Things I find weird in ARMA2 MP

[alleycat 28]

So I bought ARMA2 and wanted to play some cool coop missions. However all I can see on the server browsers are:

1) CTI Warfare

2)co_60_whatever_dynamic

1) Why are only these CTIs played where you have to conquer the complete map? Most of the time you just compete with the other side in who kills most neutral AI. And after 2-4 hours, you meet eventually the other side (if the server did not crash before).

I mean that is like playing a racing game, and instead of racing against each other, you play against the "Ghosted" best time of the others.

The official BIS CTIs are sensible because they limit the combat to 4-6 towns. Which guerantees you actually fight the other team. And yo

2) About coops

Is no one playing these custom focused scripted coop missions anymore? I can not stand these "dynamic" large coops where everything is automated and you start on an airfield full of vehicles.

Are these real coop mission only played by clans now? (I saw some being played on password servers) and if so, how to get into these coop playing communities?

[snakedoctor34 10]

Try squad and fan fages section of forum to join a squad.Mostly preferred domaination,its well coded includes all map/towns and easily modified.But you are right most of squads their own misions,training maps,on modified maps.I think arma 2 is must be played with your own team/friends not in public for maksimum fun.

[alleycat 28]

Mostly preferred domaination,its well coded includes all map/towns and easily modified

I hate these "dynamic" maps with "unlimited replayability", because they throw away a focused story, objectives and finetuned placement of things for pure randomness.

[snakedoctor34 10]

Maybe you are right usually purpose is simulating military operation.Ä°n military operations mostly purpose is capturuing /holding are or destroying something.That radio towers or randomly gennrated enemy camps represents that.Use your imagination.

For multiplayer its hard to find a new /different a story line mission each day,or each week .they cant be played more than one two three times .So community discovered that dynamic miisons and i think its o.k.And dominiation carried this an high level with that randomly generated secondary small missions.

[cm. 10]

domination is the bane of arma 2. Unfortuantely it just won't go away. Have a look in the squad section of the forum and join a clan. 100x better than shitty public servers.

Seeing as you're in the states, I'd suggest something like Tactical Gamer. It's the only decent public server I have found.

[Binkowski 26]

I'm surprised you haven't seen co@40 Domi!A2 ACE. But yeah, it's hard to find a server that's running a nonpersistant coop. Most servers that do run them, are passworded.

[.kju 3245]

alleycat try AAS (advance and secure). Search in the forum for more info about the game mode.

[alleycat 28]

I am not really looking to join a clan, because I am not into clan rituals and weekly stuff. I am looking for a loose band of people I can meet for coops at times, (for example over Steam chat).

[SnR 1]

Tricky situation then, Public freindly missions will never change:rolleyes:

[hund 0]

Not that tricky really, lots of "clans" are actually just jolly social clubs where you drop in for a game. It more about social networking than keeping up appearances. Try Tactical Gamer for a good all-round coop experience, or Zeus Gaming Community if you're more into a bi-weekly thing (I had to toot my own horn there, but only a little).

As for public games not ever improving in quality, I think you're spot on, sadly. Arma/OFP is all about who you know - always has been.

[.kju 3245]

alleycat make a post in the recruiting forum.

There are several groups out there the share your interest.

[alleycat 28]

I do not think that playing public with random strangers is worse. The problem isthat there is never any hand-made coop going.

[hund 0]

Random strangers are just as good as clanners at getting the best out of the game, but with people you know and trust, the chances of making it all click are better by far.

I dislike clans with stringent demands as much as the next fella, but you really do need to get into the closed servers if you want to make the most of what this great game has to offer.

The thing that irritates me the most is that newcomers have no earthly chance of knowing this when they join our little community, so they assume that all there is to arma is mindless rambo action that, frankly, is far better done in other games.

Maybe we should get a "newcomers to arma" thread that explains how stuff works in arma, outside the actual game I mean: how to find the good servers, how to get your mods and addons sorted and so on.

