Land Warrior System in ARMA 3?

[wiggie 24]

Was watching Discovery Channels, Future Weapons series earlier and suddenly saw the brand new Land Warrior battle system currently being developed by the US Army. Though almost every country, including Iran, France, Australia and England are developing they're own systems, it is safe to assume that NATO will eventually adopt the best version as a universal piece of equipment for its soldiers.

For those who have no idea what I am talking about, or haven't seen future weapons, Land Warrior is a digital computer system that is worn by the soldier. It is comprised of a small computer unit, GPS system, helmet mounted eye piece and finally a specialized camera. It is all stowed inside standard modular pouches and brings the whole battle space together into one element. But... Could it have a use in ARMA 3?

Imagine you are on a small scale co-op mission. You are part of a team of six special forces operators on a covert mission behind enemy lines. How useful would it be to be able to hit a button, have your soldier fold down his eye piece (which may take up half of the screen, render you unable to use your weapon sights, and blur the other half of the screen) so that you may send text messages to other team mates (if voice comms aren't avaliable), take pictures of targets, buildings and other points of interest to share with your squad, and also, to be able to do something like poke your gun around a corner, without exposing yourself to be able to see, and show the rest of your team soemthing without risk.

On a larger scale, for instance, in a warfare match. Imagine being able to order one of your AI squad mates to paint a target that the rest of the squad cannot see, for instance, an enemy AFV a click away in some tree's. You could then fold down your optics and see a live video stream from your AI (Or player) Squad mates, so that you know exactly what he see's and exactly where it is. You could also use the system to video link into another squad leaders helmet cam, so that you can succesfully coordinate a large attack with multiple combat elements, or even tap into the UAV overhead, so that it can stream you photo's of targets it can see, or even real time video of troop movements, so that you know if the enemy is about to flank you.

If you head on over to http://military.discovery.com/videos/futureweapons-season-two/ and check out the Land Warrior video, I'm sure you can think of dozens of other applications for the system in ARMA 3, including tieing it in with vehicles, using static camera's for things like artillery spotting, and even viewing dead team mates helemt camera footage to see exactly where the sniper that shot him was at the time.

I don't think it would be too hard to impliment, but you have to admit, it opens up a massive new spectrum of oppurtunities, realism and tactics when the soldiers of both sides are linked together into a cohesive battleforce that are working as one, instead of blindly going on voice orders.

What do you think? Go? or No Go?

[paecmaker 23]

Guess it could work a little like the cross com system in the GRAW games(now Im not talking about the red and blue squares that show friends and enemies, even if they could maybe put in a paint target command in A3.

If they would do it right it could be interesting, maybe a modder otherwise can do it. But there is a chance that it wont be the same feeling in the game. One fun part in the game is that you sometimes dont have that kind of contact with support, and you cant see what your friends are seeing.

[liquidpinky 11]

Judging by what we have seen of opfor units a similar system is already in place, whether bluefor has one is yet tp be determined.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

No Go from me. How do you setup working controls for a weapon/camera system in a completely different direction? Ctrl+w to push the weapon forward? How to quick react? Sorry, I don't see any practical solutions. Image and video feed sent over our network? Lag galore. For recognition, we'd still have to use full screen optics for it to be useful, so feature sounds questionable.

The rest is pretty much already there. Situational awareness is available through failry easy scripting to be shown on map/gps, or simply enable extended map info and military markers. User placed map markers already come up automatically.

So, no. Most of the stuff is already possible, and those that aren't doesn't sound realistically feasible to implement.

[JojoTheSlayer 35]

Apart from the "send picture to other soldiers" part, which I am unsure meant live video as well and the slide down animation of the Land warrior interface. Arma 2 has all these hud features already:

GPS hud screen that tracks player markers.

Text messages.

Voice com.

FLIR sights on some rifles.

A render to texture with the ability to send a picture or live video to another player would be useful though. Like the current ingame GPS screen changed to live feed from the FLIR sights of the fellow soldier that sent it to show where the spotted enemy was or similar.

Edit:

At the end of the day though:

55p9u_EBeYA

Edited June 24, 2011 by JojoTheSlayer

[wiggie 24]

I already know that many of the features Land Warrior introduces are already in ARMA 2 in some basic form. But that is not what I am talking about. What I am talking about it bringing it into one combat system, that keeps the immersion whilst playing.

Though the GPS in ARMA 2 is useful, I dislike the way it just hovers on screen as if it were a minimap when I toggle it on. The whole point of adding Land Warrior into ARMA 3, with its text messaging, picture sharing, video streaming and realtime tactical hud would be that it kept the immersion.

You have to admit, that it would feel a much realer expirience if one had to fold down his eyepiece to link into a TALON drones camera instead of just taking control of the machine directly, and when it comes to spotting troop positions, it would be a whole lot more immersive if you had to break combat by folding down the HUD screen.

In reguard to controlling such things as pushing guns around corners, it is not hard at all to have a button such as the T-key that can unlock gun movement, just as Alt unlocks free looking head control. Sure it may break the pace of the game a little, but look at real life combat, it is not particularly quick and dynamic, its about getting down, assessing the situationa and reacting, and ARMA is all about this, so an extra key press to poke your gun around a corner is hardly difficult or time consuming is it?

I just threw it out there as a suggestion though. I think it would add a whole new layer of immersion to the game, and for me, immersion in games is crucial, especially in titles such as ARMA.

Back to 3DS Max. :D

[CyclonicTuna 87]

My only problem with this is, that its all nice and all. All those digital gadets and gizmo's. But what if a bullet of a peice of shrapnal hits those nice perks?

[Primarch 10]

My only problem with this is, that its all nice and all. All those digital gadets and gizmo's. But what if a bullet of a peice of shrapnal hits those nice perks?

It's destroyed, and if you are getting hit into the visor you wouldn't need it anyway.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

No actually that's a problem for me. Everything wrt personal equipment is 100% reliable, and never breaks down even from damage. However, I wouldn't want things to become too annoying either, and finding the right balance seems like a daunting task.

[Superman0023 10]

I like the ideal of a possible land warrior system (if done correctly and not just thrown together.) Being as arma 3 is based in mid 2030's I don't see why the land warrior system in all it's functions wouldn't exist then...

[brynjard 2]

If it the "Land Warrior System" where implemented in the game, it should be optionial or some equipment you had in your inventory like map, gps NVG ETC.

So for the gameplay, some typical SF had this as standard, but not regular. And it should be limited by battery time as should NVG and GPS.

But remember guys, all these systems the US Army present is not regular army systems. They usually cost alot of money and cannot be equipment for every soldier. As in real life NVGs, GPS and other "advanced equipment" they fuck up from time to time. You need batteries, equipment get wet and cold. Rough usage in all kinds of enviorinment. When the shit hits the fan, you must rely on basic soldier skills. There will be no SciFI, even i 2030. When your out there in the woods in the dark your still human...

In the 1980-90 we really thought we would have UFOs insted of cars in 2000. (kids) ;)

[samco 1]

Well this should be definitely in-game at least for special forces , i saw pictures of vehicle with railguns .. now that is sci-fi ( railguns require an huge amount of energy )

Future Force warrior ( USA ) , GLADIUS ( Germany ) , Soldato Futuro ( Italy ) , Ratnik ( Russia ) ... those systems are current tech ( look for example Google Glasses ) and will only improve in the future ( probably contact lenses instead of head mounted display )