StrifeRaZoR

Looked everywhere for a Domination forum, couldn't find one. I'm probably blind though. But here's 2 big questions I have about the scripting/PBO files for this, if anyone here can help me. I don't run the server, my friend does, but I'd like to get some info for him so that we can try to fix a problem we're having and possibly change something. Note: I haven't tried changing anything major with the PBO files for Domination, because everytime we try, the server fails to load, but here's our problem. 1. Enemy patrols will enter our base and destroy our support buildings. We have no problem with that. We figured out how to turn the base attacks off, and it seems to work 90% of the time. Although sometimes a random tank shot from a T-90 will nail our support building. But the main problem is that when our Chopper Support building is destroyed...we can't get it back. It completely dissapears. No wreckage or anything, just poof. So we end up having to destroy our choppers and completely repairing them from wrecks if we don't want to restart the server. Anyone have this issue before? 2. This one really isn't an issue, but it would be REALLY nice to set this up. We'd like to choose which vehicles we start the mission with. We usually do Random 21 AI-West, and the first few cities are a complete pain to take with just 2 of us. An M1A1 or two from the beginning would really help us out, but everytime my friend edits the PBO for our starting vehiciles, the server doesn't seem to want to load. Any insight would be great. If this is the wrong place, just boot me out or move me. Appreciate it :)

Someone mentioned earlier that the AI relies on sound more than anything. Which I believe this is true. I play on a 2-man dedicated Domination server, and over the past 2 or 3 days, we've managed to take out 17 of the 21 cities. The last few have been insanely easy (Mainly due to crazy amount of AH1's delivered to our base...7 total...why 2 guys would need that many choppers is beyond me...). The main reason it's been easy though, is the fact that regardless of visibility...I've found that kneeling down, keeping your head low, and holding SHIFT is somehow or another an instant win for me. The AI will look right at me, up to 50-100m away...and as long as I'm holding shift, they won't do a thing. I've actually gone prone, held SHIFT, and slowly made my way through a town with nothing but a pistol and a ton of satchel charges. Crawling right through the middle of the streets, very slowly. I placed a satchel under each vehicle I found, slowly crawled to the safety of a building, detonated all of them, and never took a shot. Even after detonating the satchel charges, the enemy just seems to freak out and scatter or go prone and look around. I don't use the editor, so no clue how to test this viably. But if someone could set up a nice cluttered area with a ton of AI and try to sneak through in broad daylight just by holding shift...you can see a MAJOR difference in the AI's behavior. Even aircraft seem to do it. I was shot down by a KA when I was in my AH1. I was close enough to land safely. The KA was no more than 150m from me in the air, coming in for the kill. I got out, crouched, and held shift, and he just hovered over me for a few seconds before flying off. I was in plain sight.

So me and my buddy have our own little dedicated server that we play on. Domination, constantly up, we're just basically having fun in a giant sandbox. I'm fairly new to the game, loving it so far. Just a question though.. The Attack Helicopter...AH-Z or something like that, can't remember the name specifically, at work right now, seems to be vastly inferior to everything around it. I mean, sure, it packs a nice punch and can literally decimate ground targets, but I was under the impression that helicopters like these were designed to fly low and destroy Anti-Air emplacements to clear the area for faster moving aircraft like F16's and Harriers. That's their job, right? Correct me if I'm wrong on that assumption, as I'm not a huge military buff, but I believe that the radar module on the AH is located on the NOSE of the craft...thereby making it have to climb higher over it's hill/tree cover to accquire a target, whereas a more traditional gunship (Apachi, Commanche, etc..) has the radar module on TOP of the craft near the rotors. Is that what makes them so superior? They can pop up, accquire the lock before coming into full visual range, and fire off a swarm of hellfires before the target even knows they've been hit. So in short...does this explain why no matter how low i'm flying in this thing, there are always going to be something, somewhere, whether I can see it or not, that's going to shoot me down. I mean, it's gotten to the point that if I don't steal a T72 or T90 and clear out a town the dirty way...that there's absolutely no use for aircraft. But then again, I may just be horribly failtastic at flying. My first flight in the harrier lasted about 8 seconds. Well, 8 seconds in the air. I forgot my mouse was inverted for flight...so I cleared out a nice row of trees after take off :)

So I finally found out what the hell I was doing wrong. Apparently TAB is the target key with the hellfires and stuff. I did NOT know that. I was spamming right-click and SOMETIMES I'd get a lock. I figured out how to arc the Hellfires over the trees and hills and hit things that shouldn't even know I'm there. I'm totally loving this AH now. My jaw hit the floor when I realized that TAB was the freakin' targetting key. Laugh at me if you want, but I was nearly dumb firing all my ordanance (no pun intended). =P

Ok, so here's my cool moment in Arma 2. Me and my buddy were 2-manning this town on the south western area in a domination game. We were doing our covert ops, silenced M4's, smoke grenades, a few satchels, the works. We were attempting to get the radio tower down without being fully spotted by the main force. My buddy was in the trees scoping out the town. It was around 5:30 AM, so the sun was just barely up. Still pretty dark. I was crawling my way to the corner of this house very very slowly. All of a sudden I heard an engine off to my right. My friend says over vent, "I think a BMP is coming this way.". Then sure enough, a BMP comes rolling up RIGHT beside me. I just freeze and stare at the house that's maybe 20 meters away. I was so close. The BMP just sits there...staring off into the distance. The gunners were inside the vehicle, so they didn't see me. So I held shift and very very slowly made my way towards the BMP. Shuffled around a bit and lined myself up right at the front of the vehicile. Slowly crawled under the treads, gently placed a satchel charge, crawled out the back end of the BMP, shuffled down the hill towards the trees, flipped the switch, and kaboom. Dead BMP. Was very tense and crazy lol.

Oh, I understand completely. I've only played on public servers a few times, not quite adept enough to wave my gun around with a full belief that I deserve to wave it around :p. Now, as for flying 100m around a populated town, I definitely do not do that. Here's my usual steps for flying anything that shoots stuff: 1. Take off and do a small circle around the runway and use radar to pick out any patrols or convoys in my area. 2. Plan a path that will take me AWAY from the target area in a wide swooping arc back towards the target. 3. Aim myself to where there's a nice hill or tree line between me and my target(s) and I tend to get no closer than 300m on my initial run. You can never tell what's on the edge of a town. And usually by the time I pop up to take a shot, I'm instantly shot down before I even see what shot me. So I dunno...