ARMA 3

[forumvisitor#451]

Free week

 

[Lyric Suite]

Are those games playable in single player?

Always wanted to try them, never got around doing, but i see have both Arma 1 and Arma 2 + expansions on steam, don't even remember when i bough them. Worth trying?

You can play that in Arma 3. Exact same game with exact same engine only with 15+ years of improvements (balistics, physics, etc.)

So you can play the single player maps from the previous games in the new one?

I don't have Arma 3 though. Might buy it but, kinda of expensive with all those DLCs.

 

[KazikluBey]

So you can play the single player maps from the previous games in the new one?

I don't have Arma 3 though. Might buy it but, kinda of expensive with all those DLCs.

The terrains, weapons, vehicles, etc, from the previous games are all available in mod CUP. Not sure of its status but I think someone's been working on porting the O:FP campaign to Arma 3.

For the free week, I've mentioned it before but if you want to try somewhat structured enforced teamplay with no required mods I recommend 77th JSOC public servers. Choose a role, get in line to join a squad, get shipped out to the objective, follow your squad leader, have fun. They do allow these mods, and in particular Shacktac UI is almost necessary to give you situational awareness about your squadmates. JSRS Soundmod makes everything sound better as well. Community Base Addons or CBA is required for many mods.

 

[forumvisitor#451]

So you can play the single player maps from the previous games in the new one?

I don't have Arma 3 though. Might buy it but, kinda of expensive with all those DLCs.

Yep, it is made with RHS not CUP (better quality) - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=756113314. Even Resistance, individual missions, all of it is imported to 3rd one and more. Regarding DLCs - I recommend getting all of them or at least the Apex and Contact. My Arma folder is 100GB.

The terrains, weapons, vehicles, etc, from the previous games are all available in mod CUP. Not sure of its status but I think someone's been working on porting the O:FP campaign to Arma 3.

For the free week, I've mentioned it before but if you want to try somewhat structured enforced teamplay with no required mods I recommend 77th JSOC public servers. Choose a role, get in line to join a squad, get shipped out to the objective, follow your squad leader, have fun. They do allow these mods, and in particular Shacktac UI is almost necessary to give you situational awareness about your squadmates. JSRS Soundmod makes everything sound better as well. Community Base Addons or CBA is required for many mods.

I would be more inclined to recommend Zeus Community - https://zeus-community.net/a3/ for relaxed and focused missions. They make their own missions and some of them are pretty neat. They are playing since OFP. I play with them for 4 years now (after leaving 'Nam community and WWII SS unit), always a joy. They play as follows (UK time) - thursday and sunday 6.30PM server 1 (no mods needed - I recommend JSRS, Blastcore, Enhanced Movement and Shacktac though); wednesday and saturday 6PM server 2 (mods needed - info in included site).

PM me for more info. Whether to help with recommendations, performance or mods.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ok so i can basically port all the content from the previous games to Arma 3 and don't need to play any of the originals at all?

As i understand it, we have Operation Flashpoint, which became Arma: Cold War Assault, and then we have Arma: Armed Assault (which is Arma 1), and then Arma 2 with all the DLCs, and all of the missions have been ported over to Arma 3?

 

[KazikluBey]

Ok so i can basically port all the content from the previous games to Arma 3 and don't need to play any of the originals at all?

As i understand it, we have Operation Flashpoint, which became Arma: Cold War Assault, and then we have Arma: Armed Assault (which is Arma 1), and then Arma 2 with all the DLCs, and all of the missions have been ported over to Arma 3?

For the actual campaigns I think only OFP as linked by forumvisitor#451 above is ported.

I would be more inclined to recommend Zeus Community - https://zeus-community.net/a3/ for relaxed and focused missions. They make their own missions and some of them are pretty neat. They are playing since OFP. I play with them for 4 years now (after leaving 'Nam community and WWII SS unit), always a joy. They play as follows (UK time) - thursday and sunday 6.30PM server 1 (no mods needed - I recommend JSRS, Blastcore, Enhanced Movement and Shacktac though); wednesday and saturday 6PM server 2 (mods needed - info in included site).

