Why this game sucks...

[scaramoosh 10]

I bought this game to play a multiplayer military sim, I expected to have some structure in the MP like a Black Hawk Down type of scenario, where you had bad guys in a town and you had to go and extract a VIP or something. I always saw so many amazing looking ARMA 2 MP videos of teams all working together and it actually looked like it could be a missions from real life with how it was structured. Sadly though I've learnt that these missions are only available if you have friends who play the game because there is no structure to the MP at all. Just sad how they couldn't have built game modes and missions that were official, so people could play on public servers and have a good time. Instead they just left it for players to do and they're all shit and not fun at all, there are no mechanics there to keep players together or on a tight leash.

The worst thing of all though is how every server is either Wasteland or some Life RPG thing........ just no, why can't there be two server browsers, one with the proper stuff and one with all that bullshit moved on to it? I now know how the ARMA 2 people felt when Dayz came out and ruined their MP experience and pretty much killed it off for them until a patch came in to hide all the Dayz shit.

I wanted a proper military shooter, this is basically a poorly optimized engine, some assets and tools for players to create everything but what the game should have been. I dunno what the developers are doing but it probably involves Dayz SA, though I dunno what those guys did for a year other than make a shit shell of a game that is way worse than Dayz Mod.

[sttosin 67]

Checkout the newly available Zeus game master mode. Requires dev build. Watch the twitchTV live stream as well.

[Kerc Kasha 102]

Can't blame the game for shit players, if you want that experience you'll need to join a community arma is not a very good public game.

[zynlen101 10]

BI Studio milsims have always been community/clan oriented ever since Operation Flashpoint. That's how it always has been.

Day Z SA is currently in alpha stages, by the way.

[terox 316]

The typical newcomer to Arma, starts up the game, gets themselves to the server browser and looks for a busy and accessible server

Unfortunately, these servers tend to run "public" style missions with little or no admin presence and a very disorganised sessions..

This is not the place to play if you want something organised.

There are some very good and well organised servers out there and some of them, including ours opens their doors to the public.

The reason most don't is because the average newcomer picks up all the bad habits in the wasteland / domination type servers and then comes to an organised server and tries to play in the only way they have experienced which can wreck it for the more experienced players. For this reason a lot of servers are not open.

We don't have the admins to run the server 24/7 nor the energy to control public play every day, so rather than just drop in if you see us busy wait until one of the regular sessions and then come and play.

So, if you are really serious about wanting to play in an organised session you could come visit us on a Sunday or Thursday session after say 19:00 hrs UK time get some experience and then if we aren't your cup of tea at least you will understand the basics of the organised servers expectations of the players.

Some advice for anyone who is looking to be treat with respect and invited to join communities. This is a quick list of do's and dont's

This should be the behaviour on any server you join, however unregulated badly adminned servers wouldnt even notice

a) When you join a mission, introduce yourself to the group leader via group (green) voip chat

b) Unless asked to do otherwise, always follow him. If you don't know where he is double tap "Escape". You will then get a double chevron icon in 3d view, this is where he is. (always stay within 30 to 40 metres of him at max

c) Do not get into a vehicle unless asked to do so

d) Do not lonewolf

e) if they have a teamspeak server, ask for the details and join it.

f) if you are not sure what to do ASK

g) Never teamkill, or destroy friendly vehicle assets

Normally I would say just filter zeus in the server browser, but because of the new DLC, that's causing us some issues :-)

Edited February 17, 2014 by Terox

[Harzach 2507]

I always saw so many amazing looking ARMA 2 MP videos of teams all working together

Already covered, but if you want to take part in organized scenarios like you've seen in ShackTac vids, you need to join a community. Some communities also host regular public events running scenario-type missions (see Terox's post above.)

As an alternative, look for populated public servers running Invade & Annex, Domination, Insurgency, etc. Great PvP can be found on Tactical Battlefield servers as well.

This has nothing to do with the game, but with the preference of the majority of its player base.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Harzach

[mamasan8 11]

There is one nice server running I&A I think, based in Australia called Anzus-something. I have ping around 100 from Europe. Public server but very often group-oriented gameplay if you like that. I just don't give a FFFF about that. If I killed 1 AI, I helped the team. So move on with your life and tactical bullshit.

Edited February 17, 2014 by mamasan8

[PenguinInATuxedo 18]

Clearly you are doing it wrong, you need to join an ArmA Community. most communities have people that make custom mission like what you're looking for.

As for DayZ SA being worse then the mod you're wrong even in its current Alpha stage it is much better then the mod.

[Tacti-Cool 10]

The typical newcomer to Arma, starts up the game, gets themselves to the server browser and looks for a busy and accessible server

Unfortunately, these servers tend to run "public" style missions with little or no admin presence and a very disorganised sessions..

