ATTN NOOBIES! - New to ArmA II or OA - Here's the place for your questions

[Steakslim 1]

I like Chernarus, I just prefere other islands like Duala on occasion just for the lack of clutter (less stress on the hardware), and a new environment. A whole year of Chernarus can burn yah out. I have to admit how freaky it is to play in Chernarus being it's rural areas looks like the hills and forests I live around in West Virginia o.O

[Weinx 10]

Creating a mission with the editor, how do you change the time of day? Thank you.

Nvm ;>.>

boy this is embarrassing, its right in front of my face.

Edited April 5, 2010 by Weinx

[polecat.uk 11]

You left click on the time in the editor:rolleyes:

[Wire 0]

Heya all, I wanted to know how to get into the cache of face textures from Arma2 vanilla itself. Ive already un pbo "ca" "character" etc but havent found it yet. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

[Smurf 12]

After putting the .pbo file into a mod folder (ou in the Addons folder), go in Profiles at the Main Menu.

[Wire 0]

Huh? Oh no no im not looking for that. What I wanna do is take, for example Andrew G's face, that is found in the profiles section in main menu, and edit that so he has a beard or something, then re-pbo it as a seperate addon for my own use. Im looking to edit pre existing faces from Arma2

[bummer 10]

never saw an answer to this one:

Is there a way to give multiple waypoints or is the move command the only one?

would work nice to keep your guys safe , seems they need all the help you can give!

[EricM 0]

@bummer : Only with the high command module AFAIK.

[Smurf 12]

Huh? Oh no no im not looking for that. What I wanna do is take, for example Andrew G's face, that is found in the profiles section in main menu, and edit that so he has a beard or something, then re-pbo it as a seperate addon for my own use. Im looking to edit pre existing faces from Arma2

Oh... so:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showpost.php?p=1297834&postcount=52

I think you have to save as a .paa file after you edited it and put this file under MyDocuments\ArmA2\Yourprofile named as face.paa or something like that.

MOre details at: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=72219

[TovarishMimino 10]

Hi, I'm new to Arma 2, and I got questions!

Where is the Warfare mode? I would assume Civil Warfare, or Super Powers was it, but neither of those modes have features described in the manual such as UAV, Radar, Artillery, etc.

Forgive me if I'm an idiot but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Nick.

[Eagle7421 10]

How do I switch to a different member of the squad? I keep hearing people talk about switching to the AT guy to take out a tank. How do I do this?

[TovarishMimino 10]

How do I switch to a different member of the squad? I keep hearing people talk about switching to the AT guy to take out a tank. How do I do this?

Check your key bindings, the default are I think T, Y, and U keys. Try those.

[forteh 11]

Check your key bindings, the default are I think T, Y, and U keys. Try those.

Default is T, if youre currentl the team leader you can also select the unit with the appropriate F1,F2,F3 etc key and then selecting 'switch to unit' from the action menu on the left.

[node_runner 0]

How do I switch to a different member of the squad? I keep hearing people talk about switching to the AT guy to take out a tank. How do I do this?

One thing to add to the answers above: the mission designer must have set the unit to "Playable" in the editor in order for you to take control of that unit. If you are in the mission editor yourself, place a unit down. There will be a field where you can select how the unit is controlled. The options are:

-Player: You will control this unit when the mission starts

-Playable: You will be able to take control of the unit using one of the methods mentioned above.

-Non Playable: You will not be able to control the unit at all.

Depending on the mission, the designer may not allow you to take control of that unit.

[Sarastro 10]

Problem with Squad command that I can't find an explanantion for in any of the guides:

I'm in Badlands, I've 'buy units' recruited 6 extra blokes into my squad to give me 10. I then bought an APC as well, which added an arrow pointing to the right at the end of my squad command bar. The APC follows us around, and is presumably number 11 in my squad, but I don't know how command or access it. Is there any way to click / activate that arrow so I can see units 11+ in my squad?

[Smurf 12]

If a recall, you have to press F12 or F11 to "roll" the squadmember selection menu. Then select it with F1 or F2.

[sparks50 0]

Eagle: T, Y or U keys probably

[User Name 10]

I teamkilled by mistake. A thing i try to prevent under all circumstances. I checked my target for about 4 seconds,

no name showed up and the behavior of my team mate made me think he was "AI".

I prefer to play at higher realism settings.

The questions i have:

1. What is your way to distinguish friend from foe as long as you are unspotted and not shot at?

2. And in the heat of battle? Because hesitation costed my virtual life more than once.

[walker 0]

Problem with Squad command that I can't find an explanantion for in any of the guides:

I'm in Badlands, I've 'buy units' recruited 6 extra blokes into my squad to give me 10. I then bought an APC as well, which added an arrow pointing to the right at the end of my squad command bar. The APC follows us around, and is presumably number 11 in my squad, but I don't know how command or access it. Is there any way to click / activate that arrow so I can see units 11+ in my squad?

Hi Sarastro

There is a guide to Squad command in the BIS wiki.

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA_II_AI_Squad_Command

To access your AI squad above number 10,

1) To step UP through groups of ten AI press default key [F12]

2) The next ten (11 to 20) are now available as [F1],[F2],[F3]...[F10]

3) Dito (21 to 30)

4) To step DOWN through groups of ten AI press default key [F11]

I teamkilled by mistake. A thing i try to prevent under all circumstances. I checked my target for about 4 seconds,

no name showed up and the behavior of my team mate made me think he was "AI".

