Problem with friendly fire!

[Ozza360 1]

Hi,

I am pretty new to Arma 2 (been playing since monday) and i have fallen in love with this game. I have got a couple of questions i hope you can help me with?

1) I love multiplayer and sniping although i am having a pretty massive problem. I am having trouble distinguishing between friendly and enemy targets. I have enabled player tags with names but when i am at a distance sniping the names arent showing and sometimes at close range the names arent showing. There are so many player models that some costumes look like enemies and i sometimes kill my own players. Do you have any tips or is there any settings that i can use to help me with this?

2) Is there any way to enable like a mini map in my bottom corner or something so i can see friendly targets on that and see the map rather than having to press M every second to check im going in the right direction?

3) Ive seen on some video's that some people have like a clock face in the bottom corner. So when people say for example "Enemy at 11oclock" i know where they mean straight away. Is there any way to enable this??

Sorry for the newb questions but i love the game and these are the only problems i have had!

Cheers in advance.

Orin :)

[tremanarch 6]

1) you get used to them soon... it takes a few hours though. just dont be so trigger happy, watch, watch wtach, check minimap, watch, check minimap again, if in this area no friend shoot everything on sight..

2) STRG + M

[Ozza360 1]

Cheers dude!

Whats STRG??

[tremanarch 6]

STRG is the german Layout for CTRL (Control) - Button / Key.

[[frl]myke 14]

Sorry for the newb questions but i love the game and these are the only problems i have had!

No worries we were all noobs one day.

1. Learn it. No joke, use the editor, place some guys there and look at them. Find out how they differ from each other (shape of helmet as example, clothes, colors, anything that might help to differ). Also use voicechat (most often Teamspeak 3 is used) to ask if any friendly player is in target area. Learn not to rely on player tags or any other helpers. You might land on servers where these are disabled and then you're screwed. remember, server settings override your settings. If in doubt, simply don't pull the trigger until you're sure about your target. When the bullet leaves the barrel, no prayer will stop it.

2. What tremanarch said

3. Hmmm...if i remember correctly, this clock indicator is showed whenever a groupmember identifies a enemy. You can yourself generate such messages by right-clicking when a target is in your crosshair. It doesn't work always reliably, often enough a target might be too far away so the game wont accept your recon or partially covered behind a bush. Anyway, also here voicechat is your friend. Learn how to designate recognized targets to your teammates using landmarks, kompass directions and distances as a guide.

General tip: learn to play without any helpers you wouldn't have in real life too. On a paper printed map, you wouldn't see magically marker appearing, showing peoples positions. There also wouldn't be name tags floating over their head.

I know, it's a pretty steep and more than often frustrating learning curve but it's worth it. And please, don't take this post as "haha, ur noob" message, it is honestly meant to help you, not to offend you in any way.

Welcome to ArmA 2, mate.

[Nicholas 5]

I suppose I'll drop in as well. :)

1) Do not just shoot anything you see. You must first 100% identify your target. If you cannot 100% identify whether it is a friendly or enemy, do not shoot.

2) To enable the min-map, press RIGHT CTRL + M. LEFT CTRL + M will not work.

3) The clock face will only appear when you or a squad/group member has identified an enemy.

[becubed 24]

Weapon silhouettes are also a good indicator, provided that OPFOR have different weapons to your side, I find that they stand out at long ranges.

[Nicholas 5]

Weapon silhouettes are also a good indicator, provided that OPFOR have different weapons to your side, I find that they stand out at long ranges.

Anyone can pick up whatever weapon they wish. Not always a good indicator.

[Ozza360 1]

Thank you everyone!! I dont take any of these messages offensively. I know im a noob at this and i need to learn. Been in this situation with many different games but ive always managed to learn. I just find it much easier if i get some tips with certain things and you all have helped me loads. The game is fantastic and i can see it taking up many hours of my spare time now i have finished my degree and have some spare time!! I hope to come across some of you in game and thanks once again.

[becubed 24]

True but it's a good start and very few people in the games I play will give up their M4 for an AK. The times when I've had to do it I make a point of letting the others know.

[dukenukem. 12]

i think the clock indicator in bottom right corner is only available on certain difficulty setting, higher ones have it disabled i think.

[fraczek 4]

Like others wrote, PosID (Positive Identification) is the key. Don't open up on first movement you see. Don't worry, you will get the hang of it eventually. And once you do, you will probably turn off most or all of the helpers so you can immerse yourself more. Learn how the bluefor and opfor units look like in the SP campaign/missions and the editor.

Some tips for multiplayer:

if you are in a squad, announce the contact. Keep in mind the compass directions. Let others help you with ID if in squad.

Use binoculars. "B" key. Use them a lot (if you have them).

Same for Compass, "K" key, to announce direction of contact to your squadmates.

Right ctrl-M brings out a GPS (if you have one) to help you with your heading and surroundings.

Learn the silhouettes. Different sides use different carry systems - backpacks, vest pouches, harnesses, belt pouches. These make (at least with the majority of units, discounting some special units) it pretty easy to tell e.g. US and Takistani regular units apart. Same with weapons - RPG looks pretty different from AT4 or Javelin. Tanks, armoured vehicles, the same (unless the mission uses similar sides for opfor and bluefor).

Learn the weapons - if the bullets have tracers at night, different sides usually use different colour of tracers - West tracers are red, East type tracers are green.

If you ever panic and manage to wound or kill a friendly in MP (it's war, war can be chaos like a burning brothel at times), it pays to at least say I am very sorry on global chat. Especially in the public COOP servers, people are pretty high strung about teamkillers.

And to repeat, positive ID before fire.

You will get the hang of it eventually, and find out that the element of friendly fire and no easy helpers like floating red or green orbs above the heads only adds to the game.

[maturin 12]

Learn the weapons - if the bullets have tracers at night, different sides usually use different colour of tracers - West tracers are red, East type tracers are green.

You're going to mess him up with this advice.

Only Eastern Bloc tanks have green tracers in this game.

Yellow tracers tell you that the weapon is a PKM, RPK, or PKT. Almost all heavy machine guns have red tracers, regardless of faction.