FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Report In Interview, End Game Documentation, Livestream Recording
PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION
The third Steam Free Weekend for Arma 3 was another big success. We are both humbled and proud. You help us keep the game relevant as we're well into the second year of post-release support. Our gratitude to the community's server administrators, for whom the Free Weekends are especially stressful. We're sure all players appreciate your hard work to provide a place to play. To all players who've decided to stay with us after the trial ended, we bid you welcome to the Armaverse. The development team remains committed to making the game better for you. Besides continued work on stability and performance, we have big things in the works, such as the Expansion terrain and the 3D scenario editor.
INTELLIGENCE
Reporting in for an interview this time is Designer Nelson Duarte. The Q&A goes over the life of a playable content designer at Bohemia Interactive, before diving into End Game, on which Nelson is one of the primary developers. Read more about how the concept came to be, and what kind of gameplay it provides. The interview wraps up with insight into the (open) development of the mode, future plans, and a bit of casual trolling of Nelson's roots.
While you are playing End Game yourself, try to take part in a couple of Intel downloads during the second stage. This becomes necessary after your side has established your FOB. Several objective sites become available, and at each of them, your team can download an Intel package. More team members joining the download, will make it go faster. Being part of the download 5 times in any official End Game scenario, across sessions, will unlock the "Hacker" achievement. Only added to the game in update 1.42, it has been unlocked by 0.2% of the global player-base at time of writing.
Teamwork is very important in this multiplayer mode. Both during the PvE and PvP stages, you can gain a tactical benefit by forming dynamic groups. Press 'U' to open the interface to find a group to join. Or create your own group, give it a name, invite others and promote a leader. We've provided a small range of official servers to play End Game on. You can also use an in-game server browser filter to locate sessions. Go to PLAY > MULTIPLAYER > FILTER, and then fill in "End Game" in the Mission field. Since we are still improving the mode, your feedback is welcome on our forums.
OPERATIONS
This report is rapidly turning into an End Game fest, and we still have more to share. We hosted an official livestream last Thursday, during which a roster of developers and community members played the mode and discussed it in great detail. Splendidly hosted by Associate Producer Matthew Lightfoot and Creative Director Jay Crowe, the stream also saw guest appearances by designers Nelson Duarte and Thomas Ryan. If you missed the event, view the nearly 2 hours worth of recorded footage on our YouTube channel. Kudos to our devs for participating during their personal time, to our community participants for showing us how to play, and to everyone else for tuning in!
LOGISTICS
There has been a lot of interest in creating custom instances of End Game multiplayer. We've added a setup guide to the Community Wiki to explain the basics and offer some specific tips. In case you're looking to only add Revive to your scenario, take a look at how respawn templates are configured. With both pieces of documentation, do realize that we'll be continuing development and the implementation may change along the way. This applies especially to systems like Revive, which we consider scripted experimental versions of eventual tech.
Our very own CEO Marek Španěl informed the world about the availability of paper maps for Altis and Stratis (free worldwide shipping). If you own the Digital Deluxe Edition, you can find digital PDFs of these maps in your installation's Bonus folder. The printed versions look just like any real tourist destination's folded map - a great gift for any fan of Arma 3!