Good things about ARMA 2

[jwalstab 10]

Hi Guys,

Have to say I am sick of negative bullshit all over these forums about an awesome game, this thread is saying a good thing you like about arma 2, followed by a short story of an awesome experience you had while playing it.

The rules are no negative snide remarks about 'game is big but could have been bigger', shit like that will just bring down the positive vibe of the thread. Yes I know some of you have problems with the game, even I (fanatic follow of ofp, arma and now arma 2) have some issues with some things *I* think could have been done better, but this isn't the place to whinge about them, go to a negative thread to do that, where you can cry and throw bitch fits all you like

I will start:

Good thing about Arma 2: To me it is the only game I can bring up the editor in game, and create a realistic military scenario in just minutes, each time playing it with different outcomes even from the same soldiers perspective..I can spend hours just putting two opposing groups with a guard waypoint and see how it plays out. I mean especially with the modules and mods I can literally create anything!

Awesome Arma 2 experience: Created a map the other day with basically all modules (animals, ambient war, sec ops, civs etc).

Anyways so I began the mission with a small group of soldiers (squad leader, team leader, medic, sniper, machine gunner, grenadier, smaw, scout) went to free a POW camp as it came it from the secops.

The secops mission was a good 2000m away thanks to some fine tuning of the module, so I call up the helicopter and transport the boys to the field, using my shortcut key to play winamp radio in the background (how I simulate vehicle radio..with real radio!).

So halfway across the damn chopper comes under fire from some kind of APC, we go crashing down into the forest and bang only 3 of us left...walk around trying to heal everyone, but most people are done for. Problem is that mech sqaud that shot us down was closing in, so I do the only thing I can, tell my remaining troops to hold fire and retreat back while I call in an arty strike right on our position. I go for a jog with my squad mates hoping the enemy will follow right onto the arty strike area...then it hits me, one of my troops is still wounded near the chopper ('Where are you!?' comes over the radio). I go running back and see him, pick him up and start carrying him, running back to where my troops are hiding. Then I hear it, the whirl of APC wheels as it hurtles towards us knocking down any trees in its way.

All of a sudden there is a huge bang and the trees next to me fall from an explosion from the mech squad chasing me. I keep carrying this guy full speed, and then the gunshots start..I think it is all over, especially when the guy on my back gets shot up, when I hear on the radio "Splash, OVER!".

All of a sudden these big arse explosions come down from behind, as I keep carrying him..just as I get further an explosion blows us both to the ground...I turn around and see the devastation of the arty, the mech sqaud destroyed, bodies everywhere, with one or two men crawling away from the buring husk that is all thats left of the APC...I call in my medic who heals us and we go up and plug the 2 remaining mech squad troops, then walk to the clearing in the woods where my other troops were hiding, and call in the chopper.

After waiting around for 2 minutes, I hear the chopper come in, and think that was quick. I get all the men ready and then realise the mistake I have made when '200 metres enemy chopper' goes over the radio. 3 seconds later we all are blown to bits..the few left crawling around in the rubble bleeding to death.

Man this game is awesome.:D

Edited October 22, 2009 by jwalstab

[RavoC 10]

Nice thread man, sure is nice to see some positivity about this game. I think it deserves much more positive attention.

What I love about ArmA2 is that it is what OFP was in the first place, a game no other could compare to. It's just that this game is worked on even more, on all sides. I also can't wait for Operation Arrowhead with all these new campaign, addons, maps, VBS2 things build in.. overall it's going to add a new dimension and I hope BIS really makes it a hell of a show!

