Revision History (last updated Nov 24th)
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I've decided to go ahead and compile a lot of my past OFP posts into a sort of "Intro to Operation Flashpoint" for easier reference. This page should get you set up to play in our OFP Shackbattles, as well as also give you a bunch of interesting singleplayer material to play with. Oh, and it'll also get you on the path to playing OFP with the Something Awful Goons. Good stuff all around.
If you've never played Flashpoint before, the easiest way to sum up what it is is that it's a combined-arms wargame the likes of which has never been matched, with a community that pumps out tons of quality work and has been going strong since the game's original release over four years ago. It has a heavily-modified, content-packed semi-sequel of sorts coming out in the later part of 2006 (Armed Assault), and then a "true" sequel sometime in 2007/8.
OFP is, for me, the best wargame I've ever played. The scope and detail of the game is incredible, and the replayability is absolutely without peer thanks to it's inherent design and the community contributions. Anything you might want to do in a combined-arms setting can more than likely be accomplished with Flashpoint by itself or with the addition of some user mods and addons. World War II, Vietnam, Korea, the Gulf war, fictional wars.. you name it, there's content out there to let you experience it. OFP is virtual warfare at it's finest.
I hope the information I've compiled here will be helpful to those of you looking to join us in our Shackbattles or just play around with the game in singleplayer.
Assuming that you have the Game of the Year edition of OFP, you'll want to grab the 1.96 patch.
Once you're patched, you should go and grab OFPwatch. This program will allow you to monitor and join MP servers and (if the server allows for it) automatically get any required updates. The Shack server doesn't do the automatic mod downloading part, but you can monitor the server to see when people might just randomly hop in.
On the file side of things, you'll want to get the following stuff.
These are mods that we used prior to switching over to WGL5 as our primary addon pack. These are entirely optional and will likely not be played on the ShackTac server in the future.
To load mods one can use a program like OFPwatch or you can go ahead and set up individual shortcuts that load certain sets of mods. Some mods come with their own shortcuts, such as Finnish Defense Forces. Here's a sample of what my OFP Shackbattle shortcut looks like:
"C:\Operation Flashpoint\FLASHPOINTRESISTANCE.EXE" -mod=@wgl5;@wgl5extra -nomap -nosplash
The -nosplash command strips the intro splash screens away, while the -nomap command acts as a failsafe incase you have a memory issue in the game - it'll keep the game from crashing in certain situations that would otherwise tank it. DO NOT USE OPERATIONFLASHPOINT.EXE, it WILL NOT work.
Q: I have two mouse cursors on my screen, the Windows one and the Flashpoint one. I'm running the game at the same resolution as my desktop. How do I make the Windows cursor dissapear?
A: The following key combination in Windows XP will resolve the two-cursor problem. First you must ALT-TAB, followed by CTRL-SHIFT-ESC, followed by CTRL-ALT-DEL. Choose "Task Manager", and you'll be back in Windows. Close task manager and go back into Flashpoint and the Windows cursor will be gone.
Another possibility is to put your cursor in the upper-left of the screen after double-clicking on your shortcut and before the game actually loads. This has been reported to work for some.
Q: What should I run to launch the game, FLASHPOINTRESISTANCE.EXE or OPERATIONFLASHPOINT.EXE? (alternatively: My game is all screwed up, gives me tons of errors, etc, what's wrong?)
A: FLASHPOINTRESISTANCE.EXE is the only one you should use, launching as OPERATIONFLASHPOINT.EXE will give you a load of trouble guaranteed.
The Goon OFP thread can be found here. Currently none of this is being used due to them playing on the ShackTac server where we're running WGL5 (goon server=KIA).
Basic OFP mod installation tips:
Long-overdue.. here are a few shots of what the different directory structures should look like once you've installed everything.
