Development Hell: Arma 3 delayed yet again

J

Jackpot

Banned
http://www.bistudio.com/english/home/news/projects/347-status-update-for-arma-3

After 6 months of radio silence BIS has updated the site with this:

In what might be described as an eventful year, Bohemia Interactive has decided to postpone the release of Arma 3. The additional development time enables the project to reach its full potential, with the studio expecting to finalize their release plans in the new year.

Recently, Joris-Jan van ‘t Land, a 10-year veteran of Bohemia Interactive, took over the role of Arma 3 Project Lead from Daniel Musil, who left the studio to pursue other opportunities.

Joris-Jan van ‘t Land: "We’ve been in the process of implementing changes that will help us innovate as a studio under unexpected circumstances - facing problems we simply couldn't have imagined”, referring to the detainment of two Bohemia Interactive employees in Greece. Both were arrested on suspicion of espionage while spending their holiday on Lemnos - an island that served as inspiration for the environment in Arma 3. They have since remained in jail pending legal proceedings. "We're still trying to make sense of the situation and hope that our colleagues will be released soon. Although their plight has certainly affected us on a personal level, we continue working on the tasks identified as key to the release of Arma 3."

The new release window of Arma 3 has been set for 2013. Joris-Jan van 't Land: "I hope this update provides some answers regarding the status of the project. We’re currently sorting the specifics so we can deliver a more complete announcement at the beginning of next year."

The studio is also working on a standalone version of DayZ, which is developed by a team led by Dean Hall.
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There's a post a dev member made on the official forums several months ago in a random thread. It gave a lot of detail on what was going on and revealed the delay wasn't due to the arrests as thought but because they had "nothing to show" and were all focused on the alpha (also delayed). Will try and find it.
 
Sucks, but the more polished it is at release the better. Arma II at launch was a nightmare for some.
 
I'd rather they take their time with it. They must have made a tonne off of Day Z so hopefully, they can sit back and polish and bug fix the game. Arms 2 was a mess at launch.
 
They're still locked up? FFS :(

I don't mind about the delays, you could see it happening a mile off during the out-right radio silence. Day Z was such a huge success that I wouldn't be surprised if it more-than doubled the sales of Arma 2 near the end of its cycle. With the extra time they will be able to utilize extra funds from the extra sales to release an overall better product :)
 
dose said:
Yeh, that would make sense. /sarcasm
They may not be terrorists but if they've taken footage/photos of military installations that's illegal. They're not just going to let them go.
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Take the photos from them, destroy the cameras etc. and let them go?

It's X-Mas Greece you heartless bastards :(
 
I would not classify a game like ArmA in dev hell. I think they've made their games in this nature since their beginnings. Let them at least get it to a point of not crashing a lot since we all know things will need to be patched post release.
 
Sn4ke_911 said:
Take the photos from them, destroy the cameras etc. and let them go?
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Who knows what media they had already sent off to their company back in the Czech Republic, and what they have used to build the island in Arma 3? What you're suggesting makes no sense.
 
dose said:
Who knows what media they had already sent off to their company back in the Czech Republic, and what they have used to build the island in Arma 3? What you're suggesting makes no sense.
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yeah and keeping them now in prison makes sense?
 
RedSwirl said:
I'm actually interested to see if next gen consoles can handle this game.
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I have had the same thoughts.

They did an OK job with using the 360 controller in Arma 2 considering how many buttons are used for kb/m play. I'd love to see Arma 3 or even 2 make it over to next gen consoles.
 
dose said:
Who knows what media they had already sent off to their company back in the Czech Republic, and what they have used to build the island in Arma 3? What you're suggesting makes no sense.
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I just want to make sure that I'm getting this right. You are suggesting that it was a criminal conspiracy? That they are spies hired by a foreign power?

Or do you mean that they were trying to make the island as accurate as possible? Greece should just ask Bohemia to change the layout and not use accurate representations of the bases and the weapon emplacement. Use the island as a geographical reference, but the army stuff needs to be placed in different spots from where they really are.
 
DTKT said:
I just want to make sure that I'm getting this right. You are suggesting that it was a criminal conspiracy? That they are spied hired by a foreign power?

Or do you mean that they were trying to make the island as accurate as possible? Greece should just ask Bohemia to change the layout and not use accurate representations of the bases and the weapon emplacement. Use the island as a geographical reference, but the army stuff needs to be placed in different spots from where they really are.
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Ha, I mean the latter, I don't think they are spies at all, but they have been researching the island for the game. And yeh, what you suggest makes sense.
 
