Multiplayer Tips

Introduction

These tips have been copied directly from the offical BI forums. Text has been altered, corrected in spelling and grammer for the purpose of presentation in this Wiki. Please feel free to correct, add any tips you may feel be helpful to other players.

Getting Connected

Be sure to join servers with as low ping as possible. Many server-admins and hosts dislike HPBs (High Ping Bastards) because their high ping impacts the rest of the players, making effective teamwork hard (IE: HPB occupies a tank, all players in the tank gets lagged (lagged = game run very choppy, thus bad) generally making it impossible to do anything good.

If you can't find any low-ping servers, use the All-Seeing Eye to find dedicated ones, they are usually better. In general its best to play on servers closer to your region and with the lowest ping time possible.

Question

Which CD should I load to play MP online?

• Resistence 1.75
• Cold War Crisis 1.46

Question

I only have a 56k connection so would the game lag for me?

OFP is not 56k friendly.

Question

What is 'The Eye' or the 'AllSeeing Eye'?

THe All Seeing Eye allows you to see OFP servers to connect to, many people feel this is a much better solution then GameSpy lobby, The All Seeing Eye will show you an accurate ping from the server back to you along with other network statistics to help you choose the best game possible.

http://www.udpsoft.com/eye/

Question

How do I know which servers I want?

Best ping? Using the addons you want to play with eg FDF mod? Type of gameplay you prefer to play ie all coop or CTI or whatever?

Question

How do I connect to a server in All Seeing Eye?

Go to 'waiting for players' tab and scroll though and join a server with a low ping and no PL (packet loss) If it says 'Force Conection' it means the game has started and you will have to wait for the next map.

Question

What is a "good" ping time? I rarley see ping times under 100 ms and most games are in the 150+ range and quickly escalate to what I would consider unplayable.

Most servers the highest ping it seems that is berable to allow play is 250 after that major lag kicks in. Try and find a server close to region/country.

Connected! Now what?

Now that you have connected to a server, you might be wondering what's next?

1/ When you do get onto a server you need to pick a side to play either EAST or WEST . Once you pick your side hit 'START' so it changes your icon to green. The game wont be able to start unless everyones name is green and there is no one in the 'Player Pool' Another pointer is if your are in the top slot u are responsible for turning off the AI players. To do this hit 'DISABLE ALL' dont forget or this will cause lag on the server and piss people off as you have to restart mission to get rid of them.

2/ The next stage is to pick the role of player you want to be, once you are moved over into an empty slot you are ready to go.

3/ Third stage is the mission briefing..it may take a while to get here becuase the mission is being sent to all of the players, be patient. Once the mission is loaded and you have selected your gear (if the mission allows it) hit 'IM READY' again this changes your name to green so the game can go ahead. All players names must be green before the game starts.

Please stay at your PC and dont wander off when the game starting up, because it holds others back waiting on you. Make your selections quickly and click the buttons for when you are ready so the games starts fast with no hassle.

The box in the bottom right hand corner shows every players statis and ping times back to the server and will also let you see who the server admin is.

RED = Not ready/lagged out/or if its on the briefing screen they are still loading
YELLOW= Made selection but haven't hit 'Im Ready or Start'
GREEN= Ready to go

Question

I was playing an on-line game yesterday. It was the first time, so I accidentally TK pretty much. I can´t figure out how to write the other players, to say I´m sorry.

You must press the "/" key. Or configure it in your keyboard control options. This allows you to chat back to other players. Once in this mode if you use the arrow keys up and down you can choose just to chat with your group (group chat), side chat (everyone on your side), global chat (to everyone on the server).

Question

How can I scroll back the chat if I've missed an important message?

Press "/" (or "-" depending on your keyboard layout) to open the chat, then use PageUp/PageDown to scroll back/forward.

Vehicle Tips

• To avoid getting shot down in your helo or plane constantly turn and roll when safe to do so. Hovering for extended periods of time is generally bad news.

• Its a good idea to travel in packs of 2 or 3 when using tanks. If you get in trouble you can help each other out.

• BMPS and Bradley's are good vehicles to camp in (hide). Park the vehicle just enough so you can see over a hill, burm, bunker whatever your missles can engage these targets and heat and ap rounds once engageing a tank almost make it impossible for them to see if you get the drop on them and wham gone is that big bad ugly tank.

• Don't waste vehicles, it's annoying when someone takes off in a vehicle alone only to either get killed or crash without a reason when he don't need it anymore.

• If you do not know how to fly don't try and learn in a MP game. Fire up the OFP mission editor set your self up some gound targets put a chopper or plane at the airport. Once you have ground targets down throw in some air targets put an empty chopper in. If you can take down a few choppers with out an ai gunner and just by your self you are ready to try it in a MP game. Do the same with the a10 or other vehicles to improve your skill.

• Shooting down Helos and Air craft can be a challenge. Grab a launcher AA and a couple of your buds on your team leave your vehicles head out on foot to a set area have someone drive a jeep or something your not afraid to loose out of spawn or where ever too that he is blowing stuff up then shoot him down oh and all fire at once or in quick sppaced intervals try not to fire at him when he is moving low or in a turn waste of ammo try and catch him in a straight run comeing at you or going away.

