Not happy :(

[Packersfan30_3 10]

So I, like many others, bought Arma 2 during the recent sale where it was only $20. I played the demo and loved it. It was so different from all the other games out there, and still quite fun. The guns packed a punch unlike so many other games, and the pacing allowed for more thought to be put into the firefights.

I just tried to play the first stand alone mission, the one where you go from an aircraft carrier to a chopper and inset outside of a town. I've had to restart three times now for three different reasons. Keep in mind I only restarted once in the demo version, and that was because I accidentally forgot to take ammo for the M16

1: The squad leader and three other guys went on a death charge up the right flank. No idea what they were doing, all of them just starting screaming something about a medic and a rifleman and how they were going weapons free. They were cut down in short order, leaving me and one other guy to fend for ourselves.

2: The APC rolled up and the squad leader called for fire support. Nothing happened. We were all wiped out as the APC rolled in through town. This is even worse because I tried to take the AT weapon while I was in the chopper (not the stinger, the other one) and there wasn't any ammo for it in the chopper? Did the devs just forget to give ammo for it, or am I missing something? I looked everywhere and could not find ammo for it.

3: Air support is called. A chopper (I think) flies by and shoots four, maybe five shots max at the APC. Nothing happens. I shot an enemy insurgent and he had an RPG and AKM on him. I take both and try to hunt the APC. No luck. It simply camps back near the supply tent with a machine gunner and a rifleman supporting it. The rest of my squad is dead silent and just stay at their position not firing a shot. The previous storm of radio chatter is completely gone. I try to move around left to no luck. I try to go prone behind a car to get a shot on it. No luck. After a few tries, my sniper guy finally moves up. He's cut down in seconds. I spent about 20 minutes trying to get this one from a recent save.

I'm really upset because the demo version actually had fewer bugs than the full version, and I just spent $20 on a game that I thought would be pretty polished. The only part I played in the demo was the tutorials and the standalone mission and they were both great. If I have an entire campaign and 7 standalone missions to look forward to, I'm going to be upset :(. Can someone please tell me what's going on?

[vini_lessa 10]

Are you sure you applied the most recent patch (1.07) ?

[Packersfan30_3 10]

I bought it through steam. Do I still need to apply the patch?

[instagoat 133]

The Mission can be pretty challenging because the Cobra is slow to arrive, and your team doesn´t have any AT weapons. There´s an RPG7 and some Ammo near the wrecked UAZ on the main road (where the camouflage netting is). You could try getting there and killing the BRDM yourself (that´s what I usually do.).

Don´t let one mission dishearten you, the game as a whole is pretty amazing. You could try some of the player made missions (such as the excellent Cipher) instead. The essence of Arma 2 is user made content anyway.

Hope this helps

Insta

[Bomber_c 0]

When I did that mission I had to use the machine gun (I think it was the MK48), shoot the APC's tires and chucked a few grenades at it also which made the crew bail. :laugh:

[sic-disaster 311]

I bought it through steam. Do I still need to apply the patch?

Check the bottom right of the main menu, it will tell you the version of your game, which should be 1.07.

Steam is slow with giving ArmA 2 it's patches, and many people had to update it manually.

[WimpoD 10]

Hah! If those 3 issues have upset you, god knows what you've got to look forward to.

I must just be blind to ArmA 2's bugs now, such is my overwhelming love for it. Deal with the bugs, it's the most ambitious war game ever made.

[djmorgan 10]

You only restarted 3 times! in real life your not so lucky! After about my sixth re-start I figured out the path and method... keep real low move slowly and keep right.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Update is a must. And don't be dismayed by the mission. I find it frustratingly hard myself at times, on veteran (set to skill 1 for both sides, 0.66 accuracy for both sides). Haven't tried it with OA engine yet though, but one I'm looking forward to.

Has similar experience with LaserShow mission in OA. First run through I though "bah, was that it? not hard at all". Tried today with the new beta patch (same difficulty, but didn't "cheat" using the sights) - and well - it was reload madness. Enjoyed the hell out of it. Maybe some day I'll "master" that mission, who knows...

Why do I like these kinds of missions? Because I'm a solder - not a leader.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

I also was pissed off as to how long it took for that goddamn AH1 to turn up. In the end I just shot the BRDM's tires out, first time around, and the crew bailed. Quite exploitesque, but better than being raped when it arrives for the sake of realism.