If Greece suspects them of espionage, why would they just believe the developers when they say they were doing it for a video game? Don't you realize that all spies have cover stories?
 
dose said:
Yeh, that would make sense. /sarcasm
They may not be terrorists but if they've taken footage/photos of military installations that's illegal. They're not just going to let them go.
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I guess they should try and arrest Google because Lemnos island is on Google maps. The entire thing is completely asinine. The Greek "Military" is a joke.
 
dose said:
Ha, I mean the latter, I don't think they are spies at all, but they have been researching the island for the game. And yeh, what you suggest makes sense.
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Yeah, they were not. Do you have your information from some greek tabloid or something? Please do some basic research before spreading fake info.

They were there on holidays, supposedly invited by a local citizen who claimed to be a "fan" of BI's games. One of the guys has a pregnant wife that was originally supposed to go with her husband but her doctor said she should not go. The vacation was already booked so the other guy joined in instead. Researching for a game a few months before planned release date is a nonsense, you should know that (or ask around, there are some game developers on GAF). They were arrested in their hotel room, nobody was protesting against anything they did outside. Now how do you think this is possible?

The authorities from that island have unfinished business with Bohemia Interactive after unsuccessfully trying to prevent them from picturing their home in the game, which takes place many years in the future and doesn't include ANYTHING from the reality, any real installations or other stuff, only the landscape which you can research on the internet.

It is true that they stupidly boasted about going there "to make the game as realistic as possible" but that was clearly not true, see above (trying to make PR out of everything, more likely). But if going to jail with virtually no evidence at all, without trial, in pathetic conditions, for making silly claims on the internet, or for picturing a landscape in you work, is called "justice" in Greece then there is something very wrong here.
 
PetrCobra said:
Yeah, they were not. Do you have your information from some greek tabloid or something? Please do some basic research before spreading fake info.

They were there on holidays, supposedly invited by a local citizen who claimed to be a "fan" of BI's games. One of the guys has a pregnant wife that was originally supposed to go with her husband but her doctor said she should not go. The vacation was already booked so the other guy joined in instead. Researching for a game a few months before planned release date is a nonsense, you should know that (or ask around, there are some game developers on GAF). They were arrested in their hotel room, nobody was protesting against anything they did outside. Now how do you think this is possible?

The authorities from that island have unfinished business with Bohemia Interactive after unsuccessfully trying to prevent them from picturing their home in the game, which takes place many years in the future and doesn't include ANYTHING from the reality, any real installations or other stuff, only the landscape which you can research on the internet.

It is true that they stupidly boasted about going there "to make the game as realistic as possible" but that was clearly not true, see above (trying to make PR out of everything, more likely). But if going to jail with virtually no evidence at all, without trial, in pathetic conditions, for making silly claims on the internet, or for picturing a landscape in you work, is called "justice" in Greece then there is something very wrong here.
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Source?
 
I hope they take their time. DayZ has given BIS a nice boost to help them along until DayZ standalone releases, which I'm sure will give them a steady stream of cash as it transitions from alpha to final throughout 2013. And Arma 2 had a rough release IIRC, so better a solid, late release than an another early, broken one.
 
PetrCobra said:
Yeah, they were not. Do you have your information from some greek tabloid or something? Please do some basic research before spreading fake info.
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So you're getting all your information solely from the developers side? That's just as bad as what you're accusing me of. I don't know the full facts, and neither do you. We need to wait until their trial. We do know that their game was featuring the island and they have been doing research on it during development.
 
Might as well call them hostages at this point. Clearly the authorities involved want something and those guys will rot until they get it.
 
PetrCobra said:
Various sources, including people directly involved. The information should be more or less all included on http://www.helpivanmartin.org/
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And yet army claim that they had photo of their military installations in their posesion. Same as people warning them on their forum before their trip.

They fucked up. Are they spy ? No that is obvious. But how army can know that ? If i didn't know anything about gaming and i would see someone taking pictures of military installations especially since they have bad relations with Turkey and their law says that you can't take pictures of MI then i would be alarmed.

Is this fucked up situation ? Yes, but there is only one guilty side and it is not army. They just fallowed their law.
 
Perkel said:
And yet army claim that they had photo of their military installations in their posesion. Same as people warning them on their forum before their trip.

They fucked up. Are they spy ? No that is obvious. But how army can know that ? If i didn't know anything about gaming and i would see someone taking pictures of military installations especially since they have bad relations with Turkey and their law says that you can't take pictures of MI then i would be alarmed.

Is this fucked up situation ? Yes, but there is only one guilty side and it is not army. They just fallowed their law.
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They should know it by this point. Ignorance and stupidity are not a valid excuse.
 
