Basic Training area
April 10, 2004
This site is to provide information for players of the Americas Army game, and is dedtcated to the men and women of the United States Army. It will be primarily for developing
players, but hopefully will have info that any player may find of value.
If you have some content you would like to see posted here
,
e-mail me
and I will concider quality examples. If you want to build
a fan site but need a little help with HTML, check out
my visible HTML page
.
Americas Army Operations is the official video game
of the united states army. It is a full featured, first person 3D action game. In fact it has a way trick set of
features for a game that costs no money! That's right the game can
be downloaded for free, or obtained at army recruiting venues.
This site is not affiliated with the united
states army. I produce free content for the internet as RodeoX because
I have been inspired by those who have given before me. So go ahead
copy, misquote, mangle my graphics, claim my work as yours. I really
don't care.
For official information and/or download
of the 600+?mb of data needed for installation,
goto americasarmy.com.
The forums found under "community" contains
a vast number of posts. Any questions you may have are likely to
be among these posts or in the FAQ section.
Thanks to devil_man and others an unbeatable amount
of information can be found at
www.militarysims.com.
The beginner's guide is so good I stopped work on
my own pages during ver. 1.1, as there seemed nothing left to say.
Things you should DO:
and NOT DO
as a nubie.
DO:
A time tested tradition for fresh combat troops
is to follow a good solider. Do what you are told and report in when
requested to do so. In settings you can assign a
Report key that will report your present position
to your teammates.
Since you will be spending a lot of time dead
as a
newbies, take advantage of the game view feature
between games with a mouse 1
click. My wheel mouse also moves backwards through views
with mouse wheel up .
DON'T:
Whatever you do, don't be a jerk or you may soon
find yourself without a game to join. What is acceptable
behavior online is standardized* at official aa web sites. These
rules can be viewed via the official link above. They include what
you might expect. No swearing or racial slurs, cheating etc. On an unofficial
server, the host may have any rules or no rules. Good players rarely
brush up against the rules. Just avoid getting into childish arguments
with unreasonable players. Don't cheat. Say your sorry when you mess
up or offend someone. If you are offending people you may be voted
off. To initiate a kick vote on a person. hit the
~ key then type votekick player
, where player is the name of the offensive person. You will
be prompted to type in a reason. Then the petition will be sent to all
players. If half + 1 of the players vote they are booted. To add your
vote to a petition just hit ~ then
type votekick. or use a keybinding.
A persistent fool can be dealt with by using an irc program, like the one built into the game.
It can be use to contact an Admin. on an official server.
Note: Votekick has gotten a bit out-of-hand. Players
are sometimes voted off for next to nothing. The game has a built
in accommodations for idle players and tk. Do not just vote because
everyone else is. Please find out why.
DO:
ROE points are subtracted from your score for injuring
or killing your teammates. ROE is the only scoring element that can
lower your Honor Score (you are given a score of 10 to start). If a
player has an Honor score of 9 or lower he/she my be kept from play
on all official maps except MILES training. Work hard to avoid tk or
team kill. People will laugh at you for hesitating a moment to long
on a target, but they will vote you off for shooting them. Note also that ROE honor deductions are greater if near the start of a game. You can request
weapons and leadership status with the
F3 key.(soon you may be assigned this by the in game leadership) Start out requesting a rank of private and
concentrate on learning the M16 and close quarters battle (CQB).
When you are given a saw, use it like a saw. Back a solider up with
drenching area suppression or many short well aimed bursts at
exposed enemy troops during a fight. The 203 grenade launcher is a frightful
liability in the hands of a careless nubie. What can you do? You need
to use it to get good, using it causes tk. Try to go to the range and
get more practice. that will help some. More important is to know
the positions of your teammates. Ask for people to report in before attacking
unknown positions. Look at the direction indicator for your team waypoints.
Anyone you command or who commands you will appear on your HUD or heads
up display. Check your fire!
DON'T:
Avoid throwing nades until you are good.
Throwing nades or shooting the 203 requires knowing the positions
of your teammates. Many players are killed by friendly grenades
and you will not only anger your teammates, you will up
your ROE score and be booted. Besides you will be shooting enough
of your own guys as it is.
Your best bet is to use basic tactics,
ambush attackers or provide cover fire for more skilled assaulters.
Nade when it is requested or when you have warned teammates and verified
the target area clear.
DO:
56kers when selecting a game look for a low ping , less
than 300, and a reasonably full game. If you join
a game with a ping of 200 and only 2 players,
you may find your ping degrading as others join. You may also like
"forward observer" a great server finder program from DivideByZero.
You can find it at the millitarysims.com link on this page.
Accuracy:
The accuracy of your weapon is determined by a number of variables you can control. Taking steps to improve your accuracy, is critical if you hope to win fire fights. The most accurate shot is achieved while not injured or under fire, laying in the prone position with the bipod down, the sights up, fastmove off, and timed to breathing. When these elements are in place the weapon will have the smallest shot cone circle. The shot cone circle is the area where a bullet may strike if the gun is fired.