If you want to be a hero, do what I later found out - clear the town as quickly as possible and head up the main street towards the camo net sitting on the ridge. There's a UAZ and ammo crates with an AT13 Metis inside. You'll probably be taking fire at this stage, but if you keep your cool and are a little bit lucky, you can smite that ugly BRDM right between its eyes when it comes screaming down the road to the north-east.

[Shadow NX 1]

Doesnt sound very buggy to me.

Well maybe they should have added ammo to the launcher in the Helicopter or better remove the launcher completely but apart frpom that i dont see a problem.

The mission itself is very dynamic as the AI tends to do use different approaches which often includes bit suicidal ideas.

Also i often had it that half of the squad goes down very quick, in that case you and the rest of the team better heal them quick and push forward again.

For taking out the BRDM-2 you better quickly take down all OPFOR on the villages main road that you see when you come up the hill from the beach, at the end of it there is a camo tent and a UAZ, there you find masses of launchers with ammunition.

If you do it right you can do that long before the BRDM-2 even shows up.

The rest is a piece of cake if you grab the armed civillians CZ500 Hunting rifle.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

No not buggy at all. As in real life you can actually find yourself in an absolutely shitty situation. And there are places to hide from it, and as CameronMcDonald shows - there are other solutions to cope with the problem.

[Packersfan30_3 10]

Shadow NX and CarlGustaffa, it was buggy though. The AT launcher was missing ammo that should have been there, and the team just stopped communicating and froze at one point. Also, a suicide charge isn't really a tactic :/. I think it's valid for me to be a little concerned

Thanks for the help everyone. I never even considered shooting out the tires. In most games the tires aren't actually tires, they're just wheels with a rubber texture applied to them. For example HL2's APC still shows metal impacts if you shoot at the tires. I'll also try to nab the rocket launcher.

The game is up to date. Hopefully it works, if not I'll just move onto the regular campaign because the combat is so cool :D

[W0lle 1049]

What you described in your first post doesn't sound like a bug actually (eventually, maybe the launcher thing).

The goal of this game is to portray war, and as you (hopefully never) will find out in war nothing ever works as planned. Maybe the guys in the game just forgot to load up that ammo in the chopper - that happens in real life too. And the Stinger is no AT weapon at all :p

The AH-1 showing up too late? Yes that might be but its no different in real life too. Just because you call in CAS or artillery fire means not the support shows up instantly or at all.

It also happens that your team is decimated within minutes after the action starts. There is no guarantee that the good boys always win a mission. Use your imagination, be creative and if nothing else helps, retreat (aka Esc key).

And please, don't judge the game by just one mission or campaign. There are countless of alternative missions out there waiting for you to be fought. :)

Also as you have seen by other replies yet: This is not HL, BF or COD. So best forget how you played these games and think different.

It might be a long and hard way until you are familiar with the game but once you achieved this you will notice that there are not many out like this. But even then there will be disappointments (like when your pilots fly their bird straight into the next building after take off). When this happen: smile, call them idiots and try again - you may be lucky and get smarter ones next time. :)

Edited July 6, 2010 by W0lle

[Packersfan30_3 10]

Okay, just tried what you guys recommended and it worked perfectly. I think you're right, some of the things I thought were bugs are part of the game.

I kept moving pretty quick and the rest of the team kept pace (despite me being a private and they were all sgts :b) They took up defensive positions in the town while I moved up to the weapons tent. What I mistook for them being in a state of broken AI was actually just them hunkering down to get ready for the APC, as it had recently been spotted. Keep in mind I'm used to games like COD where everyone is moving constantly and is armed to the teeth with grenades, assault rifles, and RPGs to handle any threat. Anyway I got to the tent and stayed low. Ambushed the shit out of it with the AKM, sprayed down the tires and the crew bailed out. Mowed em down in short order and picked up the M4 to help out my team with a group of three guys coming from the northwest area of the map. Returned to my teams position and we all moved up together.

So cool, most fun I've had in a long long time. It also helps to make a few user saves at key points. For example, it took me a couple tries to ambush the APC to ensure it didn't see me too soon and use it's MG.

Thanks for all the help guys, really looking forward to this game. The combat is so cool. About to go seize the airfield and hopefully save some hostages on the way, wish me luck!!!

