Hi all! A few rookie questions...

[Blackregiment 10]

Hello,

As I've recently upgraded my rig, I'm just being able to get into this game. It's great, a bit difficult, but great nonetheless.....and man, what a looker. Anyhow, I have a few questions for all you vets out there:

I only have the original ARMA II patched to 1.08. I've heard it said the campaign is the weakest aspect of this game, and that it truly shines in the mod/user created missions community. Trouble is, I'm having a bit of trouble finding where I can download these missions. Everywhere I go, I always see many for OA, which I don't own, but plan to pick up shortly. I've looked here, at armaholic and have had no luck. What are some of the best missions, where are they at, and how do I install them? I have created some myself, but don't quite understand scripting and the deeper aspects to make it come alive and become dynamic. Plus as I've made it, it's of course predictable, which takes away half the fun.

Secondly, I really wish to play this online as the AI oftentimes drives me insane, but due to medical treatment I went through a few years back for a serious condition, I am unable to speak. Well, I'm not entirely unable, but it's very uncomfortable and painful to talk for extended periods of time and I'm somewhat garbled in my pronunciation, so I try to avoid doing it if at all possible. I've not yet played with anyone, and am wondering how accomodating people will be with this disability? I'd imagine it's going to be my biggest obstacle to an enjoyable MP experience. Obviously, I don't wish to command to any extent, I just want to play as a grunt and have no trouble following orders, my hearing is fine, and I'm a fairly fast typist. Are there quick automated responses in MP as there is in SP? Y'know, "copy", injured!", "contact at 9 o'clock", etc?

Thanks for any and all help and advice, it's good to be here, and hopefully I'll see you in my sights at some point! :)

[W0lle 1048]

You find a lot of SP/MP Missions and campaigns at Armaholic, the onles listed in that link are for A2 only.

It takes quite some time to get into Mission Editing. Best you can do is getting some tutorials and then play around in the editor. Make small steps and then go on from there. We all were at that point once, and some of us started with that stuff as there were no tutorials around at all. :)

The default commands like copy, negative etc, are available in MP as well.

[hund 0]

I disagree that mission editing takes time to get into. What you get with this game is a very user friendly and powerful editor, best damn thing on the market, if you ask me. You can make very good missions without hardly getting into scripting at all. So dig in and you'll find that it isn't all that difficult.

As for the talking bit, the people I usually play with have the opposite problem in that they are constantly yapping away about everything and nothing. Most times you just want your guys to shut their pie holes and get the job done, so being the silent type like you can be a boon.

Welcome aboard matey, and see ya on the servers.

EDIT: Actually, an addon for people who can't or won't speak might be a really good idea. Like little useful sound clips that you could fire off with a short cut... I dunno.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Hund

[Blackregiment 10]

Great, thanks for the help. One thing...I'm downloading missions, one has worked so far but two others are not showing up anywhere in game after I place them in the ARMA II/Missions folder. They are very small downloads as well, just 20K or so, and are 7Z files (?), not pbo as specified. What am I doing wrong?

[jakerod 254]

Only mission in pbo forms work. .7z is a type of compression like a .zip or a .rar. You need to decompress it and the pbo is inside.

I used to play MP without a mic and it was still a lot of fun. I would imagine most clans require them but I have had some great times just joining into random games and using text or the radio commands in the command menu.

[W0lle 1048]

7z/7zip is a packer like .zip and .rar, they contain the pbo files with the mission.

You need the 7zip tool to unpack them into your Missions/MPMissions folder. If you're unsure wich version you need, download the 32bit version.

[-Puma- 2]

Just hop on to an online server, and enjoy. If u dont want to speak thats allright, u can use text chat. I dont have a microphone either, but i have managed well with just text chat.

[max power 21]

Regarding the campaign being weak, you'll just have to play it and find out. I didn't think it was as gripping as CWC, but it kept me playing through it. I was even kept playing it after I had to revert once or twice because the campaign was broken.

[Blackregiment 10]

Thanks, works great. Man is this game difficult. Anyone have any tips on spotting enemies? I'm getting killed before I even see anyone, and 90% of the time I have no idea who shot me. I'm running from cover to cover and crouching when stopped, scanning with binoculars and nothing seems to work. I must've played through a mission ten times without spotting a single enemy yet get killed everytime.

Is there any specific tactic I should be using? :confused:

[pooroldspike 128]

What mission is it? I'd like to have a crack at it.

Most people agree that the AI enemy in this game has eyes like a hawk and will usually spot and shoot you before you've even seen him, even on the 'Novice' game setting, they're just too good.

The only good news is that if you're prone and crawl into his line of sight, he usually won't see you immediately and you'll hopefully have time to spot and kill him before he spots and kills you.

Oh, and get into the life-saving habit of regularly glancing at the map because enemies may show up on it long before you've spotted them in the 3D world-

Check out this test I did, scroll down to the 'Spotting the Enemy' thread-

http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/forumdisplay.php?123-Armed-Assault-II

[.kju 3241]

Check this Mission Editor

[walker 0]

Thanks, works great. Man is this game difficult. Anyone have any tips on spotting enemies? I'm getting killed before I even see anyone, and 90% of the time I have no idea who shot me. I'm running from cover to cover and crouching when stopped, scanning with binoculars and nothing seems to work. I must've played through a mission ten times without spotting a single enemy yet get killed everytime.

Is there any specific tactic I should be using? :confused:

Hi Blackregiment

The spotting enemy problem is a very common problem for new players of ArmA in particular if they are comming from an Arcade FPS experience.

