What are the Game Modes?

[Maizel 10]

Hey guys.

I haven't played any of the earlier BIS games online, so i don't have a good idea of what to expect from the more 'exotic' multiplayer modi.

Could someone give me a brief outline on what each multiplayer mode is about?

Thanks.

[walker 0]

Hi Maizel

ArmA is a sandbox game with a built in editor and the most advanced Modding suite available to any game.

So you can play any type of Multiplayer (MP) you want.

ArmA has an inbuilt editor that alows you to make whatever mission you want.

MP falls in to two broad categories Player v Player (PvP) and Coop but there are others and indeed merging of those categories. The number of players can be 2 to 150 depending on server and mission.

PvP includes death matches (DM) Capture and Hold (C&H) and Capture the Flag (CTF)

Any of these can have Respawn or No Respawn the respawn can be random or at base or at captured point or into AI under you control or user choice via map click or points based or any other damn thing you could possibly think of. It is all down to the person who makes the mission you are playing. If you make the mission you get to decide; many missions have buttons available to the game server admin to set the respawn characteristics.

NOTE these are all old forms of MP in ArmA that will be being transferred to ArmA II but with ArmA II's new features they are bound to evolve and other new forms will appear.

Domination is a dynamic coop mode as is Evolution these missions can last several days players JIP in and out and play in shifts.

Berzerk by Zaphod is a tactical Capture & Hold (C&H) PvP mode where you play as two teams trying to control terrain features, I am sure it is being ported from ArmA to ArmA II as we speak. Battles usually last 1 hour before reassign.

Capture the Island (CTI) is a form of strategic C&H PvP played with between 1 and 3 teams with Base Building and economics based on captured ground played across the whole island usually these last about 5 to 8 hours.

Warfare is a new advanced and official form of CTI. these can last a day or two.

Hexenkessel by Celery is a classic urban Close Quarters Capture The Flag (CTF) PvP

Long Valley is an old school larger open land CTF PvP

Sahrani Life is an Role Playing Game that lasts several weeks I expect a more advanced form of this to be in ArmA II as a lot of new functions in ArmA II such as the Save game in MP feature will suit it.

Capture the serial killer is an Asymmetric PvP(Asy) where one or two players play the part of a serial killer and everyone else plays the part of police and tries to capture or kill them, I expect there to be a plethora of this type of game being made in ArmA as the RPG elements will suit it

Escape and evasion is an Asymmetric PvP similar to the above but this time the premise is downed air crew.

Assassination is is an Asymmetric PvP where a couple of assassins attempt to kill a VIP who is making speeches with either a sniper rifle or a concealed pistol while the rest of the players form his close protection squad and try to prevent the assassination.

Presence Patrol is an Asymmetric PvP in form of a standard military patrol on foot and in vehicles through a village or small town while INSUGS try to kill you with rockets, mortars, IEDs, Sniper rifles and the like. BLUEFOR hunt for weapons caches and try to capture insurgent leaders or gain intell from the locals. With the new options for Role Playing Games I expect this to improve with ArmA II

Convoy is an Asymmetric PvP conducted in vehicles from town to town where the INSUGS try to ambush you along the way.

Checkpoint is an Asymmetric PvP where the BLUEFOR attempt to prevent INSUGS from building up sufficient weapons caches in a town for an assault on a key asset or to achieve a spectacular by running check points and search patrols.

I have not even gone over 1% of the missions ArmA is capable of and I have not got to the straight Coops yet.

Here is a video of ArmA I game types to be going on with

Kind Regards walker

Edited June 14, 2009 by walker

[Maizel 10]

Wow, it does seem I'll get a lot of multiplayer value for my money.

Thanks for taking the time to type that all out for me, Walker it's much appreciated.

[walker 0]

Hi Maizel

Please be aware: It will take a little time to convert them all; days to months depending on complexity and the time available to the mission maker but that said Celery has already started coverting some of his CTF and DMs such as Hexenkessle and the like and CTI which is very complex game form has already been converted.

There will also inevitably be totaly new missions gameforms to play too.

Kind Regards walker

[MiGeL_Hotshots 10]

Thats a nice list walker I think when people ask me I will refer to it.

Manage to find one mistake though as I play mostly cti and warfare the game does not tend to last 1-2 days. It can last up pretty long for a pvp map but the complexity and presure the map brings would crash the server well before that also if there is a dedicated team on one side ( doesnt matter if on other side ) there is enough pressure to bring down a player build base quite quickly duo to effectiveness of teamwork ( lasering and bombing, arty + scouts, coordinated attacks and most other tactics envolving 2 or more players ). In these days they last up to 3-5 hours on community like servers.

[walker 0]

Hi MiGeL_Hotshots

Only played CTI and Warfare fully to completion about 8 or so times. Mostly I just jipped in for few hours and most of my full CTI and Warfare were when they first came out and people were still discovering tactics so they did last whole days then. Since then I jipped into them for a couple of hours at a time, so it is some time since I played a full CTI end to end.

So I bow to your current knowledge of the gameplay.

Kind Regards walker

Edited June 9, 2009 by walker

[Maizel 10]

I havenl;t played any of the previous OFP/Arma games online, but I understand Arma had a host of user made multiplayer modes, such as Warfare(?).

I have a question regarding the non official multiplayer modus.

If a server runs said multiplayer mode, will i download all the files needed, from the server I;m connecting to? or will I have to search the web for specific files?

Cheers!

[whisper 0]

It depends.

If the "mode" use only content from the original game (units, vehicles, islands), then the mission itself will be automatically downloaded.

If the mission requires some 3rd party addons or mods (change or additions in units/vehicles/islands), then you need to download these yourself and launch the game with them enabled to be able to connect.

