160thSOAR

1. What? 2. That thread is for squads/clans, not servers. If the OP was moved there, the mods would get mad. 3. I am? I wasn't aware of that. What it sounded to me what you were saying is "This does not belong here, move it over there," essentially doing the mods' job for them without permission. I'm not sure if you were trying to say something else and I misinterpreted it. :) @OP: When are people usually on the server? I've tried to get on a few times, but no one ever seems to be around. :(

W0lle has it spot on. You should contain all your missions in folders so that they're easy to find. Each map/mod should have its own mission folder. For example, I moved the I44 missions to a folder I called "Invasion 1944" when I installed that mod. It's generally not a good idea to clutter up the main mission directory, it makes it hard to find the missions you actually want to play.

The multiplayer scene in this game is fairly active. You'll probably start off with the usual ArmA missions. There's Domination, a coop game where you go around capturing different cities until you have conquered the island. There's Warfare, where you and your AI fight other players and their AI, trying to capture the island. There's Insurgency, where you and other players work to locate and destroy enemy ammo caches. I recommend starting off with Domination. Your reflexes will not help you here. I suck at CoD and BF, but I have been told by several people that I am quite good at this game. To be good at this game, you have to use proper tactics and teamwork. Without that, all the twitchiness in the world will not help you. Accuracy and detection are far more important than reflexes in ArmA2. When you start this game, you will not be good at it. All of the skills you've learned from other games will not help you here, or at least not very much. You won't even be able to shoot straight for a while - that's how different it is.

No it's not. Steam is hardly perfect, but it offers a whole lot more than some achievements. Steam lets me keep all my games in one place so I can easily do whatever I want without having to do annoying disk switching. As an added bonus, I don't have to worry about misplacing a disk that I've had for years, something I'm very good at doing. I like Steam for the convenience, nothing else.

Honestly, the best kind of server is just one with good admins who know what they're doing. However, so many servers, even those of units that I respect, don't seem to have much coordination going on. The only server I have found that is consistently well-policed is the 7th Cavalry server, for the simple reason that the unit is big but still well-organized. Other units either have no real control over their public servers or are only in control for a small amount of time. In this game, quality of admin largely seems to determine quality of gameplay if something bad happens. This can be extremely annoying, because in many servers, this means that a single misbehaving player can ruin a game people have put hours into in a few minutes. I'm trying to prevent this with a method that, I admit, is very heavy-handed, but I think is well worth it. If you can stop some idiot from running off with a rocket launcher to destroy a tank because he actually has to put effort into getting that rocket launcher, I think that's good. If you can stop a new player from crashing an MV-22 full of players into a mountain, why not? Yes, it's a pain in the butt for the ArmA veterans, but it will help keep out the influx of idiots in each new ArmA title. People who want to learn the game will learn it, and people who don't want to - well, they won't. If you're stuck on something as a new player, just be smart about it. Use the forums. Use other people on Teamspeak. Use the in-game text chat, for crying out loud. If you're not smart/determined enough to do these things, I'm not sure I want you next to me when the rest of the squad is dead and we're the last ones standing. This is server-side. It's at the admin's discretion to utilize. It's not an issue if you don't want it to be. As for the question about mission cycles.... Honestly, I think a mission cycle that goes between Domination and an airpower-centered mission would be kind of odd, to say the least, but I still don't think people who don't know how to fly aircraft/use certain weapons should be allowed to waste slots with those weapons in multiplayer.

