SCUBA/Underwater Mechanic, Mission, Equipment, Map Suggestion Thread

[cifordayzserver 119]

SO! I'll get the ball rolling.

I want to start the conversation by saying I think this is THE sleeper feature of the series... everyone is distracted by lighting,weather (they don't even consider the ocean), graphics etc...

I say that the ability to breach the surface is going to literally open up an entire world of warfare and play styles.

Mechanics

- Accurate Depth Readings

- Accurate Oxygen or Nitrox consumption based on time/depth

- Accurate assention/dessention bottom time rules

- Buddy Breathing

- Tank Tapping Morse/comms

- Leveling abilities for free diving??

- Mic monitoring of breathing to ensure no lung expansion on ascent?

- Scream for Emergency escape?

- Caving/Rope Descent/Spelunking/Climbing could be a WHOLE new mechanic... Vertical ascent/battle on land??? Sheer mountain faces using lines similar to ladder mechanics only allow for shooting. (Oh and allow for shooting from ladders please!)

- Shifting Sands, seafloors should/could have sections of shifting sands where you can then dig to expose things OR it just acts as a visual barrier like rubble.... similar to a suggestion I've made for dessert maps (to have shifting sands)

Missions

- Seafloor Demo/Repair

- Seafloor Wreck recovery/exploration

- Cave diving/exploration

- High yield loot recovery missions

- Free diving challenges

- Mine clearing/setting

Equipment

- Full Face Mask with comms

- Tanks lol

- Proper Octo setup

- Weight belt/system

- UWV's

- Submarines (I've seen that in the promo vids I think)

Maps

- Here's the BIG one... I'd LOVE to see BI open up ALL the old maps for AT LEAST terrain/topography editing of the seafloors

- Small volcanic island that has TONS of navigable seacaves that lead to mountain outlets... cave diving/spelunking/climbing could be a WHOLE new mechanic... Vertical ascent on land???

- Entirely underwater map... reefs, wrecks, holes, caves, tunnels, etc etc etc... (see above shifting sands mechanic to really spice up the maps in a dynamic way.)

Any/All suggestions and discussions are WELCOME!

*EDIT*

Check out this mod thread that has LOTS of the groundwork laid out!

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?117196-Diving-Under-Water

Also JOIN my diving group!

http://forums.bistudio.com/group.php?groupid=291

*EDIT 2*

Here are some Vids I've done quickly in the first couple days of launch testing underwater mechanics out!

DROWNING a non-scuba player:

Wreck Diving in Sahrani (skip to 0:25):

Free Diving For Loot:

10min Diving Exploration Southern Tip of Stratis (+Exploding port-o-jon at the end lol):

Edited March 14, 2013 by CiforDayZServer

[sproyd 2]

There is a number of threads on this already.

[M1J 1]

I was doing the SCUBA intro mission, the controls for the SCUBA system are great, the weapon they give you is neat as well, I don't keep up on military technology but I didn't know there was such thing as a dual purpose 5.56mm rounds and magazines using them underwater didn't really give me a good insight on what the difference was between the two different ammunition types it gave me but I assume one is built for water obviously the other not so much.

I did have some trouble with capturing the AA vehicle it told me about, I couldn't seem to get in or see what it meant by capture, this may be a bug or something but I couldn't seem to accomplish the task of capturing it regardless of how many enemies I alerted or took down

[chortles 263]

I was doing the SCUBA intro mission, the controls for the SCUBA system are great, the weapon they give you is neat as well, I don't keep up on military technology but I didn't know there was such thing as a dual purpose 5.56mm rounds and magazines using them underwater didn't really give me a good insight on what the difference was between the two different ammunition types it gave me but I assume one is built for water obviously the other not so much.

As said, "one built for water, the other is just regular 5.56". Apparently the 'dual purpose' rounds do work above water, but their-above air performance (read: damage/"hit") is much worse than standard 5.56 in the game, even though that such a difference may not be realistic.

