Hey,

I Just got into America's Army on the PC and I am somewhat confused. As far as my training goes i've passed everything except my SF Special Forces (I hate the idea of having to sit in an actual class in a video game), anyhow, I started to play the multiplayer and All of the active servers continously ran the assault map with the bridge. Did I miss something or is that the only map people play. Also, If anyone knew any IPs of dedicated servers with an actual map cycle I would greatly appreciate it.

Dazed and Konphuzed,

Konphujun

You need to change the Filter settings. When you go into Deployment from the main menu, click Missions (high center screen) and click your way through the Tour and Mission lists to select a map you like.

You can also do this by changing the Map Filter setting in Deployment -> Filter (high center screen again). Select ALL here to see servers running any maps.

I don't remember running into a server with map cycle in a looooong while, last time must have been well over a year ago. And that's good, because starting out on servers with a map cycle will guarantee that you won't know what the hell you should be doing for a month. Stick to one map first, like MOUT McKenna, Pipeline, Insurgent Camp, Bridge (SE) or Weapon's Cache (SE).

The SF training is absolutely worth doing once you hit 15 Honor (which might take a while, depending on how quickly you learn to distinguish friend from foe...), so that you can really enjoy SF CSAR, SF Hospital and SF Sandstorm. CSAR is by far my favorite map in the game, followed by Sandstorm -- these are fast, close combat oriented and rather well balanced maps over a rather small area. Plus you've already sat through actual classes in Medic training if you've done that -- compared to the Medic classes, SF AVWID is a piece of cake. It's the SF E&E which will be a pain in the ass.

Would you recommend this game for someone using a laptop and dial-up, or should I wait till I get broadband/wireless?

Weeell, hard to say. Many play it with 200-250ms range latency without much trouble. When I started playing there were no official servers in Europe, so I had to play on the US East Coast servers, which generally meant 200-300ms latency. It's definitely playable, although you'll be better off as Automatic Rifleman or Grenadier and should probably stay away from sniping.

Even now I have to play it on an UK server, which gives me about 90-140ms pings in normal conditions. Sniping moving targets is still really difficult, but otherwise it's just fine.

I'm in Oz, and wouldn't have a clue where the nearest server is, official or otherwise. Perhaps it might be something I'll put off until such time as I get a better connection. Thanks for the prompt and candid answer.

There's bound to be several unofficial Australian servers. It's just that you don't gain Honor (sort of like EXP which you gain from achieving objectives, giving 1st aid, successfully leading the squad/a fire team and making kills) on most unofficial servers, which means you'll be stuck in "n00b" status, can't play as SF, and usually get last pickings when choosing class (Rifleman/Automatic Rifleman/Grenadier/Sniper(Marksman)/etc). Still, there might well be stable, fast, leased Honor servers running in Australia. I've no idea.

So, yeah, it might not be quite as fun as with a fast connection, but it should be playable. Ping doesn't matter as much in AA as in most games because most engagements are decided before a single shot is fired.

That's cool. Thanks again for the info.

I have already changed the filter settings many times... I was just at the AA site though and it would appear that my version is out of date. Maybe thats it, though I havent heard of a game getting a new patch and then have a few serves stay behind on the 'old version'. Ehh, Ill download the patch and we'll see what happens.

Regards,

Konphujun

You know, I bet there are still Counter-Strike servers running of all versions from B3.0 onwards. It's pretty weird that all of the servers running the old version are running the same map, though.

Bridge got a heavy change from the update to 2.1, that could be it (less 203 rounds, fewer M67s, etc.)

Whenever I decide to head back to the LAN cafe, I'll be around to hose anyone on MOUT...

Just in case I remembered wrong, I played 2 hours of Bridge (not SE) today. First I got 5 Critical Errors at 30sec-2 minute intervals, which royally sucked. It's weird, because I never get more than maybe 1 per 20 hours of SF CSAR. Once those stopped, it was time for some good ole Bridge action. When I came in, it was the last of 7 rounds, and the situation was 6-0 to Defense. We were getting slaughtered by their snipers.

Bridge is pure frustration. Because the defensive snipers, laying still with their sights set in a particular direction, can always see you much earlier than you can see them, there's no way to fight them with normal means. The average game consists of 3-5 minutes of HC grenading where you could die any second at random, because someone thought this might be a good time to throw a frag there. Then it's sniping time, with people crawling around trying to get a good angle. The average round lasted about 7 minutes, compared to 3-3½ in CSAR.

I think the total score of those 2 hours was around 4 victories to Assault vs 10+ to the Defense, although I will admit that the bias towards Defense isn't quite as bad as I though. Assuming teams of equal skill, I'd guess Assault might win as many as 1/3 rounds.

The amount of newbies was staggering. About half the players were below 20 Honor. Admittedly I'd be closer to 40 than my current 50 had I only ever played Bridge. I've gotten used to most of the team being at 40+ in CSAR, and people over 70 being a dime a dozen.

Nah, I'll just stick to my CSAR. I like being able to outmaneuver my foes. I like the variety allowed by urban terrain balanced with the easy to grasp layout. The size of the map is perfect -- not to big, not too small. No snipers, and there wouldn't be any use for them either. Everybody having a single M203 round is a great camper-remover, but doesn't allow the gameplay turn into an Insurgent Camp-style GL-fest.