UK Special Forces released. Ideas/Input/Descussion welcome

[Goos 0]

After creating my first addon for ArmA2:OA (British SAS units) not so long ago I decided to expand on it further and it has been basically growing into a whoal other beast. As such I am going to release it as a different addon as opposed to an update to the current one as it now features various sections of the British special forces and not just the SAS.

Features planned are:

SFSG Units (Special Forces Support Group) in Assault gear.

SAS (Special Air service) and SBS (Special Boat Service) in both Assault gear and lighter deep operations type gear as well as joint ops gear using a mix of American and British uniforms/camo

The units will be utilising the british desert camo, woodland camo and the new british MTP camo as well as mentioned above some American camos for Joint ops units which I have still to finalise descisions on.

On the subject of the MTP camo I have created my own variant of it that does not match the MTP camo found on the british units in the British Armed Forces DLC however I will also be including a version of my own camo that is redone to match the BAF MTP as well so which one you decide to use is completely optional and up to you. All units that use the MTP pattern will have options of both variants.

Bellow you'll find screenshots of some of my work so far. Please keep in mind this is all still work in progress but community input is most welcome.

http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo256/GoosUK/ArmA2%20Work/UKSFwip02.jpg 148 kb

http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo256/GoosUK/ArmA2%20Work/UKSFwip06.jpg 140 kb

http://i381.photobucket.com/albums/oo256/GoosUK/ArmA2%20Work/UKSFwip07.jpg 138 kb

Edited July 21, 2011 by Foxhound
images > 100 kb, title changed to reflect first release, topic moved.

[Stagler 39]

Goos. Some Black MICHs wouldnt be a bad thing.

[sv5000 127]

Looks tops.

I think your MTP looks fine. Why not just mix up both your types on the units?

[Goos 0]

Goos. Some Black MICHs wouldnt be a bad thing.

Hmm that's a fair point actually I never realised how generic I was being with the 2 helmet colours I am struggling with trying to keep the file size down and unfortunatly the way this engine works is the model dictates what texture files it uses and not the config but I'll see what I can swing.

On a side note I neglected to mention I will probably be adding Black CQB breach and clear teams for the good old counter terrorist assaults.

Looks tops.

I think your MTP looks fine. Why not just mix up both your types on the units?

2 colours of MTP would be very strange and I want to keep them as true to life as I can. I basically just added the BIS colour scheme as an option. (I'm lucky I added it at all getting the colours right was a nightmare without access to the BAF textures lol)

*Edit/Addon*

Woodland units that use MTP will only use my MTP (a version of it that doesn't look so bright and sand covered) the BIS one really sticks out like a sore thumb in a green environment.

Edited April 8, 2011 by Goos

[(st6)predator 0]

The Pictures looking great !

Is it not possible to use the orginal BIS-MTP Camo ?

I hope for a soon Relaise

Regards (ST6)Predator

[Goos 0]

The Pictures looking great !

Is it not possible to use the orginal BIS-MTP Camo ?

I hope for a soon Relaise

Regards (ST6)Predator

Unfortunatly not it would have saved me a lot of greif but the BAF DLC pbo's can't be unpacked by the tools available obviously because then the BAF lite version could be altered to become the full version for no cost and BIS rightly don't want that. Personally I think the BIS MTP looks wrong anyway I've studied the MTP camo in great detail from reference images and to be honest I think mine looks more accurate. Don't get me wrong mine aint technically acurate either not by a long shot but the pattern is too complicated to reproduce easily and I did cut some corners. Basically doing something technically accurate from the resources available would have taken WAY too long.

[(st6)predator 0]

Unfortunatly not it would have saved me a lot of greif but the BAF DLC pbo's can't be unpacked by the tools available obviously because then the BAF lite version could be altered to become the full version for no cost and BIS rightly don't want that. Personally I think the BIS MTP looks wrong anyway I've studied the MTP camo in great detail from reference images and to be honest I think mine looks more accurate. Don't get me wrong mine aint technically acurate either not by a long shot but the pattern is too complicated to reproduce easily and I did cut some corners. Basically doing something technically accurate from the resources available would have taken WAY too long.

