How actve is Arma2 Arrowhead?

[ExoSkeleton 1]

Hello,

I watched a trailer for Arma3 a few days ago and it got me interested to say the least, graphics and realism look amazing.

I'm thinking of buying Arma2:OA but just wondered how active the multiplayer scene is and what types of games you guys play.

I play CoD and BF at the moment and am ranked very high on both games (No I won't be giving my username). I realise this game is nothing like either of those - which is a good thing because I'm ready for a change - but I'm sure the reflexes built on those games would come in handy.

Does CTF exist on ArmA? Are there any leagues?

Thanks for taking the time to read all.

Peace.

[metalcraze 290]

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?131422-Arma-2-OA-worth-buying

[ExoSkeleton 1]

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?131422-Arma-2-OA-worth-buying

Thanks for the link, leaves a few of my questions about the type of games you guys play unanswered though.

[slatts 1978]

there are basic missions like CTF, TDM and so on however these are rarely played as servers mostly host play missions made by players, one of the most popular being Domination which involves your side taking certain towns held by AI

most missions you play arent like you would play on BF or COD

for the best online experience i would say try join a clan

[ExoSkeleton 1]

The stuff your describing there is purely against AI.

Is there no player vs player multiplayer?

[zigzag 0]

This game is not much about killing alot of people and getting high ranks like COD or BF but you can use Project Reality wich is a player vs player mod.

[celery 8]

The stuff your describing there is purely against AI.

Is there no player vs player multiplayer?

Unfortunately only a handful of servers play traditional pvp missions. The more popular pvp modes are AAS, Valhalla, Warfare and Insurgency, but they also aren't even nearly as common as Domination.

Edited February 20, 2012 by Celery

[orcinus 121]

The other games you mentioned do not have an AI remotely comparable to that of Arma II / OA. The vanilla AI will use measures like flanking, use of cover, suppressive fire, etc., without any human intervention. There are a selection of mods and addons that can change the AI behaviour for specific purposes. Recently an addon called HAC has introduce multiple AI field commander capabilities; there can be up to 8 commanders each with their different objectives and tactics. It's only been in development for a few months but is already being incorporated into a variety of MP games such as MSO, a massive, persistent game.

In short, you may find playing Co-op with other humans against the AI, on battlefields with hundreds of allied and enemy units all following their own objectives, very, very different from what you might expect.

[rye1 21]

The are quite a few PvP-only groups out there.

[metalcraze 290]

Thanks for the link, leaves a few of my questions about the type of games you guys play unanswered though.

Anything pretty much.

From TvT which turn into a battle of commanders using their teams to the best extent to battle each other to shooting zombies in woods of Chernarus at night with nothing but gunmounted flashlights helping you to see them in the fog.

From coop convoy ambushes to survival games like escape the island using stuff you can find on it.

ArmA mission editor is very powerful, modding community is talented and AI is good enough to get the job done when involved (also not restricted by scripts so during the mission anything can happen - it can do something stupid but can also catch you pants down by striking from somewhere you least expect to get attacked from).

The price for this is that you need to find a community to play with. Because such missions aren't something you can just randomly play since they require coordination and people who want to play coordinated.

But in turn these missions give you much better and more memorable experience than random TDM, CTF, CTI which are also played. Also Domination is meh, it's too bad people think that it reperesents true coop gaming.

Let me put it this way: if you want to buy ArmA just to score frags on some public server - it will be a very huge mistake and a complete waste of money.

However if you want to play tactically as a team in heavily objective-based missions be it coop or team vs. team - ArmA is the only choice out of recent games you have.

Edited February 20, 2012 by metalcraze

[tacticalnuggets 24]

Let me first tell you that hopefully there will be better mod management in A3 allowing a flood of people to join any server they want without having to search for the mods to download. Instead, hopefully the mods will start automatically downloading while in lobby as an option.

The amount of PVP that exists is pretty small, and the MP community is already small itself because of mod seperation. Here are some youtube vids of PVP missions that exist in A2.

ATF

AAS

WARFARE

VALHALLA

Edited February 21, 2012 by tacticalnuggets

[R0adki11 3949]

If your looking for a friendly PvP Squad, i play in a Squad called FUSION. Many of the members have been active since OFP.

[ExoSkeleton 1]

Thanks for the replies all, you seem like a friendly bunch.

Had a look at those vids tacticalnuggets - gameplay looks excellent.

I must admit from your replies it all seems over complicated, if ArmA3 has better multiplayer support (allowing PvP to flourish) then I shall buy it without a doubt. I shall check on the ArmA3 forum from time to time.

Thanks again all.

[cm. 10]

honestly, for the easiest way to play PvP, just download the project reality mod. No hassle, single installer, pretty active community (although they are in a transition phase to a new version so there are not as many players on the old, public one). Single file that you download, install and play. No mucking around with other mods and what-not.