The reason I recommended 77th JSOC public servers for a first timer is they're active all hours of the day, every day, so no need to catch a certain time and no need to join a "community", yet still have pretty good teamplay. Obviously, joining a community is more fun and provides more variety in the long run. Pretty sure I mentioned Fuck Knows before as well, they were good when I played with them, often a full ~60 players, every day.

 

[Lyric Suite]

For the actual campaigns I think only OFP as linked by forumvisitor#451 above is ported.

So after all there's still a reason to play the older ones, barring the campaigns being total shit.

See, i hate those kind of games, where every sequel is the same game redone but usually has something new at the expense of something else and you have no idea which one to play if you missed the whole series. I have the same problem with the X series, the space games. I want to be a completist and play them from the first one but i also don't want to play the same game over and over so instincts are telling me to start with the last one and ditch the others lmao.

Shiiiiet.

 

[KazikluBey]

OFP/ArmaCWC is still lauded for its single player campaign, but I never got far into Arma 1, and no one is waxing nostalgic about it or Arma 2's campaign. Don't think you're missing much by skipping Arma1/2.

Not many will be waxing nostalgic about Arma 3's campaign either, but I thought it was competently done, and the middle chapter was genuinely fun as you get a bit more freedom with if/how to tackle optional objectives. The Apex DLC campaign wasn't too shabby, and I haven't played the other official campaigns.

But really all these games shine when you have larger missions with 20+ players and (in Arma3) a Zeus gamemaster.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Is there anything to do in singleplayer apart form the campaigns?

 

[KazikluBey]

Plenty of 1-4 player (single/coop) missions on Steam workshop, some of which are longer campaigns, and some pretty good random mission generators like Dynamic Recon Ops.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Noice. I want to get a feelz of the game before venturing forth in the land of the u r fag lol people.

 

[Wilian]

Arma 3 is one of my favourite games of last decade. It started off weakly with retarded staggered release schedule with terrible performance but now it's very content complete, with -massive- mod scene and the performance has been 'fixed' by the increase in PC power

 

[forumvisitor#451]

Is there anything to do in singleplayer apart form the campaigns?

Depends on your taste and likings. You can go for trials - game now has several helicopter challenges which will test your flight skills, tank trials. Or you can go for Dynamic Recon Ops - choose your style of mission, play as a stealthy assassin, sniper, go in guns blazing. Or Dynamic Civil War - simulating war on the whole island - you capture towns, gain trust of civilians (they can join or fight you), then buy vehicles and after a while you get into massive battles (can be massive time sink). You can test your skills in some CQB missions. Or piloting an aircraft of your likings in missions I previously described. Some authors on Workshop release only great missions. You can go for Cold War, WWII, 'Nam, you name it. PM me if you need some advice or I can share some things from my collection here.

Btw multi-player apart from KOTH and Life servers is mostly mature. Mainly because Arma is much slower-paced, methodical and ruthless compared to Battlefield or even Squad.

 

[Beowulf]

[...] I can share some things from my collection here.

Do it, there are more people interested for sure. I'm also thinking about going back to playing Arma.

 

[forumvisitor#451]

Right. I'll try to do it as concise as possible.

For base vanilla game, general improvement mods:
CBA_A3 (basic mod implementation -needed for most mods)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=450814997
JSRS SOUND MOD
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=861133494
Enhanced Soundscape (sound mod works in conjunction with JSRS)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=825179978
Blastcore Phoenix (particle and visual effects)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=767380317
Enhanced Video Settings (more dynamic lights, grass draw distance, object draw distance, overall draw distance)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1223309664
ShackTac User Interface (squad radar)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=498740884