My best ArmA2 experience, well that's pretty hard. I like the games mission editor very much, but because I quieted editing in OFP some years back I didn't really start making big things in it, though I played the boot camp, campaign etc. But I really wanted to play this game multiplayer as I never could do it on OFP. First thing I miss there is servers with small COOP missions, like small missions in the editor, though I don't dislike the ones that are up and running right now

Still with these large scale battles I had moments that really gave gaming a new experience for me. Just bump in some guy and together take over some town and afterwards we are chatting a bit and waiting on our transport. I can enjoy it all. From doing nothing and the fact I can keep my weapon down and on safe mode just gives me a relaxation moment, while I'm sitting in the grass watching the graphical beauty around me!:D

What I liked best where intense battles online, both in aircraft's/choppers, infantry and land vehicles. Just trying to get away from anti air guns while going top speed in your jet, and get blown in your head by one bullet and see yourself crash down in first person, so intense. Or shoot helicopters down, fight with a whole squad to take on objectives while fighting along the woods where everybody is crawling so no sniper bullet will catch their head.

All I can say, this game is heaven, I just hope for BIS and our loyal community things work out better for and in this game for everybody.

Much love,

RavoC.

[maddogx 13]

Wow, I thought my own experiences with those modules were epic, but that story really takes the cake. Awesome! :D

[doogerie 10]

it's the onley game where you cah here about a sniper and then 5 seconds later be on the gronde scream for a medic 5 secods later i just cant get in to visual range of that guy

[EDcase 87]

Too many great moments. Its a great feeling to know that you are playing in a small area of a huge map. Its feels like a real place.

Just an awesome game with great community extras ;)

[LRK89 10]

Sounds excellent but how do you use modules?

I tried making a warefare game in the editor on the Chenuras(something like that) map but it dont work. i place the contruction module and the HQ module or something and then add some troops and sequenized them to the modules fired it up and nothing.. i can enter contruction mode but i cant build anything as i have no money.

so i tried again this time i placed a warefare module and fired it up... loading.... loads then it says reciving 5 mins later its still saying reciving. whats up with that?

is there a guide on how to use modules?

[Herbal Influence 10]

Yeah, I often feel like the threadopener ... people seem often seem to simply bash around often enough completely misunderstanding BI games at all.

But there are also again and again people who simply want to express their fascination and thankfulness and it's us to keep those threads alife.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=84477

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=87653

Also nice to read:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=87487

To me BI games are an endless, positive philosophy and a piece of art.

(But I must admit I never had any serious technical problems with it, though I use quite midrange hardware - see spoiler).

[Master gamawa 0]

I'll tell you what. I 've been playing games for a long time. I started with a Spectrum back in the 80s, moved on to an Amstrad 464, then to the Amiga etc...

I have played a lot of games. A LOT and I have mostly good memories of them.

Well not memories. Impressions. Feelings.

Arma is one of the few games that give me full memories with storylines because they are all happening without planning. I remember where I was, how I ended up there, the time of the day and the particular circumstances that led to the events. You'll never hear me say "I remember that great instance in Call of Duty where I blah blah". COD is about shooting enemy dudes. It happens all the time.

You have a good time and then you forget everything about it.

Arma is full of special and unique instances.

A few nights ago I run out of ammo while on a jet plane and I had to destroy the remaining vehicles of a damn convoy before it reached the enemy camp. There were two vehicles going up the road so I turned my nose down and send the plane as a bomb to the one that was further away. When I was pretty positive that my plane was in the right angle I parachuted out and landed in front of the other vehicle like a vengeful angel that came from heaven to kick ass. I stood in the middle of the road and slowly I aimed at the driver... For some reason he just froze there with his hands on the wheel, KNOWING that this wasn't his lucky day.

You cannot plan that. You can't even script it! It's fukken great!!!!

[jtec 0]

I'll tell you what. I 've been playing games for a long time. I started with a Spectrum back in the 80s, moved on to an Amstrad 464, then to the Amiga etc...

I have played a lot of games. A LOT and I have mostly good memories of them.

Well not memories. Impressions. Feelings.

Arma is one of the few games that give me full memories with storylines because they are all happening without planning. I remember where I was, how I ended up there, the time of the day and the particular circumstances that led to the events. You'll never hear me say "I remember that great instance in Call of Duty where I blah blah". COD is about shooting enemy dudes. It happens all the time.

You have a good time and then you forget everything about it.

