The Arma series has a history of ‘real life’ mods, the designation of which suggests that ARMA isn’t already a relatively accurate recreation of real life activities. Soldiers are not a fictional character class. The Life mods aim to drop players into a world where earning a wage and shopping for groceries is as important as firing a gun. Rather than being a first-person multiplayer interpretation of The Sims (which I would definitely play), Altis Life is cut from the same cloth as GTA V’s online mode. Players can be civilians or cops, and the former are likely to come into conflict with the latter when they realise that forming a criminal gang is more fun than picking berries.
Here’s a decent guide to the mod and the official site has the details for the official server and plenty of discussion about upcoming features and current possibilities.
Civilians can work legal jobs, drawing a wage to spend on equipment, but when that becomes tedious, it’s possible to risk conflict with the law by stealing and dealing. Police officers can pull over vehicles to search for illegal substances, trying to spot convoys of smugglers and engaging in high speed pursuits. It’s even possible to join rebel armies and attack settlements, overthrowing the powers that be.
Before playing, do read the quick guide and spend some time perusing the forums. There are rules, encouraging roleplay within a fairly loose framework, and it’d be a shame if a horde of newcomers disrupted Altis Life. Rounding up the RPS crowd to form a Keystone Cops division seems like a fairly sensible idea.
11/03/2014 at 20:45 weirdoo says:
11/03/2014 at 20:09 DrGonzo says:
Any guides on getting it to run playably? I can run Arma 3 online at an ok framerate, but after trying all the Altis Life servers I could find, they all ran at about 10-20 frames a second , sometimes even less, with vehicles glitching about and flying through the air.
11/03/2014 at 21:02 zeekthegeek says:
Unfortunately framerate is limited b y what the server can handle. Shitty server or mission file = shitty framerate, nothing at all the user can do.
11/03/2014 at 20:12 The Rt Hon Player 2 MP says:
Sounds like a job for the Saline Bandit!
11/03/2014 at 22:24 The Random One says:
If she can get away from her probation officer…
11/03/2014 at 20:45 weirdoo says:
Me and my friends were blacklisted by the police, seriously, the instant we tried to make a living (smuggling Cocaine and what not) they would be on us instantly. Man, it’s fun
11/03/2014 at 20:47 TWChristine says:
I found these videos to be quite funny:
11/03/2014 at 21:42 Everyone says:
The way the budget is going lately, they’re not far off fictional … whether this is a good or bad thing is up to you.
12/03/2014 at 00:08 natedynamic says:
Just borrow some from America, where our military (despite recent cuts) remains bigger than the next 10 nations combined. :P You should hear all the “sky is falling” nonsense from our side of the pond.
11/03/2014 at 22:22 Niklas says:
Altis Life is:
not a mod
a borefest
11/03/2014 at 23:06 LevelHeaded says:
If you want to play Second Life, just play Second LIfe.
12/03/2014 at 00:43 Mctittles says:
I’ve tried both driving for a distance and shooting a gun in second life. The pop-in/lag makes driving impossible and the controls makes shooting terrible.
12/03/2014 at 01:10 drinniol says:
Ugh. My brother spends way too much time playing this for getting into gunfights. I say WHY DO YOU NOT PLAY DEATHMATCH. He is stoopid.
12/03/2014 at 06:31 Velko says:
Her paycheck was working on the internet for her? That’s some smart tech right there.
12/03/2014 at 12:37 tigershuffle says:
Will give this a whirl.
Im currently playing the exellent Breaking Point mod for Arma 3
(sort of DayZ meets Wasteland, fall in love and move in together, have a fight and then refuse to take each others calls).
13/03/2014 at 09:56 Tjee says:
Tried reading the Quick guide, but I would have preferred reading one not written by a twelve year old.
13/03/2014 at 20:28 BillMurray says:
Life(the mod) is really, really boring and apparently about 80% of the populated servers.