Keep it simple

[dakotadoc64 10]

I know this game is meant to be a simulator. So I am now going to put on my flame suite.

As the head of technology for our clan of 45+ I bought this game planning to offer it to our community of 300+. Honestly a great deal of promise but many things take to much effort for the casual gamer. By all means have your realism mode. But for instance, for the life of me I could not find out how to issue commands to get my squad to move, they just kept telling me to regroup. OFP: DR controls seemed more intuitive and I loved that. But there were so many flaws and in the end it was quickly dropped by the developers.

Maybe I am too tried to try today, but I have been playing FPS games since 1998, I am not new to this FPS gaming thing. I have spent 23 years in the military and appreciate what you are trying to do here. Honestly, reality sucks and can never fully be realized on a computer.

Here's hoping that all who read this, don't have to really ever experience that.

I will give it another go tomorrow.

[AnimalMother92 10]

Play the tutorials, they're quite helpful in OA.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Read the manual? Go through the tutorial missions? Basic control isn't that hard to grasp, even if the amount of controls you can have is a lot - intimidating even. OFP DR could be simple because that what it was - simple.

[That guy 10]

its also a good idea to take a look at the keymapping screen to get an idea of what each key is/can doing. every key is used for something.

it sounds like the reason you couldnt command is because you were not the leader of the group :p

some scenarios you are leader, some you are not

Arma isnt your every day FPS. there is alot more too it.

[cossack8559 10]

First thing you should of done was read the Manuel and play through all of the tutorials. If your squad keeps telling you to regroup then it should be quite obvious that you cannot issue any commands as you your self are under the squads command (a.i) :)

believe it or not its a very easy game to play once you spend some time on it... just place a few squads down in the editor have a couple practice battles you will soon master the controls. :)

[TechnoTerrorist303 10]

Maybe I am too tried to try today, but I have been playing FPS games since 1998...

I'm not surprised that you're tired to be honest.

[Zipper5 74]

Yeesh, even with a more detailed manual and excellent new tutorials, people still don't use them and then have an issue when they can't do what would be taught to them if they had made use of them...

[dakotadoc64 10]

Thanks all for the mature replies. I am glad you have the game you enjoy.

[kylania 567]

Thanks all for the mature replies. I am glad you have the game you enjoy.

Well, we put in the effort to learn how to play it instead of failing at that completely then blaming the game for not being as dumbed down as OFPDR was. What did you expect? :rolleyes:

[Pulverizer 1]

Do you jump into a fighter jet sim and expect it to have the standard WASD controls too?

While I agree that the controls could be improved, Arma2 is not a game for casual gamers. Even if the controls were completely transparent, they will find nothing but more and more things to simplify until we're left with another Call Of Duty game.

Edited August 4, 2010 by Pulverizer

[metalcraze 290]

If you complain that ArmA2 is too complex try playing it with ACE2 which makes it even less "gamey".

And back in OFP days we didn't have options for auto-targeting, enemies being marked in first-person view with red rectangles and crosshair stuck in the dead-center of the screen - so AA2 caters to newbies too (too much I'd say - but I'm fairly OK with that as long as it doesn't hurt the "normal" way of playing the game)

[dakotadoc64 10]

Well, we put in the effort to learn how to play it instead of failing at that completely then blaming the game for not being as dumbed down as OFPDR was. What did you expect? :rolleyes:

This is not the blame thread, this is the suggestion thread.

I am not a COD player, actually I don't like the kiddie run and gun game that is. I quite enjoy complex games. However my community of 300+ people I know will not invest the time to learn these controls, go through basic training. Many of us had a career in the military. Myself 23 years. It is sad that many (not all) immediately start attacking me, that clearly shows the caliber of (some) people in this community.

Look I am a programmer by trade now, I can figure it out. I am only suggesting that if these controls were a bit more intuitive there would be more people lined up to fork over their hard earned money. Even more when I provide my community a server.

Good bye,

---------- Post added at 01:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:37 AM ----------

its also a good idea to take a look at the keymapping screen to get an idea of what each key is/can doing. every key is used for something.

it sounds like the reason you couldnt command is because you were not the leader of the group :p

some scenarios you are leader, some you are not

Arma isnt your every day FPS. there is alot more too it.

I am sure that is what it was,personally if there is one human player in a squad it should automatically be the leader. But I understand.

Thanks.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Sorry to hear you have problems with ArmA. As an adult programmer you should know that precise feedback can be given only if you provide precise information. So which mission did you try to play?

This community can help you with 99% of all problems, but you need to show good will. A general 'game doesnt work as i want out of the box' thread won't help with anything.

[Pulverizer 1]

You might be a really kick ass soldier and a talented programmer, but you're still not equipped to comment on how to improve the controls if you don't even learn how they work in the first place.

A general "make controls better, kthxbai" helps fuck-all. Do you think BIS didn't think of that? The controls are complex because the game is complex. It's not easy to simplify them any further.

[SPC.Spets 21]

Yeah! this is not a easy game to understand at the begining, but trust me, once you learn how, you gonna love it!

Play the tutorials, also check the armory. You can unlock all pressing Shift + Minus (NumPad) an type "getallgear" so you can familiarize with all weapons and vehicles.

Dont give up!

[ziiip 1]

Singleplayer/Scenarios/turorials

[whisper 0]

Wow, elitism much, guys, mmh?

I don't think personnaly that the very basic controls are hard, they are quite classical, for movement, firing...

And some others default controls are indeed very weird. Like the "Hold Breath" defaulting to the same key as zoom view, resulting in your soldier constantly breathing heavy. Or "Double Tap" to sprint, not really intuitive.

Or chopper controls which are ... well, I don't know what they were thinking when they used these default keys, tbh....

There are ways to map these basic functions to easy / intuitive / accessible places, and keep the advanced functions at other places, without touching at all to the level of simulation in the game.

Too many people getting overdefensive when someone starts talking about game accessibility, like the game should be made obscure for no reason ....

That said, you can't command troops when you're not the leader, and A2 keyword is versatile : ie, you can be put in non-leader role, you're not forced into leading

[liquidpinky 11]

I found that playing the armoury initially helped a lot, I could then set up and repeatedly try out key combinations for all the vehicles and my foot soldier.

Sure A2 isn't as instantly accessible as a lot of other games, but then there is a lot more functions to be used to your advantage once you learn them.

A lot of the controls you will hardly ever use at all, depending on your play style and personal preference.

A2 is the sort of game that you have to put a little effort in to get some fun back out, ultimately the more rewarding kind of fun.

[dakotadoc64 10]

That said, you can't command troops when you're not the leader, and A2 keyword is versatile : ie, you can be put in non-leader role, you're not forced into leading

Thanks Whisper. Yes I had to remap some keys to the way I am used to, I now know I was not the squad leader and that is why I could not get my AI squad to move/form on me. I know I need to take a great deal of more time to learn the controls, and I will. I did a considerable amount of key remapping to get things comfortable for me. For example, I have always used X for prone, CapsLock for kneeling, B for ingame talk (under my thumb)

I was just playing the first mission of the single player to get my feet wet and learn how to play the game.

Thanks again.