What the heck am I doing wrong?

[oxmox 73]

If you are comming from pure fps shooters, better dont try to be a heroe and apprach carefully. Thats the most important point first.

[thales100 10]

then went to Sick's SEAL campaign because I like smaller scale spec ops missions a lot more.

Cool campaign.

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

One thing that is important, dont shoot as soon as you see an enemy.

This............100000000 times this!

The amount of times I see new players light up the first target they come across with their DMR/SMAW is rediculous! Even in Domination missions where all hell will break loose you should still try to gain the tactical advantage before engaging.

Scout your enemy out first, pick your ground and look for flanking avenues. Half the battle is positioning.

[Mysteryman5150 10]

I am also new to the milsim genre, coming from COD. I am glad I found this post as there are many good links within the replies to check out. I agree that the community here is awsome. People treat you decent, even when you ask a dumb question because you are new to the game. I came over to Arma2 b/c I was tired of the not so realistic nature of COD. It has been a fun but very difficult adjustment, and I am far from being proficient enough to even consider being on a squad (I get killed ALOT:(). I will use some of the links in this post as well as the ideas from you all with more experience. Hopefully my game will improve:).

[jasonnoguchi 11]

The thing about ArmA2 is that, like in RL, you need training. In fact, the saying "More Sweat, Less Blood" applies here. You need to make use of the editor to set up simple scenarios for your daily training in order to gain proficiency in your area of weaknesses before going on missions. If you go straight into missions, you will simply experience the frustration of reloading your game ALOT. What I did was I made my own training map on UTES and then spend at least an hour a day practising sniping on my TAC-50, room clearing (placing one small target within a room and then practise rapid pie slicing hundreds of times a day) and squad leading (to gain insight into how the AI behaves and how you can command them most effectively). Without these practises, you will get your "practise" during missions by dying.. ALOT.. and that is no fun at all.

[JSj 12]

This blog post contains some very good advice:

http://defense-and-freedom.blogspot.com/2009/12/hw-to-get-killed-in-combat-against.html

Also some interresting videos about what not to do. Now, some of the things brought up have no relevance for Arma 2 (like using periscopes to observe over a wall without exposing yourself), but the basic principles are useful. Most importantly, stay away from open ground. That is the realm of combat vehicles, and extremely deadly for infantry. The chance of you detecting a hidden sniper or a guy peeking out behind a tree before you get shot is almost zero. Always use cover and concealment, and remember to create your own concealment using smoke if no natural cover exist and you need to cross open ground during a fire fight.

Also, as has been pointed out already, the AI will just get you and themselves killed unless you learn to command them properly. You need to know how to make them aware and move more carefully, how to make them lie down and things like that.

The talk about Raven Shield brings back some warm memories. One of my favourite games ever, and very much missed as there are no new CQB games to take it's place. I can't believe that they turned that excellent series into stupid arcade games...

Edited January 25, 2010 by Johan S

[mic1402 10]

i must say how i learnt to play in arma 1 was by messing around in the editor and playing lot's of evo multi missions. yes i died alot but if i could find a good sever i had lots of fun. and i slowly got better.

public co-op missions a good for improving your skills.

Edited January 26, 2010 by mic1402