General Discussion (dev branch)

[dmarkwick 261]

The change to the helicopters are nice but I still wonder why they NEVER explode on a missile hit? I saw several videos of helicopters hit by an AA missile and sometimes they explode, sometimes they get down without exploding so maybe they should explode if the missile hit the fuel tank or ammunition?

Of the two, I would prefer always not exploding :) allows for more user flexibility I think. Also, some missiles do not explode as their offensive device - they only need to hit. Some do explode but only to scatter fragments.

[windies 11]

hmmm... So what now, stay on the game "with everybody" or stay with the "better game"? Hmmm...

Until they fix the multiplayer performance it's not much of a choice really.

[daze23 1]

Alt-Tab and back to game always fixes this issue.

yep. I used to force vsync with the nvidia control panel, and found it very inconsistent as far as if it would 'kick in' without me doing the alt-tab thing. it was obvious because I monitor my fps and use the "-world=empty" startup parameter. seriously it would seem to change every other day with the dev branch: one day I would get to the 'water' screen, and it would be at 60 fps and I wouldn't have to anything. then the next day I would get to that screen and I'd be at 150 fps and have to alt-tab to get it to 60

in general this game launches very weird. I always get the 'splash screen', then a black screen, then back to the desktop (with the taskbar greyed out), and then the game seems to launch 'normally'

[spanishsurfer 58]

The change to the helicopters are nice but I still wonder why they NEVER explode on a missile hit? I saw several videos of helicopters hit by an AA missile and sometimes they explode, sometimes they get down without exploding so maybe they should explode if the missile hit the fuel tank or ammunition?

Whether an aircraft explodes or not largely depends on what type of AA is hitting it (And of course where it hits). A shoulder fired AA missile is less likely to make an aircraft explode then a SAM battery (Mostly due to the size and speed of the two). During my Naval Flight School days I talked to a lot of Korea and Vietnam retired instructor pilots (both heli and fixed wing pilots) and they had countless stories of buddies who had been shot multiple times by FLAK AND AA missiles as well as themselves. The message I got from these stories was that many times AA missiles seem to just severely damage an aircraft by taking out a crucial component, like a vertical stabilizer, piece of the wing, or punch a hole in one of the tanks containing a critical fluid like hydraulic/gas/oil causing the pilot to either return home (if possible), eject, or glide the aircraft to a suitable landing field.

Lucky for me I don't have to worry about missiles or flak getting shot at me. :cool:

[mistyronin 1181]

Whether an aircraft explodes or not largely depends on what type of AA is hitting it (And of course where it hits). A shoulder fired AA missile is less likely to make an aircraft explode then a SAM battery (Mostly due to the size and speed of the two). During my Naval Flight School days I talked to a lot of Korea and Vietnam retired instructor pilots (both heli and fixed wing pilots) and they had countless stories of buddies who had been shot multiple times by FLAK AND AA missiles as well as themselves. The message I got from these stories was that many times AA missiles seem to just severely damage an aircraft by taking out a crucial component, like a vertical stabilizer, piece of the wing, or punch a hole in one of the tanks containing a critical fluid like hydraulic/gas/oil causing the pilot to either return home (if possible), eject, or glide the aircraft to a suitable landing field.

Yeah that makes sense. Thought I haven't talked to much pilots that had lived in that situations ( well I had a friend that let me get in his F18 ), just by reading the reports in different conflicts seems that we are quite bad "taught" by Hollywood that war is all huge explosions and instant deads. War tends to be more brutal and less spectacular ( more injuries and emergency landings ). Though a hit to an ammo or fuel depot can give some nice fireworks.

[carlostex 38]

It penetrates but does virtually no damage to a guy standing on the other side. Same goes for 6.5.

Exactly. I actually tried lining up 5 civilians in a line, one right behind the other. Then at point blank i line up my shot so that the bullet can go through them. While the bullet drops the first civilian, the second takes the bullet and his body stops it. Not only he shoul be on the floor too, the bullet should at least have enough energy to go through the third civilian and lodge itself on the fourth guy causing severe injuries. Only .50 Cal goes through all of them. A civilian can withstand 4 to 5 shots of 9mm in the chest at point blank? One would be enough to drop you on the floor in pain and a second one would accelerate a state of uncounciousness until it would bleed out to death.

