Standard Qualification 1

General Qualification Initiative 1 (GQI-1) is a certification course that aims to teach the basic skills necessary to play Arma with others (though a portion of material may be specific to EDC). Being certified on this course is required in order to progress to a Cadet and subsequently be approved to participate in immersive operations.

This course will not teach how to, say, go prone, fire your weapon, or aim down sights. These things can be divined through general video game literacy or solo testing in the Eden Editor. Prospective Cadets are encouraged to join casual operations, which will give practical game experience in a fairly no-stakes environment, or ask willing members for guidance on the game if overwhelmed. EDC welcomes people new to the game and is willing to help them. Just, such basic information is not written out, as the effort is not worth it.

Standard Qualification 1

Certification Information
Created by	Sirdog
Certification Checklist	[ Link]

Basic interactions

Use of ACE interact on a supply crate.

In Arma III, the default means of interacting with the environment will be the scroll wheel. This is how vehicle inventories are accessed, door are opened, vehicle engines turned on and off, and so on. Once the desired option is highlighted, use Space Bar to make the selection.

ACE interact

EDC (and a lot of Arma units) makes use of an addon known as ACE. It's difficult to describe what ACE does succinctly (and it will be referenced frequently), but one of the many things it does is introduce an interaction system. This is accessed via holding the left ⊞ Win key. Movement of the mouse will move the cursor, slightly move the camera, but any interaction options available will remain in place. When you are close to an object that can be interacted with an interaction option will appear in the form of a circle. Hovering over it will expand into further options (if applicable). To select an option, hover the mouse over the option, and then release the ⊞ Win key.

ACE interaction is used for many things, including:

• Opening a crate's inventory
• Entering and exiting vehicles
• Knocking on certain vehicles
• Joining someone's group
• Passing a magazine to another player
• Tapping a player's shoulder

ACE self-interact

Use of the ACE self-interact feature.

ACE similarly allows interaction with the self. This is done by holding LCtrl+⊞ Win. This will work in most any situation, including while your map is opened. This is used for many things, including:

• Checking your medical state
• Clearing a jammed gun
• Changing your team color
• Renaming your group
• Quick detaching/attaching attachments
• Dig a trench
• Insert and remove hearing protection
• Repack magazines
• Enabling the light to see your map at night

ACE interact settings and keybinds

There are certain settings that ACE provides which may be pertinent to look into changing. These are not required but highly advised, and knowledge these settings exists is required for certification.

Setting Location	Setting Name	Rationale
ACE Interaction Menu	Always display cursor for interaction	Detaches movement of the mouse from the camera for the default ACE interaction, making it function similarly to self-interaction.
ACE Interaction Menu	Display interaction menus as lists	Instead of having the options be a circle, it'll be a list on the left or right (see first image of this section). Some members prefer this to the circle.
ACE Interaction Menu (Self)	Move to root	Allows moving certain interactions from a sub-menu to the main list that is immediately visible when beginning self-interaction. Advise adding Clear Jam, Earplugs In/Out, and Wipe Goggles to root.

Some default keybinds are...

• Wipe Goggles is LCtrl+⇧ Shift+T.
• Take Prisoner is ⇧ Shift+F1.
• Show Names is LCtrl but it's advised to re-bind to LAlt so it matches the free look key. There is no downside to doing this.

Basic weapons

Firearms

While moving, to lower your weapon, press LCtrl x2. This will also reduce your stamina usage while moving which will be described further later. Do LCtrl x2 again to raise the gun back up.

It is advisable to enable your weapon's safety, primarily when tabbing in and out of the game to mitigate an accidental discharge of your gun. The default key bind for this is LCtrl+` (Tilde). Use the bind again to remove the safety, or simply change the fire mode with F.

HUD icon for a rested weapon.

HUD icon for a braced weapon.

