Lord Byte

Same here mate, I find it disturbing that more than two years after launch they still haven't fixed the most basic issues...

Yup Vista and Windows 7 have this issue :) Unless you start Teamspeak as administrator, it won't "catch" the commands sent to another application (like in your case, push to talk most likely). The moment you go in full-screen it'll go in exclusive input buffer mode, and nothing will get forwarded to other applications if the game / app doesn't pass the info on :) In short, run Teamspeak 3 as administrator (right-click, choose "Run as administrator") or as soon as a game starts you won't be able to use any short-keys to work with the application in the background. Alternatively you can turn off push-to-talk.

If you want to do it without junctions or the other crap: Getting the steam version (or any other version) to work in combined mode with no hassle, bugs and any modifier / mod you like? Is that possible? Yup! Even though the information is incomplete, disparate and hidden in different locations it's as simple as creating a shortcut! Go to your \Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead folder, rightclick on the ArmaA2OA.exe choose create shortcut, or pull it onto your desktop holding alt (to create a shortcut) Then edit that shortcut (rightclick, properties) and edit the target Example: "D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\ARMA2OA.exe" "-mod=D:\ARMA 2;D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\EXPANSION;ca;@KHPackOA;" "-nosplash" "-cpucount=4" "-exThreads=7" "D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\ARMA2OA.exe" = Path of the executable, pretty straightforward. "-mod=D:\ARMA 2;D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\EXPANSION;ca;@KHPackOA" = This one the mother-lode : - the entire line needs to be enclosed in "", adding other modifiers in doesn't seem to work that's why I put each modifier in "" The reason is mostly because there are / might be spaces in the path -First point to your Arma 2 dir (here D:\arma2;) Make sure it's updated to 1.07!!! - Each subsequent mod also needs to end with ; - D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\EXPANSION; Important! Point this to the Expansion folder in your arrowhead directory -ca; without this most other mods and modifiers won't work! It needs to be in front of any other additional mod you add in! -@xxxxx; add any other mod(s) you like here! Make sure it's after CA or it won't work properly (no idea why, it just won't!) "-nosplash" "-cpucount=4" "-exThreads=7" Any other modifier you like can be added here, you got a quad-core like me, then add this, otherwise look around on the forum, that info is easy to find! Again make sure they have "" around them, each modifier is in it's own separate "" (adding them together again didn't seem to work, adding the modifiers before the mods were loaded didn't work either, I think CA is the cause there too. You can also edit the .cmd or better yet, make your own without all the extra crap. Just create a textfile and rename the extension to .cmd (if it still has a text file icon make sure you disable "hide known filetypes" in your explorer options or it won't work). Put the entire command line in there like this: "D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\ARMA2OA.exe" "-mod=D:\ARMA 2;D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\EXPANSION;ca;@KHPackOA;" "-nosplash" "-cpucount=4" "-exThreads=7" again modify where necessary. Bingo! Have fun!

Getting the steam version (or any other version) to work in combined mode with no hassle, bugs and any modifier / mod you like? Is that possible? Yup! Even though the information is incomplete, disparate and hidden in different locations it's as simple as creating a shortcut! Go to your \Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead folder, rightclick on the ArmaA2OA.exe choose create shortcut, or pull it onto your desktop holding alt (to create a shortcut) Then edit that shortcut (rightclick, properties) and edit the target Example: "D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\ARMA2OA.exe" "-mod=D:\ARMA 2;D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\EXPANSION;ca;@KHPackOA;" "-nosplash" "-cpucount=4" "-exThreads=7" "D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\ARMA2OA.exe" = Path of the executable, pretty straightforward. "-mod=D:\ARMA 2;D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\EXPANSION;ca;@KHPackOA" = This one the mother-lode : - the entire line needs to be enclosed in "", adding other modifiers in doesn't seem to work that's why I put each modifier in "" The reason is mostly because there are / might be spaces in the path -First point to your Arma 2 dir (here D:\arma2;) Make sure it's updated to 1.07!!! - Each subsequent mod also needs to end with ; - D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\EXPANSION; Important! Point this to the Expansion folder in your arrowhead directory -ca; without this most other mods and modifiers won't work! It needs to be in front of any other additional mod you add in! -@xxxxx; add any other mod(s) you like here! Make sure it's after CA or it won't work properly (no idea why, it just won't!) "-nosplash" "-cpucount=4" "-exThreads=7" Any other modifier you like can be added here, you got a quad-core like me, then add this, otherwise look around on the forum, that info is easy to find! Again make sure they have "" around them, each modifier is in it's own separate "" (adding them together again didn't seem to work, adding the modifiers before the mods were loaded didn't work either, I think CA is the cause there too. You can also edit the .cmd or better yet, make your own without all the extra crap. Just create a textfile and rename the extension to .cmd (if it still has a text file icon make sure you disable "hide known filetypes" in your explorer options or it won't work). Put the entire command line in there like this: "D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\ARMA2OA.exe" "-mod=D:\ARMA 2;D:\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\EXPANSION;ca;@KHPackOA;" "-nosplash" "-cpucount=4" "-exThreads=7" again modify where necessary. Bingo! Have fun!

