Arma 3 Zeus DLC Introduces Game Masters To Multiplayer Combat

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Arma 3 Zeus DLC Introduces Game Masters To Multiplayer Combat

Arma 3, the tactical military shooter famous for its dedication to realism and accuracy, will soon allow its players to battle the Father of the Gods himself.

Zeus isn't necessarily the sort of DLC I'd expect from a game like Arma 3, but it does sound like something I'd love to play. It allows players to become Game Masters who "curate the online battles of other players" by changing the conditions on the ground through the use of an intuitive, real-time editor. Instead of a scripted scenario, players will be thrust into the unknown, forcing them to think and adapt to conditions that can change at in instant.

Developer Bohemia Interactive said the idea for Zeus was inspired by tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons, in which one human runs the game while others actually play it. It works in all "familiar" multiplayer modes including Team Deathmatch and Sector Control, but the real action is the "Zeus Game Master" mode, which gives the GM a free hand to create objectives, spawn opposing units and guide players across the battlefield however they see fit.

"The Zeus system is pretty modular too, so community creators can easily use it in their missions," Lead Designer Karel Moricky said. "Or take it apart and turn into something completely different. There are no rules, only those you make yourself."

The reveal trailer may give a better idea of how the system will work, and it certainly looks exciting. It also looks, at least to me, like the sort of thing that might be open to abuse; your squad rounds the corner and runs into, say, 700 angry grizzly bears with miniguns strapped to their backs. Which would be extremely cool, yes, but not exactly kosher in terms of a realistic combat scenario.

Bohemia Interactive hasn't said anything about what measures will be available to prevent such shenanigans, but it will presumably touch on the matter this Saturday, February 15, during a gameplay livestream that will begin at noon EST. In the meantime, you can get a look at Zeus for yourself arma3.com [http://www.arma3.com/dlc/zeus].


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RicoADF

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Jun 2, 2009
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While not the first time this has been added to ArmA series (ArmA 1 had mods that did the same thing and OFP1 had something similar in memory) it is the first time it's been done by the devs as an official addon. Looking forward to the fun ahead.
 

FogHornG36

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Jan 29, 2011
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Other then the casting lighting, someone has already made a live editor that does this vary well.

You can even hijack npcs to play as them for a while.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OebGfbzl1XE
 

Saulkar

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Aug 25, 2010
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Damn. While this looks pretty interesting I am still waiting for them to release an update that un-borks the physics.


Dear Lord.

I love the infantry aspect but I am personally a vehicle kind of guy but with half-assed, vapid vehicle suspension that misses several key aspects such as compression bounce and frame rebound, hard-coded anti-rollbar, non-existent track physics, no vertical impact damage outside of a hard-coded fall distance that causes you to explode, and glitched up the butt when you try to push obstacles out of the way lead to a very... unsettling experience, hilarious but unsettling.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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Ah, they should have just named that DLC "Griefing mode: enabled".
real time map editing is a great way to make you able to attack a single player and pretty much disable its playing abilities.
 

Karathos

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May 10, 2009
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Strazdas said:
Ah, they should have just named that DLC "Griefing mode: enabled".
real time map editing is a great way to make you able to attack a single player and pretty much disable its playing abilities.
Have you considered not playing with douchebags?

I'm in a MILSIM community of +90 people logging on at least twice a week for coordinated military simulations, and in between that we play D&D campaigns and all kinds of stuff in smaller groups of community members. I can see this becoming a huge deal for missionmakers when they realise they've made a mistake. No more server restarting or just rolling with it. Jump into the Zeus slot and just edit it as we're moving. No more waiting for an enemy counter-attack that doesn't quite make it because the trigger was tripped too late or too early; now they can just be spawned in on command.

Really looking forward to it. Looks amazing on paper.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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Karathos said:
Strazdas said:
Ah, they should have just named that DLC "Griefing mode: enabled".
real time map editing is a great way to make you able to attack a single player and pretty much disable its playing abilities.
Have you considered not playing with douchebags?

I'm in a MILSIM community of +90 people logging on at least twice a week for coordinated military simulations, and in between that we play D&D campaigns and all kinds of stuff in smaller groups of community members. I can see this becoming a huge deal for missionmakers when they realise they've made a mistake. No more server restarting or just rolling with it. Jump into the Zeus slot and just edit it as we're moving. No more waiting for an enemy counter-attack that doesn't quite make it because the trigger was tripped too late or too early; now they can just be spawned in on command.

Really looking forward to it. Looks amazing on paper.
For that, i would have to unplug my internet cable.
Yeah, but i understand not everyone will be an asshole just because they are on the internet. And tihs is interesting for some simulations (but ARMA 3 physics already kinda ruined that....
)