[Placebo 29]

I'm surprised based on your opening post you actually managed to get the demo running well for you, kudos for that, and for sticking with it and seeking the guidance you needed without resorting to ranting or what not :)

[Grizzle 0]

Grats on your mission success packersfan! W0lle was right - this game is very dynamic and each time you play through a mission it will be different. As I recall I died quite a few times in that mission myself (as well as losing some of or the entire squad at times), but this is what makes the game so awesome. It's unpredictable just like real life.

You should head on over to the user missions forum or armaholic and grab yourself Cipher SP mission right away. It's always fun and always different, sometimes a cake walk sometimes a blood bath. Perfect mission that exemplifies the greatness that is ArmA 2.

[walker 0]

Hi Packersfan30_3

We have all experienced it. :D

If all you have played are the Ego Booster games like COD then BIS's Military simulator series is a shock.

From the Introduction to the BIS Wiki ArmA II Hints and Tips.

Introduction

ArmA II is not like other FPS's, it is a simulation. Most, if not all that you learned in other FPS's is wrong. You cannot stand out in the middle of an open street or field and expect to survive long in a real battle or in a simulation of real battle. Bouncing around in full kit in real battle does not stop you getting shot; you simply get tired quickly, and would probably break your ankles; so just as you would not do it in real life you cannot do it in ArmA II. You have no uber body armor, no magical medipacks, no bunny hop rocket boots. It is just you, and what ever weapons you are carrying. If you get shot any where important you are going to die, often right away.

If you are a new player you are going to die and you are going to die a lot. This is simply part of the learning curve, there are ways however you can get over the hump faster. That is what this section of the biki will help you with.

You are going to have learn the basic battle drills and the difference between cover and concealment. There is a lot to learn but it can be fun. Surviving in ArmA II is hard, but one day you may find yourself with a bunch of your buddies hunting T90s like stone age humans hunting mammoths...

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

As always follow the link to the original article and text in full

Oh and Welcome to the Community.

Kind Regards walker

[krz9000 10]

blabla this threat sounds like a ubuntu help forum...lots of bad advice painting bugs as features.

i played the same mission last night and the whole thing felt buggy:

- friendly ai got wasted due to stupidity. (i dont mind the exact reason, it just behaved unnatural dumb)

- after the apc got destroyed we moved on towards the airfield...i was exspecting we take out the AA on the hill that was mentioned in the briefing but hte leader just walked towards the airfield and suddenly the mission ended in a success...lol WTF. i was reading that after taking out the AA we get artillery support and should then attack the airfiled?...but nothing like that was executed. instead i had the feeling the ai bugged out.

this game is clearly not very polished. i understand the complexity of such a program and dont expect a perfect product but im abit disappointed mostly because people in this forum try to paint a much brighter picture about this game as it really is. (if you wonder what i mean with polished: check out blizzard games, they perfect what they do and deliver portions of perfection while their scope of their games is always just as huge as they can handle, and somehow i feel ARMA tires to do 1000 things but they all are not quite there.)

nevertheless i plan to invest my sparetime in this game in the upcomming time to see what makes people so exited about it. i hope ill find the good stuff and not only the bugs

[EBass 0]

This game is really unique and I imagine if you've never played anything like it before it will take some time to learn how it works.

Pretty much everything that "happens", in the game actually happens for real. If that sounds confusing I'll explain it.

In say CoD4 when you're told to call in a chopper to destroy a tank you're not actually calling in a chopper to destroy a tank. You're performing an action that spawns a helicopter model about 20 metres behind you which then launches a missile that will always hit the same spot and always kill the tank in the exact same way. The chopper never misses or gets shot down or doesen't show up.

In Arma2, when you call in a chopper for the most part you're calling in a real helicopter from a good distance away that fires an actual game entitiy at another game entity. This means lots can go wrong or right. The chopper might take ground fire on the way and crash, it might misjudge its flight path and hit a tree on its attack run. It might fire too close to you and blow you up instead. It might crash land and its crew continue to fight on foot.

Obviously this means you've got to think harder and smarter most of the time to survive. The fact that the game is emergent and massive in scope does lead to more bugs than the average game for sure. But its worth it.

