While hyper-realistic and extremely difficult shooters are all the rage now with games like Squad and Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, the critically acclaimed Arma has the main tent pole of that sub-genre for a long time.
Offering more than just a gritty and difficult military experience, Arma is a franchise that's also always been known for its stellar mods, with titans like DayZ arriving in earlier series entries.
The game's third installment is no exception -- and there's a reason why four years after its release, Arma 3is still going strong on the mod front. Currently, players have access to more than 40,000 various map, item, scenario, and overhaul mods across the Steam Workshop and various modding sites.
It's impossible to go through all of these independently, so we've done some of the leg work and curated 10 of the top-notch mods for Arma 3 that show off what's possible with a little bit of modding know-how and a lot of ingenuity.
Baphomet
What the heck.. Hellgate London meets the realism of Arma? This is a mod you wouldn't expect to see, but it definitely exists. Baphoment changes the game into an alternate future timeline where the earth is under assault via portals to hell.
Custom ambient music and the dark red color tone make this one pretty legitimately chilling to play as you tackle missions to roll back the zombie and demon hordes!
Unsung: Vietnam War Mod
Before Rising Storm 2 finally arrived, this was the place to go for a crazy Vietnam war experience. The amount of work that went into this mod is sort of ridiculous -- new terrains and maps, a crop of ground and air vehicles, authentically-equipped units from the time period, and 80 new period-specific weapons all arrive to throw you straight into the action.
Wasteland
At this point, you don't really need to download anything for Wasteland, since there are so many servers running it without the need to personally install any mod resources.
This is the big sandbox mod for Arma 3, frequently referred to as 'DayZ minus the undead'. And that assessment is not far off base. Camp somewhere, find loot where you can, and get ready to die a lot.
Battle Royale
An oldie but goodie, Battle Royale is all about free-for-all survival on a massive scale. You will always be on the hunt for equipment and ammo as the player count drops and you end up stalking the remaining survivors until there's only one winner standing. If this sounds a lot like PUBG, that's because it's designed by the same guy.
RHS: Armed Forces Of The Russian Federation
This one actually took home a pretty hefty monetary prize for winning Bohemia's 'Make Arma Not War' modding contest. There are several different mods in this line, all adding in realistic infantry and vehicles from the Russian Federation, United States, and more.
Accurate uniforms, headgear, backpacks, are all included, in addition to a whole new fire control system for vehicles. Its basically a whole new Arma 3.
Extended Fortifications
While a few of the additions are a bit wonky, overall this is a killer mod that drastically extends your fortification possibilities. A whopping 94 different modular base elements are featured -- from steel barriers and wood panels to staircases, support beams, concrete pylons, and a whole lot more.
CUP Weapons
With more than 40k mods available, obviously there's been a lot of collaboration between community members -- and that's where the CUP (Community Upgrade Project) mods come in.
The Weapons version of these mod packs strives to bring in extra content (specifically from the previous Arma titles) into the third main entry, extending out the number of weapons available and tweaking those new arms to match the game's functionality.
Transforming a boring old Super GT into a DeLorean time machine will let anyone in Libery answer the question 'What makes time travel possible?' Awesome.The Delorean Time MachineIf you're in the mood to try and create some temporal paradoxes, look no further than the mod from Sersorroza and the mod from bttf92. Best gta 4 mods. Not only is it a great tool for learning to mess with the game itself - it also includes a Half-Life-2-esque Gravity Gun, which is.
Machine guns, shotguns, rifles, grenade launchers, pistols, sniper rifles, and a host of attachments are all added here.
VSM Uniforms
There are more uniform and decal mods for Arma 3 than a single person could probably count -- so if you just want one with tons of options, go for this VSM addition that has it all in one place.
If what you are looking for isn't in this particular pack, just hit the Steam Workshop and search for 'VSM' to find about a hundred other high quality mods that add in new camo, vests, helmets, accessories, and just about any other type of gear.
