Yet another launcher

[Richie]

What is/was the purpose of having to create the new launcher? 

 

This one is official, the others are all 3rd party.

[1Man]

I would like to know why they care so much that they didn't develope or forced to install? Bitches all of them straight up bitches! Mod=free launcher=free complaints=priceless

[bautschi]

Hi, first post, so o/.

 

Since Arma 2 mods, I have come to hate launchers with a passion. I used DayZ Commander, DayZ Launcher, DayZero Launcher for Arma 2 and A3Launcher, WSLauncher and the Breaking Point launcher for Arma 3. Of all these launchers (unless my memory is wrong) only the Breaking Point launcher had additional functionality, namely traking points and stuff for the classes.

 

My biggest problems were with DayZero. The launcher only worked, if I started it immediatelly after login. If I waited until the Deskop was completely up, it crashed. A fresh Windows installation did not resolve the problem. That resulted in me only using the launcher to update the mod and taking first steps into the command line parameters. At this point I try to download every mod by hand and making batch scripts for starting whatever I want. My Epoch batch file for example looks like this:

 

@echo off

:: Your Arma 3 Directory
set arma3path=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 3

:: Required Mods, set like -mod=@Taviana;@DayzOverwatch;@DayZ_Epoch; - leave "set MODS=" for loading no mods
set MODS=-mod=@Epoch

:: Additional settings
set ADDSETTINGS= -noSplash -noPause -cpuCount=4 -exThreads=3 -maxMem=2047 -malloc=system

:: Start Arma 3 with the settings
start "" "%arma3path%\ArmA3.exe" %MODS% %ADDSETTINGS%

@exit

 

I have a seperate script for every mod I play, all the scripts are in a folder, and I am happy.

 

Now I UNDERSTAND that some ppl prefer launchers, but I never liked them. The mods are sometimes out of date, A3Launcher decided it is a good idea to rename the BattleRoyale mod folder, which resulted in starting BattleRoyale from the Website launchers they have did not work ...

 

Now an extra Epoch launcher MAY be good, who knows, I looked at the download section, did not spot it, but I remember, I saw it somewhere a few days ago...

 

And here come my two points that might get me to actually use the Epoch launcher, or at least see it as a useful tool. Two things where all the launchers I ever used failed:

 

1. Do not request admin privileges, unless you really need to update the mod or installer or change something on the drive. Every launcher I ever used requested admin rights, that (most probably) results in Arma 3 and the mods being launched with admin privileges, which is totally unneccessary. The very idea of that is so horrible and not a single person out there seems to f****** care.

 

2. After setting the options in the launcher, the launcher should display the pure command line it uses to start Arma 3. If you play Epoch, you most probably play it (at least mostly) on one server. With the parameters -connect=%SERVER_IP% -port=%SERVER_PORT% will directly connect to the server, no starting up a launcher needed, no waiting for servers to show, just starting Arma with the mods and other settings. I have not seen a single launcher that gives you that info. It's almost like launchers try to hide that info on purpose, otherwise quite a few ppl would only use them for updates after all... . It would be wonderful to have a "Create batch script" button that uses the selected settings and server to get a simple clickable file to start Epoch and connect directly to the wanted server.

 

The first point is really a deal breaker for me, there is not a single launcher I use to start arma, I only use them for downloading mods because of that. Which means I only use launchers if I am too stupid to figure out, how to get all the neccessary downloads directly or several mods with specific versions are needed. Currently that is the Wasteland combo and Breaking point. But even with these, I use simple batch files to start Arma... .

 

tldr, maybe, but for me every launcher I ever had is a failure, and they could actually be useful.

[BenR]

What is/was the purpose of having to create the new launcher?  

 

My point precisely...

[bautschi]

Ok, avira cries out that the setup.exe has an undesireable program "PUA\DownloadSponsor.Gen" and blocks the Download.

 

I got no github acc so I post this feedback here ... maybe it is helpful.

