Insane keyboard commands

I bought Arma II today on Steam with very high hopes because it has a reputation for realism, but the controls are just insane.

I don't even know if I'll play the game at all at this rate. There is a button for Prone, and another button for Go Prone....WTF? There are just dozens of vague, poorly described, superfluous and seemingly redundant commands. There is a freaking Salute command. What the hell is going on with this game? Is there a simplified keyboard layout?

Can I stack vehicle and infantry commands? The command is highlighted in red if it another key is using it, but does this matter if it's a vehicle command stacked on top of an infantry command? Can I ignore some of these commands entirely, or will that bite me in the butt later?

If you're going to feed me grief to the effect of "get used to it noob" please don't. I use a very unconventional keyboard layout so being able to customize the controls is a key part of any game, for me. I'd hate to think that I wasted my money on an unmanageable game.

Yes, it is pretty complex for a modern game. Grab only what you need as you go, you'll only need one prone key and definitely not salute. WASD is the standard, and if you dont adopt it, your going to have to reconfigure a lot of keys at install, thats just how it is.

Also your in the wrong section, this is for Arma 1.

I bought Arma II today on Steam with very high hopes because it has a reputation for realism, but the controls are just insane.

I don't even know if I'll play the game at all at this rate. There is a button for Prone, and another button for Go Prone....WTF? There are just dozens of vague, poorly described, superfluous and seemingly redundant commands. There is a freaking Salute command. What the hell is going on with this game? Is there a simplified keyboard layout?

Can I stack vehicle and infantry commands? The command is highlighted in red if it another key is using it, but does this matter if it's a vehicle command stacked on top of an infantry command? Can I ignore some of these commands entirely, or will that bite me in the butt later?

If you're going to feed me grief to the effect of "get used to it noob" please don't. I use a very unconventional keyboard layout so being able to customize the controls is a key part of any game, for me. I'd hate to think that I wasted my money on an unmanageable game.

As you bought it from Steam you probably haven't received the key command print out that's in the boxes when you buy off a shelf. It may be a good idea to google for a scanned image of that or politely ask in the forums if someone has it on file and would make it available to you. Most people here will understand your "shock" as per the sheer amount of key commands. However as in real life, some things have a high level of complexity and this simulator is just like that.

A little complexity example. Hitting a target at distance using for example an M24 sniper rifle requires you to make sure the gun is loaded, your aim is right, you estimated the target distance correctly, adjusted your sights correctly for bullet drop compensation as wind speed and air friction affect the bullet in flight and the target is not out of range in the first place which means you must know the max range and zeroing of your weapon of choice. However the vehicles in this game are kept quite simple to operate. I would suggest that you play around with those in the Armory a bit to familiarize yourself with the game mechanics. Helped me a lot back then.

If you're not willing climb a steep learning curve, the game will most likely frustrate you very quickly and the key commands are just the start really.

I also bought all of my games from Steam and you can see the complete key maps in the manual link that is available through the menu at the right when you highlight your game icon on your game list.

I never really saw the point of having keymaps as I have always went straight to the controls and changed them

accordingly was never really fond of default controls.

Pretty much every fps game I have ever played were all the same in terms of key setup, unless it was a flight simulator

of some sort then theres only so many controls to change in that way, then you'd have most controls going to a joystick.

But basic controls in Arma2 and OA havent really changed all that much from OFP, granted there are def more starting with Arma.

The reason there are so many is to allow a lot of customization. The default setup I find to be pretty terrible. Also, as Gunter mentioned a lot of us who are too used to OFP have the flexibility to set up the controls to be more like OFP, which is probably why I find the defaults so bad.

Just keep in mind that they all are different, even if only slightly so, and you certainly don't want to use them all (only about 20% really need to be assigned to anything).

IMO, ArmA 2 is a kind of game that really needs to be catered to each user differently. I don't know very many people who play (and enjoy) it as it comes right out of the box...

---------- Post added at 01:48 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:41 AM ----------

Can I stack vehicle and infantry commands? The command is highlighted in red if it another key is using it, but does this matter if it's a vehicle command stacked on top of an infantry command? Can I ignore some of these commands entirely, or will that bite me in the butt later?

Yes, even if they are red they will still work. You can pretty much get away with anything; even if you map 2 or more things to the same key it will usually work. Like you mentioned, some commands are specific only to vehicles. And yes, there will be a lot you should just ignore (ex: some of them are alternatives to others, so it'd be harmful to use both).

Best advice I can give you is take it one thing at a time and tweak it as you go. Get all the basic infantry stuff you need first. There are also tutorial missions that will show you what some of the controls you need do. Chances are unless you find yourself in a situation where you can't do something you know you should be able to in the game, then don't worry about what all the other things that you can't figure out do.