Edited December 27, 2009 by Hund

[alleycat 28]

Anyone interested in joining loose coops (using steam chat to contact)? Like 6-10 man missions. If interested call me on PM.

[Reimann 10]

Thing is, people like myself will first experience clans as the people on your team that treat you like you're half a step down from Opfor. They're the pilots in missions where only certain classes can fly, leaving you stranded at base as they take off in the 'copter. They're the guys stepping on you when you're wounded, and running on past. And they're the guys abusing you when you take gunner in a vehicle because only one man is supposed to crew a tank. And generally treating anyone without the same clan tags as them as not-quite-human. And when you visit their sites, they're either locked out to non-members or you read things like 'nub pubbers can't play' and it's beyond me how anyone that isn't a sadistic dick or a complete masochist could find out what clans are worth joining. Maybe it's different in Europe - I see there is a huge audience for any game there - but I can only ping to Asia and America and only speak English...

[cm. 10]

In your case then, as I said, check out tactical gamer public servers. They are 95% coop & serious missions.

Highly recommend them. Oh, and they are NOT a clan.

[hund 0]

It is an unfortunate fact that some pube abuse does take place on some clan servers. While it is unfair to be sure, the reason why the clanners dislike the pubes so much is that they have been let down by immature pube players messing everything up in a mission time after time. While I do not condone this sort of behaviour, I do understand why it occurs.

That said, there are some "open" closed servers like Tactical Gamer (as previously mentioned) and Zeus (because who am I, if not a horn tooter), where the requirements for play are rather light (be mature and follow your orders).

Kellys Heroes and Suicide Squad used to be like this too, but these days all I see on there are stock pube missions like domination. (No disrespect intended to these two great groups, if this last assumption is unfounded).

[xeno 234]

Kellys Heroes and Suicide Squad used to be like this too, but these days all I see on there are stock pube missions like domination. (No disrespect intended to these two great groups, if this last assumption is unfounded).

The typical "bash Domination" thread.

Btw, Suicide Squad is Warfare only for weeks now and KH plays many other missions.

Btw2, most played mission now is Warfare.

Xeno

[eisa01 0]

I am not really looking to join a clan, because I am not into clan rituals and weekly stuff. I am looking for a loose band of people I can meet for coops at times, (for example over Steam chat).

You should try the Zeus server. I've never joined a clan while playing OFP/Arma, but I've enjoyed many coops on their server back in the OFP days. I just checked them out again yesterday, and it was just like the old days. All you need to do is to install an addon sync utility, and Teamspeak. It's well worth it ;)

[hund 0]

The typical "bash Domination" thread.

Btw, Suicide Squad is Warfare only for weeks now and KH plays many other missions.

Btw2, most played mission now is Warfare.

Xeno

I am sorry Xeno, no offense was meant to your work. The thing is that it is a very well made mission by all accounts, but playing it every single day for the rest of my gaming days is not on my agenda.

I was merely illustrating the concept of pube missions - missions that you can easily join and play, but which offers dubious amounts of teamwork as a tradeoff. Domination, Evolution and Warfare all fall into that category.

Again, I mean no disrespect to your work - it is just not for my kind. So while we do bash your missions for being the bane of arma multiplayer, we also respect the work that you put into those same missions.

Edited December 28, 2009 by Hund

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Dom is popular because it is random and dynamic. Oh, and very customizable for those who bother open up the mission parameter screen :) And even more so for those who de-pbo it and "changes the rules" somewhat.

Planned missions are also great, but unlike Dom, you've basically "figured it all out" once you've played them a few times. Dom is not good as "planning missions", as everything moves around all the time, and most public gamers have no patience for waiting anyway. Also, there are not many really good dynamic coop games out there.

As already stated, try Tactical Gamer, they run a few non Dom missions as well, and offer the planning and leading areas that Dom will never achieve on regular public servers. Hell, even playing Dom with them is spectacular fun compared to the reglar mayhem :)

[Pilcrow 10]

Dom also provides a persistent battlefield experience for players who enter after the planning phase. It gives them a chance to actually enter the battle, either thru airlift from one of the helicopter pilots, or by using the 'parachute to this point' option.