Arma is full of special and unique instances.

A few nights ago I run out of ammo while on a jet plane and I had to destroy the remaining vehicles of a damn convoy before it reached the enemy camp. There were two vehicles going up the road so I turned my nose down and send the plane as a bomb to the one that was further away. When I was pretty positive that my plane was in the right angle I parachuted out and landed in front of the other vehicle like a vengeful angel that came from heaven to kick ass. I stood in the middle of the road and slowly I aimed at the driver... For some reason he just froze there with his hands on the wheel, KNOWING that this wasn't his lucky day.

You cannot plan that. You can't even script it! It's fukken great!!!!

Snap! the spectrum days :D I too have always enjoyed BIS games although i sorter lost a lil love when Arma was released, but number 2 bought that back!:D No other game out there on the market has ever come close to providing a game where the AI can drive the story! I always have to whack it on when my friends are around just to show em the scale, and endless possabilities! Its a true gem! :)

[cjph 0]

My favourite moment was actually from Arma1 last year - playing Evo with two others. We came under fire from a hill south of the airport NW of Paraiso (the one with the small building on), and as we were trying out the Mando (I think) bomb script on the server we called in a pair of Harriers to bomb the hill. It was early in the morning and a very colourful dawn sky, and the two planes circled the airport once before commencing their bomb run. Watching the two black birds swoop in over the airport and up to the hill, followed by the huge explosions as the attackers were totalled - simply breathtaking. We just stood in the airport and said "wow".

Would have made an awesome video.

I would say the good thing about Arma (1/2) in my view is that it is the gaming equivalent of Lego. BIS and all those who develop the various addons give you the building blocks, but it is our imagination which makes the game. You could simulate or build BF, COD or OFP DR games using Arma, but not the other way round.

cjph

Edited October 22, 2009 by cjph
I forgot the best thing about Arma

[Alex72 1]

Same story here with Pong, Atari 2600, Vic20, C64, Amiga ...PC. :)

Going through it all since the birth of videogames ARMA is the one that has the most of todays games for me. It lasts even longer than my MMORPG attempts wich in theory with their storys and quests and PvP and and and - should hold longer, but ARMA takes the price everytime. No other game has this much freedom in doing what you want. Great community, super-editor, awesome-addons, new cool missions and tweaks of all sorts. This equals depth. Depth that no other game has in the same scale. Not in such an awesome way. And i love hearing the upcoming projects from BIS - i hope it never stops! :butbut: :)

Anyhow, yeah it rocks alright. To me it beats anything trying to step up to it. If not by instant KO - then TKO after some rounds. :bounce3:

Alex

[Herbal Influence 10]

We were often lan-gaming at night in a big, very dark internetcafe on some smoky roof of a higher building downtown.

Cheap, dirty, romantic ... in a way.

We were always ssooo frustrated for it closed at midnight without any pardon.

But this had a nice side-effect.

We went into a nearby pub for a beer (or two) and (had to!) discuss(ed) what we have done the last hours: long exciting battles!

We told ourselves stories and those very scenarios that happened during our fight all over Everon or Nogova.

"How did you know we were in that house?"

"Did you see me managing to get into your mhq and drive it into the sea?"

"First we thought you were based north and were just tricking us by retaking our southern times ... " etc. etc.

All thinking about how to avoid mistakes next time and improve abilities ... or even creating new missions.

It was like having been "on stage" like a rockband and we were needing the discussion to calm down on it. And indeed .... gaming was so exciting, you were trembling most of the time ...

This never happened with any other game, but this great openess of BI games made that possible. We really felt like having had an adventure, "had survived" and had to tell each other.

Shit this internet cafe closed ... we were the only four, five guests at night .. so we do game now deep in our velvet seats, more comfortable, but I do miss these times.

The big discussion after the adventure ... was a surplus.

And it did only make sense for BI games are that open, missions are that complex, vast and can last for hours, steadily getting more exciting (getting closer to enemy base ... crouching in).

