Noob wants Help with IFF

[Rastus 0]

Hi,

Some missions online do not have the labels showing who is who (which I actually prefer). OK I have seen green beret's verses Helmets, that's easy. But tonight I was on a server for a while & after I was shot by people I thought were on my side, then I did two TK's, I left in shame. I just could not tell the difference.

BTW I am a noob, never got into OFP (stupid me) but enjoying ArmA very much, just need to clear this up.

Any help appericiated, pics would be great.

Cheers

[whisper 0]

I've played OFP since demo... and I tell you, I did another TK last night, exactly like you

On missions without labels, there are 2 things to follow :

- don't shoot blindly (that was the cause of my yesterday's 1st TK)

- communicate (that was the cause of my yesterday's second and last TK

1st occurence : I see a friendly shooting at something, and being shot (tracers around him). I follow tracers to a bush, where I see smoke puffs. The guy is hidden in the bush. I fire in it. Killed him. It's ... another friendly

2 possibilities : I've actually missed the real tracers origin and have gone too far, following shots froma second friendly also shooting on the tango. OR, 2 friendlies were exchanging fire and about to TK themselves.

Anyway, the "rule" : Don't shoot at unidentified infantry, shoot at identified ennemies. Which can be tricky in case of grenades, ofc.

Even being shot at is not a clear indication you are facing an ennemy, as my example shown

2nd occurence : We're driving along in a M1. Suddenly we cross the path of a BMP. Boom, reflex shot.... and ofc it's a friendly. It must be the #1 reason for TK in ArmA atm : friendlies in ennemy vehicles.

For me, the "rule" : when you jump in an ennemy vehicle, INFORM others, repeatedly. "BEWARE, BMP @ position X is FRIENDLY". When you are about to shoot, if you have time (ie you have surprise) and not sure, ask! "Is vehicle X at position Y actually friendly?" Unfortunately, very often you don't have the luxury to have that much time before shooting.

As for ennemy recognition... well, there, only experience will help. You'll get it allright after a while. Globally, in ArmA, white means BLUEFOR, green/brown means REDFOR. The tricky part comes when you have Resistance side in. They have color scheme very close to BLUEFOR

[Rastus 0]

Cool, thanks.

Yeah, guess I have to get used to the game.

As you say, experience.

Cheers

[whisper 0]

Also depending on mission set-up, you can try recognition by sound. In missions where you know ennemy will use their own weapon only, you can know who you are facing when you know he's wielding a AK or M16. There, once more, anyone taking an ennemy weapon should mention it.

[RjC_77 0]

without having played arma online yet i would think that a lot of the TK's are made because of this problem: ppl having a hard time identifying targets.

So they aren't cheating but simply being ignorant.

[sir fragalot 0]

Made a pretty emberassing TK one time:

I was Gunner in a M113 and securing our surounding as i saw an inf (well not all of him, just a bit of helmet and a russian RPG because behind fence). As i pointed at him "I" said:"12 o'clock unknown..... BOOOM.... Teamkill complete

Well shit happens! Of course i appologised imediately!

[walker 0]

Hi all

Learn to ID equipment: rucksacks, boots, helmets, uniform parts, particularly legs of trousers (most you can see when someone is walking or running past the bush you are hiding in) but as some one already pointed do not make a definite ID on weapons. People pick up enemy weapons when they are running out of ammo or think the enemy weapon is more useful and by the way yes AI do too.

Here is a simple way to make a Unit Recognition, training testing program.

Get your self a bunch of images from the photo thread in the ArmA general section of this forum. Copy the images and use an image editing package (windows paint will do at a push) to create lots of cut up the images. Have each of them named for what unit and part they are. Note any differences in equipment for special units such as AT soldier or snipers etc. Separate them off, in different pictures so you have kit version per unit to learn to recognise. Try be aware of parts that are similar for both BLUEFOR and OPFOR.

Create one folder with all West parts in it.

Create another folder as above but with all East

Create a third folder as above for Resistance

Next copy the contents of the three folders into a fourth folder but number and name them randomly.

This is a quick way to randomly name a whole bunch of files:

How to Rename Multiple Files with Windows Explorer

1. Start Windows Explorer. To do so, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Windows Explorer.

2. Select multiple files in a folder. To do so, press and hold down the CTRL key while you are clicking files.

3. After you select the files, press F2.

4. Type the new name, and then press ENTER.

NOTE: When you complete the preceding steps, the highlighted state of all files except one disappears, so it may appear as if you are only renaming one file. However, after you press ENTER, all of the files are renamed. When you rename multiple files, all of the renamed files have the same name with a number in parentheses appended to the name to make the new file name unique. For example, if you type BUDGET as the new name, the first file is named BUDGET. All of the remaining selected files are named BUDGET(x), where x is a unique number, starting with (1).

In the random folder order the images by size to pseudo randomize them.

You can also shuffle them by randomly selecting a few then renaming them again. Do this every so often to shuffle them.

Now you can use the slide show facility in windows picture and fax viewer, you just select an image in the folder open it windows picture and fax viewer then hit the projector screen icon in the viewer.

You can use the side folders to learn all the parts for each each side using their side folder.

Then you can test your self naming the parts in the Random Folder.

And it is free

I suppose it might be useful to put a naming of the parts image collection together so that everyone can put them together many hands make light work. Perhaps a kind community site can offer its services to host such a file.

Kind Regards walker