In Arma, a weapon may either be braced or rested. A weapon is braced when a tripod attachment is used to "mount" the gun to cover, or the ground. This dramatically increases the stability, and decreases the spray intensity, of the firearm. This must be done manually by pressing C. A weapon is rested when Arma detects that you are holding the gun over cover, in which Arma simulates you "resting" the gun and/or your arms on the cover. This increases stability, and decreases spray, but to a lesser degree than properly bracing would. As has been insinuated, this is automatic, and requires no manual engagement from you. Whether a weapon is braced or rested is show visibly at the top-right of your HUD.

Certain firearms may jam. To clear a jam, use ACE self-interact.

Grenades and smokes

The ACE grenade throwing interface.

Grenades and smokes are a staple of infantry warfare. By default, a grenade can be thrown by pressing G and switching between the various grenades in your inventory is done via LCtrl+G. Certification requires that you go into your settings and unbind the default grenade throwing key, or set it to something far more difficult to use, such as having to press G x2. Without doing this, it is far too easy to throw a grenade negligently, would could be catastrophic to group play.

The advised way of interacting with grenades at all is via ACE, done by pressing ⇧ Shift+G. This presents a graphical UI showing the anticipated arc of the grenade, a clear visual of the grenade you are holding, and clear button prompts on how to interact with it. This same interface is also used for smoke grenades.

Smoke grenades tend to be used as long-range signaling, such as giving an air asset your location to pick you up or giving said asset a location of a target to engage with heavy firepower. Smokes come in a variety of colors. Many Arma units standardize the colors unit-wide, meaning any usage of a particular color in any operation the unit engages in has the same meaning. EDC does not do this. Whether a grenade color has any significance will be determined by the operation leader or otherwise someone in the chain of command in the operation. If you are ever confused about a particular smoke grenade color that you spot, do not hesitate to ask someone. You may just spot an enemy smoke.

Basic ACRE

The various colored bars which represent speaking volume. Level 0 is a whisper whereas level 4 is shouting.

This certification will not explain the installation of ACRE2. For that, please see the appropriate documentation. You should not perform a manual installation, and instead use the workshop addon. You may of course ask any willing EDC member for help.

Another very popular addon that EDC uses is ACRE2 (colloquially called just "ACRE" among members). It is an addon that hooks into TeamSpeak 3 and with it creates a proximity chat environment. Voices will be heard directionally, you will only hear voices in your vicinity, and, the feature it's really used for, it realistically mimics radio use. As a simple example, the AN/PRC-343 is a short wave radio and will barely clear a kilometer in range. In contrast, the AN/PRC-152 can easily clear 5 kilometers.

Speaking volume in ACRE can be set manually by doing Tab ↹+Scroll Wheel with scroll wheel up increasing your volume and down decreasing your volume. There are 5 speaking levels (starting at an index of 0) indicated via colored bars.

• Level 0 is a whisper
• Level 1 is speaking softly
• Level 2 is regular speaking volume
• Level 3 is a raised speaking volume
• Level 4 is shouting

The advised default speaking volume is 1 and only increased if situationally appropriate and necessary.

While communicating with your fellow members, there are some things to keep in mind.

• If a leadership role asks who needs ammo, please do not reply with "not me". That isn't the point of the question, can result in shenanigans from members getting a kick out of it which is distracting, and makes it more difficult for the leader to parse who does need ammo.
• If anyone invokes the term "combat comms", or contact against OPFOR is called or made, all non-relevant firefight communication should cease immediately (even if mid-sentence) and only resume once all contact is eliminated or disengaged from. Casual conversation is not frowned upon and in many cases is very good socialization, but Arma is ultimately a warfare simulator, everyone is actively choosing to play the warfare simulator, and so once a battle starts everyone should focus on engaging in warfare.
• Some operations may have limited to no radio use. A popular historical period for many members, both in Arma and generally, is World War II, among other pre-modern periods. In such situations, it is useful to parrot — that is, repeat out loud — orders given by superiors. This way it is more likely the entire element will hear and be made aware of the order.

Radio manipulation

For the purposes of GQI-1 the only radio that is pertinent is the AN/PRC-343. This radio — presuming the operation is in a modern setting — is the default radio given to all infantrymen in a squad for inter-squad communication. It is likely you will spawn into an operation with this radio already on your person.