Posted September 03, 2012
As far as shooting, using vehicles, and basically the basics I've got that down. The issues I have with the game are use of the map, commands, and the gear menu.
I'm the map I'm the map: As I play Arma 1 and 2 free versions (playing the second one even though it runs horribly on my computer out of anticipation and playing the first because it runs better) I notice the map doesn't seem to be useful. When I play Arma 1 and I play the "commanding" tutorial mission (which is not a freaking tutorial at all) I figured out how to put all my guys in the vehicles and then order them to the next waypoints. Problem is, how do I create my own waypoints?
-As I play Arma 1 capture the island, I wonder, how do I create those useful waypoints myself? It'd be pretty awesome if I could just order my guys to drive me everywhere letting me focus on commanding and... well not tedious driving and piloting. If nothing else, it would be cool if I could figure out how to do that just for the sake of it.
-Also, coordinates. This is pretty confusing. When a soldier under my command relays the position of something, how would I know where this is except when there is a realtime waypoint? It took me a while to figure out that it's a grid within a grid setup and it really is as simple as plotting points, but, that requires you too go into and out of your map which is time consuming and therefore less than effective when you might need to act fast.
So what I'm asking is, how do I effectively use the map? If I double click I can place a little thingy, but it seems to be just for reference and doesn't seem to help much, and then I can't figure out how to erase the damn thing.
Backpack backpack: The gear menu is confusing. How do you screw up a gear menu? The stuff on the right is your stuff, okay simple enough, but then the stuff on the right is... your stuff and also the stuff in whatever you're trying to loot? Needless to say this is confusing. How to make it unconfusing?
(no dora reference here): And finally commanding. This kind of goes hand in hand with the map. How do you effectively request support from both AI or real players? If you create a map marker to request artillery from a real player, how will that player know how old the marker is? He might either waste time and ammo, or also hit friendlies. Also, commanding AI seems to be clunky. It seems like the most effective way to command them would be to place waypoints, but I cannot figure this out (in Arma 1 that is).
It seems that waypoints only show up when you give move orders to AI in Arma 2, but how do you just put down a waypoint just for the sake of pointing something out for everyone to see?
-Also, it seems like this game is way too hotkey happy. No sane person remembers more than 10 hotkeys and that's including your classic wasd, shift, and the few surrounding keys. There seems to be keys and certain things not even mentioned in the control menu, like drawing lines and bringing up map tools.
Looking forward to playing Arma 2, and I have the patience to learn how to play it, the problem is then I have to teach my older brother too because he simply doesn't have the time to research this stuff on his own.
Also, just what does operation arrowhead change? Is it really just the addition of some new maps vehicles and weapons and graphics, or are there new features and polishing of existing ones such as bugfixes and the like?
I get that Arma 2 is a military sim and that's all well and good, but a clunky unintuitive and annoying interface is not realistic (with the exception of the map perhaps).
I'm the map I'm the map: As I play Arma 1 and 2 free versions (playing the second one even though it runs horribly on my computer out of anticipation and playing the first because it runs better) I notice the map doesn't seem to be useful. When I play Arma 1 and I play the "commanding" tutorial mission (which is not a freaking tutorial at all) I figured out how to put all my guys in the vehicles and then order them to the next waypoints. Problem is, how do I create my own waypoints?
-As I play Arma 1 capture the island, I wonder, how do I create those useful waypoints myself? It'd be pretty awesome if I could just order my guys to drive me everywhere letting me focus on commanding and... well not tedious driving and piloting. If nothing else, it would be cool if I could figure out how to do that just for the sake of it.
-Also, coordinates. This is pretty confusing. When a soldier under my command relays the position of something, how would I know where this is except when there is a realtime waypoint? It took me a while to figure out that it's a grid within a grid setup and it really is as simple as plotting points, but, that requires you too go into and out of your map which is time consuming and therefore less than effective when you might need to act fast.
So what I'm asking is, how do I effectively use the map? If I double click I can place a little thingy, but it seems to be just for reference and doesn't seem to help much, and then I can't figure out how to erase the damn thing.
Backpack backpack: The gear menu is confusing. How do you screw up a gear menu? The stuff on the right is your stuff, okay simple enough, but then the stuff on the right is... your stuff and also the stuff in whatever you're trying to loot? Needless to say this is confusing. How to make it unconfusing?
(no dora reference here): And finally commanding. This kind of goes hand in hand with the map. How do you effectively request support from both AI or real players? If you create a map marker to request artillery from a real player, how will that player know how old the marker is? He might either waste time and ammo, or also hit friendlies. Also, commanding AI seems to be clunky. It seems like the most effective way to command them would be to place waypoints, but I cannot figure this out (in Arma 1 that is).
It seems that waypoints only show up when you give move orders to AI in Arma 2, but how do you just put down a waypoint just for the sake of pointing something out for everyone to see?
-Also, it seems like this game is way too hotkey happy. No sane person remembers more than 10 hotkeys and that's including your classic wasd, shift, and the few surrounding keys. There seems to be keys and certain things not even mentioned in the control menu, like drawing lines and bringing up map tools.
Looking forward to playing Arma 2, and I have the patience to learn how to play it, the problem is then I have to teach my older brother too because he simply doesn't have the time to research this stuff on his own.
Also, just what does operation arrowhead change? Is it really just the addition of some new maps vehicles and weapons and graphics, or are there new features and polishing of existing ones such as bugfixes and the like?
I get that Arma 2 is a military sim and that's all well and good, but a clunky unintuitive and annoying interface is not realistic (with the exception of the map perhaps).
Post edited September 03, 2012 by JCD-Bionicman
