Newbie Requires Action Menu Help

[domi]

Greetings and thanks for being such a good community that you can make a game this steep to learn actually look appealing!
On to my issues. I've never played an ArmA game in my life, so imagine my excitement when i finally have a machine that can run ArmA 3 and i could finally try it out. Rather, imagine my frustration, considering that this franchise appears to be built with an almost meticulous attention to making it impossible for new people to pick it up without research, help and an impossible level of patience. Well, after 2 days - i give up. Can someone please direct me to any instructions on the finer points of using the Action Menu? It is easily the single worst bit of interface i've encountered in my life. Seriously, we used to design better content in QBasic in middle school. This is phenomenally awful.
I still have no idea how to close it? When it randomly pops up because there are 12 000 000 keys bound to mess with it, my only means of shutting it down is to scroll to inventory and then manually close the pop-up with the "I" key. I've been searching for an intro to the Action Menu for nearly 2 hours now, and the internet is so overloaded with people talking smack on it, that the only thing i can find is hate on everything that's wrond with it, and no explanations of its basics.
For some reason i can no longer switch weapons in helicopters, because hitting space used to bring up a context menu to switch between weapons (Jesus bloody Christ, Doom 1 had a better weapon selection mechanic than this, what are the devs thinking!?), but now it brings up the Action Menu, which i cannot leave and it offers no help in switching weapons.
Nothing useful can be bound in controls manually, nothing helpful exists anywhere in guides or help, at this point i'm done playing the game until i find someone who knows how this works, who is willing to explain it to me. I cannot believe this is happening, but i'm about to shelve one of the games that i put together my gaming rig for because after 2 days of messing with this one little terrible piece of content i'm at wits' end.
=<

Please, help me.

EDIT:
Apologies for this being in the wrong section, i can't find a way to move it. o.o

[dOOby]

Your problem sounds quite frustrating and I'm currently having the same problem just with any flight simulator (they just spit you inside the cockpit and tell you to take off with no instructions)
But to your case, I don't mind you adding me on steam and asking me any questions about Arma's controls, im sure I can help you

[domi]

Many thanks to dOOby for the speedy resolution. Hopefully soon enough i develop a decent grasp of the game, so i can start using mods. Apparently there's one or two that do away with the Action Menu entirely. Huzzah.

[Karma]

For closing the inventory (1) use Esc. ,(2) click in the inventorys top richt corner on the X.
For switching weapons in vehicle check your keybinds in the options menu: options\Weapons\Next weapon, think the default is F.
Change the vehicles weapon ammo type use the action menu scroll down select the ammo type
and click on space, (you can also click on Enter or the mouse wheel)

[domi]

I appreciate that.
Any idea if there's a way to adjust the "gain" on keyboard for analog inputs? Like when i'm adjusting the collective in a heli or steering in a car, i have to hold the button while it slooooooowly gains before it will actually begin changing/turning. I feel like with helis it's enough that there's an actual delay due to physics, i don't need to have to start my inputs an extra second in advance, just because there's an artificial gain dampening in the game itself. Any idea how i can change that?
I just made a bid on eBay on a joystick, just because i don't have enough analog inputs on my xbox360 controller to do all the stuff that this game requires in order to not be handicapped by having to use kb/mouse. I know what will fix this expense - more expenses.
._.

[Merman888]

LOL dude 2 days and your out? have a little patience....

There is a fairly steep learning curve....

yes Arma is clunky as Fark... and they are slowly fixing the bugs... ahermm i mean game features.

And start looking into mods, its where the game shines :)

[domi]

I'm still too lost to know if mods help or hurt at this point. I will, once i get there.
It's all better now, that i was advised to go back to defaults and not try to make the controls fit me, but more so just get used to the factory standards. That being said, yes, 2 days and i had to resort to this message board.