[cifordayzserver 119]

Here's a tidbit from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APS_underwater_rifle

On the multi-thread thing, I've found this one as well, which I will attempt to consolidate the info with mine...

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?149102-Feedback-amp-Suggestions-Diving-and-underwater-combat

[HorbeySpector 164]

good ideas, but Arma 3 is not a diving sim. Altough I'd like to see that stuff as much as you do, we're depending on mod-makers to see it actually happend.

[nmdanny 22]

We don't need hardcore diving simulation, this is a game of combined warfare not a simulator

Although I would like to see rappelling, big submarines and perhaps oxygen tanks

[cifordayzserver 119]

Thanks for the comments!

While I agree, this suggestion/discussion thread is for Mods OR the Game.

IMO Arma IS a military simulator and many divisions of the armed forces have SCUBA forces...

I'd also love to see a separate difficulty setting for realism...

IMO the Arma I helicopter flight mechanics were more realistic, you could stall a chopper trying to bank up too steep of a hill... where as in A2 and A3 you are really just hitting directional buttons IMO... A3 adds weather and I'm sure the mechanics will improve over time...

But I think they are trying to balance it between casual gamer use and a simulator... IMO there should be a setting for THAT...

Difficulty: Normal/Vet/Expert

Realism: Low/Normal/Simulator

[Desaix 1]

My favourite addon would be underwater projectile trails, both fired from surface or below sea level.

[callaway 0]

Wow, some of these suggestions seem over the top, but heck that's what brainstorming is about. I'd say a few are too far in the realm of diving simulator, I however would like to see this part of the game expanded. Submarines (large) would be amazing.

[Alabatross 1]

Oh man id love to have a TDM in a giant aircraft carrier wreck thats at the bottom of the ocean 0.0

Or any ship for that matter... swimming through the dark hallways with a flashlight

Edited March 15, 2013 by Alabatross

[chortles 263]

Wow, some of these suggestions seem over the top, but heck that's what brainstorming is about. I'd say a few are too far in the realm of diving simulator, I however would like to see this part of the game expanded. Submarines (large) would be amazing.

More like most of the suggestions... large submarines > anything else in this thread except for carrier wreck TDM.

[Sanguinius 1]

Oh man id love to have a TDM in a giant aircraft carrier wreck thats at the bottom of the ocean 0.0

Or any ship for that matter... swimming through the dark hallways with a flashlight

Wait... that reminds me of Farcry Instincts (the first one) somehow...

Breaching an operational aircraft carrier would be sweet. Then again, it would be a nightmare to navigate... and build.

As always, we have to wait till there is some really awesome hardware out there...

[StrickenAza34 10]

I seriously can not wait. The underwater aspect is a completely new aspect, designed form the ground up, and the realism of it is amazing. Imagine some of the mods that can be based off the underwater component alone! The mind boggles!

[Tonci87 163]

Have a look here

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?149102-Feedback-amp-Suggestions-Diving-and-underwater-combat

[lemkeh 1]

Maybe also some underwater operations in/using rivers? Might be river as on Podagorsk map. Or larger, with more turbid water than in the sea, dangerous old nets, distracting garbage in river beds, enemy's searchlights from high bridges.. and so on.

[chortles 263]

Rather amusing to see all the inspiration in this thread in light of how much people seemed to hate "underwater" for being misplaced priorities on BI's part as opposed to fixing stuff that people thought was broken...

[johncage 30]

chortles, it's not possible to get refunds from steam, so it's probably good if you campaign harder for the features you want instead of spending all your time here posting flame baits.

[chortles 263]

You're mistaking what I mean here; don't you remember when underwater was first revealed and the general reaction was people complaining that BIS was going off in a different direction instead of fixing what those people considered to be broken, such as AI? I'm finding it ironic that now that the alpha has been released and the reaction has been generally positive, that people have turned around and that there's serious interest in expanding the underwater gameplay aspect.

