Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from Weixin Official Accounts: Game Research Society (ID: ysaag), author:

"Play is an act which proceeds within the limits of space-time, in some visible order, according to freely accepted rules, and outside the limits of necessity or material utility. The theme of the game is ecstasy and passion. "

- John Heizingha, The Man Who Played

About the game A little while later, Armed Assault 3 is about to enter its tenth year.

The series first appeared in 2001 as Operation Flashpoint, later renamed Armed Assault: Cold War Assault. Operation Flashpoint's realistic simulation of modern three-dimensional battlefields has won it a large following among hardcore military game enthusiasts. Bohemia Interactive Studio, the game's production company, later released Armed Assault 1 and 2, which won good reputation and even took the label of military simulation game out of the circle.

Many players of the Armed Raid series have heard of this game known as "Two hours of running, five minutes of fierce fighting" even if they haven't played it. This series can't be simply called FPS games. More accurately, it's a hardcore military simulation game, namely MilSim (Military Simulation) game.

Rather than simply shooting at enemies with guns, the game focuses more on simulating complete military operations. For example, in the story missions of the game itself, players need to know everything needed for the mission from the briefing, such as the background and the target, often the mission location is not clearly marked, can only rely on the north compass and map, through triangulation to find; and weapons and equipment also need to be arranged according to the enemy deployment.

Compared with the unstoppable battlefield superman in the Call of Duty series, the player is very vulnerable in the game. In the process of executing the mission, everything depends on himself: without the battle of receiving the enemy just after loading the map, he must first find a way to go to the mission location, and there is even the possibility of being ambushed on the way; without the "breathing and blood recovery" method, the player can only hide himself in cover and pray for the next bullet to bypass himself; If he was shot, he could only pray that the medic was skilled enough to snatch him back from death.

Can't save, give a happy game itself hard core level reached the light button has hundreds of degrees, not to mention the spread of "1000 hours entry" is not a joke. Many new players who want to try are often persuaded by the opening teaching mission. In just 30 minutes, they can experience the joy of "a map, a pack of cigarettes, a place to find a day."

Complex buttons, only the original version with 15 categories, not including the button settings after loading the module, but is such a "quit" game, ten years after the sale, still stable at the average 20,000 players daily live volume, what is the secret?

The average daily activity is about 20,000 people. When the first open module (MOD) game Doom came out, the creative rights of the game were not only the patents of the production team, but anyone could create everything they wanted through open code. Like The Elder Scrolls V, Armed Assault with mods is a "new game," offering both a more immersive feel and unlimited creative potential.

For example, the ACE module in the Creative Workshop changed the "blood bar" damage of the original game into modular human body damage, added different damage modes such as strain, tear and penetrating injury, and added the influence of different factors such as wind speed, temperature and altitude to weapons. The module provides a large number of simulation parameters, bringing an unparalleled immersive experience to the player.

Ballistic Calculator ACE alone provides a large number of simulation elements, not to mention the workshop has tens of thousands of modules, from different countries, eras, to "Warhammer 40K" and other different games; from large to hundreds of square kilometers of maps, to small to backpack key chain, here everything, as long as you can think of, in the workshop can be found.

Some of the most popular modules, covering the mainstream military camp and a variety of simulation enhancement modules, convenient production tools and open communication atmosphere, so that Armed Assault 3 welcomed the strong support of military game enthusiasts. The official website has a dedicated code Wiki page to teach players how to write code; module development tools are also compatible with mainstream model building software, which greatly reduces the difficulty of developing modules for players.

Since Operation Flashpoint, many excellent modules have emerged. In the era when there was no creative workshop, in order to facilitate the download and update of modules, many forums appeared as module release places, among which the well-known ones were the Chinese Virtual Military Network (VME) forum, the foreign Armaholic forum, etc.

VME Forum (reopening in 2022 after years of closure)

Armaholic Forum (closed in May 2021) These websites carry the creativity of countless military enthusiasts. Even if you can't touch weapons and equipment in real life, with infinite imagination and excellent modeling ability, you can depict every inch of equipment in the module. Many well-established module teams, such as the Community Upgrade Project (CUP) and RED HAMMER STUDIOS (RHS), have entered Ubisoft and other companies with experience in module projects.

