Armed Assault review exclusive for ofp.info on the Games Convention 2006.
I was given the chance to take a look at the Armed Assault demo at the Games Convention 2006 in Leipzig. Afterwards, Jirim, Robert and Markus answered some of my questions questions.
The graphics of ArmA have improved a lot, as you can see in the latest pics but seeing them life in the demo was marvelous. There have been many improvements lately, including new water textures.
The new water will become darker the deeper the water is. I was told that the waves will be improved too, especially in costal areas.
There are very realistic and dense wooded areas in the north of Sahrani, but not a "jungle" area in the south. However, BIS has filled Sahrani with a lot of interesting areas.
The harbors have shipping containers standing around and large warehouses. I even made a helicopter flight over a coal mine in the south and a prison camp in the north.
The town in the small area between the North and the South part is divided by the border line. The airport in the south part is bigger than before and even includes an air traffic control tower.
In the demonstration I saw the 2 door gunners on the Blackhawk open fire on the enemies, and the Commander MG on tanks is now fully operational, too.
The grass is only generated around the player, but its planned that in the final game you cant be seen fully in it, or that even hide in taller grass.
There are no big ships in the final game, but I saw Special Forces boats on the western side. There will be 2 boats, one with only 1 firing posistion, and another with two.
The South Sahrani forces will only have some few vehicles. They have a Landrover, another 4x4 vehicle (possibly a Unimog) and a M113. There are some rumours about giving the southern forces a ship too, but they will have no air force.
Animal life will consist of the (famed OFP) seagull, rabbits, flies and mosquitoes. I was told that when a dead body is lying around, flies will be attracted to it. The wildlife will also react to the enviroment around them, including soldiers and vehicles passing by.
I saw 2 islands in the menu for the editor, and it was confirmed that there will be Sahrani, and a smaller version of Sahrani with very few objects - like the Desert Island in OFP.
With the new mission editor, a mission can be created in less then 2 minutes. Its possible to create up to 2 submissions per “main” mission, but you can only play 1 of the submissions in gameplay – not both.
Lakes do also exist as small ponds. These are objects, and not part of the water table.
The damage system has also been overworked – now you will get a red, faded out screen for a short while when hit and a red spot is indicating the direction of the hit.
Q & A
Questions about Gameplay
1. Is it possible to stand, move around and shoot with hand-feld weapons from a moving vehicle?
- No.
2. Will it be possible to hide inside an empty vehicle, without the enemy spotting it as an enemy?
- No.
3. Will soldiers who hide in grass or lay down be invisible, or at least partly invisible, from a distance?
- It's planned.
4. Will all buildings be destroyable?
- Yes, in the final version of the game there will be debris and rubble.
5. Are there any planned additional addons or extra campaigns later on, like OFP: Resistance?
- There is no decision about that yet.
6. Will night vision be avaliable only through the use of head mounted NVGs, or are devices in vehicles and mounted on weapons possible?
- If there is enough time, that might be implemented
7. Will the new command system work using the F-keys?
- Yes
8.Which commands have been removed and which have been added?
- Skipped, the question was not answered
9.Will wheeled vehicles have optics with no more limitations?
- Yes
10.Can vehicles fire rockets/missiles?
- Yes, I saw a Hummer and a Stryker firing rockets in the demo.
Modding
11.Are there a limitations to the amount of turrets on a vehicle?
- No, the only limit is amount that you, personally, can command
12.Will "Linda" be released in a light version?
- Not known yet (if this ever should be the case, it would be very late)
13.Will the leaves of trees be single polygons?
- They're mostly several textures over each other
14. Are different sizes of people possible now, like heavily-built, tall or small people?
- Yes, but every different size would need new animations and bones.
15.Is there a release date yet for the Development tools, e.g. Visitor 3?
- No
16.Will there be a release of basic MLOD models for addonmakers, specifically a soldier model, which can be used as a base for custom troops?
- Yes, but its not known which models
17. Will troops in vehicles now use the pilot view of a soldier model, instead of the highest LOD? (there was problem in OFP with goggles inside APC's and the like)
- It is the pilot view in the 1st person view, but its possible to choose which Lod shall be used.
18.Will the vehicle armour system be changed from OFP, and if so, how can the vulnerability of different parts of the vehicles be defined?
- Yes, the system is edited, and the armour values can be changed.
19.Can laser designators be defined for other vehicle classes than helicopters?
- Its planned, but it is not known if there is time to implement them in the final game.
20.Will it be possible to define in the config files certain ranges of faces (eg Asians, Africans)?
- Yes, it is even possible to stop the game using certain faces, i.e. Eastern
Also included were 12 screenshots and 3 video clips of the game. The video clips are not of the best quality as they were shot on a digital camera, but one shows the new water textures.
Video
www.ofpr.info/ofpd/videos/GC2006_ofpinfo.zip
Ciao
Totola