IED Explosion and Disruptor addon

[Tankbuster 1746]

This addon is in two parts. The first part is used to spawn explosions. Often, to make an explosion, mission makers spawn a ammunition object. An LGB makes a very large explosion and an artillery shell makes a rather smaller one. The problem with this is that the player, if he's looking at it, will see the object spawn before it falls to the ground and explodes.

This addon uses a reconfigured hand grenade to create two explosion types. It's small so players are unlikely to see it spawn and it's fuse time has been removed. The first is a small explosion and is roughly twice the size and power of a game hand grenade and the larger one is a little less powerful than an LGB. This doesn't create an IED object or anything like that. It makes the explosion and it can harm players, vehicles and buildings if they are close.

The classnames are SEK_TR_GUE_smallbomb and SEK_TR_GUE_bigbomb.

The other part of the addon is the IED Disruptor. It's based on the Canadian Proparms 29mm Neutrex Waterject IED disruptor. It's actually a remodeled and reconfigured satchel charge and is picked up, placed and detonated in the same way.

It's best used with eventhandlers. If you add a handledamage EH to a nearby object, when the disruptor goes off, that EH will fire and it's select 4 will return TKY_Disruptor_A. This is different to how a satchel works which has unnamed muzzle so select 4, as described above returns an empty string. We named our muzzle and ammunition to get the functionality described above.

The classname is TKY_Disruptor

Download linky

http://teamspaff.co.uk/arma/@tky_ied_kit_2.5%20final.7z

---------- Post added at 12:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 AM ----------

I'd like to say a huge thanks to everyone who helped this get to this point.

wld427, Soul_Assassin, RKSL-Rock, Rarius, Lincks, Ballistic09, Sickboy and numerous others.

---------- Post added at 12:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:26 AM ----------

Forgot to mention. We had to rewrite the put function so that players could place the disruptor. Some of the guys said that might break other stuff such as satchel placement. In testing so far, there's been no such problems.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Tankbuster

[wld427 1705]

why would anyone want to shoot that poor bucket?

Yay for the release tanks!

[Tankbuster 1746]

And thank you for all your help with it! :)

[hellfire257 3]

Thanks Tanky, well done!

[Tankbuster 1746]

I'll be updating this in the coming days to include a third explosion, and an inert IED object.

The BAF IEDs are all very well, but they have a 'defuse IED' action attached to them, which I didn't want, so I've reconfiged it to remove that.

[Tankbuster 1746]

Still not quite done with the above promised update, so here's a quick vid...

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[Tankbuster 1746]

IED detector coming soon.

[Tankbuster 1746]

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tky_ied 2.5 preview
A short vid showing mostly the new IED detector in use. Forgot to credit Bigpickle for some of the sounds heard in that vid. Sorry mate! :)

Other improvements include a bunch of bug fixes, a lot of code optimisation, particularly in the routines that actually create the IED, clutter and triggers.

Structural changes because some of the new stuff has to run client side, so there's an init file that takes care of that. It's JIP and respawn friendly.

[cleggy 297]

Very cool, do these detectors actually exist? How accurate are they?

Won't it take the danger of searching for IEDs out of the whole exercise?

[Tankbuster 1746]

Apologies for slow reply, cleggy - forums not sending topic subscription emails. :)

The detector as you see it here doesn't exist, no. There are some companies, mostly in the US, developing detectors that operate ranges in excess of 10 meters and they are using a passive infra red sensors that can see the tiny clouds of fumes above an IED. How far along they really are is anyone's guess. Mine is very loosely based on this one.

http://www.adc9001.com/ABOUT-US/Research-Projects/Improvised-Explosive-Device-IED-Detection-System

I don't understand the science that makes it work and the company didn't reply to any of my emails.

Yes, it takes the really hard and dangerous work out of the mission, but it's for the mission designer to give these devices to players, or not. I wanted to just give them the option.

For how it works in game, see spoiler. :)

---------- Post added at 16:16 ---------- Previous post was at 16:11 ----------

The detector is actually a pistol weapon. A script runs on the player. When he equips the detector, it starts sensing immediately.

If you're alive, still have it in hand and are standing still it will make a beep if you are pointing it at an IED or the street clutter object that hides an IED. The script then pauses for a given time which is the distance to the IED over 20. This means the closer you get, the faster the beeps get.

There MAY be an update that has a light on the top of the detector. You see where the recess is on the top? I hope to have a red light in there that flashes green if you point the detector DIRECTLY at an IED, as opposed to at it's clutter object.

[wld427 1705]

A hand held IED detection device is something i used to believe would be seen in star wars. I wish i would have had one of these on one of my many overseas tours.

The device would work best as an award or for a specific mission charachter. Granted it makes finding the IEDs easier but in the end they still have to be dealt with, AO secured while doing so.....etc.....etc......

[Tankbuster 1746]

In testing we've found it's quite a difficult thing to move into an enemy held town, checking all the objects that may or may not hide an IED. All the time, the enemy are around you, firing at you. Friendlies move around you too.

