FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Weapon Deployment Dev-Branched, Remote Designators, Collimator Tech, Stance Adjust Bindings
PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION
After a Herculean effort by Task Force Bipods, we flipped the switch on Weapon Deployment for Dev-Branch late last week. We should make it clear that we intentionally released the feature in a fairly rough state. There were and still are quite a few things we need to address before update 1.42 is rolled out. We felt however, that the extra time in your hands may let us iterate quicker, and prioritize better. Major tasks still in progress are: replacing of placeholder animation sets for various deployment heights, a more distinct difference between deploying with and without bipods, and simply getting stuck or glitching in certain areas. Taking that into consideration, we hope you enjoy this huge game-changer and leave any feedback you have in this forums thread.
All of us felt very proud after watching this Marksmen DLC preview trailer created by BlackPixxelDE. It shows in great detail which weapons and other bits of content will be part of the package. Fantastic job!
INTELLIGENCE
For past week's random photo, we were able to extract a smile from Vojtěch "Iceman" Kovařič. As QA Developer, he is someone many of you have interacted with on the Feedback Tracker for example. His focus has been to filter and prioritize your feedback for the development team, and to try to get as much as possible fixed for main branch releases. More recently, he has also been part of evaluating new playable content, such as the "End Game" multiplayer mode that will be released alongside Marksmen DLC. You can still help us test this mode on various official and unofficial servers. Check out the change log to see how it was recently updated.
Did you spot the two new Remote Designators we've included with Marksmen DLC yet? NATO and CSAT both get their own small and deployable scout turrets. They can be remotely-operated after deploying them in a hidden overwatch position, and also provide laser designation to Forward Observers.
Bouncer Extraordinaire, Petr Kolář, was interrogated by our friends over at Arma France. While they tried to secure Intel on the Expansion, it's still a little too early for details. Do take the time to read through Petr's answers though; plenty of interesting info about this essential team member, the evolution of Arma 3 and the development of Marksmen DLC.
OPERATIONS
Lead Sandbox Designer, Lukáš Haládik, took a plunge in Marksmen DLC's armory in the latest OPerations REPort. He even managed to educate some of our own team's members on how we arrived at the 7 weapons in the package. Join Lukáš for an overview of the planning stages, conceptualization and read about one weapon's evolution in particular. Then see what sets the weapons apart by peering over some unique characteristics. The report concludes with a discussion of two features we investigated, but were unable to deliver. We hope you'll enjoy this look behind-the-scenes!
In an attempt to fix long-lasting graphics glitches on various weapon optics, our programmers have introduced new technology for collimators. Besides fixing the glitches, it also enhances the parallax effect on certain weapon sights. Check out this video for a good impression. Documentation for modders will be supplied once we're satisfied that the new binarization (required) works in all circumstances, and can be included into Arma 3 Tools. And while we have you on the topic of weapon enhancements, we're also quite pleased with the new particle effects for ejected machine gun belt links.
LOGISTICS
Sadly, an error related to adjusted stance key bindings has snuck into update 1.40. We had separated the single control for adjusting your stance (LCtrl in Arma 3's preset) into 4 separate controls. The new controls allow greater flexibility in configuring your stance adjustments up, down, left and right. The defaults should all remain the same (LCtrl + W A S D). During final preparation of 1.40, the engine and data parts of this change were incorrectly distributed. This resulted in the old single control being removed, but the new controls not being added. Until we fix this in 1.42, you can manually implement a work-around (or use Dev-Branch). In your .Arma3Profile file, find the keyAdjust entry or add a new one: keyAdjust[]={29}; This will reset it to LCtrl, but you can find other key codes here.
In the first few days of staging Marksmen DLC assets to Dev-Branch, legitimate owners of the DLC (because of owning the DLC Bundle or a Supporter Edition) were not able to access all the content without restrictions. This should now be solved for everyone. A similar situation presented itself for Helicopters DLC, though it took longer to resolve that time. It is still connected to limited support to pre-release DLC on Steam. It will not be possible to buy the DLC separately from the bundle until its full release.
Julien Vida has been working on a new approach to set up existing customization options for vehicles. VhC replaces the previous scripted solutions in favor for a more reliable config approach. This also allowed for customization to be demonstrated much better in VR Arsenal's Garage. Examples can be found in the recent version of Arma 3 Tools' development branch.