General Discussion (dev branch)

[AveryTheKitty 2626]

Love the new stuff so far! Some criticism, mostly cosmetic.

 

The MAAWS can't mount side accessories.

 

The olive Prowler has a AAF-colored Titan MPRL but it should be the tropic / khaki coloration used by NATO (Pacific) instead.

 

And my biggest gripe which irks me to no end, is that the Rhino MGS shouldn't have an M2 but rather a Mk30 HMG like the Slammer. Also, the textures for the entire vehicle's sand livery need to be slightly greener and desaturated slightly, it doesn't match other NATO vehicles all that well.

 

Also, are we going to see olive liveries for the Hunter, HEMTT, Quad Bike, and UGV Crusher...?

[lexx 1363]

7 hours ago, Night515 said:

The MAAWS can't mount side accessories.

 

 

Someone should put a flashlight on that, just for lolz.

[Chief1924 2]

Just noticed MB 4WD armed variants still have an IDAP skin...

I think it doesn't need much explanation as to what I expect to happen (unless you consider them as captured Jeeps that had the weapons mounted, but still, I think we learned our lesson in Laws of War. In which case, please say if intentional).

Also, unless I don't know how to do it, it would be nice if you could lower the radar on the Recon Nyx since I don't want that thing poking out while trying to remain unseen.

[lonewolf96 44]

Don't want to be "That guy" but will you be able to remove the optics from the gustav and use the iron sights? 

Thanks! 

[MrStregatto 31]

ThANKS BIS for those models!


I found a strange bug:
the Offroad armed with SPG have no sound when firing

[SuicideKing 233]

8 hours ago, ski2060 said:

NOooooooooo..... I was sooo hoping for an Active radar mobile SAM vehicle for Vanilla.  Who do we have to sacrifice to this late in the game to ask for an Active Radar variant with Radar Directed SAMs.  Or even just HARMs for directing against Radiating aircraft.

Alternate ammo/radar config mod in 3....2....1....

Don't have to sacrifice anyone, just use the Recon variant (it has a radar) in conjunction with the AA variant. Enable datalink, and you will see targets that it sees. The Nyx stuff is a networked team of recon vehicles basically, to work in hunter-killer teams. Really cool concept if you ask me.

 

5 hours ago, blackpixxel said:

Is this one new as well? I hav never noticed him before:

Holy shit i missed that. That's awesome!

 

2 hours ago, Chief1924 said:

it would be nice if you could lower the radar on the Recon Nyx since I don't want that thing poking out while trying to remain unseen.

It's not really that high, imo. If the radar will be spotted, I'd argue the Nyx will be spotted too. All the turreted versions are taller iirc.

[lexx 1363]

Yeah, at first I was a bit ehh about the Nyx as well, but now I actually like it even more than the new MBT. 

 

Tensed to get my hands on the new campaign. Hope it won't take so long anymore to get out.

[SuicideKing 233]

 Actual feedback based on playing around with stuff for a couple of hours last night:

 

1. MB 4WD jeep with SPG9 has some issues with aiming. The projectile doesn't seem to drop enough, so it will always overshoot the crosshair. Try positioning on a hill and firing at something below, say around 700m away (e.g. from the hill between Stratis Airbase and Agia Marina)
2. Rhino's laser guided rockets, when fired without laser/lock in manual SACLOS mode, crash into the ground. Happens even on flat terrain (VR). Works fine in top-down mode.
3. Rhino's ATGMs seem to miss a laser locked point by about a metre  or two. I had illuminated a Nyx with a darter, and launched a missile at it from a hill ~800m away. It would always land beyond the Nyx. Nyx had its side exposed to me.
4. Carl Gustav Mk4 - maybe the optics could get markings for 300, 500, 700, etc? Similar to the Mk0. It's not impossible to hit these "odd" hundreds (i hit on my first try), but it's pretty risky.
5. New launchers seem to have missing sounds and weapon sway, but I assume that's WIP.

That's all I have for now.

[dragon01 902]

6 hours ago, oukej said:

My_Angara addMagazine "4Rnd_125mm_cannon_missiles"

Would that be possible to add some sort of dynamic loadout for tanks? Not necessarily before the DLC release, but it'd be nice to have something like that. 