Usually many servers stay with "vanilla" configuration and are playable with your untouched box version

[Binkowski 26]

If the mission has mods / addons that you don't have running you will be required to download them before you can connect to the server. Like whisper said, if you don't have the same addon / mod as the server or mission that is running you won't be able to play that mission.

[C4SINO 10]

Hey guys, I'm new to this game.

I played Flashpoint Elite on Xbox, not online unfortunately but I was wondering what the MP game modes are? I'm guessing standard Deathmatch and CTF, but can anyone elaborate?

[Flock 10]

Co-op

Warfare (a large capture the island type with RTS base building and resource buying)

Team DM

Hunter (one plays as an animal the other trys to hunt you)

And the most important is the mission editor which enables you to create anything you want from large squad based operations to RPG's to death matches with jetpacks ... if that interests you. :)

[psycosmos 0]

Here's a nice post with some more info on them. It's from ArmA 1, but most of it should still apply.

[Frantic 0]

Thanks to the great mission-scripts, you are able to make every game-mode you can think of possible in ARMA2!

So there are main game-modes like in the link posted above, but you can find many others too.

Thats the greatness of ARMA, you are able to find new missions and game-modes every time!

[Kr3v 10]

By default, you have :

Coop

Deathmatch

Team deathmatch

Detector (dm in the night with a radar)

Capture the flag

Warfare

Seize the zone

And after you have the editor, with it you can do what you want.

[Maizel 10]

Will the gampelaymodus, like CTI and Warfare need a seperate downloaded mod, per definition?

[PuFu 4591]

Will the gampelaymodus, like CTI and Warfare need a seperate downloaded mod, per definition?

no. there is no such thing as gameplay mod in the first place in ArmA, not in the way that all other games are listing those. You will be downloading the mission file from the server you are connecting to on join.

[Rimp 10]

there is no info given anywhere on what each of the game modes is for the multiplayer.

this game looked amazing on videos on youtube etc but so far ive been utterly disappointed with alot of this game. its like playing a half finished game created by a group of game modders not by a professional company. it is far from finished. and shouldnt have been released for a long time yet till they made it run smoother and got rid of all the bugs

ive not played any of the older games by bohemia so i dont understand the game types.

ive been on a few games on the multiplayer and just left after an hour or 2 because all that was happening was i would spawn pick a gun and ammo, then no beable to create a vehicle or any other units and so have to walk 10 miles across the countryside to some points i was being told to capture just to be sniped from some unseen enemy with a shotgun 5 miles away. then just be forced to do it all again because nothing changed at all. all that changed was i got more money to spend on guns.

where are all the tanks? and the jets? and the helicopters?

the basic game types aren't explained in the manual or anywhere that i can find on the net. I'm resorting to internet forums just to get some information that should have been included in the manual.

anybody enlighten me on what this game is about?

[walker 0]

Hi Rimp

Read the What are the Game Modes? thread.

Tell us what the mission is called.

Tell us what server you were on.

Then some one can direct you.

Many missions include a briefing that explains what to do. This is available in the map screen Default [m] key.

Bets to join a clan they will often train you. Several new clans are starting up and some of the older clans are now open to new players.

Remember you have VOIP so you can ask people what to do, you can also ask by chat but that is not guaranteed to be seen. Many clans also run Team Speak servers.

From you description I think there was probably a helicopter shuttle running taking reinforcements to the battle. Or you may have been playing some form of CTI such as Warfare; in which case look at the briefing and maybe play it in SP first.

If you are a New Guy tag along with a veteran.

Kind Regards walker

[BoxiouS 10]

I think the game is pretty bug free considering the scope of it, though i agree that it's like chipping away at an iceberg with a plastic spoon when you first jump online (there's no instant gratification here) and i also agree that there's scant information regarding the game modes leading to a lot of the servers being full of people not knowing what to do. What we really need is some noob servers with people willing to help and answer questions. In the mean time however i can help you with a couple of your points.

You said you could buy equipment from the base where you spawned. If you look around there may be a light/heavy vehicles factory to get yourself some wheels and possibly a barracks to get some team mates who you can send into the fray (rather than taking all the bullets yourself). you say that you saw many people AFK. Are you sure they weren't just prone and busy on the map screen commanding their troops? I thought the exact same as you when i started on one of the servers last night. It was only my second game and my first in that game mode. i wondered what was going on and hit the deck thinking the enemy must be close if everyone's prone:D Shortly after i was gifted a couple of grand by the my Co and spent the best part of three hours in the game with out moving more than a few meters inbetween tents and garages to kit my guys out. It was very satisfying and like playing an RTS. I had much fun:cool:

Bear in mind that this is just one of many game modes and a lot of people new to the game will be in the same boat as you so the only thing i can suggest is to find a server where you can get some help that has a game mode you like and get stuck in. It's really the best way to learn. I read a post on here that someone was going to do an introduction to Arma 2 on their server. it's a brilliant idea and if there's another one then i'll defo pop in for some schooling:D

[diveplane 0]

[quote=Rimp shotgun 5 miles away....

one hell of a shotgun dude ..:eek:

[shanye3ast 10]

okay im new to arma but it looks SWEET. what i wanna know is..

you guys are talkin about your AI and so forth but are there any game types where its strictly pvp and your squads are all other human players fighting by your side?

i wanna work with my buddies to take over a building or to take out another squad of human players.

-shanyE

[Dwarden 1124]

modes are limited only by mission makers /scripters imagination and skill :) ...

[shanye3ast 10]

...? sooo

can you play with a squad of human players or are there AI on every map?

how many people to a server?

[whisper 0]

If you can do whatever you want ni editor, that means you can make maps without AIs ;)

Currently played, you'll find C&H maps which are PvP only, no AI

[jonneymendoza 10]

good thread