This is how my OFP folder looks. The subfolders highlighted in yellow are things that are Shack- and Goon-relevant, it's the stuff you can find listed as downloads above. The green highlighted folders are folders that OFP has by default. All non-highlighted folders are different mod folders I use for various things, you can basically ignore them as the yellow stuff is what's important for the purposes of Shackbattles. Note that the MPMissions dir is a folder that's included in your default OFP install, and also in the downloads listed above.
This is the @Shack mod folder.
This is the finmod mod folder. Note that it has more than just an Addons subfolder.
There's a whole new page available now that deals with the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures for OFP Shackbattles. Read it if you intend to participate in future OFP Shackbattles, or if you want to know how to use various weapon systems like the Javelin, SVD, etc.
Below is a listing of some of the many, many OFP mods which you should check out whenever time permits. While this is a good collection of some of the easier-to-use and more popular addons available, don't think that it's anywhere near an all-inclusive listing.. my OFP dir was ~10GB at the time of this writing, and out of that, only ~2GB is taken up by mods and addons listed here. So... look around. There's tons of other great user content available aside from what I've listed.
You should head to the Wargames League site to read about this mod, as it's a pretty comprehensive one. The short version is that it's the best mod to ever come out for Flashpoint (insofar as gameplay is concerned), and is currently the only mod our group plays.
Get this out of the way and download/install it now. It can be used with pretty much every mod that doesn't define it's own skies (read: most of them).
Once you've installed this you'll have much-improved skies and less CPU-taxing rain overlays. In addition to that, it comes with a very nice nightvision mod which replaces both the 3d models of the nightvision and increases the visible area to something like 95% of your screen.
The DMA (Dynamic Mission Alliance) animation packs are mainly concerned with weapon handling, and the changes they cause impact both the visuals and gameplay in a significant, positive way. Visually, you no longer hold the weapon at your side, pointed forward, when running - instead, you take the "Alert" position, with the weapon's stock in your shoulder and the muzzle angled forward and down. You also automatically take a knee when reloading - note however that this will not help you avoid being hit in MP unless the server is running the DMA animation packs as well (something I plan to do to the Shackserver soon). It's a must-have thing for singleplayer, as it makes player movement while in ironsight mode much smoother than it is by default - realistically so, that is.
Go ahead and pick this up, there's no real reason not to use it in singleplayer at least. Note that FFUR incorporates a modified version of the DMA animations. So does WGL5, which is our primary addon pack these days.
I recommend using the Patrol version of the 1.1 Anim pack, and not bothering with the "Next Gen" variant.
DXDLL is a small app that adds post-processing effects to OFP. You'll get stuff like hard light, desaturation, glare, trillinear filtering, reflective water, and a few other things - all of which is highly tweakable via the config program. DXDLL can cause problems with some mods, however, but it's simple enough to disable - you can even disable the post-processing/reflections in-game via a combo of the Application key and I or P. Get this if you want OFP to look extra pretty.
I personally can't use this, as it crashes OFP if I try to alt-tab (which is something I like to be able to do), but it does look pretty when you have it set up right. If you don't mind not being able to alt-tab, go ahead and grab this. It also interferes with Teamspeak Overlay, and generally drags your framerate down... all in all it's probably better for you to avoid this, but if you simply must check it out, you can find it below.
Great mod with a ton of singleplayer and multiplayer missions available for it. Includes things like carryable crew-served weapons, remote-controlled UAV's, great replacement sounds, and lots of interesting weaponry and units. FDF 1.4 includes World War II content in addition to FDF's normal modern-day setting.
Lots of high-quality addons, many other mods and missions will utilize things from BAS (the PMC campaign for CoC CE being one notable example). The team is currently in hibernation and might resume work once Armed Assault comes out, but there's no guarantee of that. For now, just enjoy the addons that they released prior to ceasing development. These have been a prominent part of OFP Shackbattles since day one.