[Strike_NOR 898]

So I got the time to play around with the new assets a little bit yesterday, and thought that I'd share my observations with you.

 

Let's start with the good stuff:

 

The vehicles:

 

The new vehicles are a great addition to the game. While I was expecting 3 new MBT's, I must say that I am actually positively surprised to find out that there was 1 MBT, and two other armored fighting vehicle classes. In addition to these "main content" vehicles, I was also pleasantly surprised to discover the introduction of new light-AT, Heavy AT and vehicle-mounted AT weapons that actually turns out was on my wish-list! The introduction of FIA vehicle mounted AT weapons was an absolute must, and a wise decision IMHO. 

 

It is also immediately obvious, that the quality of the interiors of these new vehicles are a step up from the recently updated interiors for older vehicles. It is easy to see that these new assets were designed from the ground up with interiors in mind, and therefore they feel more cramped, but also connected to the rest of the crew. The details are very good inside the vehicles, and I enjoyed sitting there for a while and just looking around at the work that has been put into them!

 

I think it is very cool that you decided to introduce an advanced MBT, a Tank Destroyer and a Light Recon/support vehicle. The Nyx is very interesting to me, as it is an extremely light vehicle, and will most likely succeed in scenarios where they can outmaneuver the enemy, and get into close quarters battles with them. The Nyx would easily do the infamous "circle of death" maneuver around enemy tanks, because it is so nimble. The rapid fire, two-punch combo with the FireFIST (javelin) missiles are actually quite potent too for pop-up attacks from behind cover. A neat little thing.

 

Absolutely fantastic that you made new AT jeeps/trucks. Very insurgent/FIA feel and finally brings a formidable sneaky attack vehicle to the poor man's army. I'm glad you chose to include these. 

 

The launchers:

 

The new MAAWS (Carl Gustav) launcher is very nice. Finally a NATO/AAF counterpart to the RPG alamut of CSAT. The sound needs to be more beefy though when firing, as it should sound more like a cannon rather than a potato-gun. 

 

I totally dig the CSAT Heavy-AT (Metis-M) launcher is extremely cool, and fun to use. I love the detailed missile with the tracer attached to the fin, causing it to be very visible and easy to track towards the target! A great new asset and force to be reckoned with!

 

The features:

 

While the armor component system, missile flight paths and attack modes, physX improvements, FCS enhancements and such are great additions that give the game more flavor, there are some things I expected that I feel was overlooked.

 

I'll break it down into a few paragraphs.

 

• Armor Component system/Enhanced damage

While new armor components and weapon types (rock paper scissors) are a great addition, the fundamental way of how these work, and how these interact with armored vehicles is still somewhat flawed. Yes, they increase possibilities of armor types and weapon types, but they feel very bland to me due to the way the game handles it. To clarify: AP ammunition (projectile type) seems to work very well (in fact, better than any other games that are comparable to ArmA). There is a armor simulation, penetration, internal ricochets, modules, crew and all that can be damaged. And for the most part, this system is quite accurate to real life!

The thing that doesn't remotely work like real life, is HEAT weapons. I was expecting a small revolution in the way HEAT is handled in ArmA3 with Tanks DLC, but I am disappointed to learn that only the PCML comes close to resembling actual HEAT weaponry. The HEAT warhead, is not a "splash damage/Area effect" weapon against armor. It is a "needle", designed to pierce the extremely tough armor of a tank and reach the soft/sensitive internals to destroy them. For some reason, all HEAT weapons in ArmA, except for the PCML, use this high-explosive indirect hit damage, which frequently causes absurd splash-damage in a large area around the impact. 

The PCML, however, spawns a submunition of projectile type, that penetrates armor in a "line" and even has the chance to not penetrate (if the angle is too high, or armor too thick) - just like a standard AP projectile. This is a very good, realistic and gameplay-wise mechanic that better portrays the role and purpose of the HEAT warhead. So right now I am left feeling: "Well, they did manage to make realistic HEAT with the PCML, so why isn't it on the: RPG's, SPG's, HEAT-MP tank rounds, Titan AT's, MAAWS, FireFIST, Macers, Scalpels etc etc etc.....". IMHO, for consistency, you should have submunitions created on all of the aforementioned warheads, that spawn a projectile with high velocity at the point of impact, that travels in the direction the HEAT warhead was facing. This AP projectile would simulate the HEAT shaped charge jet, just like on the PCML. This leads to less "splash damage" all around the vehicle, and more "puncture damage" in the path of the penetrating projectile.