Understand !

I liked your first SAS Addon, but this Addon.. I will love !!!:D:D:D

When do you think ,you can relaise them ? :cool:

Regards

(ST6)Predator

[Goos 0]

That's the immortal question. It's all down to how much time I have to work on them and can I be bothered working on them at those times. I'm tempted to say "when it's done" but I think if I'm being realistic it'll be within this month. Specifically how soon I couldn't say. If I start getting too frustrated I might start dropping ideas.

My biggest headache at the moment is file size and it's already clocked up over 100meg and I'm trying to figure out ways to optimise without sacrificing unit variation. It'll get there :D

[(st6)predator 0]

I asked the same question already at your first addon SAS.

Now I ask you simply again :-)

If you add more variaties of SAS Units, perhaps you kann add some Units with this Hats as shown in this Pictures

http://www.armedassault.info/ftp/pics/addons/WSAS1new02.jpg 500 kb

Regards

(ST6)Predator

Edited April 9, 2011 by W0lle
Image > 100 kb

[verde13 0]

These look amazing. Is it possible to have patrol units with hats or without any headgear ?

[Stagler 39]

Goos units are BIS models, therefore he cannot edit them. He would have to retexture some other BIS models to be the patrol units. If I was to make a suggestion, a mix of the German KSK and the Czech SF units would do, rextextured as SAS.

[ACPL Jon 68]

yep, especially SAS. In our SAS missions, we used models based on them from McNools Tier One addon.

This looks great, even tho I usually hate simple retextures. Might be a good thing, but then I have the other question - any chance You could talk to Schancky & StalkerGB about reskinning their desert 3rd Paras to your woodland?

Then, we would have a complete alternative to BAF. (I'm writing this even tho I'm about to buy one)

[Inkompetent 0]

Ohhh! Woodland! That looks faptastic! (I tend to almost only use the USMC Force Recon FAC for special forcesl, since he's the only dude in the entire game wearing woodland, althoguh sometimes their kit does feel too light).

I agree though that please add a lighter variant with boonies if you can, and it'll be complete!

[(st6)predator 0]

I asked the same question already at your first addon SAS.

Now I ask you simply again :-)

If you add more variaties of SAS Units, perhaps you kann add some Units with this Hats as shown in this Pictures

Please do not quote images/videos!

Regards

(ST6)Predator

Goos units are BIS models, therefore he cannot edit them. He would have to retexture some other BIS models to be the patrol units. If I was to make a suggestion, a mix of the German KSK and the Czech SF units would do, rextextured as SAS.

I would be interested what Goos has to say about these Ideas and Suggestions ? !!

Goos What do you think ?

Regards

(ST6)Predator

Edited April 9, 2011 by W0lle
quoted images

[W0lle 1052]

Goos, (ST6)Predator

Please watch your file sizes.

[Goos 0]

Goos, (ST6)Predator

Please watch your file sizes.

Will do mate, apologies.

As for the lighter units you have all been asking about colonel stagler pretty much hit the nail on the head. At present I am indeed going to be using the German KSK and the Czech SF units for my lighter units as well as the light Delta guys that wear pretty much the same equipment as the guys in the pics but minus headgear.

The only thing that bugs me are the german units with the boonie hats because of the jacket they wear but there aint much I can do about that. Seems fine for forrest but strange for the heat of a desert environment.

The force recon guys from vanilla ArmA 2 would have been perfect for some units but alas they can't use the backpack system introduced by OA and I don't want to lose that system I like it too much however I came across something interesting while pokeing around in the models and there is infact 1 force recon guy in OA that was never used who can indeed use backpacks so I'll see about making use of him somewhere (he looks like the team leader wearing a baseball cap). One thing I am really missing is units wearing a watchcap.

