Noob Questions About ArmA

[mark2000]

Hi. I'm thinking about buying ArmA(mostly because of the TacSim/free-form nature of it) but I have one question. Besides the 'all-out war' nature of the game, is it also possible to play the game with a Special Forces Commando Role in mind(i.e. you and 6-8 other guys like in Ghost Recon)?

Oh and one other thing. Besides passing all the other requirements on the "Recommended Specs", I only have a GeForce 6600 video card. Will I still be able to play a decent game with decent visuals(somewhere between breathtaking and abysmal) or should I just look for another game?

Edited January 31, 2008 by mark2000

[NoQuarter]

The campaign of the US version offered varied missions i.e., you in the lead of a full squad, you in support of a team, or you (a grunt) somehow or another piloting a Cobra or A10.

The best thing about the game is being able to edit and play your own SnD or recon missions within minutes of putting it together. No 10 hour renders on this island.

Some of the interface controls are a bit quirky, and the sound is generally bad all around, but you have 100% freedom of maneuver...and that trumps all.

The games specs list the 6600 as the min required (they recommend a 6800 or better) so you'll probably have to settle for lower-end graphics, but there are 18 different video settings to tweak trying to find the sweet spot. The view distance slider is a killer.

Unless you can find the game at reduced price, I'm not sure if you'll get a good return on your dollar...considering your GPU.

Single Player (only)

____

BTW: ArmAII is apparently on the way.

[mark2000]

I see. I guess I'll have to pass for now then.

I DO have plans on replacing my card soon with a 512mb 7600GS since the next major overhaul for my entire PC is still a year too long from happening.

(Sadly, I'm one of those guys with fossil mobos that still use an AGP slot )

Will that help me somehow with this game?

[wombat50]

Armed Assualt demo 875 mb

Worth a try if you have a decent connection.

[Buehgler_AS]

Armed Assualt demo 875 mb

Worth a try if you have a decent connection.

Although the many patches that have been released have really boosted the performance of the game since the release of the demo -- so I am really not sure the demo is a good way to evaluate game performance for ArmA at this point

I have been playing ArmA on a 7900GT and I find it quite acceptable, but I am not a huge fan of eye candy. For me with this setup the visuals are reasonably immersive, and with a few mods/addons activated the sounds and smoke/explosion effects are quite reasonable. The open game-play and diversity of co-op options is what really hooks me. based on the experiences of one of my squad-mates, who recently started playing ArmA on a 6600, I would suggest that you consider upgrading. He was struggling with problematically low frame rates in quite a few situations, and we were working on his game configuration to resolve things, but he decided it was time to upgrade his video card before we managed to get his performance fully up to snuff. He is now running on an 8800 and not complaining about anything

[mark2000]

I finally got a 7600GS though I still can't find a copy of the game yet. Shame that I didn't buy it immediately when I spotted it a long time ago.(although, when you think about it, buying the game at that time kinda crosses the boundaries of common sense already)

Anyway, i seem to have passed recommended specs already by a good margin. I've also watched vids of the gameplay run on mid/low settings and they already looked decent enough IMO. Hopefully, those two sentences will give me peace of mind when I finally buy the game.

hehe. Wish me luck.

Edited February 1, 2008 by mark2000

[Noraf]

well, i'm running a digital download of the game, and have had no problems at all with that....

you can buy it from here :

http://www.armedassault.com/buy.html

[mark2000]

OMG. 3gb. I don't think I can bear with it lol. Thanks for the suggestion though. There are still a lot of places here I haven't searched yet anyway. Hopefully, I'll get lucky at some place or another.

[mark2000]

ok. here's the thing. I just got the game but the one I got was called "ArmA: Armed Assault". Is there any difference between that and the one called "ArmA: Combat Operations"?

[Buehgler_AS]

"ArmA: Combat Operations" is the US release published by Atari, while "ArmA: Armed Assault" is the final EU/world release published by 505 Games. You will have a slightly different set of patches to apply to get yourself upgraded to version 1.08, but in the end you will have the same game as everyone else (modulo a SP mission or two that "highlight" the A10).

Good luck, I hope you enjoy the game.

[mark2000]

ok. weird. the box says Armed Assault but the logo on the box says that Atari was the one that published it. what the hell?

here's a picture of the box

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v717/mark2000/Picture.jpg

[Buehgler_AS]

Strange. I'd suggest you just go ahead and install it and see what version you end up with. 1.05 was the "final" EU release, 1.06 was the US release, and you want to get yourself patched up to 1.08 ASAP. At this point everyone is either playing with 1.08 or 1.09, which is a beta test for the next/final set of patches.

[mark2000]

I've read the back of the manual and the license agreement thingy keeps mentioning Czech republic. I suppose the one I got is probably the international version (i.e. german, czech, blah blah blah). It actually makes sense since there's no existing 1.05 release for the US and there haven't been any parts in the box or manual from cover to cover that slapped the word "UK" right into my face.

...or maybe I'm just hoping that I'd better be right since I don't feel like wasting another 3 whole damn hours just to download the 1.05 patch AGAIN because I picked the wrong one.

Oh yeah. I have to download the 1.08 too lol.

[NoQuarter]

If after a successful installation you see a big bright red/white Atari splash screen you'll know that you've got V1.06 (ArmA:CO)

____

OT: Does anyone know if Atari released their own version of the Queens Gambit expansion (apart from the ArmA:Gold release)?

