How to join and play on our I&A servers

[Stanhope]

This is a guide meant for people who have never or only a few times played on our I&A servers.  At the bottom you can find 3 links to videos created by members of our community on how to join the server.  All 3 are a bit over 40 minutes but all certainly worth watching if you're new.

 

1. Joining the server

Let's me quickly just explain how one joins one of our server.
This can be done in several different ways.  The easiest and fastest is direct connect but you can also look in the server-browser and even in the recent tab if you have recently played on our servers.

To use direct connect you will need the IP and port of the server.  For our public servers these can be found here.  You'll have to put this information into the IP and port field like this:

 

If you prefer to use the server browser you can use the following settings:

You can change the max ping it's not really that important.  You can also hide full servers and passworded servers if you're trying to join one of our public I&A servers.
And these servers will show up:


If you use the recent tab, just sort them alphabetically and look for the ahoyworld ones.

 

2. Picking a slot
Right after you entered the server you will see this screen, also known as the lobby:

On the right hand side you see all the connected players.  At the top some information about the server, the mission, ...  And on the left hand side you will find the slots you can connect to, highlighted in the screenshot below.

To get in the server simply select a slot by pressing on it with the left mouse button and press OK.  Depending on which slot you select you'll have a different role in the game.
We have slots ranging from rifleman to medic to pilot to UAV operator.  The first roles you'll come across are infantry roles, alpha squad to echo squad, more towards the bottom you'll find roles like snipers, recon squad, pilots, UAV operator, ...

 

3. Joining and spawning

After you pressed OK, arma will start downloading the mission file.  Depending on your internet connection this might go rather quickly or can take quite some time.  After arma has loaded the mission file and synced some other data you will get the respawn-screen, which for altis I&A looks like this:

To spawn in select a spawn location from the list on the left hand side and when the timer has gone down to 0 a 'respawn' button will appear.

 

4. Getting your gear sorted

After you spawn in you will have the default gear, you can change this gear at any of our arsenals.  In main base arsenals can be found on officers standing around in base.  Here are some examples:

Spoiler

 

 

 

At FOBs (Forward Operating Base) arsenals are located on the big crates that look like this:

The arsenal on the server is partially restricted.  Things like RPGs, explosives, ... can be taken by anyone.  But sniper-rifles are only available for snipers, marksman-rifles only for marksmen, Titan launchers only for AT specialists, ...

Things like CSAT and AAF uniforms are not available for anyone to avoid friends and foes from looking the exact same.

 

Knowing this you can start making your kit.  Feel free to personalize it as much as you want, just be sure not to stand at the arsenal for hours.  After you made your kit in the arsenal you can save it.  This can be done by pressing save at the bottom of the screen and then enter the name and press save again.  

If you do this you can load that exact loadout from the arsenal next time you join our, or any other, server and even in singleplayer.

 

After you get your gear sorted I suggest quicksaving your loadout so you respawn with it.  This can be done by using the scroll-option on any arsenal.

 

5. What is there to do?
In I&A there are 3 types of objectives and a special one that spawns.
The primary that will always be active is the main AO.  On the map they look like this:

The goal in this objective is to push back hostile forces out of that area.  An AO also has a sub-objective.  The current sub-objectives are: a radio-tower, a cache and an HQ building.  They all have to be take out in their own way before that AO can complete and the next one can spawn.  The cache and the radio-tower can simply be destroyed to complete the objective for the HQ building you've got to kill the officer in it.

A second type of mission are the side missions which look like this on the map:
(picture to be inserted)
There are several side missions, too many for me to list here.  But they all come with a description that will tell you what you have to do to complete that specific side mission.  Upon successful completion of a side mission a reward will spawn at base.  These rewards can range from a repair off-road to a main battle tank to attack helos and even jets.  Obviously the chances of a jet spawning are significantly lower than the chance of a car/MRAP/IFV spawning.  (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle and infantry fighting vehicle).

The third type of objective that can spawn are priority objectives.  On the map they look like this:

Priority objectives should always be take out as soon as possible, they should be your priority.  This because priority objective will have significant impact on how easy the other missions are. 
We currently have 3 priority objectives: artillery, anti-air and factory.  
If prio artillery spawn hostile forces will have set up some artillery and start shelling friendly positions they know about.
If prio AA spawns any friendly air asset within 5 km will be engaged by it and in 95% of cases be taken down.
If prio factory spawns the AO will be reinforces periodically with hostile forces.
Each one has it's own way of being taken out.  The AA and arty can be take out simply by destroying the AA and arty assets.  To take out the factory you first have to kill the viper engineer in the factory before you can destroy the factory building.  Only when the factory building is taken out reinforcements will stop spawning.