PetrCobra said:
Yeah, they were not. Do you have your information from some greek tabloid or something? Please do some basic research before spreading fake info.

They were there on holidays, supposedly invited by a local citizen who claimed to be a "fan" of BI's games. One of the guys has a pregnant wife that was originally supposed to go with her husband but her doctor said she should not go. The vacation was already booked so the other guy joined in instead. Researching for a game a few months before planned release date is a nonsense, you should know that (or ask around, there are some game developers on GAF). They were arrested in their hotel room, nobody was protesting against anything they did outside. Now how do you think this is possible?

The authorities from that island have unfinished business with Bohemia Interactive after unsuccessfully trying to prevent them from picturing their home in the game, which takes place many years in the future and doesn't include ANYTHING from the reality, any real installations or other stuff, only the landscape which you can research on the internet.

It is true that they stupidly boasted about going there "to make the game as realistic as possible" but that was clearly not true, see above (trying to make PR out of everything, more likely). But if going to jail with virtually no evidence at all, without trial, in pathetic conditions, for making silly claims on the internet, or for picturing a landscape in you work, is called "justice" in Greece then there is something very wrong here.
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Ok...

Did you know that one BI forum mod actually said back in August that the "holiday" guys were taking photos of military installations without problems, when a friendly greek fan just tried to give them a fair warning because the situation between the two countries can be called delicate?

But yeah, claim that people are biased by believing the other side entirely. Genius.
 
angular graphics said:
I mean newspaper and other "reputable" sources. Not testimonies from a website whose sole purpose is to free the 2 devs. By nature they are biased. I mean gimme a min to create a website called "keeptheminjailforever.com" and write they are indeed spies. :P
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Newspapers have to get their information somewhere. This site (I'm not exactly a regular visitor and I can see there are some unmainained pages) should include various news from around the world, in english.

If you can understand czech I can direct you to some TV news reports and stuff but I wanted to keep it all english.
 
blitzcloud said:
Ok...

Did you know that one BI forum mod actually said back in August that the "holiday" guys were taking photos of military installations without problems, when a friendly greek fan just tried to give them a fair warning because the situation between the two countries can be called delicate?

But yeah, claim that people are biased by believing the other side entirely. Genius.
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Yeah, I know that. What has a BI forum mod to do with this though? He's just a forum mod. Probably wanted to sound knowledgeable and powerful. I already said that all that situation about them "taking photos to make the game better" when that clearly wasn't the case (or it would happen a year sooner) was more than a little bit stupid.

edit: sorry for double post, I usually consolidate
 
PetrCobra said:
Yeah, I know that. What has a BI forum mod to do with this though? He's just a forum mod. Probably wanted to sound knowledgeable and powerful. I already said that all that situation about them "taking photos to make the game better" when that clearly wasn't the case (or it would happen a year sooner) was more than a little bit stupid.

edit: sorry for double post, I usually consolidate
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Several Bohemia developers actually posted in that same thread too, so they were clearly aware of the consequences of photographing Greek military installations.
 
The alleged espionage is unrelated to the delay.

GrizzNKev said:
I just don't see how this game could be released with part of their team being held captive in another country.
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Actually, BIS themselves have commented that two people out of a team of about 90 isn't that big a deal. They're not exactly irreplaceable.

Yeah, they were not. Do you have your information from some greek tabloid or something? Please do some basic research before spreading fake info.
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BIS said the offending photos were standard snaps with some hangars in the background. Greek gov said there were many detailed pics and vids of army bases, layouts, vehicles, etc. Should be easy enough to determine who's correct when it comes to court.
 
dose said:
Several Bohemia developers actually posted in that same thread too, so they were clearly aware of the consequences of photographing Greek military installations.
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Actually, even the two guys were very much aware of that, and according to their friends and colleagues they were always very careful about that, and careful to have all necessary approvals whenever involved in anything related to military. That's where my skepticism begins, and it only increases with every piece of the puzzle.

Jackpot said:
The alleged espionage is unrelated to the delay.

BIS said the offending photos were standard snaps with some hangars in the background. Greek gov said there were many detailed pics and vids of army bases, layouts, vehicles, etc. Should be easy enough to determine who's correct when it comes to court.
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True, when it comes to court in a year or two. I mean, seriously, this could happen to everybody (not really, you'd have to be a persona non grata), there is a "military installation" right next to the civilian airport. I cannot believe so many people would agree with them being detained for a period of many months without trial and with no hope to have one in the near future.

But you are also right about this being off-topic so I will shut up now.
 
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