[Dj Otacon]

Use the power of youtube to learn the basics of the game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq7FRk2uPgo

[TheOkami]

It's a shortfall of most simulation or semi-sim games. I experienced the same thing starting with Arma 2, but it may surprise you to learn that Arma 3 actually IMPROVED the interface, haha. Sounds like a joke, but this is the best we've had for a while from Arma.

On to addressing your issues. Certain things require tweaking and customizing, while others are "hard coded" and simply require you to adapt, as hard as that may be. I like to think the campaign sections, Survive, Adapt, and Win are directly relevant to the controls. You'll spend a good chunk of time not knowing what the hell you're doing, picking it up as you go, applying it slowly and more effectively, culminating in feeling like it's all second nature. It's certainly frustrating at first, but rewarding in the end so stick with it, this is the best military sim around.

If you accidentally open an action menu (I do it all the time), just right click or hit backspace and it will close the menu for 99% of situations. Certain menus like inventory require you to hit a different key, but those are explained in tutorials. The biggest addition to the action menu is context sensitive indicators like when you're near a door an icon will pop up showing that you can open a door, so you can just hit space or use scroll wheel to bring up the selection and then hit space (or whatever key you bind action menu selection to). One big thing to remember, there is no "right" way of binding keys and I almost alway inevitably rebind my keys to suit my liking and whatever mods I may have loaded. Arma 3 even comes stock with simplified controls for people accustomed to traditional shooters, which is nothing to be ashamed of if you don't want to deal with all the tedious adjustments.

As far as "gain," I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but the helicopters simulate throttle separate from engine control in the advanced flight model. That means you'll have to start the heli first, and the throttle adjustment allows you to set the throttle however you want before start, which again is just part of the sim aspect of the game. The throttle is slower in advanced mode because it requires minute adjustments. I find the standard model works as expected. Of course there is some delay in the game, it simulates gradual increase of rpm and lifting a massive airframe. For other vehicles, I'm not entirely sure what you mean as they are pretty responsive for me. If you go offroad or at steep angles, they will struggle and chug along. I find most of the time I am going too fast, but I am limited with what I can do with my mouse and keyboard. As far as steering is concerned, do yourself a favor and use the mouse to control the wheel, which you may not have realized you could do. It is way faster and more precise, allowing for smooth steering and sharp turns. In aircraft, I use mouse for all control, except when I need sharp rolls or rudder control, in which cases I use the keyboard for those sharp sudden actions.

I know this was a huge post, but I hoped it helped in some way! When in doubt, consult the tutorials to be sure it isn't in there somewhere and check out Dslyecxi's videos on Youtube, he has some really informative ones as far as tactics and simulation aspects that you may find useful.

EDIT:

Hotkeys are your friend. Need to switch weapons in vehicles or on foot? Just hit the "F" key to cycle between them or whatever key you'd like to assign that to.

[domi]

Thanks for the indepth response, that answered a bunch of questions i had.
Yeah, i've been basically getting by pretty much entirely on Dsliecxi's vids and things that pop up in the related links on youtube to them.
What i mean by gain is this: you'll notice on the advanced flight model, since there is an indicator of what collective (works like you'd expect a throttle to, but isn't) is set to, that when you go to increase altitude for instance - the adjustment doesn't happen immediately, but rather ramps up very slowly. You end up having to hold the key for anywhere between a half and a full second before it begins adjusting the thrust of the heli. That makes for quite the terrible time trying to, for instance, land on the floating pad in the last part of the basic heli training in the VR. Not too hard in the standard mode, but in advanced it's almost impossible to use kb+m. I've actually noticed that even Dslyecxi uses analog collective adjustment, a change from his usual mouse-and-keyboard-only-ever approach. So i wasn't sure if there is a way to remove the slow ramping of input. I understand why they did it for steering cars, but the collective on the chopper NEEDS quick response.
I would totally use the mouse to steer if it didn't auto return to center. It becomes awfully annoying having to constantly re-drag the mouse to keep a steady turn. If you could suggest a way to make it work so that when you turn all the way with the mouse, it stays turned until you drag the mouse back to center, that would be amazing.

