So you want to play Arma 3 uh? I don’t blame you, who can resist to those beautiful graphics and smoother gameplay, but lets be honest here, would you play the game more than a couple of weeks with its vanilla content? We’ll be using Play with Six (PWS) throughout this guide to install and manage the mods, and a word of advice: our Arma 3 preset takes up about 12 GB of space so before you start this make sure you more than enough space. This whole process is quite simple but it will require some patience, so if you get any error message that isn’t explained in this guide close it, if it still persists try restarting PWS and if it still persists report your problem in our steam chat. Let’s get started!

Step 1. – Downloading and Installing Play With Six.

As said before, we’ll be using Play with Six. There are other software that you can use to setup this preset and manage your mods such as Armarize – feel free to try other ways if you don’t get along with Play with Six. To download PWS (Play with Six) simply click here and execute the setup file. The first thing that will appear is the Six-Networks User Agreement, simply click [Accept], when PWS opens a message will pop asking if you want to change the default mod installation path click [No], we’ll cover that later. Now the file you downloaded from the PWS website is just an executable file, you need to install PWS in your computer to do that click on settings on the top right and click on Check for Updates and on the menu that pops up click on [Install], restart PWS and that’s the first step.

Step 2. – Configuring Play With Six Settings

Before we start installing the preset we need to make sure PWS has the correct settings, otherwise it will install all the mods in some other folder. First you need to select Arma 3, to do that click on the little black arrow on the games tab (upper left) and a list of all the Arma games you have installed on your computer will appear, tick the little circle next to Arma 3 and it will be selected.

Now we need to configure PWS setttings, to access the settings click on Tools on the top right corner and click on settings and click on settings. There you’ll find the Game Settings (top) and the Directories (below).

Game Settings:

On the Game submenu tick the options “Always use beta patch” and “Load server mods”, on the Lauching submenu tick “Force Run as Administrator” and if you want to launch the game trough steam and have the steam overlay while you play tick “Launch with Steam Launcher” (some people have had problems with the Steam overlay so if you notice something wrong with your game try to deactivate this option) and last but not least the Startup Parameters, click on Editor on the right and a new menu will open up, the only 3 things you’ll need to change is the Name to your Arma 2 profile, tick “NoSplash” and “SkipIntro”, these last 2 will make your game open 10x faster than the usual. To go back to the previous menu click on “Back to Game Settings” on the bottom and we’re done with the Game Settings. Here’s what it should look like in the end:

Directories:

There are 3 types directories the Game directory, the Mod directory and the Synq directory, if you want your mods to be installed somewhere else just change the Mod directory and the Synq directory, here’s how it should look like:

Step 3. – Installing the Preset

Now that all the Settings and Directories have been taking care of, its time to install the preset, to do that simply click here and a new tab will open asking you to use PWS to open that url, click OK and PWS will pop up, wait until it finishes processing the .yml url and you’ll notice a few new things like the Broma logo (The weeb one) and the big orange [Update] button on the bottom left, click that update button and let the magic happen, this will take quite a long time depending on your Internet Speed and Computer specs, PWS will be Processing/Downloading/Unpacking/Resolving all the mods and at some point it might even seem like PWS is stuck or not doing anything but trust me it is, just let it do his things and go do something else. Here’s how it should look like in the end:

Step 4. – Setup TFAR

All done? Good job, all you need to do is install Teamspeak and setup TFAR to do that follow this guide ( [WARNING] If you only intend to play Arma 3 you won’t need to follow that guide, just download this Teamspeak version and activate the plugin in the Teamspeak settings). After that all you have to do is hit the big green [Join] button to join the Arma 3 server and the […] to join the teamspeak server.

Optional Mods

When you finally have your preset setup you’ll notice that some mods (the ones at the bottom of the list) have not been installed, these mods are optional, we don’t force you to install them but we add them to our preset so that you can try them. These mods are client side mods meaning that the mods will only take effect on your computer. These mods add improvements to the game like better sounds and different huds and lighting, feel free to try them out.

To activate these mods simply tick the small box on the left of the mod and hit [Update] and PWS will install that optional mod. As you can see in the image below the required mods have a lock icon next to their image and the optional ones have an empty square, if you want to use any of these optional mods just tick the emtpy square.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Q: Play with Six is stuck on Processing/Unpacking/Installing/Downloading x mod is this normal?
• A: Yes, give it a few more minutes and it will move on eventually.

• Q: What if I just want to access the ingame menu instead of joining the server right away?
• A: Simply click on the red cross in the servers window (below the broma logo) and instead of a big green join button you’ll get a [Launch] button.

• Q: Can I add other mods to the collection without conflicting with the server?
• A: Yes, you can add more maps and units but when you join the server you won’t be able to use them, only client side mods will have effect on the server.

• Q: Can I use Six Updater instead?
• A: No, Six Updater doesn’t work with Arma 3.