America’s Army 3

America's Army 3

FAQ for America's Army 3
Version 1.03 - August 3, 2009
By: Hybrid
Copyleft 2009

E-mail questions and comments to: hybridemail (at) gmail (dot) com

==========

Table of Contents

1) Changes History
2) Introduction
3) The Basics
4) Scoring
 4a) All Values
 4b) Loyalty
 4c) Duty
 4d) Respect
 4e) Selfless Service
 4f) Honor
 4g) Integrity
 4h) Personal Courage
5) Weapons
6) Dealing With The Enemy
7) Dealing With Damage
8) Frequently Asked Questions
9) Conclusion
10) Legalities


==========

1) Changes History

July 24, 2009: Version 1.00

July 27, 2009: Version 1.01
     - Various minor corrections.

July 30, 2009: Version 1.02
     - More minor corrections.

August 3, 2009: Version 1.03
     - Correction for Loyalty Scoring.


==========

2) Introduction

Welcome!

I am creating this guide as a sort of "manual supplement". I am working under
the assumption that you have already viewed the official game manual located at
http://manual.americasarmy.com/

This guide will cover various information that the manual does not tell you, as
well as providing hints, tips, and answers to frequently asked questions, where
possible.

This guide is not intended to serve as a walkthrough for online play, or to
provide any subjective or in-depth strategies.


==========

3) The Basics

Armerica's Army 3 is a round-based, tactical first-person shooter akin to games
like Counter-Strike, SWAT 4, Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. The player characters
have relatively realistic physical capabilities. Contrasted with action games
like Quake, Team Fortress, and Unreal Tournament, soldiers are slower, less
accurate, and can only absorb a small amount of damage before dying.

One of the biggest, yet oft-unspoken gimmicks in the America's Army series is
that you ALWAYS see yourself and your teammates as Americans, and you ALWAYS
see the opposing team as foreign soldiers. Likewise, your opponents see
themselves as Americans, and see you as foreign soldiers.

AA3 has a heavy emphasis on completing the mission objective. You are better
rewarded for completing the mission than you are for eliminating all enemies.
Thus, teams are divided into "Black" and "Gold" teams, and alternate on
starting location and mission objective every three rounds.


==========

4) Scoring

America's Army 3 uses a unique stat-tracking system based off of the seven army
values: Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and
Personal Courage. Your actions in-game will increase these values as you play.

There are some other numbers that you see on the scoreboard and the end of each
round. Although these numbers are a useful indicator for your performance in
the match, they do not have any influence on your army values.

Whenever you gain points in one of the army values, you will receive a message
on the left side of the screen. The ways to earn various points are as follows:


-- 4a) All Values

The points of all values (except Honor, explained below) can be raised
simultaneously in the following ways.

* Complete the mission WITHOUT eliminating all enemies. (+16)

* Win at least 4 rounds in a match, and participate in the final round. (+25)


-- 4b) Loyalty

Loyalty is earned by being "linked" to a teammate as they score points
themselves. You are linked to a teammate by staying close to them and in their
line of sight. You can tell this by looking at your Blue Force Tracker (radar)
and looking for a white outline around your and their icons.

Note that if YOU are the Squad Leader, or if your score comes from an action
involving the Squad Leader -- like if he's completing an objective or securing
an enemy while linked to you -- your loyalty earned is HALVED from its normal
value.

* Teammate completes objective while linked. (+40-120; half of the objective's
 base value.)

* Teammate secures or confirms an enemy while linked. (+2.5)

* Teammate treats an injured teammate (including you) while linked. (+2.5)


-- 4c) Duty

Earning Duty is based around completing objectives in various ways.

* Complete an objective. (+80-240, based on the objective's value)

* Complete the mission WITHOUT eliminating all enemies. (+4 per EACH surviving
 American soldier)

* Complete the mission w/o eliminating all enemies, as squad leader. (+4 per
 EACH surviving American soldier)

* Secure OR confirm any enemy. (+5)


-- 4d) Respect

Respect is based around obeying orders and following army procedure.

