I recently discovered a really neat looking game/mod that has me seriously contemplating whether or not I should buy Arma III. The game is called Altis Life RPG and it puts players in a persistent world where just about anything goes. The one caveat on the servers I would play on seems to be that roleplaying is required and you can’t kill other players without interaction or provocation.
Players on the Asylum Altis Life RPG servers truly take on the roles they are playing. I watch several of these streams during the day and see players taking on the role of law enforcement, drug dealers, random civilians hunting animals, paramedics, bounty hunters, etc. The goal in Altis seems to be to progress your character and truly roleplay a ‘life’ that you’ve chosen to live.
Cop players will approach suspicious players and act the role. I watched a stream where two guys were on patrol and came upon some suspicious players at a gas station. They got out of their cars with guns drawn and told the hooligans to put their hands on their heads (a feature actually in the game). One of the guys complied but the other took off running. A chase ensued and it all ended up being hilarious and awesome as roleplaying took place over voice comms.
The cops on these particular servers have to apply to become members of the force and form a fairly tight unit that uses voice communications to interact with each other and organize the policing of the server. Playing as a cop you can earn money by enforcing legal activity and bringing wanted players to justice. The opposite is true for civilians choosing to break the law and not progress lawfully.
I was watching yesterday and saw a group of players riding around in a truck who would randomly rob other players and process drugs to raise money for weapons. They came upon one car with a bunch of other players and a mini gang war broke out with tons of gunfire and yelling at each other. It was hilarious watching them roleplay. Then the biggest gang on the server rolled up in a helicopter and mowed them all down for being in their territory. I was laughing so hard at the interactions and fake accents.
Some random features include:
- Prison (having to live out your sentence there or break out of prison)
- Hunting
- Drug use
- Robbing the federal reserve
- Vehicles (land and air)
- Territory control (form gangs like a guild) where you can hold permanent areas of the map.
- Talent system and upgrades
- ATMs
With 100 people on a server at a time, and a fairly large world to explore and interact with, it seems like the perfect type of jump-in-jump-out persistent roleplaying experience I’m looking for these days.
Do any of you happen to play? Is it worth the $60 at get Arma III? Is it hard to set up the mod and get into the game? I’m just looking for a game where I can jump in progress at my pace while having legitimate dynamic interactions with other players.
The Battle Royal mod for Arma 3 is pretty awesome too, its like the Hunger Games
My biggest question right now is what’s needed to play those? Do I have to download something? I can’t find files to download anywhere for Altis Life RPG servers (specifically Asylum).
I’m not sure.. I mostly just watch Lirik play them
Yeah watching Lirik play has been enjoyable. I normally don’t like watching streams but when he plays Altis or Battle Royale I tune in.
I found altis live boring.
People breaking immersion and so many dead moments.
However I did find a sweet pvp mod on arma 3.
You do not need to install anything as its a server mod.
It is called King of the hill.
3 teams of up to 33 people per team (usually 90 to 100 people a server) fight over 1 big city and the area around it with infantry, vehicles and choppers.
I started playing and kept playing for at least a month.
it has an rpg element in that you earn xp to lvl up for access to more advanced classes and weapons/vehicles/choppers.
And money in order to pay for all those toys. Even permanent additions so you can always carry it in your loadout.
A very different experience compared to any other shooter game you played.
I liked playing as an anti tank dedicated soldier or anti air.
using a small atv to cross though the rural land and mountains on my way to access ways of the other teams to the big city.
Hoping to find a sweet unaware high value target like an armored infantry fighting vehicle.. “beeep beeep LOCK” WOOOOSHHHhh….. always fun to see how they react. not at all? try to flee? Get out and run like hell? That blast will get you anyway muhahaha
@Keen
Altis Life is a Map mod, which means no download of anything beyond the basic Arma3 for you to play it.
Battle Royale is a different story, and you do need to download a simple folder and extract it into the base Arma3 directory (easy).
The Asylum servers are amazing for Altis Life. Absolutely amazing. But there is a catch. They are so flipping amazing that all FOUR 100 player servers are full 24/7 EVERY DAY FOREVER. If you have the time to spam join to actually get in it is great fun. If you want to play with Graev on the same Asylum server…. good luck. Really. The price of doing something amazingly I guess. Props to the Asylum guys for sure.
As for buying Arma3: Wait for it to be on sale. Whether it is via Steam or even Bohemia Interactives personal site, it goes on sale fairly often. I myself got it from BI’s site for 50% off one weekend.
There are other decent Altis Life RPG servers. But none of them sit on the top shelf like Asylum. There are also a ton of horrible ones where cops outnumber civilians, admins abuse their authority… cops will pull you over for nothing… etc. Just normal stuff for privately run servers. You get the same kinds of thing in Minecraft for example.
Hope this helps with the decision making process 🙂
Is Archage worth the time? Gent at Gamestop told me it’s got everything i.e. player killing, building, entirely open world, etc.
@Eru: Not for me.
Here is the thing. Roleplaying is what gives Altis Life its strength. If you are not prepared to role play then it will fail for you. I have played Altis Life and it is a lot of fun and what is missing in MMOs. Mostly the RP. It is also better to play with friends and form a gangs that are permanent or temporary. Have rivalries. Lots of fun.
I do not know why people are against roleplaying. I have been in roleplaying table top games for almost 3 years now. All of the stereotypes of how people play at a table or whatever is overblown or wrong. You do not have to speak in a fake accent or use words you normally would not. You can play as your own personality or as a different one. I am running as the Gamemaster in the new Star Wars Tabletop RPG on one night and on another night I am a player in someone else’s Star Wars game. It is so much fun considering I hate all versions of the Star Wars movies.
Take an RPG video game like Baldur’s Gate. Now add some sandbox elements to it. Remove most of the NPCs and replace them with players. Have some set rules for classes; i.e. police can behave only a certain way and have prisons ticketing system and rebels can force people to pay tithes when civilians are caught entering their territory. Remove the character dialogue options and come up with your own responses. Change the set location and time. You have Altis Life.
I TOTAAAAAALLLY want to roleplay. That’s why I have decided I’m getting Arma 3 when it’s on sale.