FAQ – ArmA: Armed Assault
Editors Note: This list needs to be broken into smaller sections. I plunked the information from the forum in here and did a quick format job on it. Further information is welcomed. hoz
General
Release dates?
When will ArmA come to my country?
Country Publisher Date
- Australia Red Ant February 2007
- Taiwan Atari March 2007
- North America Atari May 2007
- EU&others 505 Games q1 2007 (See "Countries included on 505 distribution" section)
- Austria Morphicon 30/11/06
- Czech Republic BIS&JRC&CQE 10/11/06
- Germany Morphicon 30/11/06
- Poland Lem 10/11/06
- Russia Akella 28/11/06
- Switzerland Morphicon 30/11/06
- Slovakia BIS&JRC&CQE10/11/06
Countries included on 505 distribution according placebo:
I'm still waiting for confirmation but the information I've received is that the 505 deal includes: South Africa, Japan, Australia & New Zealand amongst other countries, full list is: United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Ireland, Andorra, San Marino, The Vatican City, Greece, Portugal, Croatia, Serbia & Montenegro, Bosnia, Slovenia, Lichtenstein, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey, Japan.
My country isn't on the list!
In some cases, publishers have not been found for your country as of yet. Be patient.
Is there a demo?
Yes.
The multiplayer demo has been released, check http://www.armedassault.com/downloads.html for links.
See also ArmA: Demo
Will there be an XBOX 360 port?
It's not planned. There definitely won't be a port in the near future.
Which copy protection is ArmA using?
Discussing copy protections contravenes BI forum/wiki rules. Discussing it any further may result in people being banned.
Publishers decide the copy protection used for retail products.
- International (505 Games) - Securom
- English/Czech Online Download (Idea Games / Sprocket) - Softwrap
- German (Morphicon) - Securom.
- German Online Download (Morphicon / Metaboli) - Starforce
- Czech (Idea Games), Polish (Lem), Russian (Akella), Slovak (Idea Games) - Starforce.
Does ArmA Have widescreen support?
Yes.
When did the development of ArmA start?
April 2005.
What are the ArmA minimum system requirements?
See the article on ArmA: System Requirements
Does ArmA support 64bit architecture or dual core processors?
We received this update Thursday evening on the question of system specification from Ondrej Spanel, Lead Programmer at BIS: "While 64-bit architecture performance is very good when running 32 bit code and it is possible ArmA is doing very well on 64b computers, Armed Assault is still a 32 bit application and there is no specific 64 bit support. On the other hand, current video card drivers often contain significant dual core optimizations, and as a result the framerate can often be 20-30% higher on dual core CPU." (original article)
Is ArmA the sequel to OFP? What is Game 2?
No, it is a different game, the name Operation Flashpoint belongs to Codemasters. ArmA is an engine update based on improvements from OFP:Elite for the Xbox (it is further improved though).
OFP 2 (presumably made by Codemasters) will be the sequel to OFP.
Game 2 was the originally planned sequel to OFP. For now this is a working title.
Multi Player
Has multi player been improved?
Yes. You can join games already in progress and code has been optimized. You can read two previews illustrating two modes of multiplayer made by SimHQ here and here. I must stress that the version they are using is not the finished product.
Are slower Internet connections (ISDN, 56k, carrier pigeons) supported in ArmA online?
Answer by Suma (Developer): I would even say ArmA bandwidth requirements are lower than OFP, thanks to numerous optimizations, but as already said, it really depends on the mission, and with more players and more complex missions the bandwidth requirements will be higher.
While developing Xbox version, we estimated around 32kbps per player is needed on the server in a moderately complex mission, including voice over net. Your hosting options will therefore be quite limited, but you should be able to play at least some missions.
That said, I do not have any solid numbers from ArmA net testing yet, therefore the above is only estimation and it is by no means guaranteed.
Is the voice command "que" still a problem like it was in OFP?
Answer by Suma: While there were serious problems in this area in OFP, they were never as serious as your e.g. would suggest. If Papa Bear was saying something (which it did on side channel), you could say anything you wanted to on the group channel meanwhile.