[sickboy 13]

If you don't want mucking around with Mods, at this time you can choose not to use Mods :P (but that's the lame way out :P),

or you can take a look at utilities like Six Updater which turns Installing/Updating and Playing with any number of mods,

on a server, optionally with automatic joining of TeamSpeak/Mumble servers+channel, into a 2 click operation.

http://www.six-projects.net/Six_Updater+CustomRepos_Setup

Take as example, these registered communities; http://www.six-updater.net/p/communities.html

As for activity;

24hr: http://stats.six-updater.net/stats/history

week: http://stats.six-updater.net/history_week

month: http://stats.six-updater.net/history_month

half year: http://stats.six-updater.net/history_half_year

Edited February 21, 2012 by Sickboy

[tacticalnuggets 24]

If you don't want mucking around with Mods, at this time you can choose not to use Mods :P (but that's the lame way out :P),

or you can take a look at utilities like Six Updater which turns Installing/Updating and Playing with any number of mods,

on a server, optionally with automatic joining of TeamSpeak/Mumble servers+channel, into a 2 click operation.

http://www.six-projects.net/Six_Updater+CustomRepos_Setup

Take as example, these registered communities; http://www.six-updater.net/p/communities.html

As for activity;

24hr: http://stats.six-updater.net/stats/history

week: http://stats.six-updater.net/history_week

month: http://stats.six-updater.net/history_month

half year: http://stats.six-updater.net/history_half_year

Thanks for posting all this up. I was going to mention six updater but forgot. Hopefully exoskeleton will think about trying out a2. I'm sure if BIS installed six updater with the original game it would already see a decent improvement.

[160thSOAR 10]

The multiplayer scene in this game is fairly active. You'll probably start off with the usual ArmA missions. There's Domination, a coop game where you go around capturing different cities until you have conquered the island. There's Warfare, where you and your AI fight other players and their AI, trying to capture the island. There's Insurgency, where you and other players work to locate and destroy enemy ammo caches. I recommend starting off with Domination.

Your reflexes will not help you here. I suck at CoD and BF, but I have been told by several people that I am quite good at this game. To be good at this game, you have to use proper tactics and teamwork. Without that, all the twitchiness in the world will not help you. Accuracy and detection are far more important than reflexes in ArmA2.

When you start this game, you will not be good at it. All of the skills you've learned from other games will not help you here, or at least not very much. You won't even be able to shoot straight for a while - that's how different it is.

[Atkins 10]

Buy vanilla Arma2 + OA so basically Arma2 CO and install PR mod for it to play PvP without a hassle or requirement to be in some unit/clan.

[ratszo 17]

honestly, for the easiest way to play PvP, just download the project reality mod. No hassle, single installer, pretty active community (although they are in a transition phase to a new version so there are not as many players on the old, public one). Single file that you download, install and play. No mucking around with other mods and what-not.

This is all i play now. Everyone is playing the beta, which may be confusing.

Just read the PR and TG forums for info.

Good luck!

[lukio 18]

Let me first tell you that hopefully there will be better mod management in A3 allowing a flood of people to join any server they want without having to search for the mods to download. Instead, hopefully the mods will start automatically downloading while in lobby as an option.

100% agreed. As awesome as some mods are, I really wish there were more vanilla servers. Every time I pick a server I either don't have the mods or have to download missions, maps etc. then have to understand what kind of stuff the mod does to my interface, gear and keybinds etc.

This is really creating barriers for new coop/MP players and to me is a turn off from any (random) MP gaming in ARMA2. The fragmentation / separation into micro communities is not helping entry level players at all. Actually for tactical coop I could fire up SWAT 4 right now and probably still be able to join more servers with less hassle than with ARMA 2/OA.

As a general recommendation for people currently deciding on buying the game, I'd recommend ARMA 2 free to get a look & feel of the game, what it is about; then decide if this works for you. Only afterwards buy A2/OA. The official mods (aka DLCs) are unnecessary because everyone prefers to play their own "microbrewery" mods, which is a unfortunate. :(

[xx_fr0st-w0lf_xx 10]

I used to be in a clan, those were really fun times and we had a lot of varied missions, but unless you join one you will find arma 2 multiplayer to be much more inferior to other games currently on the market. Join a clan and that turns the tables completly, never had more fun on a game then those few months I was in a small clan.

Problem with a clan is they often have scheduled games, and my schedule was complicated enoguh without having to find room for gaming. Aswell as the patience it takes

[sickboy 13]

100% agreed. As awesome as some mods are, I really wish there were more vanilla servers. Every time I pick a server I either don't have the mods or have to download missions, maps etc. then have to understand what kind of stuff the mod does to my interface, gear and keybinds etc.

This is really creating barriers for new coop/MP players and to me is a turn off from any (random) MP gaming in ARMA2. The fragmentation / separation into micro communities is not helping entry level players at all. Actually for tactical coop I could fire up SWAT 4 right now and probably still be able to join more servers with less hassle than with ARMA 2/OA.

As a general recommendation for people currently deciding on buying the game, I'd recommend ARMA 2 free to get a look & feel of the game, what it is about; then decide if this works for you. Only afterwards buy A2/OA. The official mods (aka DLCs) are unnecessary because everyone prefers to play their own "microbrewery" mods, which is a unfortunate. :(

AFAIK most the majority of servers do not run mods, but you can easily filter for mod-less servers, if not in-game, then outgame with utilities like Six Updater (on top of that it solves most issues with mods in MP as it autodetects them and can install them for you and start the game with it :P).

[Atkins 10]

I used to be in a clan, those were really fun times and we had a lot of varied missions, but unless you join one you will find arma 2 multiplayer to be much more inferior to other games currently on the market. Join a clan and that turns the tables completly, never had more fun on a game then those few months I was in a small clan.

Problem with a clan is they often have scheduled games, and my schedule was complicated enoguh without having to find room for gaming. Aswell as the patience it takes

REDACTED due to forum agreement

Edited March 7, 2012 by Franze

[Shephard123 1]

Like others of said finding a clan or group is your best bet for playin arma at its full potention you should check out the Squad/Clan List section in the forums i sure you could find you a good group :)

[[asa]oden 0]

.. but I'm sure the reflexes built on those games would come in handy.

..

I'm not sure how do describe how wrong this is.

But please, give it a try. You might like it anyways.