Phisher~SPARTA~

BTW I did want to add, that once you get a small stock of supplies (food, camping tent, shotgun, ammo, medical supplies) you can basically hoof it out into the woods and survive on your own. Right now I basically spend the time hunting and filling up my water canteens and then moving into town to restock when needed. So it definitely is not confided to towns or cities.

Hey guys, I have been pretty busy with work, but I recently I fired up this mod I saw on Armaholic: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=16613 It's pretty amazing for only being in Alpha Stage. Basically a zombie survival mod where you stats and inventory are saved every time you logoff or join another server. You have to scavenge for everything (think Stalker). Other survivors are also about (players) but there are no rules currently so it feels much like the wild west. You can be betrayed or join a survivors group. Most people are friendly and killing other players is shamed. There are a lot more details and I would be happy to share more if other people are interested. If you do install, just put all of the downloaded .pbo's into an @DayZ folder in your ARMA 2: CO (Arrowhead) directory and also launch PMC and BAF expansions. Nothing else. Look for a filter on multiplayer called DayZ. Anyways its been great fun so far, very close to my ideal zombie mod. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Q8c8jnL3s&feature=player_embedded

I think there are three server side options that can have a major impact on encouraging teamplay. In addition to the standard hardcore settings I think this would help: Increase spawn times and only spawn on squad leader or no spawning on teammates: Now your deaths really matter because it is going to take 20 seconds to respawn, you won't be able to just teleport right back to the front lines, and reviving teammates is vital. I know 20 seconds seems like an eternity but if you think about ARMA or even CS where when you die = your out for many minutes, this game makes it easy. Vehicle limitations: No more just waiting for the tank to blow up and instantly hopping in the fresh new one. Maybe you get 2 per game and thats it. Same rule for jets. This will encourage conservative gameplay but reward those who take a risk and succeed. No spotting: Spotting be it 3d or on minimap just defeats the purpose of those players who like to take cover, conceal, or be stealthy. Right now when you shoot, even one bullet, your exact location is pinpointed on the minimap. It's as if were all running around with sonar seeking microphones. It works for Ghost Recon but not this IMO. Not to mention, get in a game with mortars. When you shoot, a player with a mortar will see your blip on the map and can drop and shell exactly where you stand in 3 seconds. In game with 3 of them it is impossible to capture locations or destroy mcoms. I'm sure they will nerf this eventually but right now it is ridiculous.

I agree with keeping the minimap on in terms of orienting yourself in the map, but I think we should turn off the minimap spotting as it reveals enemies also when they make a lot of noise like shooting. I've noticed that I know exactly where people are sometimes before I ever hear them and without anyone spotting them.

Definitely agree about vehicle respawn times. Maybe there is a way to specify the timer on the class of vehicle. So tanks, ifv's, and aircraft take a couple minutes while jeeps and light vehicles are where the are now. I think the problem is that when you get 6 vs 6 type matches like most of the day yesterday - one tank is too dominant and forces everyone on the opposing team to go engineer. I am 100% sure crosshairs were not on yesterday for me.

* ONLY SQUAD LEADER SPAWN Off I was curious about squad leader spawn. Obviously we will have a better grasp on its impact when we start playing but I appreciated the servers that had it turned on, meaning a dead player could only spawn on their live squad leader. It seemed to make Squad leaders play a more important role.

Wow I've never really looked into these stats. Platoon grouping is awesome. It would be great to have platoon vs platoon matches based on similar stats.

Yep. I've never been a huge fan of it, as it tracks no matter where you go not just last known location. Also tanks become airplane / engineer fodder in seconds after being spotted.

Awesome. We could theoretically fill up the server with LOSC members I agree with the health regen settings. Anything to make it feel more "hardcore" ala ARMA. I've also noticed that when you get used to these settings and then switch over to the normal arcade settings it feels like your cheating.

^^ Add Phisher34 to the list. Should make 36 now.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe at the time COD: MW2 was more innovative... You know what? Fuck that. BF3 is many times more innovative in my opinion just from playing the Beta.

So how are we going to run comms on this? I'm wondering if VOIP is going to be the best bet, or if we just switch ourselves out in Teamspeak manually? I have a really hard time imagining how 15-30 people on Teamspeak + ingame VOIP is going to be effective.

Phisher34 reporting for duty.

Im sure my question could be answered with a bit more time of searching but I wasn't able to get a quick answer. Do you know if we will be able to customize the in-game soldiers look at all? To me it seemed like some players had fairly unique looking gear (gas masks, sunglasses...) but I wasn't sure where to customize this or if it was just random?

I know, another BF3 topic, but I was wondering how we might structure the BF3 teamspeak server when the game goes live. Without knowing exactly how the squad creation / joining system is going to be implemented it might be a bit premature but for now we know we will be able to join up with our friends and move with them after rounds. The most logical solution to me is an Infantry Squad and Vehicle Squad. Tank crews come to mind first as needing the ability to call out targets quickly. On the infantry side I've noticed how important sound in this game is. I've been able to hear enemies approaching from quite some distance. On metro I could hide out in a room with two entrances and hear which side the enemy was coming in well before they crossed the threshold. Now the downside to this is that the squads will probably want to communicate at some point and without knowing how the squads get assigned, it might be more random from round to round. What I do want to avoid is the cluster fuck of having 10 people in the same channel calling out every 5 seconds. It's a serious handicap when you remove half your senses while playing.

