AA3 trailer

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Even if you manage to get into a server you're likely to be forced out by lag, control problems, or glitches in the game menu.  I don't see how they released this, should still be in beta for several months at the least.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Another patch is coming soon.

[WildKatZ*{MEOW}*]

kool

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Well it didn't make it 1 week without this stuff.

[WildKatZ*{MEOW}*]

Since the launch of America's Army 3 (AA3) on June 17, America's Army has seen data transfer demands upon our game infrastructure that far exceeded our expectations and capacity to support new game registrations and game play. Data transactions associated with all existing and new players attempting to complete the Basic Combat Training (BCT) portion of the AA3 game over the span of a few days overwhelmed our authentication and database systems. These sections of AA3 include key new features of the game that are particularly data intensive and which we clearly did not adequately load test during our closed and open beta process. As Director of the Army Game Project, I apologize for this gap in service and want to outline below the actions we have taken and are taking to close this gap.

First, AA3 is designed to provide players a great deal of data regarding their performance and key aspects of the online experience. As a result, compared with prior versions of America's Army, AA3 generates about ten times more traffic between game instances and our middleware and backend infrastructure. While we accounted for this level of data exchange when designing our AA3 infrastructure, we did not anticipate the unprecedented demand and data transfer levels we are witnessing as tens of thousands of players are simultaneously establishing accounts and working through the BCT portion of the Game. This was due to the fact that we did not adequately replicate the data transaction loads associated with this game activity during our beta test. As a result, immediately following the launch of AA3, we saw a mismatch between incoming data transactions and our infrastructure capacity. Therefore, we immediately began adjusting our infrastructure resources to maximize capacity and undertook substantial tuning of our database systems. Shortly after launch, we also discovered a hardware fault at our data center that created significant network lag. After addressing these faults, we achieved improvement in our infrastructure performance. However, demand for the game quickly consumed the capacity we created with the foregoing steps. Therefore, while we were able to support additional users, individual players did not see substantial improvement in game performance.

Since last Friday, to further improve system performance, we created a data handling modification for the game designed to moderate data flows during this launch period. This modification was released on Friday evening via Steam and our Deploy Client to automatically upgrade AA3 games installed on players’ computers. Additionally, we began crediting all players for completion of BCT levels so that they could proceed directly to multi-player missions; thereby removing the bottleneck created by the high volume of players engaging in BCT maps and improving the overall player experience.

We also began addressing performance and stability issues on the game servers by implementing memory upgrades and adding more database nodes to carry the load of authentication and player stats traffic between game instances and our infrastructure. We are correcting map rotation reporting deficiencies and issues with the Master Browser System (MBS) that prevent players from identifying servers with available Soldier positions. To improve network traffic, we continue to tune game network code, add more game servers, and correct server administration features so that server providers can better manage their servers. Finally, we are remedying instances where we identified memory leaks and are reducing server memory requirements to eliminate network lag while increasing server stability.

In summary, we are working to add capacity, and correct faults that have significantly impaired player access to America's Army 3. We appreciate player patience as we ramp up our infrastructure to meet the demand that clearly exceeded our capacity on launch day.

Casey Wardynski
Colonel, U.S. Army
Director, Army Game Project (America's Army)

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

It has been getting much better the past 2 days.  It's actually pretty fun without the lag.  Most of the problems now are bugs, which there are a ton of.

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Updates to America's Army 3 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

America's Army 3

    * Removes Password from AA3Launch.log
    * Fix for MBS not working after server changes to a new map
    * Fixes TeamReady in Mission Preplanning
    * Updated authentication SDK to improve reliability and performance
    * Fix for freezing on training mission load
    * Improved performance on loading maps/training missions
    * Fixed several small memory leaks
    * Fixed performance issue with server that caused it to load UI elements into the server (where they aren't needed) and thus use up additional CPU and memory.
    * Modified training authentication so it is more efficient
    * Modified AMD negative delta time exception handling so it no longer stops the server or client, but just logs the event
    * Fixed Admin add Player Admin
    * Fixed Admin kicking of players. Now works properly with Soldier name and has optional kick by player ID
    * Add new AdminListPlayers to get list of players and their player ID's
    * Removes most of the server log spam, especially that tied to missions and mission setup and ROE
    * Fixes several issues related to ROE firing off when player is bleeding, asphyxiating, or falling after being wounded by ROE
    * You can now strafe on ladders so you don't get stuck in Pipeline or Obstacle Course. Strafe too far and you fall off, just like AA 2.x
    * Modified program startup to clear out any old ATS temporary files
    * Improved scoring messaging support for training missions
    * Fixes several scoring issues
    * Optimizes more of the authentication code and adds better exception handling in it
    * Adjusts STS (stats) integration to better detect invalid objects to avoid crashes
    * Fixes issues with single player stats not correctly initializing all of the time
    * Adds feedback to UI when player purchases training until purchase is complete (says "Purchasing")
    * Modifies MBS to track how many players are playing vs. how many players are on the server (player + Spectators) and now MBS browser only shows the number of players (so the count won't exceed max players)
    * Turns HUD off whenever menu is activated (still an issue with battle planner activation the first time, however)
    * Adjusts the close menu logic to always close properly so double menus should no longer happen

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Patch Version 3.0.4

    * Improved console help
    * Added Clan support. Add clan tag in Account Settings. You must change information while in single player mode for now.
    * Admin VOIP Improvements
    * New "version" console command to see the current version
    * Server browser performance improvements
    * Fixes joining password protected servers so it no longer selects the server underneath the mouse cursor when clicking on the "Join" button in the password entry dialog.
    * Fix for settings menu improperly closing when ESC pressed and leaving the player stuck with no UI and limited control
    * Mission generation optimizations
    * Fixed issue with logging into game servers that sometimes used another player's soldier profile.
    * New TS3 SDK integrated
    * Improves how server manages authentication objects
    * Fixes issue with players being added to the scoring system not having all of their scoring data written.
    * Fixes issue where players not logged into MBS were being logged out if they left the server prior to authenticating
    * M320 grenade attaching issue resolved.
    * Dedicated server title bar now shows mission and player details
    * Fixes the "Waiting for other players" UI so it now appears again.
    * Removes some server logging
    * Increased communications handling to support when all players use heavy load outs. This may correct many instances where players didn't spawn correctly or get the correct load out.
    * Fixes the M320 getting an extra round of ammo
    * Fixes the Account Settings password changing not working properly
    * Fixes the IRC link not working
    * Fixes the displayed mission type (assault/defense/etc.) shown in the battle planner so it displays properly after side-swapping

[Smooth*{MEOW}*]

Well the gameplay is feeling alot smoother, but there are still a ton of bugs left.