New to the series - Help wanted.

[oo para oo 12]

Hello all.

I was a PC gamer many moons ago but left for the consoles after there too many hackers involved with Americas Army. But I have decided to come back to the dark side pc!

Being a newcomer to the Arma series I wanted to ask a few questions and I hoped the community could help me.

1) Which Arma should I buy? it seems there are a few versions.

2) Are there any tutorials in the game? it seems pretty complex

3) What's the best way to learn the game? single or mp?

4) Seem to be a lot of mods, which should I buy / download?

Any help very appreciated

oO Para Oo - Leeds.

Edited June 14, 2011 by oO Para Oo

[.kju 3239]

Two questions beforehand:

Did you prefer PvP or COOP or both?

Do you prefer small scale infantry focused play or large scale?

[purepassion 22]

First of all welcome to the armaverse!

1.) The best solution would be Arma 2 CO:Combined Operations, which contains both arma 2 and the standalone expansion Operation Arrowhead. Also available is Arma 2 Reinforcements which includes the 2 DLC's: BAF (British Armed Forces) and PMC (Private Military Company) and more

2.) Yes there are seperate tutorials for almost every aspect of the game.

3.) You should first of all toy around with the awesome editor and just do whatever you want.

Then it sould be good to play with some friends in COOP or do some SP scenarios.

4.) Every mod is completely free and can be eg found here ;)

and the rest- completely up to you. just personal taste!

so welcome

and have fun with Arma!

Edited June 14, 2011 by PurePassion

[galzohar 31]

1) In order to play on all servers, all you have to buy is Arma 2 Combined Operations, or Arma 2 + Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead (same thing). In order to be able to see the BAF and PMC units in high quality models and textures and hear them with good quality sound, and in order to play their respective campaigns, you will also need to buy the respective DLCs. DLCs are not required to actually play any multiplayer missions. However there are free mods out there that are required to play certain missions (see #4).

2) There are many documents/posts/videos, but I haven't found anything that I can point you at and say "that will give you everything you need".

3) At least figure out the basic controls and handling in SP (preferably by learning how to place some units in the single player editor and play them, so you can try various weapons/vehicles in a clean environment). What you do after that depends on what you actually want to do with this game...

4) Depends on who you want to play with. You generally have to get most/all mods that your group is using. I personally like playing with ACE as well as ACRE and SMK animations, many of the community-made islands and some RH weapons and IDF reskinned soldiers, and have a group that plays with me using those mods, but obviously this really depends...

[PuFu 4591]

you should have a look over the system requirements before you make the buy. Ohh, don't even think about trying the demo, it's just full on bugs :)

ohhh, and get used to the vanilla game before you even try mods. It's hard enough for the average gamer without ACE or similar making it even more complex :)

[oo para oo 12]

For obvious reasons I would like to play with the British Armed Forces expansion but with people who are open to a noob joining.

Mp wise, Large / small and co-op depends how Im feeling. My Pc is beyond the specs so thats ok.

I would also like to play mp with out AI, they ruined Flashpoint for me.

Edited June 14, 2011 by oO Para Oo

[metalcraze 290]

AA2 CO will suit whatever game type you want to play.

After you'll learn to play vanilla installing ACE mod is the next thing you will want to do.

Greatly improves realism and also fixes/improves some stuff that BIS should've fixed/improved themselves.

Popular in MP

[oo para oo 12]

ACE? whats that, sorry for nieve question. I tried looking on youtube for tutorials to help new players but cant find much, I have read a lot of new players don't know what they are doing, or supposed to do and end killing wrong team etc.

[metalcraze 290]

ACE is a big mod for ArmA2. Don't bother with it yet though.

ArmA2 CO has tutorial which will guide you through basics.

Killing other team - well that's more of an attention deficit problem.

Telling brown/grey americans from towelheads and russkies dressed in green shouldn't be hard at all if you just don't aim and shoot at anything that moves

[dale0404 5]

We need some form of FAQ about the game. There has been quite a few posts over the last couple of months asking the very same questions or near as damn it, but its all good!

There are some tutorials on utube, search for "Arma2 tutorial".

fPvyjCMzt3I

Edited June 14, 2011 by dale0404

[Muerte LOL 10]

You are welcome to join us on LOL Majors, we are pretty noob friendly and can help you get set up. For information on the islands and addons you need check our website: www.nakedsquid.com. We have a very simple to use, step by step tutorial for setting up Six Updater to download the addons needed for our server. You will also find information for our Teamspeak 3 server where you can usually find some friendly clown to help walk you through the set up process (we are a clan of clowns, so it has to be fun..right?). Be warned we do play in vet mode, no respawn, no crosshairs but are very patient and helpful with new players. Hope to see you. Good luck.

[oo para oo 12]

You are welcome to join us on LOL Majors, we are pretty noob friendly and can help you get set up. For information on the islands and addons you need check our website: www.nakedsquid.com. We have a very simple to use, step by step tutorial for setting up Six Updater to download the addons needed for our server. You will also find information for our Teamspeak 3 server where you can usually find some friendly clown to help walk you through the set up process (we are a clan of clowns, so it has to be fun..right?). Be warned we do play in vet mode, no respawn, no crosshairs but are very patient and helpful with new players. Hope to see you. Good luck.

Thanks, Im doing a new PC build tomorrow so I may pop over and say hello at the weekend :) see you then.

