Collection of Undocumented/Lesser-Known Features

Every day I run into players which do not know very many things about how to play ArmA. Many of these are navigation, equipment, key binding, server voting, map marking, or AI issues. Please bear with the list as everything on it has been unknown by at least 5 players (including myself on occasion) that I have come across.

Hopefully this list and additions from other forum members will inform new, seasoned, and veteran players alike in the oft-confusing in's and out's of ArmA and make everyone enjoy the game much more.

COLLECTION OF UNDOCUMENTED/ LESSER-KNOWN FEATURES IN ARMA

Multiplayer: Briefing / Creating Screen

1. If an admin moves a player to a slot forcibly, the player is stuck to that slot and needs the admin to unassign him to allow free choice again during that mission.

2. Disabling AI on a mission with group respawn allows infinite respawn and JIP (untested).

3. With a mixture of AI and humans, often it is best to have the human be the group leader instead of AI.

4. Gray names mean the player is not assigned, red names mean the player has not finished loading the mission, yellow names mean the player has not selected the "I'm Ready" option, and green names indicate players who have marked themselves "I'm Ready."

5. During a game any individual slot with the "AI disabled" for that slot will cause a character death upon disconnection. If there is a human-occupied with "AI enabled" then disconnection will cause an AI to take over the player's character. Allowing him to return later nearly where he left off. Without the "AI backup" the rejoining player will have to spawn again fresh or be unable to play for the rest of the mission depending on the mission.

6. During the briefing each individual can select gear from the gear pool before the mission starts by clicking on their name in the "Group" tab of the briefing docket. The gear pool is shared per side.

43. Pressing the "Home" key in the select slot screen scrolls the screen to your current position.

Multiplayer: Information Screens

7. The "P" Player screen can show you: time since mission start, mission name, actively connected player list, player pings and desync, squad.xml information and more.

8. The "I" scoreboard shows kills and scores for the top few players. Not all players are necessarily shown and some players shown may no longer playing.

Multiplayer: Chat and Voting

9. Typing the command "#userlist" will display all currently connected players, their game-session-number, if they are admin, and their game ID.

10. Voting to kick a (ex.) Mr_Player can be done with "#vote kick Mr_Player" or "#vote kick 123" if Mr_Player has a game-session-number "123".

11. Voting to make Mr_Player an admin can be done with "#vote admin Mr_Player" or "#vote admin 123" if Mr_Player has a game-session-number "123".

12. The command "#vote missions" votes that the server return to the missions selection screen.

13. The chat history buffer can be scrolled by opening the chat window (as if about to type a new message) and by pressing PgUp or PgDn to scroll old messages.

14. There are 5 channels in game GLOBAL, SIDE, GROUP, VEHICLE, and PROXIMITY. You can switch what channel you are speaking in with the " , " and " . " keys.

15. You can highlight text in the chat entry field with shift, also End, Home, Ctrl-C, and Ctrl-V work for copy and paste for text.

51. With the chat entry field open you can change channel with Left_Shift + Up/Down Arrows.

Map and Map Markers

16. Map markers can be made in many shapes and colors. After double-clicking the up/down arrow keys cycle through a list of marker shapes and left_shift + up/down arrow keys cycle through many colors.

17. Map markers are placed in channels, just like the text chat. Be aware that only people in your group will see markers placed in group channel, side in side channel, etc.

18. Map markers are not visible to people who joined the game after the marker was placed.

19. Markers can be deleted by putting the mouse cursor over the marker and hitting the del key on the keyboard.

20. Map coordinates are given with two-letters and two-numbers. "Hg54" for example is where the "Hg" column and the "54" row meet. The letters and numbers are around the the edge of the map.

21. Numbers around the map refer to hill peaks. The number is the height in meters.

22. Items such as compass, radio, and watch in map screen are movable and resizable with mouse.

HUD and User Interface

23. A movement order such as "1: 5, MOVE TO 16 28" can be read as "Group member number 5, move in the direction 160 degrees (nearly south) for 280 meters."

24. If your character has an active move order, then there will be an orange mark on the compass pointing to it. This works in servers with even the most strict difficulty settings.

25. Hitting esc and then exiting the menu (esc again) will cause some HUD information (leader position and distance) that has faded from view show up again.

44. Iron sights on some weapons can be made to zoom out to maximum extent and stay zoomed out by pressing 2x Numpad_Minus. Suitable for close combat.

Weapons and Inventory

26. Adding the first magazine to a weapon with the weapon already in inventory will cause the weapon to not be loaded. (Example: Equipping M136 launcher and then getting first M136 magazine/rocket after. M136 will have to be reloaded before firing. If M136 rocket is moved into inventory automatically when getting M136 launcher or at least one rocket is already in inventory then M136 will not have to be reloaded.)

27. Laser designators need a battery to work and must be switch on and off. One (1) battery will last a long time but will eventually run out.