The Armada mods also brought a number of other phenomenal games to the gaming world. For example, in 2017, the explosion of "Jedi Survival" is derived from the "PLAYERUNKNOWN's Battle Royale" module of Armed Assault 2. The origin of the zombie survival type of fire can also be traced back to the DAY-Z module.

The Armed Assault series organically integrates reality and imagination, and the excellent editor function from Operation Flashpoint allows players to create unlimited possibilities instead of limiting their game content to original missions. In particular, Armada 3 pioneered the introduction of the 3D Eden Editor, which makes it easy for any player to direct a quest.

Players can use the editor to realize the plot of the whole process from intelligence collection to assault attack in the movie; or experience gang life like GTA; they can also experience the refreshing confrontation of Battlefield; in the hands of senior directors, they can even make horror missions that make players scream repeatedly. As long as you want, there is nothing that cannot be achieved.

Players can create unparalleled artwork, such as a realistic firefight or a critically acclaimed movie skit. Often, only the imagination of the creator limits the work.

With the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022, there have been many videos on the public opinion field that are difficult to distinguish between true and false, many of which are screenshots of the game of "Armed Assault 3" or battlefield scenes disguised on the screen, which is enough to show that the game has infinite creativity.

Encouraged by community sharing, many of the amateur players who created Armada took the professional path. Alexandr, for example, a player from Russia who was lucky enough to fight alongside him on joint missions. In these years, he went from an amateur MilSim photographer to a full-time photographer and landscape architect.

Some of his early works confirmed his dream of enlisting in the army through Armed Assault 3. A friend of the team, after entering college in 2021, wrote a thank-you letter to his friends before leaving, thanking us for accompanying him in the process of shooting microfilms to make him realize that wearing military uniform is the great creation he wants.

Armed Assault's module community and developer community are like symbiosis. As time goes by, the two sides work together more and more. This has both kept Armada alive and brought a lot of great talent to the gaming world. As they say, the game is created. Bohemian Interactive has transferred the ability to develop games to every MilSim fan, making MilSim games shine and create meaning far beyond the game itself.

More than just hardcore games bring creators who generate power with love and selfless teachers. The essence of MilSim is that a group of people simulate a real military operation, and cooperation and communication are the core of fun. Since Operation Flashpoint, the convenient server construction has attracted all kinds of military game enthusiasts. Even in the era when QQ was not popular, thanks to the radio instructions in the game, everyone could play a happy simulated war.

In 2001, the game brought different weapon aiming functions, as well as radio command functions. One of the earliest teams in China, such as VME virtual combat troops, gathered the first batch of military simulation game players in 2001. From military tutorials to module production, they have made a lot of selfless contributions, laying a solid foundation for the development of domestic MilSim games. It can be said that without this group of people, there would be no prosperity of MilSim circle in China.

The forum of an early battle team had already been restored 15 years ago. In order to better complete the mission, planning and coordination at the tactical level were particularly important. However, such communication is easy to bring friction. Due to the nature of the Internet, normal tactical discussions can easily lead to misunderstandings, which can escalate into personal attacks. Quarrels are commonplace.

It was like the combination of light and darkness. As touching stories happened in this circle, there would be many dirty things.

In order to satisfy the wish of a sick player, that is, to participate in a large-scale team joint mission, we organized and planned for a month to realize a "Black Hawk Down" mission with a high completion rate, which was jointly carried out by multiple teams and participated by hundreds of people. In the process of realizing this dream, there have been many arguments, from module selection to task assignment, and there will always be dissatisfaction and opt-out. But after the ups and downs, everyone still realized this wish.

On the contrary, some melons are repeated. New players were the cornerstone of a team's development. Every time it was time for a discount, new recruitment posts for each team would appear on platforms such as Tieba. In order to snatch new players, some players lurked in other recruitment groups and persuaded them to quit by disrupting training; some players, as team leaders, lowered their identities and spread rumors to attack other teams; some even attacked other teams 'servers through DDOS, making them unable to play. Such things are only a small part of the chaos in the circle, but they are enough to affect the normal player experience for a long time.

The MilSim community brought by Armed Raid is like a huge Shura Field, and our relationship is more complicated than that of foreign communities. True or false, on and off, but only a small miniature of the domestic military fan circle.

