Starting off

[Sneakson 1]

Hey, I bought ArmA3 yesterday.

So as a new player is there anything I should know?

Basically I wanna know about:

• Content
  
• Settings
  

I've played through the showcases several times and played around in the editor some.

I enjoy playing Elite showcases but since I bought and upgraded it's such on Regular which is nice but pretty easy I guess.

I've also tried out the editor some and created units, vehicles, patrolling ai and such but didn't bother getting into scripting so I guess there's a lot of items I haven't seen yet -- possibly even weapons?

Since StarCraft I've really enjoyed editing so if I get some people to play with I could probably spend a lot of time making co-op missions though playing your own missions can get sort of dry since you know what's coming most of time.

I've already done some sweet graphics tweaking to gain about 10 fps and got my keybindings down though I don't know what several commands do -- is there a list?

Why can you raise your grenade launcher when trying to zero while aiming for example? I've only tried it briefly but I think it messed up the zeroing.

Anyways how do you get people to play with? I'd love to play around on a map with all equipment, all vehicles and some random enemies or try some easy co-op tactical missions or deathmatches.

Should I head over to the multiplayer section to get some guys to play with? Anyways I'd like to get into some serious games and not just browse randomly because I'm guessing douchebags is a big problem as always in online gaming.

Thanks.

Basically I'd like to get into any discussion or any games just to get going with this game right now and this community seems pretty active I guess. Does Armaholic or Steam have a lot of activity? Any other communities?

In the morning I'll go through the showcases one more time, try out a few more things in the editor and then I'll probably be pretty hungry for getting together with some players to do something interesting.

By the way regarding bugs: reporting every single one is probably redundant right? I've had a myriad of glitches of all sorts but I bet most of them are being reported like crazy.

:)

[Sarlac 1]

Make note of any issues you find and search the issue tracker. If you don't find a similar issue please report it in as much detail as possible. Be sure to follow the guidelines on bug reports. Also dig into the issue tracker and vote up any issues you've found that have already been reported so they will be sure to get dev attention.

I'll be on most mornings for a few hours and would love to get into some random crap with anyone interested, so add me on steam if you want. I can help with stuff if you need. I'm "sarlac" in steam too.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Sarlac

[machineabuse 11]

A couple tips to help you out;

1. Rebind your hold breath key to stack on top of sprint (That way you're not having to juggle aiming and zooming)

2. Rebind your grenade key as a double tap function so you don't accidentally kill your team one day ;)

[Sneakson 1]

A couple tips to help you out;

1. Rebind your hold breath key to stack on top of sprint (That way you're not having to juggle aiming and zooming)

2. Rebind your grenade key as a double tap function so you don't accidentally kill your team one day ;)

I've already got hold breath on sprint, Crysis-style. It's pretty nice. And I don't think I'll hit G by accident. It's an interesting strategy if you've got grenades bound to your mouse or something though.

[[frl]myke 14]

though playing your own missions can get sort of dry since you know what's coming most of time.

And there's the point where scripting comes into play. The scripting language can help you to randomize a lot of things: will there be a patrol, how strong will it be, where will it be, what waypoints will it have and so on. So even as the designer of the mission you wont know what happens when where or will it happen at all. Of course it comes down to you scripting skills which will raise as you design your script suite, solving uprising problems.

Personally my opinion is: if you played in the editor without using scripting..well, you ain't seen nothing yet. ;)

[Messiah 2]

Myke;2363236']Personally my opinion is: if you played in the editor without using scripting..well' date=' you ain't seen nothing yet. ;)[/quote']

And my retort would be that there are powerful, basic, tools available in the editor without having to go near scripting. Probability of prescence, radius of waypoints, random countdown timers on triggers, etc etc etc. You can do a lot of randomisation and replayability without going near the scripting language.

Then again, the scripting language does open up a huge amount of oppurtunities and fun things - just want to point out that the editor is quite powerful in itself.

[Sneakson 1]

And my retort would be that there are powerful, basic, tools available in the editor without having to go near scripting. Probability of prescence, radius of waypoints, random countdown timers on triggers, etc etc etc. You can do a lot of randomisation and replayability without going near the scripting language.

Then again, the scripting language does open up a huge amount of oppurtunities and fun things - just want to point out that the editor is quite powerful in itself.

Ah! Probability of prescence! I didn't think of that, it seems very simple. Just not knowing if there's going to be a soldier waiting at a hill or not will make a big difference. I haven't checked out triggers, I thought they were all scripting-related to some extent.

There are also modules I hear that automatically populate areas but they don't seem to work so good and could probably have soldiers spawn inside of stones and all sorts of crazy stuff.

Anyone here ever used StarEdit? Or any StarCraft editor for that matter. They are super simple. I wish finished ArmA would have something like that.