SP Missions tried and good:
Sniper Alley (vanilla assets, sniper shooting stuff)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=181560759
HUNTER SIX (vanilla assets, great mission)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=310594159
The Hunter IFA3 (WWII, requires IFA3_AIO_LITE, short sniper mission behind enemy lines playing as russian officer)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=837841098
Medal of Honor 2010 - First In (DEMO) (requires some mods, first mission of Medal of Honor 2010 recreated in Arma)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1810170532
Ravage (nowadays very polished zombie mod with lots of survival features - you have to hunt down stuff, scavenge, etc., if you have played DayZ this is it with lot more polish and better features; also works as a skeleton to make your own missions)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1376636636
Operation Nomad: Spaghetti Airport - Hidden and Dangerous 2 remake (WWII in case you never played Hidden and Dangerous)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1958961914
Collection of OFP single missions remakes (using CUP)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=761065383
Arma Rearmed (Includes selection of probably best single missions of all Arma games)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=873567401
Dynamic Recon Ops (choose a map, set your parameters or have it randomized, go on daring missions behind enemy lines being randomly generated and different everytime)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=722652837
Dynamic Recon Ops WWII versions
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=1785866180
Dynamic Combat Ops (same as above but this one being focused on Combined Arms)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=865214690
Dynamic Civil War (whole island based massive mission spanning for several days, capture towns, gather resources, influence civilians to fight for you, you start as a squad leader and end up being general of several units, recommend to save often)
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197974435552/myworkshopfiles/?appid=107410
Ghost Recon 1 campaign recreated in Arma
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=871329059
Vietcong 1 in Arma (just couple of missions so far)
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198006923891/myworkshopfiles/?appid=107410
Jet Pilot Series (already described - choose weather, conditions of AA and counter-attack, you take off and get one objective, after you complete it you get another, service in the Airport, never-ending, get to work, it's your shift!)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=251652014
Helicopter Pilot Series (same as above but with vertical beasts)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=250597165
Rescue Pilot Series (same but this one is for pacifists)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=560368555
A-10 CAS (short and sweet mission utilising Firewill's god-like A-10)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1199356474
Great immersive missions ranging from realistic to sci-fi
https://steamcommunity.com/id/sig3013/myworkshopfiles/?appid=107410
Also great author with wide range of missions - CAS in Takistan, sniper on Altis, infantry in 'Nam, all recommended
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1479331987
This one makes missions only with vanilla assets
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198083714504/myworkshopfiles/?appid=107410
SCMod (also for pacifists - simulates fire-fighting with real-life assets - only aerial vehicles at the moment, simulated spreading of fire, etc.)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1115246886

MP missions/servers/communities (most of the listed ones can be played in Co-Op)
Zeus Community - no need to join but get TeamSpeak; (copied from above) https://zeus-community.net/a3/ for relaxed and focused missions. They make their own missions and some of them are pretty neat. They are playing since OFP. I play with them for 4 years now (after leaving 'Nam community and WWII SS unit), always a joy. They play as follows (UK time) - thursday and sunday 6.30PM server 1 (no mods needed - I recommend JSRS, Blastcore, Enhanced Movement and Shacktac though); wednesday and saturday 6PM server 2 (mods needed - info in included site). Awesome performance on the server.
3CB - no need to join for public servers, but you need to set up mods (with Arma3sync) https://www.3commandobrigade.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=1765&p=13754
77th JSOC - no need to join for public servers, they play semi-organized games, you can hop in, no mods needed - but use CBA, JSRS and Blastcore, just search for "77th" in server finder
KOTH - 3 factions duking it out as they fight for territory and gather points, straight-forward

General things:
Save often
Get the most out of your performance (max out graphical options to utilise more of a GPU) - Arma is CPU based so objects draw distance is more demanding than objects quality https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=385577681 (if this is not enough, let me know)
If you want to get involved with mods download Arma3Sync - most of the servers use them and it is easily set up https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/t...d-addons-synchronization-software-for-arma-3/

 

[Beowulf]

Thanks, I'm mainly interested in trying some SP missions first.
Very good list.
Side note - the link for Operation Nomad: Spaghetti Airport is the same as for the mod above it.

 

[KazikluBey]

For mods, one important one is ACE. It's multiplayer focused in that some features break the official campaigns and probably some workshop missions, but you can remove those features yourself, or use this mod which is just ACE with the offending modules removed, plus some instructions for changing some keybinds that collide with the defaults for commanding the AI.

