Combine half-spent magazines into one full

[Pulverizer 1]

À la Jagged Alliance :cool:

1. It would be cool, not to mention realistic, if you could combine two, three half-empty mags into one full. Instead of you know, finding out in a tight spot that you have ten magazines each with less than 5 rounds in them. I usually try to count how many half-spent mags I have put back into my inventory but it can get a bit confusing when you loot dead comrades etc.

2a. It would work by drag and dropping one magazine on top of the one you wish to fill. Eg, drag mag A(10/30rnds) on mag B(25/30) results in B(30/30) and A(5/30). It could have a delay, like a few seconds of the mouse cursor displaying a hourglass animation. Some magazines (like ammo belts) could be configured as "non-combineable".

2b. This could have an eventHandler, like onDragAndDrop called for item B, with references to items A and B, and the player in "this" variable. This would allow modders to come up with all kinds of funny object interactions, such as combining an axe head with a handle, using a can-opener on a tincan or matches with wood, or installing a new sight on a gun. Even carry which mouse-button was pressed and shift-alt-ctrl states, for extra flexibility.

3. On each magazine icon in the inventory screen, there would be a number displaying how many rounds it contains and the full capacity, like (7/30). If that's too unrealistic, have the number displayed only when you hover the cursor over the mag, or on the area lower-left showing info about selected item.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Oh yeah, hell yeah! :) Naturally we need magazine count commands to match.

[no use for a name 0]

I would love this! There's a lot of times when I'll have just a few rounds left in 4 or 5 mags that just take up unnecessary space and time. Even if it was as simple as adding a command in the gear/action menu that automatically sorted them and dropped the empty mags.

[Ulanthorn 10]

You usually do not drop empty mags...they go back into the magazine pouch.

Unloading magazines and loading the ammo into a half full one is quite time consuming in reality.

Edited October 17, 2010 by Ulanthorn

[xxbbcc 6]

Just curious: why wouldn't you drop empty mags?

[kireta21 13]

You usually do not drop empty mags...they go back into the magazine pouch.

Unloading magazines and loading the ammo into a half full one is quite time consuming in reality.

With my AKMS I needed about 10 seconds (by opening magazine) or 20-30 seconds (removing bullets one by one) to empty full mag. Loading empty mag took me 30-60 seconds (actually you can't pass if you can't go under 60 seconds). You just need to prepare some space to dump bullets.

Edited October 17, 2010 by boota

[DaveP 66]

With my AKMS I needed about 10 seconds (by opening magazine) or 20-30 seconds (removing bullets one by one) to empty full mag. Loading empty mag took me 30-60 seconds (actually you can't pass if you can't go under 60 seconds). You just need to prepare some space to dump bullets.

Even a minute in game feels like a ridiculously long time when you can't have any control input; if this was to be done, it'd need to be instantaneous. How annoying is it when you're sitting there waiting for a medic to patch you up, and even then that's only about 10 seconds

[Pulverizer 1]

You usually do not drop empty mags...they go back into the magazine pouch.

Obviously but with no way to fill them, they would be worthless waste of inventory space in the game.

Unloading magazines and loading the ammo into a half full one is quite time consuming in reality.

Realistic delays could be implemented in mods, while vanilla should be quite fast for gameplay's sake.

Edited October 17, 2010 by Pulverizer

[Ulanthorn 10]

Just curious: why wouldn't you drop empty mags?

Because its army property you've signed to be responsible for. Every piece you dont bring back means paperwork and in some cases you have to recompese the financial loss. Magazines are not THAT cheap at all that you just litter the ground with it.

[kireta21 13]

Even a minute in game feels like a ridiculously long time when you can't have any control input; if this was to be done, it'd need to be instantaneous. How annoying is it when you're sitting there waiting for a medic to patch you up, and even then that's only about 10 seconds

In the heat of battle there's no time to mess around with equipment, obviously. But ArmA2 is rather slow-paced game. It's quite common to have few spare minutes on you. Ability to tell, how much ammo left in mag (like ACE-style "magazine feels heavy") would be quite useful by itself, alowing player to drop nearly empty mags, and grab fresh ones from box (or backpack).

And I think it SHOULD take some time, so it's up to player to decide if it's worth or not. Probably reduced when compared to real life (like mentioned patching up wounded troops), but instant refill would be as silly as point&click healing in many fps games.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Even a minute in game feels like a ridiculously long time when you can't have any control input; if this was to be done, it'd need to be instantaneous. How annoying is it when you're sitting there waiting for a medic to patch you up, and even then that's only about 10 seconds

I don't mind faster than real, but I tend to always mind instantaneous. BIS healing system allows breaking out of animation, and it is too a rather tedious process. Maybe something like this could be used?

I have to admit I always expected the new engineer repair animation to be more than the "way too often used" heal animation :rolleyes: The new animation when using the module however, is awesome and highly immersive, better than what I was hoping for.

Doesn't have to be this good though, might be enough just randomly looping between some short idle animations or something, while a progress bar is shown.

Exact ammo count could be shown as a tooltip while hovering over it. Takes a little time to activate the tooltip, which simulates you examining it.

[xxbbcc 6]

Because its army property you've signed to be responsible for. Every piece you dont bring back means paperwork and in some cases you have to recompese the financial loss. Magazines are not THAT cheap at all that you just litter the ground with it.

Ah, thank you, I didn't know this.

[Evil_Echo 11]

Because its army property you've signed to be responsible for. Every piece you dont bring back means paperwork and in some cases you have to recompese the financial loss. Magazines are not THAT cheap at all that you just litter the ground with it.

Magazines for AR-style ( M16, M4, etc ) go for $17 each on one popular military supply website. A squad each tossing a couple mags would throw away enough money to buy a spare weapon.

