Why are public games in ArmA II so terrible?

[galzohar 31]

In this case, though, you're kicking out those who don't want realism in the firstplace, or at least don't understand what allowing custom face/sound can do to realism. This is very different than the case of addons, in which the server is the one that is adding something to the game which may or may not be realistic, and the client is the one that needs to have the trust.

[Cain_ 10]

Lets start a ArmA 2 School then. Each player will have to take courses and then pass the final exam.

Weclome To

Hogfarts School of Tactic Gameplay and Scripting

Subjects and teachers

Minister of Hogfarts : vacant - The Big Boss, nuff said.

Art of Warfare : vacant - Teaches the students how to fire a rifle and spot enemies

Masters of Warfare: Cain - An advance course to learn the key elements of becoming the very best.

Basic Scripting: kju - Teaches the students basic of scripting and how to make a map

Study of Chernarus : vacant - Makes the Student learn most known cities and areas around Chernarus

Multiplayer Behaviour - vacant - Teaches how to act when interacting online with other players.

Mastering of vehicles: vacant - Student learns to drive basic vehicles.

Predators of the Sky: vacant - Student learns how to take off with a plane and engage targets.

Passing Grades

* O = Outstanding

* E = Exceeds Expectations

* A = Acceptable

Failing Grades

* P = Poor

* D = Dreadful

* T = Troll

We all have 2 hours each week. A term is 4 weeks. The stuff I wrote can be found in first year. 2nd year we will have stupp as, advanced armour. Sniper rifle training. SKill modding. You get the point.

The final and 3rd year we will let a 6 player pupil team play in a league vs other teams.

Now pick your subject and lets get going! I might have to take some classes myself!

[droogs 1]

Hi,

This is in response to posts #150 & #151.

I use a custom face which took me a fair bit of time to learn how to do (2 weeks learning how to use photoshop), as it is my actual face and is fully cam'd. The cam applied has been done with the correct RGB colour values for the 3 part Cam cream that is issued by the British Army. It has been applied as per the way I was taught and used for 17 years as a British soldier. This I feel helps enhance the realism not detract from it. And after all that effort, I would like to be able to use it when i go on a public server. With regard to how bad public servers are - yes they are but all it takes is for decent (and by this I mean team oriented, not high scoring) players to lead by example. If you are a regular on a server and help those who are n00bs or have questions on gameplay they will generlally look at how you actually play the game as well and follow suite.

[[kh]jman 49]

As a general rule I'd not have an issue with custom faces on our public server but unfortunately from an ArmA2 program/netcode point of view enabling customs just cripples the server when there are 20+ players connected. You cannot allow faces without allowing custom sounds as well and that just creates too much desync no matter how much speed or bandwidth the server has.

Public servers can be a good source of teamplay, regular players can and do use Teamspeak and other voice coms software, good admining always helps of course but even admins can make mistakes. We allow regular publics who ask us on to our private server too it's a good synergy between the two.

The public servers are nothing like as bad as they were when the game was first released and every rambo and hacker wanna be hit the server list!.

Edited January 29, 2010 by [KH]Jman

[eggbeast 3673]

just caught up with this thread. I've been working on Kiljoy's Evolution since early in Arma 1 and have now made it almost bug free in Arma 2 with a lot of helop from others. I've totally overhauledthe side-missions so you can teamplay those in small groups of 4-5 players. The cities take 4-5 people really to succeed too but obviously more people working on multiple functions/ weapon systems will help move throug hthe cities quickly. To be honest we often play all night doing side missions only - calling in the next mission almost randomly as each one is completed, then working out how to move to the new mission location andwhat resources to pick up on the way. However we do have a mobile Recon HQ that the officer can set down (as a humvee) but this is only really used to keep the team together and means if people want to do the city they can take the main MHQ (ambulance).

