Greetings.

This has been probably asked and answered repeatedly, but I have to make sure.
I have to know whether I'm the idiot, or it is the game that it's too difficult.

I just got ArmA. The first title. A gift from a dissatisfied customer. Just not the kind of game
he likes. I knew it was the "tactical" sort, and I do like the tactical sorts.
Installation, patching (to 1.18), graphics settings -> all smooth. And no, I don't become a bird nor do
I experience other weirdo trickeries I've been reading about.
But the sound is kinda sucky, and the controls are unintuitive. I have endured much worse in other
games, though. I can make it work.

And... I think I have it running on the easiest difficulty level (Regular?) - if there is one.

Then how is it that I die and die and die, and not two times in the same way and not two times for
the same "mistake"? This game is making me believe that I'm some kind of idiot who can't mind his
own business for the sake of staying alive.

I die. I die a lot. I spend more time at the reloading screen than not in actual game.
I went through the hell of installing and patching a game, and all I'm playing is a Loading Screen.
It's not fun.
Do not think that I'm the kind of rusher that charges at the enemy screaming Rrraaaaaah!!!, and
bulletting left and right 'til I'm the last thing astand. No. I take my time. I look around. I count
the enemies, I take note of bushes and buildings. I examine my gear to see what's what. I look at
the map, trying to figure out a good escape route, or also what's the places to avoid because it's
too easy to ambush me if I head that way.
And when I think I got some plan that might actualy work, that's where the game outsmarts me.
Eventually I become a receptacle for bullets. Their Situational Awareness is something legendary.
When I manage to evade their assault is feels so much like PURE LUCK. Because if I repeat the
session, the outcome is almost always You're Dead.
Am I playing Dungeons & Dragons applied to military? Or is there some skill factor involved that
depends entirely on me - as I would expect since *I* am controlling the dude with the gun?

I've been a soldier, and I know all too well what a single bullet can do. So don't go there, thanks.
I also know what happens when you open fire on a bunch of soldiers. They don't all take cover to fire back.
Some will just cover to cower and never come out of hiding in terror of getting a bullet themselves.
And others will just start sweating like prostitutes in a church and be unable to aim straight should
you even walk up to them with open arms.
The soldiers I see in this game all look like consumed professionals, who endured a dozen firefights
each. That's not real-life like at all.

I'm totally not having fun with it. For much less I have uninstalled games that I desired a lot
more than this one. And I don't know what's keeping me from eradicating its presence off my hard
drive.
Actually today I got real close to do it. But here I am, in hope to find a VERY GOOD reason not to.

So do your best and try to give me that very good reason.
Just don't tell me to play multiplayer. I don't have time for multiplayer - period.

So you're not enjoying a game and you want people to convince you that you should be enjoying it?

Personally, I had a hard time getting into Arma 1 single-player. Even MP had its issues with the AI. I'd move on to other things that make you happy, and if you are interested in the idea of Arma 1, I'd give Arma 2/Operation Arrowhead a try. It's a much better game (although the campaigns will continue to be weak).

Exactly that.
The assumption being that if many are liking something that I don't, then maybe they know
something I don't. I'm just making sure of it, before I trash what might be a worthy title.

So far the sole worthy thing is the graphics. The audio is questionable. The controls too are.
The realism is excessive and in the wrong places - while in other places it's just as unrealistic
as any arcade wargame.
The only good thing done about Realism That Is Not Realistic, is the ease with which you can operate
a vehicle. It is appropriate because if you play the "pilot", you're supposed to be an expert of
the thing. ArmA's vehicles are perfect in this regard.

I loved OFP. I love ARMA 2. I only played the Demo for Arma 1. ARMA 2 seems much more polished, however, again, I only played the demo for ARMA 1 because it turned me off. It was clunky, ugly... I really was scared that BIS was done for.

ARMA 2 is fantastic I think. Maybe its just ARMA 1? Try the Free ARMA2 or Demo...

Try some add-on mods and see if that helps ...

http://www.armaholic.com/list.php?c=files



vK ~

I never played any of the single player materials to completion, other than the training course.

All of my time with ArmA and it the later titles in the series has been multiplayer. Playing a quality coop mission with a team of serious players is, for me, and excellent gaming experience.

Left to 100% single player, I'm not sure whether I'd enjoy it.

My best experience with SP in Arma 1 was probably with truemods or some other kind of AI adjustment to ease down on the head-shooting, a sound mod, and perhaps The Cause campaign.
It says something about the priorities of a developer when some guy from Australia can make a much better campaign almost all by himself..

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.ph...n-%28revised%29

http://www.ofpec.com/missions_depot/index.php?action=details&id=189

Free ArmA is compatible with what you guys run right? Maybe Cosmo could give THAT a try?

Hello everyone


@ adlabs6:
Multiplayer isn't an option for me. I don't have the time for it, nor the possibility to stay
online for the time required.

I'm sticking with the game a little more. I don't really know what keeps me at it. Maybe I'll
find out if I keep playing. Oh, I just don't know.

For now I have stubbornly concluded the auxiliary mission in which you have to destroy 4 armors
(parked and unmanned) by night. And you are solo. I've also done the secondary (optional) objective
of stealing secret documents from a nearby enemy camp. Two hours and eight minutes of hell. At least
the debrief started with the words "Phenomenal job, soldier!" - I'd have preferred a promotion,
given the fact that I've done the job worth a team of commandos.

After trashing their armors (the primary objective) there was this helicopter buzzing around,
actively searching for me. It wouldn't go away. I grabbed a couple of M136 anti-armor rockets from
an ammo crate, then loaded the rocket launcher I began the mission with, and fired a rocket at the
helicopter during a very low pass.
Much to my surprise: I hit the thing dead-on, the helicopter starts spitting smoke, quickly drops
altitude, then gracefully lands about 150 meters behind me, and cuts the engine.

TBH, I was expecting it to explode in a fireball above my head - considering the anti-tank rocket
it received under the belly. But it was satisfactory anyway.
What wasn't satisfactory, instead, was the incessant saving I was forced to do after each kill.
I lost count of how many times I reloaded



@ sparks50:
Thanks for those links. I'll dive into them and see if there's anything I can use. I'd be happy
already if I could *humanize* the AI's reactions a little bit (make them think slower and be less
aware, in general). I definitely need some sound mod as well, but the priority remains the AI.



@ Rakov:
Free ArmA? Haven't heard of it. Would you elaborate?
Oh, and it is Comet, not Cosmo - thank you very much.

Man, there's so much stuff to try out at this link...:
http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.ph...n-%28revised%29 (thank you again, sparks50)

... that I have no clear idea where to start. Apparently there's no such thing as an AI mod like
the one I'd want to see. Right now I'm downloading the last ACE package, hoping it's compatible
with 1.18 (it should be). I'm also getting the VOP sound mod, specific for the ACE mod.
Let's see if by pairing two things meant to work together I can get a better feel for it.

Oh dear, there goes my bandwidth for this month. I'm downloading over a GB of stuff.
My memory goes back to my first pc videogame: Frogger... on my green monochrome monitor. It would
fit in about 90 KB - I should still have the floppy around, hehehe. Probably gone unreadable by now.
Ehh, life was so easier back then