So what’s the big deal about MP? Wonder how many simply play SP?

[no use for a name 0]

Most of the people are saying the same things, and it's been the same for as long as I can remember playing ofp.

People want to get something going and play organized instead of running around looking for what to do. I remember being a part of razor squad (the people who developed ECS), and they had a massive selection of single objective, user created coop missions. They edited the mission names to have the mission list naming convention perfect. If I had a server and time, I would try to make something that was similar to that. Also, the goal wasn't to try and appease the larger community with missions like domination and evolution - the goal was to find people who just wanted to have simple, cooperative, organized games.

Tactical Gamer is the only arma 2 server that i've seen so far that is close to what i'm trying to describe.

SimHQ also has a similar aspect on the gameplay...keep it organized but still fun

[Greg 0]

Remember a popular game called Unreal Tournament? Designed for multiplayer, with single player bots and training. Epic reported that more than 50% of their customers never played online. Recent reference: http://www.firingsquad.com/matrix/blog.asp/54208/768/A_Truely__Epic__Game:_Unreal_Tournament_3_Review

What would this game be different? Particularly with classic OFP legacy.

I loved OFP but played online only around 10 times.

Edited September 18, 2009 by Greg

[icebreakr 3156]

Well, as I said. I own OFP (all versions, GOTY, addons), ArmA (Czech) and A2 (German & UK) but only game I've played SP is OFP, but for only like 10% of the time. All of the rest is MP in my squad with a locked server so we don't get game smashed by some random n00b. Of course we love to train new n00bs and some of them are now even leaders ;)

Nothing comes close to team squadnights, for example we've completed a 2,5 hour misson Steel Shark yesterday, everyone feeling damn good at the end :)

[thaFunkster 0]

BeerHunter, My thoughts exactly.

After a little playing around in SP, within the last week or so I have had a few goes at multi-player.

I was expecting ALOT - this game has absolutely great Mutliplayer potential. However all I found was a disorganised rabble who werent interested in cooperation.

Not to mention how long and jumpy it is trying to get connected to a server.

Its a shame ur in Canada, because I have been thinking exactly the same thing, I would love to get a squad together who are interested in co-coperating and working together.

Frankly, I think playing other human teams would be best rather than all this co-op.

---

EDIT: Greg, I too loved OFP but never played online. Was too intimidated, and connection was no good.

[S-M 10]

Upon installing the game, i hammered it in SP mode until i was up to the Manhattan mission, then i gave the MP a try.

To be honest i have never went back to the SP campaign, although i did spend a few hours last night messing (and failing) with the editor.

[Inkompetent 0]

@ BeerHunter

Actually TG is the only place I play at at the moment, despite being from Sweden and the servers don't usually get populated before midnight here.

I've tried playing at other places, but most of the time that means trying out Domination or Berzerk, which leaves me disconnecting after 10 minutes at most again since I get bored just getting into those missions.

I don't mind long briefings. I don't mind a two hour foot patrol without firing a single shot. Different kinds of missions are nice for different moods.

However I feel that something that could be done with 5 minutes of planning with humans and then however long the execution takes is much more fun than 5 minutes of planning and 30 minutes of micromanaging AI to get them to do something the humans would do autonomously.

Any kind of SP (or MP) where I have to control AI more than just set them on follow is dead to me, and even on follow that means most single-player missions are screwed up since they aren't designed for using the AI that poorly.

[desertjedi 3]

I know there will always be people that never venture online but I think that SP peeps are doing themselves a big disservice if they don't ever try to play MP with a few "non-douchebag" friends on a LAN or passworded server. The gameplay and fun can be fantastic - especially if you do it in an organized fashion. I spent quite a number of hours as a Medic in VietCong...didn't rack up that many kills supporting the squad but they were by far my best gaming days.

If you're new to MP, I wouldn't recommend going on a public server and it's not fair to judge MP based on the conduct of the fools who often frequent those servers - unless you like being TK'ed. :D

I think you can go to Youtube and see some of Shack Tactical's Arma MP sessions. Simply listening to the communication between remote squads gives you a taste of the incredible potential of Arma 1/2 in MP.

Obviously, some games shine more than others with online play and I think Arma 1 and 2 top that list.

Remember, we were all SP peeps at some point.

[Jaenus 10]

I really enjoyed TG except for the fact that they didn't have 3rd person enabled.

I don't know... having 3rd person to me is more realistic than not.