Jurassic Props
Unlike a lot of other mods, this one doesn't radically change the whole game, except perhaps in tone. Yes, that's the gateway to Jurassic Park you see there. While rather limited at the moment (the gate doesn't actually open and there are no dinos), the mod does add in a bunch of JP themed objects that will definitely alter the feel of any given Arma 3 match.
I can't wait to see where this one goes, and hopefully someone will pick up the torch and carry us to the finish line with a dinosaur total overhaul in the same vein as all those zombie mods.
Apex Species Sharks
This mod really shows the dedication (and sometimes oddity) of the Arma modding community. Does this military shooter really need hyper-realistic sharks based on extensive research by the Australian Institute of Marine Science? I can't say that it particularly does, but we got it anyway.
The mod adds in male and female sharks that swim around, hunt, bleed, behave differently in night and day, and only become aggressive if there aren't any other large fish food sources around. If you want to take time off from war to study marine biology, then have it my friend!
Zombies And Demons
If modding has taught us anything, its that people want zombies added to everything. Another entry in a long line of mods that throw hordes of the walking dead into a shooter, Zombies And Demons shines by being customizable -- letting you decide just how strong those zombies are (from barely standing shambling dead to super powered hellish monstrosities).
Sure, we've left realism behind at this point, but who doesn't want to skip the typical warfare to gun down some walkers every now and again?
There you have it -- from new uniforms to entirely different game modes, these are some of the very best mods available at the moment. But remember -- a mere 10 out of 40,000+ mods doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what's available if you want a whole new Arma 3 experience.
What did you think of our picks, and what top tier mods would you recommend for players who want to shake up their Armamatches with new dynamics? Let us know down in the comments!
Published Sep. 11th 2017
Achilles is a gameplay modification for Arma 3. It expands the Zeus real-time editor with many new additions as well as provides bug fixes.
Achilles started as an expansion to Ares mod, which was created by Anton Struyk. Achilles became the de facto successor to Ares at the point the latter was no longer updated. Achilles has already grown into a splendid project, but new additions are still to come!
Table of Contents
- Getting Started
- How to Contribute
Features
- Visual changes to the Zeus interface
- Tons of new modules:
- ACE Medical (e.g. heal, injury; also work in vanilla!)
- AI Behaviour (e.g. animations, garrison buildings, surrender)
- Arsenal (e.g. add/modify)
- Buildings (e.g. destruction, breachable doors)
- Development Tools (e.g. execute code, config/function viewer)
- Environment (e.g. advanced weather, earthquakes)
- Equipment (e.g. toggle tac light)
- Fire Support (e.g. artillery, suppressive fire)
- Objects (e.g. attach to, toggle simulation, IEDs)
- Reinforcements (e.g. spawn reinforcements on the fly)
- Scenario Flow (e.g. advanced intel, side relations)
- Spawn (e.g. custom compositions, smoke pillar, USS Freedom)
- Zeus (e.g. add/remove objects)
- Extended attribute window:
- Groups (e.g. careless, hold fire)
- Vehicles (e.g. cargo, pylons, garage, damage wheels)
- etc.
- New waypoint types:
- e.g. seek and destroy, paradrop, sling load
- Hotkeys:
- Copy/past units including the full loadouts
- Remote Control
- etc.
- Customizations:
- Settings (e.g. faction filter)
Language Localization
Achilles is available for the following languages:
- English
- French
- German
- Japanese
- Russian
- Simplified Chinese
- Traditional Chinese
If your language is not on the list, the English localization will be used. We welcome any new translations (check out How to Contribute).
Getting Started
Below is what you need to know to get Achilles up and running:
Installing
You can download Achilles from:
If you are not familiar with installing ArmA 3 add-ons, check out the Armaholic installation guide.
Required Add-ons
Achilles requires:
Arma 3 Nuke Launcher
Incompatible Add-ons
Addons that you should not run when you use Achilles:
Optional Add-ons
These mods below are required for certain features (e.g. fast-roping):
Other Zeus Add-ons
A list of other Zeus mods that are not required, but nice additions:
Documentation
Check out the Achilles Wiki and the Achilles Tutorial Series on YouTube. The documentation is rather limited at the time and thus, you will certainly have questions. We will gladly answer them on our Discord server.
