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160thSOAR

How to play this game?

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Hello everyone! As you must be able to tell from the title, I am new to ArmA 2. In fact, I'm not even sure if I can call myself new, as I haven't even played yet. I'm still downloading the game.

At any rate, I am coming over to ArmA 2 from a Battlefield background. I've played both Battlefield:Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 2. I've had to delete BF2 to save Hard Drive space, unfortunately. So I will only be playing BFBC2 and this game.

I'll tell you what I'm good at and bad at in the Battlefield games. With a few exceptions, what I am good at and bad at in one game usually applies to the other.

The Good:

Flying Helicopters

Sniping (BF2 Only)

M203 Usage(BFBC2 Only)

Driving Humvees and other light vehicles

Using Submachine Guns and high ROF, low DMG assault rifles like the F2000

Using AT Weapons

Flanking and combat while mobile

The Bad:

Sniping(BFBC2 Only)

Using high-recoil fully automatic weapons

Driving Armored Vehicles

Flying Planes(BF2 Only)

Fighting from a completely static position. This basically means when you and a group of allies are holed up behind cover shooting at another group of enemies who are holed up behind cover. I absolutely suck at this and usually die very fast when this happens.

That's all I can remember for right now. Due to computer troubles, I haven't been able to play either game for a while.

I know that ArmA 2 is a very different game from BFBC2 or BF2 and requires a completely different way of fighting. Generally, when I have to do this type of transition, I absolutely suck at the game I'm trying to move into. I was hoping that I could minimize this by getting help from people who are more experienced than I am before I even start playing. Basically, what I want to know is what bad habits from Battlefield I have to break. General tips are nice too, but breaking bad habits is my main goal for this thread.

I would also like to know how helicopters fly in this game compared to others. Similar controls? Harder or easier to fly? That kind of thing. But this fairly unrelated and just something I'm curious about.

Thank you very much! :yay: :yay:

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WELCOME TO THE BI FORMS :D

The Good:

Flying Helicopters

Sniping (BF2 Only)

M203 Usage(BFBC2 Only)

Driving Humvees and other light vehicles

Using Submachine Guns and high ROF, low DMG assault rifles like the F2000

Using AT Weapons

Flanking and combat while mobile

The Bad:

Sniping(BFBC2 Only)

Using high-recoil fully automatic weapons

Driving Armored Vehicles

Flying Planes(BF2 Only)

GOOD:

-

Sniping is WAAAAAY different in arma 2, you have bullet drop and ballistics

M203 usage is harder in arma 2

ArmA has terrible vehicle handling

again, smg's are not like in any other game, in arma there is ballistics

at is pretty much the same but there is rocket ballistics in arma

unless you get some ai mods the ai will spot you so flanking is hard to do

BAD:

-

go prone in arma and you will get less recoil

in arma there is 4 positions, gunner, commander, driver , loader

planes are pretty easy to fly in arma

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Hello and welcome to the community.

As for some advice follow this guide:

Tactics, techniques and procedure Guide

http://ttp2.dslyecxi.com/

If your going to get into Multiplayer then review this topic and download the guide:

New to Multiplayer? (Read this guide)

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=93078

A good way to find things out is to test things out in the editor.

For more info on the editor:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA_2:_Mission_Editor

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Thank you very much for your help!

@ArmArrific: I've shot an Airsoft sniper rifle before. Although the distances were nothing compared to real life, the pellet was much more wind-affected than a bullet would have been. The other problem was that I could see more than I could hit through the scope. At any rate, it was really difficult and I was very bad at it.

Oh well. I didn't come play ArmA 2 for the sniping. More for the Humvee with M2 and V22 Osprey. I'll probably be flying/driving all over the island and crashing with those a ton in SP mode.

Thanks for the info!

@Gunter Severloh: Your links were most helpful. I had already read the first one. That guy put a ton of work into his guide. I would pay for that if it were an eBook. :bounce3: The second one was good too, although it wasn't really what I was looking for. Thanks!

EDIT: Where are the gunsights for the weapons zeroed into? Does this differ in different weapons? Does an attached suppressor change it?

Edited by 160thSOAR
Gunsights Question

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l o l

Very constructive.

@Original Poster

Welcome to the BIS forum. :D

I recommend you try out the editor, maybe read a few guides (I'll try to find some) as it's a fantastic tool.

-MM

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Well, I played ArmA 2 for about 5 hours last night. I am absolutely awful at it.

This game is completely different from anything I've played before. Your view bounces up and down a huge amount, but that doesn't really bother me and is a pretty good simulation of running. The problem is that whenever you turn quickly, the entire world blurs into a mess. I can see what this is intended to do, but it doesn't work at all. I don't like it. Is it possible to turn off the blurring?

I spent most of my time trying to shoot targets in the first training mission. After a few hours of practice, I finally managed to get to a score of 10. The gunsight doesn't move where I expect it to.

Helicopter flying is extremely difficult as well. Instead of a WASD/mouse configuration, the controls are a complete mess. Tilting the mouse right and left and using the A and D keys seem to do the exact same thing usually. However, when the chopper is upright the mouse acts like a rudder but when I'm tilted at all it just seems to bank me more. It's really strange and I'm going to have to spend a very long time messing around with the controls to make them more Battlefield style, if it's possible.