42. Magazines in inventory are automatically arranged from most full to least full.

50. Accessing the Gear screen via "G" while in a vehicle allows the player (and AI) to exchange weapons and magazines with the vehicle magazine cargo space.

Artificial Intelligence

28. AI in a vehicle owned by another human player (multiplayer, owner is often 'driver' will not respond to a disembark order. Human vehicle owner must exit the vehicle before the AI will disembark.

29. AI which are in the Away state and ask "Where are you?" can be given a halt order (1-6) and will stop and won't ask "Where are you?"

30. The group leader can access the inventory of the group AIs by clicking the AI's name in the "Group" tab of the Briefing docket.

31. (0-1) Radio command "Ready" will often fix annoying AI "follow X" glitches.

41. Color sub groups ordered (in one command) to move somewhere will do so in formation. They will attempt to maintain the same old formation positions, following the pseudo group leader. AI will not hassle with this when told to move somewhere one at a time.

Multiplayer: Evolution mission

32. Enemies are spawned in each city when a player gets close. Getting close to a city other than what most people are attacking can cause many AI to be alive at once and cause server problems.

33. Enemy AI are unaffected by fog in the foggy zones and will shoot for a longer range than human players can see.

34. View distance and terrain detail can be set while playing in the transfer office.

35. The transfer office allows someone to request to join another group. The request must be accepted by the group leader.

36. Vehicles lost at sea cannot be recovered.

37. The "My Squad" page allows you to drop AI and players from the group. Also on the same page is the "My Vehicle" switch which shows all players in the current vehicle.

38. You can request to join a group if you are in the same vehicle as the other group member if you use the "My Vehicle" section of the "My Squad" page.

48. A human vehicle owner (driver/commander) gets points for kills by an AI gunner.

Keybinds and Controls

39. Reveal Target is set to right mouse button by default. Changing this control to another key can prevent a lot of accidental reporting of enemy units.

40. Hold Breath is set to right mouse button by default. Changing this control to another key will allow precise aiming without running out of breath.

45. The slow movement modifier key (default "Shift") works in all stances: standing, crouched, and prone.

46. Freelook can be accessed by holding down the Left_Alt key and can be toggled with 2x Left_Alt and Numpad_*

47. Your weapon can be lowered to a safe position by tapping 2x Left_Ctrl.

49. The commands "Fast forward" and "Slow forward" (default E and Q) allow vehicle movement slightly faster and slower than normal.

52. Units with a GPS can access a GPS minimap at any time by pressing Rt_Ctrl-M (Toggle) or <No default key> for the momentary minimap.

53. Freelook in iron sights makes the mouse move the aim inside the bounding box and not turn the player's body.

////////////////////////

Total number of tips: 53

////////////////////////

thumbsup. Nice summary. I have nothing to add atm. I didnt know that Map-Markers can be changed in color and are only visible to the group selected with the chat. good to know that. that explains a lot .

Still: If anyone finds out a rule which determinates how the newly played leader reacts that weer good. example: I got banned from a server because my character (teamleader) started to flood the chat with commands for no reason. Told all people to do something dunno why.

Oh yes - one thing i may add:

If you die as a leader with "group-respawn"-mode and at least the next slot (normally 2) is taken by another human player you will become leader in the next open slot.

Then the game will react randomly to the "Get back into formation" command. sometimes it is "All, follow Group!" and sometimes something else.

...Then the game will react randomly to the "Get back into formation" command. sometimes it is "All, follow Group!" and sometimes something else.

Press 0 and then 1 to say 'ready' whenever that happens. That will return things to normal. It is because your character has an order, and saying 'ready' cancels it.

Thanks for the list, there were a couple things which I didn't know.

You can doubleclick on the compass, gps, clock and so on while in Map-mode to make them smaller or bigger.

want to land really fast in the choppers - imagine the landing spot 5 foot above where you want to land and engage auto hover at the last second. You can come in at full speed and smack it down on the deck.

could somebody list how many satchel charges it takes to blow up each building in rts4

I think its

2 for smaller

and 3 for the bigger ones.

could somebody also link here a simple explanation of how sights work in all the weapons.

hehe some nice stuff there!

Nice compilation, did not know about changing markers on the map.

You can copy/paste text in the chat bar by selecting with SHIFT-<Arrow-Left/Right> and pressing CTRL-C (copy to clipboard) and CTRL-V (paste from clipboard).

Quote[/b] ]could somebody list how many satchel charges it takes to blow up each building in rts4

I think its

2 for smaller

and 3 for the bigger ones.

