Silencers - Why do they exist in ArmA 3?

[remi6 18]

they are still very loud compared to this holywoodian approach.

i know OP is banned, but -- you all should check out videos of people shooting 300 Blackout with subsonic ammunition and a suppressor.

here's a good one.

[chortles 263]

i know OP is banned, but -- you all should check out videos of people shooting 300 Blackout with subsonic ammunition and a suppressor.

here's a good one.

An arguably better comparison for Arma 3 purposes

with 6.5 mm Grendel.

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

The reason a lot of people deem silencers useless and claim it has not effect, is because your thinking of using it the wrong ways. Silencers are useful for a handful of situations, and are not used to go in and quietly take down a guy, standing next to another guy facing the opposite direction. Silencers make the shot quieter, of course given that you use Sub-Sonic ammunition, but still you can hear it indeed. So what's the point in having them at all? It's useless then! You might say. But look at is this way.

During a firefight, you hear shots, both out going and in coming. Add a suppressor to battle, and you won't hear it over the un-suppressed firefight. That's right, you can virtually go un-seen in a large scale battle because most aren't focusing on you, that is provided your tactics match your loadout. If your bearing a suppressor, it's smart to keep your shots un-noticed by firing when there are other sounds going on, and avoid shooting multiple times. This is essentially one of the strong points of s suppressor. You won't be noticed as much as other shooters, if your good at it.

Another situation is enemy distance, scattered engagements, and communication weakness. Say, there are groups of enemies, far apart from each other, and those groups can't communicate between each other. You can engage them accordingly, and not be heard by the enemies that are too far to hear the shot. Or maybe your in a noisy environment, like say, a jungle, there are waterfalls, animal noises, you can pull off silent shots if the situation is ripe. And of course if the enemy can't communicate properly, your in the gold. Either the enemy can't tell his allies that he's being shot at, yet, or he knows he's being shot at, but he doesn't know where from, and probably won't, because if you get that second shot without giving away your position, he won't be alive to find out in the end.

That is how you use a suppressor effectively. Questions?

[martin_lee 33]

As DarkSideSix said, a lot of us kind of expects a suppressor doing things it doesn't do. I'd like to point out a few things a suppressor can do that does not involve making things quiet, just to illustrate:

1, a suppressor greatly reduce the muzzle flash, which will help preserving your night vision, and make it hard for the enemy from seeing where the shot came from.

2, it will greatly reduce the blast, which helps in several ways. When fighting in close quarters, shots from your teammates closeby would be less of a 'shock', it's less teeth-rattling and less 'distracting'. Compensators and some flash hiders have ports to the sides (eg. A2 flash hider on AR15) . Say, if you shoot around a corner, and support the gun on the side of the wall, the blast would push the aim sideways.

[das attorney 858]

It should make your gun awkward in doorways as well !

[DJankovic 401]

The range master in this video sounds quiet close to the one in game :D

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

The quietest gun i've heard is an Ar-15 with 300 Blackout, a round that was actually designed to be suppressed. In fact, there is a video somewhere that shows that the trigger reset is actually louder than the bullet breaking the speed of sound downrange. Now imagine sub sonic...

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

Lets talk about the DISadvantages of using a suppressor:

1. Makes the gun longer (not an issue in A3, sniper can clear buildings with sniper rifles)

2. Makes the gun heavier (not really an issue in A3, arms never get tired)

3. Changes the recoil due to center of gravity shift (may not be an issue if you are used to it sufficiently). (not really an issue in A3)

4. Suppressor will overheat much faster than the barrel, therefore cannot shoot much with it. (not simulated at all in A3)

In A3 there are no cons to using a suppressor, aside from the incorrect simulation of decreased velocity, when in fact suppressors increase bullet velocity.

Edited June 6, 2015 by MDCCLXXVI

[Healbeam 10]

In A3 there are no cons to using a suppressor, aside from the incorrect simulation of decreased velocity, when in fact suppressors increase bullet velocity.

Got a source for that? I remember a test video a while ago (post-marksmen dlc) and bullet velocity was properly increased.

