Guides7 min read
An Arma 3 server, and the mod list that will not load
How Arma loads mods, why the order matters more than the count, what CPU actually does for you here, and how to keep a mission running for three hours.
Arma is a single-threaded simulation with a very long list of things to simulate, which means the number that decides how it feels is clock speed rather than core count. A sixteen-core machine at a modest frequency will lose to four fast cores every time, and no amount of memory changes that.
Mods load in an order, and the order is yours
Server-side mods go in the launch parameters, and the client has to load the same list. When somebody cannot join, the cause is almost never the server: it is a signature mismatch or one mod missing from their copy. Keep the list somewhere your players can copy it from rather than describing it in a message.
- Keys go in the keys folder, or nobody with verified signatures can connect.
- CBA, if you use it, loads before everything that depends on it.
- Map mods are worth pinning to a version; an auto-update mid-campaign ends the campaign.
Long missions and the headless client
AI is what eventually eats the frame time on a long mission. A headless client moves that work to a second process, which on a server with cores to spare is the difference between an hour-three firefight that plays and one that crawls. It is more setup than most guides admit, and it is the single largest improvement available.