Your arma multiplayer experiences

[Litos 10]

Hello everyone! I am looking forward to Arma 2 as a replacement for PR, which I wasn't able to play for around a year because of punkbuster's cheap excuses for unstoppable kicking, and sometimes even technical issues.

I seemed to get past them all today, but then in the end, punk buster gave me his final shot, which blew me away unfortunately.

I am certain arma 2 will be better than PR since PR is just a mod. I am looking for realistic gameplay not just in terms of the "1 hit k.o." kind of gameplay (which isn't very amusing), but in the means of communication between the players.

So, I'd like you all to talk about your most epic and realistic ARMA Multiplayer experiences. Typical scenario: You are locked up by enemy ground forces all over the place, and you're outnumbered. You call for immediate helicopter extraction to the commander, who sends out a black hawk right away (a pilot was available). The helicopter comes to a safe point, you get in, and get the hell outta there.

That makes multiplayer be like a single player campaign, except with real people which causes more dynamic gameplay and well, the fact that they're real after all.

Of course even if people don't play this way, I will still buy arma because there's simply nothing closer to it. Although just drop here some of your most unforgettable experiences, I'd love to hear things that happened to you.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Since you're talking about BF2:PR i guess you mean MP PvP experiences?

I'm a typical coop player and haven't had many PvP sessions but from what i remember it was a bit frustrating. Combat was done over wide distances and most of the time you hide and try to pick up movement until somebody sees you and you're dead.

Positive experiences all came from coop sessions. Healing wounded ppl under fire by the AI, cover a street with an MG while everyone else crosses behind me - things like that.

What really draws me into the game is that sometimes you suddenly realize you've got responsibility for the other guys, esp when you're a pilot. I remember some really stressy moments as a LBird pilot under fire by a shilka and thought "damn i got all those guys onboard i can't make a mistake now. gotta get this thing down safely."

I almost forgot it was just a game. :)

[Litos 10]

I guess I'm referring to MP PvP matches. I totally forgot about the Arma Co op option.

I'm going to have to try that. From what you've said it sounds pretty nice. The last sentence I really like.

How does co-op work though? Do you simply join a co op server, and the players are on any mission at any point of it and you just like... drop in?

[sparks50 0]

Missions can have Join In Progress(JIP) or not. Also, some missions allows respawns(after death) and some dont. Personally I prefer the latter option, because it introduces consequences to acting careless, plus its a bit of a immersion killer to respawn.

BTW, Ive had numerous good experiences with ACE mod on the Tactical gamer servers. You wont find a public server with more tactical teamplay and bigger organized games.

Its not all coop either, theres a lot of tactical team VS team too, and its usually a LOT more organized than Project Reality games, where squad leaders pretty much do whatever they feel like.

Heres what addons needed if you decide to give it a try:

http://www.tacticalgamer.com/armed-assault-technical-support-faqs/132820-faq-mods-addons-do-i-need-play-server.html

Edited May 10, 2009 by sparks50

[Mickd 0]

I guess I'm referring to MP PvP matches. I totally forgot about the Arma Co op option.

I'm going to have to try that. From what you've said it sounds pretty nice. The last sentence I really like.

How does co-op work though? Do you simply join a co op server, and the players are on any mission at any point of it and you just like... drop in?

if your familiar with PR and the tournament that was run using it, then http://www.ic-arma.net might be of interest to you. Large, weekly PvP battles.

[Litos 10]

Yeah, I always played on their server in PR.

Mickd, as I said, I can't play PR anymore, it kicks me. Since sparks says in arma its even more organized (yes unless youre in a tg server in PR you wont get such good experience), i'd rather wait for arma anyway.

But let's get back to the actual point of the topic. I'd really like to hear some specific moments you guys played through.

[celery 8]

One time I killed 35 guys in DM Tequila Sunburn and didn't die a single time. Near the end I got a motorcycle from the barn and escaped the fight zone with two guys firing at me the whole time but not hitting. It was awesome.

[Rogueci5 0]

I am a dedicated Multi Play person, love teh Co-Op in this game.

Its sad because the game can support what 200 pplayers with Bots if memory serves, and it has been Moded to death.

You find lots of servers with lots of players all over them just cant find one with what I call Multiplay 64 would be the standard number for todays games.