The Hit Point system is obsolete too, you can shoot a civilian in the legs enough time for him to get killed. A bullet in the leg wouldn't kill but bleeding out would. Also a bullet in the chest should drop you on the floor, BIS should create injured animations where in case we would get shot and not wearing any body armor you walk differently from the normal state animations, getting more penalised in movement.

Even a shot that is stopped by body armor has enough energy to knock a soldier down, and it should be like that in game.

To sum it up, ballistics need to be improved. It would be nice to get a new wounding system in the future and a better system for armor (vehicles) too. Of course this is a GAME and everything cannot be perfect, but it can be a lot better than it is now.

[Alistair 10]

Exactly. I actually tried lining up 5 civilians in a line, one right behind the other. Then at point blank i line up my shot so that the bullet can go through them. While the bullet drops the first civilian, the second takes the bullet and his body stops it. Not only he shoul be on the floor too, the bullet should at least have enough energy to go through the third civilian and lodge itself on the fourth guy causing severe injuries. Only .50 Cal goes through all of them. A civilian can withstand 4 to 5 shots of 9mm in the chest at point blank? One would be enough to drop you on the floor in pain and a second one would accelerate a state of uncounciousness until it would bleed out to death.

The Hit Point system is obsolete too, you can shoot a civilian in the legs enough time for him to get killed. A bullet in the leg wouldn't kill but bleeding out would. Also a bullet in the chest should drop you on the floor, BIS should create injured animations where in case we would get shot and not wearing any body armor you walk differently from the normal state animations, getting more penalised in movement.

Even a shot that is stopped by body armor has enough energy to knock a soldier down, and it should be like that in game.

To sum it up, ballistics need to be improved. It would be nice to get a new wounding system in the future and a better system for armor (vehicles) too. Of course this is a GAME and everything cannot be perfect, but it can be a lot better than it is now.

Completely agree.

[Hellbeard 10]

Hear hear!

[Bobylein 1]

I would like a basic system where you can get lethal and disabling shoots or non lethal shots which doesn't disable you but let you bleed out over time if you don't bandage them, a bit like that system in war of the roses. I think that would be enough for vanilla Arma 3.

[Zatan13th 10]

I would like a basic system where you can get lethal and disabling shoots or non lethal shots which doesn't disable you but let you bleed out over time if you don't bandage them, a bit like that system in war of the roses. I think that would be enough for vanilla Arma 3.

I think it is still work-in-progress.

judging from the gamescom's clip and dayz SA (if dayz can do, why A3 not?).

[Zorg_DK 10]

I would like a basic system where you can get lethal and disabling shoots or non lethal shots which doesn't disable you but let you bleed out over time if you don't bandage them, a bit like that system in war of the roses. I think that would be enough for vanilla Arma 3.

Tpw bleedout does this nicely, it adds quite a bit tension when you're wounded, it would be great to see something similar in vanilla A3.

[GranolaBar 10]

NO UPDATE TODAY ->>> BEFORE THE RELEASE

11-09-2013

In preparation for tomorrow's release, there is no devbranch update today. If you intend to switch back to main branch and want to minimize data transfer, we recommend you wait until the game is released fully on main branch.

See you soon on the battlefields.

:681:

[thr0tt 12]

Mods please make the statement to not now fill this thread up with 'yays'.

Yay BTW ;)

[Victim9l3 11]

Even a shot that is stopped by body armor has enough energy to knock a soldier down, and it should be like that in game.

I agree. You can even have someone walk away after being shot in the head. I know it's a game but having the screen fade is just not the best way to handle being shot. I know it's a game and it needs to play with certain things in order to keep it fun, but the wound system needs work. I miss the need for a medic. We can all heal ourselves to an extent and that's fun but there should be an option to switch to more realistic. So we can choose between the two systems when creating a mission or game options. I miss dragging and carrying wounded. Hell, I wish we had to transport wounded away. As real as this game is over others, I expect them to be realistic in that department too. Having units taken off the battlefield could make entire missions to another level.

Another thing in this area is the need for better "support". I can't put any support vehicle on a mission because the second they are needed troops leave the battle to go "heal at ambulance, or re arm at truck". I thought that not giving it a support waypoint would help ignore them until I want them. I can't even have an empty vehicle, they still get told to go there. Has anyone found a way around that?

