Arma 2: Hints and Tips

Introduction

ArmA II is not like other FPS. It is a simulation. Most, if not all that you learned in other FPS is wrong. You cannot stand out in the middle of an open street or field and expect to survive long in a real battle or in a simulation of real battle. Bouncing around in full kit in real battle does not stop you getting shot; you simply get tired quickly, and would probably break your ankles; so just as you would not do it in real life you cannot do it in ArmA II. You have no uber body armor, no magical medipacks, no bunny hop rocket boots. It is just you, and what ever weapons you are carrying. If you get shot any where important you are going to die, often right away.

If you are a new player you are going to die and you are going to die a lot. This is simply part of the learning curve, there are ways however you can get over the hump faster. That is what this section of the biki will help you with.

You are going to have learn the, basic battle drills and the difference between cover and concealment. There is a lot to learn but it can be fun. Surviving in ArmA II is hard, but one day you may find yourself with a bunch of your buddies hunting T90s like stone age humans hunting mammoths.

Sources of help

There are many sources of information for ArmA II
The ArmA II Official Website includes descriptions of:
The Factions
The Weapons
The Vehicles
The Area of operations

Official ArmA II Training Videos

There is an official ArmA II YouTube channel with videos under the Developer Diary title, describing basic controls, the use of the editor, commanding teams etc.
ArmA II YouTube Channel

Official ArmA II Manuals

There is a manual that comes with all copies of ArmA II. If you have not got one contact the publisher and report it to BIS.

For those with steam the US version can be downloaded here: PDF ArmA II manual for Steam customers

OFP and ArmA I hints and tips

There is a Hints and Tips link on the index page of this wiki; it leads to this link which is OFP and ArmA hints and tips. Most still apply!

The ArmA II Bible

Dslyecxi's ArmA II Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures Guide is considered to be the bible of ArmA II play. Much of it applies to both Single Player and Multi Player but it has sections that apply to Multi-player PvP and others that particularly apply to the Coop game form.
Dslyecxi's ArmA2 Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures Guide

Battle Drills

This page links to the basic Battle Drills

Battle Drills are the basic moves to perform in battle, they are a subset of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), that are trained in the military to replace the normal human reaction to threat, those of Fight, Flight or Freeze. The Fight, Flight, Freeze, response is hard coded into to your Amygdala; a part of your brain comparible to the BIOS of a computer.

The Amygdala reacts much faster than the conscious brain and can thus short circuit it. The Amygdala is also comparable to a computer BIOS in that it can be reprogrammed by in the case of BIOS by flashing it; in the case of a human brain by the use of operant conditioning. Part of Basic Training in the military uses operant conditioning to replace the Fight, Flight, Freeze responses

The idea of training a Battle Drill or SOP is to replace these Fight, Flight, Freeze responses with the following useful actions:

• The Freeze Response is not always beneficial, freezing in the same spot that the enemy is putting down effective fire on you, does not stop the bullets, the Freeze Response is replaced with The Basic Drill.
• Firing blindly may kill your buddies who are likely to be closer and thus occupying a larger percentage of your Arc, thus the Fight Response is replaced with the React to Contact drill.
• Altering the Flight Response so that you do not get shot in the back is also useful, the highest casualties in war happen during head long retreat, it is very hard to fire over your shoulder while running in the opposite direction, so the Battle Drill that replaces head long retreat is the Break Contact drill.

Don't Get Shot!

The key to survival in ArmA is not to get shot. When you say it like that it sounds simple. Surprisingly virtualy every other First Person Shooter (FPS) you may have played, never ever teaches this! Magic health packs, super body armor, uber stamina, super player speed, and the imbecilic, short sighted, inaccurate AI in all those other FPS teach you to stand up in the open blasting away, its safe; yeah right.

In ArmA there are three defenses to being shot:

• Make your self a small target
• Don't let your self be seen. Concealment! (If they cannot see you the only way they can shoot you is by guess work; but beware of educated guesses!)
• Best of all get behind something thick. Cover! (Fat Stupid Generals do have their uses)

Making your self small

There are two ways to make your self small:

• Go horizontal (also know as crawling)
• Distance

Learn to crawl!