If you have 3rd person you're more aware of your surroundings, you can drive better, land a helicopter better, etc.

How many times have you been driving and you begin to go and your car VEERS off the road and you have to get it back only to VEER off on the other side of the road?

Don't forget we have (sp) per-if-ial vision, where we can see probably a good 180 degrees. Granted only about 90 of those are clear, but the other 45 on either side are still there and we are aware of movement and such. 1st person doesn't offer than high level of awareness.

The only time I think 1st person offers a BIT more of an advantage is if youre sitting on the other side of a building and you go 3rd person and youre able to sort of cam around and see a guy coming.

Ok I understand the need to eliminate that, however lets not totally forget the fact that if we were in such a situation, we could be so quiet we could HEAR them slowly creeping up on us. No, we wouldnt know they had MGs or RPGs, but you'd know someone's coming. The game doesnt get that detailed (for me anyways) - and I dont want to crank my sound up THAT HIGH so when my friends in vent speak its like BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Bottom line, 3rd person is really closer to reality than 1st because of the level of awareness that we, IRL, have, and that 1st person doesn't come close to.

I know some people will claim that the reason you dont have 3rd person is because its on Vet or Expert, and those don't allow 3rd (not sure why there isn't even the option to turn it on ...silly BIS) but if youre using "EXPERT" to make the AI harder you're a fool. You can EASILY edit your server settings to make the AI harder, you don't (SHOULDN'T) rely on the built in features to make your AI how you want it.

[Steakslim 1]

I really enjoyed TG except for the fact that they didn't have 3rd person enabled.

I don't know... having 3rd person to me is more realistic than not.

If you have 3rd person you're more aware of your surroundings, you can drive better, land a helicopter better, etc.

How many times have you been driving and you begin to go and your car VEERS off the road and you have to get it back only to VEER off on the other side of the road?

Don't forget we have (sp) per-if-ial vision, where we can see probably a good 180 degrees. Granted only about 90 of those are clear, but the other 45 on either side are still there and we are aware of movement and such. 1st person doesn't offer than high level of awareness.

The only time I think 1st person offers a BIT more of an advantage is if youre sitting on the other side of a building and you go 3rd person and youre able to sort of cam around and see a guy coming.

Ok I understand the need to eliminate that, however lets not totally forget the fact that if we were in such a situation, we could be so quiet we could HEAR them slowly creeping up on us. No, we wouldnt know they had MGs or RPGs, but you'd know someone's coming. The game doesnt get that detailed (for me anyways) - and I dont want to crank my sound up THAT HIGH so when my friends in vent speak its like BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Bottom line, 3rd person is really closer to reality than 1st because of the level of awareness that we, IRL, have, and that 1st person doesn't come close to.

I know some people will claim that the reason you dont have 3rd person is because its on Vet or Expert, and those don't allow 3rd (not sure why there isn't even the option to turn it on ...silly BIS) but if youre using "EXPERT" to make the AI harder you're a fool. You can EASILY edit your server settings to make the AI harder, you don't (SHOULDN'T) rely on the built in features to make your AI how you want it.

...In all honesty I do not agree one bit with what you just said about 3rd person. There's nothing with the pre-existing zoom functions, free look, and a decent headphone set that makes 1st person less realistic. Personally I believe using 3rd person is lazy.

[kozzy420 21]

i play online a bit, but I also play ALOT of singleplayer. Not just the campaign that came with the game but some of the amazing singleplayer Missions that people have made.

I personally enjoy both online and singleplayer alot :D

[grub 10]

Remember a popular game called Unreal Tournament? Designed for multiplayer, with single player bots and training. Epic reported that more than 50% of their customers never played online

Ha, so true.

I only hit online with buddy's who play like me and want the same out of the mission as I do...

[Arksa 10]

Only multiplayer for me ;)

BERZEEEERKKKK!

[galzohar 31]

Most of the clans seem to insist on at least some of that role-playing BS, such as "sit", "salute", "sir", way-too-official briefing, basic training (I've had my basic and advanced training and sniper school IRL as well as played this game more than a lot of people and I think that's more than enough), role specialization (meaning with them I play one role and that role only), ranks, narrow selection of missions (only ones that cater exactly to their "unit structure" and nothing else ever), and insisting to play with grass on even though the grass is completely messed up at the moment.

Those that don't are generally American (shacktac, simhq, TG), which is out of the question due to timezones and pings.

