[MP/Team] Sa-Matra's Wasteland

[antigfx 10]

Thanks Doc!

[inch 2]

Greeting, i got banned on a mistake, there were hackers on the server and i said that those fu***ing hacker borred me. So, one of them said that i was Hacker, but how can he say that as i'm a real good player. So I said that i wasn't the hacked but MvitaminC because he spawn behind me (i was on a island) and he shootdown me.

After this i got a chopper (KA) abandonned and go to the island, but after the server was restarted and i am banned.

But its a mistake because i come on this server since 3 weeks around, and i play for fun, not for fuck all game. (and i don't want that my key is banned for every server. Because I PAID IT.

Cordially Bombe

PM me your ID from your player menu I'll look into this for you.

---------- Post added at 22:20 ---------- Previous post was at 22:16 ----------

I totally agree with you on that topic. Even tho the quality of the servers differ quite a bit (for example the EU and UK servers).

If there are issues please DO let us know. I personally try to maintain high quality free servers.

Inch

[TBGGrapidyGrape 10]

How many times does one have to apply to run Sa-Matra on his three servers ..

[breezy 10]

Hi guys, definitely loving the sa-matra wasteland. I am not sure if this is posted somewhere else in the thread, but it seems you can "vault" or click "v" several times and be able to go through base materials like walls. When you make a base, people can just vault right through and get right inside. It seems like the only walls/sandbags that don't allow you to glitch though them are the canal walls. Anyone one else experience this?

[inch 2]

How many times does one have to apply to run Sa-Matra on his three servers ..

Please do not take offence at this however. Take note that its an (application). Applications don't HAVE to be accepted.

-- I'll speak with Sa-Matra and review all recent apps. P.S. one is enough, I just get annoyed looking through several applications from the same person.

Thanks.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Inch

[Yashamalu 10]

So basically what normally happens in Wasteland these days is that you spend 10 minutes travelling just to find some equipments, than you may die after a few minutes, or spend half an hour ambushing just for some players to show up, and this procedure is somewhat annoying. Let's discuss how to improve player experience.

General setting:

(1)It would be a good idea to place two permanent faction bases on opposing sides of the map with equal distance to areas like Air Field or Old Transmission Station. Note that I'm talking about bases with walls, gates, sentry towers, houses, bunkers, stores, weapon crates(empty) and light vehicles, so that players could really feel attached to them. The base can not be taken by enemies players and there would be alarm if enemies enter a location within 500ms to the base. The base also serves as an essential spawn location for players, and encourages players to stop killing teammates, which drives them into Independent. You can resupply all the basic infantry equipments, rifles, ammo, scopes, in the base without risking getting killed before even becoming combat effective and this will help save the wasted time mentioned earlier.

(2)Natural zones with small seizable bases should be placed in the area between the two opposing bases. Once occupied, it will alert players if enemies approach the area, giving friendly players an idea where to find enemies, and enemy players where to harass you. It would be ideal if the bases are set up on high grounds to provide overwatch for nearby territory. Also note that Independents cannot occupy any area. To further encourage players to fight in natural zones, most missions are to be placed in or near them.

(3)Stores selling high end equipments like APCs or explosives should be placed in the natural zones. Independent players spawn near the natural zones so that they can either ambush factioned players when they try to get some decent firepower, or take advantage when two factions are fighting each other.

(4)Vehicles with thermal vision are vary OP in the game right now, they can spot hidden enemies from 1000m in seconds and eliminate them in even less time. So it is advisable that such vehicles are to be removed from Wasteland until the official game provide us with non-thermal versions of the vehicles. As a result, APCs need to be accompanied by infantries.

(5)Weathers: Currently there's no rainy weather in Wasteland. A lighting storm can cover up weapon firing sound, therefore providing cover for players.

(6)Spawning conditions: All basic gears including helmet, backpack, carrier, NV goggle, rifle and holo sight.

[ramblasos 14]

While I do agree with you on the current transition being weird to say the least, there are issues with running a server for a long (long enough to accommodate for a more natural day/night transition) period of time :( Plus, relying on a server "surviving" (restarts for whatever reason) for a full natural day/night cycle would mean that it would rarely be night...

