Armed Assault [Archive] - Lone Star Clan Forums

[SONAF]Ec$t@$io

December 29th, 2007, 05:47 AM

Here is a copy of a post with tips and tricks I made for the SONAF site. I hope you find it useful.

1. Medics/Engineers/Artillery Operators
OK, so you have just joined an ArmA server and you click ready. Wrong. Do not click ready. You can drag your name from the player pool (right) to the player slot list (left) and pick what class of player you will be, before hitting ready. By default you will be Group Leader which sounds OK but is actually worthless. So my suggestion is you choose Medic, Engineer or Arty Operator (when available). The reason is simple. A medic can heal others and himself. By healing others you get points. Healing yourself may save your life a few times and also you can build a field hospital which you get points for every time someone use it. As an Engineer you can repair all vehicles and aircraft, including enemy and civilian vehicles and planes. You get extra points and it is great when you find a burnt out tank in enemy territory and repair it. There is nothing more satisfying than killing the enemy with his own T-72's
As an Artillery Operator (not available on all maps) you can blow stuff up from afar...which is very useful prior to a ground/infantry invasion. You can use Arty once every six minutes. Some of you may be saying "I wanna be Sniper class", well its pointless, all classes can rearm and use all weapons so you can be a Medic and still use sniper rifles etc.

2. Line of fire.
Ok so you walk over a ridge and look down at an enemy camp some 500m away, it is teaming with life and you are smiling at the thought of snipering some enemy. The trick here is to move to a location where you can only see one enemy at a time. In other words, if you can see 10 enemies don't lie down and start shooting at them because by the time you have hit one or two, the others will have located you. Adjust your position so the angle and line of fire only allows you to see one and only one to see you. Then move a couple of meters and repeat. It may sound silly but by using this simple method you will not die so easily. This is a hard tip to explain but if you have any questions about it, just ask

3. General Exposure.
In ArmA you need to think like real world. That is to say when you open fire, depending on the weapon used and wind direction, the sound of your shot can and will carry for upto 1.2KM. That means that once you fire the enemy will quickly try and locate you. Even if you are out of visible range they will send a patrol your way and hunt you down (maybe they'll even send a scout chopper). So do not fire if you do not need to. I have seen people at a safe place (i.e our base) shoot into the air and think nothing of it, only to find that 5 minutes later our base is being target by an attack helicopter. Fire only when you really need to then move. Fire and move. Fire and move. I cannot stress this point enough. Even as a sniper you may think you're safe up on a mountain 700m away from the nearest enemy and you happily taking pop shots at them and they can't fire back. Sounds fun but 3-5 minutes later you'll be dead if you don't move out. Fire and move Also remember that enemy sniper can and will shoot you from incredible distances, so running across an open field is probably a bad idea. Try and stick to the trees and bushes for some cover. The sun is your friend. By making sure the sun is behind you the enemy may lose upto 40% viewing distance through sunburst, the same however applies to you.

4. Sniper.
We all like sniper rifles. You can pick off enemy upto 1.2KM away with the right rifle although a good shot is anything over 500m. Allow for the fact that ballistics will make your bullet drop over a distance and wind direction may murmur your shot (as will heavy rain). Sometimes you need to fire a few meters above a target to hit it at this kind of range. Practice makes perfect.

5. The temptation to fly.
Everyone wants to fly but please remember; when flying, fly low. By staying below 40m you are going to be very hard for Anti Air to hit although youll still be a target for Tanks and infantry. Helicopters are not infinite. That is to say when you lose a chopper the whole team will suffer for it and you will not be very popular. Some admins will kick/ban you for repeatedly losing choppers as it will eventually spoil the game for everyone else. If you are not a good pilot, let someone else fly. Practice on you own, in you own time. Multiplayer games that take upto 14 hours to complete a mission are not the best place to practise Also bare in mind that big birds can airlift vehicles to the battlefield, so when you grab a blackhawk, do your team and yourself a favour and take something nice with you (a tank, a repair truck, an ambulance etc)
If you are a good pilot and you do chose to fly remember to let other people get onboard as passengers before leaving the base, this is a TEAM based game and nobody likes a lone wolf/rambo.

6. Mission types.
When looking for a game to join I heartily recommend you find either a server running Domination or a server running Evolution (or evolution parajump). Domination allows you to get right into the action from the start with a whole host of weapons and vehicles at your disposal. It has randomly assigned objectives and so is never repetitive. Evolution makes you work for weapons. You begin with no rank and gain rank by killing/healing/objectives which in turn allow you a greater choice of weapons/vehicles. Evolution is ultra realistic and can take upto 24 hours to complete all the objectives, you can leave the server and you will not lose your points providing the objectives are still forthcoming, you will however lose your points when the whole mission is complete and the server gets restarted.