I was making a point to discern content from polish basically. I didn't say we had flying tanks in OA, or we fell through the map, just saying that while most games get released with bugs, at lost most try to get the "polish" right. The content looks and works as expected (ie in shooters one arguably expects people to die when shot, that doors open, that the campaign is moderately interesting and doesn't die on most people). BI has been getting lots and lots of content in, awesome content, and I applaud them for that, but it has been extremely lacking in the polish department. EXAMPLES (these are specific examples because people have been nitpicking as I haven't given any specific examples). Pretty much every BI game to date has had flying/jumping tanks on release (from OFP to Arma 2), which gets fixed eventually (tbh I haven't played OA that much but we had one jumping CH46 in a multiplayer mission last night). It's an issue that's so common in each and every release while it SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN THERE ANYMORE SINCE OFP! Any half-assed attempt at even trying to play their own game should've shown that issue and they should've fixed it immediately (as they eventually do, in a patch...) While Marek may not have been voice-acting in the release version that still doesn't detract from the GOD-AWFUL voice acting the in the campaign, and it's been steadily getting worse (compare the awesome "Everything red's dead, dying or running home to momma" line from OFP to the Little Bird mission in OA (which is the only single-mission I've played in OA and it has given me enough incentive to not even attempt to play any of the others nor the campaign). It's awful. And voice-actors are NOT that expensive, honest! Then we get to the campaign itself which is a major selling point for most retail PC titles oddly enough. Most of the retail sales will never even get anywhere near a mod / forum / multiplayer. OFP was great, Resistance was the summum, and it's been going downhill from then on (while arma 2's campaign was an attempt at something else they've been trying with QG, it still falls flat on its face. Allies that get stuck all over the place, scripts that take away control at awful moments, and many many buggy triggers. I haven't played OA's campaign yet, as I've said before, and to be honest I'm nothing looking forward to it. Tl;dr again: While we get a lot of value, polish is lacking, polish drives sales... (while some see this as an advantage keeping BI's game for the "31337" and keeping the "noobs of our servers" it's a bad move for a company and a worse move for our game. Soon it's only the editor with 7 billion features, including manually attaching AT6 missiles from pylons and rolling them to base and back, of which 6 billion don't work unless you use this or that add-on / fix / patch, and no more game. And then BI disappears because the 10 fans it had left that made the "afghani" campaign in which every nut, bolt and condom was placed correctly and realistically didn't really pay the bills...

On BF2: RUSH was something new imho. The context sensitive button works wonders for teamplay (I really can't understand why every server and their mother switches it off... probably for the 90% immobile snipers on those servers I guess) Polish imho is that everything works as advertised, no ifs and buts, yes it has bugs, what game doesn't... But at least noone falls through maps, I haven't seen any flying tanks (the backstab bug was iffy though), and when you shoot someone they die. Most of that is missing in AO. On Arma: It was less buggy than OFP day one! Multiplayer actually worked, and was fun! The campaign worked(though it was umpteen times crappier than OFP, at least I didn't get irrevocably stuck in parts (check ARMA 2, I can still do certain missions that cannot be finished in certain situations, OFP had the background scoring system that could get you stuck if you did badly in some mission, but it only showed 7 missions later...) There were a lot less performance issues with Arma when it came out compared to Arma 2 (if I compare the forums from that time) On OA: It's a grand piece of work, I bought it too for that reason, but most of the parts don't work as advertised half the time, and one of the most basic things, the combined operations is a REAL hassle to get to work... Unless you know where to look. So yeah it's great for us cuz we know where to go and whom to ask. But imagine not knowing about BI, and buying arma 2 and the expansion pack. I think you'd bring it back in the next day. I don't want that to happen to BI! I want them to get bigger, make more money, actually be able to hire more than 5 programmers (PICK ME!), get some real voice actors (yes I know Mark Spaniel can speak decent English, no I don't trust US personnel that sound like him...), get in the top 10 of every gaming media's best games ever. But we need to help them do that because they apparently can't do it themselves. And by reinforcing their current behavior it's not going to happen.