One of the main problems with multiplayer is that most people jump online without playing SP first! That means they have no clue how to aim, shoot (there are plenty of weapons that you really should try offline first), drive, navigate around, and not to mention fly or land. Then they try learning all those things online which leaves very little room in their already little brains to have any kind of teamwork or communication. I've actually had people ask me how to use a javelin and most people have no clue about ballistics and even if they do they won't print the correction tables from these forums even after a link to them was given. They will also never read a briefing and then wonder why they have no clue where they're going or what they're doing. Then they get bored (and with the missions many servers are running I'm not surprised) and start TKing or just shooting randomly, and if an admin isn't present then you might as well just leave the server (no hope for votekicking as even if it's enabled getting people to actually type it seems like Mission Impossible 5).

I hate playing against bots, but when you only have a couple friends in your area that actually play the game, there's not much choice other than playing COOP, and even that is pretty limited as not many people create small enough coops. Though I have to say that some of the bigger coops (10-15 players) are so easy that you can just play them with 3-5, with or without the help of bots/teamswitching. PvP with so few players is simply unplayable, and the PvP game modes that servers run are also not very playable IMO, and the only reason people play them is because it's the only option they have if they want PvP with more than 5 players.

[Rhammstein 10]

There must be thousands (??) of ArmA2 owners who never go online but simply enjoy the game in SP mode. If their experiences are anything like mine, they don’t venture online very often.

So far I’ve tried 5 servers that ping <100 to me a few times and the odd time I’ve found anyone else on them all they wanted to do was take off somewhere, fly, drive, shoot or blow things up. They didn’t even respond to typed in text messages for the most part (just in case they didn’t have VON on).

Not a hope in hell of trying to organize any type of game there.

I know there are servers out there that offer post- pubescent game play but the ones I know about (ie TG) ping in the high 100’s to low 200’s and others are run by “tribes†(clans??) who promise mature game play .I really don’t have the time to be bothered with a clan nor do I wish to be subordinate and do silly things like “salute†or say “sir†to a virtual ranking officer who got his rank simply because he joined the group early and assigned it to himself.

And I REALLY don’t want to have to rely on TS , Ventro etc. for communications.

Don’t mind taking orders, learnt how to do that during my tenure, but when I saluted and said “yes SIR†it was to an officer I knew (or at least assumed :p) he/she had at least SOME tactical and strategy training.

So, I’m not overly enthralled with online MP. If I want to run around shooting things there are plenty of other FPS’s out there that offer a fast, shoot ‘em up atmosphere and can be loads of fun. Actually more fun than ArmA2 if you want to play that way.

SP on the other hand, especially with the new AI , the editor and some custom downloaded scenarios, is phenomenal for the most part. Sure the AI have their problems sometimes but my god, after my few online experiences, they aren’t anywhere near as bad (dumb) as a lot of human online players. They at least follow orders , you can set up a firing line ,converge your fire , call in support (there’s always an AI wiling to oblige for the most part) etc. etc.

Maybe later on this fall I’ll try MP somewhere online again. There MUST be a group of like minded individuals out there SOMEWHERE who want to play ArmA2 the way it was meant to be played, not how so many other FPS’s are played.

I obviously haven’t found them yet though.:confused:

For the time being though, nothing like an early morning romp through the woods with your virtual buddies looking for the bad guys (and hoping that random tank you created in the editor hasn’t appeared because you forgot to assign one of your squad members a HAT weapon). :eek:

Same thing here, half the players are for real, the other half wonder around and just....I dunno, don't do anything. They'll be on the server over an hour without one kill or death...that says a lot.

This is almost always a good half of all players. However, occasionally you'll find a server that's organized, but if you're not using voice chat, forget it, the game can get too fast at times, especially in firefights etc etc. Communication is everything, and almost nobody talks.... But I must still say there ARE good servers, you just gotta find them, and hope your nearby for a good ping.

Myself I figured I was good, I'm dead center of the hot spot of gaming in the U.S., with 20mb down and 5mb up, yet still many servers ping rather high, because WOW, I feel I'm the only American on so many servers lol. And I can't stick to American (specifically north-east united states) servers because they may not be any good. Thankfully my connection is strong enough my ping is never over 100, even on Euro servers, I can deal with that just fine.

---------- Post added at 09:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:51 PM ----------

Ha, so true.

I only hit online with buddy's who play like me and want the same out of the mission as I do...

