Real Time Strategy or First Person Shooter?

[TurkeyBurgers 10]

Hey yall. I have never played any of the games from this series and have heard some things about it but am not understanding. I did a search but I am still confused. Here are the questions that maybe you can help me with.

Do you actually play as a soldier in the First Person View or is it more of a Real Time Strategy where you are ordering BOTS what to do.

Is it more like Command and Conquer or Battlefield?

[Uziyahu--IDF 0]

It is a first-person shooter and vehicle simulator (though not-so-detailed as far as aircraft go). You can have any combination of players or A.I. along with you on a mission.

The engine even allows Real-Time Strategy, if that's your thing.

[Nicholas 5]

It can be a combination. It isn't a FPS or Strategy. Almost both together, making it a "Simulator". You can play first/third person, whatever you wish. Or you can sit in an APC somewhere overlooking the battle and command your men. Or you can command your men and be in battle with them. Your either commander or the commanded. Depends on what you like. This also takes patience and cooperation, not a run n' gun or spray n' pray type of game. But this game would go under the "Simulation" genre. Well, actually it can be an FPS and strategy, considering the almost endless possibilities with the ingame editor and perhaps some skilled mission makers. Example: look at the amazing mission "Warfare" that BI made, it is like a strategy game where you place factories and you can switch to top-down view. Yet you CAN play in first person, top-down is for mainly placing stuff i think. Pretty amazing. But again, it depends on what you like.

Another Edit: There is even a Role-PLaying game called Sahrani Life, in which you play as a cop or civillian, and it's essentially roleplaying, it turns a combat-oriented game into an RPG(Role Playing Game).

Edited April 12, 2009 by Nicholas

[W0lle 1052]

It's a first person shooter, however not as fast paced as BF or COD.

The maps are much bigger than in the above games and there are barely no limitations. You can go, drive or fly at any spot on the map you want.

I recommend you look around in the Armed Assault and OFP Forums here to get an idea how it looks, what Addons & Mods have been created for it.

You can view 112 pages of ArmA screenshots here.

Alot of videos you can found here.

There is an addon around though that let you command alot of units too, similiar to a strategy game.

It's a bit of everything if you want so. :)

[Maddmatt 1]

It really depends on the mission you'e playing. And who you're playing with in the case of multiplayer.

[TurkeyBurgers 10]

OK another question. For the Multiplayer aspect. I play a mod for Battlefield 2 called Project Reality but it looks nothing NEAR the graphics and weapons and vehicles that ARMA 2 looks from the screenshots and videos. Is the Multiplayer comprised of only humans or is it humans controlling bots against other humans controlling bots? Can you have games where it is Humans versus Humans only and have no bots in the game? What are the biggest battles for Human versus Human with no bots? I understand the civilians will be AI controlled. Can you have maps where it is Humans teamed up against the AI controlled Enemy Bots?

[Nicholas 5]

Again dude, it all depends on the mission. The possibilities are nearly endless. The biggest Human Versus Human online i'v seen is (IN ArmA 1) probably i think 120 people or more

You can have Bots vs. bots, and you can be a civillian standing alongside watching! It can be humans vs. humans WITH some bots, literally any combination. YOu can be human vs. bots, human vs. human, bots vs. bots with you watching as a civillian. ANYTHING

Edited April 12, 2009 by Nicholas

[TurkeyBurgers 10]

Ok another question. What is the limit on the number of people that can be fighting in a battle on one server at a time? 32 V 32? 50 on 50? Throw some numbers my way here chief. More? Less?

[Nicholas 5]

I know for sure it can go above 100 people in a single server, so highest i can confrim for sure is 50 vs. 50 MAYBE 60 vs 60. I can't remember. It's rare to see a server as big as 120 people though. The main, most common servers are 32 people and 64 people 32 slots = 16vs16 64 slots = 32vs32. There can be 100 slot servers up to 120 slots i think, but again its rare. The 100+ servers are only simple human vs human too.

Edited April 12, 2009 by Nicholas

[4 IN 1 0]

COOP mission where players team up to fight against AI enemy is the major type that ARMA/ARMA2 focus on. However, there are also a large numbers of mission that you can conrtol your AI team member to fight against human/AI teams. Basic DM/TDM/CTF match are also supported(but there is noticable less numbers of people playing since arma because of the slow phase style compare to other titles)

Edited April 12, 2009 by 4 IN 1

[TurkeyBurgers 10]

Jesus H! I am sold! After seeing the FING AMAZING looking screenshots and INSANE vehicle and weapon selection it seems like this game has something for everyone!

All I need to know is who do I give my money to. This game looks outrageous. I am ashamed I missed out on the first one. I will DEFINITELY be on board for the second one.

Here is a suggestion, put some information on the front page of the game site that advertises how many players the game can support. Put some information on the varied combination's between humans and AI controlled BOTS.

I am just blown away. This game looks and sounds incredible.

[Nicholas 5]

Well, welcome aboard and enjoy your stay lol. I'v been playing since OFP 1, though ArmA 1 soon ArmA II. But yeah, with this game, you can create pretty much any type of game style as long as you have the skills and patience to do it. Or you can just download other user-created missions/addons/maps, about anything.

[4 IN 1 0]

be aware, the learning time of this game is longer then most other games, you need to put some efforts to get used to the noticeable slower phase(or "chunky movements" as someone like)

[walker 0]

Welcome Aboard TurkeyBurgers

As others have pointed out ArmA like BIS's OFP 1 is a sandbox military simulation.

Perspectives are:

1st (FPS)

3rd

2D Map

3rd person tactical tethered floating camera

You can probably get ArmA I quite cheap over the web or in the bargain bucket in your local game store so you can train on it for ArmA II.

