What is the disadvantage to suppressors?

[mcbain99 10]

As I understand it in real life suppressors do not reduce the velocity of the bullet, so a damage decrease would not make sense. A more accurate disadvantage would be to make a weapon with suppressor attach slightly less accurate at standing, and more likely to catch on doors, as it will be a little more unwieldy/front heavy.

As it stands I haven't noticed any difference, anyone know how it works out now?

[rye1 21]

What you asking - how subsonics go in terms of wound ballistics or accuracy of supersonics through a suppressor?

[mcbain99 10]

Supersonics, as there's no subsonics currently. Oh and the question is what is the current disadvantage modelled in the game, if any.

[white 1]

acctually supressor makes the gun more accurate because it counterbalances the recoil aswell as diminishes the muzzle flash. afaik there are no disavantages.

but like i said on the other topic, they do not supress sound as much as in this game does, they supress around 30db which still leaves guns pretty loud.

[mcbain99 10]

acctually supressor makes the gun more accurate because it counterbalances the recoil aswell as diminishes the muzzle flash. afaik there are no disavantages.

Good point, I had forgotten about that. I still think making them more likely to catch against walls would be fair, but if there's no disadvantages then why not have everyone with one? Seems odd that it would even be removeable if there's no point in taking it off.

[samco 1]

the only disadvantage a suppressor has it is that it makes the weapon longer .

[rye1 21]

Well isn't it black also compared with your super camo gun?

[mcbain99 10]

Thinking about it, the best way to make it stand out may be to increase the time taken for the crosshairs to contract when you move, but at the same time increase accuracy once your gun has settled. That way a weapon would be noticeably less mobile/fast when moving around a lot, but more accurate from a stable position.

[luckyhendrix 10]

Why would there be disavantages ?

[mcbain99 10]

Why would there be disavantages ?

If there are none, then why would you ever have any reason not to take one?

[tremanarch 6]

Advantages-reduce hearing loss when shooting, helps conceal location of the shooter, reduces recoil.

Disadvantages-added cost, added weight, barrel can heat up faster during rapid fire, if mounted out of alignment with the bore can damage the rifle and injure the shooter, changes point of impact of the rifle. Gas operated rifles like the AR-15 spit out more gas and unburnt powder from the ejection port when equipped with a silencer.

A silencer will not reduce velocity of the bullet unless the barrel is ported to relieve gas pressure into the back of the silencer, or the silencer is equipped with rubber wipes that trap the gunpowder gas and touch the bullets as they pass through. Most modern silencers are made with metal baffles that divert the flow of the gunpowder gases and reduce the noise. The baffles do not contact the bullet or upset it's flight path. Some silencers actually provide a very slight boost in velocity.

Silencers work best on firearms with subsonic ammo. But they also work well with full power ammo such as the 7.62 nato. A good silencer will lower muzzle blast noise by 20-30 decibels (100-1000 times) but the rifle may still be loud enough to cause some hearing lose.

basically its to protect forces from earloss and to maintain communication.

[luckyhendrix 10]

If there are none, then why would you ever have any reason not to take one?

Why do you need a reason. ARMAIII is a simulator it tries to mimick real life possibilities, there is no need to implement fake disadvantages to "overpowered" weapons. The balancing of the game lies with the mission maker. You wouldn't have acces to a silencer in the first place if you're just a regular grunt.

[wipman 1]

Hi, using subsonic ammo there's a range decrease, the bullet looses force sooner, so is more like a punch than as a stabb, is good for shooting at people without body armor as the entering wound will be bigger and may not be exit wound; it's also better for shooting at cars glasses, because the bullet deformates more and sooner, hitting the glass with more surface than doing it just with the tip or a side. It reduces or eliminates the muzzle flash (depending on the suppressor and bullet's propelent) and make the recoil more controlable, reduce the weapon fire rate (with the subsonic ammo) and can increase the weapon's jamming chance, but this seems to don't be an issue with the modern combat weapons, that most of 'em use supersonic ammo and this make the suppressor's life shorter. The main advantages are hide the muzzle flash and reduce the noise, the main disadvantage are the reduction of the weapon range and the maneuverability on close spaces; the extra weight also compensate a bit the vertical recoil of the weapon, but few in relative therms. Let's C ya

[-Coulum- 35]

Thinking about it, the best way to make it stand out may be to increase the time taken for the crosshairs to contract when you move, but at the same time increase accuracy once your gun has settled. That way a weapon would be noticeably less mobile/fast when moving around a lot, but more accurate from a stable position.

I haven't tested this, but I don't think that the crosshair's size actually have an effect on your characters accuracy.

