ArmA editing virgin says hello and thanks OFPEC

[Bahger]

Hey gents.  First post, thanks for your hospitality.

As much as I enjoy playing ArmA 2, I suspect that the mission editor rather than the campaign is going to be my home in this sim.  I have no experience creating and editing scenarios in OFP/ArmA but suspect I'll pick it up quickly as I did some quite advanced mission design in "Steel Beasts", another strongly tactical sim with a great editor.

I'm about to jump into the ArmA 2 editor.  My goal is to make and publish tactical, squad or platoon-size missions with the player participating in an infantry role on a fully-populated battlefield with realistic air and/or artillery support.  I'm not so interested in creating cinematics, I'd rather let the great visuals take care of themselves while I supply the player with a convincing recreation of the kind of problems and decisions a Lieutenant or Captain might have to confront under fire.  Where there are tanks, helos and A-10s they will probably not be playable but there as transport or battlefield support, and subject to realistic limitations.

I am very glad indeed to have found this site and intent to consume the very helpful beginner's guide to the editor.  Meanwhile I have two questions:

1.  Is there any chance that the "sample" mission supplied alongside the ArmA editing tutorial might be updated to work in ArmA 2?  If so, rest assured that I'll be recreating it, using it, playing it and looking hard under the hood.

2.  Can anyone recommend user-made missions for ArmA 2 that conform to the intent described above which I can play and study?

Many thanks once again.

[nominesine]

I suspect that the mission editor rather than the campaign is going to be my home in this sim.

That's the spirit! A very warm welcome to the Ofpec Forums. It appears you have found the right place. To answer your questions:

1) Most likely yes - eventually. Not by my hands though, since I have uninstalled both Armed Assault and it's predecessor OFP to make room for ArmA2 on my densly populated Hard drives. But from now on the challenge is put forth. Someone will likely pick up the glove within a few days.

2) There is at least one such mission that I know of in the BETA-Missions forum. Since ArmA2 is a rather newish game, user made quality missions started to surface quite recently. Rumage through the rest of the BETA-thread as well. There are lots of other entries there. Even if the missions don't live up to all your prerequisites, you may still learn a lot by disassembling them. Actually that's how most people in here learned the art of mission making to begin with. Personally I started with disassembling an OFP classic called "Steal The Car". I've been hooked ever since.

Once again: Welcome to the Forums!

 

[Bahger]

Thanks for the warm welcome nominesine.

Are you aware of any aspect of ArmA 2 mission editing that might differ significantly from your ArmA 1 tutorial guidance?

Many thanks for the link to that Beta mission, which looks good; I will d/l it as soon as I get home.  Is there anything I need to know re. opening user-made missions in the ArmA 2 Editor?

[nominesine]

Apart from the briefing/objectives everything is pretty much the same. SQS still works. SQF still works. A few new commands have been added and none removed (as far as I know). Regarding the briefing there's an excellent tutorial here. There's also a few minor changes in the description.ext regarding sounds and such, but I'll not go into that right now. Happy editing!