The other point, after the battle those mags do get reused/reloaded. If you don't hand in your empties the platoon leader is not likely to be happy about giving you more.

About the idea. - doable, but it's not something you'd do during combat....

You'd have to duck into a safe area, drop all notion of situation awareness, holster/shoulder your weapons ( because you need both hands ), unpack the partially full mags from your ruck or pockets, pop the rounds out each of those mags ( 10s of seconds ), push them into another mag ( 10s of seconds ), put all the mags back, and rearm. That's a long time spent helpless risking loss of cartridges in grass/dirt/whatever to make a tidy mag with a possible mis-aligned round that'll jam your weapon.

[wolfbite 8]

Would be nice to have 2 mags taped together for quick reloads too :P

[NeMeSiS 11]

I like it. Maybe allow walking while doing this action, but cancelling/pausing it (preferably without losing progress) when running/crawling/etc.

[no use for a name 0]

You usually do not drop empty mags...they go back into the magazine pouch.

Unloading magazines and loading the ammo into a half full one is quite time consuming in reality.

Again, it's a balance between realism and fun. I know you don't drop empty mags IRL; but in this game they do absolutely nothing, so why bother with them? What's next, filling out paper work for your rifle and rounds every time you go out on a mission? Give me a break...

Magazines for AR-style ( M16, M4, etc ) go for $17 each on one popular military supply website. A squad each tossing a couple mags would throw away enough money to buy a spare weapon.

The other point, after the battle those mags do get reused/reloaded. If you don't hand in your empties the platoon leader is not likely to be happy about giving you more.

About the idea. - doable, but it's not something you'd do during combat....

You'd have to duck into a safe area, drop all notion of situation awareness, holster/shoulder your weapons ( because you need both hands ), unpack the partially full mags from your ruck or pockets, pop the rounds out each of those mags ( 10s of seconds ), push them into another mag ( 10s of seconds ), put all the mags back, and rearm. That's a long time spent helpless risking loss of cartridges in grass/dirt/whatever to make a tidy mag with a possible mis-aligned round that'll jam your weapon.

I also realize it takes time to re-fill partial empties; but again, it's a balance. Make it easy, say a couple seconds for each round you have to move, or something that will still make the person choose wisely and not try to combine them when there's enemies near. Keep it simple but effective

Edited October 18, 2010 by No Use For A Name

[Baff1 0]

Just curious: why wouldn't you drop empty mags?

Because they are expensive.

In my mind I had always hoped that every time I clicked "Rearm" from the action menu at ammo trucks and caches, I was refilling all the half empty magasines.

[andersson 285]

About the idea. - doable, but it's not something you'd do during combat....

Alot of time in arma2 is not combat, there are plenty of opportunities to reload.

I wouldnt do it in a combat situation in arma2 or RL.

[Evil_Echo 11]

Alot of time in arma2 is not combat, there are plenty of opportunities to reload.

I wouldnt do it in a combat situation in arma2 or RL.

Agree. Not opposed to the overall idea as long as the animation takes the appropriately large amount of time.

[Darkhorse 1-6 16]

I like it. Maybe allow walking while doing this action, but cancelling/pausing it (preferably without losing progress) when running/crawling/etc.

I don't think you quite understand the process... You can't walk while your using both hands to dump rounds out of half empty mags, load them into other mags, and then put the mags back into your pouches.

OT: Like others have said, I would like to see this as long as it takes an appropriate amount of time, such as 30 seconds per pair of mags you combine. If it comes down to realism versus gameplay, screw gameplay. If I want super fast reloads/auto combining magazines or the like I would play Battlefield, or CoD. I play ArmA II because of the realism aspect, the simulation aspect, not the fast paced gameplay. :p

This game is all about taking a ride to a LZ/DZ/Drop off point, humping it for 10 minutes, and then getting into a firefight with an enemy that outnumbers you 2-1 or more, struggling to reload fast enough while bullets snap by, watching your air support get blown out of the sky, and then spending the next 2 hours trying to get the hell out of the hostile area with the remnants of your unit. You have to have patience to play it. Add the feature, but make it take time.

[ajsarge 10]

Say, 2 seconds for prep (showing a "Pie circle" timer, 1 revolution per second), then reload from "held" mag to other at 4 rounds per second, then 2 seconds for stowage. That means that reloading a 28/30 mag into a 2/30 mag takes 11 seconds (if you didn't choose the 4.5s for the 2/30 into 28/30). You can lengthen that out to 2 rounds/second for a "more realistic" time (28/30 into 2/30 becomes 20 seconds).

[nkenny 1057]

Reloading is already extremely convinient; not only is it ultra-tacticool-swat-fast in all situations. But the soldier magically keeps track of which of his magazines has the more rounds left-- letting him eternally cycle the 'best' magazine.

All of this without spending even half a second to check :P

[dreday 1]

One thing to keep in mind when calculating the loading time for the magazines is that this is one of those mechanical functions that is much more difficult to perform under stress than under the perfect condition. While it might take a well trained soldier just seconds to load the full magazine in training, it might take him minutes when he is exhausted, cold, hungry, scared, his hands are shaking, and the bullets are dropping all around him...

Peace,

DreDay

[NeMeSiS 11]

I don't think you quite understand the process... You can't walk while your using both hands to dump rounds out of half empty mags, load them into other mags, and then put the mags back into your pouches.

Yes i do, but its a game and i dont feel like sitting in 1 place for several minutes if i dont have to. Allowing us to walk with the weapon down animation while doing this would make it useful without having to resort to really short 'reloading' times.

[max power 21]

All the more reason this feature isn't really needed, imho. It's like trying to make a urinating option. Do we make him able to walk while he does this? It's not really realistic but... The feature is totally superfluous and impossible to balance because of this.