Yes, it gives you a relatively easy way to find IEDs. In practice, it's actually quite hard to use effectively. In the video above, made during one of our testing sessions, the sensor range is 25m. In the final version, it will be around half that. Also in that video, there's no enemies to distract/kill you.

[Tankbuster 1746]

A quick update to this. I've had a number of people ask me if this can be modified to meet their specific needs and I'm more than happy to either modify the IED kit for them, or code it in such a way that it can be made to work as they require off the shelf. But I'm coding on my own these days and these things take time. I've got a wife, kids, boss and bank manager to look after - they come first. :)

That said, I've been working a lot on this and had some great help from friends and colleagues and there's some good an bad news.

The good news is that overall, the project is coming along nicely. There should be a new release soon, hopefully during the week.

The bad news is that the eccentricities of the game engine are making life very difficult for me. For example, the fact that the FiredNear eventhandler works on local servers but not on a dedi has ruined my code that makes sure disruptors can't kill more than one IED at a time. Also, the fact that the handledamage event handler doesn't work on the PMC or BAF IEDs pretty much kills the non addon version of this.

Neither of these problems break the IED kit, but having spent weeks trying to fix these problems only to find that they are the result of shit coding by BI, not by me, I don't want to waste the time already invested and will try to fashion a workaround.

[Tankbuster 1746]

Release of tky IED kit version 2.5.

This will be the last release, save any major bugs or errors, for Arma 2. It now works as intended. I might be making custom versions or adding in extra features if they are requested by users. I might not. :) Depends how easy they are to implement.

The structure of the scripts have changed completely. Please remove any older versions before installing this. The mission maker must now run the tky_ied_init.sqf at the start of the mission. The handles all the variables and scripts needed. tky_ied_settings contains a few variables you can change. To actually create IEDs, run the t_handleroadsidebomb.sqf with the required arguments. More info in the supplied readmes.

That's the good news, the bad news is that the non-addon functionality, ie. the kit working without the addon loaded is probably gone for good. There's too many problems with the BI IED objects - specifically, they can't have eventhandlers on them and that not working breaks the core of the scripts. I might be able to code a workaround, but it's time to move on.

Version 2.5 introduces the IED detector and the scripts that make it work. It takes a pistol slot and when you point it at an IED within 12 meters, it will beep. The closer you get, the faster the beeps.

As ever, huge thanks to the army of people who've helped me and this along the way. Worthy of particular mention are RKSL Rock, wld427, Soul_Assassin without whom this simply wouldn't have happened.

Download link

http://teamspaff.co.uk/arma/@tky_ied_kit_2.5_final.7z

---------- Post added at 00:56 ---------- Previous post was at 00:45 ----------

Nearly forgot... demo mission

http://teamspaff.co.uk/arma/tky_ied_test_mission.Takistan.pbo.7z

[Tankbuster 1746]

I'm currently working on an update for this which should be released sometime during the coming week.

There's been a major rewrite of the core script that made future expansions of the script and it's porting to Arma 3 a lot easier. Performance on larger IED fields will be improved too.

There's two, maybe three new major features coming.

The first of which is the ability of the system to create IED fields away from roads. The old version could only make IEDs on the roadside - that was all it was ever intended to do. The next version can find specially named markers called tky_ied1, tky_ied2, tky_ied3 etc and place clutter and IED objects at those locations. So, you can put IEDs in valley choke points or river banks and other natural obstructions away from roads. [Done. Submit to testing]

The second feature is that there's a mode switch that can choose which clutter objects to use depending on where they are. The old script would happily place a market stall or a bag of wheat at the side of the road miles from any habitation or conversely, put rocks and bushes in a crowded urban area. That looks odd and it won't happen now, the script will knows if the location is urban or rural and choose a clutter object that won't look out of place. This feature can be turned on or off in the settings file. [Done, submit to testing]

If I get time and the remaining bugs are squished in good time, I will add a third feature which will be an enemy IED skill variable. The higher you set this, the better the IED will be hidden. In practice, better hidden means set lower in the ground and thus harder to see. [WIP]

Also, a new improved IED delete system for when the ied create script is run again. [Done. Submit to testing]

Edited April 15, 2013 by Tankbuster

[Tankbuster 1746]

Version 2.6 of this is released.

http://www.teamspaff.co.uk/arma/latest/tky_ied_kit_v2.6.7z

The readmes inside the package go into more detail about what's changed but I'll cover the main points here.

The main script has been rewritten, it's now called handleied.sqf and the parameters it takes are changed. It's now able to place IEDs and the objects that hide them at specific, mission designer specified location.

Other changes include improvement of placement of IED under dead animals/soldiers and a system that chooses clutter objects better according to whether they are in town or in countryside. There's a setting that can places IEDs slightly lower in the ground, making them less visible to players. Lastly, there's a script that gives players a better chance of surviving a small IED blast.

Users should note that the tky_ied is now required for use of these scripts. There used to be a non-addon mode for the scripts, but due to engine limitations, it never worked properly. The code is still in there, perhaps it will work in the future or in A3 versions of this system.

[eggbeast 3673]

they caught you!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/9377875.stm

http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=22765