Looks like AA 2.8.3 is coming soon.

[andrewbuddy12]

Well, there isn't really any CONCLUSIVE evidence I can give you. (since ASE isn't working for me... hmm)
But, if you're interested in reading the latest rumors you can look here:

aaotracker.com/thread.php?threadid=185222&sid=8a333d7af01e1baf008f934453399c0b&threadview=0&hilight=&hilightuser=&page=1

www.aa-mbs.com/search.php?indiv=1...&value=2.8.3.0&

forum.americasarmy.com/viewtopic.php?t=271584&page=3

(also, particuarly credible is -Zait-'s post on page 6 of the AAOT forum thread.)

Also, messages from Dev's on the AA forums:
[Dev]MindRiot:

Holy Cow it must be soon!
Wait what am I saying?? It *IS* soon.

The download is about 1gb smaller for the Full Version and we have reports of framerate increases ranging from 25-40% based on system hardware and setup. We think its a step in the right direction. I hope you agree.

forum.americasarmy.com/viewtopic.php?t=271584&page=3

Phoenix:

UPDATE FROM THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Here’s an update on what you may expect to see in the next release of America’s Army: Special Forces. We’ve based these ideas on our own thoughts, community feedback, beta testing, and public focus groups:

* We’re doing everything we can to decrease the size of the full version download. This is very important to us and we’ve already made considerable progress.

* Additional enhancements for server admins. One of the features we have added is a freecam or ghost mode.

* There’s a good chance we’ll have added functionality to Demorec. So far we’re looking at simple additions such as fast forward, rewind, and pause controls.

* Due to strong community feedback we have shortened the effect of the flashbangs. This effect may be cut by as much as half and would only be done to increase the fun factor.

* Where possible, and practical, we may remove some static meshes or map decorations in an attempt to increase frames per second and ease of movement.

* The time it takes to reload a weapon will be decreased slightly in order to speed up game play a little bit, in response to the great feedback we have gathered from everyone.

* As always, we are continuously looking at bugs that have been reported and will do our best to eliminate as many as possible.

These are just some of the things we’re looking to modify/improve, but please understand that we are extremely pressed for time as we concentrate on v3.0 and may not be able to implement all or any of these items.

forum.americasarmy.com/viewtopic.php?t=265887&page=3&highlight=

OK... actually after writing this post, I will say that there IS conclusive evidence... ;D

-Strategy-=Of-God=-

[Titan-=Of-God=-†]

very nice! i cant wait till AA 3.0 thats when it gets interesting....massive system overhaul ftw?

[Trammijuht (Priit)]

Now THIS is cool!!
Good find, Andrew!


Priit

[andrewbuddy12]

check this guys... "preseeding bittorent" for AA 2.8.3. I'm not exactly sure waht that is... but it sounds good to me.
forum.americasarmy.com/viewtopic.php?t=251879&page=12&highlight=

2.8.3 - BitTorrent Pre-Seed Now Online!

America's Army 2.8.3 is now Pre-Seeding on BitTorrent. This is the official release. The development team is doing something special this time around and allowing you early downloading access to the game.

The torrent will download to 99.9% and on release day we will release the last 0.1% of the file to all of the end-users using BitTorrent. The intent here is to allow you to download most of the file ahead of time so that on release-day you can have an virtually instant download and get into a game server before anyone else!

The official links are just right after this message that are pre-seeding at this very moment!

Welcome to America's Army 2.8.3!

Latest Version

2.8.3 Full Install - Pre-Seeding Until Release Day @ 99.9%
bt.armygame.com:6240/to...torrent

2.8.3 Patch - Pre-Seeding Until Release Day @ 99.9%
bt.armygame.com:6240/to...torrent

Hooah!
[Dev]xStainDx

fixed links:
full install: bt.armygame.com:6240/torrents/2df7f5e6288cb16124e38e1d7784a47dc9c03003.torrent
patch:bt.armygame.com:6240/torrents/8367b8171b07d09e4e2f687f97221db21d4a6bb2.torrent

EDIT: even those these are "fixed links", they aren't working for me. I'm not sure why... my browser won't open the "bt.armygame" website. If it works for you... great, if not, know that you're not the only one who's having problems.

EDIT#2.: I was trying to open the .torrent file in Firefox, woudln't work. Switched to IE and it opened fine. USE INTERNET EXPLORER.

UPDATE: the file size for the patch and full version are:
full version:1.90gb
patch:414mb

[Phalanx-=Of-God=- (James)]

Wow. This is crazy. This means AA is moving in the direction of Insurgency, a HL2 mod I used to play extensively during the holidays. I guess this means no more of this "I'll just sit here and reload my M16 at such a leisurely pace while my opponent is throwing hot lead at me with the RPK" stuff...

[Created-=Of-God=- (Matt)]

I'm excited to see what changes they've made...I really dig the faster reloading and flash recovery stuff...should be fun. And the 25-40% frame rate increase thing makes me want to play it NOW.

[Peace-=Of-God=-]

  That's right ... 2.8.3 is right around the corner ... can't say exactly how soon, though, I'm under an NDA . But if you're into downloading torrent files, I'd recommend that you get started ASAP (hint, hint) on getting the patch file (or the full update, if you prefer or need that).

[andrewbuddy12]

hehe, well for those not udner the NDA... and with sources, I can tell when it is.

The official release date is Thursday (today) at noon (12AM) on the West coast (PST).

