FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: 'Win' devbranch & release, Weather for everyone, Zeus intel
PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION
Internally we have just applied the 'data lock' for the 'Win' campaign episode and associated content (jets, truck, Altis locations!). We are no longer adding new things to this milestone, but focusing on getting it ready for release. The first public release moment is staging on devbranch, hopefully later this week. Then, on March 20th, we open it up to everyone - packaged as the 1.14 update.
As with the devbranch release of previous episodes, we would like to ask you to avoid spoilers for those waiting for the full release. We're appreciative of your feedback, but if you want to minimize risk to your experience and savegames - consider not yet trying the episode at this stage. It's only another week away.
INTELLIGENCE
Zeus is to be released as a game update not very long after 'Win'. Feature and technology development for that initial version is wrapping up with some pretty cool features. Zeus will have control over moving characters in and out of vehicles, fire support modules and context-sensitive waypoints. Beyond that, we will see how successful Zeus is once it's out there for everyone. We're seeing a good bit of excitement and a lot of us really enjoy playing it - so we hope to be able to support it more.
New audio configuration options make it finally possible to handle high rate-of-fire weapons fire better. Basically it's possible to have a sample with an intro, looping mid-section and outro. This was specifically needed for one of the new CAS airplanes, but it can be used in other places as well.
Inspired by similar work done in DayZ, our programmers have worked on weather and time synchronization in multiplayer (their state being distributed automatically across clients). A first version of this is available on devbranch.
Continued work on autonomous vehicle technology has brought access to a real-time video feed from connected drones. It's still a work-in-progress, but should be available under Configure > Controls > Keyboard > Common > AV Camera.
OPERATIONS
Devbranch will soon be receiving an option in the multiplayer server browser to switch between master servers. The default will be GameSpy's for the time being, but you will now also be able to list servers via Steam. We are exploring further integration of Steamworks, and the enhanced functionality it brings to MP. The primary difference may be that Steam's implementation will find fewer servers through complex NAT. We are keen to find out precisely how many servers are affected by NAT issues, and whether these issues can be resolved via network configuration.
LOGISTICS
Check out last week's TECHREP and SPOTREP for info on the 1.12 update, servers and tools. Unfortunately we had to follow-up on Friday with a multiplayer stability hotfix. While that resolved the primary instability, we are still looking at other problems for 1.14. Apologies for the inconvenience; we are exploring better ways to handle large-scale MP testing ahead of game updates. Many of these issues do not show up in devbranch due to the slight differences in game / engine configuration.