This is not the place to play if you want something organised.

There are some very good and well organised servers out there and some of them, including ours opens their doors to the public.

The reason most don't is because the average newcomer picks up all the bad habits in the wasteland / domination type servers and then comes to an organised server and tries to play in the only way they have experienced which can wreck it for the more experienced players. For this reason a lot of servers are not open.

We don't have the admins to run the server 24/7 nor the energy to control public play every day, so rather than just drop in if you see us busy wait until one of the regular sessions and then come and play.

So, if you are really serious about wanting to play in an organised session you could come visit us on a Sunday or Thursday session after say 19:00 hrs UK time get some experience and then if we aren't your cup of tea at least you will understand the basics of the organised servers expectations of the players.

Some advice for anyone who is looking to be treat with respect and invited to join communities. This is a quick list of do's and dont's

This should be the behaviour on any server you join, however unregulated badly adminned servers wouldnt even notice

a) When you join a mission, introduce yourself to the group leader via group (green) voip chat

b) Unless asked to do otherwise, always follow him. If you don't know where he is double tap "Escape". You will then get a double chevron icon in 3d view, this is where he is. (always stay within 30 to 40 metres of him at max

c) Do not get into a vehicle unless asked to do so

d) Do not lonewolf

e) if they have a teamspeak server, ask for the details and join it.

f) if you are not sure what to do ASK

g) Never teamkill, or destroy friendly vehicle assets

Normally I would say just filter zeus in the server browser, but because of the new DLC, that's causing us some issues :-)

all of this. If more people did this, Arma MP would be wonderful

[Atkins.A 10]

There are few gamemodes/mods out there that lets you play organized public PvP gameplay without joining a unit/clan/team/etc...

Check out Tactical-Battlefield-A-PvP-Modification

It is pretty much like Project Reality in BF2 but only in Arma3 environment. Organized, squad oriented, tactical gameplay in public!

[terox 316]

To a certain extent the mission isn't important, its the way the server is run, the quality and experience of the admins and players on there and the amount of effort they put into it to pull it off.

Just because a server is running XYX mission doesnt mean its going to be organised or not organised or is a a good or bad server. Logging on and listening into the command and control is the dead give away.

If there is no voice comms, whether that be voip or Teamspeak there is no control period.

Some admins just want to see there server at No.1 on the most populated server list. This is fairly easy to accomplish if your server has a good ping and decent performance. Simply whack a wasteland mission on there and have an admin kick players occasionally. It requires very little management and very little effort and time. And for whatever reason players flock too them.

I believe they have a negative effect on the community, much in the same was ac CTI did when it was first released back in OFP days. IMHO its a lazy admins mission.

[kklownboy 43]

I bought this game to play a multiplayer military sim, ...

why? what is it you really want? Edited February 17, 2014 by kklownboy

[galzohar 31]

Good missions can encourage organized gameplay, but they will never be able to enforce it. I do think it's BIS's job to create such missions, though it's something they never seemed to care about.

[1stLt Anderson 10]

Good missions can encourage organized gameplay, but they will never be able to enforce it. I do think it's BIS's job to create such missions, though it's something they never seemed to care about.

You are correct, however if I had to choose one or the other, being the community making good missions, or BIS creating good missions, I would choose the community over BIS. The game has so much versatility, it really allows for community development which I enjoy thoroughly.

[scaramoosh 10]

I remember Joint Operations where you'd have capture points all over the giant map and 150 players, it was so much fun before Novalogic vanished and you couldn't get online any more because of Punk Buster. You'd have people on your team who were dedicated to just being helicopter pilots and flying back and forth doing drop offs, loved every moment of that game, way better than the BF series.

The problem in ARMA 3 is there just isn't any structure in the game modes, there are no defaults people can get used to. Instead you have to spend hours trying to find a good server with a good mission and most of the time it is just waiting and wondering what you need to do. It just isn't a good system unless you're part of a die hard group of people like a guild or something... There needs to be something like other FPS games as a base.

I also think the unfriendly community doesn't help, the problem with ARMA is it breeds this elitist community which hates on everyone new or who don't agree with them. While Joint Operations had a lot of casual friendly people who would go out of their way to help you, you wont get that in ARMA. If you want a lift somewhere, you'll not get it or have to wait half hour for someone to finally do it, even then it's just because you're tagging along with their group..

I just think the multiplayer needs more structure to bring players together, right now it isn't a fun experience unless you are part of a group. It shouldn't be that way, you should be able to play alone together, it has been a long time since I've had a fun game. The last one was like summer of last year where we had two bases separated by a Valley and it was just storm the other teams base, so much fun just having that stand off over a valley and setting up like WW1 in the trenches and chatting to people and organising flanks. Since then I haven't found a single fun game, most of the time it's coop against the A.I, which I find so tedious or travelling half way across a massive island but having to wait ages for a ride.. standing around.