I honestly don't know much about suppressors but making them bigger I guess is somewhat of a disadvantage when indoors. But for this to really be noticeable, we need auto lowering and raising of weapons. Then you could make weapons with a suppressor take longer to automatically raise after it lowers to avoid collision. This way, if you are indoors and with a suppressor against someone without, when you both come around the corner and raise your weapons he has the head start. This could be applied to all weapons in order to make heavy weapons like AR's less usable in close qaurters than lighter weapons like pistols.

[white 1]

Why do you need a reason. ARMAIII is a simulator it tries to mimick real life possibilities

then in the game it should be loud as it is in reality, but is nowhere near it, never been.

[luckyhendrix 10]

then in the game it should be loud as it is in reality, but is nowhere near it, never been.

I agree , the sound should be boosted rather to implement fake limitations to counteract this.

[mcbain99 10]

I agree , the sound should be boosted rather to implement fake limitations to counteract this.

I am not proposing arbitrary balancing, just accurate modelling. But yes, increased sound when using supersonics would be a start.

[sproyd 2]

If there are none, then why would you ever have any reason not to take one?

A few reasons

1) Availability & Cost - IRL there is no need for troops to have suppressors if they are not conducting a covert operation and therefore generally infantry aren't issued with them. It would just be additional kit & cost.

http://www.silencershop.com/shop/category/silencers/5-56mm-rifle check this out to get an idea of $$$

2) Size - obviously this doesn't have an effect in A3. Your point about catching on doors etc is a good one but hard to program in practice due to the collision physics being quite loose when moving through buildings.

2) Weight - this is an IRL and A3 implication.

Ideally BIS would accurately model the db reduction to more realistically represent suppressors in game.

[onlyrazor 11]

Also, putting a suppressor on a pistol will block its iron sights, making it pretty much useless beyond spitting distance. Related ticket.

[wipman 1]

Also, putting a suppressor on a pistol will block its iron sights, making it pretty much useless beyond spitting distance. Related ticket.

The pistol suppressors use to come with it's own iron sights or at least an aim point on the tip, many can mount optic fiver ones.

The weight is not really an issue, a suppressor don't weights much more than 0.5Kg if it reachs it... but adds some extra weight; it's main issue is that you've to carry it on a sealed case or pouch, safe from the water and dust as any obstruction could make it break and in hard cases even break releasing flak.

Rightnow in A-Stan many regular US troops use suppressors on their ARs and LMGs, the SDM also use to have one. We should spect the suppression technologys to be improved by the year 2035, they should reduce more sound, be a bit shorter, weight less and increase their life time; also work better with supersonic ammo reducing more sound. Let's C ya

[icewindo 29]

As for how suppressors SD ammo is representated ingame:

There's just no SD ammo yet in A3 though. In ArmA2, a silenced weapon also had other values on the weapon itself afaik but it'd be interesting to know what values the a3 suppressors actually change.

edit:

For A3 suppressor changes see this link:

http://browser.six-projects.net/cfg_weapons/muzzle_snds_L/config?version=67

Seems like they affect airfriction, initial speed and visiblefire of the ammo itself.

For A2 have a look at these different values for airfriction, damage and visiblefire/visibilefiretime on sd ammo:

class B_556x45_Ball: BulletBase {
airfriction = -0.001425;
caliber = 0.5;
cost = 1;
hit = 8;
indirecthit = 0;
indirecthitrange = 0;
model = "\ca\Weapons\Data\bullettracer\tracer_red";
nvgonly = 1;
tracerendtime = 1;
tracerscale = 1;
tracerstarttime = 0.05;
       visiblefire = 16;
visiblefiretime = 3;
};

class B_556x45_SD: BulletBase {
airfriction = -0.0006;
audiblefire = 0.07;
caliber = 0.5;
cost = 1;
hit = 7;
indirecthit = 0;
indirecthitrange = 0;
typicalspeed = 320;
visiblefire = 0.07;
visiblefiretime = 2;
};

Edited March 17, 2013 by Icewindo

[max power 21]

Config wise, I think firing supersonic ammo through a suppressor isn't any different than firing it through a normal barrel in terms of ballistics or the AI's ability to detect you.

[Mac 1]

Why do you need a reason. ARMAIII is a simulator it tries to mimick real life possibilities, there is no need to implement fake disadvantages to "overpowered" weapons. The balancing of the game lies with the mission maker. You wouldn't have acces to a silencer in the first place if you're just a regular grunt.

^ This

[Alabatross 1]

There are no disadvantages, thats just an arcade balance technique common in non realistic shooters.

There shouldn't be a downside. I like ARMA's approach where you get to use anything you want to get the job done. If you want to be loud then go ahead and be loud.

[max power 21]

The advantage or disadvantage lies in the ammo you use afaik, especially against AI.