ARMA 2: CO (how to combine ARMA 2 into ARMA 2:OA and use together)

[Dwarden 1125]

wait for 1.57 OA and 1.01 PMC release later (tonight) on STEAM

[soturi 10]

just wanted to say thanks for the help, dwarden (i'm sch177uck on the steam forums).

since this thread has gotten so long, i posted up another question on that same steam forum thread (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1673497). if i got things right i'll post here too, to consolidate help for windows 7/32-bit folks.

[soturi 10]

ok... in order, this is everything i've done:

- downloaded and installed steam's A2. played it.

- downloaded and installed amazon's OA. played it.

- downloaded and ran _runA2CO_nonSteamOA.cmd; it auto-opened OA. closed OA, opened A2 in steam... still not A2:CO.

- found registry error (Arma 2 OA link in MAIN key pointed to "Arma 2" instead of "Arma 2 OA")

- fixed registry (MAIN links in Wow6432Node and in SOFTWARE all point to the right places)

- opened my amazon copy of OA; works.

- opened my steam copy of A2; works.

- re-ran _runA2CO_nonSteamOA.cmd in the appropriate folder. it didn't automatically open OA this time. fine.

- opened steam copy of A2; still just A2, not A2:CO.

argh.

i'm seeing a lot of people fixing this by using fourth-party "launcher" programs. i don't want to do that - i want steam to recognize that i have A2:CO.

thanks for the help.

[phertiker 10]

i'm seeing a lot of people fixing this by using fourth-party "launcher" programs. i don't want to do that - i want steam to recognize that i have A2:CO.

Why? If you use a "fourth-party" launcher it's dead easy to run (or not) mods, the beta, load world=empty for quick startup, disable intro vids, browse servers without having the game loaded, etc.

1.56 seemed to remove Steamworks so now you don't even need Steam running. This is a good thing, trust me.

Steam doesn't patch files and instead just replaces them, thus a 300MB retail patch becomes a 2.6GB download. I wonder, though, if the retail patches would work now that the game is decoupled from Steam.

[soturi 10]

1.56 seemed to remove Steamworks so now you don't even need Steam running. This is a good thing, trust me.

Interestingly enough, I realized as much today - I do, in fact, have A2:CO functional. The splash screen and logo still say AO, but I can run A2 campaigns from it. So, while steam won't recognize CO, the standalone .exe does.

for some reason, i thought this was supposed to make steam recognize CO. i would have preferred that, because then i wouldn't have to do this "integration" kabuki dance on every machine i may use. but... it works. so whatever

[Dwarden 1125]

there is no A2: CO to recognize ... never was ;)

A2: CO is mode where OA loads A2 content ... simple as that ;)

[Mastiff 10]

I still can not get my additional Expansion to work with this.

this is all that will show up.

ACE will not show up and its additional addons.

[Raptor228 10]

Sorry if this has been asked already but, I bought Arma 2:OA standalone disk version when it came out. Now I just recently installed Arma2 off Steam. Should they be combining automatically or do I have to do it manually?

[Intezar 10]

I'm so confused. I bought ArmA 2: Combined Operations, expecting that to give me one download where I could access both two games from one .exe file.

I bought this from Amazon. I've downloaded both games, (ArmA 2, and ArmA 2: OA) - how can we regular mortals combine these two to get the socalled and advertised "ArmA 2: Combined Operations" ? The advertisement on Amazon didn't say anything about me having to edit files or something like that.

Edit: I'm guessing I won't be able to join multiplayer games without Combined Operations because some servers use content from both games?

Edited December 29, 2010 by Intezar

[The Hebrew Hammer 10]

that would be correct good sir, welcome to the club, I downloaded from sprocket, and no one has had a viable solution for the problem yet

I've reinstalled in the following ways:

ArmA 2

ArmA 2 OA

1.56

Arma 2 went into program files/bohemia interactive/ArmA 2

I then as directed installed OA into the Arma2 folder above, originally I had:

/BHI/Arma 2

and

/BHI/Arma 2 OA, two separate folders within my BHI folder, neither has worked. I understand that both .exe's need to be in the same folder, that's fantastic, but what do I do with all of the other 10000 files that are needed to run the game? Because I can't have duplicates of every folder, and changing the names causes the game to not identify them.

note: I haven't gotten around to 1.57 yet, still on vacation right now

[77scout 10]

I bought this from Amazon. I've downloaded both games, (ArmA 2, and ArmA 2: OA) - how can we regular mortals combine these two to get the socalled and advertised "ArmA 2: Combined Operations" ?

I just bought Comined Operations from Amazon as well. I installed Arma2, then installed Operation Arrowhead into the Arma2 directory (C:program files\bohemia interactive\ARMA2). The two simply combined automatically. When I run using the OA desktop shortcut I have all the ARMA2 and OA content together in the game as it is supposed to be. Worked quite simply for me.

[zeep 3]

I'm trying to understand what to do. I have ARMA2 on Steam, and now purchased and ran once ARMA2:OA. How can i now run it combined?

Also, and not less important, how can i have OA use the same key/sound/video settings as i use in ARMA2? Please don't make me go through all those settings again..

[DaSquade 0]

Any idea how come sprocket installers still don't add the registery value MAIN and the installation path when you install arma2 (before or after OA)? Got a friend that got interested in ArmA and i convinced him (well he convinced himself) and he bought combined operation with all the DLC's and as expected he had issues combining. I had hoped BIS fixed it somehow for new gamers. Luckly i had gone through the troubles before and was able to guide him quickly but i can understand for new gamers it is a big pain and a point of frustration.