* Complete an objective that was assigned to your fireteam. (+20-60 based on
 the objective's value)

* Complete the mission WITHOUT eliminating all enemies. (+4 for EACH surviving
 enemy)

* Complete a round after the enemies have won four times in a match. In other
 words, this is a small incentive to stick around even if you can't get the
 "match won" bonus anymore. This also appears to require that you win the round
 via completing all objectives. (+15)

* Secure OR confirm any enemy. (+5)


-- 4e) Selfless Service

You get Selfless Service from healing teammates.

* Treat a single injury on a teammate. (+5)

* Treat a teammate's injury after they've called for a medic. (+1-15 depending
 on how long ago it was that they called. This is a cumulative bonus and is
 awarded seperately for each injury treated.)

* Revive an incapacitated teammate. (+50)


-- 4f) Honor

You can't actually raise your Honor on its own. Instead, your Honor score is
the average of the score for each other army value. In other words, every time
you raise any combination of six ranks in ANYTHING, you gain one Honor.

Raising your Honor will give you a higher military rank and more advancement
points for advanced training.


-- 4g) Integrity

Integrity is the one value that's raised by NOT doing something -- more
specifically, by not violating the Rules of Engagement.

Yeah, it's a war, but you're the army. You've got rules and standards. Those
standards are pretty clear cut: You may NOT injure teammates, and you may NOT
harm an incapacitated (helpless) enemy soldier. Doing so may cause you to LOSE
Integrity points, as well as forfeit some end-of-round bonuses.

If you don't want an incapacitated enemy soldier to be revived, secure them
instead. It takes them out of the fight permanently, and it preserves your
integrity.

Note that if you violate the ROE even once, you forfeit ALL integrity bonuses
for the remainder of the entire match.

* Harm an incapacitated enemy. (-10)

* Injure a teammate. (-0 if forgiven, or up to -100 depending on severity)

* Don't violate ROE in a round. (+15)

* Don't violate ROE in the entire match, even if you joined late. (+15)

* Play all rounds in a match without violating ROE. (+100)


-- 4h) Personal Courage

Personal Courage is earned by killing enemies and performing difficult actions,
especially while injured.

* CONFIRM an enemy that you personally KILLED. (+10)

* CONFIRM any enemy, while wounded. (+1.67)

* Be incapacitated, tap out, and then be confirmed by an enemy. This one is due
 to a programming oversight or bug in the way that the game assigns credit to
 kills. Don't expect it to be around forever. Or do. ;) (+10)

* Complete an objective, while wounded. (+?-80, based on the severity of your
 injuries and the value of the objective, up to 1/3 of the objective's base
 value)

* Win the 7th (tie-breaking) round in a match. (+50)


==========

5) Weapons

As you can see in the game manual, the USA and the NME use different weapons.
Unlike in the original America's Army game, the NME guns are functionally
identical to the American counterparts.

The sounds of gunshots are different. I've noticed that the Obran series tends
to produce a lower-pitched report than the American counterparts.

Although you cannot pick up additional ammo, the M16, M4, M16DMR, ObranNP,
ObranKNP and ObranMSP all use the same magazine type. If you have ammo for one,
you have ammo for all.

However, the M249 and the ObranLMK use a box and drum respectively. You can't
load one with ammo from the other.

So, what does all this REALLY mean? I'll tell you.

* Stuck as a grenadier even though you hate the M16 and grenade launcher? Pick
 up an M4 or an ObranKNP and you'll have ammo for it.

* If you already have an M4, there's not much point in picking up another
 assault rifle. You can NEVER pick up extra ammo, and you don't know how many
 bullets are left in that gun you just picked up. Or, if you have plenty of
 ammo and just think it's funny to kill the enemy with an Obran weapon, go for
 it.

* If you are a designated marksman, you can pick up an assault rifle -- any
 assault rifle -- and have extra magazines for it from your M16DMR loadout. If
 you are forced to travel in tight quarters, you'll have a more capable weapon.

