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

[zadith 1]

I have the steam version of ARMA2 and ARMA2:CO (I also have PMC and BAF DLCs). I cannot run A2CO within Steam. I have tried many of the suggestions in this thread. I've run steam as admin. I've set both .exe files for arma2 and arma2: AO to run as admins. I tried the CO zip file in the original post and nothing works. I have verified the game cache for all of my ARMA2 games at least a dozen times. I also have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the games. I still cannot run CO and I have problems joining some servers because of this issue.

I also had an issue running AO. I received the pixel shader error when running AO. I found a solution to this issue by putting "-mod=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\Common\ArmA 2;EXPANSION;ca" in the launch options within Steam.

I don't think I am experienced enough to mess with registry files and honestly I am a bit disappointed that I would need to do something like that to get a game to work through steam...I am attempting to play just ARMA2. (I am interested in DayZ but I have not yet tried to install it or anything like that).

[Profoxtrot 1]

I tried everything you said still didn't work i have tried reinstalling the game 2 times now and both don't work. its the same problem every time i get the command prompt and then it goes away plz help i really want to play. I'm running on windows 7 64 bit.

[lordprimate 159]

Install oa into the Arma2 directory and then launch the game using the Arma2oa.exe

I have been haveing this problem since the 1.62 patch ...

so what your saying Gunter is take all the files and folders in my arma 2 operation arrowhead folder. and move them into the Arma 2 folder? IE, combine all the addons folders beta folders and /expantion folders?? into one..

[mach2infinity 12]

A question on RFT and the DLC. If you have the RFT retail DVD, I understand there's an option to install RFT or just the BAF and PMC DLC. Is RFT basically CO? If I buy the RFT DVD but I already have CO installed. Can I just install the DLC? Or do I have to uninstall everything then re-install CO along with the DLC and the patches?

[cuel 25]

I have been haveing this problem since the 1.62 patch ...

so what your saying Gunter is take all the files and folders in my arma 2 operation arrowhead folder. and move them into the Arma 2 folder? IE, combine all the addons folders beta folders and /expantion folders?? into one..

Copy the "addons" (I assume that you have not installed mods here) folder from your A2 steam folder into your OA steam folder and only launch OA.

[domokun 515]

My mate has A2 installed on Steam but OA from sprocket. Neither seem to recognise the existance of the other. What must he do to get CO?

[ArmaIInoobATM 1]

I don't think I understand...basically I just need to find the ArmA 2 file and put it into the OA folder?

If you buy the Anniversary Edition are OA and ArmA II automatically in one like Combined Operations?

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

Delete post.

Edited January 11, 2013 by JuggernautOfWar
Picture wasn't showing up.

[Candidate42 1]

Need help, the solution from the first post does not work for me. I can play Operation Arrowhead, but not CO. I really want to play a round ARMA 2:CO again, before the Alpha starts in a few days.

[Joe98 91]

There is no game named Combined Operations.

If ARMA2 and Operation Arrowhead are installed in the same folder them by default you now have Combined Operations.

You can prove it by opening the editor. If you have Combined Operations then the maps from Arma2 and Operation Arrowhead will lll be there

[meinefresse 10]

thanks a lot mate. it worked! all i could find were steam version tutorials.

still have to say that it is an outrageousness that u have to register first to download the files.

[Dwarden 1125]

this is not needed anymore ...

as long a you install and run ONCE A2 v1.11

then install and run ONCE A2: OA v 1.62

as result the A2: CO is supposed to work out of box CO = OA+A2

[Kommiekat 11]

I have DVD of CO.

How do I install DVD of Rienforcements?

Not sure which folder to choose.

I have now:

Bohemia Interactive------>ArmA 2 with arma2.exe and arma2OA.exe and Launch Arma2 OA Beta Patch.

In this ArmA2 folder, I have another folder----------->ArmA 2 REINFORCMENTS

Is this correct?

BI folder--->ArmA2 folder--->ArmA 2 REINFORCMENTS folder

When Playing the PMC and BAF campaigns, seems that OA is LITE version, yet I have all.

:confused:

[Spectre867 0]

my exact issue... has anyone found a fix for this???

