Total Newbie Questions

[Lanzfeld 10]

Finally have a rig that can run this so I am diving in....and ohhhh what a curve! Having fun but there is almost too much info out there. Here are some of my newbie questions please.

1. I bought Combined Ops. I installed Arma2 and then OA (same directory) and patched them both up to the latest. I toyed with the A2 boot camp for awhile and then I was surprised to see the exact same boot camp in OA but with more training missions. So I have two shortcuts on my desktop (A2 and OA) so why would I ever start A2 when OA is a newer .exe? Is all the fun available in OA or is there a unique reason to play A2?

2. I am having fun but getting my butt kicked by the AI in the boot camp MOUT exercise. The problem is, no matter how quiet I am, I cannot sneak up on these guys. I do sprint until I get close to the outskirts of the town but then I will go prone for awhile, crouch and walk yet they always seem to detect me. I even quietly flanked around to the back of town but they still detect me. They also make almost NO noise as they run around so it is impossible for me to hear them running down a road twords me while I hide outa sight. I plan on installing the ACE2 mod so I hope this makes me quieter and them more detectable. Any help? Its driving me nuts!!! I heard that Zeus mod makes me harder to detect? Really confussed here. Also...on some of the challanges in armoury mode the bad guys are detecting me at silly ranges when I am suppost to be hiding in woods. Basically I am worried that this is too hard!

3. In the reading I have done on the difficulty sliders for AI people talk about a precission slider??? I cant find this. I found a slider under difficulty (when you edit) for the AI but not this is not called precission. So what does this slider do? Even on the lowest settings the AI doesnt miss. What am I missing here?

4. I have a GTX580 with 1.5GB. Do I set "default" for video memory or very high? The guides are kinda old so I am not sure if they apply after patches. Also, should I use the "maxmem=2047" or the "cpucount=4" ??? I have an i5 2500k with 8GB. Do these still apply?

I am sure there will be more questions to come but thanks for any answers you have!

---------- Post added at 11:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:41 PM ----------

okay after a little more investigation it seems the precission settings are in my .cfg

[Nicholas 5]

1. OA is newer, yes, but people still play ArmA 2 for the content.

2. I highly suggest not getting any mods until you are comfortable with the game, ACE will only makes things much more confusing.

3. Go to game options, the difficulty, then select difficulty and click "Edit".

4. Set it to High.

[helo 10]

1. OA includes additional engien features in contrast to A2, however you can run every mission from A2 in OA. Conlcusion:You can always run OA.

2. There are scripts which makes the AI detecting you on purpose, let´s say in order to show some opposition to you. You run into a trigger area and the trigger will make the Ai belonging to the trigger reacting to you. No need to worry about that.

In the editor you can make simple scenarios where you can sneak up (why ever someone wanna do that) at the AI just by placing them somewhere and let them walk in a certain aware status around or just let them stand there. They will automatically look for anything around them, but they won´t cheat and see you through 50m of concrete if you mean that.

3. The AI skill slider is availibe in the editor which determines the precision, skill and the detection abilites of a single AI unit. The AI difficulty slider in the options is just a global modifier slightly influencing the individual skill.

[.kju 3240]

1. if you want to play on a2 only server - not everyone has bought OA/CO yet

2. concealment does not help much against AI - cover is your friend

4. very high

[tony1977 0]

you guys sure bout settings the video setting to high? everything ive read on this forum suggests leaving it at default.

[.kju 3240]

it depends on the brand (AMD/NV) and OS (XP/V/7 and 32v64)

[Bucic 1]

it depends on the brand (AMD/NV) and OS (XP/V/7 and 32v64)

Could you please link to a definitive reference to avoid it going "me high, me default, me very high"? It's not very helpful. There's no doubt the video settings are poorly documented so let's not add to the confusion. We have A.D. 2011 and... http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1834228#post1834228

[.kju 3240]

there is none. you need to test it yourself for your system combo

[Bucic 1]

1. From what I've seen you can forget about the old ArmA 2 exe, as Helo said. Also form OA you will be able to join ArmA 2 servers. Correct me if I'm wrong.

4. Just came to my mind. ArmA's settings documentation is poor but it makes up for it... by not requiring restarts on major option changes. If doesn't for the memory settings neither then one should stand on a hill with wide view on a distant landscape with lots of stuff and simply flip through all the options available while watching FPS meter (fraps or other). Make sure you don't have Vsync enabled during testing! I'll do my testing today.

[.kju 3240]

1. wrong. to join a2 server you need to launch a2

what you mean is to join CO servers, running with a2 content, hence CO and not OA, you

dont need to launch a2, but OA+a2 content = CO

[nettrucker 142]

Hi Lanzfeld

welcome to the forum.

I can feel your pain man and it makes me also smile a little bit thinking of my very first time I played a BIS game.

Give this a read.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=74994

It is well written, mostly from the multiplayer aspect of ArmA II. It is a good introduction on how to approach the game in general. I can only recommend this to you or to anyone new to ArmA.

Now before installing such a MOD like ACE I would try to get a feel for the vanilla game mechanics of ArmA first. ACE gives ArmA a completely different playstyle, but to understand these differences you need to know the vanilla game. This is just my humble advice to you. Once you get the hang on it than you can try the different mods of ArmA. You will appreciate them even more then.

It will take you some time but the more you play the better you get.

Welcome to the "dark side" . . . once you get hooked by this game, you gonna be in a world of pain. LOL:D

C'ya around

[Lanzfeld 10]

Thanks for the welcome and the input so far. This is, indeed, a HUGE game.

Anyone with any modern tips on the "cpu count" or "mem=2047" thing at all? This is the thing that REALLY bothers me about tweaks like these. One camp will swear one way and another camp will swear the other way and with my psycho-detail insides going crazy that I may not have the right setting!!! The good news is that with my setup I am getting mostly 60 FPS (LCD) with everything on very high except AA which I keep at low or normal.

So for CO install I do this?

1. Install A2

2. Install OA in same dir

3. Patch JUST OA and that will bring OA up to 1.59 and A2 up to 1.10?

[.kju 3240]

Do you know about the BIKI yet?

Arma2: Startup Parameters

Arma 2: Update Guide

ARMA 2 Patching FAQ

In short: a2, oa, dlc, 1.59, 1.10

[Lanzfeld 10]

Wow...thanks! I guess Bohemia endorses this "BIKI" so the startup parameters must be still valid.

Video memory still up for debate at default vs very high.

[Tonci87 163]

Leave it on default

[Lanzfeld 10]

Okay new question for you guys.

I am getting into tweaking some of the AI Skill and Precision settings. When you look at suggestions online why is it that people tweak the settings to five or six decimal places??? For instance: .8590001 instead of just .86 or even just .859??? Why???

Also....is Zargabad on the Takistan map or is a whole seperate area? Why did they give this city its own map instead of making it part of Takistan??

Edited July 26, 2011 by Lanzfeld

[Joe98 90]

Zargabad is not on the Takistan map.

Zargabad is not just a city. It is surrounded by a large amount of countryside.

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