I know a lot of people hate respawning and teleporting, but we find with TS and VOIP comms, we can take a city or a string of side missions, with each player using a different feature (e.g. snipers carry ladders, medics, engineers, pilots carry fuel etc) and use the respawn to ENCOURAGE teamplay.

here's a recent pic - there were 6 of us on a hill sitting chatting and getting beer/ going to bathroom before a fresh attack on the city through woods - note we all have different weapons and classes.

It really is down to the players and the consensus of people on the server. I have to close our server most nights to keep off the noobs who come in to explore the base or the map, or who go ape when they cant get in a plane straight away so they start teamkilling etc.

we've been playingevo for 3 years now - fully teamwork based. a good example of this - if someone is in a plane or heli, the infantry will ask him to jit targets and otherwise he wont engage in random strafing.

this works really well.

the serious players of arma 2 - and there are clearly a lot in this thread - should be exchanging xfires so we can join each other for games - this will help unite teamworkers on a given server etc.

mine is eggbeast - add me.

we should all swap xfires - is there a post for this somewhere already?

Edited January 29, 2010 by eggbeast

[oxmox 73]

How can i change the options to NO custom player downloads as a client not server ?

[mosh 0]

Hi,

This is in response to posts #150 & #151.

I use a custom face which took me a fair bit of time to learn how to do (2 weeks learning how to use photoshop), as it is my actual face and is fully cam'd. The cam applied has been done with the correct RGB colour values for the 3 part Cam cream that is issued by the British Army. It has been applied as per the way I was taught and used for 17 years as a British soldier. This I feel helps enhance the realism not detract from it. And after all that effort, I would like to be able to use it when i go on a public server.

So?

I prefer servers with it turned off myself, and would always keep it off in any server I run, most people I know don't want to hear or see it.

As Jman said above, public servers have calmed down a lot since release and are usually a good time.

[Klicky22 10]

I think this has to do with the lack of in-game voice. Most BF2 Project Reality servers have in-game voice. Try the new North American Berzerk server named "Doosker.com Berzerk USA", it supports in-game voice. In my experience, the more talking = more fun.

[Taxman 10]

talking is great klicky until you get a german trying to tell a Dutchman, Englishman, Spaniard etc,, what to do in their native language or vice versa,, and then there is always that idiot that thinks its funny to shout everyone down or play music accross the voice,,,,, and then the one that gives abuse to somebody because of an unfortunate TK.... obviously this doesnt happen all the time but it does happen...... ....... If theres always an admin present then yes that can be controlled up to a point.... but thats not always the case..

[oxmox 73]

I remember the mod project reality, did play it some years ago. But at this time only a handfull servers did use this mod. There was one server really great in this beta times with awesome teamplay, i guess it was the main server of the dev team or the squad with dev members. But I dont play shooters anymore, maps are too small like a sandbox.

[osmo 0]

There are good servers out there. We have great disciplined teamwork action going on every weekend. Public server, no password, no addons. No one goes out ramboing, those get kicked / banned. Look for "tour" in the server list.

Edited February 7, 2010 by Osmo

[norsu 180]

In my opinion missions like Dominion are the plague when it comes to coop servers. Objectives are usually very vague (kill all in area X) and players have all possible hardware at their disposal. Teamwork is random because the mission design encourages the use of rush tactics (unlimited hardware.)

I certainly miss the OFP times when you had carefully designed missions with limited hardware and interesting mission objectives. I know there are few public servers out there that run classic coop missions but these are mostly active on certain days only :(.

[Slyder73 10]

Restrict equipment so that players only have what their class gives them.

Turn on ingame voice...I know many admins don't like it because it is harder to manage idiots, but without it teamwork and communication is discouraged. Many don't want to have another 3rd program running just to chat via a system that is nowhere near as versatile as the ingame. (Besides, some of us play with buddies who we are already on vent with).

Player vs. Player!!! Encourage teamwork, communication by allowing talk, restricting equipment, longer spawn times and make medic useful and get some good PvP going, leave it open, no password and admin it well and it will be the most popular (maybe ONLY) PvP server in Arma2

[Rak 0]

Oh, wrong topic. Mods can delete :o

Edited February 4, 2010 by Rak