As I said, personally I'd be more interested in the implementation of larger submarines such as what Gnat implemented in Arma 2, but that's part and parcel with my own interest in seeing the overall "naval" aspect get larger, even though the alpha is infantry-centric according to the official release plan; it's part of why I responded to the "Arma 3 Naval Question?" thread to link up a bunch of the work that has been done by other people in Arma 2 (such as JDog's USS Nimitz and Gnat's work).

[arziben 23]

woah woah, calm down, the thing is, you see, that arma is a war sim, not a scuba diving one, same reason why you don't need to go through the checklist everytime you start your helo

[nodunit 397]

And what harm is added with more simulative elements?

I was for diving when I first heard of it, my immediate thought oddly enough though wasn't night ops as much as exploring an under water cave with naught but a light to see, possible due to the diving but also vastly improved HDR. Gotta say, I love the idea of the sunken carrier death match/team death match. Heck I'd opt for an under water facility of some sort if oxygen cavities were possible.

[Alabatross 1]

woah woah, calm down, the thing is, you see, that arma is a war sim, not a scuba diving one, same reason why you don't need to go through the checklist everytime you start your helo

A military carrier that was transporting nuclear warheads was sunk by opfor submarines. Both teams must fight to secure the underwater wreck.

:)

[chortles 263]

woah woah, calm down, the thing is, you see, that arma is a war sim, not a scuba diving one, same reason why you don't need to go through the checklist everytime you start your helo

One interesting thing about Take On Helicopters is seeing the dichotomy of Arma as "broad sim but shallower detail" versus other sims (DCS) that are "narrow sim but with deeper detail", and seeing how BI went about applying a Real Virtuality iteration when it's applied to a more narrow sim... although it was amusing to see the application of "you can skip the checklist, but helo function not guaranteed". Reminds me of opting into an Arma 3 alpha development build... :p

And what harm is added with more simulative elements?

I was for diving when I first heard of it, my immediate thought oddly enough though wasn't night ops as much as exploring an under water cave with naught but a light to see, possible due to the diving but also vastly improved HDR. Gotta say, I love the idea of the sunken carrier death match/team death match. Heck I'd opt for an under water facility of some sort if oxygen cavities were possible.

I like the idea of "sunken carrier TDM" as well, though I would be left wondering both for gameplay and for plausibility's sake, how does one handle respawns for underwater TDM? Might it have to be a static map, or could it theoretically be set in "stages" with changing spawn points as the match goes on?

I actually thought of the Kamino map from the Star Wars: Battlefront duology, a mix of outdoor platforms and walkways with simple interiors on some of the platforms... replace the outdoors with underwater, maybe make the walkways enclosed from the water so that there's the possibility of "viable" use of non-scuba gear for CQB inside the interiors or leave them open to ensure a focus on scuba... and throw SDVs into the mix? Sure they're not armed and they're probably more noticeable than individual divers, but that speed and possibly personal protection (if the hatches are closed) for the divers, maybe even the possibility of spawning above water in non-scuba gear, piling into a SDV and then sealing the hatches before submerging and reaching a lock-out chamber or pressurized chamber where the combatants could safely enter the enclosed areas from...

A military carrier that was transporting nuclear warheads was sunk by opfor submarines. Both teams must fight to secure the underwater wreck.

:)

Probably odd of me to bring up, but Call of Duty 4's second SP mission "Crew Expendable" concludes in only a partial success in that the suspected package is not secured, only a cargo manifest, although the suspected package is theoretically "denied" to the intended recipient and anyone else... unless OPFOR can secure the wreck before NATO forces do? :icon_twisted:

Enough of COD, but you've got the idea I imagine...

[heartlessphil 1]

I hope we'll see many cool scuba missions. I enjoy that feature alot.

Already played a TDM pvp game underwater with divers. It was fun!