 

I hope you keep the PCML mechanic, because it is absolutely fantastic, and copy the submunition mechanic to ALL other weapons that use HEAT warheads. Of course, the PCML "detects" a target at a distance and knows when to detonate due to that, but a normal impact-fuze HEAT weapon does not and must spawn the submunition much closer to the target. In theory, to me, it sounds possible to make the weapons this way. Maybe I'm wrong, but I believe it is a weird design choice to not overhaul the HEAT weapons for Tanks DLC. Right now HEAT is just a HE weapon with increased effect towards armor (and everything else in it's indirectHit range).

 

For instance, I shot 1 SPG HEAT round at the large office building (two floors), and it was so damaged it turned into the damaged state (walls crumbled and all). This is not very accurate, as the HEAT warhead would detonate on impact, sending a HEAT jet through the building, but not really damaging the whole thing. I imagine this comes from a relatively high IndirectHit damage value that is meant to destroy tanks, don't know if I'm correct, but it seems that way.

 

Either way, a solution to create a realistic HEAT weapon is to do what you have done with the PCML, but if possible, make the initial weapon (missile/rocket) explode in a small/medium HE charge (equivalent to a powerful frag grenade), and simultaneously create the submunition as a pure "projectile" shot, preferably with a link to the ERA armor component (ERA is designed to defeat the HEAT jet, not the missile/rocket/shell itself). This way an attack with HEAT will:

1. Deal HE/Frag (indirectHit) damage to light vehicles and infantry (but not armor) (Multi-purpose effect)
2. Deal AP (projectile) damage to light and heavy vehicles (reach stuff behind armor)

The second thing is HEAT vs SLAT. If possible, SLAT component should recognize the missile/rocket/shell as a HEAT "carrier", and when a hit from this "carrier" is detected by a SLAT armor piece, it should cancel the spawning of the AP projectile (HEAT jet). The HE charge should still occur (to damage infantry and light vehicles), but the AP jet should be prevented (to simulate the SLAT armor disabling the weapon so the HEAT jet doesn't form). This way, the HE charge will damage the SLAT, but the AP round will not form and hence, the armor-penetrating capabilities is lost.

 

I know I am offering solutions and suggestions at a game-design level, and I'm sorry to say I can't contribute with a solution in programming language. But I do believe this overhaul of the HEAT weapons will be backwards compatible will all Vanilla content, and hopefully be made in a way that can easily be adapted by modders. All indirectHit HEAT weapons would still work as today, but the new HEAT system would function more like an AP round (as it should) and yield more believable results.

 

Right now I feel all the AT missiles, shells and rockets do is just damage stuff that is close to the vehicle surface/exterior (tracks, turrets etc), while I am expecting them to damage internals and crew.

 

No. I am not a fan of the archaic indirectHit HEAT compromise. It also makes Top-attack and Direct attack a purely visual effect gimmick with no real purpose. Games like battlefield cheat by giving a missile in top-attack mode a damage multiplier, while ArmA has the potential to simulate the difference due to actual circumstances such as impact angle, and armor thickness.

 

 

I don't care if it's not ready for the DLC release, but I do hope you find time to overhaul this properly, like you kindof have with the PCML, since you now have more "toys" to play with (armor components, missile flight paths).

 

 

Rant over. Yes I am passionate and proud of it.

 

Peace out!

Edited March 9, 2018 by Strike_NOR
Typos, fixes and rephrasing

[R3vo 2654]

Quite a few clipping issues with the T140

 

https://imgur.com/a/2iTTA

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

Still playing around with a lot of the new content but so far I'm extremely impressed at all the goodies we've received.  The fact that BI have gone back and added little touches to the factions like the SPG-9 Off Road, the Mk4 MAAWS, LMG MWB etc really helps flesh out the factions and as a mission designer I'm excited!

 

 

One thing I did notice so far is that with AFM on the Mohawk cannot lift the Nyx; it can attached the slings but does not have the power to really get it off the ground.

