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Got to Hurry up and get version 2.6


JohnO

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Again, I'm not knowledgeable enough in ArmA2 to be really qualified to answer. From what I hear (and that may reflect my own ignorance, or the bias of people who are telling me more than actual facts about ArmA, so take it with a grain of salt):
  • Low-level behavior of computer-controlled units is more predictable in SB Pro. Give a tank platoon orders to go to a specific location and assume a hull-down position in relation to 2000m forward of its position, facing south-southwest, and they will do exactly that, period.
  • As a consequence, fewer human players can control forces of the same size, or the same number of people can control a larger exercise. With about four to six people minimum you can actually run a battalion level exercise if needed
  • In SB Pro, you may inspect the 3D world prior to the actual combat, and with version 2.6 you may even save your battle plan for later re-use or modification and refinement
  • The mission editor in SB Pro seems to be easier to master (although in the absence of an actual scripting language you can control more elements in ArmA, including cut scenes if I am not mistaken)
  • Infantry combat is probably better/more realistic/more fun in ArmA
  • Steel Beasts goes into much deeper detail with respect to fire control system replication, or vehicle damage models, or interior, exterior, and terminal ballistics
  • No map edges in SB Pro (and therefore, if the mission designers did his job right, no safe flanks, anywhere).
    Is ArmA still playing in islands only? I don't know.
  • There's a lot more that can be manipulated ("modded") in ArmA. That can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it
  • No scripting, no console mode, and CodeMeter protection against reverse compilation: This probably means that it is much harder to cheat in SB Pro, and the cheats and exploits that are there are usually not very grave.
  • ArmA looks better - more visual effects, and more variety in the object library
  • ArmA has more players, more servers, more opportunity to play online. In SB Pro many multiplayer sessions are scheduled events, and if you drop out of a session, sadly, you cannot re-join but are transferred to single player mode.

There's probably more, and some differences can be seen as a good or as a bad thing, but this should give you a first frame of reference.

You're right. But as SB was not meant to be an infantry/helo sim, nor is Arma a tank sim. Its poorly modelled based on hitpoints. On the other hand, infantry in Arma vanilla is top, but can get even better, improved by the thousands of mods provided by the community and encouraged by the developers.

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It's true that ARMA has an immersive battlefield with all it's real life elements but in terms of realism... I mean, ARMA doesn't even attempt to be as realistic as possible. Tanks, choppers, all made to be as easy to use as possible. I understand that people like ARMA. I own both ARMA 1 and 2 and I like them. They are good games. But what I don't get is when people say ARMA is realistic. Sure, it's MORE realistic than most other games like BF and COD series but realistic? I don't think so.

I think it's hard to make a comparison since ARMA and SB are not in the same category. ARMA is not trying to be as realistic as SB and SB is not trying to be as appealing as ARMA. In my opinion at least.

Let me ask you then how realistic are choopers in SB. Does it make it a less realistic simulator?

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Let me ask you then how realistic are choopers in SB. Does it make it a less realistic simulator?

I was just trying to say that ARMA makes no attempt to be as realistic as possible (which is fine). That has nothing to do with choppers in SB or with the quality of either game.

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Care to enlighten us what that might be exacly?

Well seems to be pretty straight forward:

I want something flying to shoot at.

Helo are already in the Sim and can be shot at.

not something that can kill me from 8km away. 8-)

The new longer horizon (as shown in the Centurion galley pics) will let helos armed with suitable longer range weapons to engage from further away than currently - if they have LOS on the tgt.

Have you guys been holding out on us? ;)

No, its all been talked about earlier.

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ArmA2 doesn't have the control and wargame elements to the extent of Steel Beasts. Arma2 has linear campaigns and story plots. Both have mission editors for sandbox kind of game. You'll notice that it is much easier to control and coordinate units in Steel Beasts.

However, ArmA2 also has moments that are awesome, even with its flaws. Surprisingly, it can play a very fun helicopter simulation. Strap into a Hind-24, fly around, shoot rockets- it feels satisfying, even if not all the avionics or every nut and bolt are modeled. ArmA2 has astonishing little details- fly around at night in an Mi-24, if you aren't wearing NV goggles, when you loose off the rockets, the interior of the cockpit lights up brightly from the missile flares, it's like driving at night with the headlights off and the interior car lights on- the inside is lit, but you can't see anything else outside. Other nice touches like turning on and off NVG will require time for your vision to get acclimated from one to the other.

ArmA2 is the game if you want to be able to run on land, then jump into a motorboat, go upshore and jump into an anti-tank gun. Then get air lifted somewhere else- just a lot of things to do, of course it's not a high fidelity simulation of anything in particular, but I can't help but find things to do with it. It gives you lots of choices. You can horse around with anything that moves or shoots. I think you can even be an animal like a cow or a chicken and run away from hunters, if you find that sort of thing fun. So while in some cases it feels like an alternate universe where things seem clumsy with vehicles bouncing, he immersion factor is nonetheless quite good.

Have a look at this clip demonstrating Track IR with ArmA 2. The sense of motion and immersion in the Hind-24 scenes are of particular note.

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