How do you open the parachute?

What is a good key for switching between 1st/3rd person view?

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Blur: Set postprocess effects to low or none

You also can reduce the headbob in the settings...

Parachute: Mouse wheel menu

View switching: Enter (numpad), you dont need this too often, so it doesnt matter what key you take.

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Well, I've been messing around in the Armory a bit and I've discovered that I'm not too bad at operating crew-served weapons.

@Birtuma: I have a laptop so there's no Numpad. :( I'm looking for an alternate key, because I do use that function quite a bit. At the moment I'm using "P", but I discovered that doesn't work very well in multiplayer.

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EDIT: Where are the gunsights for the weapons zeroed into? Does this differ in different weapons? Does an attached suppressor change it?

Most of the assault rifles are zeroed to 300, an AK with a PSO scope is zeroed to 200. The DMR sniper got an 800 zeroing afaik.

There is a weapon zero addon from TGW that allows you to change the zeroing with PageUp PageDown on most rifles:

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=11590

You can use it in singleplayer, just create a modfolder @TGW and add -mod=TGW to the target line of your arma2oa desktop shortcut. Make sure there is a folder called addons in that modfolder where you put all files in. If you got more then one mod, seperate them with a ;

Edited by Flattermann

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Hello 160thSOAR,

The gun optics are mostly zeroed at 300 meters.Supressed weapons like the VSS Vintorez are less. When you own A2 CO or Arrowhead you can switch the aimpoint with the picture up\down keys when the optics allow that in RL.

like ArmAriffic said, there is a ballistic, so a silenced weapon can be a very bad choice (or a very good;)).

When u have a gamepad try it for flying.For me it´s much easier, but everyone is different.

edit: oops,Flatterman was faster :D

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Thank you for all the input!

@Gunter Severloh: Thanks for the link! It was very helpful, although it had quite a few typos/grammar errors lol. I know there's a wireless keyboard lying around the house somewhere that has numpad keys on it. I think I'll go find it at some point.

@Flatterrman & Baraka: Thank you too! I'll do some messing around in the editor to see just where 300 meters is. About your comment about joysticks, I've never used a joystick to fly. Keyboard and mouse is enough for people to hackusate my Blackhawk flying in BFBC2. Lolz. I'm not very good at heli flying in this game though. Practice makes perfect I guess!

I've managed to remap the helicopter flight keys to be like Battlefield. I don't have the left turn or right turn commands bound to any key, as I prefer to turn the aircraft manually with rudder pedals and banking. Maybe I'm just a dork about helicopter physics, but something seems strange about them in ArmA 2. When I go faster, the rudder becomes virtually useless unless I bank sharply while using it. Even then, I can't get the helicopter to turn very fast. This might have something to do with the fact that I didn't have anywhere to put my mouse and was using the trackpad. Idk. The other problem I had was that slowing down seemed impossible. I would flare up and drop engine power and nothing much seemed to happen. I can land, but I need a gigantic space to slow down and correct in. I overshot the airstrip once in the Helicopter Tutorial while trying to land.

P.S. The community here is very helpful. :bounce3: Much better than most other games. :yay:

Edited by 160thSOAR

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Yeah, you lose rudder control very quickly in helicopters in A2 unfortunately. Can barely yaw at all at I think over 45kph due to an exaggerated 'wind funnel' effect (the drag along the body of the helicopter 'gluing' it along its direction of travel).

There are a few tricks to flying. For fast turns, simply bank sharp and pull the nose up. You'll bleed lots of speed if you do it too sharply, but it gives pretty neat maneuverability. And as a bonus it can be used to achieve fast stops. Especially in Little Birds.

Secondly for landing it is at high speeds useless to try to 'break' the helicopter other than with sharp turning. Instead 'glide' into your landing zone. Pull the nose up a bit to start slowing down, and use the 'decelerate'-key (default 'Z') to prevent climbing. This allows you to pull the nose up slightly more.

It requires a long distance to slow in at, but also allows you to fly very low and avoid detection, and it lets you stay in better control of your helicopter and maintain good awareness of the surroundings.

With the fairly low speed when nearing landing it is pretty easy to either do a sharp break by pulling the nose up (and gain a little altitude) or break by turning, without doing anything drastic.

We don't have as good controls in A2 as real helicopters do when it comes to the tilt of the main rotor and the rotor blades, but flying isn't all that different. A2 actually got a quite okay flight model for helicopters.

Edited by Inkompetent

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The FreeFire guide was quite useful. Thank you very much!

Are the turn keys useful? I don't have them bound to anything at the moment. I think I'll put them on the Q and E keys and try them out.

I've bound the 1st/3rd person view to a mouse button. It works quite well.

I can barely control helicopters at higher speeds, but at speeds below 100kph, I'm starting to be able to fly them adequately. My shooting skills have improved slightly after being in the Armory and the Shooting Range a whole lot.

