ARMA3 for complete newbies

[Varis 34]

Hi, I have close to 800 hours in ARMA myself but here's the situation:

 

We're having a little LAN at work and to my surprise ARMA3 is getting some votes in the game selection (#2 just after Overwatch). This raises the challenge how to run ARMA as a one-shot thing with people who likely are completely new to the game. The Bootcamp can be great in introducing the very basics but we're talking of quite busy people who might not have the time to go through anything like that on their own. They are more or less gamers and generally bright people so they might pick up things quick on the go - most of them I don't know that well however to assess their exact capability. Everybody being in the same room and focusing on the game can help too.

 

Was thinking of writing a little info blurb with just a few pointers how this game is different from your regular shooter and pointing them to the Bootcamp so some at least can pick up things beforehand and educate the others.

 

Also making it co-op removes much of the skill gap and can provide for a nice change of pace in the LAN. Keeping it simple is a must, then again multicrew vehicles is something where ARMA shines and just driving and fooling around in a ground vehicle is quite easy and fun to do.

 

I would think Zeus mode, or can I find fun missions that are easy to set up and easy to play for total newbies? Zeus would provide the advantage of adapting on the fly and setting both the content+challenge level to group specifications. I do have experience with the editor but I'm new to Zeus myself, I've been glancing at it and thinking it's a great tool - I used to play it while I was new - but the time to prepare is very short now.

 

We could make it a simple scenario in semi-open terrain + towns, most probably Altis as that's the map most familiar to me and it's commonly played, also very different locations available. Assuming 7-8 players I'd break it into 3 fire teams: motorized recon (1-3 experienced players), an armored component (eg. tigris, MBT, APC with 2 or 3 people), motorized rifle squad (everybody else, mostly newbies). There's probably around 2-3 hours we can spend on the whole experience.

 

Running Zerty's Mod with the right settings could be an idea, as I'm familiar with the mode and it exposes much of the game. We'd be taking over one town after the other and building our force. The enemies mostly would be stupid bots with some vehicle support (they would have APC etc). This way everyone would get to play and there would be a challenge to rise to, the experienced players would pull more of the game though. The challenge wouldn't really scale up but it's a short exercise anyway and in just a couple of hours we could get to running around with various ground vehicles or even commanding bots (it gets tricky in this territory though). Zerty's has a couple of its own mechanisms like factories with build queues, town mechanics, economy and bases so some people involved could get bogged down by those (IMO you could mostly just ignore them and tail the rest of the group).

 

In terms of training, I think we need to cover:

1. The basics of handling the game (gear selection, context menu, what to expect)
2. How to operate with infantry (using cover, stances, locating enemies or rather the difficulty of it)
3. How to hit things with firearms (eg. holding shift, selecting your engagement range, weapon types, bullet drop/zeroing, short bursts)
4. Any special roles people want to try out (sniper weapons, ATGM, vehicle gunners)

 

I will need to have another look at the WarMachine mode as that might provide just what we need, but in a more simple format.

 

Any other ideas, concerns or suggestions?

[joostsidy 682]

Some new players, even though interested, don't have the interest to prepare.

 

My advice is to just emphasize it is like a regular shooter, but it is more difficult: you can be killed with one shot. If they know how to lie down, it is enough.. 😆

 

Make them play standard classes that are familiar to them (from gaming in general) like medic, sniper, AT guy. Make the mission easy so have the opportunity themselves to find out that they're not hitting anything on full auto at 200m. While playing, you can give tips like aim higher or how to lock on with the launcher.

 

Newer players can find the subtleties of Arma a bit boring, so I tempt my non-arma friends with anti-matial rifles, AT launchers, placing explosives etc, driving MG Hunters etc. You also might have to make the mission 'robust', with good respawn, spare vehicles etc. Because people will accidentally throw grenades at a helo instead of embarking and wreck cars on low stones walls etc.

At least this is my experience 😆

 

My friends have warmed up to the experience and recently even agreed to play an IDAP Humanitarian Aid mission, in which none of us has any weapon 🙂

[chrisb 196]

Prepare new players using small scenarios in the Editor. That way you can make it fun learning and not too difficult to start with, build it up as they learn and get better.

 

[Diguelo2k17 3]

I would fully agree. I setup a similar system for a group a whiole back and made a trainer mission for all players to have as a local file, so they had a clue how things worked.

Mission included

    Shooting mat,

   A weapon box with the Virtual Armory in and help on how to use it,

   A set of Knockdowns out ot 1200m,

   A Pistol Range,

   Grenade Range

   Launcher range with indistructable targets

   AI wandering round with zero damage enabled but they react if hit.

 

This gives everyone a chance to learn, refresh, improve. A level of difficulty change alters the behavious of the AI and makes more Grass / obstacles appear in fronty of near targets.

Player starts with whatever they want out of the VA. Ammo is loaded and then its do as you like to get the feel.

 

One things I would say is prior to this going live on the works system, check with the IT staff to impliment it as a lot of companies have security / gedit/ workgroup / firewall issues. The tech features needed are available. remember that some terminal lines / IPs are blocked from intranet usage.