For Example,
The yellow circle on the photo shows the area where a bullet may land if the gun is fired exactly at the center, when the shooter is at yellow health. The green circle is the same shooter at green health.
All, The variables mentioned above effect the size of this circle. This is why suppression fire works in the game. In addition to causing the enemy to duck, near misses expand the shot cone of those who do not not duck. Attention to accuracy while playing can not be ignored.
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The CEM meter and position indicator
\ health meter displayed at the top of fig.1, show the conditions
for an accurate shot. The player is prone (lying down) and in slow mode.
Upon running the player has auto switched into fast
move, and the CEM has bottomed out. If he/she stops suddenly, the
CEM will need a few seconds to recover it's potential.
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Refer to fig.1 Someone running at a distance
from you and shooting wildly can be dispatched by going prone
or kneeling, bringing up the sights and returning aimed fire. Not
only will your shots find their mark, you will be a smaller target.
You should also try crouching and and moving around corners in slow mode.
The difference this makes in the accuracy of your weapon gives you an
edge in any close quarters battle.
Communication:
Paying attention to the chat can be distracting,
however the value of team communication should not be underestimated.
Teams that use the radio, squad radio, hand signals, etc.
are often winners. Many sqads and clans use programs like TeamSpeak or Ventrilo for voice communication.
If you use Ventrilo, check out my keybind example.
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Say hi or something when you log on and take
the time to memorize some basic radio command that could benefit
your team. If you just learn to warn of incoming nades
you will regularly save your teammates. If defending, call in your
position when you have arrived at your guard position. If your
squad leader is showing enough initiative to ask you to check in
or cover an objective. Do it, and consider yourself lucky to be
on a team instead of in a mob.
To send a message during a game press your
say key. The default key for this function is
T . However since you may
set up your keyboard in a variety of ways with the
settings menu, you will need to check your system.
This function issues the command
Say and presents you with a command line ready to take
a text string and send it to all members of your squad. Note that
if you are dead this message would instead be sent instead to all dead
players, as the dead cannot chat with players still in game. After
death you can chat with your op4 opponents, or use the
TeamSay key ( default Y
) when discussing anything for your team only.
Look at the example below. Some readers
will recognize it as the frequently used bridge map message "enemy
left back".
(US Army) THE_MECHANIC messaged: elb
It takes a bit of practice before becoming proficient
at texting during a fire fight. If you invest the practice you will
be able. Remember, while it may take you three seconds to type a
short message, by five seconds you may have drawn two other guns onto
a menacing threat.
The default
G key will cycle through
the various commo presets. During a game you may select from radio,
shouted, whispered or hand motioned signals. The audible messages
play sound files stored on players computers. Hand signals are mostly
invisible for the sender but make great entertainment for the dead.
If you are in command of your team you will have the additional
radio communication option of SquadRadio.
keybindings
keybindings are commands that have been linked to keys
on the keyboard. Many default binds are viewable and changeable by
clicking on the settings menus
of the game. When settings options are saved that information is written
to the user.ini file stored in the
system folder of the game. You
can also open your user.ini file from
the game folder and directly edit. This is a bit tricky so make sure
you always start by making a copy and using it to edit. The sample below
is from my own key bindings. This change makes my
Alt key into an alert button when I see hand grenades or 40
mm. rounds coming in.
Alt=Say !!Incoming!! | CommoRaido
| CommoSendMessage 5
Now my teammates see the text message "
!!Incoming!! " and hear "
take cover " on their radios. By combining
several commands in this way, you can create specialized keys with
functionality far beyond the options available in the
settings menu.
Commo and other console commands can be included, but again
not all things are possible, and if you mess up your ini file beyond
repair you need to use the original copy you saved or reinstall the
game. For some basic info on ini files visit this web page
I wrote for another game called RedAlert
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While keybinding in AAO can become difficult, when using
aliases for example, simple binds like the example above are easy
to do and can be a great help during a game. You may also want to read my reference on the Keybinds.ini file.
Camouflage:
Remember that too the enemy you are lines, colors, movement
and sounds. An experienced op4 will have developed a "searching image"
of your profile, movement, pallet and sounds. Break up your lines
by hiding in in areas busy with shapes, such as trees or debris.
When choosing concealment I suspect many players forget they
appear to the enemy in opfor skins. You may see yourself in a U.S.
uniform that blends well with the pallet of your immediate surroundings.
Enemy players my see you as a highly contrasting figure. Take advantage
of areas that offer a backdrop that matches your color palette Lurk
in shadows and cover or conceal as much of your body as possible. Use
your FastMove toggle key to go into
slow mode before throwing a nade. This will prevent you from shouting the
grenade warning. You may recall hearing this as a sort of "Zeek hiel!"
phrase just before a sort of KaBooM! noise. You can tell if you are
in fast or slow mode by the blur around your position indicator/health meter.
