Gaiiden

TL;DR (cept for the ideas that made the list before it was left defunct) Two things involving long-range scopes on sniper rifles. The first is a common problem when playing games in widescreen format - you are looking through the scope and the entire screen is zoomed in - not just what you see through the scope. The view outside the scope is unfocused but not enough to prevent you from seeing targets enter your vision before they enter the scope, which allows for some preparation in tracking moving targets and just general awareness that is not realistic at all. The view needs to be either extremely unfocused or just simply blacked out so you can't see anything but what you see through the scope. Second is the zooming ability of the scope. For the higher-mag scope you can only flip between two zoom levels, close and far. This is a bit preposterous and certainly not how scopes with variable magnification function. I was expecting to be able to use the Zoom analogue control that lets you adjust your view to smoothly adjust the zoom of scopes.

Sorry that's not realistic. A bipod is an extremely stable platform compared to supporting the weapon with your arms in any position. Arms get tired, bipods do not. With BI's new stamina system this should (does?) have an affect. Even supporting a rifle in the prone position causes strain on your arms which causes very slight wobbling - but this wobbling is magnified greatly when looking through a 24x scope. I know for sure that I am far more accurate using a bipod with my real AR15 looking through a 24x scope than I am supporting the rifle with just my arms. The sway/recoil in Arma is definitely less while lying in prone, but in no way as stable as with a bipod. I realize you may be thinking more of normal infantry weapons, where a red-dot sight or iron sights make the prone position without a bipod seem like a very stable platform - but that's close range. Anyone using the sniper rifles should rightly be crying loudly for proper bipod support.

well crap that did it. The Field Guide said to look for the Diamond symbol on the scope to indicate a lock and the Diamond appears as soon as you target - it didn't mention the color of the diamond or the fact that it takes a few seconds to lock on. Still - I should have realized a non-steady tone meant it was seeking a lock. Thanks!

I'm also having problems shooting down the chopper. I have a Titan missile launcher and Titan AA missile from the car, which is supposed to be a guided missile according to the Field Guide. I'm kneeling behind the shed and I sight in on the chopper and use my Target button. I get a positive lock-on and tone. Yet when I fire the missile it just shoots off in a straight line - doesn't even look like it's being led off by the flares the chopper dumps. I used artillery for distraction and silenced the guard at the car - I was able to make FOUR trips to the car to re-arm and shoot at the helicopter again before the enemy finally came back and took me out. I got off one shot another time before getting killed - same behavior of the missile giving me a lock-on then just firing straight like an RPG. Also shooting at the helicopter from behind as it moves away, it immediately dumps flares as soon as I launch. They can't see me, so I can only assume it's their lock warning telling them a missile is inbound - but again if I'm locked why isn't it seeking? is this an issue or am I missing something? I read the Field Guide on using launch systems and pretty sure I got it right.