NEW PLAYER GUIDE FOR ALTIS LIFE
**DISCLAIMER**
This is a guide written by a guy on steam by the name of PurePixel with additions and edited by me (Yuri) to fit in with StrayaGaming's Altis Life server. All Credit for this content goes to PurePixel
What is Altis Life?
Altis life is simply an RP mod for ARMA 3 based on the island of Altis, so you can see where it got its name from.
There consists of 3 main factions:
Civilians (This is the major faction with the most people, It consists of Civilians, Rebels and Cartels)
Police Officers (These are here to make sure laws are not broken and those who do break laws are punished)
Medics (These are here to carry out things such as reviving dead players, The Medics do not run with weapons and are not to be killed by anyone at any point in time)
The aim of this RP mod is to RP as one of these roles which often involves the pursuit of money in order to obtain better gear such as the aim of many Civilians to become rebels to obtain the greatest guns etc.
You must note that all Figures I quote will be taken from the current server which I played on and will be updated as I find out about others so feel free to comment information.
Extra Controls
Again as above this may change server to server but should work on most, I am quoting from the server that I play on.
Y - This opens your Altis Life inventory showing things such as your current money, items you have on your person and licences while allowing you to access other things such as your cell phone and key chain
U - This will unlock the vehicle you are close to (Within about 2-3m) as long as you have the key
T - This will access the trunk of the vehicle near you, that you are looking it as long as it is either unlocked or you have the keys
Custom Control 10 (Default - Left Windows key) - This will open an interaction menu allowing you to complete actions such as repairing vehicles and flipping vehicles, if you are a police officer you gain more options. This is also the main picking button.
Shift + T - This is the mining key you use it to mine objects Shift + R - If you are a police officer this will restrain the person in front of you so that they cannot move of do anything other than interact with Scroll Wheel (So be careful they can escape if a car is near enough)
Terms to Learn
Rp - Role Play
NLR - New Life Rule (When you die you may not go within a certain distance of the area you died for a certain amount of time, server specific values)
RDM - Random Death Match (This is randomly killing killing a person for no valid Rp reason and is often a ban-able offence)
VDM - Vehicle Death Match (This is using your Vehicle as a weapon either to kill someone or destroy a vehicle/property)
1. Beginning on a Server
Now the first thing before anything on a server that you need to do is read through all the rules, Especially if you are new to Altis Life as there are a large amount of things to learn, these can be accessed by going into the to the forums (https://strayagaming.com.au/forums/topic/6288-altis-life-rules-new-210516/).
So to begin on this server your best option is fruit picking as if you spawn in Sydney (Kavala) there are 2 fruit field near. To do this I recommend getting a large backpack, Drivers License and Quad bike. Of both fruits I recommend picking peaches as they earn you a slight bit more than apples and the drive is quicker, so you need to drive to the peach field then walk up to a tree and use the Custom Control 10 (windows key by default) it will do an animation and then they will be in your Altis Inventory. When your backpack and vehicle are full drive back to the Market and there you can sell your fruit to the 'market' vendor and rinse and repeat until you can afford to begin the next stage (see below)
TLDR: Backpack, Get Driving License, Quad, Pick peaches, Sell at market
When you can afford to do something better such as copper. Of the legal methods (I shall detail all later) copper is arguably the safest as it is one of the shortest drives, is all on the eastern (police controlled side of the map) and you can start straight away. Get a backpack (or use the same one from fruit picking) at the clothing store and a pickaxe from the market, buy a truck licence from the Licence shop then go to the truck store and buy a truck that you can afford. Now you will need to keep all your money remaining on you to buy a copper processing licence at the copper processing but for now you need to head to the Copper mine located just outside of Sydney (Kavala). When you reach the mine you need to exit your vehicle, and press Shift+T to mine using your pickaxe, you will now be mining copper fill you inventory and your trucks trunk then you need to head to the Copper processing NPC buy a licence then process all of your copper. Finally you need to head to the Copper Trader so that you can sell your copper and make some money, continue with this and collect money so you can proceed in doing what you want.
TLDR: Get Backpack, Truck License, Truck, Mine copper, Get Processing License, Process Copper, Sell to Copper Trader
2a. Legal Money Making
There are a few ways to make money Legally as a civilian on altis. This is either done through fruit picking or mining and processing resources.
Fruits to pick: (Basic servers, there may be more)
Peaches
Apples
Fruit picking is often something you do when starting the game as it is a short distance from most towns and can be traveled to and sold relatively fast compared to other methods. However it yields little money so is not very effective when playing later on in the game. If you have a choice peaches are often more profitable than apples.