 

The final type of mission that might be active is a zeus mission.  There is no set time when one of these will be active.  There will have to be someone with zeus-access (a modded moderator or a spartan) who's willing to do one.
As they are made on the spot this guide can't tell you what they'll look like or what you'll have to do.  If you don't know what to do at/for that zeus mission, just ask in sidechat.

6. How do i get to where to fighting is?
There are several different ways to get there.  First off you've got to see how far the objective is from where you are.  In general if the objective is no more than 1.5km away it'll be fastest to walk/jog/run there.
If walking isn't an option you have 2 more options: via ground and via air.

We have helicopter pilots that will fly you around.  How this is done depends on a few things, here are a few examples of what to do in the described situation, they don't cover everything tho.  If you, after reading these situations, don't know how to get an airlift just hop on the server and ask in sidechat.

If you're out in the field and need evac or to be flown to the next objective just mark your location on the map with a marker and name it evac.  Then type in sidechat something in the lines of 'vortex i need evac at old side mission'.  If you're at an old AO you'll obviously use old AO instead of old side.

 

If you're at base it's just a little bit more complicated.  First look on the map to see whether or not we have any FOBs.
If we don't just go to the pickup-pad at base and await arrival of a heli.  The pickup-pads look like this:


If we do have an FOB it's advised to teleport to the FOB closest to the action.  Teleporting can be done by using the scroll option on the teleport laptop.  The teleport laptop looks like this:

 

So the last option is to go via ground.  At our base and all of our FOBs vehicles spawn.  You can freely use these vehicles however do make sure nobody else is using that vehicle at that moment in time.  He might not be in it because he's loading things up.  If you're not sure just ask in sidechat.
Most of our vehicles respawn the only exceptions are the side mission rewards.  They do not respawn.
One last thing to consider is whether or not it's sensible to take that vehicle.  If you're all by yourself it might not be sensible to take a hemtt which can seat up to 20 people.  

 

7. final notes

Just a few final things you should know/do before joining:

 

War is chaotic, friendly fire incidents will happen but try to avoid them at all cost.  In general we advise new -and experienced- players to check their map before shooting.  Just look whether or not there are friendlies in the area you're about to shoot at.  After having played enough hours in arma and in I&A you'll start recognizing what friendly and what hostile uniforms are, how AI behaves, ...  Just be sure to to rely on this knowledge too much, many people have been TKed this way.

And finally be sure to read the rules, we have a select few rules that are the opposite of what most other servers out there enforce.  An example of this: if you crash a helicopter or vehicle and there is no sensible way to get it operational again, just abandon it do not blow it up.
All the other rules can be found here:  

A video explain on how to join our servers made by @fir_nev can be found here.

 

And @GamerbugUK also made 2 great videos about how to join: first one, second one.

 

Suggestions, questions, comments, ... below and i, or someone else, will happily answer your question and i might put your suggestion in this guide.

 

[ansin11]

Why the hell is your GUI blue and not green?

[Stanhope]

Because arma allows you to customize it and i prefer blue over green?

[Xwatt]

Great guide,

 

hope it can help some newcomers to the public servers.

[Chutnut]

And probably an even quicker way would be to favourite it and join it through the arma 3 launcher servers tab.

[Guest]

Might want to add some spoilers, the way it is I'm not reading it and some other may not want to, its too much text, but spoilers would make it nicer. 

[PiranhA]

@McKillen

 

[fir_nev]

Long-winded starter video I did many months ago:

Spoiler

 

 

@GamerbugUK's friendlier Beginner's Guide videos:

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Stanhope]

I'll add them in the guide when i've got some time   (I'm in EU1 atm)

[Mad Eye Moody]

Is there a guide on how to connect and use the radio and com s mods? Which channels to use in game, how to talk to your squad members? I have searched the web and cannot find anything except some references to changing channels in the radio but with no guide on how to do it or even if it applies to AhoyWorld. 

[Stanhope]

I&A doesn't use any radio or comms mods.  You can use vehicle, direct and group to talk to people in your squad over voice and you can type in all channels.  

 

If you want a more teamplayed focused experience you should check out our enhanced server.  We use both TFAR and ACE there.

