FROM: High Command

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Laws of War Release Date, Gamescom Recap

PRECEDENCE: Flash



SITUATION

The development team is now applying the finishing touches to what is soon to become Update 1.76. With that in mind, we'll take a closer look at its release, and discuss some of the cool additions that were not yet introduced in previous reports. We also talk about some of our great experiences with fans at gamescom this year!



INTELLIGENCE



It has been more than two weeks now since we revealed the Laws of War DLC. We're very happy to see all the positive reactions and can't wait to unleash it along with Update 1.76. While the initial release date was announced as early September, we now have a specific date: we'll release the DLC this Thursday, September 7th. If you still want to catch the 10% pre-order discount, your chance will vanish with the full release, so grab it while you can. As always, the Release Candidate branch is available for some time already, you can check its progress on the forums and contribute with your feedback in the respective forums thread. We once again want to send huge thanks to those who participated in testing and provided feedback for the asset / content additions and feature changes!



On a related note, Amsterdam's Project Lead Joris-Jan van 't Land published an OPREP focusing on the development of Laws of War. He comes back to the origins of the DLC: describes the goals and motivations for selecting such seemingly unusual topic. He then goes more in-depth into the collaboration between Bohemia Interactive and the ICRC. The last part serves as a nice overview of what to expect from Laws of War DLC - again with some juicy additions. The OPREP is definitely recommended for anyone interested in seeing behind the curtains of the project!



Earlier this month, ambassadors from the Arma 3 development team were sent to Cologne to attend and support the annual gamescom trade fair. Together with the DayZ, Ylands, and Argo teams, we presented Bohemia Interactive and their games in a splendid Bohemia booth. Players were able to try the upcoming Laws of War DLC as well as some already released Showcase scenarios and have a chat with the development team about various topics. It was a blast to meet all the community members, some of them flew over to Cologne just to say hi and bring small gifts (one unit entering the booth in rather tacticool manner)! We also discussed Laws of War and some ideas behind it in an interview with Seanarchy Gaming. Kudos to everyone who stopped by, we hope to see you again in the future (hopefully with some new colleagues)!



OPERATIONS



The most powerful 3D scenario editing tool, Eden Editor, has now been further enriched by new modules, allowing for advanced terrain object adjustments. Senior Designer Jiří Wainar introduces the new modules: "Both modules are really nice in terms of clarity - changes you do in Eden Editor are directly translated into the scenario. The first module is called Edit Terrain Object. It controls various aspects of a single terrain object. As you place it into the scenario, it detects the nearest terrain object that matches its object type filter. By adjusting the filters you can make the module detect and snap only for example to vegetation. The detected object is framed by a pink bounding box. If there is no such bounding box, there is no valid object matching the selected object type filter. The second module is Hide Terrain Objects. It allows for hiding multiple terrain objects at once. What will be hidden is controlled by an object type filter (the same as used in the 'Edit Terrain Object' module) and by the actual module area. The module area can be adjusted directly in the 3D scene by Area Scaling Widget (keybind: 4) and Area Widget (keybind: 5) that are present on the top horizontal toolbox. Area settings can also be accessed from the module attributes, where the area shape can also be changed - possible settings are rectangle and ellipse." These modules will be part of the upcoming Update 1.76, any feedback is appreciated on the Bohemia forums.



Before the Laws of War DLC is fully released, Senior Designer Karel Mořický managed to improve one of its scripted features significantly. Leaflets can now be more easily used with the Utility Drone, because it now supports the Pylon settings. Apart from pre-existing side-specific leaflet variants (i.e., BLUFOR, OPFOR, AAF and Civilian), it's now possible to define an additional 10 custom leaflet styles. Public documentation will be updated later on the Community Wiki, follow our official Twitter not to miss it.



LOGISTICS



Arma 3 Tools Dev-Branch has received tweaks to the BankRev, ImageToPAA and other tools. Touching mostly UI / UX, it is generally what community creators (along with a rather colorful Samples update!) can expect from the next TECHREP, which we plan to release along with Update 1.76 this Thursday.