Thank you, someone whom actually read the post ;) That's the problem with the admin lumping everything in a topic filled with fan-boys I guess... The point I was trying to make, although it feels like talking to the wall on my right will be a slightly more constructive use of my time, is that we should stop being BI fan-boys until they've made something one of the bigger publishing houses would dare to put in the shops. It's for the common good. As long as we keep buying the games in the state they are in it can only get worse. BI isn't even trying to get a playable game out anymore, more of a "we'll fix it somewhere before we release the next game, we promise... maybe" I love BI, I love what they're trying to do, it's an impressive piece of software but for the good of us AND possible future consumers (yes, the "noobs" *gasp*) we should stop tossing money at them until they polish up their act a bit. It got better but now it's steadily getting worse again. Arma 2 by far wasn't finished and now they're tacking on a big new map with lots of buggy additions... I hoped they would clean up their act, especially with getting better distributors for AO this time. (their cleanest release (not the best, that was Resistance) by far was Arma I imho, yes it was buggy but less so than any of their other releases, and much more playable out of the box, and I believe this was due to distributor pressure). We blatantly tossed cash at them for the Arma 2 fiasco (come on, voice actors aren't that expensive, honest!), and now we're doing it again for AO. Oh and once more, it runs perfectly on my machine, I'm getting a steady 60FPS sometimes hitting the 40's(yes it's useless to disable vertical sync.), with everything on high (and a couple on highest). I have not found many "crippling" bugs yet (except for general game instability online, ie regular server crashes and a lot people I know that hang quite often). Getting combined operations (steam) to work is ridiculously convoluted, needs a lot of community help to even get partially working, UNTIL I JUST PLAIN REWROTE the .CMD (only way to get multi-core support working kids, I'll write a topic soon)! And don't even get me started how they did their mod and addon support (they changed enough for those to need changing too, but instead of disabling the already installed ones with CO, they plain enable them out of the box...) Tl;dr stop being fan-boys, make BI earn their pay (I'm not saying it's not worth the money we paid, just... with a bit more effort on their side it can be so much more). Amen brother, that was the point of my rant. I never regretted buying anything from BI either but it's time for them to shift it up a notch or for us to do something or they'll just keep doing the stuff they've been doing up to now forever (for the same public). A bit more polish, a bit more play-testing and I guarantee you they'll1 double their audience and make us all a lot happier (instead of our usual defensive selves... but it's got only 5 programmers... but it's got FLIR... but... but...

I've bought EVERY BI Game the day it came out, I've gotten most of my friends into everything from OFP to Arma 2, I've defended the awesome games you've produced, I've put up with crippling bugs that would've kept any other game of the market... FOR YEARS before you guys fixed it (or just plain sold another product). No more. I'm sick of being treated like a third-rate customer. I'm sick of having to wait for unofficial third-parties to fix what is wrong with your game in the first place. Sick of half-assed products that haven't even gone through a modicum of play-testing, with convoluted, out of the box "fixes" to problems that shouldn't have been there in the first place! So what? Did your pc catch fire the moment arrowhead was installed you ask (most rants are caused by gentlemen with learning issues with faulty computer(parts) / outdated drivers? No! Did your archaic computer-part, made by the lowest bidder in some faraway country not get supported somehow? Nope! Are you having crippling performance issues? Or did the AI poop in your cereal this morning? Nope, none of the above, it actually runs and as usual I miss out on most of the crippling bugs... So then why are you complaining? Why? BECAUSE of how we are treated by BI. Because of the fact that having a rabid fan-base is getting them of the hook for things that will have any other developer quartered and drawn! Arrowhead is a POS that should've stayed in development for at least another 2 months so it was somewhat playable for most users! Again we're getting fed a sub-par batch of content, that while cool and all that is still buggy as hell, combining it into the game is an exercise in futility, with the game illogically refusing to do things again, that it did earlier WITHOUT YOU HAVING CHANGED A THING! If we keep allowing them to crap all over us like this we could just send them money, we've got their address and let them send us their feces back. (Hey mine's got chunks! Cool!) I for one aren't taking it anymore. I want a proper game, that has been tested! I don't care if it takes a couple of months longer, I know they are one of the few independent developers left, but that shouldn't give them the right to treat their customers like dirt. And we shouldn't let them treat us like that, we should learn to vote with our wallets! NOW! YESTERDAY! Only if they FEEL that releasing a sub-par product is actually hurting them will they learn, only then will they learn to provide us with something that approaches a working state! As long as we allow them to do what they want and get money there's no incentive for them to do anything about it... Even though releasing a superior product would get them much more money, goodwill and customers in the end. I've had it, and I hope more follow me. When the next product gets released I will be here, and WAIT this time! Wait until they've turned the pumpkin into a carriage and only then reward them! Jonathan "Lord Byte" Delahaye