[Franklin 0]

Domination is a great map to run all day on a dedicated server for most admins, because it offers a way for everybody to have access to quick action at any time. When the admins can be around, and can organize the play better, Co-ops can be ran, but typically most pubbers disconnect just because the map is changing. Either because they simply want the free play domination offers, or they just arent patient enough to wait for an admin to switch the map, and then have to deal with all the organization it takes to prepare for a good co-op map. The main factor in all this is, TIME. Most public players arent on a schedule, they play when they want, and when they can. They dont want their precious gaming time taken away by somebody else. Therefore Domination provides them with the best option, weapon selection, freedom of maneuver, tactics of their choice, and typically if they so choose, access to a voice server for those more inclined to team play. All this without the dedication to a "clan."

I run Domi on my teams server, and most people that connect have a really good time. Ive edited the map to have more enemies, and i run Zeus AI, Group Link 4, and JTD fire and Smoke server side. This makes every firefight into a really hard fight, and a ton of fun... and you can have this anytime your available to play.

We plan on running co-op missions every friday, and if things work out well, we may expand to more nights per week. But the problem with that, is that we dont want random pubbers connecting, and then screwing up the mission for us. I personally wish i could leave the server unlocked, and everybody that joined would hop on ventrilo, or at least use in game text chat to see what the situation was, and link up with the team. but the fact is, more often than not, whomever connects doesnt want to talk to anybody, they just want to go blow stuff up. upon doing so, ruining my teams experience and our fun.

For now however, i do leave the server unlocked when we run co-ops, at the risk of ruining our fun, in the hopes that whoever does connect will be a team player, and if they arent... it isnt too hard to kick people. which is sad and i hate doing it, but my time is important to me as well, and i dont want somebody who isnt paying for my server to waste my time.

[hund 0]

The fact still stands that while these public missions are great for getting server numbers up, but they do very little to maintain any semblance of cohesion or team work, and as a consequence we get a fair amount of newcomers posting about how they expected more of arma, and how it is kinda shit online - and to some extent, they are right. We have the best game editor in the world, but for some reason people are petrified of even looking at it.

And to be fair, these mission are chaotic, and while they can be played in an organized, fun way, more often they are not. So I think it would be a jolly good idea to make that extra effort and run other, more tightly controlled missions, despite the fact that it takes more effort to manage it properly.

Now, I am of course talking solely from my own perspective here, and I do realize that some (many?) people actually want to play the public missions over and over, day after day, and more power to them. But there is a whole world of cool crap to explore in arma, so let us be bold and ambitious for once and venture beyond the safe confines of repetition!

Or maybe I am in the wrong here, and arma has turned to casual gaming. It just seems an odd platform for that sort of thing...

Edited December 30, 2009 by Hund

[Gunter Severloh 4067]

lots of "clans" are actually just jolly social clubs where you drop in for a game. It more about social networking than keeping up appearances.

Have to agree with you there Hund, I am a Leader of Historical WW2 Realism Unit and in the past we mostly have been focused on the PC game Red Orchestra Ostfront 41-45 and its mods, now we have been expanding into Arma and maybe one day Arma 2, but for the sake of discussian all the guys in the unit have an interest in WW2 be it big or not, they all just like being around when we get together for the sake of fun, and comradery, I and my buddy whom had cofounded with me have made many good friends who have been in the Unit since the start.

not about apperences as it is more for social and just simply having fun together, Ya we been around a long time in the Red Orchestra community but we do like to focus on teamplay and have a structural organised rank system but in general its all about comradery, and plain old fun, its a very good way to meet other peole and make good friends.

As for the mission that is being discussed, i never played it but we play coop, best way to play in my opinion, and no sense of going on public sever when you got your own for Arma at least.