FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Firstlook AAR, Documentation
PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION
This past weekend the two Dutchies in the development team visited Firstlook expo in The Netherlands. It was great to meet up with some of the Dutch multiplayer communities (like Tangodown), modders (e.g. the lads behind Arma 3 Life) and individual fans. Kudos to MSI Europe for hosting us. Thanks for visiting and helping to support the game!
We did two main stage demos on a huge screen and audio setup - and it felt great! The crowd probably suffered temporary hearing loss when Korneel van 't Land ambushed the audio technicians by firing the Slammer cannon at maximum volume! The smoke machines kicking in on stage when we threw smoke grenades in-game was a nice touch also. The first part of the demo was an introduction to those new to Arma, but we concluded with a few upcoming content teasers. Confirmed to arrive with the first campaign episode: the Rahim CSAT marksman rifle with DMS marksman optic, 4-five pistol with MRD optic, and the Zubr revolver with Yorris optic. We also showed concept work for the CSAT CAS airplane and a new AAF IFV - part of the additions scheduled for the other two episodes.
Eager players will have observed we are approaching the four week mark after release. First contact with the campaign will happen this month, but it needs a little more time to polish and get final voice acting in. The exact release date for the 'Survive' episode is going to be published this week. As per usual, we'll be staging (part of) the content on devbranch first.
INTELLIGENCE
Version 1.02 on main branch was hotfixed with a new executable to address the most common cause of a multiplayer crash. We know there are still other circumstances for a similar crash. Investigations continue and some of the crash opportunities have already been addressed on devbranch.
BattlEye server 1.177 has introduced handy tools for admins to load script and event filters specific to certain scenarios.
OPERATIONS
In case you were wondering why devbranch activity is a little lower than normal: we are on yet another data lock - this time for the first campaign episode. General bug fixing continues, but we are more cautious about making changes in the core game - wanting it to run well as a stable platform for the campaign.
Now autumn is upon us, we've taken on the challenge to improve our in-game rain a bit. Devbranch users were confronted with early prototype work by accident but umbrellas were swiftly deployed. It's looking very promising, so keep looking up at those clouds for the proper reveal when it's ready!
LOGISTICS
Various devs have been busy with documentation and other forms of support for modders. Dental encoder zGuba has posted a 101 guide for tank configuration on the Community Wiki. Designer Druid continued by explaining the parameters for the wing vortices effect on fixed-wing aircraft. And finally, as of today on devbranch, a different method of configuring weapon attachments is supported (backwards compatible).