EDIT: Thanks Buehgler!

Edited February 5, 2008 by NoQuarter

[Buehgler_AS]

OT: Does anyone know if Atari released their own version of the Queens Gambit expansion (apart from the ArmA:Gold release)?

To the best of my knowledge Atari did not release QG separately from the ArmA:Gold combination. So the only options for North American's is either the 505 Games version (e.g. from GoGamer), or download from Sprocket.

[mark2000]

the retail version was only 1.04, unfortunately. Luckily though, the patch update worked. I'm now downloading patch 1.08 while playing the game.

One question though:

Does the draw distance also affect the enemy AI in spotting you? I kinda set mine a step below the middle mark(that's the only thing my machine can handle after all) and I honestly won't feel nice if I end up continuously getting plucked by bad guys behind the fog just because my machine isn't good enough for long range visuals.

One more thing. I wonder why everyone keeps bitching about the chopper controls? Aside from a few differences in difficulty here and there, they're basically the same things I had to cope up with while playing Grand Theft Auto.

Edited February 5, 2008 by mark2000

[Big]

I don't think so.

But for SP player you can tweak the AI by editing your profile (should be in My Documents\ArmA or /ArmA Other Profiles)

Changing :

skillFriendly=0.850000;

skillEnemy=0.850000;

precisionFriendly=0.850000;

precisionEnemy=0.850000;

Those settings till u find the ones u like on veteran or regular modes.

More info here:

http://www.armaholic.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=1775

Edited February 5, 2008 by Big

[mark2000]

Looks like I've spent enough time with the game already so here are my thoughts.

The campaign missions suck. Having been forced to act like Rambo(i.e. going solo) in more missions than I would like, it's starting to make me feel like ignoring the entire campaign already and just focus on getting the mods and doing my own missions (I love the mission editor. So damn easy to use. )

I'll probably try out multiplayer too after I get better at stuff. I still don't know how to use a medic and I've yet to fly the VTOL harriers yet. Although this may not be of any use in multiplayer but I wanna spend abit more time getting used to the outrageously complex command system. The complexity just screams "Uber Micro"!

I still have a few questions though:

Could someone tell me how to order an AI to land a chopper instead of simply letting it hover in the air?

and

Is there no way to edit a unit's default equipment when using the mission editor?

I don't think so.

But for SP player you can tweak the AI by editing your profile (should be in My Documents\ArmA or /ArmA Other Profiles)

Changing :

skillFriendly=0.850000;

skillEnemy=0.850000;

precisionFriendly=0.850000;

precisionEnemy=0.850000;

Those settings till u find the ones u like on veteran or regular modes.

More info here:

http://www.armaholic.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=1775

I'll keep that in mind, thanks. I haven't installed patch 1.08 yet so I'm still not certain how much modding I'll need to do with the AI.

Edited February 5, 2008 by mark2000

[Noraf]

have a look over here --> http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_Mission_Editing

[mark2000]

does the 1.08 patch improve the path finding skills of the AI? I find it rather horrible in the 1.05 version.

have a look over here --> http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_Mission_Editing

I just realized how much I suck at scripting. I understand the commands but I don't really know how and where to use them. The tutorial in that wiki site doesn't really explain the actual scripting that much.

[Noraf]

you might find some help here then http://www.3dactionplanet.com/flashpoint/scripting.html

and, no, ai hasn't improved mutch into the 1.09b patch..... not pathfinding vice atleast, other ways they have changed alot

Edited February 6, 2008 by Noraf

[mark2000]

Just tried out multiplayer coop and it ROCKS. '200ping+' guys like me don't deserve a place in a team deathmatch game(or at least that's what I believe ) so I settled for coop servers heavily populated by the "Evolution" mod map. I'm not complaining though since that map is so damn well-made(IMHO) that I started enjoying the game to the fullest again and instantly forgot the post-traumatic stress disorder I got from that horrible Rambo/COD spin-off campaign mode.

you might find some help here then http://www.3dactionplanet.com/flashpoint/scripting.html

and, no, ai hasn't improved mutch into the 1.09b patch..... not pathfinding vice atleast, other ways they have changed alot

well. there's one thing that site taught me and it's the fact that there's no way in hell I'll ever be able to make scripts with multiple complex effects both inside and outside mission editor. The only ray of hope I have left is if someone tells me that it's possible to simply separate multiple script commands in a single text-box with a ";" like in most programming languages while using the mission editor.

I could easily try it myself but since I'm not experienced with this kind of stuff, it's easy for me to ###### it up in all possible directions. So much that I wouldn't really know if the actual experiment worked or not since there's now way for me to locate the actual source of the problem if something does go wrong.

I'm not saying I won't be able to make a simple bloody mission without using complex scripts though. I just wanna know my limits first and then work my way from there.

[Noraf]

well, the easiest way would be to start in the editor, and just use it to make a few missions, test, and inprove till you're satisfied

[mark2000]

yeah. that's what I'm doing now actually. Still figuring out how to do the triggers right since one trigger can only activate one effect when not using scripts.

well atleast i finally figured out how to land a chopper using waypoints and triggers. XD

[Noraf]

well, you can make some quite interesting missions without scripts too, so good luck