this is how Arma should be played really, if ppl think it's too over the top then that's why there is call of duty for fun and bunny hopping
i play only on Sparta server:
http://www.gametracker.com/server_in....116.136:2301/ the server is setup to run the domination game type, which means blufor have to attach and capture a town / village occupied by oopfor. this consists of around 250+ infantry and 50 or 60+ pieces of armour.
the gameplay is heavily based on teamwork, and is relatively easy going but with good co ordination, and you can pretty much do what you want but if you go rambo then you get left on your own to die a lot lol, do stupid stuff then your gonna get booted.
all pilots need to be added to a list due to the number of ppl joinging the server to piss about , steal assets that are needed to get to the objectives or are just in there to wreck as much stuff in the blufor base as possible.
you need a range of roles to complete successfully, anti armour, machine gunners, snipers, spotters, mortars, artillery, medics etc etc, everyone is needed.
the same ppl join week after week, and all join teamspeak, which the game would be complete chaos without.
the game type is constantly being changed by the coders at Sparta, the latest major addition was to create 2 human controlled opfor players and one human controlled opfor commander. this means that the opfor commander has control over all the troops and armour. it's inevitable for opfor to lose but it's completely changed the way the game works, and also shows how bad the AI are controlled by the software. now it is a different game.
on fridays the server is run tactically - locked server, everyone on ts, mission commander, 2nd in command, squad leaders the whole lot. some of the guys played arma1 like this so starting off things were organised but 1/2 the peeps (inc myself) never tried this before, but after a few months then it's become really well organised and a hell of a lot of fun.
the domination gametype is not the same as the coop missions, you know what you are facing - freekin tons of stuff - but you can attack a town in so many ways. i find the specific missions edspite being very open, are always going to be somewhat linier because the objective is so specific. uuum well i know destroy a town is specific but you never get the same scenario repeated, especially with the human controlled ai.
the only limiting factior is the imagination of the mission commander.
must be 5 or 6 months since we started tactical play, i captured some vids one the first night. tbh it's pretty boring to watch tactical missions, but gives the general idea of what goes on. in game you are usually travelling or scouting or doing something so it's better than watching a vid
boring but discussion of next target whilst en route to target, right at the end you can see the plan on the map
bit of action at the start of this one, this is first contact with the target area with everyone shooting at once. then some movement to get into town. as you can see and hear, the commander is having a hard time getting everyone moving to gether
continuing into the town, and completion
next mission, note that i start and stop the recording intermittently, the mission takes probably an hour. the newer domination gametype can take 2 or 3 hours to complete 0_0
generally the orders were never as specific as at the start of this one, and even less so now that the target areas are so huge.
it's not always serious tho
only once did we do a whole squad paradrop, but shows the versatility of the game.
you wil be able to see my YELLOW hands in that vid at the end. for me it's purely for identification, we played some hardcore coop which has no names or markers so it was pretty much impossible to tell who was who. arma2 lets you use custom faces (upper body skin), and when you join a game all the faces are uploaded to all players so everyone sees your colours etc. i made some for a few guys, here's Luggage with a Welsh flag on his face and easy to see green hands
the AI dont seem to distinguish between the colours, but unfortunately if you are playing vs human players, then you are at a massive disadvantage as you can imagine. ive had to resort to an allover camo pattern instead of my big yellow washing up gloves
you can also have squad logos, they appear on the side of vehicles when you ge in as driver
that is all for now