[Dev]MindrRiot

ust a heads up to let you guys know that we will be releasing America's Army v2.8.3 tomorrow (THU) at noon on the West Coast (PST). Exclamation

Some hosting sites, against orders, posted the files early. The problem with this is that we don't have servers running yet to accommodate players, and thus why releases take us a couple of days working behind the scenes to get things ready.

We have started pre-seeding for BitTorrent already and at noon on Thursday we will enable the full files. The new release will have both a full and patch version.

We focused this version on improving performance! Our goal was to reduce the installer size, address many of the open issues that people have requested, etc… Some specifics on the release; Demorec is a work in progress, but is better. Framerates are improved, too.

We decided to not introduce any major new features for this release, because we felt the feedback was that you wanted us to focus on some of the existing issues, and we wanted to reward and focus our longstanding and loyal AA Players.

We look forward to hearing from you, and reading your feedback which plays a vital role in the development and growth of the AA community. Thank you for your continued support of our game, and on behalf of the entire Army Game Project, we hope you enjoy this release.

forum.americasarmy.com/viewtopic.php?t=271870


EDIT: well... for some reason my download of the patch has already completed, and it installed fine. I'm not... really sure why. Anyway, the only things I checked out were the reload and flashbang times. The reload is like... well its almost like it was put in fastforward... I don't know how much... but you'll be able to tell when you get it. Also, a flashbang at my feet left me blind for about... I'd say 6-7 seconds. I was thinking, "oh, they havn't really shortened it", when *bam* the lights were back. I don't know if I like it... its OK I guess. either way... just an update.

[Learner-=Of-God=-]

Sweet! I'm really gonna like the smaller size and more FPS!!! I'm gonna download it ASAP!!! Thanks for posting this!

[Trust]

hooah soldiers I started the full install download last night since I still have 2.7 and all patches to present (thought it would be nice to install without 4 patches following it ) If the t storms arent bad tonight I'll be on trying it out see ya there

[Trammijuht (Priit)]

Just.. WOW!!..
I have downloaded the patch 100%, I also updated the game allready. Only 6 servers up, 4 [DEV] and 2 something else. All Password Protected.. :@
Well, Tried some Single-Player stuff too..

Well, Flashes are like.. 80% Weaker then before. They work only then, when u throw it in the face, otherwise the sound will be interrupted a bit.. Just.. a bit..
Reloading times on some weapons are like.. In Wolfenstein ET... :/.. M9's have a slower reloading time also..

Allmost forgot.. When you open the game, a little pop-up comes and there are several options to choose, from "Launch Game" to "Exit"... "Mission Editor", "Forums" and the "Official Website" are in between.
Oh, I read from the tracker, that the Forceclassing rounds on Honor server don't put points into Personal Jacket anymore..


Priit

[Learner-=Of-God=-]

Is it less laggy? Whats the full download size?

[andrewbuddy12]

4th post in the thread:

UPDATE: the file size for the patch and full version are:
full version:1.90gb
patch:414mb

[Anointed-=Of-God=- (David)†]

It is out now !!!!


Get it here

[Phalanx-=Of-God=- (James)]

I torrented it and got it installed this morning ;D

Apparently, the torrent file was supposed to give you 99% of the patch installer until the final release, but some hosts didn't lock their files. Whether this was intentional or not is yet to be determined, but regardless of what happened, I got it and I intend to test it when I get some respite from the deluge of electrical engineering homework I've been flooded with in the past week.

[[GDN]MiKeOwNaGe]

i should hop on the of god server later to test out this new patch

[Learner-=Of-God=-]

Whoa! On aaotracker forum some guy went from 30-50fps to 70-80!!! If thats true, GOOD JOB AA DEVS! And the full version is a WHOLE GIG SMALLER! Oops sorry for shouting, can't help but drool

[Peace-=Of-God=-]

  Just an FYI, to answer the question that I'm sure is on the minds of most of our members and regular guests: I plan on updating our server to 2.8.3 tonight, coinciding with the normal month-end activities that I do in resetting the server. Although the 2.8.3 update itself shouldn't take long, our server will probably be offline from 2100EST (when we shut it down for Thursday Night Bible Study -- be there!! ) until 0100EST tomorrow morning, so that I can get the month-end work properly completed on it (with my pitiful dial-up connection :.
  So ... see you on 2.8.3 on our server tomorrow! (metaphorically speaking, anyway ... I probably won't make it there personally ... but it'll be on 2.8.3 when you get there!

[Phalanx-=Of-God=- (James)]

Oh man, I just ran a couple offline tests and I'm loving the new reload speed and the flash effects. The animations still don't feel right, because they're still the same cluttered AA animations from when they were first introduced, but the reduced cycle speed is infinitely helpful. Reloading in the middle of a firefight feels like more of a quick breather than a nerve-wracking series of "am I going to die? " breaths.

My only gripe is that they still didn't fix the M16A2 and AK-47 animations to differentiate between dry and tactical reloads, but I guess that really won't matter that much with v3.0 around the corner. If they don't get it right in v3.0, then I'll be really mad.









For those of you who want to know, AA uses the same M16A2 animation for every reload whether it is dry or tactical. In real life, they would be different. A dry reload would require you to hit the bolt release (which your character does every time), but a tactical reload would not (this is demonstrated with the M4A1 carbine, which is animated correctly, albeit sloppily). The AK is similar, though it does not have a bolt release. For the AK, a dry reload requires a pull on the charging handle whereas a tactical reload does not. These are just little things, but if not done right are a huge immersion killer.

[Peace-=Of-God=-]

  FYI, our server is running 2.8.3 now -- and sadly enough, we've already had our first rule-1-violation kick in 2.8.3 .