I am limited at present by a lack of knowledge of the toolset to actually get models rigged and in game or I probably would completely model my own units. But from what I have managed to find out is getting models in game is overly awquard with BIS's engine

Edited April 9, 2011 by Goos

[PSYCHOSIM 0]

Looking forward to this............

[Wire 0]

How about considering reskinning the units from the Arma2:PMC mod? It might require ppl to buy that expansion in order to use ur addons, but u can always leave that as a separate folder, and it might give more incentive for people to buy the expansions :D

there are quite afew good unit models there, like baseball caps and headsets that would look cool with some DPM or MTP camo instead

[Binkowski 26]

good texture work! although, i'm not a fan of the BIS delta model... anyway you could possibly change the model? i have a base model in the editing forum somewhere, and there's a lot more out there. other than that, great work!

[LiberNull777 10]

How about considering reskinning the units from the Arma2:PMC mod?

Oh geeez please not. PMC from BIS really suxx, Vanilia units from A2/OA are much better.

[Devil Dogs SF 13]

The PMC models are actually quite nice imo, I wouldn't be against it.

[Cloughy 0]

On the SF camo. My mate who has just come out of the paras, said that the british SF out in afghan wear the yank digital style camo, think he said that greyy green one.

Just though i would let you know. Don tknow why BIS didnt include a couple of BAF SF units.

Cheers

GC

[Goos 0]

How about considering reskinning the units from the Arma2:PMC mod? It might require ppl to buy that expansion in order to use ur addons, but u can always leave that as a separate folder, and it might give more incentive for people to buy the expansions :D

there are quite afew good unit models there, like baseball caps and headsets that would look cool with some DPM or MTP camo instead

Can't. DLC files are encrypted and uneditable it's the same case with BAF and PMC DLC's

good texture work! although, i'm not a fan of the BIS delta model... anyway you could possibly change the model? i have a base model in the editing forum somewhere, and there's a lot more out there. other than that, great work!

I would like to do some custom model work but like I mentioned earlier my knowledge of BIS's tools are too limited and to be honest if I was going to engage in modelling I'd probably do a set of models from scratch. It can be time consuming mind you. Maybe after this release I'll try to delve into the tools more and really get a foothold on some real knowledge to make it all happen it's just that there are no clear tutorials that tell me specifically how to do it that I have seen so far.

On the SF camo. My mate who has just come out of the paras, said that the british SF out in afghan wear the yank digital style camo, think he said that greyy green one.

Just though i would let you know. Don tknow why BIS didnt include a couple of BAF SF units.

Cheers

GC

Judging from what I've been seeing and finding out about the special forces it's a case of they choose what is right for the job and with the increased combined operations with the US they adopt wearing US camo for identification purposes and a lot of pictures taken of British special forces seems to show them wearing mixes of camo. That's basically what I'm trying to represent with the SAS/SBS units while the SFSG units wear pure full sets of British camo. While I'm obviously not a member of SF or know anyone from these areas of the military these are the conclusions I am gathering about them and the chain of thought I am using while creating the units. It seems rather unlikely they would use US camo outside of joint ops (apart from possibly multicam but I don't have any solid proof of anything hehe)

For me BIS missed out 3 major things from the BAF pack SF units, The Challenger tank and Jets (at the very least a harrier reskin but I would have bent over backwards for a tornado or typhoon)

[Stagler 39]

Goos, from what I know. SAS/SBS/SRR Operators wear whatever camouflage they want and will choose what to wear depending upon the nature of the operation and environment.

[Goos 0]

Aye that's basically what I meant just quite a few examples I have seen they have a habbit of mixing their camo wether it be with local dress or with American camo or different British camo types or all of the above. It's very diverse and I hope to bring that diversity to my units it just put's a strain on file size with so many textures involved but I'll definatly do my best to strike up a good balance betwean file size and diversity. the good thing about the Delta units (strictly being used as assault type units) is how they can have their camo mixed (shirt and trousers) via the config file so that helps with those units at least.

Edited April 12, 2011 by Goos