Do you think that saving game time of day between restarts would be a good way to deal with it?

How long a server runs wouldn't be an issue, only the "time compression", which is a topic of its own... do we want a realistic 8hr night and 16hr day (or whatever the natural ratio is for whatever time of year), or a shorter one so we might have a couple of nights in a gaming session?

Some servers, like e.g. UK#4, are set to restart every 8 hrs. So I vouch for in-game time acceleration x3 (24/8=3). Day/night transition would be smooth and more realistic.

The way it is now has at least 2 considerable flaws:

- Every time the clock is shifted most players experience drop of fps, freeze for several seconds, or even crash of the game.

- For some reason this transition happens to be not synchronized with other players. It feels like a hack when some players still have day, while others have sudden night without a NV on them, or vice versa. Last week time lapse reached from 1-2 minutes to 7!! minutes within players in the same group.

[thad0ctor 10]

Some servers, like e.g. UK#4, are set to restart every 8 hrs. So I vouch for in-game time acceleration x3 (24/8=3). Day/night transition would be smooth and more realistic.

The way it is now has at least 2 considerable flaws:

- Every time the clock is shifted most players experience drop of fps, freeze for several seconds, or even crash of the game.

- For some reason this transition happens to be not synchronized with other players. It feels like a hack when some players still have day, while others have sudden night without a NV on them, or vice versa. Last week time lapse reached from 1-2 minutes to 7!! minutes within players in the same group.

If anything I would like to see a server that has real time time management much like DayZ, for example it its 1200 in the EST Timezone therefore the server is 1200, 0400 and 0400 and etc..

Also, I would really love to see a persistent wasteland where bases and items are saved, I dont believe character locations and inventories are as important but I feel like if bases were persistent in one or two servers that would be great.

[akiba 10]

Hi,

Also, I would really love to see a persistent wasteland where bases and items are saved, I dont believe character locations and inventories are as important but I feel like if bases were persistent in one or two servers that would be great.

A save option won't be in the sa-matra games. I read a post of him about this topic somewhere.

@Yashamalu:

I really appreciate the effort you put into this, but i think you are trying to make a totally different mission than what was intended by sa-matra. It is a survival mission. To build a Base is one of the tasks of the players.

I also recommend my post about Thermal and Nightvision at page 22 of this thread. It is true that you can spot enemys with Thermal very easy at a huge distance. But to kill someone with a GMG at 500m+ is really difficult. The GMG is pretty inaccurately, you can't really kill a moving target at a distance above 500m without shooting aout 10-20 rounds and even this takes a while because you have to zero in again etc. The enemy has enough time to get away.

@Inch:

The Uk servers are the best servers around at the moment, at least for the EU Players. The EU servers need admin support and a fixed restart timer like the UK servers.

@Sa-matra and Inch:

I would really like to get your opinion on the whole Thermal+Nightvision topic, because i think it hurts the mission really bad atm (see my post at page 22 of this thread). Also i would like to know your thaught process behind the whole Idea of disableing it.

sincerely, Akiba

[Yashamalu 10]

Hi,

@Yashamalu:

I really appreciate the effort you put into this, but i think you are trying to make a totally different mission than what was intended by sa-matra. It is a survival mission. To build a Base is one of the tasks of the players.

I also recommend my post about Thermal and Nightvision at page 22 of this thread. It is true that you can spot enemys with Thermal very easy at a huge distance. But to kill someone with a GMG at 500m+ is really difficult. The GMG is pretty inaccurately, you can't really kill a moving target at a distance above 500m without shooting aout 10-20 rounds and even this takes a while because you have to zero in again etc. The enemy has enough time to get away.

sincerely, Akiba

The way I felt it, fighting weights a lot more than survival in Wasteland, all the time players spent running around is to prepare themselves for the incoming fight.So it would be advisable to shorten the duration of preparation and lead them to the fight so that they don't have to running around half an hour seeing no one. Also it helps to attract long term players to the server if they can stash their loot in safe places and have them back even after server restarted, that's what the base is for.

As for thermal vision, let's not forget that APCs could have cannons that fires HE rounds. Sure it may be difficult to hit a single target, but it can easily eliminate an entire squad.