I been playing around with the satchels for RTS as generally restricted to carrying 2(+ 2 mags and a stinger) and where before i using 3 or 4 to take down a large fac ive found that 1 satchel on 2 directly opposite interior walls will bring it down.

sometimes you can actually roll away from enemy fire, but it doesnt work 100% if the enemy is closer than 150-200 meters and or they are using grenades , grenade launcher

i was once wounded as a sniper and had to crawl away to heal and i got fired at and then i started rolling around left and right and in a circle and then i got near some sandbags and got out of the enemys line of sight phuh!

also maybe not every1 knows but i suprised a friend that asked me where his handgun ammo had went and i asked if he had choosen any GL weapons and he said yes and somehow the grenade launcher grenades had taken over his handgun ammo slots. So watch that one when you have handgun and m16 GL or other Gl weapons.

also some places where cliffs and mountains are very hard to climb if you climb down towards a "hard spot" you actually fall down and increase speed and fall faster and faster and hit the ground and die made me both wtf and then laugh

Hey thanks for the tips, quick question if i may..

Is there anyway to make the AI follow a member of the group who is not the leader without having to have two different teams to start with(without using the editor ofcourse)?  

For example I have a group of 8, where two of us are humans the rest AI.  We want to split up into smaller fire teams so that three AI follow her and the other three follow me(while all staying on the same command bar)

I have tried things like holding space and alt to tell them to watch the direction then clicking on the soilder to follow but no luck so far. I'm guessing its just not possible but i thought i might as well ask.  Thanks for any help in advance.

EDIT: Ok thanks so much Frederf, thought when grouped into color they still were only under your command

Hey thanks for the tips, quick question if i may..

Is there anyway to make the AI follow a member of the group who is not the leader without having to have two different teams to start with(without using the editor ofcourse)?

For example I have a group of 8, where two of us are humans the rest AI. We want to split up into smaller fire teams so that three AI follow her and the other three follow me(while all staying on the same command bar)

I have tried things like holding space and alt to tell them to watch the direction then clicking on the soilder to follow but no luck so far. I'm guessing its just not possible but i thought i might as well ask. Thanks for any help in advance.

Yes.

Example

1: Squad Leader (You)

2: Soldier (AI)

3: Soldier (AI)

4: Soldier (Her)

5: Soldier (AI)

6: Soldier (AI)

Orders:

4, 5, 6, are Team Red

Team Read go to 13, 45

Then "team red" still stick together on "team red leader" which will be #4.

More a bug than a feature: Vehicle chat of a pilot can be/is invisible to the passengers.

I've noticed that in Evolution after an advise.

Voting is only allowed when no admin is logged in.

You can test if there is an admin logged in by typing "#userlist".

If there is an admin it will show one of the players as:

21 Espectro (Admin)

If my gamesession ID is 21.

There is a typo in number 15

Here is one you can add:

When you reload a magazine that isn't completely empty, it is moved to the end of the list in your inventory. The mags are listed from most full to least full. That will make it easier to drop magazines that are not full and replace them with ones that are.

Here is something from me I experienced torughout the whole game:

Artificial Intelligence

If you come into trouble with too many infantry running after you just get into a building. NPCs are usually not going to trow grenades at you when you are whitin a building.

In the building you can wait for them to come in in single file one after each other.

Then - if you really get run over by too many - just make it to the second floor where they will never advance to.

@Manday: That is an exploit, not a feature

You know I was contemplating introducing my statement with "...This may be rather regarded as an exploit than as a feature..." but then I recurred a famous quote which is said to sterm from MS:

"It's not a bug - it's a feature". So I decided to consider it a feature rather than a exploit.

Nonetheless there are other things said here which can be regarded as "bugs" as well. Pas grave

Magazine sorting tip added (#42)

Typo fixed (#15)

Updated info (#9)

I don't think "The AI doesn't throw grenades at you in a building" is in the spirit of this list.

bump for very useful info

i would love to see some more tips in regards to key bindings.

is it possible to tweak a file where your character will add text to the chat dialogue via a single keystroke?

Yes the "best" keybindings would be nice to see.

Change primary weapon to secondary (eg G36 to Stinger) goes with Insert/Mouse button.

1. If an admin moves a player to a slot forcibly, the player is stuck to that slot and needs the admin to unassign him to allow free choice again during that mission.

Much like it was in OFP (cant remember if its the same in ArmA). Anyway, once an admin moves a player, they would be given a padlock at the start of there name.

Yeah it's kind of a pain since sometimes the admin logging out to the player slot screen kills the whole mission

In ArmA I have never seen a "padlock" icon like in OFP so it's usually a big mystery until the admin remembers he moved someone. It would be nice to be able to move someone and then unlock them so they can move around later.

<a href="

How can I get of a low roof without hurting myself?</a>

It was easy in OFP, it's harder in Arma.

Brake the impact by going prone during your fall.

You have to run first and your timing must be perfect.

Probably a bug, but I don't mind. It hard enough to do and you can't do it from high buildings.

Here's another keybind tip.

Assign rolling and peaking to the same keys, because you can't roll while you stand or crouch, or peak while you're laying down.

Here's another keybind tip.

Assign rolling and peaking to the same keys, because you can't roll while you stand or crouch, or peak while you're laying down.

That is already done by default, and since 'Evasive left' and 'Evasive right' are used for both peaking and rolling, how could you possibly have lean and roll assigned to different keys?