I got into this game all on my own. Here's basically what happened to me. Back in the days when BFBC2 was the battlefield game everyone was playing, I happened on a post talking about some "super-boring military simulator" called ArmA2. I ignored the super-boring part of that sentence and went for the military simulator part, searched for ArmA2, and came up with ... nothing really that helpful. I couldn't find anything that told me exactly what the game was like, and I was too dumb to search for videos. I was afraid it might be like CoD, but with rifles that kill in one shot instead of five. (Yes, I was a total idiot back then.) So I searched for ArmA2 Guide, came up with dslyecxi's TTP2 and read through the whole thing. What really got me into the game was the vehicles - I saw that there were a zillion of them, and it made me happy. :) So I tried to buy the game. There were all these different versions of ArmA, and I had no idea what was what. It took me about half an hour to find out that ArmA2 CO was ArmA2 and OA combined. Luckily, Steam didn't give me any trouble installing the game. The first thing I did was jump into the campaign. I couldn't hit a barn door with my rifle (on average, it was taking me three shots to hit one target on the carrier), and it took about 5 minutes for me to figure out how to vault an obstacle. Razor Team rode the Venom in, and I was like "Finally, action!" Unfortunately, I had no idea what my AI was shooting at. I shot three enemies through the entire mission. I got to the point where Miles is shot, then realized I had no idea what I was doing, and quit the campaign. I started looking for some way to get my skills up, and found Boot Camp. I did some of the Boot Camp missions, which helped me understand the very basics of the game. It still took me a week just to pass the vanilla firing range, though. It was still a long time before I managed to do anything useful in combat. For the first week or so of playing MP, I would just shoot my rifle in the same direction everyone else was shooting, because I had no idea what to shoot at. Luckily, I managed to find magnified scopes and use those. Total Time Invested: 2 months or so Hair-Pullingly Frustrated Moments: At least 15 or so End Result: Priceless

Hmm. I'll try that at some point.

I can answer some of your questions, but not all of them. I use Steam, so my knowledge of the DVD-based version is somewhat limited. For your question about mods: Mods are undeniably awesome. After I started using the ACE mod, it was hard to go back to Vanilla. However, I would recommend starting off with the vanilla game and learning it first. ArmA2 has a very steep learning curve; ACE will only make it worse. For your question about patches: All you need to do is install the game, find the latest patch online and install it, and you should be good to go. :) For your question about Reinforcements: For Steam at least, Reinforcements installed into Combined Ops the first time I ran it. This might be the same for the disk versions. Try running RFT and seeing if it goes over into CO.

Uh-oh. When I attempt to download the ACE version from File Front, I get a page saying "Page not found." I think you need to update your mirrors. I'm having great fun with the normal campaign though, great work!

This may be the same problem as in Mission E08 - Armor Training where you cannot switch to the M240 machine gun. After patch 1.60, certain weapon class names were changed (M240 was changed to M240BC), but some code was not edited to accommodate for this, rendering certain parts of the code ineffective. A little bit more detail would be nice though. Can you switch to the HELLFIRE and just can't get it to target, or can you not switch to the HELLFIRE at all? Also, if you are using any mods, turn them off. I'll see if I can replicate this myself.

Really? I hadn't noticed that the SUV could take that much damage in that mission. If the ZU-23 Ural ever engages me, my vehicle is often disabled within the first volley. That's why I take it out on foot. However, if I accidentally go over the hill in the SUV before engaging it, I tend to be fairly screwed. Even if I retreat back over the hill, then crawl over the rise prone, the ZU-23 will always rip me up. I have to be careful I don't go too far forwards. It's a balance between moving far enough to the right so that the infantry squad behind the rocks won't engage you, but not moving so far that the ZU-23 can see you. Can be hard to do sometimes.

I can't see the picture; until I can, I can't really do much to help you. Make sure to check you're not filtering for something weird though. That could be the problem.

Uh, actually, that's wrong, Haz. Backseat moderating isn't appreciated either....

I can see why many people dislike this idea, but I still believe it would go a long way to reducing the number of idiots on public servers. In vanilla ArmA2, even in a well-moderated server where you should be on TS3 to fly, idiots grab the helicopters without authorization and crash them several times every day. Then there are the people who are always taking a sniper rifle and an AT launcher. Then there are the people who stand around, look at your character writhing on the ground, shoot at you a few times with their rifle, and wander off. My point is that there are a lot of people who play this game who have simply no idea what to do. I'm trying to minimize that by forcing them to learn. Remember, this is a server-side option....

Really? I heard that SIX Updater caused issues with launching the game, so I never used it to launch my game. I use it to install my mods though, so I know my way around. Thanks!