Resources to mine;
Rock
Copper
Sand
Salt
Iron
Diamond
Oil
Mining is a step up from fruit picking you get much more money but it often required the greatest amount of time and some threat may be involved with higher tier resources. Mining mainly depends on the locations on your servers as you want to find a route you can take from the Mining to processing to sales as fast as possible. In order to mine you will need a pickaxe and use it from your inventory and also a processing license that can be purchased from the processor him/herself at the location so the first time you will need to carry money, they prices of these vay per server from as low as 5k for copper to 100k for a diamond license.
Copper is most commonly the basic resource this will yield the least amount of money (while still being a reasonable amount) so is the resource you will want to start with, this can be done with a basic vehicle such as a pick up truck or the first tier truck and be worth it. From here you move up the tiers which can be very variable, at the top if often diamond which takes up a high amount of inventory space before processed and sells for a lot of money but you may encounter bandits on this run as diamonds is very lucrative. Also your alternate option is sand/salt which people with good gear often do (this may be friendlier) as you can take large trucks out onto an open plane and harvest this so you are safe and the route to drive is not exceptionally long while having a good payout. By the time you are at one of the higher tier resources you want a large truck and a basic legal gun like an PDW or Handgun if you are able to afford just so you have some protection.
2b. Illegal Money Making
Illegal money making is where the rewards become greater as drug runs can bring large amounts of money but are often very risky.
Methods of Illegal money making (not in order):
Cocaine
Heroin
Weed
Pingas
Blood Diamonds
Uranium
Each drug yields different amounts of money on servers which can vary but typically weed is the least expensive and Uranium the most expensive with risk scaling for each. However you must take note on drug runs there is a high chance any other person will have a gun and you require a gang to be safe doing this or to be cautious at night time.
Police also add a greater risk on drug runs as with enough officers they are able to raid drug fields, processors and dealers, while also being able to search trucks if they think anything is suspicious or in a big convoy this means as groups you should try to stay close or split up and avoid police at all cost you don't want to end up in a 4 truck escape from 10 police officers with cars (as I have experienced). If police find you, try to ditch the drugs or one of a group distract them and do this so you guys can escape, as long as police don't find drugs on you or in your vehicle you are safe if they do it will be impounded and you most likely arrested.
Before you start doing illegal methods as above you want weapons and a group, the best idea is to do something legal till one of you can get a rebel license and then give them money to buy guns and camo outfits along with having a number of larger trucks so you can take large amounts. Again this is risk vs reward, it can be very lucrative but you are likely to see people and die losing gear so do not waste money use as little as you can.
2c. Police Money Making
As a police officer money making is very simple. If someone has a bounty on their head then you will get a proportion (or all) if you arrest them and up to half if you kill them. However for ticketing someone you get the full amount. To make it for the difficulty in money making police start with basic gear, get a larger paycheck and have cheap cars.
2d. Medic Money Making
As a Medic money making is very simple. If someone has died then you go and revive them (as long as it is not in an active combat situation) Just talk with your higher ups to find out where you can/cant go. You also receive the largest paycheck.
2d. Rebel Money Making
As a rebel you are most likely going to be going drugs to get most of your money but when you aren't there are also other methods. All of these methods are very risky!
Rebel methods:
Police/Player Ransom
Bank/Federal Reserve
Robbery
Police/Player ransoms can be very difficult and require a number of people but if enough people have guns on a police officer he has to surrender due to rp rules, this is the most RP thing to do and may often lead to no money. You need to take the officers communications (at least say) and text the police demanding money (this works best if more senior officers are online with money) and they may payout for the officer. However when there are often larger groups of police they will try end it with a gunfight to save the officer or just do something sneaky so you need to watch out. The aim here is to capture someone important / multiple officers and you might get money but often not.
Bank/Federal reserve is the most common this for rebels in an organised group. This can either be done directly by just going to the bank when there are 6+ officers or the Federal reserve when there are 8+ officers online.
Robbery is only available inside towns when there are 6+ cops online and outside of towns whenever, this can be done if you have a weapon at which point you can declare on people (see the Declarations tab in the rules section)
Quick Tips!
ALWAYS check the server rules (often on the map) when you start a server as many rules and general thing vary.
Do not VDM (Vehicle death match - Running over people) as this is a banable offence on the majority of servers if done repeatedly or used in combat situations.
Do not RDM (Random death match - Randomly kill people) as this again is ban able and not allowed on all servers.
Try to stay in RP (Role play) in player interactions as being out of RP can be disallowed e.g. with Cops and if you rob someone don't just shoot them if they say now (just most general interactions).
Follow NLR (New Life Rule) which means if you die you cannot go back to where you died for 5 - 15 minutes (always check) this is again another bannable offence.
Q&A
This will be updated with any common questions people have about Altis life.
This is a work in progress and if you feel like i have left something out or something needs to be changed then send Me a PM on the forums
Best Regards,
Yuri