Reporting Issues, Requesting Features and Changes
Please use our Issue Tracker for these kinds of purposes.In the case of a bug report, please only use a minimal set of mods (i.e. only use other mods than the required ones if they are clearly related to the issue).
How to Contribute
We always welcome contribution to the repository and thank you for your work! We will update the list of contributors.
What you need to know:
Basic Steps
- Do your stuff
And then we will have a look at your work!
Setting up Your Local Development Environment
- Set up your add-on builder (either get Hephaestus or use the AchillesAddonBuilder.bat in the repository)
Add a New Module
A good starting point for your new module is the custom module framework.We will gladly help you to port your custom module to Achilles (message us on our Discord server).
Add a Translation
You have to edit the stringtable.xml. The basics about string tables can be found on the Bohemia Interactive Wiki. If you don't want to edit the file with a text editor, you can use a dedicated tool such as Tabler.
Authors
Check out the list of contributors.
Contact
Find us on our Discord server.
License
Achilles is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
While hyper-realistic and extremely difficult shooters are all the rage now with games like Squad and Rising Storm 2: Vietnam, the critically acclaimed Arma has the main tent pole of that sub-genre for a long time.
Offering more than just a gritty and difficult military experience, Arma is a franchise that's also always been known for its stellar mods, with titans like DayZ arriving in earlier series entries.
The game's third installment is no exception -- and there's a reason why four years after its release, Arma 3is still going strong on the mod front. Currently, players have access to more than 40,000 various map, item, scenario, and overhaul mods across the Steam Workshop and various modding sites.
It's impossible to go through all of these independently, so we've done some of the leg work and curated 10 of the top-notch mods for Arma 3 that show off what's possible with a little bit of modding know-how and a lot of ingenuity.
Baphomet
What the heck.. Hellgate London meets the realism of Arma? This is a mod you wouldn't expect to see, but it definitely exists. Baphoment changes the game into an alternate future timeline where the earth is under assault via portals to hell.
Custom ambient music and the dark red color tone make this one pretty legitimately chilling to play as you tackle missions to roll back the zombie and demon hordes!
Arma 3 Nuke Script
Unsung: Vietnam War Mod
Before Rising Storm 2 finally arrived, this was the place to go for a crazy Vietnam war experience. The amount of work that went into this mod is sort of ridiculous -- new terrains and maps, a crop of ground and air vehicles, authentically-equipped units from the time period, and 80 new period-specific weapons all arrive to throw you straight into the action.
Wasteland
At this point, you don't really need to download anything for Wasteland, since there are so many servers running it without the need to personally install any mod resources.
This is the big sandbox mod for Arma 3, frequently referred to as 'DayZ minus the undead'. And that assessment is not far off base. Camp somewhere, find loot where you can, and get ready to die a lot.
Battle Royale
An oldie but goodie, Battle Royale is all about free-for-all survival on a massive scale. You will always be on the hunt for equipment and ammo as the player count drops and you end up stalking the remaining survivors until there's only one winner standing. If this sounds a lot like PUBG, that's because it's designed by the same guy.
RHS: Armed Forces Of The Russian Federation
This one actually took home a pretty hefty monetary prize for winning Bohemia's 'Make Arma Not War' modding contest. There are several different mods in this line, all adding in realistic infantry and vehicles from the Russian Federation, United States, and more.
Accurate uniforms, headgear, backpacks, are all included, in addition to a whole new fire control system for vehicles. Its basically a whole new Arma 3.
Extended Fortifications
While a few of the additions are a bit wonky, overall this is a killer mod that drastically extends your fortification possibilities. A whopping 94 different modular base elements are featured -- from steel barriers and wood panels to staircases, support beams, concrete pylons, and a whole lot more.
