All summer, we enjoyed the community guides published in the run-up to Arma 3's fall release. They were not only informative, but they offered a nice look at the systems and graphics that the open-world military sim offer. Now that Arma 3 is out, community guide narrator Andrew Gluck (aka Dslyecxi) has compiled a wealth of information in his official guide. And while the full guide is bundled with the deluxe edition of Arma 3, a ton of it is now available for free.

Gluck is the founder of Shack Tactical, the most devoted bunch of military sim roleplayers on the internet. In addition to diving into Arma 3's various systems, the guide explores how to function within Shack Tactical by roleplaying a set of near-military rules and procedures.

"In our eyes, hardcore milsim is chock-full of 'tactical fluff' that is irrelevant to the games at hand," Gluck writes. "This hardcore milsim typically presents itself though excessive rules, regulations, attempted recreations of full military rank structures far beyond what is relevant in the scope of your average Arma mission, doing things 'because the real military does them' regardless of their actual application to the game at hand, and other things that we believe do not have a place in these games. This guide reflects that mindset as well.

Even if you're not interested in enlisting with the most hardcore of tactical simmers, the information and tips on offer will be useful to anyone who plays Arma 3. There are over 130,000 words of it in the free, online version, so you've got no shortage of briefing materials to sort through before your next mission. Better get to it!