The Chain of Command, CoC, has a slew of great addons for OFP that should be required playing for all OFP'ers. Their Unified Artillery and Tomahawk mods are fantastic - you haven't OFP'd until you've guided fully ballistically modelled artillery onto an enemy platoon, or fired counter-battery fire from M109 self-propelled Howitzers against an enemy gun emplacement, or watched a Tomahawk flatten a tank platoon like it's nothing more than cardboard.
I've listed this separately from CoC's other stuff due to the level of difficulty involved in playing it. This is something beginning OFP'ers will be totally overwhelmed by, but veterans will likely have a lot of fun with.
The Command Engine allows for a player to control a group larger than normal OFP's max of 12 people. The interface is a mix of map- and radio-usage, and overall works pretty well. It's a totally different experience from normal Flashpoint gameplay - Now you can orchestrate intricate plans involving dozens of soldiers and all kinds of supporting units. Want to send a SEAL team behind enemy lines to search for a Shilka that's been giving your air support trouble? You can do that. Feel like calling a Tomahawk strike on a tank platoon that's in the route of your planned advance? Piece of cake. Want to coordinate your attack to kick-off at a precise time, with multiple teams moving via waypoints to attack a position from multiple directions at once? The CoC Command Engine can do all of this and more.
The PMC campaign I've listed below includes most of the CoC's other assets, such as the Unified Artillery and the Tomahawks. In this campaign you'll find yourself commanding a mix of forces as you take over each of the game's main islands over many missions - from your initial self-planned beach/island assault to the final encirclement and eradication of the Russian forces. It's a hell of a lot of fun. :D
FFUR comes in a variety of flavors that utilize the best of the community addons, along with improved scripting, effects, etc, to change OFP generally for the better. I haven't had too much experience in it, but from what I have played it's a very interesting mod. There's leaning/rolling included in it, great stuff. For an idea of the visual fidelity of it, check out this video. Impressive, isn't it?
Download this if you need an excuse to play through the original campaigns and missions again, or if you just want to see OFP looking top-form and playing even better than ever before.
While it's only in demo/beta form right now, this is a rather well-done Vietnam mod which should satisfy any urges you might have about dropping napalm on charlie.
There's a good video of Unsung out, check it out here
As a result of his work on this, Earl was hired by the OFP devs (BIS) to help work on their future projects. One might assume that the Marines in the OFP2 screenshots are a direct result of this. In any case, the Marine Assault Pack is a very nice addon that models most of the weaponry and infantry of the United States Marine Corps. This has been the subject of many an intense Shackbattle mission, and is definitely a highly recommended download.
ZOS is a single mission that requires a few addons to work, the entire pack can be downloaded below. It's a simple but fun mission, and due to random placement of the initial zombies, the mission plays out a bit differently each time. The premise is that you're part of a National Guard unit sent to an island to try to deal with a zombie outbreak occurring there. You have two squads at your disposal (one which controls a convoy that helps to evacuate survivors) along with a third stationed at the hastily-constructed NG base. It's a fun mission, definitely a recommended download.
My Shackpost about ZOS can be found here.
Dynamic Afghanistan is a one-mission campaign in which the player commands a Russian special-forces unit that is tasked with taking out terrorists and restoring "peace" to the land. You'll have air support (fixed- and rotary-wing), artillery support, armor, transportation, and can be parachuted or helo-inserted into LZ's of your choosing. It's an enjoyable mission, and is definitely recommended for OFP players of all skill ranges.
For more info, my writeup about Dynamic Afghanistan can be found here.
I finally decided to keep track of the revisions made to this document. Better late than never.
Dedicated to those who have died so that we may live.
Bohemia Interactive Studios, OFP credits
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The TrackIR is a 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) head-tracking device that allows you to control your in-game view via natural head movements, scaled up to requires as much or as little movement as you want. If you'd like to see a video demo of the TrackIR5 in ArmA2, check this out.
I highly recommend looking into getting one of these if you're interested in ArmA2 or flight sims and driving games in general.
You really won't find any other upgrades out that will improve gaming immersion as dramatically as this.
