 

I think butterflies and insects were the only thing I ever saw much of underneath the actual tree canopy and within normal line-of-sight. Seriously loads of birds when we went up in this tree-top walkway thing, and out on the edge of the river there were things like cormorants, egrets and other fishing birds. But down on the ground it's just sounds.

 

The only mammals I saw were rats in town, and some weird cat-monkey thing that walked across the path back at the Gurkha camp, when I went out to take a piss in the middle of the night. Spooked the shit out of me. :D

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

Rumor has it BI are keen to reveal specifics about Apex soon, as I suspect mid May as always, however they are not keen on revealing the weapons list yet. So likely they have not finalized the factions or weapons each fanction will facilitate at this time. This is of course backed speculation.

[chortles 263]

Rumor has it BI are keen to reveal specifics about Apex soon, as I suspect mid May as always, however they are not keen on revealing the weapons list yet. So likely they have not finalized the factions or weapons each fanction will facilitate at this time. This is of course backed speculation.

Source? Although I'm not sure what about the factions could remain uncertain besides weapon/vehicle assignment, which I would think was a config-only thing unless faction-specific paint schemes remained.

[Kydoimos 915]

Regarding jungle wildlife (thanks, da12thMonkey, for your Brunei account - sounds amazing! :D), I think some sporadic wildlife events would be superb! Less is more, so to speak. I was recently reading a Vietnam novel called Matterhorn (fiction, but based on a lot of truth), and a U.S. soldier actually gets killed by a jaguar (he didn't even get a shot off). Also, reading another Vietnam book, Chickenhawk (non-fiction), a Vietnamese worker gets killed by a snake in a field (apparently, lots and lots of people got killed by snakes in Vietnam; something like 8 of the 9 species are poisonous). But then, I wouldn't want to be taking damage from snakes like the ones we see on Altis and Stratis; that'd just be horrible :P

[mistyronin 1181]

Rumor has it BI are keen to reveal specifics about Apex soon, as I suspect mid May as always, however they are not keen on revealing the weapons list yet. So likely they have not finalized the factions or weapons each fanction will facilitate at this time. This is of course backed speculation.

If that turns to be true, that would be quite weird, specially because it wouldn't allow to test much in the dev-branch, just the opposite they did in the previous DLCs and the A3 vanilla release. 

For instance in the A3 release, Stratis was released half a year before and Altis about two months from the release, and most of the vehicles and stuff were released in different batches along those 6 months. 

I'm aware that the A3 project leadership changed, but seems quite insane to not test properly an island like Tanoa. Only the maps vegetation and the AI interaction with it may require prolonged and extended tests. Also the addition of new vehicle classes would really need proper testing (let's remember the helicopter DLCs that released the vehicles practically 3 months before the release).

Having in mind that we are now a week away of entering the 2nd term of 2016, and that Apex was meant to be released inside that period, I'm starting to fear that the release will be riddled with all kinds of bugs and issues.

Remember how the A3 vanilla release was, and it had half a year of intense open dev-branch tests... so without testing Tanoa may be a real "Green hell", but a hell of bugs and other issues.

[Jackal326 1158]

Having in mind that we are now a week away of entering the 2nd term of 2016, and that Apex was meant to be released inside that period, I'm starting to fear that the release will be riddled with all kinds of bugs and issues.

I too fear this will be the case, however, it'll fit in well with every other AAA game released on PC recently then :D

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

Source? Although I'm not sure what about the factions could remain uncertain besides weapon/vehicle assignment, which I would think was a config-only thing unless faction-specific paint schemes remained.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Arma3official/status/711879952573067269

Oh and misty, yes we are going into Q2, however it's a 3 month period and BI already confirmed release to be in the last month of Q2. Meaning we probably will not see much for the first month as the polish and refine most of what is being added recently, such as tasks and difficult overhauls as well as updating Eden. So the first month (April) will probably be more technical stuff, where as May, as I speculate, we will start to see the bigger, more juicy bits of the Road to Apex. However, as you mentioned I could very well be wrong and they could drop stuff in April to ensure everything works.

However, it's not like BETA where everything was essentially moving parts without proper maintainence. Apex is an expansion upon the existing platform which has been refined over the years and is quite stable. However, that doesn't mean content or weapons will arrive months in advance, given weapons are quite easy to test... Unless it's something unique. As for features, that's a different story, and is probably what BI are indeed confident in revealing over weapons because features are more important to test than content really.

So I would imagine what we will see first are things like the new renders and lighting, water related improvements, as they mentioned that those all have to be thrown in at once because one can't work without the other without causing serious problems.

[mistyronin 1181]

However, it's not like BETA where everything was essentially moving parts without proper maintainence. Apex is an expansion upon the existing platform which has been refined over the years and is quite stable.

I'm sorry but...  a 15 year old platform is an "existent platform which has been refined over the years and is quite stable".  :rolleyes: 

As I said even the content of the helos DLC was released with enough time, to get it properly working. Not to talk about the Vanilla islands... And Tanoa is gonna be a huge difference to AI, due to the deep vegetation. Not to talk about the new vehicles classes that probably will require intense PhsyX changes. 

On the weapons side, I think it's already an important sign, that today's dev-branch introduced tweaks in the black MX series and added hidden textures for certain weapons. 

The final weapon list will probably be released the last weeks, as they did with the A3 vanilla. Maybe two weeks before, like with the Marksman DLC.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

I'm sorry but...  a 15 year old platform is an "existent platform which has been refined over the years and is quite stable".  :rolleyes: 

As I said even the content of the helos DLC was released with enough time, to get it properly working. Not to talk about the Vanilla islands... And Tanoa is gonna be a huge difference to AI, due to the deep vegetation. Not to talk about the new vehicles classes that probably will require intense PhsyX changes. 