Last thing, I tried using tanks in a battle. One thing I liked, playability wise, is that they can take more than one shot. It might be realistic to kill in one shot but it makes it more fun to take more. The merkava (Or Slammer as a 4 year old might name it) can't take hits to the front. Everytime they get hit in the front the crew abandon it. This is where the problem comes in, the Commander will tell them to go get repaired but they are already out of the vehicle. A frontal hit takes out the engine and nothing else. So the vehicle shouldn't be abandoned. I did have a repair vehicle that could fix it and it was set to "support". But that just had the tank commander tell the crew to go to the support vehicle and does not tell the repair vehicle to drive to the tank. And even if I take over the repair vehicle and I fix the tank, the crew won't get back in. The crew is already sitting inside the lead merkava's cargo.

So to draw a picture:

-Merkava takes frontal hit

-destroys engine

-crew get out

-then told to go repair at truck

-then, since they aren't in the tank anymore, they get told to get in the lead tank's cargo

-perfectly fixable tank with only engine damage sits useless

-perfectly ready repair vehicle sits under a shady tree

-the universe in harmony

Can this be fixed?

[RushHour 11]

Even a shot that is stopped by body armor has enough energy to knock a soldier down, and it should be like that in game.

That´s Hollywood stuff.

[Zorg_DK 10]

Am I the only one who thinks nights in general are too dark? Playing at night with no nvg's is something I always avoid because all I see is a pitch black screen.

[maddogx 13]

Am I the only one who thinks nights in general are too dark? Playing at night with no nvg's is something I always avoid because all I see is a pitch black screen.

Having just recently played a night time mission with no NVGs, I can't confirm this. It really depends on the moon phase though. If there's no moon in the sky, it can be pretty damn dark.

[2nd ranger 282]

Agreed, when making night-time missions I like to use time and weather settings where you can still see fairly clearly without night vision, but this just isn't possible at the moment.

[NicotinKickballovich 1]

Am I the only one who thinks nights in general are too dark? Playing at night with no nvg's is something I always avoid because all I see is a pitch black screen.

I'd say nights are pretty accurate if there are no nearby light sources, even if there's some moonlight should be barely able to see anything at all. I've been to Turkey before and they have the exact climate/terrain and so forth as Stratis and Altis and I couldn't see shit either if I walked through dark places. I figured since the terrain in general is lighter then it would make things easier, but nope. On a clear night it was dark to a point I had to bring up my cellphone just to see if I don't trip over anything.

[Zorg_DK 10]

Having just recently played a night time mission with no NVGs, I can't confirm this. It really depends on the moon phase though. If there's no moon in the sky, it can be pretty damn dark.

Yes, maybe I've mainly played on moonless nights. I'm thinking it also might have to do with my crappy TN monitor, it does black/grey details quite poorly.

NicotinKickballovich, yes, I don't doubt the blackness is realistic. But is it fun? I don't think so.

[Smurf 12]

Default date on Altis gives you a really dark night, change it for the firsts days of the month and you are fine.

Strange, was thinking about the same thing earlier in the bed....

[Zorg_DK 10]

Default date on Altis gives you a really dark night, change it for the firsts days of the month and you are fine.

Strange, was thinking about the same thing earlier in the bed....

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that.

[Tonci87 163]

Yes, maybe I've mainly played on moonless nights. I'm thinking it also might have to do with my crappy TN monitor, it does black/grey details quite poorly.

NicotinKickballovich, yes, I don't doubt the blackness is realistic. But is it fun? I don't think so.

So you say that BIS should make the game less realistic and more fun for you?

[spanishsurfer 58]

Night time is perfect in game. I hunt a lot at night far from any external light sources like towns/cities and can confirm that what you see in game closely matches the real world.

[trent 14]

A civilian can withstand 4 to 5 shots of 9mm in the chest at point blank? One would be enough to drop you on the floor in pain and a second one would accelerate a state of uncounciousness until it would bleed out to death.

I made a thread about that but got told by a bunch of armchair generals that it was perfectly normal for a man wearing a t-shirt to take four 9mm rounds in the torso and be completely unfazed.