Single player is GREAT love it, mthere is no real multiplay tho.

tis sad.

[Evil_Echo 11]

Old BF2 player here, now switched over to ArmA.

Comparing the two games really is not fair to either. Even with PR, BF2 has a lot of issues with map size and the game engine. ArmA is complex with a significant learning curve.

My favorite missions are Domination and Evolution, both COOPs. The need for good teamwork will make or break a game in ArmA. If you hop onto a server loaded with retarded players it's going to be miserable. So find a good group of players and hang with them as much as you can.

There are a lot of add-ons and mods to tinker with too. I'm biased here, but ACE is one mod you should certainly concider. Very similar to PR for BF2 in that it aims to enhance a lot of the ArmA environment - though without the odd rule changes PR added.

[merlin 17]

I don't play multiplayer too often (usually bogged down with IRL stuff and if i'm playing ArmA, i'm usually just playing around with newly downloaded vehicles in the editor)

however on one particular game of domination me and another player, i believe his name was Nadok, decided to form a sniper team and branch off from the 20 or so other players hitting the main target. we decided to make an attempt on the secondary target, which was a bank in Bagango.

we started at the airport and as the two blackhawks with the other players flew off into the distance to hit Pita me and nadok gathered satchels and sniper gear and loaded into the mh-6. I was flying and set us down on the hill to the north of bagango (with the radio tower) he took out his rifle and i pulled out a laser designator to gauge the distance of the troops guarding the target. for the most part they were out of range and we were grossly outnumbered. a few moments later a GBU harrier pilot came over the comms and asked if anyone in Pita needed GBUs on targets, when no one responded i asked him if he could hit the secondary target in Bagango, he obliged and said he'd be there in about 45 seconds to observe the target.

I marked the target and let him make a couple of passes to get a feel for the bomb run, after the second pass he let me know he was dropping the bomb from 2000m, i acknowledged and waited a few seconds then from the view of the laser designator i saw an explosion envelop the bank and take down all the nearby infantry, i smiled and got back in the chopper.

another memory i had from that game was doing a similar operation against some transformers in some northern sahrani coastal city, we called in the same guy to drop the bomb, it hit right on target and the transformers just remained intact. we sat on that hilltop for about 15 minutes watching bombs drop on the transformer and the infantry and armor guarding it, after a while an A10 got airbourne and just began dropping load after load of unguided mk-82s , after the entire city was flattened we decided we had to take it out with satchels, so i got back in the mh-6 with my partner flew down the slope made a quick landing, my partner jumped out, planted some satchels and hopped back in and blew the transformers.

i kind of have a thing for airstrikes

[Yoma 0]

Multiplayer in Arma is uncomparable to any other game i know.

It is simply great and has endless variations, mission types, gameplay modes, from ultra realistic to arcadish gameplay, PVP, COOP, MIXED (PVP with Ai's to command) it's pretty much all possible.

[sEveron 10]

The aspect I love the most in ArmA is warfare mission. There wasn't anything like it for OFP, at least not I'm aware of, and ArmA itself before warfare wasn't really that much fun. (There is something wrong about 'destroy the convoy' in Evolution if said convoy doesn't use the road, that pretty much scared me away from Evo). But in warfare, every game is different, and there is plenty room for epicness, even if I play just with one friend.

So there was my first 'Battle for Dolores'. We started near Corazol, we took over Ortego without much of a problem thanks to the excelent sniping position in the city, and then we moved for the City of Three Bridges. Since we had "Fast Time" option enabled, the dusk came down on us as we aproached the east-most camp. There was much of enemy fire coming from the city, but since we had the higher ground, we set some sandbags and Mk19's to wreak havoc on them. After initial grenade bombardment we moved in with nightvision to clear the remains in CQB on the streets and proceed to take the main bunker. Some time passed as we stood our ground against incoming RACS forces who were trying to retake the main bunker from us. Bridges were helpful, since most of the RACS were coming from west and it wasn't really hard to shoot them on the west bridge, which by that time was pretty well iluminated with moonlight. We haven't yet started to think about direction of our next move, when our ears catched the sound of tracks somewhere in the city.