Yes, all of you people who say that you don't need training have a point. You don't need it, and some of you probably think it would just be a pain in the ass. Well, you're right. But I've seen a lot of people who do need it. I'm talking about the idiots who grab a Chinook and crash it into the middle of base 5 seconds later. Or the guy who tries to revive you with an enemy 5 steps away and gets his head shot off. Most of these people need to be forced into learning what to do. Basically, this will prevent a lot of unwanted chaos. Yes, it will be somewhat annoying for some of us, but it will be helpful in the long run. Anyways, like you said, it only affects the default BI missions. It won't affect whatever you make for a clan op, and multiplayer mission-makers will be able to choose whether they want to include it or not. I can see why this would annoy certain people though. I find the training missions fun - I like to try to learn the new little things about a game before I jump right into multiplayer. ArmA3 is going to be different from ArmA2, and this is one way to learn about the differences. But plenty of people probably disagree with me.

I like to use Steam, but I know plenty of people who don't like it at all. BIS should let people keep their freedom of choice as to whether they like to use Steam or a physical DVD. I've never used the optical drive on my computer, nor do I plan to anytime soon, but that doesn't mean everyone else feels that way. And Steam does have its problems. Like how Offline Mode doesn't work unless you've already been online. Counterintuitive much?

I'd prefer it if BIS released its expansions as DLC's, doing it like BAF and PMC. BAF and PMC didn't give the community any trouble, but there was still a reason for people to buy them. (Those who have seen the NLAW scope before and after buying BAF will understand me.) OA made problems for servers because half the people couldn't see Vanilla vehicles. Certain servers just took off their ArmA2 Vanilla vehicles, which is a shame, because the Marines' stuff is awesome. Tl;dr: Standalone Expansions = Bad.:(

I have a strange problem. I've created the "Campaigns" folder in my ArmA2 directory and placed the SEAL Team 6 DEVGRU folder inside of it. I have all of the proper mods installed, including the Robert Hammer weapon packs. However, when I click on Campaigns in game, I get a message saying: "No entry 'Campaigns/DevgruV3.0/description.ext.campaign'." I've probably made a really stupid error and just haven't realized it.... Thanks for the help!

I really need this. I thought I was going to be putting this on my bookmarks bar.... Then I saw what had happened to megauploads.com. Oh dear. :(

Here are a few things I suggest. Bind the "Optics" function to a mouse button so you can easily use the sights of crew-served weapons. You'll need this in ACE. Bind the "Toggle View" function to the most easily accessible mouse button. This might not be so great for most people, but I am constantly switching between 3rd and 1st person view when I fly fixed-wing or attack rotary aircraft. Put "Hold Breath" to Tab. Bind helicopter controls to a Battlefield-style system. Unbind the "Left turn" and "Right turn" functions entirely, as they do not help you fly. You need to have total control over all functions of the helicopter. (This doesn't apply if you have a joystick.) Bind the Zoom In / Zoom Out keys to V and B if you only use zooming in vehicles. (Like me.)

Yes, I have found the non-reversing SUV's annoying myself. There have been several times when I come out of a hull down position, thinking I've eliminated all of the enemies, and a guy I didn't notice starts shooting at me. Then, when I try to order the driver to reverse, he starts trying to turn around and usually gets stuck. It's gotten me killed a few times from people with RPG-7's. Miniguns are fun, yes. :) I prefer the CROWS or GPK HMMWV's though, because you can't get killed as easily in them. The SUV has paper-mache armor as well.

Great job guys! I've wanted to play a Vietnam War-based game for a while, but I never found anything to equal Battlefield Vietnam. Now I found this, which is even better.

Nice to see that these have been updated for 1.60. So many missions have become relatively unplayable after the AI improvement. It's nice to see that this campaign is still going strong. :) Thanks Sick1!

The AI doesn't drive or fly very well in this game. If you want to get somewhere in a vehicle, it's best to drive it yourself. The AI isn't nearly as incompetent at combat as it is at driving, so I suggest having the AI dismount and you drive the HMMWV. As for the helicopter.... AI can't fly very well in this game. They routinely crash into mountains and stuff (not as bad since 1.60, but still not great). I know certain mods like SLX can fix this to an extent, but BIS missions don't like mods.