[maly74]

On 9/19/2017 at 9:37 AM, Stanhope said:

This is a guide meant for people who have never or only a few times played on our I&A servers.  At the bottom you can find 3 links to videos created by members of our community on how to join the server.  All 3 are a bit over 40 minutes but all certainly worth watching if you're new.

 

1. Joining the server

Let's me quickly just explain how one joins one of our server.
This can be done in several different ways.  The easiest and fastest is direct connect but you can also look in the server-browser and even in the recent tab if you have recently played on our servers.

To use direct connect you will need the IP and port of the server.  For our public servers these can be found here.  You'll have to put this information into the IP and port field like this:

 

If you prefer to use the server browser you can use the following settings:

You can change the max ping it's not really that important.  You can also hide full servers and passworded servers if you're trying to join one of our public I&A servers.
And these servers will show up:


If you use the recent tab, just sort them alphabetically and look for the ahoyworld ones.

 

2. Picking a slot
Right after you entered the server you will see this screen, also known as the lobby:

On the right hand side you see all the connected players.  At the top some information about the server, the mission, ...  And on the left hand side you will find the slots you can connect to, highlighted in the screenshot below.

To get in the server simply select a slot by pressing on it with the left mouse button and press OK.  Depending on which slot you select you'll have a different role in the game.
We have slots ranging from rifleman to medic to pilot to UAV operator.  The first roles you'll come across are infantry roles, alpha squad to echo squad, more towards the bottom you'll find roles like snipers, recon squad, pilots, UAV operator, ...

 

3. Joining and spawning

After you pressed OK, arma will start downloading the mission file.  Depending on your internet connection this might go rather quickly or can take quite some time.  After arma has loaded the mission file and synced some other data you will get the respawn-screen, which for altis I&A looks like this:

To spawn in select a spawn location from the list on the left hand side and when the timer has gone down to 0 a 'respawn' button will appear.

 

4. Getting your gear sorted

After you spawn in you will have the default gear, you can change this gear at any of our arsenals.  In main base arsenals can be found on officers standing around in base.  Here are some examples:

  Hide contents

 

 

 

At FOBs (Forward Operating Base) arsenals are located on the big crates that look like this:

The arsenal on the server is partially restricted.  Things like RPGs, explosives, ... can be taken by anyone.  But sniper-rifles are only available for snipers, marksman-rifles only for marksmen, Titan launchers only for AT specialists, ...

Things like CSAT and AAF uniforms are not available for anyone to avoid friends and foes from looking the exact same.

 

Knowing this you can start making your kit.  Feel free to personalize it as much as you want, just be sure not to stand at the arsenal for hours.  After you made your kit in the arsenal you can save it.  This can be done by pressing save at the bottom of the screen and then enter the name and press save again.  

If you do this you can load that exact loadout from the arsenal next time you join our, or any other, server and even in singleplayer.

 

After you get your gear sorted I suggest quicksaving your loadout so you respawn with it.  This can be done by using the scroll-option on any arsenal.

 

5. What is there to do?
In I&A there are 3 types of objectives and a special one that spawns.
The primary that will always be active is the main AO.  On the map they look like this:

The goal in this objective is to push back hostile forces out of that area.  An AO also has a sub-objective.  The current sub-objectives are: a radio-tower, a cache and an HQ building.  They all have to be take out in their own way before that AO can complete and the next one can spawn.  The cache and the radio-tower can simply be destroyed to complete the objective for the HQ building you've got to kill the officer in it.

A second type of mission are the side missions which look like this on the map:
(picture to be inserted)
There are several side missions, too many for me to list here.  But they all come with a description that will tell you what you have to do to complete that specific side mission.  Upon successful completion of a side mission a reward will spawn at base.  These rewards can range from a repair off-road to a main battle tank to attack helos and even jets.  Obviously the chances of a jet spawning are significantly lower than the chance of a car/MRAP/IFV spawning.  (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle and infantry fighting vehicle).

The third type of objective that can spawn are priority objectives.  On the map they look like this:

Priority objectives should always be take out as soon as possible, they should be your priority.  This because priority objective will have significant impact on how easy the other missions are. 
We currently have 3 priority objectives: artillery, anti-air and factory.  
If prio artillery spawn hostile forces will have set up some artillery and start shelling friendly positions they know about.
If prio AA spawns any friendly air asset within 5 km will be engaged by it and in 95% of cases be taken down.
If prio factory spawns the AO will be reinforces periodically with hostile forces.
Each one has it's own way of being taken out.  The AA and arty can be take out simply by destroying the AA and arty assets.  To take out the factory you first have to kill the viper engineer in the factory before you can destroy the factory building.  Only when the factory building is taken out reinforcements will stop spawning.

