160thSOAR

I'd like to see BI port over all of the old ArmA2 weapons and vehicles instead of having a user-made mod. I get a feeling that the divide between "let's use futuristic stuff" and "let's be ultra-realistic and stick with current-day stuff" will cause another rift in the ArmA2 community, kind of like the rift between those who use ACE2/ACRE and those who don't. As the current ACE problems are bad enough already, it would be very bad to create another divider between groups of players. I'm afraid that a lot of the tactical realism units are going to stick with current military stuff, but that might just be me making stuff up. RH weapon packs. AUG's, SA80 family, and some old AK's would be great. ACE3 and ACRE, of course. Icebreakr's islands. PRACS.

The reason people restrict the use of air assets and the like is that they are valuable and there aren't too many of them. Although there may be some well-intentioned newbies around trying to get the hang of the game, many people who try to jump in aircraft and fly off with them are trolls looking to ruin others' games. Rules about flying and the like are in place to ensure a calmer and more fun experience for the majority of players. If you want to be able to fly something, getting on TS3 and talking to the people on the server with your own voice can really help. Don't be whiny about it though. If you ask and they say no, just wait a while before you ask again. Or just ask whoever's flying to tell you if they sign off. People who play this game are generally nice and reasonable, and most don't tend to have a grudge against newbies. We were all new at some point.

I'd prefer Chernarus. There are a ton of Takistan Domination servers around already, and I don't quite see what having another one around will do to help. If you want to do something interesting, maybe try doing Domination: One Team EAST and play as the Russians or Takistanis instead of the usual US/USMC stuff.

This mission has always been pretty easy for me. I don't move until I open my parachute at 400m, then coast into the landing zone, altering my speed as necessary. Be careful not to overshoot the LZ, as it's much easier to just speed up than it is to turn around. If it's a control problem, WASD are the default parachute maneuvering controls.

Just taking a stab in the dark here, but it's probably got something to do with one of the mods you're running. For me, the Takistani Mi-24D works fine. And I should know, because I use it to blow up the Takistani military base in their SP showcase with alarming regularity. If I had to guess which mod, I would say it's probably the ATGM mod, but you should try enabling them one at a time and seeing which one causes the problem.

What gunso said. Six Updater is where I go for all of my launching and mod-managing needs. It does basically everything for you.

One problem with that Domination example ... the "no shooting in base" thing doesn't actually work. People can get "kicked" ten or twenty times but nothing actually happens to them. It's up to good admins to deal with TKing. If a TKer is ruining your game and there's no admin around, usually only other players will be able to stop him. Really though, just find a well-run server and you shouldn't have any problems.

ArmA2 is definitely worth it, and not just for the zombies. There are a ton of addons and missions developed by the community for you to look around at, not to mention the massive content in just the base game. This game is great fun and there's always something new to do. I would be happy to pay three times what I paid to get this game; it's definitely been worth it.

If money is not a concern for you, get ArmA2: OA and ArmA2: Reinforcements. There are four "sections" to ArmA2, if you want to put it that way. - ArmA2, the original game. It is set in Eastern Europe, and the map (Chernarus) is a bit harder on your computer than others. The two main factions are the United States Marine Corps and Russian Army forces. - ArmA2: Operation Arrowhead, a stand-alone DLC. It is set in a fictional country similar to Afghanistan (Takistan), very hilly and with lots of sand. The two main factions are the U.S. Army and the Takistan military, who are armed with old ex-Soviet stuff on the whole. - ArmA2: BAF, a DLC featuring the United Kingdom's army. It is *not* standalone; you must have either ArmA2 or ArmA2: OA to play it as far as I know. - ArmA2: PMC, a DLC featuring a group of private military contractors. It is also not standalone. ArmA2: Combined Operations is a package of both ArmA2 and ArmA2: Operation Arrowhead. ArmA2: Reinforcements is a package of ArmA2: BAF and ArmA2: PMC. Please note that although OA comes with low-resolution models of the BAF and PMC stuff, it's definitely worth it to get the DLC's. You get much nicer eye candy, two more campaigns, and a whole bunch of extra SP missions. Hope this helps, and welcome to ArmA! Always nice to see new faces.

I believe ACE2 does something sort of similar to this. I don't believe that eyewear in that game can do the exact function you're looking for, but certain items can change the way certain things affect you when you take them on and off. For example, sunglasses help protect you from flash grenades, while a gasmask protects you from tear gas and the like. You can take eyewear on and off at will in ACE, so you might want to give it a look. This isn't something BIS will ever be implementing in ArmA2.

Why doesn't Xeno want Domination in this game? Doesn't make too much sense if you ask me, but I'm not Xeno.

When you blasted that NVA guy from about 2 feet away at around 02:55... awesome. General Feedback: The new foliage is really well done. The M60 sounds awesome; I haven't heard one in real life, but that's something how I imagine it would sound. The bird-sounds and the like need to be toned down a bit I think. I don't really think I'd hear birds chirping in a firefight. Might be a good idea to turn off bird sounds from 30 to 90 seconds after a gunshot. I like the new voiceovers; ArmA3 needs something like that. I'm sick of hearing robots talking in a firefight.

Your islands are always awesome, IB. Thanks for giving us a new one. So many things I'm itching to try out when I get my laptop back from HP....

I doubt they'll be implementing those Black Shark-style fireworks. I think it would be possible to extend airplane hitpoints beyond simple "Hull." I really don't want to be able to crash a C-130 into a tree at 100 kph and be totally fine in ArmA3. Jets need to be much more fragile than they are now.

