Woohoo! :)
What is Arma Reforger? Basically, it's a tech demo showing off where the development for Arma 4 is headed. Just one island, Everon, only basic infantry, a handful of wheeled vehicles, only two MP style modes, no SP modes, and some server issues at launch.
So why would anyone pay $30 for it right now? Why not wait until Arma 4 comes out with ALL of the goodies?
- It's frikkin' gorgeous!
- Plays reasonably well on older hardware.
- Many UI tweaks that make it feel much nicer than the Arma 3 UI.
- Mission and mod creation will be much easier once people learn the new tooling.
- Workshop is already getting filled with content to try out.
- MUCH better built-in VOIP.
- It's BI. Even if it's a tech demo with a limited shelf life you know that they're going to have awesome support.
Dslyecxi does a great job of discussing what Arma Reforger is and what it isn't. He has been one of BI's playtesters/consultants for quite a while so he is in a far better position than most to know what's what. :)
The Enfusion engine takes full advantage of all of the CPU cores that you can throw at it yet still gracefully degrades for older hardware. One commenter who has a monster 16 core rig that gets between 70-120 fps said that he fired up his old 2016 gaming laptop to see how it would handle the game. He found he was still able to get 40-50 fps reasonably consistently on that old hardware. IOW, you don't need to rush out and buy a monster rig to play this game.
My first impressionsI was partway through the tutorial when I decided to stop to post this. (Yes, I'm one of those anal types who actually completes tutorials. ;) )
I'm already really impressed with what BI has accomplished. The interface Just Works and feels more intuitive than the old one while still retaining the default key bindings for PC players.
Oh, did I forget to mention that it's available for Xbox and PS5? Can't play PC vs console players but yes, they finally get to try out Arma (and Workshop content!) as well. :)
The tutorial includes a demonstration of logistics and base building for the PVP CTI mode. I realized that BI is supplying an amazing amount of capabilities right out of the box that I would have to write if I were to build similar ones for an Arma 3 mission.
I even found a mission creator, who is just learning the new editor himself, who posted a live session where he is learning how to build a mission from scratch while explaining what he's doing. Really interesting stuff. :)
I am going to stop mission building in Arma 3. It's time to learn the new tooling to prep for Arma 4.
Future of the Arma 3 server and the clanI'm going to leave the Arma 3 server up for a while although I don't know for how much longer. A couple of people have asked to have the Prairie SOG DLC loaded on it. I'll see what I can do about that. However, I don't plan to be playing on it much (if at all) myself. I'll be too busy elsewhere. ;)
I'll be shopping around for a Reforger server and I'll post when I get one up. In the meantime I'll be playing around in the new editor, experimenting with mission building.
In case you haven't guessed, I'm more than just a bit excited about this announcement. "The future's so bright, ya gotta wear shades." 8)
Looking forward to playing Arma Reforger with you!