I'd love to see like a Black Hawk Down constructed mission where one team has to camp in a town and defend it and the other has to try and take it.

[terox 316]

I remember Joint Operations where you'd have capture points all over the giant map and 150 players, it was so much fun before Novalogic vanished and you couldn't get online any more because of Punk Buster. You'd have people on your team who were dedicated to just being helicopter pilots and flying back and forth doing drop offs, loved every moment of that game, way better than the BF series.

The problem in ARMA 3 is there just isn't any structure in the game modes, there are no defaults people can get used to. Instead you have to spend hours trying to find a good server with a good mission and most of the time it is just waiting and wondering what you need to do. It just isn't a good system unless you're part of a die hard group of people like a guild or something... There needs to be something like other FPS games as a base.

I also think the unfriendly community doesn't help, the problem with ARMA is it breeds this elitist community which hates on everyone new or who don't agree with them. While Joint Operations had a lot of casual friendly people who would go out of their way to help you, you wont get that in ARMA. If you want a lift somewhere, you'll not get it or have to wait half hour for someone to finally do it, even then it's just because you're tagging along with their group..

I just think the multiplayer needs more structure to bring players together, right now it isn't a fun experience unless you are part of a group. It shouldn't be that way, you should be able to play alone together, it has been a long time since I've had a fun game. The last one was like summer of last year where we had two bases separated by a Valley and it was just storm the other teams base, so much fun just having that stand off over a valley and setting up like WW1 in the trenches and chatting to people and organising flanks. Since then I haven't found a single fun game, most of the time it's coop against the A.I, which I find so tedious or travelling half way across a massive island but having to wait ages for a ride.. standing around.

This is down to the server you are on, the quality of the admins presentand the standard of organisation.

As far as elitist is concerned, comparing

1) a player on a server who has patience, follows commands and is on comms

with a

2) Newcomer who hasnt even played the campaign, doesnt have a mic, has no idea about the games ability and possibly doesnt even understand the language used

to me is like comparing

1) The SAS

to

2) Some Wanabee gangster

Help is given to those who try, those who don't... why would you even want to waste your time with them when there are others more thankful.

For anyone who runs a community server, time is precious. We aren't kids who come home from school at 3pm and have all evening to play around. We work for a living, have families and spend some of our free time to run a server for non profit reasons. (For me its just a hobby)

There is no way I personally will spend more than 30 seconds dealing with an idiot who is wrecking it for others and neither should the admins who help me run the servers

Edited February 23, 2014 by Terox

[iknowmyname7 10]

I must disagree with you OP. ARMA 3 is relatively new, give it some time

[SYH 10]

Couldn't agree more with the original thread starter.

[ajsarge 10]

Does Arma 3 public multiplayer suck? Yes and no, but mostly yes. Those who say that organized groups are the way to go are mostly right. You'll find a much more consistent experience with a group, and many times you get the advantage of in-house mission and addon makers. But many of these groups that would provide the experience you want do so in a method that you disagree with. I spend my working hours in the military with rank structure and chain of command all around me. I don't have any desire to join a group that pushes that to a nonsensical level, despite how awesome their missions may be. I play games like Arma 3 to relax (yes, Arma 3 is a game, not a sim, and I will forever repeat what I saw in a BI interview that its goal is Authenticity, not Realism) and have fun.

So you join a public server to get away from the over-kill militarism and wind up in an Altis Life, Wasteland, or zombie mission. Altus Life is a blight on Arma 3 in my eyes, I can understand the appeal of zombies, and Wasteland is nice when you just want to shoot people and don't really care about anything else. But it all winds up being a cluster-f... with disorganization, team killers/griefers, and repetitive action. Try to find friends and run as a squad. Ignore the idiots when they get in your way, complain to admins when you can't avoid them. Eventually you'll run into someone who likes you and invites you to their group. Say OK, while reserving the right to leave if you disagree with their group attitude or style of play.

If you really want to make the game better, Bohemia included all the tools for you. They only have so many people who can only make so much. Their focus is on a stable, well-polished, product that we can take and modify to our heart's content. Learn to make missions, create new textures, or add pick up 3D modeling/animation to add a vehicle to the game. Make incentives for people to play together and stay away from the TK/lone wolf/insanity that you so hate in MP right now.

[dreek 10]

I can see where an individual might have a hard time finding a nitche in this game. I strongly suggest you look around for some friends the make the whole experience of FPS gaming that much more fun.