[AlienXXI 10]

How exactly do I get addons to work with the _runA2CO_nonSteamOA file? I can get the addons working when I don't launch from the _runA2CO_nonSteamOA, but I want to play with the Arma 2 expansion enabled and addons that require Arma 2.

[zeep 3]

I'm trying to understand what to do. I have ARMA2 on Steam, and now purchased and ran once ARMA2:OA. How can i now run it combined?

Also, and not less important, how can i have OA use the same key/sound/video settings as i use in ARMA2? Please don't make me go through all those settings again..

Please i need help. Do i need to do something else besides choosing "Run ARMA2: Combined Operations"? (In Steam games list -> rightclick menu of OA)

My arma2 launcher has also stopped working and now i don't know which commandline i should edit to add mods manually.

Also running the beta build part i don't understand.

[VietTri 10]

Hi guys.

How do I add the addons to the command line in that merge script?

Original line was:

:run

call "%_ARMA2OAPATH%\ARMA2OA.exe" "-mod=%_ARMA2PATH%;%_ARMA2OAPATH%\EXPANSION;ca" %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

ENDLOCAL

But this won't startup cba and ace files. It tries to load the extented even handlers. As you know it requires those named addons. So I changed that original command line to:

:run

call "%_ARMA2OAPATH%\ARMA2OA.exe" "-mod=%_ARMA2PATH%;%_ARMA2OAPATH%\EXPANSION;ca;@CBA;@ACE;@ACEX;@ACE_SM;BWMod" %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

ENDLOCAL

Isn't it much easier to modifiy the usual shorcut of the the game by adding the oa link? What would the call like be? mod=complete path to that .executable?

This won't work. :/

Thank you for suggetions.

Edited January 4, 2011 by VietTri

[pooroldspike 129]

I just had a crack at combining AA2 and OA and it seems to have worked, but I keep getting this weird message below so it seems I haven't been fully successful. Can anybody tell me how to get rid of the message or should i just ignore it?

[WaffleMakerMan 10]

I had to do a reg edit to get this to work, my versions the Sprocket combined operations download but it wasn't combining when installing Arma2OA. Had to change a line in my reg (windows 7 64)

YOU CAN DESTROY YOUR WINDOWS INSTALLATION EDITING YOUR REGERSTRY IF YOUR NOT COMFITABLE WITH THAT POSSIBILITY DON'T TRY THIS, I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE YOU DO!

ok open regedit and find your arma2 key (mine was [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA 2]) Export it to a .reg file

Open the .reg file and add this line with your arma 2 install directly in it (if different) something like this:

"MAIN"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Bohemia Interactive\\ArmA 2"

So Before:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA 2]
"KEY"=hex:xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx

and After:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bohemia Interactive Studio\ArmA 2]
"MAIN"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Bohemia Interactive\\ArmA 2"
"KEY"=hex:xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx,xx

Save it and double click on the file to add it to the registry

Install Arma2OA and it should select your arma 2 install directory automatically if its going to work,

Worked a treat for me, obviously if the install directory line is already in the arma 2 reg this isn't your problem :)

[Dwarden 1125]

or just run once ARMA 2 after started STEAM as administrator ...

which is part of FAQ and first post how-to too

[The Hebrew Hammer 10]

Interesting, I can no longer find my campaigns folder ever since combining my A2 and OA, I did a search of my entire computer for harvest red or campaign and all that turned up as one of the music files from my arma directory...

so how am I supposed to load user-made campaigns. I still have the defualt ones..

[birtuma 28]

Create directory "Campaigns" in the OA folder and put the campaign files (.pbo) there.

[CrazeDawg 10]

Hello all,

I'm a little bit confused about the combining games(using Steam Versions)

When I start OA I get the menu were I can do following things like Launch game... and in the end I see there is the Launch CO.

I used the following in the Launch Options -mod=@CBA;@mod2 etc etc.

I can see it in the expansion BUT I can't chek the boxes or unchek them pretty weird..

Ideas?

Thank you in advance

[The Hebrew Hammer 10]

Create directory "Campaigns" in the OA folder and put the campaign files (.pbo) there.

there is no OA folder, it's just a single Arma 2 folder because it's CO, there's already 4 campaigns, Harvest Red, the OA one, EW, and the PMC one. Yet I can't seem to find any of those campaigns in my directory, I've tried creating a folder in both my main directory and in my arma 2 documents one as well.

I will continue looking I guess

[birtuma 28]

You cannot find the "built in" campaigns, but if you need to add a new campaign just create the folder "Campaigns" in your CO directory...

And OA folder = CO folder ;)

[Maluson 10]

For non steam users:

Basically the only solution (the simplest but the longest;) ) is to uninstall your whole game (make a backup of all your settings if you really want to) and reinstall it properly. Properly means :

- Install Arma 2 first,

- Install Arma 2 OA IN THE ARMA 2 FOLDER, the game should ask you where you want to install it but by default it should automatically point to the Arma 2 folder. If it doesn't then make it do.

- Install Arma 2 BAF and PMC if necessary,

- Install last patch (i.e. 1.57)

With the first two steps, the game will automatically be Combined Ops.

Last advise, before installing OA (after installing Arma 2 then), check if the ArmA 2 registry contains the correct MAIN value.

For more details on this and in order to avoid that the game doesn't recognize Arma 2 go to : http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=112568

as posted by AlienXXI

Hope it helps.

Regards.