* The M249 and the ObranLMK, with their 200-round box/drum magazines, are good
 to be picked up by anyone. Although you'll never be able to reload an
 ObranLMK, it could very well have a large amount of ammo left in it -- maybe
 100 bullets or more. If you're desperate enough to scavenge for guns, go for
 an LMG.

* Don't go crazy. These guns weigh a lot and they'll slow you down. Take only
 what you need. Drop the extra baggage if you accidentally picked one up!


==========

6) Dealing With The Enemy

One of the biggest difficulties that new players face is that they can't tell
friends and enemies apart. First of all, everyone should study the ID guide in
the official manual: 
manual.americasarmy.com/index.php/Target_Identification:_Know_Your_Enemy

Realize that whenever you make a communication over your radio, the enemy can
hear it too, rendered in a fictional, but consistent, foreign tongue.

Some great OpFor translations have been posted on the official forums:
http://forum.americasarmy.com/viewtopic.php?t=303231&page=2

I highly recommend that you learn the most common sayings: Medic, Frag Out,
Stop, Enemy Down, Enemy Secured, and Enemy Spotted.

Note that you can change "tactical mode" (default key, Left Shift), visualized
by a transparent or opaque figure in the bottom-right of your screen. This
determines whether you walk or run, and it also also changes whether you shout
or whisper all voice commands.

The enemy can hear you QUITE clearly if you shout, but the whisper is
substantially quieter. Consider whispering when you call in the aftermath of a
gruesome firefight. It's bad to give away your position so carelessly!


==========

7) Dealing With Damage

Damage in AA3 is rendered with both a standard "health bar" and a silhouette
that represents 15 distinct body areas, plus the neck. I assume you're already
accustomed with what the manual has to say on this.

Bullets to the head are usually lethal, although they are occasionally
"merely" incapacitating. Those helmets are for shrapnel -- not rifle rounds.
In something of an oddity, being healed for a headshot causes "Gunshot (none)"
to receive the treatment. Maybe the game is taking a cheap shot at us?

Bullets to the neck are instantly incapacitating and cause an airway
compromise. Not good!

The first two shots to the chest or stomach will be blocked by body armor, but
the third will hurt real bad, causing either a sucking chest wound or massive
bleeding. An additional hit to anywhere else will usually drop you.

Shots to the pelvis don't hurt too bad initially, but they have a bad habit of
either incapacitating or killing you via bleeding. If you only took a single
shot to the pelvis, you might still be standing (barely) after the bleeding has
run its course, but it'll be close. Get someone to heal you, quick.

Shots to the shoulders and thighs might be minor, but they also have a chance
to cause arterial hemorrhaging -- nasty! Although any hit can cause bleeding
damage, AH is really bad if you don't get someone to heal you fast.

Shots to the extremeties of the arms and legs cause lesser amounts of damage.
You can take three or four bullets to the limbs and still be relatively fine.
However, if untreated, these wounds will cause you problems with aiming and
running.

Grenades, falling damage, and melee attacks do NOT cause bleeding nor treatable
injuries. Do NOT call for a medic if your only damage is from these sources and
you are still standing. A medic cannot help you, nor do you need help.

One more thing. When you're incapacitated, there are three things that can
happen. Your condition can be stable, either by happenstance or by a teammate
stabilizing you. You can be bleeding, which will slowly leech your health away
until you have none left. Or you can have an airway problem that'll kill you
off about twice as fast as bleeding -- this is the case if you can hear your
soldier quietly gasping for air. Non-lethal headshots also kill you at an
accelerated pace.

Please review the "Combat Lifesaving" section of the game manual, along with
the in-game training course of the same name for more information.


==========

8) Frequently Asked Questions

None yet!


==========

9) Conclusion

So, um... that's it. Guide over.

You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.


==========

9) Legalities

Hey, you out there. Yes, you. 

I don't really care what you do with this guide, okay? You can copy it, paste
it, print it out and submit it as your doctoral thesis... I don't care.

If you remove my name from it and claim it as your own, I'll be very sad. But
let's keep this in perspective. I'm not going to send a team of lawyers after
you over a goofy little manual supplement. Do what you want.