ATTENTION

Welcome, soldiers, to our 17th Dev Report. A year has already passed since we released the Early Access version of Arma Reforger on May 17th. Over this past year, we have been working on implementing numerous changes, fixes, and updates. Our journey towards Arma 4 has begun a year ago, and we are incredibly grateful for your unwavering support and patience.

To provide you with insights into our progress and what lies ahead, we have brought together the best individuals to answer your questions. Join us as we hear from Marek Španěl (CEO), Ján Dušek (Project Lead), and Ivan Buchta (Creative Director) in the video below.

In the spirit of the anniversary, we are also sharing the video that briefly narrates the fascinating story of how the artwork for Arma Reforger came to life. We had the opportunity to interview the brilliant photographer Stanislav Petera behind this piece, and you can read the interview right here.

Now for the content of this Dev Report, in addition to discussing our future plans, we will also provide a comprehensive summary of the updates made in recent months. Topics to be covered include advancements in mines, automatic reconnection features, crucial bug fixes, planned changes for server configurations, and much more.

INTELLIGENCE

Let's begin by reviewing the latest updates, starting with the stable ones, particularly the highly significant 0.9.8.53 Update. This update introduces an array of additions, including the introduction of Mines, an Improved Item Placement System, Flag Markers, and Performance Optimization. For more information, watch the video below. 

As a Major Update, 0.9.8.53 brought forth a multitude of fixes and changes that significantly enhance gameplay, stability, scenario framework, modding, and more.

In addition to the major update, we released a minor update, version 0.9.7.106.

Furthermore, we introduced three Experimental Updates: 0.9.7.108, 0.9.8.50, and 0.9.8.54.

It's important to note that the transition to version 0.9.8 may have caused some compatibility issues with mods. To address this, we released Modding Update 0.9.8, which provides information about known issues and their respective solutions.

Now, let's explore some significant developments regarding Arma Reforger in details:

Mines

We've introduced mines into the game, and here's what you need to know about them: Both main factions now have their own type of mine asset. The USSR utilizes the TM62 M, while the US employs the M15 AT. These mines are encased in metal and feature a pressure fuse. Their primary purpose is anti-tank usage, although lighter vehicles can also trigger them by driving over the fuse. The operating pressure ranges from 150kg to 500kg. It's worth noting that individual soldiers cannot activate the mines, but be cautious because even fused mines can explode if hit by a bullet.

We have plans to expand the explosive gameplay, including implementing the use of metal detectors and improving AI awareness of mines. Currently, mines can only be visually identified, but they can be marked with a flag to inform others of their presence. Look forward to finding more detailed information about mines in the upcoming Field Manual pages.

Automatic reconnection

You may have noticed that you are automatically reconnected to the session if you lose connection and get kicked. While this feature simplifies the experience, we need to temporarily disable it in the next version due to occasional desync issues. In most cases, the feature works well: if you're kicked due to network problems, your session state will be preserved until you automatically return. You won't have to worry about respawning, retrieving your loadout, or rejoining your squad—it's all handled automatically. We are aware of the desync issues and are actively working to resolve them.

Important Fixes

In the upcoming update, we will deploy several important fixes. We have addressed the frustrating bug where characters would exit vehicles through the roof when the FPS was low. Another annoying bug was the persistent ADS (aiming down sights) state when a player died with scoped binoculars. But we've made many more fixes—check our changelog, starting with the "Fixed:" prefix, for a comprehensive list.

Increased Player Limit for Community Servers

We have raised the player limits for servers, allowing community servers to accommodate up to 128 players. This decision was made to provide you with greater freedom and flexibility when it comes to your servers.

It's possible that you have already noticed and even tested this increase in player limits. We understand the importance of creating diverse and immersive gameplay experiences, and we believe that this adjustment will enable you to do just that.

Please note that official servers will maintain their player limits of either 64 or 32 players. This is because, in terms of performance, the Conflict mode is not capable of supporting such a large number of players and AI entities simultaneously.

On the other hand, community servers can fully utilize the increased player limit to design and implement their own scenarios. For instance, you can create intense PvP-focused environments that accommodate a larger player base.

OPERATIONS

Moving towards the future, our focus has extended beyond the development of new features. We have made the decision to refactor many of our systems to eliminate recurring bugs and improve their extensibility. This involved cleaning up thousands of lines of code, resulting in a more stable and efficient foundation.

In the upcoming milestones, one of the eagerly anticipated improvements is the overhauled Respawn feature. We have worked on this feature extensively, addressing hidden bugs and enhancing the user experience during the deployment process. The overhaul spans from the low-level implementation to the user interface, enabling better handling of respawn protection and respawning in vehicles, among other aspects.