 

The final type of mission that might be active is a zeus mission.  There is no set time when one of these will be active.  There will have to be someone with zeus-access (a modded moderator or a spartan) who's willing to do one.
As they are made on the spot this guide can't tell you what they'll look like or what you'll have to do.  If you don't know what to do at/for that zeus mission, just ask in sidechat.

6. How do i get to where to fighting is?
There are several different ways to get there.  First off you've got to see how far the objective is from where you are.  In general if the objective is no more than 1.5km away it'll be fastest to walk/jog/run there.
If walking isn't an option you have 2 more options: via ground and via air.

We have helicopter pilots that will fly you around.  How this is done depends on a few things, here are a few examples of what to do in the described situation, they don't cover everything tho.  If you, after reading these situations, don't know how to get an airlift just hop on the server and ask in sidechat.

If you're out in the field and need evac or to be flown to the next objective just mark your location on the map with a marker and name it evac.  Then type in sidechat something in the lines of 'vortex i need evac at old side mission'.  If you're at an old AO you'll obviously use old AO instead of old side.

 

If you're at base it's just a little bit more complicated.  First look on the map to see whether or not we have any FOBs.
If we don't just go to the pickup-pad at base and await arrival of a heli.  The pickup-pads look like this:


If we do have an FOB it's advised to teleport to the FOB closest to the action.  Teleporting can be done by using the scroll option on the teleport laptop.  The teleport laptop looks like this:

 

So the last option is to go via ground.  At our base and all of our FOBs vehicles spawn.  You can freely use these vehicles however do make sure nobody else is using that vehicle at that moment in time.  He might not be in it because he's loading things up.  If you're not sure just ask in sidechat.
Most of our vehicles respawn the only exceptions are the side mission rewards.  They do not respawn.
One last thing to consider is whether or not it's sensible to take that vehicle.  If you're all by yourself it might not be sensible to take a hemtt which can seat up to 20 people.  

 

7. final notes

Just a few final things you should know/do before joining:

 

War is chaotic, friendly fire incidents will happen but try to avoid them at all cost.  In general we advise new -and experienced- players to check their map before shooting.  Just look whether or not there are friendlies in the area you're about to shoot at.  After having played enough hours in arma and in I&A you'll start recognizing what friendly and what hostile uniforms are, how AI behaves, ...  Just be sure to to rely on this knowledge too much, many people have been TKed this way.

And finally be sure to read the rules, we have a select few rules that are the opposite of what most other servers out there enforce.  An example of this: if you crash a helicopter or vehicle and there is no sensible way to get it operational again, just abandon it do not blow it up.
All the other rules can be found here:  

A video explain on how to join our servers made by @fir_nev can be found here.

 

And @GamerbugUK also made 2 great videos about how to join: first one, second one.

 

Suggestions, questions, comments, ... below and i, or someone else, will happily answer your question and i might put your suggestion in this guide.

 

Brilliant post as I am s new player and it had loads of info 

[SZEJEN]

could you please update MODS list or make a separate topic for updated downloadable content 
as currently its not allowing CBA main mod

[Jenkins]

Spoiler

58 minutes ago, SZEJEN said:

could you please update MODS list or make a separate topic for updated downloadable content 
as currently its not allowing CBA main mod

 

Hi @SZEJEN

 

The full list of optional mods available for the Invade and Annex server can be found in this thread:

 

 

This list was lasted updated on March 18th, please try repairing the CBA mod through the Arma 3 Launcher and try joining the server again.

[SZEJEN]

On 3/23/2021 at 8:36 PM, Jenkins said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Hi @SZEJEN

 

The full list of optional mods available for the Invade and Annex server can be found in this thread:

 

 

This list was lasted updated on March 18th, please try repairing the CBA mod through the Arma 3 Launcher and try joining the server again.

Hi,

Thank you for reply but still im searching for help

still cant join with your mods from :
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1778947844

 

as follows : 
once tried to join I&A server it pops out that CBA is not allowed (image attached)
+
once you even mark to load CBA mod i have an error (attached)

hoping for your help

bests

S.

 

[Stanhope]

Verify the integrity of that mod by findng it in the launcher, hitting the 3 dots and clicking repair, then try again