(UNREAL TOURNAMENT) That is true and I knew the entire time I played it. That is THE game that got me into gaming, truly in to PC Gaming. I admit, my first 3-4 months was offline, I couldn't get broadband and I refused to put up with 56k nonsense playing online, I had to aim a good 10 feet in front of ppl to hit them, it just wasn't worth it. RTS/RPG etc etc were fine (Diablo 2 for example) 56k was okay. Once I got broadband, that was it, I built my first ridiculously expensive and powerful PC, and got into id games, hehe, QUAKE baby. I STILL play, quake live, right from my web browser, hope you all know about that btw. They polished up Quake 3 BIG time and you play FREE, persistent stats, the works, all ran out of your browser, it launches the game and they really did improve the looks, and its' great, it just sits at 333fps at all times lol...

Edited September 20, 2009 by Rhammstein

[LJF 0]

I don't really play SP much, conflicts with mods and all that, plus it's impossible to find a good pvp server. It's either coop or Chernarus Life, and coop is just like SP but slightly less cool ... as for CL ... I don't really get the attraction :\

[=jps=sgtrock 4]

(UNREAL TOURNAMENT) That is true and I knew the entire time I played it. That is THE game that got me into gaming, truly in to PC Gaming. I admit, my first 3-4 months was offline, I couldn't get broadband and I refused to put up with 56k nonsense playing online, I had to aim a good 10 feet in front of ppl to hit them, it just wasn't worth it...

56k? lol I would have killed for that kind of speed when I started. :)

When I started gaming online, I was playing Doom ][ over a 9600 dialup using iFrag. Now, that was PAINFUL! rofl

[MadCatChiken 10]

http://www.tacticalgamer.com/armed-assault/ They have passworded servers so the CoD noobs dont jump on,tactical/team work oriented missions and sunday events.There are 2 servers,One for Coop and 1 for TVT.To get the passwords you just need to login to the forums.TS is availible but since VON is fixed its not being used as much.All missions have a chain of command

Wont the "CoD noobs" just sign up to your forum and get the password? :p

I think Benny's warfare would be a nice game for you, the host name is XR....

In this gamemode anyone can do as they please, work as a team taking cities or work stealthily and independently trying to find and destroy the enemy base, this map is imo ARMA2 at its best as you can use any mode of transport, use any weapon and the limiting factor is money and supply points which mean the game is very even and balanced, i play online just to play this =)

I don't gain vary much satisfaction in playing in the editor/campaign and killing masses of AIs although it has to be said, the AI can sometimes be very hard to beat.

This. Benny's warfare is brilliant, great fun, and people do talk here, so you don't have to rely on TS.

[galzohar 31]

Wont the "CoD noobs" just sign up to your forum and get the password? :p

Since when do CoD noobs know how / have patience to do that? :)

The problem with servers that password themselves to avoid the nubs, is that when I see a password server I never know if it's just to stop the nubs or it really is a private game.

Edited September 22, 2009 by galzohar

[CarlGustaffa 4]

I used to play a lot of public online games during Arma1. Far from perfect, but nowhere near as lame as the current situation with Arma2. I still play online for private games with my friends, but we face the same problems as galzohar mentioned: We love Domination for its dynamical properties, but a lot of editing is needed to get it playable for the small unit that we are. Since we are mostly operating as infantry, we don't get to see too much armor.

We do love to roleplay, but only to the extent that we *try* to stick to whatever role we selected in the join screen. Any saluting is only done for fun. We don't take ourselves too serious, and I think our Armadillo clanlogo suggests that :D :D

But when I'm not playing with my friends, and because the public online game is still polluted by morons and speed players, I'll stick with singleplayer mode and campaign for a while still.

[Dark River 10]

The Arma 2 mission editor; all the way to having a great dynamic experience to Arma2, takes a little while to learn it but when you do you can come up with some really interesting scenarios and play them out and see what happens.

[sparks50 0]

The vast majority playing public Domination are essentially playing singleplayer, they just do it alongside each other.

[{SAS}Silentkiller 0]

I've hadly touched the single player side of things. We have our own server (you can find our server & TS details HERE) so we mainly play Domination with randomly generated towns to capture, but I've been playing a bit on the [CEAL] server which has Advance & Secure runing which is a PvP game, where you capture linked points on the map, they seem to get decent players on, but many people are unused to the capturing points part of things!