[Cenwulf 40]

I’m really impressed with all the new assets coming with the Tanks DLC. Noticed a couple of small issues.

 

While playing around with the Nyx AA I found that it’s not available to be placed in Eden editor, the other variants are though. Also when firing the missiles on the AA variant the missiles fire in the pattern right, left, right, left but the static models for the missiles disappear in the sequence right, right, left, left. The missile models also instantly reappear at the beginning of a reload cycle, it would make more sense if they were invisible until the reload cycle is finished (or maybe even appeared 1 by 1).

 

Edit: Aha, it's under AA because it's an AA asset. Now I feel dumb.

[dragon01 902]

Nyx AA is available in Eden, but under "Anti-Air" and not with the other variants.

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

31 minutes ago, dragon01 said:

Nyx AA is available in Eden, but under "Anti-Air" and not with the other variants.

 

Makes logical sense to me given it's an Anti-Air asset.

[POLPOX 778]

How about add a unit who have MAAWS to the Syndikat faction? Since MAAWS was cut from Apex, that would be fit with the universe and settings.

 

And, let us read the field manual of free weapons without purchase.

[R0adki11 3949]

47 minutes ago, POLPOX said:

 

And, let us read the field manual of free weapons without purchase.

 

Care to clarify what you are referring to?

[POLPOX 778]

1 minute ago, R0adki11 said:

Care to clarify what you are referring to?

 

Field Manual>Assets>Weapons Info>9M135 Vorona and MAAWS Mk4.

[fallschirmjgergewehr 1]

New AFV AWC 304 Nyx, Crew AI can't control 20mm.

[fn_Quiksilver 1636]

10/10 team

 

more than impressed with the Tanks DLC content.

 

Dev feedback:

 

1- AT Offroads have no weapon firing sound

 

2- New AT soldiers (opfor) need editor preview pictures

 

3- Placing a unit in Zeus produces an on screen error (awaiting orders audio)

 

4- Some offroad variants have incorrect Simple Object Z offset. (hatchback cars also suffer)

 

5- New AT Offroad has a “Beacons On/Off” user action despite no animation/lightbar.

 

6- Ejection sound effects have unlimited range (the sound should play near the ejecting unit, not near the player)

 

7- Little red lights on Tanoa still have unlimited range, affecting fps. look at georgetown at night from a distance.

 

 

[SzepyCZ 24]

17 hours ago, Evil Organ said:

@SzepyCZ, congratulations you've just made yourself look very foolish.

why? because i care for current games and i´m simply tired of bullshit what gamedevs/marketing are currenty showing?

Spoiler

division,division 2,wildlands,Kingdom Come,mafia 3,World of Tanks getting worse and worse in terms of balance with every update, armored warfare too, CoD WW:2, warhammer 40k DoW III fail, tanks dlc with 1 tank, season passes which doesnt cover all dlcs etc...

oh i forgot kerbal space program eula changes,mod deletions etc from this week

but ok, i will stay quiet about this from now,sry for cluttering this thread

[SantaFe 311]

Devs, if is possible, please update the Samples (Tank ofc) including all this new enhancements. ty!  

[lex__1 422]

I do not see the indicator and can not hear the sound on the Nyx (AA) - when the rocket AA is ready for launch.

[MADBUG 10]

Quote

 

ENGINE 

Fixed: Displaying water surfaces could be incorrect when fog was also applied

 

Ahhhh... Thank you BI for that

[Alwarren 2767]

14 hours ago, froggyluv said:

 Hey man I appreciate your passion. Im a general disgruntled rabble rouser but also appreciate all the many things you've listed that BI HAVE delivered over the years.

 

I agree. After all, the Alpha came out five years ago, and we're still getting updates on a regular basis. I want to see what other company does that.

 

You see, I wish there were more people that wouldn't be extremists in either direction. There's always some guy that says "everything is shit" and one guy that says "everything is gold". I wish people would have a realistic outlook on things, so that I could for example say "X needs improvement" and not being called a hater or advised to take up gardening (I don't even have a fracking garden). I wish that an open, honest discussion was possible without either black or white barging in and destroying everything. 

I say I don't like night lighting, I get barked at "then take an NVG, stupid. Nights are dark". Instead of making arguments, people make insults. In either way, mind you.