Ex-mil players?

[EDcase 87]

Hiall,

Just wondering if there are any ex-military personel playing ARMA?

If so, what's your background and how does ARMA compare with your experiences?

Cheers,

ED

[lebson506th 0]

My unti, the 506th PIR, has many active and retired military members from all different areas of the armed forces.

As far as i can tell, they love it. =)

[dslyecxi 23]

My group has about 20-25 prior or current military, mostly US branches but with some non-US thrown in as well. I'm prior service myself (USMC).

As to your other question, ArmA is a virtual world with some interesting features, possibilities, and limitations. I would not say that it is the perfect representation of what this sort of stuff is like in reality by any stretch of the imagination, but it is closer than any other game and it's used in military training tool form (VBS2) for good reason.

[Infam0us 10]

Hiall,

Just wondering if there are any ex-military personel playing ARMA?

If so, what's your background and how does ARMA compare with your experiences?

Cheers,

ED

IC ArmA - Has many Ex, and currently serving members of the Armed Forces ... From the British Army, the Finish Defence Force, US Army, USAF, Irish Defence Force and many more ... hop on our Teamspeak for a chat with them.

[baddo 0]

Surely most of the Finnish men let's say 21 and older who play ArmA are ex-military. In the sense that they have gone through their conscription time in the Finnish Defence Forces (FDF), which is nowadays from 6 to 12 months.

I'm an Armoured Jäger of an Armoured Reconnaissance Company. My main job was to drive an off-road truck. My weapon was the RK-62 which should be familiar from the FDF Mod for some people here. The reconnaissance training missions were exciting and interesting for me, I would have liked to have most of the training camps like those. Otherwise it was quite boring.

Operation Flashpoint was a thrill. With FDF Mod even better of course. The FDF has lots of Soviet equipment, so a lot of the equipment in OFP was already familiar to me before playing the game.

ArmA hasn't really impressed this far. OK there are some significant technological changes compared to OFP like streaming and join-in-progress, but that doesn't really make up for the negatives, like the very disappointing singleplayer campaign. Maybe OFP Cold War Crisis set the bar so high that it was very difficult for BIS to come up with something as good as that, and thus the disappointment of many. I've had some good multiplayer sessions with ArmA, so that makes up a little bit.

I am in a sort-of waiting mode regarding ArmA. I wait for the patching situation to stabilize. I also wait and see if the FDF Mod comes for ArmA too - that might be just the thing I need to get excited. But I can't know, so I'll just wait and see what comes, if anything.

It might be that before I get really excited about ArmA, we have already ArmA 2. But this doesn't really bother me at all. I've got my hands full of other things to do so it isn't a bad thing if I'm not much into ArmA right now.

[Hyrax0740 0]

Served 4 years as a Us ARMY Calv scout ( recon, sniper,tanker , and mapper.

ArmA is NOTHING like the real thing, but comes pretty close.

[HamishUK 0]

Former RAF Pilot having served with 6 Squadron for nearly 12 years (with 3 years previously as a rock-ape).

ArmA is just a game.

If I wanted Sim realism for mud-movers the nearest is either Falcon 4.0, Lock-On or FSX.

[EDcase 87]

Interesting... Thanks for replies guys.

Of course a computer game will never come close to the real thing. I wondering more about how real battle tactics translate to the game. It must be pretty good since VBS is used for training.

[Punisher5555 0]

I am a former CW2 in the U.S. Army. I flew OH-58 A, C, and D's plus sometime in UH-60's.

That is why you will see me bitch about the helicopter flight model on here from time to time.

Scout's Out !!!!!

[Clavicula_nox4817 0]

Prior US Army, ETS'd in January.

It's just a game that I don't take very seriously.

[gsleighter 0]

I was an intel analyst in the US Army, so some of the skills come into play, depending on how realistic the mission is set up. The Chain of Command missions, especially the CoC Recon Platoon mission, are more successful when you realistically implement some tactics.

As for multiplayer, IMT, bounding overwatch, just maintaining situational awareness, those all come into play, so if you're more experienced at it, all the better. As for team or squad leader slots (At least in the servers I play on, Tactical Gamer, here's looking at you), effectively leading depends on knowing what needs to be done, but also effectively conveying that with a sense of urgency.