[Merman888]

Yeah stick to the basic controls for sure........ i,m generally a ground pounder/infantry and find that the middle mouse scroll and space bar combo to work really well for me when switching out stuff and general interaction with the environment.

And TheOkami is right the interface has come along way.... i dont think you would have lasted even a couple minutes on the original game :P

Good luck keep at it, see you on the battle field :)

[TheOkami]

@domi I get what you mean now. Yes, it's seriously annoying with the collective in advanced mode, but that's pretty much how most flight sims feel, e.g. Flight Simulator X. Unfortunately, the collective control and the wheel auto centering are both examples of things that are coded into to the game and don't have any way of modifying them yet. It may be a good idea to submit those issues to their feedback section.

First, I'll address the collective. A dedicated throttle/collective controller definitely makes this much easier and it seems it was designed with that in mind. It's a shame because everything else works well with mouse and keyboard, but perhaps we both just have to get used to hit, or hope for some adjustment from Bohemia. Anyway, I think most multiplayer servers won't have advanced flight model active so it may be something you'll just have to invest in if you do have a server that requires it or you just like having it on in singleplayer. In my mind, after messing around with it, the collective delay seems to be a precaution to make sure it isn't pressed accidentallly, I also noticed it ramps up from slow to fast adjustment when held down, which is a nice touch. After messing around with helicopters in advanced for a while, I've found that it is actually best to not adjust the collective often, only set it at "stages" for hover, takeoff, normal flight, and landing. You'll just have to learn what numbers work best for each type of helicopter. Again, advanced flight model isn't necessary, I'm not even sure why they added it in since the fixed wing aircraft aren't as realistic. Maybe they have an enthusiast on their team. I find the vortex ring much more difficult to master than the collective so I'm sure you'll get there with some more practice.

As far as the auto centering on vehicles, I never noticed it as something annoying. I like it because it lets me make small movements without having to correct and eventually overcorrect since using a mouse is much different from actually holding the wheel. I find it allows me to drive smoothly, but I can understand long turns may get annoying. If you feel it doesn't hold position long enough, I would suggest messing around with your mouse sensitivity as well as deadzone (not sure if that makes a difference in vehicles) to see if there is a sweet spot. My mousepad is fairly small and I hardly ever find myself needing to track all the way to one side or move the mouse back and forth to keep the turn rate. It sounds like a sensitivity problem to me, which if you hate global mouse sensitivty, get a good gaming mouse with sensitivty control to hot swap between different settings. Also, be sure to turn mouse acceleration off unless you need it.

Another long response, but again, I think you need to give it another chance! The Arma series has been a love-hate relationship with everyone who's ever stuck with it, but I guess that is part of the charm. I think the day we get a highly intuitive, streamlined interface with fluid controls will be the day it's no longer Arma, haha.

[domi]

Oh, absolutely. I gave it another chance as soon as this thread got a response. I've been doing pretty well with the standard model and apart from combat am pretty satisfied with my handling of the helis and fixed wing. I feel like i could do a transport function well enough.
Advanced has been a longer and rougher road, but i'm getting to a point of doing alright, so long as i go out of my way to go slowly. I went ahead and ordered a joystick with standalone throttle control for cheap, so the collective can stop being an issue. Now i'm forcing myself to do more ground pounding, as Loren put it, and stay away from frustrating myself with helis until the stick arrives. Wouldn't want to develop too much muscle memory that then becomes irrelevant.
I'm seriously in love with the series, i just can't wait to be through this period of getting used to the mechanics, so i can evaluate what mod content serves to help with my experience.

I feel like i should clarify - when i originally said that i gave up, i meant that i gave up on trying to find a solution/workaround by myself and so i posted this thread in search for assistance. When i referred to shelving the game, i meant that i would have to keep off of it (regardless of how much i want to play it) until someone proposes a solution. To that end, the thread has been most fruitful and i'm back to practicing and becoming more familiar with the model.
I'm very insecure about my online performance, so i'll probably do a couple weeks of singleplayer/editor practice by myself before joining in servers and trying to play with others. I look at it as kind of a boot camp in itself. =>

Again, thank you fellas for your input and for building a community strong and resourceful enough to make a game this complex look less intimidating and more desirable.