I didn't know that the Patria AMV was in this game. Now I'm really, really happy. Three cheers for the "The Green Tank." I hope they include a base green version and some insurgent character models .... that could be fun.

I'm really happy that BIS is still paying attention to ArmA2, even with ArmA3's release coming up. It shows BIS's dedication to even their soon-to-be old games. Some of these vehicles, especially the Dingo 2, look really nice. Seeing some more Chernarus-style maps is great as well. I'm more than happy to shell out 10 bucks for this. An official, BIS-made port of ArmA2 content into ArmA3 would be really nice in my opinion.

I guess I'm happy about this. I used to be pretty big on piloting choppers, not so much any more. It's nice to see that the entrance requirements, so to say, will be increased greatly in ArmA3. The only thing I'm afraid of is that it will render certain missions or parts of the campaign unplayable for me because I don't have a joystick. I don't care about practice time, but is it possible to fly the TKOH flight model with just a keyboard and mouse? I'm also a bit scared as to what the AI will do with flying now. They handle ArmA2's relatively basic flight model terribly, so introducing more variables is a recipe for disaster.

The HUD tells you everything you need to know for landing. Just use it instead of the MFD. What are you looking for on the MFD that's not on the HUD?

I assume you're talking about Domination here. In the two constantly-populated Domination servers, usually TAW's and 7th Cavalry's, the rules are pretty different. The TAW server will basically let you spin up whatever vehicle you want and head to the AO with it. So if you can find an AH-64 there, you can hop in and go to town. The fixed-wing aircraft in that server are only available to TAW members, however, and in general the server is quite messy and disorganized. The 7th Cav server has strict rules about who can fly aircraft and who can't. You have to be on TS3 and have a microphone to fly any sort of aircraft, and there is usually only one CAS aircraft at a time. The two starting CAS aircraft (AH-64 and A-10) are generally locked, so doing sidemissions is the only way to get an attack helicopter. Also, all attack aircraft pilots cannot just go in and rip up the AO with FFARs and Hellfire missiles. You have to be called in with a CAS 9-line from someone on the ground, which is, in my opinion, how it should be. Please make sure you know how to fly an attack helicopter and utilize its weapons systems before you do so in an MP server. People don't like it when you crash a multi-million dollar piece of equipment into the ground a few seconds after taking off.

This seems quite useful. I've been around the block, and I've been on some of the more-full servers where a rule breaker was able to create a lot of havoc thanks to the server being full.

I must say that this has excited me with the possibilities ArmA3 has to offer. These animations that I've seen so far are more advanced than my wildest dreams. I hope they fix the fact that you can't move while changing weapons, throwing a grenade, etc. And drawing your pistol is far too slow. When I run out of ammo, I want to be able to pull out my pistol fast - that's what it's for. Currently, it's much slower to use the pistol than to reload for most weapons.

I was playing America's Army 3 the other day, and it hit me that the America's Army games were doing something right. In the America's Army games, there was a thing called "Training." To use certain weapon systems in multiplayer, you had to qualify with them in training. For example, to use the M249 SAW, M203, and certain types of grenades, you had to pass the Advanced Weapons course. To use the M24 and M82 sniper rifles, you had to pass courses with those weapons. To use the AT4 and the SMAW, you had to pass the anti-tank course. You also had to take a course to be a medic and a course to be special forces. Even better, to fly a helicopter or a jet, you would have to demonstrate that you can perform combat operations and not slam into a mountain the first time you actually get shot at. I think implementing this as a server variable be a great idea. For example, to qualify for machine guns, you might have to take a course that taught you how to use suppression and base-of-fire techniques and then have you demonstrate this in the field against AI. To be a medic, you would have to be able to understand things like securing the area around a casualty before just running in and (if it's included in ArmA3) how to treat for different wounds. To carry an AT weapon, you would have to engage live armored vehicles, not just wooden targets. To carry a sniper rifle, you would have to demonstrate a certain amount of accuracy with your weapon. Of course, there would be some weapons that everyone could use, such as those that require little training. Everyone should be able to use an RPG-7, simply because that weapon takes so little training to use in real life. Most assault rifles should also be able to be used at the start. Soft vehicles like HMMWV's should be drivable by everyone. This isn't a points-based unlock system. Doing things in MP does not earn you AT. I think that this system would force players to demonstrate enough skill with a certain weapon or at a certain role to use it in MP and not be a waste of space on their team. Thanks to OnlyRazor for this idea. What do you think?

The number of mods I have is growing out of control. It's become a huge pain launching them through typing up the file names in the usual way. I've tried Alpinestars's ArmA 2 Launcher, but I can't get it to launch Combined Ops. It just launches either OA or ArmA2; I can't get it to launch both. If someone could either a) suggest a fix to my current mod launcher problem or b) suggest another one that works for CO, that would be awesome. Thanks everyone!

As others have mentioned, I think animating the player himself would cause too much trouble to be worth it. Also, we already have enough trouble with the relatively short unbreakable grenade animations. Now imagine an unbreakable animation several times as long. :/ Urgh. I like the idea however. I think that simply having to open the doors of a vehicle to change positions (i.e. to get in a Humvee you have to open the door, to get in a BTR you have to open the proper hatch, etc) would be enough. It would greatly add to the realism and not cause large problems in combat like a full animation would.

This looks very nice and well-detailed! Great work. The landing gear isn't properly animated and the rotors look a little odd for some reason once it starts up.