[Beagle 684]

Like most german males from my generation I served my 12 month duty because I had to do so...the alternative would have been 15 month of civil service (mostly in hospitals und retirement homes)

I was lucky and was able to fulfill my military service in the Armored Reconnaissance Force.

[wld427 1705]

Current active duty in iraq. We play here on a small router about 15 of us.

[James2785 0]

USAFR civil engineer here. I've been in for a few years.

[ravendk 25]

ex Recce here

OFP learned me a LOT abt enemy armour, infact so much that the instructors got pissed

ARMA is pretty and just abt everything i learned in the service works in the game.

[Beagle 684]

ex Recce here

OFP learned me a LOT abt enemy armour, infact so much that the instructors got pissed

ARMA is pretty and just abt everything i learned in the service works in the game.

Not really !?

Or do you just mean type recognition?

[gsleighter 0]

I think he means recognition. I was the soviet equipment guru in my class of 30 (including some re-class NCO's) 96B trainees because of OFP. Not just easy stuff, either, but the some of the addons (MTLB, BTR's, PT-76) went a long way to making recognition of a variety of equipment easy.

[Second 0]

Like most (80%) finnish males from my generation i served in Finnish Defence Forces. NCO. Reservist. Active reservist... well quite active reservits... Well quite active reservits who is getting older and older

ArmA... no-no. Basically could be said that it shouldn't be taken seriously: I took it bit too seriously and lost my intrest, dream of mine which friendly fired me right into my back.

-There are things included... and then alot is not (like ever will be). If i try to mix things from my training with ArmA i might get something out of it and might not. It depends of things i try to do in ArmA. But i really can't think of it as simulator anymore, like when i thought that possibilities with engine are limitless (which was quite stupid thing to even think about, but hey! We are stupid sometimes and do mistakes. That is life.).

But i'm just cynical old-ish fart who mostly comes here for good naggings (i'm like old wife)

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Conscription engineer here, many years ago. Engineer role in ArmA is pretty limited though compared to what we did in the army. In real life, actually locating and finding the mines were as nerve wrecking as disabling them. But we also did a lot of blowing up things; never satchels but a number of other types of explosives (crater makers, shaped charges, cutting trees with detonating fuse etc). Would be nice if engineers could prepare foxholes in ArmA in the future, not that that was something we dug (! doing.

But this was mostly the combat engineer style (first an infantry, but capable of light engineer work). Also had boat teams and heavy equipment engineers for brigde building, bulldozing, caterpillars etc.

It would be nice to see the engineers in ArmA future be able to perform limited repairs; make a vehicle driveable but not fully fixed. Handle breeching types of explosives, such as simple blocks of tnt or that pole thingy for fences. Having regular tools would be cool too, such as a clipper to get through fences, or a blowtorch to cut through it with mroe visual penalty at night etc.

Oh, we can only dream I guess...

[Espectro (DayZ) 0]

Infantry and gunner on TOW-launched Humwee in the Danish Royal Army

December 2002-December 2003

[SlipperyJim 0]

Have any of you ever thrown a puppy off a cliff?

Ahhhh, come on, admit it.

[Second 0]

I threw them to boulder and buried into pile of horsepoop to be scattered to fields during next spring. Well that is because i'm peasant and got used to taking life from animals when needed. Nothing military in it, just way of life. Well... Puppy is puppy, it isn't most comfortable thing to do. .22 bullet to bull's brains isn't as bad.

[Clavicula_nox4817 0]

Have any of you ever thrown a puppy off a cliff?

Ahhhh, come on, admit it.

Only when there were no cameras around.

I don't understand why soldiers and Marines who do stupid shit always want to do it infront of a camera..I just don't understand...

[Tigerhund 0]

Marine. Swedish Navy. Late 90s.

Currently: Recce platoon. Swedish Home Guard.

It is not possible to compare ArmA with real life soldiering as ArmA doesn´t simulate fatigue and the effects of supressive fire in its present state and it can´t simulate the physical pain from ill-fitting webbing and friction wounds on your feet, lower back and shoulders.

But it is fun to play with a few good mates online if you try to make it as realistic as possible and don´t take it too seriously

[MehMan 0]

Have any of you ever thrown a puppy off a cliff?  

Ahhhh, come on, admit it.

Only when there were no cameras around.

I don't understand why soldiers and Marines who do stupid shit always want to do it infront of a camera..I just don't understand...

And then upload it to YouTube or liveleak...