[Jona33 51]

Got a source for that? I remember a test video a while ago (post-marksmen dlc) and bullet velocity was properly increased.

It's a myth I believe, last I checked suppressors do correctly increase bullet velocity.

[1911shields 11]

Found this on feedback... http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=22225

Hello,

thank you for reporting the issue. The suppressors are not really reducing the bullet speed. They effectively serve as a barrel extension and therefore can even increase the bullet travel speed. Suppressor serves to reduce the muzzle flash. There are silencers that reduce the speed of the bullet, but these are not present in Arma (there was a research within the development team about the implementation).

Please, see feedback tracker ticket 0006302 and also comment section in particular.

The negative aspects of the suppressor are:

- Extended barrel (more visible from distance,)

- Greater inertia of the weapon

- Faster and more intensive thermal imaging reflection

- Decreased durability of the weapon (not simulated in game)

[dunedain 48]

Hickok45 firing 5.56 ammo both sub and supersonic with and without suppressor. I thought it was interesting how under powered sub sonic 5.56 is.

[Guest]

Tbh, Imo regardless of how much realism is found in Arma 3, silencers are both a great addition and are just fine if they are a bit less than realistic in their quietness/range effectiveness simply because of the fact that silencers exist in the game, and can be detected in mission scripts when attached to a weapon, opens up the door to some quality stealth/infiltration style missions that really would not be same if either the silences did not exist or if the silencers had less than desirable effects. Gameplay quality with certain features even in a game that attempts to replicate real life conditions in various areas Imo is found sometimes by bending the rules so to speak, because in all truth, it will always be a video game, and many people will always be there to play for sheer entertainment in short bursts of time.

Edited June 6, 2015 by Guest

[gatordev 219]

3. Changes the recoil due to center of gravity shift (may not be an issue if you are used to it sufficiently). (not really an issue in A3)

Depending on whether you're running a brake, it can either help with recoil, or negate the positive effect of a brake. Since, generally, it makes sense for military weapons to be running some sort of flash-hider (which continues to not be modeled in-game correctly), running a suppressor should help with felt recoil/muzzle flip in-game.

4. Suppressor will overheat much faster than the barrel, therefore cannot shoot much with it. (not simulated at all in A3)

I'm not sure where you're getting this. A typical 5.56 military contracted suppressor can run red hot and still keep going. The issue that comes up is actually the barrel, and not the suppressor. Either it reaches a failure point after a high-round count (which is why the M4 barrel profile was changed, as an example), or, more likely, the barrel heats up enough due to the suppressor that the chamber gets too hot for a chambered round and it can cook off. Neither of those causes the suppressor itself to fail.

A KAC NT4 or Surefire SOCOM can will take a licking and keep going. Trust me.

[-NBR- Magic 13]

I think the silencers are not quiet enough! But I am a. Complete noob so what do I know :)

[chrisb 196]

I haven't heard any reasonable arguments yet.. Take that as you may. ;)

[martin_lee 33]

A hot suppressor could keep on going (maybe with a bit of deteriorated sound and flash suppression?). But the hotness can cause turbulence, which will make using scopes quite a pain. It will greatly affect thermal scopes as well.

Whilst a hot barrel could still cause the same problem, it is less severe compared to suppressor. Barrel heats up much slower, and there is always a handguard between the barrel and the scope.

[Reticuli 14]

Seems like it should be easy enough to fix in Arma 3 by having only the current 'silencer' sounds used when both a suppressor is attached *and* subsonic rounds are uses, and the rest of the time it's the loud normal firing sounds of varying volumes based on distance and whether a standard suppressor is attached (some volume reduction of the loud report), a stealth suppressor is attached (less volume reduction of loud report), or no suppressor is used (no volume reduction of loud report).

[pierremgi 4888]

Btw, if you want your AIs equipped with silencers during Steath mission, removing them in combat, and so on along your orders, I created a module for that: ADAPT SILENCERS in this mod.

Works with all DLCs and mods.

Adapt silencers, Ais can rearm, Heal & revive, Ais can respawn... and more, for easier work of mission makers.