New to ArmA and need advice

[Despenser's_Scourge]

Hey all. I'm a complete online gaming virgin and I am looking to get off to a great start with ArmA. I have played a great deal of Multiplayer games (including Flashpoint) over LAN but never before online (except for the odd 10min seessions at friend's houses). I'm an Aussie and live in Sydney. Just got the game yesterday and I was wanting to ask a few questions.

1. I'm running version 1.4 at the moment until I download the patches and I am getting immensly frustrated; in mission 00 Blood Sweat and Tears there are a number of bugs that make the game basicly unplayable.
These include:
Rifle's "dissapearing" - while still being able to fire, I have no ability to go to Scope view.
Troops loaded on the back of trucks "dissapearing" for minutes then suddenly appearing on the ground.
US AI that results in every squad member being killed before I can even catch up to them.
Playable character being killed in the operation prior; loading the mission as that character rersults in me loading up in the APC, being transported to our location and then collapsing and dying the instant I step out.
Is this a usual thing? And can it be fixed by Patching?

2. Whats the best thing to do to get started online? (Australian Servers etc.)
I will be patching up to ver 1.8

3. And why did it take me so long to hear about this!? After years of enjoying the first Ghost Recons and Rainbox Six's I have been totally let down by all other so called "modern combat" games. I'm truly astonished by the number of people that crave realism and simulations, not arcady shooters!

Your time is much appreciated!

[Gogeta]

Welcome scourge!! Once you update to 1.8 , youll more than likely see alot of that stuff fixed. Enjoy and welcome to TG

[Grunt 70]

Welcome Scourge. We have players from all around the world playing Arma on the Tactical Gamer servers and we're sure glad you found us. Patch yourself up like GoG said and alot of performace problems you had will probably go away. They did for me when I patched it up to 1.8

Check out our SOP's and get your self the Teamspeak information. Feel free to join up with me any time you see me in game and I'd be glad to walk you through.

Cheers mate.

[Despenser's_Scourge]

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

[JAMerica]

Scourge,

IMO, the single player missions in ArmA suck. Period. They are for the most part "rambo" missions and really don't do the game justice. On top of that they are often buggy to boot.

The tutorials are good to learn the controls, and after that jump on the server! MP is where it's at and you won't go 1 minute on a TG server without someone helping you out if you need it. Just ask

Evo is a good mission to get started with, so be sure to check out loyalguards "Intro to Evo" wiki: http://www.tacticalgamer.com/armed-a...uide-wiki.html

See you in Sahrani

[jex]

Hey DS,

For MP play be warned! lol - The general public servers rarely offer team work and have a load of people playing by themselves but all on the same side against another team, um side, playing all by themsleves but on the same side, confusing? - basically there is no cohesion so if you like that style of play, being a rambo and doing it alone, that's where to look.

If you prefer more team orientated playing whereby you are part of a team, working together and follwing a plan, then Places like TG set the standard. There are some good clans/communities out there that offer this as well.

AS well as TG, some other good sites I'd recommend are

www.simhq.com
www.flashpoint1985.com (armed assault official forums)

Here you'll find a lot of info on the game, and also access to mods done by the community.

You will also need TeamSpeak if you don't already have it - this is what we use to talk to each other. TG runs scheduled events and we also join other communities for gaming too. Mostly we play Coop games, but we also run TvT games (team v team) too. Both types are great fun.

So get patched, get teamspeak and join the server, the passwords for the server can be found in the SOP's which you need to read.