There is the best mission editor you will ever find. Making your own missions is a breeze but mastering it like many things in ArmA takes time. As a result there are tens of thousands of mission both MP and SP.

You will have to retrain and use proper Tactics Techniques and Procedures:

ArmA is an Any Person Crawler (APC) PhilippRauch's idea see his post below

The basics:

CRAWL when in contact

Do not skyline!

Letting loose full auto standing in the middle of the road will only make you miss and get you shot.

bunny hopping does not work in reality and it will not in ArmA

Concealment is trees and bushes

Cover is hills and Houses

CRAWL

Moving and making a noise screws concealment

A big rucksack or Missile launcher on you back busts your concealment, might as well wear a flagpole on your back.

Bullets if powerful enough will go right through thin walls.

Running in front of the enemy to hide behind a bush or tree does not make you suddenly invisible.

Shooting at the enemy from a bush and missing, means the bush and hence you get it full auto.

CRAWL

Oh and one other thing CRAWL!

There is a manual

but there is a Manual by dslyecxi.

http://dslyecxi.com/armattp.html

Patches and MODS

If you do get the ArmA I get up to date with patches 1.15 beta is the latest accepted version on most servers:

There are tools to edit everything. Islands, Weapons, Vehicles, soldier/Civilian avatars, sounds, trees, scripts, AI, animations so there a lot of MODs.

There are like BIS's OFP 1 before it thousands. MODs can be run separately or together (as long as they do not clash) via shortcuts so you can choose what MODs you run in a session. You have to match Server in MP.

The main MOD to download is ACE it is the ArmA equivalent of Project Reality but imagine it on steroids.

CEX Strategy MOD

On the matter of the strategy mod people alluded to: there is the CEX MOD which allows you to control up to two battalions in SP against 3 or 4 AI battalions (if your computer is good enough) for the record that is about 6 times larger than Total Wars entity count. There are smaller missions down to company and platoon level that run perfectly on even low spec machines. Oh and by the way CEX's command capability is much more detailed than Total War's.

Warfare MP Strategy

There is also an MP tactical/Strategy game called Warfare in ArmA I.

The Millitary use the Real Virtuality engine

ArmA uses the Real Virtuality engine which is also used in the professional spin off from BIS's OFP 1 and ArmA called Virtual Battle Space (VBS). Now at VBS II VTK. VBS is used by the US Marines, US Army, US Special Forces, US Secret Service, UK Ministry of Defense, Australian Defense Forces, yada yada yada Israel, New Zeland, Singapore, etc.. It has been called the "De-facto Simulator" for NATO and there is a plan to have "NATO Allied Commander Transformation (ACT) host a number of dedicated VBS NATO servers that member countries (issued with VBS NATO client licenses) can connect to in order to conduct collective training in a wide range of customizable scenarios."

So as you can see ArmA's ability on the reality front is at least credible.

ArmA II will be the next major improvement.

Oh and the stuff I said about TTP will still apply.

Kind Regards walker

Edited April 14, 2009 by walker
Added some titles for clarity and PhilippRauch's idea

[Rocco 0]

I wouldnt call it "first person shooter", because you might sneak more around the vegeation then actually shooting at people/AI.

Its a balance between a tactical military simulation and a game.

[walker 0]

=-;1269288']I wouldnt call it "first person shooter"' date=' because you might sneak more around the vegeation then actually shooting at people/AI.

Its a balance between a tactical military simulation and a game.[/quote']

Hi all

Rocco is right

Actualy as a person in a certain meeting pointed out it is a "First person thinker"

Oh and by the way A person stood up shooting is just a big target CRAWL!

Kind Regards walker

[wipman 1]

Hi, i wouldn't call it a RTS game, it's more a first person shooter with a high degree

of tactic game rather than strategy; here it goes about solve a certain situation

or as much a certain number of objectives, using the right tactics; it's not about

win a war unless that you do a campaign that reflects in some degree the war

methodology, that then... we could may be say that the strategy plays an important

role; but i'll just call it (the ArmA) the best war based/tactical shooter released until

now. With it's bugs, flaws etc but yeah, it's the best one. Let's C ya

[PhilippRauch 0]

So its a 'Any Person Crawler' ? :P

[evilnate 0]

TurkeyBurger,

Download the ArmA demo here. Granted it won't be what ArmA 2 will be, but the general concept will be the same. Not sure if it includes the mission editor though.

[walker 0]

TurkeyBurger,

Download the ArmA demo here. Granted it won't be what ArmA 2 will be, but the general concept will be the same. Not sure if it includes the mission editor though.

The Demo is not good enough to show off ArmA and is very out of date being version 1.06 and no editor.

You can get ArmA itself starting from 5 UK pounds from Amazon I have seen it in bargain buckets for either side of the pond at around 20 US dollars. From Sproket you can download the Gold edition with Queen's Gambit for € 25.60

Kind Regards walker

[SaBrE_UK 0]

Urgh! Don't mention the demo. If you wanna see what ARMA can be, click the link in my sig :)

[KaiserPanda 0]

ArmA missions can be just about anything you imagine. :)

[PuFu 4600]

btw:

in arma (and i have no reasons to believe arma2 will be any different) there is NO limit to how many slots can be on the same mission/server at once but the hardware.

That said, you can get to fights ten of thousands of AIs on a mission that would take 24h to complete with an average of 20 players, or 100+ players human players fighting each other (the standing record for TVT game in ArmA was 124 players for a 3h game)

Good Luck, and hope to see you around for AA2