Think before firing and giving away your position. Instead remain motionless
in slow mode and observe op4 until he is in a weak position, then make
your shots count. Movement is even more attractive to the eye than
color. Be ready and be patient.
So, are you on the top of a hill and moving silhouetted
against the fog, or just below the ridge line crouching the shadowy
foreground? Try to visualize yourself as seen on enemy screens. For
further discussion on cover and exposure visit my
exposure time theory in df2 page
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Connection:
I have a 56k connection, with some enhancement,
and I'm lucky to hold a ping of 200. How to milk every
kb of bandwidth from your connection is beyond the scope of this
page; but here is a start. Your ping is the time it takes to bounce
a signal off the server. It is expressed in thousands of a second.
Therefore a ping of 100 is lagging a tenth of a second behind. I find
it difficult to play with a ping higher than around 350. If you
want to check your ping in a game you can hit
F1 and check your ping against all players
in the game. For more information you may want
to bring up the command line by typing
~ . From there type
stat net and
a display of real time connection data appears. To make the
display go away, enter the same command again or use the
up arrow to select the last command and hit
Enter .
You may also try tinkering with your netspeed. Bring
up the command line (console) with ~
then type netspeed and change
the speed from the default of 6000. I believe 6000 is more for
broad band connection. I have had some improvement with
netspeed 4500 .
Hit points:
"Playing the numbers", instead of playing the game can take
a bit of the adventure away. However, because your computer is only
capable of doing math, it is worth considering how hit points are applied
by the game. The solider that you control in the game is made of
several hit boxes. When a bullet sprite hits one of these hit boxes,
points are deducted from your health. and that information updates
your health meter. You will not see this information as numbers, rather
as a color change on a spectrum from green too red in your health
meter. The amount of points subtracted will vary depending on what
hit box has been struck and the type of weapon that shot you. A single
shot to the head hit box may dispatch you outright, while a shot to
an arm hit box may do little damage. I am not sure about this part
in aao, but in the case of a grenade, an area effect is likely applied.
In an area effect , proximity is the critical factor. The closer you
are to the blast, the greater the deducted hit point value. Hit points
should not be confused with the scoring shown on the scoring screen you
can bring up during an online game.
Strategy:
When planning your next mission use the local links below to find
tips, tactics, words of wisdom, etc. The information here has been provided
by members of the aao community. If you would like to add something of you
have written to the stratigy section, please
e-mail me
.
Bridge and Bridge_SE
codes:
Consol commands, such as the previously mentioned
stat net, can be useful in gaining valuable intel. Open
the consol by hitting the
~ key, and check some of these out.
The Esc key will close the consol when not needed.
Note, this can all be done off-line.
enter open leavenworth. This will
start the leavenworth map, and you will soon find yourself in a jail
cell. Some other map names are, mountain_pass,
mout_mckenna, insurgent_camp, bridge, bridge_SE, fls, hq_raid,
jrtc_farm, mountain_ambush, pipeline, swamp_raid, tunnel, weapons_cache, weapons_cacheSE,
fls, radio_tower ....
After opening a map (except for leavenworth?) you will need to
type in playerlock 0. Without this command
you will not be able to move. Now you are free to walk around the map,
practice moves, find hiding spots, etc. This can be handy for scoping
out a new map before going online.
Now lets say you want a gun to practice. Enter
mpcheat changeclass g , now you have the 203
40mm. grenade launcher. Without fear of being killed you can work on
that tricky window shot you can't seem to peg. You may also avoid the playerlock command and receive a full complement of weaponry by typing in class sf Other weapons you may want
to try are, ak, ak74su, ar, gp, m4a1, m4a1auto,
mos, r, rpk, s, s24 and svd .
I have no regard for cheaters, however these will only work
if you are online on a cheat server. And why would you be
on a cheat server? Well, let's say you want to brush up on
your sniping so you join a sniper only game. The server will have
cheats turned on so that players can give themselves sniper rifles. If
cheats are turned on, the admin of the server is likely to have some rules,
like say snipers only.
Some other mpcheats are
mpcheat ghost
-lets you fly
around map (exit by typing walk in the console)
mpcheat god
-hit points
are not deducted
mpcheat free camera1
-Independent, 3rd person view
mpcheat nvg
-night
vision
mpcheat paramsammo1 -unlimited ammo
Some codes may help you with the performance of your computer.
Besides stat net, you may want to try
the stat fps
command. this will reveal the frames per second which you are
viewing the game. when making adjustments to hardware drivers or
netspeed you should consider this along with ping .
check out also, stat hardware, stat render
and stat all. Use the stat none to
clear data.
Flushing the game engine memory with the
flush command may give a quick temporary boost during
the game, especially for computers with marginal memory resources. You
can check your systems memory with the memstat
command.
always under construction.
RodeoX
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