I have the steam version of ARMA2 and ARMA2:CO (I also have PMC and BAF DLCs). I cannot run A2CO within Steam. I have tried many of the suggestions in this thread. I've run steam as admin. I've set both .exe files for arma2 and arma2: AO to run as admins. I tried the CO zip file in the original post and nothing works. I have verified the game cache for all of my ARMA2 games at least a dozen times. I also have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the games. I still cannot run CO and I have problems joining some servers because of this issue.

I recently purchased the Arma II "Complete Collection" on Steam (seems like it was probably my first mistake), which is supposed to include Arma 2, Operation Arrowhead, British Armed Forces, Private Military Contractors, and Army of the Czech Republic. After about a full day of downloading, 4 out of 5 games (except for Army of the Czech Repeblic) show up in my Steam Library, yet when I launch the BAF or PMC games it simply runs two instances of Operation Arrowhead (which the BAF & PMC campaigns/content show up in, but I have to exit the first instance of the game running with task manager as it simply won't let me click any buttons on the menus so I have gotten used to only running BAF/PMC from the OA link and ignoring them in my library - why they all aren't combined into one game called Arma II: Combined Operations or something like that is beyond me.... and the Army of the Czech Republic stuff which I supposedly paid for cannot be found anywhere!! (I guess that's something I have to take up with Steam?)

Using the file included in the first post I was able to get the Arma II campaigns and content to show up in my Operation Arrowhead game, but only when I launch the game directly from steam... the stuff goes away again when I try to use any sort of mods via a desktop shortcut (the only way to launch mods via modfolder to my understanding) - this is very odd because it still shows up when I run OA in vanilla mode out of steam, but obviously most mods for OA also use content from Arma 2 so I'm kind of stuck here.

I'm currently re-downloading Operation Arrowhead even though steam won't allow me to specify the directory its being installed into (only the disk) so it's probably going to go to the exact same location it was before and I'll be stuck with the same issues, so before I get to that point, can someone tell me if there's some secret to getting this game to work like a normal functioning game that people pay money for? (ie can I move the files from my Arma 2 OA directory directly into the Arma 2 directory manually, or will that mess up my game(s)?)

Is it possible to have ONE game of Arma II that has all the content included(what I thought I was getting in the first place) that can also be modded/launched via desktop shortcut or am I stuck in vanilla mode here with multiple different versions of the same game? :icon_sad:

Edited August 13, 2013 by Spectre867

[Dwarden 1125]

ACR is available as DLC content , under DLC tab of OA, BAF and PMC came too early to STEAM to be supported by theirs DLC system

ACR needs bth Arma2 an A2: OA downloaded, installed and started each once ..

also this whole thread is completely obsolete, these days the only thing you at max need to do is

1. ensure you don't have any custom commandline paramaters for OA in steam properties before DLC installers are ran once each (BAF, PMC, ACR)

2. start steam client via "run as administrator"

[Spectre867 0]

Thanks for your reply Dwarden. I've now finished re-downloading AO, which also prompted Steam to download large updates for BAF & PCR - I'm getting an error when I launch the game - "Arma 2 Army of the Czech Republic: MISSSING STRING !!!!"

Game starts okay otherwise but there is still no Arma 2 or ACR content in game (Islands, Scenarios and Campaigns all missing...) It says version 1.62.95248 in the bottom corner... I realize this is starting to get into a specific problem and a bit off topic but I might retry using the method in this thread as that's the only way I've been able to get the Arma 2 content to show up in AO, and try tinkering with the other from there (basically where I was before deciding to reinstall lol) but if you have any other help or advice it'd be appreciated!

Edited August 14, 2013 by Spectre867

[Erling 10]

So, I've bought ArmA II: Complete Collection at Steam.

I've downloaded all content - vanilla, AO, PMC, BAF and ACR.

When I run ArmA II: OA shortcut I can see insignias of all DLC in the bottom left corner.

When I start editor I can use many islands, including Chernorus and Takistan.

When I choose "campaigns" option I can play vanilla campaign as well as DLC campaigns.

I can see no inscriptions "Combined Operations".

In Steam there's no option to launch "Combined Operations".