It has a list of set conditions and actions where you just have to fill in blanks, like Condition: When UNIT enters LOCATION -> Action: Move all UNITS from LOCATION to LOCATION.

Some other conditions are like "When PLAYER has EXACTLY/MORE THAN/LESS THAN X UNIT/S" and some other actions can be playing a sound, starting a timer, spawning units and so on. I could figure it all out as a kid yet people can make highly advanced maps.

And I'm absolutely assuming that you're gonna be able to customize gear or put stuff in a gearbox without scripting in the final version, that's tedious not to mention inhibiting.

[Messiah 2]

Triggers... well they trigger stuff :P Be it a script, a cutscene, a unit to move to a new waypoint, and aircraft to take off, a QRF to respond to you making too much noise, etc etc. The various options you can input for timeouts/countdowns lets the trigger randomise when it will physically trigger after the conditions of met (i.e. you might be discovered, but a randomised trigger may then give you anywhere from 0-30mins till help arrives, and probability of prescence could then randomise how much help arrives).

[10t 12]

I can see this thread getting moved to one of the Editing forums, but understand why it started here.

And I don't think I'll hit G by accident. It's an interesting strategy if you've got grenades bound to your mouse or something though.

"G throws Grenades" is more of an issue for long-time Arma players, who are deeply programmed to hit "G" for "Gear", instead of "I" for "Inventory". Players starting with Arma 3 won't have that disability though, so can safely leave Grenades on G.

Personally, I bound Gear straight to G and Ctrl+G to Grenades. Works a treat.

When UNIT enters LOCATION -> Action: Move all UNITS from LOCATION to LOCATION.

Some other conditions are like "When PLAYER has EXACTLY/MORE THAN/LESS THAN X UNIT/S" and some other actions can be playing a sound, starting a timer, spawning units and so on. I could figure it all out as a kid yet people can make highly advanced maps.

And I'm absolutely assuming that you're gonna be able to customize gear or put stuff in a gearbox without scripting in the final version, that's tedious not to mention inhibiting.

The "When UNIT enters LOCATION1 -> Action: Move all UNITS from LOCATION2 to LOCATION3" bit is pretty trivial to do in the Editor with a trigger. Create a Trigger of size LOCATION1 where you want. "Group" it with UNIT. "Synchronise" it with UNITS' waypoint at LOCATION2. Have another waypoint at LOCATION3.

Have a read of Mr Murray's Editing Guide: Armaholic. It's old but an excellent resource to get started.

Gear in boxes you can do now without "scripting", if you mean "without creating SQF files and calling them". If you're talking about putting including lines like this addMagazine "30Rnd_556x45_Stanag"; to the Init field of the box, then I doubt it's going to get any GUIer. There are tools you can download from (again) Armaholic which build gear loadouts for you though, so at worst it's a matter of copy-and-paste.

Right now I'm enjoying myself making absurdly scripted, overwrought, unworkable, and buggy missions. They're basically unplayable and the logic's too easily accidentally bypassed by players, but I'm having the time of my life.

Edited April 5, 2013 by 10T

[Sneakson 1]

I can see this thread getting moved to one of the Editing forums, but understand why it started here.

"G throws Grenades" is more of an issue for long-time Arma players, who are deeply programmed to hit "G" for "Gear", instead of "I" for "Inventory". Players starting with Arma 3 won't have that disability though, so can safely leave Grenades on G.

Personally, I bound Gear straight to G and Ctrl+G to Grenades. Works a treat.

The "When UNIT enters LOCATION1 -> Action: Move all UNITS from LOCATION2 to LOCATION3" bit is pretty trivial to do in the Editor with a trigger. Create a Trigger of size LOCATION1 where you want. "Group" it with UNIT. "Synchronise" it with UNITS' waypoint at LOCATION2. Have another waypoint at LOCATION3.

Have a read of Mr Murray's Editing Guide: Armaholic. It's old but an excellent resource to get started.

Gear in boxes you can do now without "scripting", if you mean "without creating SQF files and calling them". If you're talking about putting including lines like this addMagazine "30Rnd_556x45_Stanag"; to the Init field of the box, then I doubt it's going to get any GUIer. There are tools you can download from (again) Armaholic which build gear loadouts for you though, so at worst it's a matter of copy-and-paste.

Right now I'm enjoying myself making absurdly scripted, overwrought, unworkable, and buggy missions. They're basically unplayable and the logic's too easily accidentally bypassed by players, but I'm having the time of my life.

Sounds nice. I wish Blizzard would rerelease a Deluxe version of StarCraft some day or something such with modern resolution, unlimited unit select and so on so I would have an excuse to get back into StarCraft editing >_<