Veteran difficulty - Tips for playing without "TAG's" and "Extened Map Info"

[jpinard]

I'd like to get better immersion by upping my difficulty level to "Veteran", but wow is it hard! Without the map showing where I am and the identified enemies, I'm blind... and not having TAG information I'm constantly shooting friendlies.

So I was hoping some of you who have made the transition to Veteran can give us advice on how to be more effective.

Also - does the mission maker have to integrate something special for GPS to work? I made some test missions and when I bring up the GPS nothing functions.

[kylania]

To use the GPS, you need to have the GPS item in your inventory.

this addWeapon "ItemGPS";

As for getting your bearings without map contacts, if you have the GPS you can RCtrl-M and see yourself on the mini-map. Short of that you'll need to rely on your Mk I Eyeballs for spatial location services.

Look around for landmarks, roads especially. The small boxes on the map are 100m square, so if you see that there's a T intersection 100m NE of you and you find that on the map, you'll be able to place yourself. It's difficult, but not impossible, to keep track of yourself on the map. For OA at least the map is smaller than it seems, meaning you might think you haven't traveled far but you might have.

For traveling long distances in a car use the GPS and leave yourself markers. At each intersection put a small black dot with R or L indicating which way to turn. Do this in the Vehicle Chat channel to avoid messing up the map for everyone else. That way as you're driving along you'll see the marks on your mini-map and be able to make the turns you need.

As for detecting the enemy. Just pay attention really. That part is still making me dead! I can never tell where fire is coming from and it's exhilarating! heh

[Imperator_Pete]

I seriously do not understand how people can friendly fire in incidents other than CQB. Learn the uniforms of your targets and how to identifty weapons they're carrying as well as what sounds they make and you'll never shoot another team mate again.

As for map location and what not, if you've played for long enough you should eventually be able to tell your location just from your surroundings alone. Otherwise just use basic map reading skills and use your compass and GPS (if you're issued with one) to identify your location. Time can be telled by the location of the sun in the sky which you can also use to tell your heading.

GPS only gives you your current map grid co-ordinates, but this is more than enough for you to figure out where you are and if you need to, double click on the map to add icons showing where you are and where you need to go to.

My best suggestion would be to just use the editor, plonk yourself down on the map and then try to get from A-B.

[jpinard]

I should clraify this is just single player. I'm not shooting humans in mp.

As for detecting the enemy. Just pay attention really. That part is still making me dead! I can never tell where fire is coming from and it's exhilarating! heh

See that's the killer (bad pun) for me too. Using the map with extended map info feels like cheating, but without it engaging people at distance is really hard. I'm so bad right now my AI team-mates have killed everything before I can identify someone as civilian, enemy or friendly... or I'm dead and so are my mates so I can't tell anyways.

[Nokturnal1ne]

One method i've always found to be useful when i can't determine where enemy fire is coming from is to quickly look at your team-mates as they return fire and face the same direction as them, then it's just a matter of waiting for movement or muzzleflash.

I'd also agree with the other suggestions - Landmarks are very helpful when you've got no GPS and a compass is always handy, especialy when advancing through forests at night.

Only other thing i can think of is just keep paying attention to your surroundings. It'll get to a point where you'll be running through a town and without looking at a map or GPS you'd know whether it's Chernagorsk, Novy Sobor or Khelm - They might all look the same when you first start playing, but eventually you'll recognise more and more of the island and should be able to navigate a bit easier without relying on maps.

[Iroquois Pliskin]

Observe closely, as if you were thrown into South American jungles with no supplies for 3 weeks and told to survive, because a rescue chopper will be there in 21 days.

Zoom in on the areas you think might be hazardous to your health, use the ALT to look around, while zooming in - there would be no Arma without the ALT key.

If you don't have a 5(7).1 sound system, play with your headphones, you don't want to be found deaf fighting in any wars.

The forth thing: memorize the landscape, the landmarks, open the Map religiously to see if you're looking at things you think you're looking at. Being thrown into combat without intel or the knowledge of the landscape - now there is hell.

I could list countless things, but I'd rather you watch my O4 Jackal playthrough on YouTube (link is in my signature).

Once you've mastered infantry combat awareness, there's always the aircraft & riding bikes down a hill somewhere in South-East Chernarus.

[Muahaha]

Please go through Dslyecxi's ArmA2 Tactics, Techniques, & Procedures Guide, it will help you a lot on how to be observant and take note of the happenings around you.

Things I do when playing on vet mode:
1. Stop to observe if you are lost. If people is shooting at you then go prone and observe the 180 arc infront for any muzzle flash.
2. If you have AI team mates, observe and listen to what/where they say/facing, in OA alot easier when they tells you the clock direction in relative with the group's direction.
3. KNOW where you are heading to... familiarize your self to where you are suppose to head... since mission you undertake is normally the highest in your to do list. It's ok to miss a few enemy along the way...
4. Know how to read your map and landmarks and also the grid location.
5. Know the difference of uniforms by colors or distinctive features like helmets, also if can know how to differentiate the type of sound different guns produces.
6. If you are totally lost or need to act in a desperate situation, cheat abit by pressing space bar to see whether it's friend or foe... Still works in Vet mode

[jpinard]

WOW! You this is all brilliant information. I thought maybe I was making things too difficult for myself, but if I take my time the game will be even more rewarding.

[Tempai]

Two handy tools to ID and locate enemy that I use are
1. If you see a man or vehicle in the distance use your Binos, scope, gun sights or if in vehicle (digital view display), place the unknown dead centre and use your REVEAL TARGET Button (defualt is right mouse), I do however suggest you change this as when you are in a vech right clicking also gives the target order, thus you end up ordering your gunner to fire at what u are trying to ID. Not good if its friendly, I have mine set to T as its default is swap teams something I never use. Mind sometimes you may need to press the button a few times and more likley than not the target will be classed as unknown however it does make your ai aware of the targets presence and they will try to ID it themselves as friendly or not, also even if you dont get a audio or text prompt that the target has been noted by you, check your target list (2) and the object will be at 12 oclock,this leads me to the most important battlefield target and fire control in the game.
2. The target list, default(2) is a life saver. When one of your AI or yourself spot a possible target they will be listed here. The fist number if there is one is which AI you control that has spotted the target and a brief description followed by a clock bearing. This bearing is always in referance to your exact facing at that moment, so if a enemy is called at 3 oclock it is 90 degs to your right. This helps because you can hit 2 to read a contacts location hit 1 (no target) turn, hit 2 repeat until the target is 12 oclock then it is a matter of scaning your current view for the object, be mindful that you may not have direct LOS from your current position if a AI has called it and that this information is of the last actual sighting (the object may have moved from where it was seen).
While the target list is up you can select any AI with their Fkey then press the number of the target to have them fire at it, If that AI has been given the Engage at Will order previously or if after giving them a target you order them to Engage from the 3 menu they will attempt to move to a clear shot of the target. When in a vehicle you do not need to select that vehicle's AI as any enemy selected on the list will be targeted by the vehicle's weapons. Thus it is handy to check yor target list often when in engagements for any threats eg rifleman AT, so you can deal with them by just selecting them on the list.

[kylania]

Please go through Dslyecxi's ArmA2 Tactics, Techniques, & Procedures Guide, it will help you a lot on how to be observant and take note of the happenings around you.

Here's the link:

http://ttp2.dslyecxi.com/

The earlier version for ArmA also available as a beautiful printed manual as well!