[DarkRanger]

Launchers are fine, especially if they make playing the game easier. Anything Axeman does, is always going to be of class and of value. So if hes taking over the development of the original launcher, then that has to be a good thing.

 

In saying that, I do dislike the fact that every launcher seems to want me to re download things (its always been this way it seems).. that I have downloaded many times over.. I can't just go from one mod to the next, or one server to the next as if its a different launcher, it thinks i dont have things installed.. like the terrain pack.. 

[ShunOn]

There are about 5+ groups waiting for the update to hit his server so ; )

 

My group is one which contains about 8ppl..

Yeah our group been waiting aswell, have tried a few servers meanwhile and so far theres none near to compare with whatthepoch server.

[colklutz88]

There is nothing wrong with having more choices for launchers, I have tried the Epoch launcher, but honestly prefer the A3 launcher done by maca.  Its all preference.  
 

My only concern is, the devs are developing a mod, that was the original focus.  Look at how fast epoch advanced for arma 2?  Sure it wasn't always fast, but it was somewhat steady, and sure as hell moved along alot quicker than it is moving on A3:Epoch.   I love the mod,  I really do, and I appreciate what the devs have created, because I do have a basic understanding of all the work that goes into something like this. 

 

But in all honesty, I feel the focus really needs to be on the mod itself, the side projects can wait in my opinion.  People want content, they can get by with 3rd party launchers for now, they will be just fine without some of the other stuff, including the antihack.  People will either use the 3rd party antihack, or they will do it the old fashioned way and rely on logs and player feedback.  Logs don't lie, they are a surefire way to catch a hacker.  No program can catch every hacker, no matter how well it is coded, there will always be someone who will find a way to circumvent the antihack.  The only thing an antihack does is give admins a tool that allows them to easily moderate the server, and makes hackers question whether or not the effort is worth the result.

 

Just my 2 cents, focus on the content of the mod and bugfixes.  The community will be just fine with the antihack and launcher the way they are right now.  I just want to see the .3 version get released to the public, as that will really give you more realistic feedback of bug reports.  In-house testing is great, but it is a whole new beast when things are running large scale.  Far more variables to account for, but also makes finding bugs alot faster, as long as server owners report bugs to the developers.

[Brez]

My question is: have you tried it? 

 

 

Yes, I tried it at the time I installed it.

 

Didn't work as it only showed as small amount of servers as you guys indicated you needed to remedy that.

 

 

 

 

This one is official, the others are all 3rd party.

 

 

LOL

[axeman]

Is currently only showing the dev servers as we are testing the launcher along with 0.3. There is still some work to do on it so that we can mirror the list that has all Epoch servers. Paging being one of them. The main stumbling block for that is done.

 

Current version doesn't bother you if you don't have the mod / map installed for particular servers, going to put a warning in for that and some mod detection, still deciding on the best and least intrusive method for mod detection.

 

I want it to be helpful but not your Mother. You can add your own custom servers if you wish.

[Brez]

Ok.. cool.

 

 

Preciate the info.. I'll give a try when it's fully functional.. that's all I was wondering.

 

 

Sounds like your launcher will have some better functionality compared to the existing one(s).. that's all I was curious about.

 

I'm fully aware of how to actually operate a simple launcher.. Mom's need not apply   :)

 

 

Thanks for the info.  Some others who were wondering will probably look forward to it being fully operational as well now.

[1Man]

Why does everyone care so much about something they spent no time developing? If you don't like it don't use it, seriously the launcher is free, the mod is free. It's so annoying to see all these posts complaining about the mod, the launcher, etc you should just be happy they released it, some of you just need to keep your opinion to yourself. Your are wasting space on the forums for more important matters. Did mommy and daddy not give you enough attention growing up?

[cring0]

There's a simple response that isn't a negative one. If you're passionate about something that someone else is developing but don't agree with the way they are doing it, either provide constructive criticism or do it yourself. Otherwise you're just wasting everyone's time, most of all your own.