CUP Weapons
With more than 40k mods available, obviously there's been a lot of collaboration between community members -- and that's where the CUP (Community Upgrade Project) mods come in.
The Weapons version of these mod packs strives to bring in extra content (specifically from the previous Arma titles) into the third main entry, extending out the number of weapons available and tweaking those new arms to match the game's functionality.
I also have been able to play single.bin PSX games with a little tweaking (renaming the.bin -.bin.cue).But, I am not able to play a PSX game (Tomb Raider) which comes with multiple.bin files and a single.cue file.When I read the runcommand.log file, the following error is present at the end: 'unsupported/invalid CD image: /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/psx/Tomb Raider (USA) (v1.6).cue'. Here, is the full output of /dev/shm/runcommand.log:I have pasted here the content of the.cue file:I can't find the reason why it gives me this unsupported/invalid error message.Anybody here with a possible hint/solution?Thank you:).
It's not an issue, go to home/pi/.emulationstation and edit essystems config.Find something like this:psxPlayStation/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/psx.bin.cue.cbn.img.iso.m3u.mdf.pbp.toc.z.znx.BIN.CUE.CBN.IMG.ISO.M3U.MDF.PBP.TOC.Z.ZNX/opt/retropie/supplementary/runcommand/runcommand.sh 0 SYS psx%ROM%psxpsxIn extension tag place.bin like me, then the bin files are detected and you only need to use.bin files instead of cue.But like I prefer to use.PBP files because is more clean and a lot of saving space. Hi,I have a fresh installation of RetroPie on my Pi3, and I have been able to play SNES games so far.
Machine guns, shotguns, rifles, grenade launchers, pistols, sniper rifles, and a host of attachments are all added here.
VSM Uniforms
There are more uniform and decal mods for Arma 3 than a single person could probably count -- so if you just want one with tons of options, go for this VSM addition that has it all in one place.
Arma 3 Update Download
If what you are looking for isn't in this particular pack, just hit the Steam Workshop and search for 'VSM' to find about a hundred other high quality mods that add in new camo, vests, helmets, accessories, and just about any other type of gear.
Jurassic Props
Unlike a lot of other mods, this one doesn't radically change the whole game, except perhaps in tone. Yes, that's the gateway to Jurassic Park you see there. While rather limited at the moment (the gate doesn't actually open and there are no dinos), the mod does add in a bunch of JP themed objects that will definitely alter the feel of any given Arma 3 match.
I can't wait to see where this one goes, and hopefully someone will pick up the torch and carry us to the finish line with a dinosaur total overhaul in the same vein as all those zombie mods.
Apex Species Sharks
This mod really shows the dedication (and sometimes oddity) of the Arma modding community. Does this military shooter really need hyper-realistic sharks based on extensive research by the Australian Institute of Marine Science? I can't say that it particularly does, but we got it anyway.
The mod adds in male and female sharks that swim around, hunt, bleed, behave differently in night and day, and only become aggressive if there aren't any other large fish food sources around. If you want to take time off from war to study marine biology, then have it my friend!
Zombies And Demons
If modding has taught us anything, its that people want zombies added to everything. Another entry in a long line of mods that throw hordes of the walking dead into a shooter, Zombies And Demons shines by being customizable -- letting you decide just how strong those zombies are (from barely standing shambling dead to super powered hellish monstrosities).
Sure, we've left realism behind at this point, but who doesn't want to skip the typical warfare to gun down some walkers every now and again?
There you have it -- from new uniforms to entirely different game modes, these are some of the very best mods available at the moment. But remember -- a mere 10 out of 40,000+ mods doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what's available if you want a whole new Arma 3 experience.
The information you have shared in the community areas may be included in this syndication.We will use the personally-identifying information that you provide about others in order to provide the products or services that you have requested; for example, to enable us to send them your gifts or cards. 22 suppressor k baffle.
What did you think of our picks, and what top tier mods would you recommend for players who want to shake up their Armamatches with new dynamics? Let us know down in the comments!
Published Sep. 11th 2017