EDcase

I strongly recommend a joystick for aircraft. One with twist (rudder control) The Saitek AV8R-01 is a good one that isn't too expensive. It does take a while to set up the controls to your liking but its great once done. (You can control the sensitivity of each axis) Remember to use small movements. A bit off topic: I flew a real helicopter for my birthday recently and even though I new the controls (Cyclic) were supposed to be sensitive I was shocked by how tiny the movements have to be. There is also a slight delay between input and reaction which you don't get with games. (I did over correct ALOT when trying to hover :() But I did well with the cruise and turns at 700 feet.

Hi and welcome Sirex1, First off forget OFP|DR (I have it). Codemasters own the name and produced it as a console game (which is realistic for them) then was directly ported to PC. It looks nice but gameplay is VERY basic. The true soul of OFP was created by BIS and lives on in ARMA2. I haven't played WW2|Online but was quite interested myself but its too big I think and the fact of subscription put me off. Plus it looks terrible (which is understandable given the scale) Not played BF2|Reality but looks like a slightly better version of BF2. Hmmm.. I think ARMA2 has all the elements of a realistic battlefield simulation that you are looking for. It has some quirks but since patch 1.04 many things have been fixed. There is exactly the MP game you describe called WARFARE which mixes RealTimeStrategy elements of building forces etc. Max players is limited only by server power and now with the new linux server available max players should increase. Duno what is max players currently. As JW Custom said, "Get the demo" to try and make sure it runs OK on your machine. (Needs quite a good machine to run well) Do a google search for VBS and VBS2. That should tell you if its where you want to go ;)

Try... Make a shortcut and add to the start command line: After .exe -winxp -nosplash -world=empty Sorry but I think your GT120 will not be powerful enough to run ARMA2 Hope you get it going...

1longtime: I've ordered a 30Gb vertex for ARMA2 ;) What Firmware do you have? The latest (1.3) supports TRIM though apparently its not active in Windows7 yet. OCZ have released the "Garbage collector" utility to do the cleanup manually. Have you tried it?

ARMA2 maps can be much larger than OFP but the design is up to the maker. I agree that I find Chernarus very uniform in terrain type but there are quite a few others maps which can be downloaded.

Welcome areonic You should head over to the mission making forum to get more info. For burning objects you can set demage to 1. That will make them explode on mission start. They will burn for a while. (I hope you are using JTD Fire&Smoke ;)) Haven't tested but this should work to make a basic IED in a car by the road. -Place a car next to a road and give it name "car" -Make a trigger that activates when US are present and put it in the middle of the road next to the car. In the activation text window put: car setdamage 1 This should make the car explode whe US (soldier and vehicles) are next to it.

It may not be pretty but once you get the hang of it you will find that its very fast for so many possible commands. Here are a few that I use Select all units or a few then... 1,1 (FOLLOW ME) easy one ;) 1,2 (MOVE AHEAD) They follow your direction but in front of you. 1,3 (STAY BACK) Follow behind at a distance. Repeat to make them go further back. (1,1 will cancel) 1,7 (WAIT FOR ME) stop (you can also use 1,6 but that can cause problems if you are then killed) 3,2 (HOLD FIRE) Only if they haven't been spotted by enemy. 3,1 (OPEN FIRE) 4,2,1 (GET IN MY VEHICLE) You can specify where they sit with other options 4,2,#) 4,1 (DISEMBARK) get out 5,4 (I'M INJURED) medic will try to get to you. 6 These are more specific commands. If you select a medic you can press 6,1 to heal anyone injured including yourself. You can also press 6 and then left click on an injured soldier. Another useful option is to tell everyone to EJECT from a vehicle that will make them all get out at once (much faster that DISEMBARK 4,1) 7,2 (DANGER) 7,6 (STAND) 7,7 (CROUCH) 7,8 (GO PRONE) Once you get used to them you can give these orders very fast.

To make em ready for combat... Select all units (Mine is [`] (above TAB)) Then number 7 Then number 2 (DANGER) This will make them move cautiously so if you move too fast you will leave them behind. Use 7 then 3 to make them AWARE (this is default) If you want them to move faster.

Yeah, he didn't show for me either but I just continued on and the story adapts so you get him later... Think of it this way, If you decide to play the campaing again it will be different.

You guys probably know but just in case... The "Receiving Data" screen can take a Long time if the MP game has been going a while.

Hello... my name is EDcase and I'm an ARMA2 addict. ...AND I DON'T WANT TO BE CURED :D Seriously, its really amazing and quite often I still look around and say "wow" (Not good in a firefight) My vote for "must have" addon is JTD Fire&Smoke http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=7383

The sound of explosions not sticking to their source is a known bug. I hope its one of the things fixed in the next patch

Can't remember very well since I don't use it but I think you have to press SHIFT+F F being one of the units in the group you want. If its not that then sorry I can't help.

Is the game updated to 1.04? (Look bottom right on the main menu screen)

Yes, the surround doesn't seem as effective as ARMA1. Probably because ARMA2 doesn't use hardware sound. To me the sonic crack as bullets go by is too loud. Since the crack has no direction its very unhelpful as it over powers the gunshot sounds. Of course I've never been in a gun fight so can't say if its realistic or not. EDIT: I'm using a Creative X-Fi with surround headphones. (It did work very well with ARMA1)

I had a similar problem connecting with a friend but with Windows XP. We never got it working mainly because he didn't like ARMA. One thing I can suggest is make sure UDP port 2302 is open.

Yes, the seek times are faster but the load times are much slower. I used USB2 for the SDHC and built in connector for CF. The IDE card may be better but I doubt it will give much better results. BTW I'm getting the SSD for work but I'm going to put ARMA on too ;)

Tankbuster, I'm affraid you will waste your money on that unless you want to use it for a camera as well. I tested a x150 CF card with HD-Tach and the performance is much worse that my HDD. I also tried a class 6 SDHC which was a bit better but still far slower than an HDD. I have decided to try the OCZ Vertex 30GB and see if that helps.

Yes, in ARMA1 it was better to use DEFAULT but its not so good in ARMA2 for some reason. Give it a try...

You won't find one that will run ARMA well for that price...

SpetsnazGRU, whe you say laggy do you mean like stuttery? Then you need to defrag your HDD. (preferably with good prog like "UltimateDrefag" free version)

Hi and welcome sdwinder, This game is amazing with a good group of players. I usually play in public servers and haven't had too many problems with a**holes. Its fine if there is an admin who can kick troublesome people or you just have to leave if things get crap. Another game you might want to look at is BF2:RealityMod. I haven't played it but looks like halfway between BF2 and ARMA2

In a case like that when you want stealth I would send them further away and behind rise if possible.

You can only speed up time in SP missions if creator has allowed it.

Blue screen of death (BSOD) indicates a hardware or driver problem. This can happen if drivers are updated without previous ones being removed. (Most people will not have a problem with this but it is known to cause problems) 1) Get "NastyFileRemover" or "DriverCleanerPro" (I use both) 2) Uninstall Nvidia drivers from windows then boot into safe mode and use "NastyFileRemover" / "DriverCleanerPro" to remove any remnants of graphics drivers 3) Reboot into windows and install latest drivers. -Defrag hdd with a good prog like "UltimateDefrag" (there is a free version) Don't think it will fix the problem but will help once you get it going. -Check GPU temp when running the game. ARMA2 does stress the GPU more than some other games. (8800GT does run hot so it doesn't take much to push it over the edge)