I prefer to play at higher realism settings.

The questions i have:

1. What is your way to distinguish friend from foe as long as you are unspotted and not shot at?

2. And in the heat of battle? Because hesitation costed my virtual life more than once.

In reply to User Name:

Unless you are certain it is enemy don't shoot!

Generally, if they are shooting at you, then you can shoot back.

The primary method of Target Acquisition and Identification is time.

Do not be in a position where the enemy can fire at you, that gives you time. Minimise your risks with distance and choice of ground. So stay off hill crests, forward slopes and out of open fields. Find Defilade. Plan your routes. Move tactically making use of cover and concealment and understand the difference between the two. When in contact move in bounds. In MP this applies doubly so and you need to communicate know where you are, where your friends are and their AI and where the enemy is. Use the Map a lot.

Target Acquisition and Identification is one of the key skills ArmA teaches, it does so by killing you a lot once you stop dieing so much you start to pick up on those target indicators of uniform, equipment, movement and fire; both audio and visual.

Learn the Basics.

The first lesson ArmA teaches is CRAWL! That is you starting point.

Begin here:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA_II_Hints_and_Tips

Kind Regards walker

Edited April 16, 2010 by walker

[User Name 10]

Thank you Walker!

I do crawl a lot and always move short distances from cover to cover checking with free look possible angles of incoming threat. But especially when there is no concept in the mp-game / server i play (everybody rushing towards the enemy, chat full of spam and swearwords) i loose controle very fast, get sloppy and let my guard down.

Today i started playing with the 3d person view. It is not very realistic and i hope i can soon overcome this need for extra vision. But for now i must say it helps a lot to figure what is happening around me.

InstaGoat answered to my problem in another thread and i might add here what he said, because i find it very helpful.

Original by InstaGoat:

To ID, what´s important to check is the shape of the helmet, shape of the weapon, and the colour of the camouflage. For example, Chedaki use this blue-grey russian splinter camo which is very easily seen, CDF troops use this off-green pattern with western style helmets, Marines Uniforms have a very fat green with coyote brown vests, Russian troops have a peculiar helmet shape and their camouflage is darker and more towards the blueish side, while marines green goes more towards brown.

Direction of movement, and position relative to yours is also important. If somebody is shuffling around in front of me in the bushes, and I know I have friendly positions behind me and no other Units were mentioned in the missions briefing, I´m more inclined to assume that it´s hostiles rather than friendlies. Friendly fire usually happens with me because of panic shots (Ai bursting around a corner in front of me, or running into my line of fire.)

[walker 0]

Hi User Name

You will find that if you play on a community server with a comms package (Team Speak, mumble etc.) rather than a public recruiting server, that players do communicate rather well in ArmA.

It is possible to get a public server blob to communicate over VOIP if it is turned on on the server, it just takes more effort and a degree of leading by example, at least that is my experience. You can then turn it into a tactical blob. Some of the larger communities put the effort in on their public recruiting server and have players acting as side commanders, some even go as far as having enough of their community there to run multiple fire teams but they tend to reserve much of their effort for community servers or planned community nights.

ArmA communities servers that I have played on tend to be very formal and insist on comms packages and good comms practice. You can get an idea of what you may experience on a good community server by reading these two BIS wiki pages:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Radio_Comms

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Contact_Reports

Of course the best is to experience it by joining a community.

Kind Regards walker

Edited April 17, 2010 by walker

[DrEvilNL 10]

Oke, question.

Is it possible to create a gamemode even without scripting skills?

i know the Wizard editor where you can add vehicle's.

Because i want to make a game mode exact like the gamemode where you have a squad of 6 man and need to take down the enemy base.

all i wanted more in this gamemode is,

- Base Building | So you can create a base and where your mates can buy new vehicles and gear

- More Enemy AI | So i can occupy more Villages with enemy soldier's and maybe even more APC/Helicopter AI

[walker 0]

Hi DrEvilNL

IMHO your question is above what one would expect for people new to ArmA which is what this thread is for, that said: theoretically most of what you describe requires Scripts but BIS has started to include some good visual editor placed script modules that could reduce the amount of techy-do.

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Category:ArmA_2:_Editor_Modules

Basic missions are easy to build in the editor. There are even wizards for very basic game forms such as capture and hold CTF DM etc. but unfortunately BIS decided not to make them editable.

In truth you need to learn to script to build anything like a new game mode. There is a specific area of the forum for mission editing here:http://forums.bistudio.com/forumdisplay.php?f=93

I would suggest asking for help in that section.

There is also a BIS wiki where you can find out a lot more:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Main_Page

As well as fan pages and sites like these:

http://www.armedassault.info/

http://www.armaholic.com/

Which have several community created tools to download as well as example missions.

The other major resource is the OFP Editing Center (OFPEC)

http://www.ofpec.com/

Kind Regards walker

Edited April 18, 2010 by walker

[DrEvilNL 10]

Thank you very much Walker.

Just the information i wanted!

[bummer 10]

hey all , my guys crossed some water and dropped all there weapons and eq. i can retrieve it and drop it but how do i get them to rearm themselves?