What are the Game Modes?

[Maizel]

Hey guys.

I haven't played any of the earlier BIS games online, so i don't have a good idea of what to expect from the more 'exotic' multiplayer modi.

Could someone give me a brief outline on what each multiplayer mode is about?

Thanks.

[walker]

Hi Maizel

ArmA is a sandbox game with a built in editor and the most advanced Modding suite available to any game.

So you can play any type of Multiplayer (MP) you want.

ArmA has an inbuilt editor that alows you to make whatever mission you want.

MP falls in to two broad categories Player v Player (PvP) and Coop but there are others and indeed merging of those categories. The number of players can be 2 to 150 depending on server and mission.

PvP includes death matches (DM) Capture and Hold (C&H) and Capture the Flag (CTF)

Any of these can have Respawn or No Respawn the respawn can be random or at base or at captured point or into AI under you control or user choice via map click or points based or any other damn thing you could possibly think of. It is all down to the person who makes the mission you are playing. If you make the mission you get to decide; many missions have buttons available to the game server admin to set the respawn characteristics.

NOTE these are all old forms of MP in ArmA that will be being transferred to ArmA II but with ArmA II's new features they are bound to evolve and other new forms will appear.

Domination is a dynamic coop mode as is Evolution these missions can last several days players JIP in and out and play in shifts.

Berzerk by Zaphod is a tactical Capture & Hold (C&H) PvP mode where you play as two teams trying to control terrain features, I am sure it is being ported from ArmA to ArmA II as we speak. Battles usually last 1 hour before reassign.

Capture the Island (CTI) is a form of strategic C&H PvP played with between 1 and 3 teams with Base Building and economics based on captured ground played across the whole island usually these last about 5 to 8 hours.

Warfare is a new advanced and official form of CTI. these can last a day or two.

Hexenkessel by Celery is a classic urban Close Quarters Capture The Flag (CTF) PvP

Long Valley is an old school larger open land CTF PvP

Sahrani Life is an Role Playing Game that lasts several weeks I expect a more advanced form of this to be in ArmA II as a lot of new functions in ArmA II such as the Save game in MP feature will suit it.

Capture the serial killer is an Asymmetric PvP(Asy) where one or two players play the part of a serial killer and everyone else plays the part of police and tries to capture or kill them, I expect there to be a plethora of this type of game being made in ArmA as the RPG elements will suit it

Escape and evasion is an Asymmetric PvP similar to the above but this time the premise is downed air crew.

Assassination is is an Asymmetric PvP where a couple of assassins attempt to kill a VIP who is making speeches with either a sniper rifle or a concealed pistol while the rest of the players form his close protection squad and try to prevent the assassination.

Presence Patrol is an Asymmetric PvP in form of a standard military patrol on foot and in vehicles through a village or small town while INSUGS try to kill you with rockets, mortars, IEDs, Sniper rifles and the like. BLUEFOR hunt for weapons caches and try to capture insurgent leaders or gain intell from the locals. With the new options for Role Playing Games I expect this to improve with ArmA II

Convoy is an Asymmetric PvP conducted in vehicles from town to town where the INSUGS try to ambush you along the way.

Checkpoint is an Asymmetric PvP where the BLUEFOR attempt to prevent INSUGS from building up sufficient weapons caches in a town for an assault on a key asset or to achieve a spectacular by running check points and search patrols.

I have not even gone over 1% of the missions ArmA is capable of and I have not got to the straight Coops yet.

Here is a video of ArmA I game types to be going on with
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD2n-y6rZMI

Kind Regards walker

[Maizel]

Wow, it does seem I'll get a lot of multiplayer value for my money.

Thanks for taking the time to type that all out for me, Walker it's much appreciated.

[walker]

Hi Maizel

Please be aware: It will take a little time to convert them all; days to months depending on complexity and the time available to the mission maker but that said Celery has already started coverting some of his CTF and DMs such as Hexenkessle and the like and CTI which is very complex game form has already been converted.

There will also inevitably be totaly new missions gameforms to play too.

Kind Regards walker

[MiGeL_Hotshots]

Thats a nice list walker I think when people ask me I will refer to it.
Manage to find one mistake though as I play mostly cti and warfare the game does not tend to last 1-2 days. It can last up pretty long for a pvp map but the complexity and presure the map brings would crash the server well before that also if there is a dedicated team on one side ( doesnt matter if on other side ) there is enough pressure to bring down a player build base quite quickly duo to effectiveness of teamwork ( lasering and bombing, arty + scouts, coordinated attacks and most other tactics envolving 2 or more players ). In these days they last up to 3-5 hours on community like servers.

[walker]

Hi MiGeL_Hotshots

Only played CTI and Warfare fully to completion about 8 or so times. Mostly I just jipped in for few hours and most of my full CTI and Warfare were when they first came out and people were still discovering tactics so they did last whole days then. Since then I jipped into them for a couple of hours at a time, so it is some time since I played a full CTI end to end.

So I bow to your current knowledge of the gameplay.

Kind Regards walker

[Maizel]

I havenl;t played any of the previous OFP/Arma games online, but I understand Arma had a host of user made multiplayer modes, such as Warfare(?).

I have a question regarding the non official multiplayer modus.


If a server runs said multiplayer mode, will i download all the files needed, from the server I;m connecting to? or will I have to search the web for specific files?


Cheers!

[whisper]

It depends.
If the "mode" use only content from the original game (units, vehicles, islands), then the mission itself will be automatically downloaded.

If the mission requires some 3rd party addons or mods (change or additions in units/vehicles/islands), then you need to download these yourself and launch the game with them enabled to be able to connect.
Usually many servers stay with "vanilla" configuration and are playable with your untouched box version

[Binkowski]

If the mission has mods / addons that you don't have running you will be required to download them before you can connect to the server. Like whisper said, if you don't have the same addon / mod as the server or mission that is running you won't be able to play that mission.

[C4SINO]

Hey guys, I'm new to this game.

I played Flashpoint Elite on Xbox, not online unfortunately but I was wondering what the MP game modes are? I'm guessing standard Deathmatch and CTF, but can anyone elaborate?