The Development branch is the furthest away from the Stable branch and closest in character to the initial Alpha / Beta cycle the platform had before it's official release, although there are less game breaking bugs introduced these days. For regular players, we recommend staying on the Stable branch. NOTE: Do not use this branch unless you would like to actively participate in testing. Update Cycle: Updates to new sub-version most week days.
While most users won't want to be installing every version of the ArmA III engine, it is possible to do so, or to just pick and choose which you want from the menu of those available.
Again, you lose a lot of compatibility with the MP servers and finding MODs to use with these builds can also be problematic as changes are constantly being made and most third-party GameMode and MOD developers can find it difficult to keep up, at least until things hit the Release Candidate stage. Lastly, if you are interested in the ArmA III development side of things, you may want to look at the Development builds and the Release Candidate builds to give your feedback to the Bohemia programmers. You lose a lot of compatibility with the MP servers and finding MODs to use with thess builds can also be problematic if you haven't planned ahead. If you are a slightly above average player, you may also require compatibility with your Linux or MacOS using friends, so you may want to look at installing the current Legacy Port that is compatible with their non-native wrapped builds. The Legacy build is there for this purpose. You may also sometimes have a need to run the previous version to maintain GameMode or MOD compatibility during the brief period after a version update while third-party developers make the necessary changes to make their offerings compatible.
If this is the case you need do nothing more than install the game through Steam and leave it alone.
This would give you the maximum compatibility with the available MP servers and with the MODs that are usuable. NOTE: Currently Legacy and Legacy Ports are the same version and interchangeable.Īs an average user, you would probably only be looking at having the current Stable build installed.