Ronnie's Wall o' Text - Kieranator/BadArma GitHub Wiki

#By Ronniekins, Careposter Extraordinaire

Although reading is for nerds, the nature of this MILSIM sadly requires you to have a small amount of foreknowledge to avoid getting frustrated or causing frustration for your leader. Since ARMA is at its heart a COOP/PVP FPS game the actual shooting mechanics are the most easily transferred skills, and hence need the least explanation to new players - just staying alive will leave you with opportunities to practice your marksmanship, which is why this short primer will contain a list of keybinds you should take the time to configure, basic features such as the medical system you want to be aware of, as well as a short explanation of how the badger squad operates.

Don't be put off by the seeming size of this post - it's actually just a very brief explanation of things with the bulk of this page being example pictures to help you orient yourself.

##Keybinds The first thing you want to do is go to your settings and access your keybinds. You will see this screen (the basic controls are not going to be covered by this primer, although I highly recommend switching the grenade button away from "G" to avoid friendly fire incidents):

The 'Configure Addons' button will let you access the control schemes for the "TAO folding map" mod (which is basically a quality of life mod) and the "ACRE2" mod, which is perhaps the most important one in our entire modset.

Use the drop down box on the top of the screen, next to "ADDON:", to select ACRE2.

This screen is daunting at first but you dont need every key listed here. The important ones are:

• Volume Control: Pressing this key will bring up a bar you can move with the mousewheel - this will adjust the volume of your voice ingame. Good for when you want to "Shout" at squadmates, or "Whisper" in a PVP scenario.
• Default Radio Key: Pressing this key will turn your currently equipped radio on. You do not need to press your push to talk button while holding the radio button to talk. PLEASE keep proper radio etiquette in mind!
• Cycle Radio: This will switch between all radios you keep on your person. Although you will mostly only have to worry about juggling 2 radios as a leader, its a good idea to have this button bound in advance.
• Open Radio: This will slap a jpeg of a radio in your face, letting you adjust various things on your radio such as output, radio channel etc. Mostly used to coordinate radio channels with your fireteam, explanation will follow.

Configuring AGM keys Other mod-added keybinds you will want to be aware of are the AGM keys. You can access these by entering your pause screen ingame by hitting escape and selecting the "AGM Options" option in the upper-left.

The relevant hotkeys here are: Interaction Menu / Interaction Menu (self) as well as the select weapons buttons at the bottom of the list that let you switch between weapons as you would in any other FPS.

##Interaction Menus Hitting the left windows key by default will bring up the "Self interact" menu which lets you access a variety of features, the most important of which is Self-Treatment.

The "Interact others" key has similar functionality to it.

Most of these commands are self explanatory or only need a little experimentation, I will thus cover only the medical screen.

If you get wounded, or an ally is, you can begin treatment by using the proper interact key and selecting treat. This will bring up this menu.

The medical process itself is very simple - hitting diagnose will take a couple seconds and then spit out some information about how badly wounded the person is, whether they are in pain, and whether they are unconscious. Simply apply bandages to the wounded spots until they are no longer bleeding, inject morphine if they are in pain, inject epinephrine if they are unconscious. This will use up medical resources you or your target is keeping in their gear.

##Switching channels on a 343 radio One of the last bits of knowledge you will need as a newbie is how to switch channels on a 343 radio (the only radio you're likely to get your hands on in a non-leader role). Simply hit the "open radio" key/s and you will be visited by this friendly, interactive jpeg of a radio:

Now all you have to do is [right or left] click the marked knob until the number in the foreground (or the dot, for channel 2, 4, 6 etc.) corresponds to the desired radio channel.

##Proper Gaming Etiquette The last subject to be aware of as a newbie is the gaming etiquette of the badger squad. Though such a thing may seem strange at first - our sessions are drawing 20-30 players every week, as such it is necessary that we enforce some standard of teamwork and effort. Having just one player be disruptive can add a lot of work to the already stressed fireteam and squadleaders, cause people to get wounded or killed and generally ruin the mood for everyone.

Naturally we don't have strict rules or spergy military regulations like most ARMA groups, but we would like every player to give an effort to be cooperative - not only will it make the game less stressful for fireteam leaders, it will also let us get through missions more smoothly - which in turn will mean you are less likely to meet an unfortunate end midmission and end up staring at the spectator screen for half an hour. So it's in your best interest too!

All I will cover here falls under very basic stuff so I'll compile the list of deadly gamer sins under "Don't", all of which should be avoided like the plague from day one on, while I will point out good practice you should try to adopt as you get more experienced within the game under "Do".

Don't:

• Needlessly talk on the radio. Use your 343s only to communicate very urgent issues such as approaching enemies, casualties and so on. The way radios work makes every unnecessary information a risk, as you can drown out important info by other people. As an extension, do NOT interrupt people on the radio unless you have something magnitudes more important to say. Radios are NOT for socializing, use your normal ingame voice for that.

• Enter enemy vehicles. Generally, entering empty enemy vehicles will lead to you eating 10 rockets by friendlies who only see a moving vehicle from the enemy forces. Only enter these AFTER hostilities have ceased, or if a VERY important edgecase comes up (ie. you encounter enemies you can't possibly fight off without the vehicle). Make sure to communicate your intention well beforehand to avoid getting blown the fuck up!

• Pick up enemy weapons needlessly. Your issued weapon should suffice for the most part - should you run out of ammo, or have a good reason to pick up a dropped weapon beyond "AKs are just so cool!" feel free to do so, but communicate it - otherwise friendlies might recognize the sound of an AK firing and mistakenly ID you as an enemy.

• Alt+Tab without lowering your weapon. You will probably shoot your weapon automatically alt+tabbing back in, likely at a friendly. Lowering your weapon first is one method to avoid this happening.

• Running off on your own. Good way to get yourself and friendlies killed. This game does not accomodate lonewolfes.

• Refusing to accept any orders or being a disruptive shithead. It's ok to disagree with plans or to show some amount of initiative, just don't make a point of making other people's life hell. Not doing shit like TKing friendlies should not need mention.

Do:

• Keep track of where friendlies are. It's self explanatory good practice!

• Scan for enemies. Situational awareness at all times is probably the best skill to have in ARMA.

• Hold fire if you aren't sure whether youre aiming at friendlies. In case of unknown target ID its always better to hold off on firing and inform someone close to you.

• Secure the area before moving in to help the wounded. You will only expose yourself to fire by rushing to the spot someone just got shot at.

If you've read all that, you should be well prepared to play with us - should you have any further questions, feel free to ask me on steam or in this thread. You will learn most things by simply playing and having the experienced players teach you things. Most important of all: Don't worry if all this seems complex - after one session you will see that ARMA is a much easier game to ease into than first impressions might tell you!

this shit will just be a bunch of links to learning resources like the wiki, or effortposts like the one about RPG scopes