Can never spot enemy soldiers

[Mighty_Joker 10]

In games such a Warfare, and even during the SP missions, my squad-mates are spotting enemy soldiers hundreds of meters away and engaging them. I find myself spending the whole engagement holding the right mouse button to zoom in just trying to find them.

This is especially acute in Arma 2 vanilla where the clock indicator doesn't work. Saying "200 meters to our right" isn't very helpful in a large and populated map.

What are some settings I can turn on that will help to point out the enemies. Sometimes when a squad leaders orders me to engage, I get a red target appear. Is there anyway for this to pop up to notify my of an enemy's positions.

Thanks

P.S. The game is at max settings, so it's nothing to do with visibility or poor graphics.

[hellfire257 3]

The trick is to not look for soldiers, but look for movement. The Human eye is very sensitive to movement so its best to look for outlines of shapes moving around.

[AnimalMother92 10]

Play on Recruit so that enemies have big red blobs around them?

[arthur666 10]

Play on Recruit so that enemies have big red blobs around them?

This.

I know it's not realistic, but neither is viewing the world thru a little monitor. The Blobs help you pick up on things that you would probably notice in RL, but miss due to the monitor's limitations on resolution/depth perception/peripheral vision, plus aliasing doesn't help when looking at objects that are far away.

And when I play on recruit, I make sure that I go into the config and raise the AI skill level and kill all the other "cheats", like auto-aim.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Joker, dont play the game on max, set Post-Rendering-Effects (?) to OFF and you shall see.

[bangtail 0]

Post may look nice (I think it looks ridiculous myself), but this isn't Fable or 'insert your favorite fantasy game here'.

I've tried to enable it once or twice and have immediately disabled it. In my case, it was causing the same problem the OP has, I couldn't spot AI when it was enabled.

[concurssi 11]

And when I play on recruit, I make sure that I go into the config and raise the AI skill level and kill all the other "cheats", like auto-aim.

How do you do this?

[Narcosis 10]

Try lowering your Resolution

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Try lowering your Resolution

Uhm.. how is this going to help?

If an enemy is 4 pixels on 1920 x 1080 its about 2 pixels at 1280 x 1024. You think you can spot 2 pixels better than 4 ?

[Honeycutt 10]

Face it if the enemy is in a better position than you are, then they will see you first, and the bullets come flying in.

However the enemy AI reports contact like they have x-ray vision, maybe its also due their position not yours.

One suggestion not mentioned here is to have your 3D resolution higher than what your monitor is set to. This way the texture is resampled higher>lower but with better quality than if its the same resolution.

[Steakslim 1]

Like mentioned before, learn to spot movement if anything, afterwards you can do unit identification. I remember in ArmA2 with Chernarus it was kinda difficult at first to spot Russian soldiers and then tell at a distance if they were Marines or not lol, especially in the dense forests.

[arthur666 10]

How do you do this?

Go to your MyDocuments/Arma2 folder and open one of the .cfg files. You can scroll thru and find all sorts of settings, some not accessable from inside the game. Friendly and Enemy Skill and precision are good to experiment with (1 being the highest and 0.00 being the lowest. I keep skill close to 1 and precision down at about 0.4 for better firefights).

Make a backup of your .cfg and play around with it.

[concurssi 11]

Go to your MyDocuments/Arma2 folder and open one of the .cfg files. You can scroll thru and find all sorts of settings, some not accessable from inside the game. Friendly and Enemy Skill and precision are good to experiment with (1 being the highest and 0.00 being the lowest. I keep skill close to 1 and precision down at about 0.4 for better firefights).

Make a backup of your .cfg and play around with it.

Thanks. My file has auto-aim set to 0. That's set to false right? It's weird, no difficulty has it enabled, but the setting is "missing" from some of the difficulties.

[arthur666 10]

Thanks. My file has auto-aim set to 0. That's set to false right? It's weird, no difficulty has it enabled, but the setting is "missing" from some of the difficulties.

0 should be false. Some graphics setting use 0-1-2-3 where 0 is off, 1 is low, 2 is medium etc.