Now (since OFP:Elite) you can even interrupt your own transmitions with a more urgent ones, therefore this should no longer be a problem.
Is VOIP implemented in ArmA?
Yes.
What ports does ArmA use?
Default value of port is 2302, but you may change it by -port command line argument.
port UDP (used for game) port+1 UDP (used for server reporting) port+3 UDP (used for VoN transmissions)
Following outgoing ports need to be open as well:
port UDP (used for game) port+3 UDP (used for VoN transmissions)
Any anti-cheat in ArmA?
There will be some sort of custom anti-cheating system by BI, not much is known how it works.
See also ArmA: Addon Signatures for content verification.
Content/Addons
Is the OFP campaigns/content in ArmA?
No. The CWR project is a joint project between BI and the community to bring the the OFP content into ArmA.
Any information about the campaign?
You can watch the story develop in William Porters fictitious blog.
The basic background story is that you are part of a US military detachment sent to the fictious, oil rich, pro-west island republic of south Sahrani to help train local forces. The Northern part of the island will launch a surprise attack against the south, with you still stranded there.
MP campaign will not be supported.
What vehicles are included with ArmA?
The German Wiki has an illustrated list of vehicles which were available in the Games Convention 2006 press demo.
BI will also add new vehicles with the 505 release.
Does ArmA support Track IR?
Yes.
See TrackIR for more information.
Are there any 'dynamically destructible' buildings?
Bridges have a destruction animation. Other buildings collapse in a WTC style, leaving behind a small pile of rubble.
Is it possible to turn off the 'fixed aim'?
You can adjust the size of the bracket in which your aim moves without moving the whole screen in the options menu with a slider.
What new modding tools will BI Release?
New tools are listed in the Tools wiki.
Can OFP addons be imported over to ArmA?
This has been confirmed, its believed that significant changes will be required to OFP models before you can import them into ArmA.
Do vehicles/buidlings still use the paper crumbling effect?
Thank goodness no! They have a new "destroyed" model and burn.
Are weapon sights changed?
Yes we have nice, new, shiny, 3d ironsights for most weapons.
Will your finger move when you pull the trigger in Armed Assault?
Yes. If that's not enough, the weapons magazines also detach with neat reloading anims.
What is the maximum amount of addons you can have in ArmA?
Thanks to the streaming technology the addons can contain huge amount of data - even in default distribution there is more than 4 GB of addons, which can be used even on computers with as little as 512 MB of memory.
Editing
Is scripting improved in ArmA?
Yes. See for example this list of new commands, or the improved Control_Structures which are available now.
Why do I experience problems with forEach?
This used to work in OFP but in ArmA it fails
"_x moveincargo heli" forEach units group1
The quotes were replaced in ArmA with { } the example now looks like this:
{_x moveincargo heli} forEach units group1
Controls
What numbers represent what axis in the JoystickSensitivity line of your config?
joystickSensitivity[]={X+,Y+,Z+,Xrot+,Yrot+,Zrot+,SLIDER1+,SLIDER2+,X-,Y-,Z-,Xrot-,Yrot-,Zrot-,SLIDER1-,SLIDER2-};
X+ = joystick right X- = joystick left Y+ = joystick up Y- = joystick down Z+ = throttle forward Z- = throttle back Xrot+ = Antenna knob turned clockwise (on throttle) Xrot- = Antenna knob turned counter-clockwise (on the throttle). Yrot+ = Range knob turned clockwise (on the throttle). Yrot- = Range knob turned counter-clockwise (on the throttle). Zrot+ = Right pedal in (forward) Zrot- = Left pedal in (forward) SLIDER1+ = Left toe brake in (forward) SLIDER1- = Left toe brake out (released) SLIDER2+ = Right toe brake in (forward) SLIDER2- = Right toe brake out (released)
Default Values:
joystickSensitivity[]={0.100000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,
1.000000,1.000000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,1.000000,1.000000};
Value is transformed as:
value = pow(raw_value,1/sensitivity).