On the weapons side, I think it's already an important sign, that today's dev-branch introduced tweaks in the black MX series and added hidden textures for certain weapons. 

The final weapon list will probably be released the last weeks, as they did with the A3 vanilla. Maybe two weeks before, like with the Marksman DLC.

I hope you're right. You have a good point. The map, is also a huge factor, it's practically the center of the entire thing. I agree, the map should probably be the second thing on Dev Branch behind the new graphical updates however.

[Callsign 128]

Either way I hope we get some pictures or update soon^tm, this thread is starting to get duller than the decor in Guba's house on Kolgujev...

Some scenic shots of Tanoa maybe BIS...?

[graemeshute 218]

I honestly think bugs or no bugs they can release Tanoa on Dev. Unless they feel we will ruin their surprise marketing pitch later. But releasing it would allow us to bug test the Sh!t out of it and thus help them indirectly. Maybe they will live stream Tanoa soon and do as they did with EDen and go surprise its on Dev now. Which I hope happens soon. They could also be angling to do the Tasks update. The Visual update. AI difficulty Update. Launcher Multiplayer updates and then only get to the meat of this.

 

If you seen the Info Graphic on the BIS ArmA3 development cycle. Apex has been in development for a Year. BUT! If that means 8 months on Tanoa and 4 now for the Gear and Weapons etc. That is just speculative. Its true this thread is like a dying cat that just wont die yet. No facts...

 

I think the Dev's at this stage think I am trolling them on Social Media...I am trying to get some factual replies on Apex. Because like you I would like to know more.

 

Regards new Phys X updates. I doubt we will see Phys X for Amphibious tracked vehicles. Chairborne got a Tweet from a developer with them saying they can't look at it now since they very busy on Apex. I read that as no amphibious tracked vehicles. Thus ruling out those lovely AAV's.

 

So I guess we stuck with the bland decor in Guba's house on Kolgujev...funny though:)

[graemeshute 218]

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Farma3.com%2Fassets%2Fimg%2Fpost%2Fimages%2FEdenBlog_Roadmap.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Farma3.com%2Fnews%2Farma-3-eden-update&docid=1R2vy642nlxLvM&tbnid=ViSNu1RDZSjr9M%3A&w=1500&h=400&ei=I67yVsiMBMKbU7_tl_gO

[en3x 209]

Regards new Phys X updates. I doubt we will see Phys X for Amphibious tracked vehicles

 

 

[graemeshute 218]

I read that when it came out. But I will go on what chairborne is doing and what he told me this past Sunday. He has jury rigged amphibious tracked units to get them to go in the water. Then he said the AI has issue with it. So either he cant or isnt aware of this. And I know Chairborne would not misinform me. Or what you want to say its vaguely there. But its not stable.

[Wiki 1558]

Anyway, Apex is going to be released soon (in a few months now), and still we have almost no information about it :( :(

[andy1 71]

And that's the developers prerogative. They will release details when they feel it fits into there schedule not when you want to know.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jumpinghubert 48]

Whats about the lack of midrange textures? When I deactivate the little nice texture-mod from badbenson (500kb lol) I have to laugh. Its not a question of eyecandy. Arma3 looks so natural overall but this milky creamy ground at midrange is horrible and a immersion-killer.

[Chairborne 2594]

cut

 

I read that when it came out. But I will go on what chairborne is doing and what he told me this past Sunday. He has jury rigged amphibious tracked units to get them to go in the water. Then he said the AI has issue with it. So either he cant or isnt aware of this. And I know Chairborne would not misinform me. Or what you want to say its vaguely there. But its not stable.

 

There is some confusion here.

CUP's "jury rigged" vehicles use a system that has nothing to do with the change you are referring to.

We use a script that basically "pushes" the vehicles around in the water, which is not compatible with AI.

 

Now for the physx change...

Tracked amphibs were "fixed", as in the vehicles now do move.

The problem is that no matter what parameters we use it doesn't seem to affect the behavior of the vehicle when in water.

Some vehicles don't go beyond 1/2kmh, others don't turn, and all the combinations CUP tried have been unsuccessful, contrary to wheeled vehicles that behave like you would expect.

If there is some magical parameter buried in the configs that would enable them to work properly we haven't found it.

Also BI said they tested the functionality on a vehicle of their own and it was working for them, however we have no sample to compare with.

Yesterday i wrote them on twitter and this was their reply: https://twitter.com/Arma3official/status/712279230860677120

[en3x 209]

Good clarification.Thanks.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

Honestly, I wouldn't even bother with tracked amphibious vehicles until they fix it entirely. The current system for all classes of amphibious vehicles is quite bad, you can easily test this by plopping down any amphibian and steering left to right. It's horrible. it'lol be awhile till anything gets fixed unless it's related to the #RoadToApex, and we don't even know if BI are past that stage they were at last with regards to looking for extra modelers and content creators to help them in their grind for Tanoan Infrastructure, and so on.

[mistyronin 1181]

BI said in Twitter that amphibious physX is not their priority, as they are now focusing on APEX content.

[Guest]

Is leaked content part of news and speculations ?

[roberthammer 582]

Is leaked content part of news and speculations ?

You mean this http://velebny.net/offroad.html? - that ain't leak since he got a permission to show it

 

also that vehicle is just gorgeous , i did wish bis could do weapons like that :p