[vilas 474]

hi M_J

1) if you have small resolution and small monitor - sory, this game require other conditions

2) spoting by AI depends of config of weapon and ViewGeometry LOD in model

if someone defined weapon as MaxAiRange = 600 or 800, than AI will fire to small dot that you not noticed

if MaxAiFireRange is 200, than AI will spot and open fire when you see enemy

also other sensors sensitivity setting is important

in Arma1 weapons had mostly range 400 (i say about rifle ironsight), now 600 or 500 - it can cause problems for people with smaller LCDs (effective bullet range is not equal effective naked eye or effective gameplay on 19 or 17 LCD monitor set 1024*768 or 1280*1024)

i know that trough config way it is possible for AI to spot enemy through big forrest 800 meters away

i always stood at position that better to have lowe range because of SP mission playability and people without 21 LCDs

Edited December 1, 2010 by vilas

[1LT.Wolf.F 10]

Ah my first two weeks of ArmA2 was, engaging bushes and getting shot in the back. (sorry to repeat anything, I was free writing here)

To improve spotting:

-Walk don't Run

-lower head-bob setting (kinda cheat)

-change free-look setting (increasing will move gun, while keeping eyes still)

-Keep your head still, wait for movement, be patient (and under cover)

-I've never felt the clock system works well with me, or known weather it is relative to the spotter or his commander/group heading, So I use map icons (recruit and regular) and pump up the AI skill...

-ArmA2 needs a reboot, or i'd be more specific, but as someone mentioned earlier there is a way to get the red Diamonds to show for the spotted enemy (Recruit only?)

Remember the AI is Always looking, sees though a matrix of values... It's why I always have an AI squad with me... they're better at it than I am...

[Sintacks 10]

It is hard to see someone who doesn't want to be seen. Imagine if in real life, you were playing paintball with your buddies and they were all wearing camo. You hear a shot whiz by your face. You stop and look around and see nothing. You don't even know which direction it came from. You hear another one whiz by but hits a tree nearby. You can see the paint on the tree and you know which general direction it came from. You look but see nothing. You then take cover behind that tree and peek out now and then. Finally you see a bit of movement. You lay down some covering fire so you can get into a better position/location. Again, you see nothing.

[maturin 12]

You will get better.

[captjohn 10]

In games such a Warfare, and even during the SP missions, my squad-mates are spotting enemy soldiers hundreds of meters away and engaging them. I find myself spending the whole engagement holding the right mouse button to zoom in just trying to find them.

This is especially acute in Arma 2 vanilla where the clock indicator doesn't work. Saying "200 meters to our right" isn't very helpful in a large and populated map.

What are some settings I can turn on that will help to point out the enemies. Sometimes when a squad leaders orders me to engage, I get a red target appear. Is there anyway for this to pop up to notify my of an enemy's positions.

Thanks

P.S. The game is at max settings, so it's nothing to do with visibility or poor graphics.

you are not alone!

[xmongx 0]

[twisted 127]

Like mentioned before, learn to spot movement if anything, afterwards you can do unit identification. I remember in ArmA2 with Chernarus it was kinda difficult at first to spot Russian soldiers and then tell at a distance if they were Marines or not lol, especially in the dense forests.

this. And keep your head down as much as possible. it isn't race to move, it's a race to spot each other.

[Fox '09 14]

Sometimes it's key not to see enemys , but to fire where you think they are shooting from. Supress them. If you can't see them and they don't fire , then don't fire. They could be fleeing civs.. You never know. So go check it out...

And if your squadmates see enemys , they probably can , they have a different point of view .

Every now and then , use your acogs or binocs and scan the areas...

[pooroldspike 128]

I play at 'Regular' difficulty most of the time and find that going to the map (keypress M) for a few seconds every minute or so on a regular basis will often reveal enemies on it that you haven't yet seen with your naked eye in the 3D world.

Also back in the 3D world learn to WAIT AND WATCH in cover (preferably prone) for enemy movement for a little while, then if it seems all clear, advance a bit further in a running crouch then WAIT AND WATCH AGAIN, and so on, and don't forget to keep briefly glancing at your map.

Remember it's far better to let the enemy walk into your gunsights than for you to walk into his.

Edited December 2, 2010 by PoorOldSpike

[EricM 0]

Or use you spacebar as a scanner as last resort... It's cheap, but sometimes it's the only way. It's still better than "always" on red blips of the recruit mode.

[walker 0]

Hi all

Anyone remember the days of if you are laid down in the grass you can be seen?

No pleasing everyone.

BIS took note and finally matched the intervals between the histograms of the camouflage to the real world clutter, in their simulations equivalents. So that the percentage of optical difference between cameoed unit and its background at equivalent LOD levels is the same in the simulation as it is in reality.

Now all those other FPS players and old OFP players have the shock that in ArmA II the camouflage patterns work! ArmA II is a simulation not just an Ego Booster. As other said what gives away both you and the AI is difference created by movement or wrong choice of background. That is just the way it is supposed to be.

So now you have to do what a real soldier does. Stay still, Stay low, keep watching, move slowly, stay clear of ridge lines, move from cover and concealment to cover and concealment, minimise time in the open.

Read the hints an tips and follow the links to ArmA II's Bible Dslyecxi's ArmA II Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures Guide and the ArmA II Battle Drills

Kind Regards walker

Edited December 2, 2010 by walker