[PreacheR]

Glad you stuck with it as it is a very steep learning curve and the developers have written ARMA3 with the online multiplayer community in mind. I asked about how to play a certain campaign and was surprised that many players have not even attempted them, rather preferring to get straight into online clan play. Multiplayer is totally different, often with different key bindings (AHHHH!) and many also use Teamspeak in order to communicate to players realtime.
You should attempt to play multiplayer as that is the most exciting part of ARMA, as well as the new Zeus mode (can be boring if not planned well) which allows for more instantaneous gaming fun. The co-op missions are probably the easiest to master without feeling a complete embarrassment to your fellow players - hop into a 'medic' or grenadier spot and follow the leader. Feel free to ask for help ingame - the community is generally supportive of serious players although you will of course find some who just want to spoil the fun - usually on public servers. Join a clan and enter a passworded server to fully enjoy the game though. Happy holidays!

[Merman888]

Definitely try some of the invade and annex servers. It,ll give you some good experience for infantry and firefights. Also good for flying transport, you,ll always be busy as a pilot in this mode of arma.

Definitely try some of the rifle range addons that you will find in the workshop, and learn some of the key weapons and how they function/effectiveness. I do alot of my loadouts in these to tweek my configurations to get optimum performance out of my soldier. When zeroing scopes or figuring out distances using a range finder will help you get feel of a weapon. The balistics in Arma is what truly makes the game special and also a major frustraion for most new comers, but IMO is the most rewarding factor of the game and has kept me playing since Operation Flashpoint 10+ years ;)

And when your ready Grab some weapons mods theyre pretty popular. The HLC weapons packs from the workshop are pretty awesome for starters. The rest of the good stuff can be got from Armaholic where theres a full supermarket of addons and mods.

[Speedbump]

Originally posted by domi:

Greetings and thanks for being such a good community that you can make a game this steep to learn actually look appealing!
On to my issues. I've never played an ArmA game in my life, so imagine my excitement when i finally have a machine that can run ArmA 3 and i could finally try it out. Rather, imagine my frustration, considering that this franchise appears to be built with an almost meticulous attention to making it impossible for new people to pick it up without research, help and an impossible level of patience. Well, after 2 days - i give up. Can someone please direct me to any instructions on the finer points of using the Action Menu? It is easily the single worst bit of interface i've encountered in my life. Seriously, we used to design better content in QBasic in middle school. This is phenomenally awful.
I still have no idea how to close it? When it randomly pops up because there are 12 000 000 keys bound to mess with it, my only means of shutting it down is to scroll to inventory and then manually close the pop-up with the "I" key. I've been searching for an intro to the Action Menu for nearly 2 hours now, and the internet is so overloaded with people talking smack on it, that the only thing i can find is hate on everything that's wrond with it, and no explanations of its basics.
For some reason i can no longer switch weapons in helicopters, because hitting space used to bring up a context menu to switch between weapons (Jesus bloody Christ, Doom 1 had a better weapon selection mechanic than this, what are the devs thinking!?), but now it brings up the Action Menu, which i cannot leave and it offers no help in switching weapons.
Nothing useful can be bound in controls manually, nothing helpful exists anywhere in guides or help, at this point i'm done playing the game until i find someone who knows how this works, who is willing to explain it to me. I cannot believe this is happening, but i'm about to shelve one of the games that i put together my gaming rig for because after 2 days of messing with this one little terrible piece of content i'm at wits' end.
=<

Please, help me.

EDIT:
Apologies for this being in the wrong section, i can't find a way to move it. o.o

I believe switching seats while in an active aircraft was removed.
The action menu is incredibly simple, scroll and press the middle mouse button down or space bar to select what you chose.
To get rid of the action menu, right click.