After quick scouting of the surroundings we realized that T72 is rolling through the southern bridge with some infantry on its side. They were SLA forces and they ment bussiness. We lost many men there, trying to take out that tank, shooting it from the west bridge and west side of the city with M163. We were climbing buildings and attacking it from the top, finally we got it down... just to find out that the next one is coming. We called in ATGM Strikers, hoping that they can function as Anti Tank Bridge Denial System. We lost two of them before we learned that their reload time connected with inability to take T72 with one shot makes them unfit for the challenge. Determined to hold that city at all cost, we rolled in a tank of our own. In time it took to drive M1A1 from our base just outside Corazol, the SLA put some heavy pressure on us with BMP's, BRDM's and some more T72's rolling in through the southern bridge. We used Dragons, we used M136, and we tried to use Javelins (Javelins weren't really cutting the deal for us, we don't know if it was some problem with our ACE version, or our inability to understand the art of aiming the thing, enough to say that what seemed like direct-top-hit from javelin wasn't taking out even the BMP's). The city was blocked with wrecks, both burned carcasses, and vehicles damaged enough to be unusable by AI, but not yet good enough for a salvager. We held probably only because of the fact that their tanks weren't able to drive through because of the wrecks. When our tank finally arrived, we drived it into the city center and eliminated enemy armor with coordinated "drive into shooting position, take a shot, drive back behind a building" sequences. We rolled to the northern end of the southern bridge hoping that maybe we could push forward, but enemy armor was still coming from the south, and the tank got hit once or twice, so we pulled back to the main crossroad in the city, where we could overlook the street and shoot the SLA tanks as soon as they leave the bridge and pass this little street turn. We called in for the repair track and a M113 Ambulance. The moments when we were defending that crossroad, standing our ground with one damaged Abrams against what looked like neverending wave of T72's, were the most epic moments of the battle. There was real pressure on us, and we were starting to loose hope that we could stop the SLA from taking Dolores and progressing further into our territory. During the whole battle the night-day cycle changed few times. We got tired and morale got low. [That is probably the most emotion-generating aspect of the game. You can be in a really FUBAR situation, and there isn't much you can do about it, so it feels like real.]

We tried to get in some close air support, but enemy had the airspace over the city under AA fire, so it was quite hot for the birds. After few attempts and birds lost, we managed to fly in with a Cobra and hovering few meters over the water level we shot that southern bridge with FFAR's till we destroyed it, effectively denying the SLA access to the city center.

That was end of a session, since real life 6am in the morning came, and with all the addons the game tends to drop in fps a lot. Also we don't really play to "win" the map, just to "play" it : )

It came out that SLA had their main base just north of Parato, not more than 2 km south from Dolores, hence their ability to flood us with fast coming tanks.

What's great in warfare is the fact, that similar battle never happened again, there were some other epic moments, or funny moments, or "WTF, where they're shooting from" moments, but the First Battle for Dolores will never happen again. It's unique'ness improves our memories about it : )

[Jack-UK 0]

Most memorable OFP game was probably Combined Arms with my old clan SWAF years ago..

We used to have a weekly CO-OP game where we'd have a massive game with lots of players on one team, and we'd use all divisions of our clan (Infantry, Spec ops, Pilots and Tank Crews) to complete one large, long mission over a good few hours of playing. There were no respawns, and each division depended on another...

The pilots had to pick up and drop off the infantry into their LZ's and drop them at the various objectives around the map, keeping their choppers intact. Other pilots provided us with close air support.

Tanks could be called in to support us when we were against a large amount of enemy armour, we even managed to use a spot and shoot method using abrams tanks to fire from out of view and drop HEAT shells on enemy towns..

I was always infantry and it was awesome to play with my squad, working as a unit and backing each other up against the outnumbering Russians... Medics, covering fire, buddy buddy tactics, airstrikes, the lot.

Awesome stuff, shame the clan died in ArmA cause of server bugs..

In ArmA.. IC-ArmA is a great laugh, 80 or so guys would show up for a few hours of PVP to capture towns with different divisons for armour, infantry and air etc. Great stuff.

Also one moment i really enjoyed was getting to the end of Evolution quite quickly and being able to help a full server dominate towns through the use of the Harrier GBU.. Some public players were even working really well as a team and using LD's to laze targets for me to bomb, and they waited outside cities for me to carpet bomb them and soften up their entrances to the cities they were going to attack. Was brilliant.

Hope that inspires u to buy ArmA2.. i'm going to wait and see how buggy it is first!