Significant progress has also been made in the backend area. We have overhauled the mod downloading system, addressing numerous problems that occurred during mod updates and server connections. These changes will result in a smoother experience for players when updating mods and connecting to servers.

Regarding supplies, we have been dedicated to integrating them more effectively into the game to foster goal-oriented gameplay, particularly in our game modes, with a specific focus on supporting logistics in Conflict mode. Currently, supplies are already utilized for building resources and deployment tickets in Conflict.

We are actively working on enhancing the economy gameplay as well. For instance, while the game's arsenals currently offer an infinite number of weapons and ammunition, supplies will impose fair limitations on consumption. It's not solely about the arsenal, though. The handling of supplies is crucial. They can be transported not only by trucks but also by other vehicles, depending on the quantity. Even a backpack can be used for transportation purposes. Supplies can be delivered to a supply depot or dropped as a box at the frontline border. They will enable the resupply of other characters with ammo, medkits, and the repair of damaged vehicles. Supplies essentially serve as versatile and universal resources that can be transformed into various actions, forming the backbone of the game's economy. To facilitate this, we have developed the Resources feature, which can be utilized by modders wherever a resource-consumer model is needed for economic purposes. For more details, stay tuned for the next Mod Report.

Now, let's look at the planned changes for server configs. We have made efforts to improve the naming of certain configuration parameters to make them shorter and more easily understood based on their names. In some cases, parameters have been renamed to align with those used in Arma 3 or DayZ. Initially, there will be temporary backward compatibility to ensure a smooth transition. However, please note that backward compatibility will be removed in the next major update. When we release an update containing these changes, we kindly ask you to modify your configs accordingly. Specific changes will be outlined in the changelog accompanying the respective updates. The following parameters have been changed:

• gameHostBindAddress is now bindAddress

• gameHostBindPort is now bindPort

• gameHostRegisterBindAddress is now publicAddress

• gameHostRegisterBindPort is now publicPort

• adminPassword is now passwordAdmin (this parameter has also been moved into the game object)

• playerCountLimit is now maxPlayers

• supportedGameClientType is now supportedPlatforms

In addition, we are currently testing internal config validation using a schema, which will be introduced in the next major update. This validation will greatly improve the resolution of config-related issues, as the server will be able to specifically identify incorrect or missing values in the config. The schema used for validation will be accessible via Workbench, allowing users to perform their own validation or generate tools. Furthermore, there will be improvements in parsing errors, enabling the identification of issues within the config file, including the line and character where the error occurs.

Continuing with stability information, we highly appreciate every crash report submitted via our crash reporter, as it enables us to effectively analyze and prioritize all crashes. This is a significant improvement compared to Arma 3 or DayZ, where crashes had to be manually submitted via our Feedback Tracker. However, you can further assist us by providing additional information or steps to reproduce the crash directly in the Crash Reporter dialog. If you wish to provide even more detailed information or stay in contact with us, we encourage you to proceed to the Feedback Tracker, where you can create a ticket and include full logs and the Crash GUID, which can be found at the end of the console.log when a crash occurs. Reports with comprehensive information may receive higher priority and be addressed more quickly.

We would like to provide some insight into one of the most common crashes known as GPU Hangs. As the name suggests, this crash is directly related to the GPU and its drivers. It can be caused by various factors, making it challenging to fix this crash as a whole. Instead, we are focusing on addressing each individual cause. We are constantly working on resolving this issue and aim to reduce the frequency of these crashes through fixes. You can find the details of these fixes in the changelogs under "Fixed: GPU Crash...". Investigating and tracking these GPU crashes require a different approach and tools compared to standard CPU crashes, which is why it may take more time to address them. Some of these crashes may be specific to certain versions of GPUs or driver software. Therefore, we generally recommend keeping your GPU drivers up-to-date, as it may resolve some crashes at the driver level.

And as always, we greatly appreciate your feedback, which has proven to be incredibly valuable to us. Fixes for two specific feedback items, static weapon while aiming and moving (#T171923), and occasional issues with gun replication, will be delivered soon.

LOGISTICS

Once again, we are able to witness the incredible work of our dedicated community in COMRAD #8. Take a look at their creations; they are truly worth exploring.

We have started a new series called Mod Report, which aims to provide useful information for the modding community. We have already released the first episode, where you can learn about the upgrades to Blender Bridge, the latest developments in GitHub repositories, and more.

On April Fool's Day, we decided to add some lighthearted fun by releasing a joke DLC trailer called "Arma Wildlife." This playful trailer showcases the adventurous and perilous lives of vehicles in the unforgiving environments of Arma.