How do I get good at this game?

[Prodical 0]

I'll be honest, I played and sucked at ArmA...and I'm following suite in Armed Assualt 2. I'm not all that good, at all really. I can't read the map in correlation to the random numbers displayed in the chat, I know how to use the compass, and the watch tells the time...aside from that I really am useless at this game. I played a round last night and was given an order to move to a tree, in the middle of the forest, I was lucky to find the squad leader...figure the tree was a needle in a haystack type of thing.

Is there anything showing me where the move order is exactly? There is in training but it either disappears way to quickly or doesn't exist in a coop game. I'm reading the guide written by Dslyecxi but I'm having trouble following it. Any 'tricks of the trade' that could help me out? Or am I just going to have to jump into a game and run around a lot until I get the hang of it?

[mr_centipede 31]

start at lower difficulty first... your description of waypoint indicator missing probably because you're playing at veteran... at veteran you dont have that guide..

after you get the hang of it, work up the diffculty level. hope that helps a little

[Necramonium 10]

Wait for a new patch...:cool:

[Prodical 0]

start at lower difficulty first... your description of waypoint indicator missing probably because you're playing at veteran... at veteran you dont have that guide..

after you get the hang of it, work up the diffculty level. hope that helps a little

I'm playing single player at Recruit level. Should I start out with the SP then move onto the MP portion of the game? I really do want to get better at this game as I'm tired of all the rehashed Battlefield series of games.

[frederf 0]

Trying to follow an AI leader around is asking for a headache. The game is hard enough when under sensible leadership, it's just torture under AI leadership. The command system was made for the AI to follow, not people.

If you could find 1-3 people online that you could "squad up" with for a mission or two and are patient and helpful, that should answer a lot of your questions.

[D_O_A 10]

Don't feel too bad mate, i started off in Operation Flashpoint, and i am still terrible at these games, pretty much only ever played singleplayer though.

[max power 21]

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=74994

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

Prodical,

the game is not very well documented. The manual is a joke and you have to spend a long time on the forums if you really want to know something.

Dsl's guide which you mentioned in your first post and which MaxPower seems to recommend as well, has been written for Dsl's group. He is kind enough to let others use it, but it is not aimed at the general public.

Reading and practising a lot in single player games will surely help you get better, but it is also time-consuming. I would not advise you to run around on public servers hoping to get the hang of it - unless you want to hone your respawning skills to perfection. For me it worked best to play online in a group of people. It's fun and you can learn quicker from experienced players.

[max power 21]

To be honest, I've never really read it as I seem to be pretty good at the game, and I was searching for a quick way to answer before I had to go out. It seems well recommended, though.

At any rate, I think the best way to get good at the game is to think ahead. If you ever find your self in a situation and think to yourself, 'how did this happen!?', there's likely a lack of planning that got you there. Every time you move, every position you take, every shot you take, every route you take would ideally be planned. I'm not saying you should try to be psychic and know the future, but you should make decisions based on what you know before you do anything. For instance, if you are going to go to some defilade position with a machine gun to cover your squad mates, where do you think the trouble is coming from? How safe are you there, and from what angles? Is there anything that will prevent you from getting there? Once you shoot, will you be hunted down like a dog? Do you have any place to go if you find you can no longer stay there? Once you get there, will you realize that the position is of no use to the advance or defence of your team, which will require you to inch around looking for angles, possibly blowing away all of your careful thinking and leave you with your bits flapping in the wind?

[rocksy 11]

Take it off 'Universal Soldier' mode and take it as sim as you can handle, it forces you to become more aware and use your Mk1 Eyeball to find targets and then ID them.

Cover is there to be used and Scan, Scan, Scan, Scan all the time.

[wamingo 1]

Any 'tricks of the trade' that could help me out? Or am I just going to have to jump into a game and run around a lot until I get the hang of it?

ahem, allow me to quote Dr. Henry Jones Jr.: "If you want to be an archaeologist, you got to get out of the library...!"

Edited July 7, 2009 by wamingo
I can't spell

[JonasRC 10]

Team up with some experienced guys and you will gain some skill..

And it's better to be safe than sorry, so dont rush into things, like entering a village with one visible opfor unit? nah. scan around.