Ok here goes: my observations as to the performance issues. I got a Phenom II X 4 3.0Ghz cpu, 4 GB DDR2, 2X Radeon 4890 1gb each... My game is installed on a mirrored set of HDD's and my windows 7 as well as my swapfile run on a solid state drive on. Everything to get the highest and smoothest performance one would imagine. And indeed there STILL isn't a game out there that gets my FPS below 60... Except arma... But wait, the funnies thing is that it will not do that for half an hour... After +/- 30 mins my average fps will have dropped to around 40-30, another half an hour later and it will be around 18-24 fps... now it starts stuttering, I get freezes from up to a second, textures load very slow, just turning around makes textures disappear and reappear a while later. And it doesn't matter what I'm doing. I can be doing a nightmission in a town the entire evening, or zooming along in a highspeed dogfight or NOE flight with the cobra... I can set my clock to these issues, which clearly indicates a SEVERE memory leak issue...I have none of these problems in any other AAA game, and I got and play a shit-ton of them. I would like these gone, as it is the only reason I'm not always playing Arma 2... They seriously limit my enjoyment of the game and are the reason I'm not playing it a whole lot more.

Done and done, someone oughta update and release a purely cosmetic addon keypack, it's ridiculous that I have to download several hundred megs just for a couple of keys to put on the server! ( JupileR Public server in your browser).

Did you actually play OFP multiplayer? It was horribly laggy in the beginning until a few patches later. Usually what people are referring to as lag in this game tends to mean "low framerate". And I highly doubt you have a 100mbps connection :j: Try to lower detail and fillrate and try again, and ping means nothing for 'lag'. Lag can also be caused if your connection has low up or downstream (due to others on your network downloading / uploading) or due to exceeded download capacity.

I've been playing since the first days of OFP, played Arma when it came out, didn't play it for a year then joined Evolution on a good teamplay server and loved every minute of it (first time in years when I played a game for more than 24 hours straight again)... Stayed in and saw ACE and such evolve and loved it, the community was good... Then Arma 2 came out and all of a sudden the place is filled with either random idiotic fucktards or elitary pricks! You get banned or kicked for the most random of reasons (like just joining up with a squad that was almost filled so I could help out, but they didn't like that, banned no reason), no matter how good you are and how much you practiced you are going to crash a chopper sooner or later, even when you've practiced shitloads and bought a TrackIR just to be the best, and you get banned immediatly, even when I didn't kill anyone doing it... Joining teamspeak, get requested to set push to talk (no speakers, apparently some of their voices carried over to my microphone from my headset, never had the problem before), which I do but now I have to change the PTT button in arma... get kicked again... Seriously... WTF is up with the long toes? Have some patience, instead of ranting at the newbies take a long good look at yourself and what you did when you first joined an OFP / Arma server all those years ago... Give them some advice instead of complaining from your ivory tower about all the noobs and CODers! Research before banning people, talk to them first, whatever, don't go throwing around random kicks and bans for no reason without checking! This is gonna tear this community up for worse if this goes on!

He probably means your player ID...

Hmmm the param1=x doesn't seem to change a thing Weird... I've seen a server where it worked, so I know it's possible.. He let you choose a map and the default settings were changed (Evolution map among them)...

I've found a working one in the Berzerk readme, modified it a bit: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">class Missions { class DM_01{template=UNA(DM28)Gunship.Intro;cadetMode=0;}; class DM_02{template=mp20cameldogfight.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class DM_03{template=mp16deathmatch.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class DM_04{template=mp17deathmatch.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class EVOLUTION_01{template=EvolutionV3.0.Sara;cadetMode=0;}; class MPBERZERK_01{template=ch64_berzerk_v1.23_arcadia.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class MPBERZERK_02{template=ch64_berzerk_v1.23_desert.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class MPBERZERK_03{template=ch64_berzerk_v1.23_obregan.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class MPBERZERK_04{template=ch64_berzerk_v1.23_mercalillo.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class MPBERZERK_05{template=ch64_berzerk_v1.23_dolores.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class MPBERZERK_06{template=ch64_berzerk_v1.23_airfield.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class MPBERZERK_07{template=ch64_berzerk_v1.23_bagango.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class MPBERZERK_08{template=ch64_berzerk_v1.23_north_bases.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class MPBERZERK_09{template=ch64_berzerk_v1.23_ortego.sara;cadetMode=0;}; class MPBERZERK_10{template=ch84_berzerk_v1.23_sahrani_plains.sara;cadetMode=0;}; }; Still got a few problems with it... Any way that the ones who join the server can choose which map to play? And how to preselect the options of the maps...