I just picked this up last night. Played the Paris map for an hour or two and was getting a bit frustrated. Switched over to Caspian and was loving it. I wish it was still about twice as big and they reduced the squad spawning as right now you get no sense of size as you just teleport into the middle of a firefight no matter what. I am curious though, is there a way to join a squad of friends?

This is their list of features: * Unique UI overhaul. * British Soldiers (MTP). * Unique PR Gameplay Concept for ARMA 2. * Various PR game modes. * New vehicles including the Warrior IFV, Chinook, Merlin, and the Apache AH1. * v1 Basic PR Sounds FX, environment and weapons/vehicles. * PR:ARMA2 music, composed by Project Reality. * PR Statics Object Pack. * PR FX. * PR Squad Awareness HUD (SAHUD). * PR rear view Mirrors. And again this is just BETA, knowing the PR team it will only get a lot better

Well there is a lot of info at the link that can probably describe it better. Sucks to see about the lack of mod support for BF3. There are a few things that differentiate this from ACE, not all would say are better things. One, it is incredibly streamlined, especially for Beta. Installation is quick and painless, this means there are a lot of players currently playing (about 300 right now). In game is also really easy to figure out, especially if you have played the BF2 version. Teamplay is easy to get into and a lot of ACE features and other mods have been incorporated into the mod (first aid, fireteam HUD, sound mods) There is a whole new squad mechanism, hard to explain but really intuitive. Multiple game modes: Insurgency, Objectives, Attack / Defend... FOB creations, basically you can load up a giant ammo crate, drop it off in the desert and build up a huge FOB piece by piece. There are a lot more but it is worth a shot. It would be great to get a squad of Sparta guys playing. We wouldn't need our own server, just join one of the 64 players servers and create our own squad and lock it.

By the way, the installation for this mod is incredibly easy. It is a self packaged installer that auto-directs to the correct directory (at least for me). No fumbling around with multiple downloads, versions, or mods.

I don't know if any of you have been following this mod for ARMA2 mod they just released a Beta version for public. It is basically trying to recreate the popular BF2 Mod inside of ARMA 2. I had a go at it last night for a few hours and it was a lot of fun. I think what makes it work stronger than other mods, is requires squad based teamplay and then focuses them on clear single objectives. So if you want to play a sniper, you have to request the kit after joining a squad and their are limitations. As a squad, you build FOBS that act as new spawn points. They've also introduced a really effective ammo/resupply/first aid mechanism. Anyways, I am going to be coming back to this often. BF2 Project Reality is still a great game and will probably continue to be popular until a PR mod comes out for BF3. LINK

Sometimes a great site for resource is http://survivalblog.com/ It runs the gamut of "the sky is falling and the world is ending tomorrow" folks to your average person who wants to prepare for natural disasters or looting. That being said anything you want to know about bunker construction to underwater gardening can be found there.

Got to love the Mossy. The scabbard is usually attached to the back of my Bug Out Bag. The stock is a tremendous help, I don't know how you shoot that thing without it. My hands aren't small but when I shot some 2"3/4 slugs with just the pistol grip I thought I was going to break my hands.

Very nice kit there Medic. I've got about 90% of the same items in mine, what's nice is almost everything is duel use for when I go backpacking. I'll try to get some pics up later in the week. Right now I've got a Mossberg 500 Persuader w/ Xenon flashlight mounted underneath. It fits nicely in a Black Scabbard attached to my backpack - really easy to "holster" and retrieve. The other addition I have is a Nylon Shoulder Bag that sits roughly on the hip. Inside are a lot of the easy-to-reach items like bear spray, a hatchet, walkie-talkies. I've also purchased a Tekkeon Battery Charger that I basically can fill up with high-capacity rechargeable AA's and then plug it into this Solar Pack. My Smart Phone is loaded up with offline-maps, survival books of all sorts, field guides, and an entire Wikipedia dump. It takes about 3-5 hours to juice up the AA's which gives my phone 5 complete charges. Other miscellaneous items include this Lock picking kit. Obviously, only use it on property that you own or your well being depends on getting access to it. But it's already come in handy for day-to-day use a few times. I also recommend this miniature gas stove. If you don't feel like using a match or flint, this is a great way to contain a fire to get water boiling or to heat up some soup. By the end of the year I'm hoping to purchase a Beretta PX4 for HD and carry. EDIT: Be careful at DealExtreme, your cart will be 30 items deep in an hour.

My two most anticipated games are coming out this year, Battlefield 3 and Elder Srolls: Skyrim Here are two new videos from yesterdays E3 if you missed it. SKYRIM http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-elder-scrolls/714852?type=flv BATTLEFIELD 3 Tank Battle Engine Showcase Time to upgrade those rigs if you haven't already.

I agree with you Batwing but want to add one more item to the list. Figure out how to properly implement grass in this game, it's been plaguing the series ever since the beginning. Right now it is purely cosmetic and actually has a negative impact to surviving a firefight if you have it turned on client-side. I think the Battlefield series makes it so anything behind grass is invisible at a distance, but that might not be the right answer. Another solution might be when you raise up your sights, don't render the grass for like a 35 degree angle in front of the player.