I often compare it to a thriller on TV that builds up excitement more and more to the end - but you act in it.

Sure, the beer was important too - we were so outrun of energy ... ;-))

Edited October 22, 2009 by Herbal Influence

[jwalstab 10]

Sounds excellent but how do you use modules?

I tried making a warefare game in the editor on the Chenuras(something like that) map but it dont work. i place the contruction module and the HQ module or something and then add some troops and sequenized them to the modules fired it up and nothing.. i can enter contruction mode but i cant build anything as i have no money.

so i tried again this time i placed a warefare module and fired it up... loading.... loads then it says reciving 5 mins later its still saying reciving. whats up with that?

is there a guide on how to use modules?

If you chuck me your email or a place to upload it I will give you a mission which randomly puts a squad in with all modules active, as well as some basic radio tunes and ability to use all support options like arty and chopper

[jw custom 56]

Sure, the beer was important too

You damn skippy :D

[*NOB*Perica 10]

Nice thread man, sure is nice to see some positivity about this game. I think it deserves much more positive attention.

+1

Arma2 rocks and so will the OA!

[De_little_Bubi 1]

We went into a nearby pub for a beer (or two) and (had to!) discuss(ed) what we have done the last hours: long exciting battles!

Dam it. I envy you for it :/

Everytime i quit from a realy intensive game i need to talk about it just like i was on an adventure.

But my friends don't play Arma2 and so i have to stop myself cause i would become the ultimate gamefreak^^ (although some are addicted to wow -.-')

the greatest moments are when you find 2-3 people on a server and play with theme very long through a lot of objectives. i remember a round evolution where we sit nearly 2 hours in one m1a1 without dying and captured a lot of towns. finaly we died in a big tank battle and we decided to quit^^

there where a lot of cool moments like protecting the rush of the own infantry from a hill, advancing with the infantery through the town, get injured by an enemy helicopter attack while driving in a convoy to the next town (one supply truck and an other m1a1 got destroyed :( ) and so on.

ah i could talk whole books of stories...

Btw arma2 tooks me to CTF again. There are some realy great maps with close urban fights and fast action. great for a 10 minute pause from work :)

[froggyluv 2130]

Kinda OT but this thread just reminded me of a bout I had in Arma1 playing Evo with one other guy I didn't know. He took the mission VERY seriously, such as spending 10-15 minutes running different kinds of errands at re-supply sites on strange parts of the map. At first i thought I would just humour this guy's seriousness but then it got contagious and tackling each objective became very meticulous and eventually very fun. He was very paranoid about being ambushed at all times with a "shhhh, did you hear that? Didi you see something over there? What shot that helo down?!?!" -all the while we were miles from actual combat zones.

I'm really glad there were no knives in Arma as more than a few times I felt like I was playing with a serial killer and i was getting a bit nervous.

[mrcash2009 0]

The good things are simple really. Where else can you either be totally stupid or have the luxury to decide to be deadly serious about a mission and play with some sense of realism in mind?

No other give that choice, some come close but no way as much as this sim.

Things I like are the modding aspect. Running for cover in small towns with a skirmish and using VOP running and walking/ground effects just pulls me in.

As much as you have the large battle scope I always tend to scale to 8 men or less and use the infamous patrol script and the modules as a template mission that I copy to all islands. So I can call any secop of my choice via menu, or/and patrol large areas knowing enemy patrols could be anywhere (patrol script rules) oh a and few random spawn enemy snipers over the island. Also not forgetting the building patrol script too. And let us not forget the Hybrid high command system ... a community created overlay that creates something that should be hard coded to A2, I dont leave a mission without it!

To do this with A1 you needed much more scripting and COC/CEX etc ... now I can stay withing the game and alt-tab far less than I used too :)

In no other place can I do this, have that freedom of choice and have something that can be tailored to your choosing.

Just think of the many variations of arma1/2 are out there, with different maps/vehicles/units .. missions, it might have the Arma label but you can take it where you like.

Ive said it before but there isn't anything with its guts out on the table like Arma.

