Solution to run Combined Ops through Yoma for Steam users?

[CoolFire]

Hi all,

I have bought ArmA2 and Operation Arrowhead off Steam. BIS have kindly been trying to fix the issue with combining the 2 games into Combined Operations with batch files but for a player like me who likes to use mods and addons it can be a bit of hazzle to edit and create different batch files to fit my need for different mod strings.

In my gaming group we were used to run our custom modsets for ArmA2 through Yoma Addon Sync (thank you for this very nice tool, Yoma ) and some of us were sad not being able to run Combined Operations with mods/addons as we were used to.

However, I think I've found a solution. This setup works for any server you wish to join through Yoma.

First make sure that you're running the latest version of Yoma Addon Sync and that it is pointing to your ArmA2OA.exe in the OA exe field under settings.

Now, in Yoma go to the Launch Game tab and select Advanced on the tab to right under the Server Info window. Put this into the Custom arguments field:

"-mod=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2;Expansion;ca"
Adjust directories to point to where your ArmA2 and Operation Arrowhead folders are located.

Remember to put a " at the beginning and at the end of the string. See screenshot of where to put in this custom mod string in Yoma if necessary.

How to run Combined Ops. with a beta build through Yoma:

First, point to your OA beta.exe in the "OA exe" field on the settings page in Yoma Addon Sync:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead\Expansion\beta\arma2oa.exe
Adjust directory to point to where your Operation Arrowhead beta.exe is located

Edit the Custom Arguments field to read this:

"-mod=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2;ca;Expansion;Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expan sion" (without an extra space in the last mentioned "Expansion" word!)
Adjust directory to point to where your ArmA2 folder is located

Remember to put a " at the beginning and at the end of the string.

For both setups, Combined Ops and Combined Ops+Beta build, you can tick "No splash", "World=empty" etc. on the basic launch options tab and create mod sets using the "Add modset" button as you see fit.

When downloading addons they should all be placed into your Operation Arrowhead folder.

Voila! Now you can create and load any modsets on the Launch Game tab as normal in Combined Ops mode through Yoma Addon Sync.

Feel free to leave any feedback..

[Yoma]

• Normally you should be able to put the modstring in the textbox under the modsets panel in "launch game" (without "" in the string).
• When the beta folder is in the modstring the tool should autoselect the OA exe in the beta folder (if the nonbeta exe is selected in settings)
• If you add an "addons" subfolder with a single bogus textfile in beta/expansion you should be able to select all folders to load the beta correctly.
• In the Add modset form you should be able to select an external modfolder (this way you can browse to your Arma2 folder

Thanks for posting this info, it may help some people. Unfortunately i don't have the steamversion so i can't really test how it reacts.

[CoolFire]

Normally you should be able to put the modstring in the textbox under the modsets panel in "launch game" (without "" in the string).

Tried that, both without and with -mod= in the string and got an error message.

In the Add modset form you should be able to select an external modfolder (this way you can browse to your Arma2 folder

Tried to point to the arma 2 folder using the "browse" function on the External modfolder tab. I selected the top arma 2 folder trying to activate that "ca" option for arma 2 and got a mod string like this (with the beta build):

S:\Programmer\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2;Expansion;ca;Expansion\beta;Expansion\beta\Expan sion

Again I get an error msg when launching the game.

The error msg I get in both cases is this one:



(But my directories for A2 and OA are the ones as stated in that msg)

When I do launch the game ignoring the error clicking "Yes" I am however able to see all the 5 islands for A2 and OA when I go into the editor so I guess the two games are combined. Still - when I use the solution as I show in my post above, I don't get any error so that's the one I'll use.

[Turkeys]

I found a typo that was causing a mess of problems for me in your custom argument for using Combined Operations with the beta patch. The part at the end of the argument which reads expan sion should be one full word. If it is kept seperated than the game gets constant CTDs using certain commands such as Move There, some commands get jumbled up (Status commands), and there are constant bin errors and such. I'm just letting you know incase more come in with the same error

[CoolFire]

I found a typo that was causing a mess of problems for me in your custom argument for using Combined Operations with the beta patch. The part at the end of the argument which reads expan sion should be one full word. If it is kept seperated than the game gets constant CTDs using certain commands such as Move There, some commands get jumbled up (Status commands), and there are constant bin errors and such. I'm just letting you know incase more come in with the same error

I did know about the extra spaces in my post. They appear after pressing "submit post" but when I actually made it or try editing it, the spaces don't show in the preview. Sorry for any inconvenience but there's nothing I can do about it, I guess

EDIT:
Added "(leave the extra space out!)" to the last mentioned custom argument string - hope that will help to avoid any confusion.

Glad to hear that you also found this solution with Yoma addon sync. useful, Turkeys. Happy gaming.

[HateDread]

Howdy there,

Just wondering how you would suggest a friend runs Combined Ops when OA is bought off Steam and ArmA 2 was bought hard-copy, including an OA beta patch, too, and all his mods?

- HateDread

[TheHarvesteR]

What I did to run Steam OA:CO through SpiritedMachine's launcher (should work for Yoma's too), was to create a symbolic link in OA's folder pointing into A2's folder, so it gets detected and loads like a mod.

A symbolic link is like a windows shortcut on steroids... it works like a wormhole though which a folder can be effectively in two places at the same time. (normal shortcuts don't do that... they just take you to the folder when you click it. this is different)

Sadly there is no button to create a symbolic link, you have to do it via the cmd prompt.

Ok, here's how you do it:

First of all, Start Menu->Run->type: cmd

Then, find the path to your OA folder (should be something like C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2 operation arrowhead)

in the command prompt, navigate to that folder
type: cd "pathToYourOAfolder" (you need the quotes if the path has spaces in it)

once there, type:
mklink /d "@arma 2" "pathToYourA2Folder" (that would be the path to your standard arma 2 installlation folder, which should be inside steamapps\common too)

You should see a 'symbolic link created <==> something' message on the prompt.

Now check your OA folder... you'll see an '@arma 2' icon there that looks like a shortcut, but it's actually a tunnel into A2's folder. Now if you click on it, it should take you to A2's folder. The thing here is that, unlike normal shortcuts, this link can also be used by applications, so your launcher should pick up on that as any other mod

This way, you can enable CO by simply enabling the @Arma 2 mod
This should also work for Steam AO / DVD or Sprocket ArmA installs... just point the link to the A2 folder.

Hope this was clear enough.

Cheers

[kylania]

Howdy there,

Just wondering how you would suggest a friend runs Combined Ops when OA is bought off Steam and ArmA 2 was bought hard-copy, including an OA beta patch, too, and all his mods?

- HateDread

Use a launcher. It solves all the problems. Dozens of pages of posts for a problem solved by a single program. Just the launcher, links? Nonsense! Use the launcher.

Point it at arma2.exe, point it at arma2oa.exe, point it at your beta, DONE.