My version is 1.62xxxxxx

Arma II and Arma II:OA have been installed into DIFFERENT directiories.

Does it all mean I already have Combined Operations? Or I have to do something else?

UPD: I've already launced that .cmd batch file, nothing has changed.

And I can't run users' missions which demand CO! They're not recognized by game. That's the problem.

Edited November 22, 2013 by Erling

[Mirek 166]

Did you run Arma II (not OA) at least once?

[Erling 10]

Yes, I did.

[manesh 1]

When you start OA and click on expansions you should see ARMA2 at the top of the list.

OA searches for itself in the registry for the Arma2 install folder and use the files.

-------

Question:

I checked all folders OA\common and OA\expansion\addons for file duplicates to A2\addons - then I deleted all files (beware some have the same name but different size) which were identical in the A2\addons folder and then copied the remaining files from A2\addons to OA\addons (you have to create that folder). After that the Arma2 folder could be deleted.

This saves ~1.3GB of files on the HDD.

Anyone experience with this technique? Can I remove more files from the original A2\addons folder? At the moment my A2+OA folder is 15.9GB but maybe I can remove more files because my OA\Addons folder (the one I copied over from A2\addons) is still 6.9GB in size with lots of duplicated files compared to OA\common (same name but a very slightly different file size).

[Joe98 91]

Arma2 and Operation Arrowhead need to be installed into the same directory

[Erling 10]

Oh yeah? How should I do that? I downloaded both games from Steam and suggested me to use "D:\Steam" folder, which leads to installing games into D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\Arma II and D:\Steam\SteamApps\common\Arma II OA.

So, is it wrong? How can I know if have CO or separate games?

As I said, I can use all islands and all campaigns, running OA. In list of expansions I have all 5 pieces: vanilla, OA, BAF, PMC, ACR.

I also now can launch user campaigns (I've learnt how to do that).

[frozen-monkey 10]

I'm having exactly the same problem as all the other steam posts here...The exact steps I'm doing are:

1) Install Arma 2 via steam, run the game once (when I run the game it also installs battleye and ACR)

2) Install Arma 2:OA via steam, run the game once

3) Install BAF via steam, run OA once

4) Install PMC via steam, run OA once

5) Install OA beta via steam, run OA beta once

At the end of it there is no options for CO, there is no indication anywhere when firing up OA or OA beta that I'm running CO. When I try to run mods such as AI Heli Control (yes, I've also installed @CBA) they don't work (as in nothing happens, no error messages but the mods just don't work).

I run Steam as administrator all the way through the install process, I've tried running the CMD files in the OA folder but the mods still don't work and I still get no indication anywhere that I'm running CO. I've tried copying the addons folder from Arma2 to the OA folder and, again, still nothing. I've spent 3 days trawling forums and trying all the "NTFS permissions" fixes, checking my registry, etc and I've re-installed the game 4 times (glad I have unlimited BB as that's about 60Gb's).

When I do install the mods, everything (Arma2, expansion, beta, DLC's, OA and the mods) appear in the expansion list and I get the list of mods on the right of my main screen and the CBA icon at the bottom with the DLC's but still, the mods don't work.

It leads me to believe the game isn't running as CO but there doesn't seem to be a way of checking for this (maybe implementing an icon on the main menu with "Combined Operations" would have been an idea?).

Has anyone managed to resolve this problem and can provide any help here please?

[sickboy 13]

You could try running CO through Play withSIX; http://withsix.com/

It should detect your games and set the correct startup parameters, as an added bonus you get awesome mod downloads and management as well ;-)

[frozen-monkey 10]

You could try running CO through Play withSIX; http://withsix.com/

It should detect your games and set the correct startup parameters, as an added bonus you get awesome mod downloads and management as well ;-)

Well what can I say, it's a little bit clunky and not overly intuitive for a new user but...it's now working.

Which would suggest that CO, when bought through Steam, is actually broken because there is something that Play withSIX is doing that a default install of Arma 2 followed by Arma 2:OA from Steam is not doing to get CO working. Let's hope Arma 3 doesn't deteriorate into this kind of mess in the future.

Thanks for the help Sickboy, no more AI controlled helicopters practicing drifting round the map for me.