What Do WE Want See in the Next Version of America’s Army?
4DChessGenius
Posts: 2,161Player
We all remember this (in)famous thread:
http://archive2.forum.americasarmy.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5615&sid=f5f95abaebedbbee20d9d7fe612ed658
Well, I say we start one now for AA5. My hypothesis is that AA5 is in production. The amount of content/feature updates since the game went live in October 2015 has been slower (practically non-existent) than at any other point in development. I could be completely wrong, and I expect no dev to confirm or deny. In any sense, it'd be fun. So let's have at it.
All items in these lists should be specific. No "Make it like AA2" responses. I'll try to consolidate the list on this first post. Maybe when we get to a solid big list, we can make a vote on it as well.
http://archive2.forum.americasarmy.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5615&sid=f5f95abaebedbbee20d9d7fe612ed658
Well, I say we start one now for AA5. My hypothesis is that AA5 is in production. The amount of content/feature updates since the game went live in October 2015 has been slower (practically non-existent) than at any other point in development. I could be completely wrong, and I expect no dev to confirm or deny. In any sense, it'd be fun. So let's have at it.
All items in these lists should be specific. No "Make it like AA2" responses. I'll try to consolidate the list on this first post. Maybe when we get to a solid big list, we can make a vote on it as well.
You joined the world's greatest army to become a graphic artist? Outstanding!
Comments
http://forum.americasarmy.com/discussion/5808/aapgmod-v1-0/p1
AA5 is not in production/preproduction at this time. It's not even certain that the next AA game would be a FPS. Every day the Army is becoming less and less about boots on the ground shooting and more about STEM fields.
Who knows the next AA could be anything from a robotics sim to an RTS, a medical trainer to a story driven single player / co op campaign saga.
Being a f2p game is no longer novel, and being a f2p shooter doubly so.
There is a lot of talk internally about the future of AA and it's all very exciting, don't box yourself in with one genre or nostalgia from previous versions.
1. Required training - Needed to unlock pretty much everything in the game. The training should be educational, engaging, and fun. It should start from basic and work its way up. Introduce people to various divisions and infantry units within the Army with training specific to that unit.
People should be allowed to play the game without training, but stats don't log and they can't use anything except a basic load out.
2. Defined/unique roles - Each role should be more than a weapon change. They should have unique gadgets or special abilities of some sort.
3. Unique players/stats - I'm thinking something along the line where people can put a preset amount of points towards their player in order to craft their player to how they want to play. You can have all sorts of things. Movement speed, action speed, steadiness, accuracy sighted, accuracy unsighted, bravery (how much events/things occurring around the soldier effect them), leadership (their presence can positively impact their teammates), etc.
4. More weapons - Even if we have to go into the past for US standard issue weapons (with OpFor counterparts), it'd be nice.
5. More attachments - Front attachments especially. The game needs them badly. The more variety the better.
6. Ranked mode of some sort. Even if matchmaking comes later down the line.
7. A more interesting enemy - Czervanians haven't worked in two games now. Give us terrorists (and indigenous forces) back.
8. A working tournament mode - self explanatory. Competitive games should be easy to setup out of the box.
9. Better aiming system - Breath & short stop at the top & bottom of the cycle. No more hold breath auto win nonsense. Penalties for actions should be more harsh. Long range shooting should be more difficult. Sniping should be extremely difficult while not mounted with a bipod.
10. Better Mounting - Should only work with bipods. Bipods have a cost of folding and unfolding.
11. Map specific load outs - While I'm fine with some maps having more freedom, others should be restricted. Available weapons, classes, grenade counts, etc should be based on each map. Overloading maps with scopes is
12. Maps - Bring back the most popular maps from AA2, AA3, AAPG. Then add other maps as you go.
13. Shooting metrics - I actually like AAPG's, some may disagree. Recoil, unsighted firing are all good IMO. Although you'd have to work with the point system mentioned above so that there'd be a cone even for sighted fire depending on the person's sighted accuracy ability.
14. Movement metrics - AAPG's are also pretty top notch here, keep them.
15. In game browser/menu - From day 1.
16. Squads - Bring it back
17. No BDX/FLO or anything like that. Make some maps bigger, some maps smaller, let server admins decide which they want to play. Let competitive players decide which maps are good for comp. Let server admins decide on the size of their server. Etc.
18. Medic system - Make the medic system work for living players, not incapacitated players. No revives, please. I know some will fight me on this, but revives hurt the game.
If AA5 isn't currently in production, then the slowdown for AAPG is a sad thing unless the Dev team decides it's going to surprise us with a huge content patch at some point. Makes you wonder if the public game is pretty much being abandoned.
For the next game, I'm not sure what you'd find that can be successful. A robotics sim or medical trainer would be neat, but I'm not sure how many people would bother with one. RTS is practically a dead genre (sadly, because I love it). A story driven game would be fun, but let's be honest, you'd talking about making a game that'd need to be at least 10-20 hours and unless it's a choice based RPG won't have a ton of replayability.
Of course you could go in another route for AA5 (or whatever) and make it more of a grand scale game (like battlefield) rather than squad based. That'd make it more so you could incorporate a lot more of the newer technology that the Army is working with.
Things to Add
Training required before entering multi-player. (Still waiting)
Server - player rank filtering (like AA2)/Competitive matchmaking
Priority players (Server owners/Clan members)
Ping/Latency requirements
A minimum of 10 maps upon release with 1-2 additional per month
Expected milestones (feature release dates)
Let the game handle gaming and provide a data portal (website) to provide the stats (Better in AAPG, but still needs more)
Tournament/league/ladder/Clan skirmish scheduling via web portal.
A new forum system - Not a fan of this one
Map making tool (successful maps updated and included in the game after approval from devs) (Done pretty well in AAPG)
Community events (Getting better with this in AAPG)
Team logos on uniform/helmet or something creative like that. (clan/character-player identification needs improved)
Bring some of the realism back into the game. It doesn't have to be all out, but movement penalties for damage take would be a fabulous start.
Direct X 12
Things not to Add
I do not want to see any sort of re-spawn feature in multi-player
BDX/FLO was a bad idea, better map design will eliminate the need for this
Iron out ADS/recoil inconsistencies and make it easier to use and understand, while maintaining skill necessary to fire.
Things to consider
Performance should be #1 priority
Network consistency #2
Heavy community interaction on the development this time around - more focused on actually implementing the feedback suggested this time around
Graphical improvements - AAPG is too cartoony/arcadey
More frequent intermittent patches
AA has managed to separate itself from other games in terms of actual game-play. Don't lose that touch by following the lead of other games. (They actually did this with AAPG)
Make AA Great Again!
Actually commander abilities could be cool if they're done right. Maybe each team can have multiple at their disposal, but can only choose one to use per round. You can get certain types depending on if you're attack or defend. Not sure exactly what would be available, but it's an idea.
This sounds very promising.
Make AA Great Again!
Well... this makes me sad. Maybe we could crowdfund a true AA2 sequel since the army doesn't care about it anymore? I bet it would actually do well, just have to call it something else. AA2 style gameplay in UE4 would be amazing. I'm sure there would be legal action, so would have to do it somewhat with "no assoc with the army"
I rather see this one being polished and getting closer to a winning formula before jumping into new projects repeating the same mistakes. Its not like the game can get any "deader" so its a low stakes situation, they should try new things and see what works and what doesn't.
It's not dead, just the good weather!
I love this community!
Make AA Great Again!
I love this community!
Ok I can breath now!!! Thank you for clearing that up haha!!! I was like, nooooOOOOOOOOO lol
LETS GO PENS