So, uh… this happened. In nearly the most dramatic way possible, the Arma Reforger team decided to address one of the most frequent player complaints-an update takes forever to download. The lead programmer, with his own name, Buráčisko, was seen in a hostage video describing update sizes with a gun being held to his head. Yes, you read it right.
The Arma Platform tweet showed a sickly-worried-looking Buráčisko (understandably so) along with the caption: “Lead Programmer Buráčisko devsplains yet another frequently asked question. Why do the Minor Updates need gigabytes of data to download?” Since then, the video has gone viral, creating a mix of concern and amusement in the Arma community.
The comments section received an influx of jokes and sincere questions from all around Salt Lake City. Sumak122 joked, “So thats why updates take so much time, you guys keep executing devs at gunpoint, it all makes sense now,” followed by a laughter emoji. On the contrary, New___Liberty asked outright, “Is this a hostage video?”… which, is really kind of a legitimate question.
There were, however, some very real questions arising amid the memes. Pat Grab gave his input on performance, saying, “Ask him why Arma Reforger is fking flop on PS5 with 5-15 FPS, such crap.” Others, such as truelegend23, took issue with the 25GB mod limit on PlayStation consoles, stating, “Give PS5 at least 60Gb” for mod storage.
The community clearly has very split opinions on the game’s current state. Michael62619073 expressed his displeasure at server caps being crushed down from 64 to 48, calling upon others to unite: “Hey! Why are official servers now capped at 48? Its simply not enough for an engaging game on everon.” On the other hand, DölTorbası supplied a whole bunch of ideas for how to implement teamplay improvements by giving squad leaders visual indicators.
Then there were the ones who simply gave in to the gag. Spacemanspiff98 said sarcastically, “you people constantly bitch and moan about ‘When reforger updat’ and now they’ve gone and shot a programmer because of you. I hope you’re all happy.” MyVapeBlewUp said, “He doesn’t look intimidated enough. Make him work overtime.”
One technical question actually received some serious attention by the Arma team that directed Niclas toward a blog post discussing download speeds and storage limitations. But seriously, guns are all anyone cares about now. Light_Luvs even said: “Can we get another vid jus like this with an updated road map,” implying that maybe hostage-style developer updates will become the latest meta for community engagement.
Who knows what this means for the future of Arma Reforger? Patch notes delivered at gunpoint, anybody? Maybe the developer stream will come to fruition, with all developers wearing blindfolds. Bohemia Interactive surely set the bar exceedingly high for dramatic update explanations, and no other studio will be able to compete with that level of dedication to a jab.
The game still keeps changing, and the players keep arguing about everything-fluid spawn mechanics continue as do AI improvements. Kjaycod requested, “A.I. Piloting into the game I wanna do some great scenarios so bad on solo game master,” so, there is still much more to be done. Whether future updates continue be the… unorthodox communication method, however, remains to be seen. Meanwhile, this time around, the Arma community got enough to hash out—along with a historical milestone practically etched in their timeline.
