Side weapons on fixed wing aircraft

[dragon01 902]

I've searched the forum, and I haven't seen that question asked about ArmAIII.

Will it be possible to mount sideways facing weapons on fixed wing aircraft and have them work as intended?

Last time I checked, in AII, trying to set such a weapon up resulted in it shooting forward. Not a good thing if you want to make an AC-130, or any fixed wing gunship for that matter. It'd be great if it was fixed in AIII, and if AI could fully take advantage of this.

Since AIII is features cutting edge equipment (at this point, I'd rather call it that than "futuristic"), I think that an AC-130 would make an excellent addition to the game (that, and it'd be rather fun to hose helpless enemy soldiers with a GAU-25 Equalizer:)).

[maturin 12]

A great big cargo plane with a gun nailed to it is about the farthest thing from 'cutting edge' that I can imagine.

It would be nice to be able to put turrets on fixed wings, however, as then we could have electro-optical systems like every ground attack or recon plane needs.

[4 IN 1 0]

Which comes into another problem: UVAs as it is in ARMA still lacks proper gyro stabilization simulation.

[frostwyrm333 1]

Something like this?

[pathetic_berserker 4]

Something like this?

I think he means proper configurable turrets for fixed wing aircraft that don't have to rely on scripting.

Have to say this is one of the (very little) niggling annoyances I have with BIS and its RV engine. BIS have said that the ArmA series is more a great big sand box for people to get creative with, than an absolute complete package, excelent! As long as the supplied campaign and asstes are actualy complete I'm perfectly fine with this and it's been a good outlook for all concerned.

So people jump into the sand box thinking they might be able to make some cool new assets, but aircraft configs are lacking the one thing every other vehicle is capable of, turrets. Then came a statment to the effect that fixed wing aircraft wont get proper turrets becase of aircraft/target speed reletive to netcode or some such thing. Yet the community has shown it realy wants and needs this as evident by the scripted work arounds used on the AC-130's and WWII aircraft. Now BIS probably do have some good reasons for their thinking but its a pity really, because proper turrets would be a better solution to the scripts and I think the modding community here is mature enough to know that the RV engine will have limitations, ie putting a 360 deg turret on a mach 2 aircraft may have issues, but the community here isn't realy into fantasy vehicles.. So yes the ArmA series is a sandbox, but only to the level BIS requires for its own assets.

Edited August 29, 2012 by Pathetic_Berserker

[Snowden 1]

I'm just imagining the over-use of air power in every domination server with a fully working "Spooky" AC-130. Of course, don't think I wouldn't want it in the game. I would love to see a fully functioning AC-130 in Arma!

[dragon01 902]

Don't forget that to effectively operate a "Spooky" in MP, you'd need a pretty hefty team to man the guns, unless you manage to recruit some AIs to help you out. It's no better than C-130 if you fly solo.

And yes, I'm aware of possible issues with this feature, but I think a partial implementation is still possible. Since the problems are velocity related, turrets could be supported in MP only up to certain velocity (with a note that they don't work well above that). Since turrets are mostly used on low speed aircraft (WWII ones and gunships, which don't usually fly too fast), this shouldn't be a big limitation. Also, since the problem is in the netcode, fast aircraft with turrets could simply be SP only. Not a perfect solution (multi is a big part of ArmA experience), but better than nothing at all.

[Sniperwolf572 758]

According to this, it's been made possible in one of the A2 patches.

[enforcer4100 10]

Euhm guys... there already is an unscripted AC-130 in arma II.

Check the addon subforum it's in there somewhere.

[pathetic_berserker 4]

According to this, it's been made possible in one of the A2 patches.

Oh lol, thanks for bringing me up to date.

[dragon01 902]

That's a very interesting twist. I can't find the addon you mentioned though, it's either unreleased or has a misleading thread name.

[frostwyrm333 1]

So is it finally possible to make Star Destroyers? With dozens of turrets and stuff?

[rstratton 0]

you can put turrets on a plane but any ammo fired will exit the nose of the plane

[dragon01 902]

According to Sniperwolf, this is no longer the case since a recent patch.

[rocstar96 1]

That's a very interesting twist. I can't find the addon you mentioned though, it's either unreleased or has a misleading thread name.

I agree, I cant find it.

[Smurf 12]

This? http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=15823&highlight=AC-130

[b00ce 160]

This? http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=15823&highlight=AC-130

No, that's just a visual thing for the LDL AC-130. Here's the one with actual guns on it, though it is just using AttachTo for the turrets.

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=15859

[Master85 1]

Gnat made a proof-of-concept plane some time ago: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?130929-Fixed-Wing-Multiple-Turrets-Testing-Bug

turrets are fully functional for the player, but the AI can't move them: https://dev-heaven.net/issues/29050

[dragon01 902]

Oh, well, so at least we have that. I hope BI fixes that bug for AIII, and brings us an AC-130, or whatever futuristic equivalent they have (though it doesn't seem like neither the Herc nor the Spooky are going anywhere anytime soon).

[[aps]gnat 28]

Invasion44 mod B-17 Flying Fortress for future patch release will now have real turrets (vs current AttachTo turrets).

Again like the proof-of-concept Master85 mentioned, Players are fine but AI don't track targets. I have reason to believe BIS will fix that .... before ArmA3 :D