Start here

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA_II_Hints_and_Tips

For mission editing there is a video area linked in that thread including an easy editing introduction.

Kind Regards Walker

[max power 21]

Thanks, works great. Man is this game difficult. Anyone have any tips on spotting enemies? I'm getting killed before I even see anyone, and 90% of the time I have no idea who shot me. I'm running from cover to cover and crouching when stopped, scanning with binoculars and nothing seems to work. I must've played through a mission ten times without spotting a single enemy yet get killed everytime.

Is there any specific tactic I should be using? :confused:

Surviving and spotting enemies is more about positioning than anything else. You should always be observing from cover. If you rush out into a meadow and there are badguys in the treeline, you're toast. Resist the urge to rush ahead of your team mates, too.

[pooroldspike 128]

..Is there any specific tactic I should be using?..

If there's just one piece of advice I'd give, it's- DO NOTHING.

Like Max Power says, don't run around like a headless chicken.

Instead, do ZILCH for a while, just stay prone, stationary and silent, watching and waiting for signs of enemy movement with your eyeballs peeled because it's far better if the enemy walks into your sights than you walk into his.

"It is good that the customer should come to the shop"- Manfred von Richthofen

If nothing happens after a while, advance at a crouch to your next position and repeat the 'watch and wait' thing. Keep repeating the procedure until you see him, then pick him off.

In fact it's standard SAS procedure after a night heli-drop (read 'Bravo Two Zero') to fan out and lie still for a while after the chopper departs, just soaking up the 'feel' of the area, listening for the distant sounds of voices, the bleat of a sheep, the sound of an engine or cowbell etc..

PS- and KEEP GLANCING AT THE MAP (key 'M') it's a real life saver because enemy icons often appear on it before you see them with your eyes.

Edited March 1, 2011 by PoorOldSpike

[max power 21]

PS- and KEEP GLANCING AT THE MAP (key 'M') it's a real life saver because enemy icons often appear on it before you see them with your eyes.

...depending on the skill level you're playing on.

[pooroldspike 128]

...depending on the skill level you're playing on.

I play at 'Regular' because it feels about right. Sure it might give us a couple of unrealistic-seeming benefits, but the enemy AI accuracy/spotting is unrealistically too good anyway at all levels, so it kinda balances things out.

PS- when enemy icons show up on the map even before you've spotted them, it's not as unrealistic as it seems because it might mean you caught a fleeting glimpse of movement or a glint of light off a weapon etc, or else one of your teammates thought he saw something, waddya say Billy?

"There's something in the trees"

Edited March 2, 2011 by PoorOldSpike

[Tonci87 163]

Yeah, Predator for the win^^

m7E0HyyNpAs

[NoRailgunner 0]

You can change these settings in your ArmA2OAProfile:

skillFriendly

skillEnemy

precisionFriendly

precisionEnemy

values from 0 (SimpleBot) to 1 (UltraAI)

Try different skill and precision values until you find what you like + need. :)

[pooroldspike 128]

You can change these settings in your ArmA2OAProfile:

skillFriendly

skillEnemy

precisionFriendly

precisionEnemy

values from 0 (SimpleBot) to 1 (UltraAI)

Try different skill and precision values until you find what you like + need. :)

Thanks i'll bear it in mind to give the AI bots some payback..:)

[max power 21]

I think you can then turn the AutoGuide AT off and still have everything set to normal in the options. I play on regular most of the time too, but I turn off certain things I don't need.

[pooroldspike 128]

Incidentally at 'Regular' difficulty there's no cast-iron guarantee that the enemy icons will be accurately placed on the map, so don't take them as gospel.

Remember icons only indicate the enemy's LAST KNOWN POSITION, and he may not be there any more.

Also, if only one or two icons are showing don't take that as gospel either, as in fact there may be MORE bad guys there who aren't showing on the map.

Trust me, i see this all the time during play, as no doubt many other players have too.

The map therefore often only gives us a rough idea of enemy location and numbers and that's fine by me because it maintains a realistic 'uncertainty' factor.

i mean, if the map icon thing was absolutely accurate all the time it'd be too easy..:)

Edited March 2, 2011 by PoorOldSpike

[walker 0]

Hi all

I think the basics are covered by two things.

Move carefully, with your head on the swivel, track IR or the [Alt] key. Duck when fired at.

Kind Regards walker

[Von_Lipwig 10]

When I first started playing ArmA, I just couldn't see enemies either. It was only after getting used to how the game worked that my spotting abilities started to improve. It just takes some getting used to but when you have some gameplay experience under your belt it gets a lot easier. :)

[max power 21]

Incidentally at 'Regular' difficulty there's no cast-iron guarantee that the enemy icons will be accurately placed on the map, so don't take them as gospel.

Remember icons only indicate the enemy's LAST KNOWN POSITION, and he may not be there any more.

Also, if only one or two icons are showing don't take that as gospel either, as in fact there may be MORE bad guys there who aren't showing on the map.

Trust me, i see this all the time during play, as no doubt many other players have too.

The map therefore often only gives us a rough idea of enemy location and numbers and that's fine by me because it maintains a realistic 'uncertainty' factor.

i mean, if the map icon thing was absolutely accurate all the time it'd be too easy..:)

The icons on the map are a representation of what the player's AI thinks it knows (if that makes sense), and it has the same AI as the computer controlled units. So, if you see something but don't really have a LOS, the player's AI will not be able to track what they're doing and will make certain assumptions, like it will project their last known vector and location to figure out approximately where they should be.

[Joe98 91]

Hi all

Move carefully, with your head on the swivel, track IR or the [Alt] key.

What does that mean?

-