As Franklin famously said,"Quarrel is a game played by men. Yet it is a strange game in which neither side has ever won. "The MilSim community in China had a glorious past and moving stories, but as the game aged and the pressure of players 'real life increased, these good things dissipated. Quarrels can lead to tactical running-in, but also to interpersonal tears, which is just a double-edged sword.

Outside of the community, professionals are using the game. Many people must have heard rumors that "Armed Assault" was a simulator used by the army. In addition,"Armed Assault 2 and 3" had also been reported on the military channel, which made the game even more mysterious.

However, the game is a game after all. The military uses "Armed Assault" mainly to simulate coordinated combat capability, focusing more on the general direction of strategy and tactics, rather than pursuing the elite ability of "100 steps through Yang" in the game.

In effect, Bohemia Interactive Studios spun off a Bohemia Interactive Simulations studio to develop Virtual Battle Space (VBS) for the U.S. military. The fundamental difference between this simulator and the game is that it has real-time global networked maps, more detailed simulation parameters, and a real combat command system.

The latest generation of "VBS4" advertised global real-time networked mission war games for "war," so that the game is full of a little smoke inside and outside. However, Armed Assault 3 also brings peace to mind. For example, its two DLC titles, Laws of War and Art of War, are available.

Laws of War In Laws of War, the player plays as a member of an NGO responding to a humanitarian disaster, defusing unexploded ordnance remaining on the island of Artis. Laws of War seems to tell the story of mine clearance, but in fact it stands in a new angle to depict war, that is, the perspective of war victims.

As mentioned in the campaign, there are still more than 100 million unexploded ordnance remnants of war in various parts of the world, posing a serious danger and threat to the civilian population of those countries. From Agent Orange in Vietnam to cluster bombs in the Middle East and Afghanistan, there has been a painful cost to local populations.

Burying explosives to harm civilians in war is also a war crime, and the game repeatedly reminds players to pay attention to the rules of engagement (ROE) and the laws of war, which in reality are based on the Geneva Conventions. If the player causes a large number of civilian casualties during the game, he will eventually face the end of being shot.

The production team said: The principle of engagement in DLC is not to stand on the moral high ground to educate players, but to provide a new perspective on war. Since it was a military simulation, ROE that existed in reality should also be introduced to the game in an appropriate form, so that players could face the problems that they had to think about in the war.

Art of War In Art of War, the game showcases talented community art from players around the world that expresses players 'views on war.

Most importantly, both DLCs donate the proceeds to the International Red Cross (ICRC), which allows the reflections brought about by both DLCs to further help real-world war victims.

Its future Armed Assault 3 is in its 10th year, and it's the only one in terms of gameplay. But unfortunately, it was really old in terms of gaming experience. Whether it was optimization or feel, it was far inferior to other FPS games.

The high learning costs in this era has become a deterrent for most players, but fortunately there are still players who love military simulation games, in this circle, there are always newcomers to start MilSim through Armed Raid, and some old players are scattered to other MilSim games. Just like how many players in Tactics Squad had come from a certain team, split up and merged, and everyone gathered in another MilSim game. People came and went, making this circle endless.

The "Armed Raid" series is like an old man who planted an oasis in the desert. More than 20 years later, it finally ushered in a new "posterity"-"Armed Raid: Remodeler," which was released in 2022. The production team put out the slogan "Road to Arma 4," intended to be a transitional work before the fourth generation went on sale.

The game isn't even half-finished yet, but it shows that the team wants to bring MilSim games to more players.

For example, although there are more BUGs, the game's new engine makes the shooting experience better; Many of the operations are oriented to mainstream shooting games, more streamlined; In addition, the in-game editor and module making tools are more "modern," but the problem is that compared with the previous generation, it takes more effort for module developers familiar with the old tools to learn.

A more modern interface is always out of control in the future, and it is inevitable that old players will slowly leave, so how to attract more new people to join MilSim games becomes more important. The future cannot be predicted, it can only be realized first.

A team leader's parting words The Armed Assault series has taken MilSim to a new level, and countless new ideas have been realized through this game, and countless military dreams have been launched and continued. It passed the baton created to the players, and thus radiated infinite vitality, like a tree with thick branches and leaves, providing a shelter for many MilSim fans.

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