FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Release, Post-release work
PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION
Last Thursday's release was a big moment for the team. It was a relief to get the game out there. Of course we realize that for most people reading this obscure development blog, it had less of an impact than to someone buying / installing the game for the first time. For those wanting a changelog from the last Beta patch, check out SPOTREP #00010. We're focusing on reading and watching all the constructive feedback and criticisms, while solidifying our short-term and long-term plans.
Daily development branch updates fired up again yesterday. If you're willing to deal with the usual disclaimers of that experimental build, it will have lots of fixes coming. Main branch patching is planned on a 2 to 4 week cycle. The short-term cycle will partly be synchronized with the release of campaign episodes, but we may get some patches in-between.
INTELLIGENCE
In a special release week Report In! interview, Big Boss Marek Španěl shares his thoughts on Arma 3's development and future. There are many interesting tidbits in there, such as revealing intentions to release the entire Arma 2 content library to modders under a very generous license to create derivative work for Arma 3. This is but part of a big push for modding, involving Workshop support and tools.
You may have witnessed Steam Trading Cards appearing in your Steam Inventory while playing Arma 3. There are 8 cards in the launch deck. By playing and trading you can craft them into a badge and get random 'loot' dropped. Arma 3 loot comes in the form of custom emoticons and profile skins. We should point out Trading Cards are a Steamworks system and not something we spent resources on implementing ourselves. They are just a little extra, but they offer some interesting rewards like discount vouchers for Steam. We are really quite happy with how the artworks came out - kudos to our artists who did a lot of it in their free time.
Another week, another Workshop dev favorite. Karel Mořický has the following to say about 'Road To Redemption' by Ubiquitous: "The mission shows perfectly what Arma 3 is about: combined arms operation, clear objective, wide range of tactical opportunities, and responsibility."
Visit the updated official F.A.Q. for some basic questions and answers, such as where to find Digital Deluxe assets (your Arma 3 Steam installation folder, Bonus sub-folder).
OPERATIONS
Work on post-release (free) content progresses nicely. It's looking likely we'll include new heavy pistols and a CSAT marksman rifle (with new marksman optics) with the first campaign episode. Content for the other episodes is in development. The two CAS airplanes are mostly finished in terms of their most detailed artwork Level Of Detail (LOD). They are now undergoing texturing and LODing, before handing them off to the encoding, audio and animation departments. And there are yet more brand-new vehicles being sculpted by the artists.
LOGISTICS
Besides (memory) optimizations and AI fixes, devbranch contains improvements to reduce tank (or rather tracked vehicle) PhysX glitches. They should be much less prone to flipping, as if weightless, caused by main barrel collisions or ramming each other.