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Best way to get good at it? Well, I got good at it through editing. Yep, if you understand the mechanics behind the game (especially how the AI thinks), playing it becomes so natural. That plus the fact that I've been playing and editing (as well as scripting & modding) since OFP days. I guess that makes me a veteran though, so to be honest the best advice I can give you is spend LOTS of time with it and really get to know it. That's really the best way to get good at anything, isn't it?

[Eclipse4349 0]

As far as navigating goes, from a zoomed out perspective, the map is broken up into a grid of 1000m x 1000m squares. You will notice across the top and bottom and down the sides of the map there are 2-digit reference numbers. Grid positions are always given as the top/bottom number, then the side number.

That is good for rough location, but, 1 sq km (1000m x 1000m) is an awful big area. So, if you zoom the map in, you will see that, at zoom level and in from there, the map will further divide into smaller, 100m x 100m squares, and the reference numbers on the edges of the map are now 3-digits instead of 2-digits. For instance, what used to be grid 50 will be broken down into grid 500-509.

So, if someone says, "I am at 891667", that would be the cross reference of "891" from the horizontal reference and "667" from the vertical reference.

As far as your own position on the map is concerned, you are the player with a red circle around him on the map. If the difficulty level has your own map position disabled from view, then you will have to use the GPS to give you a grid location, then reference it on the map. I'm not sure, but I think the hardest difficulty level takes away the GPS too and leaves you to finding your position using terrain features and landmarks. I play at Recruit level though, so I am not sure about that, haha.

Hope that helped. Feel free to add me on xfire. I have several guys that I play with, some of which are also new to it and completely blown away by it. In a good way; they are loving it. I am always willing to help when I am on. I got into Arma quite late, and it was a culture shock to me too. Don't get discouraged though. The more time you play it and the more comfortable you get with the at-first-clunky-but-very-detailed controls for your squad, the more you will love the game. All my other FPS games are collecting dust, at this point.

[Tiger.BiH 10]

You got to get in the game and start learning dont be affraid to make mistakes, use comon sense. Reading that dsx guide is a good start. I am new to the a2, but what helped me is playing lot of coop with people. So go a head and just jump in and start playing. Get with some people that like to play and you will be surprise how fast you learn.

[.Phoenix. 10]

- move slower than you are used to from other games

- always look for possible hard or soft cover nearby

- only fire shots at targets you can hit

- priorize your targets, always be on the lookout for vehicles who will easily find and kill you if you fire shots

- if you think you can't survive a certain situation either lay still in a covered place or retreat

- get used to the map, analyze an area you are heading for in terms of cover positions, angle of attack etc.

- always be prepared to change plans if necessary

[Scrub 0]

Good starter info here.

Only three things to add (started with only one):

1-Do what everyone is complaining about in Arma II Youtube videos - 'look around!'. It's flanking and unseen enemies that are most dangerous and lead to a quick death.

2- (been said, but not really this way) Advance slowly overall, but run from cover to cover, observing when you reach your next cover position. Running reduces your profile by time to observe, crawling physically reduces it. Do one or the other as much as you are comfortable. The slow advance makes it so you don't self envelop, that is, run into the enemy and get yourself surrounded as they would really appreciate.

cya online!

[bascule42 10]

All good advice.

Patience.

I find if I head to a waypoint head on. I die, go around their flanks. As mentioned, use the terrain to your advantage, personally, I like tree lines on high ground. I also try to avoid fighting in forests, its a pain. As is fighting in the open.

If I'm in charge of a squad, I tell them to hold fire, go stealth, and make them stop while I slowly advance and scout enemy the position, then using the map, position them, order them to target, then once in a good position and they have sighted the enemy, (they usually say), give the open fire order just before I fire my first shot. I also find keeping my medic to the rear holding fire and just using him for healing helps. But patience is the main thing.

Use the editor, again its been mentioned. Set your self up an easy situation. Low skilled enemy in the middle of a field for example. Even put some unarmed soldiers to shoot at so you can observe how they react to fire, and of course target practice. Then increase the challenge bit by bit.

Lastly, try out tactics or methods of your own while learning, you'll die and die some more, then you'll get killed, but you will get better

[Prodical 0]

Thanks for all of the advice! I think my main problem is moving too fast. Thanks Eclipse for explaining the grid locations too me, that was another confusing bit for me. I guess I'll head out onto the battlefield and test tactics and pace, probably die, then try again. Doesn't seem like a lot of people utilize the in-game voice utility, I have to fix my mic and I will probably be using it a bit. Cheers all for the advice!