[Spartan0536 188]

I bought this game to play a multiplayer military sim, I expected to have some structure in the MP like a Black Hawk Down type of scenario, where you had bad guys in a town and you had to go and extract a VIP or something. I always saw so many amazing looking ARMA 2 MP videos of teams all working together and it actually looked like it could be a missions from real life with how it was structured. Sadly though I've learnt that these missions are only available if you have friends who play the game because there is no structure to the MP at all. Just sad how they couldn't have built game modes and missions that were official, so people could play on public servers and have a good time. Instead they just left it for players to do and they're all shit and not fun at all, there are no mechanics there to keep players together or on a tight leash.

The worst thing of all though is how every server is either Wasteland or some Life RPG thing........ just no, why can't there be two server browsers, one with the proper stuff and one with all that bullshit moved on to it? I now know how the ARMA 2 people felt when Dayz came out and ruined their MP experience and pretty much killed it off for them until a patch came in to hide all the Dayz shit.

I wanted a proper military shooter, this is basically a poorly optimized engine, some assets and tools for players to create everything but what the game should have been. I dunno what the developers are doing but it probably involves Dayz SA, though I dunno what those guys did for a year other than make a shit shell of a game that is way worse than Dayz Mod.

ArmA games are ALL about the mods and the community, the ArmA Community puts both the Battlefield and Call of Duty communities combined to absolute shame. I suggest you play on an insurgency server in ArmA III, Insurgency is where the teamwork is really at.

[sic 1]

I bought this game to play a multiplayer military sim, I expected to have some structure in the MP like a Black Hawk Down type of scenario, where you had bad guys in a town and you had to go and extract a VIP or something.

The thing with arma is that anything is possible and I mean anything. Your imagination and script/google skills is the only stopper for creating a mission.

You could probably play "Black Hawk Down" (a A2 user mission) with AiA unless it's using a module that's no longer supporting in A3 or make your own mission if you don't own A2.

MCC Sandbox have a menu that will let you build up to 3 task's incl. rescue and/or kill a HVT (ofc you could add more task's during the gameplay).

I always saw so many amazing looking ARMA 2 MP videos of teams all working together and it actually looked like it could be a missions from real life with how it was structured. Sadly though I've learnt that these missions are only available if you have friends who play the game because there is no structure to the MP at all. Just sad how they couldn't have built game modes and missions that were official, so people could play on public servers and have a good time. Instead they just left it for players to do and they're all shit and not fun at all, there are no mechanics there to keep players together or on a tight leash.

Looks pretty serious if you ask me.

But I don't really understand what's the problem? You want to play serious MP but complaining and I quote "that these missions are only available if you have friends who play the game"? :confused:

If you want to play a serious TvT for an example, just search for it and try a server - if it's not fun or serious enough for some reason try another one.

The worst thing of all though is how every server is either Wasteland or some Life RPG thing........ just no, why can't there be two server browsers, one with the proper stuff and one with all that bullshit moved on to it? I now know how the ARMA 2 people felt when Dayz came out and ruined their MP experience and pretty much killed it off for them until a patch came in to hide all the Dayz shit.

I wanted a proper military shooter, this is basically a poorly optimized engine, some assets and tools for players to create everything but what the game should have been. I dunno what the developers are doing but it probably involves Dayz SA, though I dunno what those guys did for a year other than make a shit shell of a game that is way worse than Dayz Mod.

Another nifty thing called "Filter" will let you filter server, mission, mod, COOP, TvT, CTI, CTF etc and most important - bookmarks.

FT-2 (TvT/EC&H) is a hoot for an example but Benny's CTI is the s**t and my personal all time favorite.

Both FT-2 and CTI can be played solo or with friends.

My friends that I've been playing arma 2 for a year or two doesn't really like the milsim (although I've tried to persuade them, believe me) and prefer dayz so I usually join servers alone with no problem to either team up with people or go solo.

There's also a ton of community's like ShackTac's for an example where you can apply for membership if you want to play be really serious.

It is what you make out of it. :rolleyes:

[FatFukinLenny 3]

^ Excellent post m8;)

[serjames 357]

well there are servers out there that fulfill exactly what the OP is asking for... try our 3CB ALiVE one. (filter 3cb)

It's easy to join via Six or from the links on the website - shameless plug but we have 80% public players whom are playing tactically. Especially if 3cb members are on and leading.. Many then go on to come back and join the group - we must be doing something right ! :)

Some good videos here - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfuirFiR9F_maUP646RXi8QUE06KlxQlQ

Edited March 3, 2014 by serjames

[jangles 10]

I can see where the OP is coming from.

I personally really enjoy the warfare games (Becti now), but last couple of night I could only see one running.

The majority are 'Altis life' and Wasteland , is a shame but I suppose the players are playing what they want to.