What's the best "learner" helicopter? Is there a general consensus or is it personal preference. So far all I've really flown in is the Civilian Mi-8. I've also been in a V-22, which was very easy to control in both the hover and airplane modes, but also extroardinarily slow at responding to control surfaces while hovering. I tried the Knighthawk, but it was a fiasco involving a sharp turn and some pointy trees.

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dont worry, we were all this bad at the start (i missed every target on the shooting range first time)

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You'd be better off with a joystick, it's a lot easier imho, the choppers don't react smootly enough on keyboard inputs. Landing takes a lot of practise though, it's ridiculously easy to damage them to a level where they are unable to start, especially with 3rd person view disabled. I have found a good way to combine joystick and keyboard on the landing aproach using the S and Z keys.

Landing a plane is a piece of cake though compared to OFP.

About shooting and ranges, you've probably already read it in the FreeFire guide, the grid on your map is scaled to 100m zoomed in and 1000m zoomed out. It takes a while to get a feeling for ranges in this game, so it can be helpful to briefly check your and your enemy's position on the map and estimate the distance.

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What's the best "learner" helicopter? Is there a general consensus or is it personal preference. So far all I've really flown in is the Civilian Mi-8. I've also been in a V-22, which was very easy to control in both the hover and airplane modes, but also extroardinarily slow at responding to control surfaces while hovering. I tried the Knighthawk, but it was a fiasco involving a sharp turn and some pointy trees.

Defently the Little Bird use this for learnign it will give you the skill you'll need to fly in any descent community: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=110261

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Little Bird or variants of the UH-60 are best learner-helicopters imo. Although the Cobra is pretty nice to fly as well. The Mi-8/17 and Hinds are like flying bricks, and the Apache is quite clunky too. Decent agility but horrible lift.

The Little Bird is very agile and responsive and got a lot of lift compared to weight. The UH-60 variants are pretty balanced and easy-to-fly helicopters, although nowhere near as agile as a Little Bird.

And turn-keys are very important imo. They allow some degree of yaw when speeding forward (good when using unguided rockets or other fixed weapons), and most importantly they allow you to turn the entire helicopter at low speeds, without tilting. Pretty neat when landing.

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I've managed to remap the helicopter flight keys to be like Battlefield. I don't have the left turn or right turn commands bound to any key, as I prefer to turn the aircraft manually with rudder pedals and banking. Maybe I'm just a dork about helicopter physics, but something seems strange about them in ArmA 2. When I go faster, the rudder becomes virtually useless unless I bank sharply while using it. Even then, I can't get the helicopter to turn very fast. This might have something to do with the fact that I didn't have anywhere to put my mouse and was using the trackpad. Idk. The other problem I had was that slowing down seemed impossible. I would flare up and drop engine power and nothing much seemed to happen. I can land, but I need a gigantic space to slow down and correct in. I overshot the airstrip once in the Helicopter Tutorial while trying to land.

It's at least more realistic than BC2 where you evade bullets and missiles like a primaballerina. Every pilot would have lost control over his chopper by then. It looks more like an apprentice pilot than a professional flying and is really funny to look at if your team wouldn't suck at shooting down the drunken pilot ( OP aifcraft imo ). These pilots would be frustrated how often they are shot down in ArmA 2. Some are frustrated in BC2 too where i shoot them down every time i get my hands on AAA.

Just forget everything you learned in BC2 and start from scratch. It's like in the Youtube video "How not to be a noob in BF BC2" where CoD is compared with BC2.

Bullets go where the barrel is pointed and not because some programmer put in a dispersion script to simulate inaccuracy while moving. I do things in BC2 i would never do in ArmA 2, i started playing again BC2 for some time and have to empty my brain to be able to play it.

In the end you can't really compare an action shooter with a military shooter.

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I usually turn all that off

Anisotropic filtering = Disabled

Antialiasing = Disabled

Posprocess effect = Disabled

I also run @ 3D Resolution to 200% , but you have to own a decent video card for that.

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Well, I'm slowly getting better at Helicopter flying. Attack Helicopters are amazingly easy to fly in this game since it's possible to do third person. I'm going to be doing a whole lot of mission editing once I get better at attack flying. For right now I'm mainly messing around in the Armory using the AH-1Z.

On to another question. Any tips for spotting enemy soldiers? Often, when I'm in the Armory doing a Survival or Point Defense mission, I get shot before I even see the guy. This happens a ton while I'm sitting in the turret of an M2 Humvee.

Finally, how do I switch characters around in the Campaign? I've reached the mission where you have to take out a sniper in 5 minutes and I'd like to switch over to Sykes and use his DMR to try to find the guy. If I suck at that, which I probably will, which grid is the sniper located in so I can go get up close?

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If the mission allows switching between characters it is the 'T'-key as default. Think it's possible in all campaign missions, but just beware that outside of the campaign it's often not the case.

As for spotting soldiers I can't really give more advice than to make sure your 3D Resolution in video options is at 100% or more (higher sort of works like antialiasing. Depending on graphics card it might actually give better results than using AA), and to watch carefully. Zooming in generally helps to (hold right mouse button, or hold NumPad+). Careful when being on foot and holding right mouse button though. It is also Hold Breath, so I recommend either remapping the zoom, or the hold breath button, so you don't get exhausted just from observing.

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