Edited October 22, 2009 by mrcash2009

[lee_h._oswald 0]

Best thing about this game is the modding community.

So many high quality addons that bring new content to this game(engine) and all the community made fixes to make this game running better.

MfG Lee

[kklownboy 43]

Best thing about this game is the modding community.

So many high quality addons that bring new content to this game(engine) and all the community made fixes to make this game running better.

MfG Lee

And here i thought the best thing was W0lle!:confused:

[TomBabmo 10]

Isn't it annoying when you like game like Arma2 a lot, but can't get your best friend to like it?-) Now I know how jehova's witnesses must feel like...

[Herbal Influence 10]

Isn't it annoying when you like game like Arma2 a lot, but can't get your best friend to like it?-) Now I know how jehova's witnesses must feel like...

LOL ... nice comparison .... yeah, I know what you mean.

It's hardware demanding - I think that's the reason ... ``?

[TomBabmo 10]

Well yes, of course arma2 COULD run a bit better and it seems amazingly heavy compared to graphics. For example compare arma2 with lowest settings to Far Cry with high settings, THEN compare the fps... Weird difference, eh?

This was the major turn-off for my friend also, he didn't like the gfx when he had to turn everything down in order to get somwhat playable fps. But I don't care, even with lowest settings there is this FEELING... I'm in WAR! Ability to see my own body and shadow alone adds something other games don't have.

[Herbal Influence 10]

Well yes, of course arma2 COULD run a bit better and it seems amazingly heavy compared to graphics. For example compare arma2 with lowest settings to Far Cry with high settings, THEN compare the fps... Weird difference, eh?

This was the major turn-off for my friend also, he didn't like the gfx when he had to turn everything down in order to get somwhat playable fps. But I don't care, even with lowest settings there is this FEELING... I'm in WAR! Ability to see my own body and shadow alone adds something other games don't have.

Don't have Far Cry, but I believe that Arma2 is more hardware demanding for good reason (on that here).

And with a bit tweaking you can often change things for better.

My rig did cost in late 2006 about a 600 Euros. For Arma2 I bought a new cpu (60 Euro) and a new graphic card (100 Euro) and time for installing this was below 3 min each and ... (see spoiler) everything runs fine with a mix of normal, high and highest settings. And with AMD-socket AM2 I can even put in a quadcore with 4 x 3.4 GHz for a 153,76 Euro ... but I don't feel the need to. ;-)

[grub 10]

Hi all, finally a positive thread.

Having missed Armed Assault I'm coming straight form OpF, a game that managed to confine me to a room for 8yrs.

ArmA 2 is everything I had dreamed of while playing OpF and has every feature I had wished for and more. I'm getting the same feeling I got playing OpF, you know the one where you are constantly shitting yourself, and am just having so much fun.

There's nothing better than creeping in dense forest towards your objective, squatting near a tree to have a peek ahead and seeing the dirt next to your feet kick up followed by a faint gunshot.

Or camping on a hill scouting the area and planning you route while a dragonfly stops by to check you out. Truly amazing immersion and with headphones you can truly hear everything.

The game has come so far from 2001 that I get all fuzzy inside. Even listening to the different surfaces crunching under my feet, or watching the dust continue on its path after I've pulled over my vehicle makes me thank the forces that I found Bohemia Interactive.

The other day I was manoeuvring a squad through some forest. As we neared the objective I switched to column, danger and no fire so as I could have a little look around with my binoculars, assign some targets you know the drill. So I do just that and as I lowered my nocs a boar ran off about 3ft in front of me and I proceeded to, that's right, shit myself. I accidental squeezed of a round and compromised the mission.

I then said to myself "I love this game".

To all the haters out there; call me a fanboy, call me a tool. ArmA 2, small bugs included, is the best work from Bohemia to date and I am proud to be part of such a fantastic gaming community.

The only way to make this game any better (apart from the addons and mods) is to buy a projector that makes the visuals to scale and a huge home theatre.

Grub.