If you want to play a sniper, using ACE with Advanced Ballistics enabled in the mod options is necessary for a truly good experience. The base game doesn't take into account wind drift, and the Magnus, Coriolis, and Eötvös effects, barrel length, ballistic coefficients, offset between scope and barrel, temperature, humidity, air pressure, scopes don't use milliradian adjustments, mildots in scopes don't perfectly correlate with actual angles, etc, while ACE AB does, so you'll need a range card or the ATrag ballistics computer, and preferably the Kestrel wind/temp/pressure/humidity hand-held device and the Vector laser range finder, depending on just how long your intended engagement distance is.

 

[Beowulf]

If you want to play a sniper, using ACE with Advanced Ballistics enabled in the mod options is necessary for a truly good experience. The base game doesn't take into account wind drift, and the Magnus, Coriolis, and Eötvös effects, barrel length, ballistic coefficients, offset between scope and barrel, temperature, humidity, air pressure, scopes don't use milliradian adjustments, mildots in scopes don't perfectly correlate with actual angles, etc, while ACE AB does, so you'll need a range card or the ATrag ballistics computer, and preferably the Kestrel wind/temp/pressure/humidity hand-held device and the Vector laser range finder, depending on just how long your intended engagement distance is.

Thanks.
But I went through the phase of masturbating to thoughts of being the best sniper in the world with Arma 2.

 

[Haba]

wind drift, and the Magnus, Coriolis, and Eötvös effects, barrel length, ballistic coefficients, offset between scope and barrel, temperature, humidity, air pressure

 

[forumvisitor#451]

Well I did not want to get fully autistic with ACE as it can be quite overwhelming for newcomer in SP and would like to use this as encouraging people to try and play with either Zeus on Addon nights (we are playing now) or 3CB. You get a role, stick to it, get told what to do and learn as you go.

 

[Beowulf]

Thanks, but I'm familiar with ACE. I used to play in one of those milsim groups leaning more towards harder realism (no ShackTac radar for your surroundings, ACRE for comms and whatnot).
I'm just looking for recommendation to make Arma 3 fun again before I go again a little deeper.

So thank's for the scenario list, I'll pick something from it. This guy's missions look great:
https://steamcommunity.com/id/sig3013/myworkshopfiles/?appid=107410
This engine has so much potential.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Has somebody already played through the "Old Man" scenario and can explain how this works? Does the game save every car/crate inventory in the game?

I haven't had time to do a lot yet but I like it very much (only the sound directing is beyond awful). In the worst case it's a bug ridden mess with horrible AI and in the ideal case it's like JA2 in 3D.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So i got this turns out i can't run it lmao. 30 FPS on ultra on that YAAB map and 37 on standard. Time to upgrade my CPU i guess.

Bleh. So i decided to play Operation Flashpoint instead. STILL can't run it. 5000 distance and the game drops to 30 FPS my GOD what is this. The game is from 2001 for fuck's sake. Had to lower the distance to 1600 to at least get over 100 FPS most of the times, terrain on normal because if i set it out on high the game just crashes instead.

Doing the campaign now though, great game so far, i'm addicted already. Getting poor scores on maps since my squad mates are killing everybody while i run around like i retard trying to figure out where i'm supposed to be going. Also, Fowly stinks.

 

[schru]

So i got this turns out i can't run it lmao. 30 FPS on ultra on that YAAB map and 37 on standard. Time to upgrade my CPU i guess.

Bleh. So i decided to play Operation Flashpoint instead. STILL can't run it. 5000 distance and the game drops to 30 FPS my GOD what is this. The game is from 2001 for fuck's sake. Had to lower the distance to 1600 to at least get over 100 FPS most of the times, terrain on normal because if i set it out on high the game just crashes instead.

Doing the campaign now though, great game so far, i'm addicted already. Getting poor scores on maps since my squad mates are killing everybody while i run around like i retard trying to figure out where i'm supposed to be going. Also, Fowly stinks.

The original game probably needs a CPU with a very high frequency to run smoothly with such settings. Fast RAM, too.

 

[Wilian]

I'd not recommend anything below 3.8ghz with 4 cores 8 threads for Arma III, preferably over 4ghz. It's very demanding game CPU wise. Only after getting 9900k myself at 5ghz I finally feel fully comfortable with it's performance.