[Ragingbear505 10]

blabla this threat sounds like a ubuntu help forum...lots of bad advice painting bugs as features.

i played the same mission last night and the whole thing felt buggy:

- friendly ai got wasted due to stupidity. (i dont mind the exact reason, it just behaved unnatural dumb)

- after the apc got destroyed we moved on towards the airfield...i was exspecting we take out the AA on the hill that was mentioned in the briefing but hte leader just walked towards the airfield and suddenly the mission ended in a success...lol WTF. i was reading that after taking out the AA we get artillery support and should then attack the airfiled?...but nothing like that was executed. instead i had the feeling the ai bugged out.

this game is clearly not very polished. i understand the complexity of such a program and dont expect a perfect product but im abit disappointed mostly because people in this forum try to paint a much brighter picture about this game as it really is. (if you wonder what i mean with polished: check out blizzard games, they perfect what they do and deliver portions of perfection while their scope of their games is always just as huge as they can handle, and somehow i feel ARMA tires to do 1000 things but they all are not quite there.)

nevertheless i plan to invest my sparetime in this game in the upcomming time to see what makes people so exited about it. i hope ill find the good stuff and not only the bugs

Yeah the mission finished for me as well when I arrived at the airport because the AH1 had destroyed everything there. It was nothing but corpses and smoke. Another time the AH1 showed up and actually got shot down before it even killed the APC, I failed that time. A dynamic mission everytime is in fact a feature of the game. I'm sorry you were disappointed with the way yours played out.

As far as Blizzard games go I would hardly call them polished and simple describes them fairly accurately. Look at the patch history for Starcraft and you'll see that game wasn't always as perfect as its fanbase claims it to be.

[Murphe 0]

Yeah the mission finished for me as well when I arrived at the airport because the AH1 had destroyed everything there. It was nothing but corpses and smoke. Another time the AH1 showed up and actually got shot down before it even killed the APC, I failed that time. A dynamic mission everytime is in fact a feature of the game. I'm sorry you were disappointed with the way yours played out.

Both of those happened to me last night. I fired up the mission again because of this thread and I was curious if the mission would differ running it with OA.

The first attempt saw all my men survive the opening assault (which was a first), but then where all cut down by the APC. After it was taken out I killed all the remaing soldies in the village and before I could set off for the airport the mission ended, as it has done the majority of times I've completed this mission. I assume this happens because the rest of the a.i. have taken care of the rest of the mission. So it's not really a bug. Like has already been said, not everything goes to plan.

[walker 0]

Hi krz9000

It is because you are used to the scripted program concept of COD type Ego Shooters where you are in a film and if you follow the script you can have your ego boosted by apearing to be the hero in a the game/film.

COD and the other ego shooters are a holywood film representation of war, where you get to be the hero.

ArmA is a smulation of war not a simulation of being an actor in the hero role in a film about war.

In ArmA you are just a grunt. As in war you just need to survive the mission and do as much as you can to make it success. Often as not you are are just a spear carrier with the action going on around you. To be a hero in ArmA you realy have to earn it.

I can spend a whole mission in ArmA spotting targets for my squad mates in MP, never fire my gun and still know I played my part in making the mission successful and get praised by my MP team mates for talking them on to target.

I did the blow up the tanks night op mission in OA just carrying explosives and the FLIR sighted gun with only one mag and a silenced pistol. Never fired a single round. Got a perfect score.

War is not like it is in the movies and neither is ArmA.

Kind Regards walker

[LugNut 10]

I've had this mission go ridiculously easy or wicked hard. The nice thing about ARMA2 is that with the (semi) intelligent AI, even the SP missions with their scripted queues can play out in a wide variety of ways.

I usually have success moving right, clearing the hill and shooting back into town from cover of the stone walls or supply truck. Once you have most of the baddies down, regroup with your squad leader, heal up whoever you can and by then the helo usually comes to save your butt. Going straight up into town usually gets most of the squad killed right off the bat in my experience.

This was my first experience with ARMA2 as well and I found it pretty hard. So much was new, controls, weapons etc. It gets much easier when you get some time under your belt, just keep at it. I found it really helpful to go into the armory and play the challenges, sort of like simple SP missions.

As far as the missions ending oddly, I'll second what the others have said. It's a simulation, not a linear story like other FPS. It ended because the objectives were accomplished and in this case not by you, but by the AI. In this scenario, you're just a cog in the machine. Once you get better and move faster, you'll be the tip of the spear and see everything unfold around you.

Edited July 7, 2010 by LugNut

[krz9000 10]

thanks guys. your right im not that used to be just an entity in a greater war. i think i have nothing against that, now that i understand that there has been actually reasons for the turn out of that way the mission played. to be honest, thats just the thing im looking for :) ill give this mission anither go tommorrow and see how it turns out this time