kman

I do not think making special slots where only those people would be allowed to drive heavy vehicles is good idea for EU1/2. It would be too inflexible.
 
But there is one think that if possible could be good:
making it so, that vehicle could not be driven (engine automaticaly stops) if there are not at least 2 people on-board.
 
heavy vehicles are so much more effective when there is at least driver+gunner, but often someone just hops in and drive away solo, not even trying to advertise that he/she is looking for a crew.

Almost every point in here have been adressed, but there are still a few points to be made.

First of all, you need to learn how to listen to the sounds of Arma. It used to be really easy to pick up where the rounds were fiered from, but they've patched the sound several times since launch. Sounds have improved immensely since the launch of Arma 3, sounds indoors are muffeled if you're utdoors and vice versa. Loud sounds will have an echo, and you'll have to concider that sounds in general travel slower than the bullets flying towards you. All in all, it can get pretty disorienting pretty fast.

If you're taking fire, you'll most likely first hear the crack of the bullet passing near you. If you hear that crack, drop on the ground/behind some cover and then try and listen carefully - you will hear the sound of the shot shortly after (depending on the range of the shot). Ignore the bullet crack, and just try and listen to the sound of the bullet getting fiered. It can be really confusing in the beginning, but after you've learned what to listen for you can usually figure out an estimated direction. If you cannot by audio locate the gunner, you can try to with reasoning figure out where he could possibly be, check possible anges which could have fiered towards you and stay behind cover from those specific angles.



If you want to learn how to fly helicopter, you'll have to practice. Flying helicopters in Arma is not as easy as it is in manny other games, as you need to balance your helicopter yourself. The only way to accually learn how to fly the helicopters are to force yourself to accually fly them. I was horrible at flying in the beginning, but practice, practice practice and eventually you'll get the hang of it. Scenarios is a good way to practice flying, simply download a few helicopter scenarios from the steam workshop and give it some time.

Most pilots I've talked to prefere to fly with keyboard and mouse in Arma and I dare to say that with the standard flight system, it is superior. The game plays horribly with joysticks, but some people still manage to use theirs. I've got an expensive joystick, but I won't use that for Arma, at least not with the basic flight system. Use keyboard for fast and snappy inputs, and make really small adjustments with your mouse.

There are plenty of helicopter tutorials on youtube, but those are not helpful unless you've first played around some in the helicopters. You need to get confortable with the basics prior to learning the slightly more advanced stuff.


I personally love flying in Arma. I've flown for hundreds of hours and I still go back to just flying around by myself at times. I've found a mission in the steam workshop called "NMD sandbox" or something similar to that and it basically allows you to play around and easily spawn vehicles, make yourself invounerable, teleport around the map and such, all while being in the scenario or a server that you're hosting yourself. It's really good practice, and I do recommend giving it a try. I usually do it if I'm too tiered to play seriously.

Spawn yourself a helicopter, say a hummingbird (easiest helicopter to learn) and simply fly around, explore the map. Turn down the volume of the game, crank up some music and just practice. How low can you fly? Where can you manage to land? Can you fly under those power wires? Does this helicopter fit in this tower? You learn so much, the knowledge is invaluable.