---------- Post added at 05:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:34 PM ----------

On a side note, will I be able to play the game on max settings?

PNY Geforce GTX 580

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz @ 4.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM

Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB SATA 6Gbs 64MB Cache - OEM (WD2002FAEX)

MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION **

Antec High Current Gamer 750W Quad Rail Power Supply

Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM

Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler

[PuFu 4591]

good build, but no matter how good your PC is, you won't be able to max A2/OA settings and play it at a reasonable framerate ;)

high settings and medium viewdistances, yes.

[oo para oo 12]

This guys build seems to max everything out.

[metalcraze 290]

Max settings in ArmA games are pretty much for the future PCs as PC hardware will only get better so ArmA games will have a chance to hold a visual level for years to come.

If you will want some coop with some focus on stealth I will also recommend Comrades in Arms (ciahome.net)

Dudes seem to be noob-friendly too (if you will listen to what they tell you to do of course - they will also teach you to survive in the game fast as their play style is more stealthy), don't require you to join or anything, play without respawn so they usually think whatever they are doing through, make their own missions (pretty interesting ones as well) and also often play as BAF.

Regardless of whatever clan you'll choose to play with - having TeamSpeak 3 is a must if you are going to play organized (and teamwork is important)

This guys build seems to max everything out.

Utes island doesn't count :>

Chernarus and Zargabad - now those are the real deal

[Muerte LOL 10]

For the best results for your video setting find out what the "natural" resolution is for your monitor and use that, there you will find your best performance.

[oo para oo 12]

Thanks for the advice guys seems to be more of a mature community, I used to love Americas army and played in the leagues, bad company and bf2 I loved but always felt it still had that arcade feeling I wanted to get away from, and don't mention shit, oops I mean cod. I would love some online where there several fireteams all with different objectives to meet one goal, do they exist?

[PuFu 4591]

This guys build seems to max everything out.

it depends on a lot of factors, environment and number of AI present and active included.

Sure you can max it out on a desert map, all by yourself, but that is besides the point :).

I would love some online where there several fireteams all with different objectives to meet one goal, do they exist?

yes there are plenty of custom mission where player have different objective but following the same end-goal. Mostly played on private servers (otherwise everyone jumps on the same obj - sheep herd)

Edited June 14, 2011 by PuFu

[oo para oo 12]

How do you know which servers have that game type?

[PuFu 4591]

you don't. A2 doesn't really have the usual "set in stone" game types. Sure there are DMs/CTF/CTIs etc etc, but on the coop level, everything is coop. It is really hard to explain, and the MP browser filter settings (or the lack of those) doesn't help either

[metalcraze 290]

I would love some online where there several fireteams all with different objectives to meet one goal, do they exist?

Many clans play like that, yes.

There is a squad subforum where you will find clans posting info about their playstyle - if digging through a lot of clan threads takes too long - you may as well post in "player looking for squad" thread.

Out of newbie players the ones that do want to learn to play good in a team are welcome in tactical clans.

About the in-game browser - what PuFu said. The game gives a great freedom in a way you can play it. But at the same time if you see COOP in browser it may as well mean Domination which isn't really 'cooperative', just players vs. dynamically generated objectives. Usually very little teamwork as you can respawn all the time and insta teleport into the needed area.

No worries. Clans usually have dedicated mission makers that do make realistic missions.

Edited June 14, 2011 by metalcraze

[SGT_2AD 10]

Welcome and enjoy!

Here is a list of servers you can peruse. Sort by type, will give you an idea.

http://arma2.swec.se/server/list

Edited June 14, 2011 by SGT_2AD

[160thSOAR 10]

First off, do as many of the Boot Camp missions as you can. They are very useful in helping to learn the fundamentals.

I suggest trying some coop game modes before fighting other players. As soon as I can use an actual computer instead of an iPad, my recommendation will follow.

Some basic rules for MP.

Don't fire unless you know you're shooting at an enemy.

Don't fly helicopters until you can land and get out of a hot LZ. (use the editor) Keep in mind that some servers require you to join TS3 to fly.

Be attentive to friendly players' needs. If you have a tank and they're telling you that a BMP is shooting at them, get over there and shove a SABOT up its ass.

Follow server rules.

I have a question now. How do I find my natural resolution?

Edited June 14, 2011 by 160thSOAR

[Tonci87 163]

Thanks for the advice guys seems to be more of a mature community, I used to love Americas army and played in the leagues, bad company and bf2 I loved but always felt it still had that arcade feeling I wanted to get away from, and don't mention shit, oops I mean cod. I would love some online where there several fireteams all with different objectives to meet one goal, do they exist?

Of course they exist.

Two weeks ago my Squad hosted a big 58 player Coop Event where we played as German Bundeswehr and had to stopp invading russian Troops.

We had some Infrantry Squads, Tanks, APCs, Engineers to change Tires and to repair damaged vehicels, A Medic Squad to stabilize the wounded so that our Pilots could medevac then to the Field Hospital where they could be treated further.

You can watch a Video that one of our medics recorded. He saw some pretty critical situations.

LU7tFSBNhbs

[oo para oo 12]

So there are specific roles like medics and engineers? Awesome. Not seen many gameplay videos of those roles.

Are there any mods to make explosions and fx more realistic? They seem a little poor and lacking that real visual ompff.