Map Reading

When playing OFP in veteran mode, it is imperative you find out where you are. Should say you crash or something messes up and you are abandoned in the middle of nowhere. This little post is about how to fix all that, you just have to learn how to read your map. Its quite simple actually. Go into your mission editor, and make yourself an A10, Su25, Cessna, or whatever you want. Now, fly around the islands. Make a few quick passes and study the landscapes. That is the first step in map reading. Also, look at your map, get an idea of where towns are, what their names are, even markers marking altitude of the landscape. Now onto how to figure out just where the hell you are in a real game. Keep track of where you were when you were last able to remember your location. Think about where you were going, and what path you were going to take. These three things will give you a general idea on where you can be. The rest of this is process of elimination. Where ever you landed from you ejection, crash, whatever happened take a good look around. Try to find landmarks. Such as farms, roads, signs, forests and the water. If you land by/ in a forest. Run around it and get its general shape. Then, most likely you can use that to find out where you are, then call for support. If you still can't figure out where you are from that, look for a road. They are all over the place. That will aid you greatly. Just follow the road, and sooner or later you will arrive at a town. Most towns have signs telling their names, others you can just tell which they are by common sense. Call for help, and it's all good. If you land on the coast, this is the easiest. Just look at your compass (default button "G" or just look on your map you may have a compass there.) Look out to the ocean, and by doing that, you can now tell what coast you are on. After that, look for the landmarks and locating yourself will be a breeze. Following these instructions will aide you greatly. If all else fails, talk to one of your teammates, and describe your location to them.

• Get an idea of where you start the mission from. Know where objective is. Look at the path you'll be taking. Have some landmarks ready to see.

• If you get lost during flight, look at how roads lead and that might give you great clues of were you could be.

• Knowing landscape helps drastically. once in awhile, do some land surveying in your chooper around 3 islands. you can get the rough idea of where mountains are and some other usefull tips.

• Get used to reading maps in OFP. the curvy lines indicate elevation, and you can find mountains with that, or estimate where you are with it.

• Rarely used is technique looking at how trees and bushes are laid. in OFP many bushes and trees are laid to the point where it seems like there are unique layout for each part of island. so if you can identify some layout and look around approxiamte area of where you think you are, you can find where you are.

• It's also good to find a high point when surveying. If there is a peak or even just a small elevated piece of land. Try to get a good view of what is around you when you are surveying.

Capture The Flag Style Game Play

In CTF, especially smaller maps, there is a good chance that your home flag will be covered by the enemy trying to keep you from scoring. Smoke grenades

have been REALLY overlooked because of their non-lethality, but absolutely rock in this situation. 3-4 grenades widely dispersed around the flag, with the

smoke blowing in the wind, disorient enemy gunners to the true position of the flag, even if it shows your intentions. This makes snipers almost useless,

and forces MG's use a 'spray-and-pray' approach. Got many a flag home that way.

Guarding a flag okay simple lay mines and satchels then leave your town grab a sniper rifle or binoculars and find some place to watch your flag far away but

close enough you can still hit off your satchels wait till they get near your flag and then boom or snipe the person, try not to hide in the same spot they start looking for you after the first time.

Going for a flag is simple again get a couple of guys and go after it make sure you clear the enemy out now some annoying person who is hideing has his finger on a satchel so someone be a sacarifical lamb grab the flag boom okay now wait for the noob to return it then the other two come out of hiding and bam get the flag and skinny back to base. Also try and move corner to corner of buildings etc travel in two to three man teams spaced out a little so if some ones throws a grenade or shoots one of you you can get them and all do not die

Now not all these tricks will work all the time but hey it gives you a step in the right direction and a few pointers to get started, hopefully you won't fell like such a newbie on the battlefield. Before long you will be able to pull alot of these tactics by yourself and get them off but realize it is still alawys best to travel in packs.

General Tips

Question

I know that you can create map markers at the briefing screen and during the mission by double clicking on the map. Sometimes when the waiting takes a while, people start writing bogus messages. Then someone removes them one by one. How is this removing done?

Move the mouse pointer over the marker and press the delete key.

How do you type other kinds of markers? Arrows, question signs, etc?

??

Question

Is there a spectator mode in Operation FlashPoint?

There is no default spectator mode, the seagull is the BI solution to spectate mode. There is an alternative for mission builders to implement, Kegetys made a spectator script which allows you to introduce a 'real' spectating mode into your missions.

Question

I hear some custom sounds, like a dirty laughter... is that implemented in the game or in the downloaded mission?

These are implemented in a custom mission. Searching the multiplayer forum for custom sounds will find you < many > threads that explain how they work, and how annoying most players find them as well.

Question

How can brush up on MP skills and not embarras myself on the Internet?

Copy the mission you want to play to your MPmissions folder then you can just open a LAN game with yourself.

• The most important thing for playing OFP online: Persistent patience!

• Find a place to hide when its time to look at your map. Standing in an open field and looking at the map could get a bullet in your head

• Watch others. You learn the most be watching how other players move, camp, aim, crouch.

• When tagging along, learning from someone who displays skill in-game, have the mindset of supporting them, trying to keep them alive moreso than yourself. i.e. teamwork. This will help the team score as you learn

• Give yourself plenty of time to play a MP game. It often takes a few mins to get into a game. Many suggest not play OFP if you don`t have at least 1 hour time to play. (For CTI style mission give yourself a few hours)

• When playing in cadet mode, forget about the friendly/enemy tags. Learn the uniform textures. This can help cut down on getting chewed for a TeamKill