The first thing to do when being shot at is to get down and face the enemy! This is the first lesson of ArmA. Survival time increases exponentially after you learn this vital lesson, that is only bested by true cover. By lying down you turn a 2m high by 0.7m wide target into 0.5 high by 0.7m wide target. You have reduced your target size by a factor of four!

Repeat the ArmA mantra after me: "Crawl, Crawl, Crawl, Crawl, Crawl!" Once you have learned to Crawl you can graduate to the second mantra "I am up, he sees me, I am down" bounds of the The Basic Drill.

Distance

Stay a long way away from nasty men with big guns. Bullets are fired in a grouping affected by both the gun and the person firing. [1]

Close up that grouping will be tight; the further the target is away from the muzzle, the looser the grouping becomes and the more space there is between the bullets impact point. Every meter you are away from the source of fire on you, decreases the percentage of bullet grouping ellipse you occupy for the gun and soldier firing it at you. Most Assault Rifles are ineffective beyond about 500m without optics, 800m for MGs. Optics add another 300m to both. Sniper rifles can touch you right out to 2000m. Explosive rounds don't need to be as accurate, and weight of fire adds rounds to the bullet grouping ellipse so beware. Learn weapons ranges and characteristics in the ArmA 2 editor.

The difference between cover and concealment

Cover is something that prevents you being shot.

Concealment is something that prevents you being seen.

Concealment once busted is no longer concealment. Shooting or moving around, making a noise, or sky-lining your self, all bust concealment.
Examples

• A bush is concealment not cover. Bushes do not stop bullets. That said unlike other games The ArmA II AI does not see through bushes. but running behind a bush, does not magically make you concealed from an enemy that saw you run behind it. Most of us learn this with the peekaboo blankie game as babies. Also all the other concealment busters apply, shooting from a bush and missing means the bush and you get it full auto.
• A tree less than two foot thick is neither concealment nor cover. An AT rocket or pair of shoulders, beer gut, your fat backside, or rucksack; sprouting jauntily out of the side of a tree, attracts curious stares from both human players and AI, usually followed by bullets; which incidentally any thing less than a two foot wide tree will not stop. Interestingly even with a two foot thick tree, only one foot of a tree in cross section is near two foot thick in the line fire, as you move to the edges the thickness of wood decreases exponentially.
• A single brick wall is concealment not cover, bullets of 7.62 calibre and above will go straight through most houses.

You Tube video Concealment does NOT equal Cover, Pt. 1
You Tube video Concealment does NOT equal Cover, Pt. 2

• Being inside a large moving noisy Main Battle Tank (MBT) can in some circumstances be considered cover, but it cannot really by considered concealment; as everyone can see, hear and smell where it is, and thus where you are. Concealment of tanks is a fine art that taxes even the finest military minds; their blocky shape, noisy attitude, dust they raise, stinky smoke and IR signature all make hiding a tank a difficult task. The value of a tanks cover is also somewhat reduced by the effectiveness of modern AT weapons and tank hunting air weapons platforms. Thus interest in better ways of concealing tanks, and the continuing respect for drivers and commanders who understand the concepts of Camouflage and Defilade.
• A recently damaged vehicle is bad cover as they have a tendency to blow up, and secondary explosions can and usually will kill or wound you.

In the military cover is often referred to as Defilade

True cover is:

• Multiple walls of say more than one house.
  
• Thick lumps of terrain such as mountains and hill crests. These last two make excellent cover.

There is a further detailed discussion here of the difference between cover and concealment on the BIS forums.

Flank!

When flanking go wide, same as the AI does. Circle round enemies to a point of defilade. Charging the enemy from the front is rarely a good idea.

Flanking the enemy means moving from their direction of march to a side 90 degrees from the way they are looking. This has lots of advantages!

• The enemy is not looking at you or pointing their weapons at you.
• This places the enemy in file to you:
  • Those furthest from you have to fire past their own troops thus risking BLUE on BLUE.
  • The width of enemy fire is reduced
  • Conversely the target area you have to cover reduces
• If you are working as a team; one part flanking while the other part suppresses from the front, creates cross fire thus negating most cover.

AI Squad Command

There is quick guide to controlling AI in ArmA II by rotkeps that has been copied to this wiki here:

ArmA II AI Squad Command

Multiplayer Hints and Tips

There are additional Multiplayer Hints and Tips here.