[safrion 10]

@Inch:

The Uk servers are the best servers around at the moment, at least for the EU Players.

I dont know if those issues are fixed, but if it isnt the uk servers crash regularly or a large amount of the players get an error which crashes arma3.exe, I have never noticed this on the EU servers so far. (Note: this is meant for the uk servers if the crash problems arent fixed) Have not been on the UK servers since the last crash, damn sick of getting the error on arma3 (which a lot of players did at the same time) Or that the server crashes.

The EU servers are fine, but they could use a little more admin support.

[akiba 10]

The way I felt it, fighting weights a lot more than survival in Wasteland, all the time players spent running around is to prepare themselves for the incoming fight.So it would be advisable to shorten the duration of preparation and lead them to the fight so that they don't have to running around half an hour seeing no one. Also it helps to attract long term players to the server if they can stash their loot in safe places and have them back even after server restarted, that's what the base is for.

As for thermal vision, let's not forget that APCs could have cannons that fires HE rounds. Sure it may be difficult to hit a single target, but it can easily eliminate an entire squad.

The duration to prepare for a fight is actually really short: Run to a vehicle and pick up the weapon from its inventory - done!. Also you won't ever run around half an hour without seeing anyone when you know the flow of the game with its missions. You can move to an objective like a geo cache and you will find enemy contact for sure. Also you don't have to attract long term players...there are already plenty of them, including me. For them its part of the fun to gather equipment and run around..you can actually decide wether or not you have enemy contact to a certain point.

APC's are really rare so they should be powerfull. And no, it can not eliminate a squad (btw a GMG hit needs to be a direct hit to actually kill someone with 1 shot) - except when they are stupid and engage a armored vehicle without anti tank weapons or when they don't understand to keep a distance to your fellow squad member!. And consider the following, a single player can kill a armored vehicle with 1 guided AP/AT missile from an Titan compact. It should go both ways. At the moment there is a very limited risk to attack an armored vehicle from a distance with RPG's...especially at night times.

sincerely, Akiba

[akiba 10]

The way I felt it, fighting weights a lot more than survival in Wasteland, all the time players spent running around is to prepare themselves for the incoming fight.So it would be advisable to shorten the duration of preparation and lead them to the fight so that they don't have to running around half an hour seeing no one. Also it helps to attract long term players to the server if they can stash their loot in safe places and have them back even after server restarted, that's what the base is for.

As for thermal vision, let's not forget that APCs could have cannons that fires HE rounds. Sure it may be difficult to hit a single target, but it can easily eliminate an entire squad.

Actually you are ready to fight when you find a car, which is almost only 1-3 min away, and pick the weapon out of its inventory. Then you are ready to go. Basically you don't need a backpack, a vest and what not..you only need a weapon with 2 mags and a first aid kid. So the duration to equip yourself is very quickly done. Even if there isnt a vehicle around, you can still respawn somewhere else.

Also you don't have to run "around hald and hour seeing no one". When you know how the game flows with its missions you can be within combat in 10 minutes. Yes this is still a pretty long time compared to Call of Duty and Battlefield, but we don't need to discuss why its ok the way it is. You also have the option to avoid Combat to try to sneak into Houses to find equipment or to get to your buddys. That's the beauty about this game style.

You also don't need a safe funktion (and there won't be one anyway so actually no point in discuss it any further). Long term players, like me and many others, are already attracted to these servers. Finding your gear is part of the fun. I don't even like servers anymore where you spawn on wasteland with a backpack,vest and helmet. The Base Idea of yours works against the Idea of being a survival mode. The Players have to build a Base! also a huge part of the Fun for most of them. No offense to you, i really like that you put some thaughts into the mission, but maybe you are better of at a different kind of wasteland mission :).

APC's are extremly rare to get and also pretty strong. That's why i didn't mentioned them, because they should be powerfull. Don't forget that you have only a limited amount of amunition for any armored vehicle and that you have to rearm it (which is pretty buggy btw.) for 1000$ which you can only get at a gunstore, a very dangerous area like everyone knows.

So for the GMG armored vehicles: They can never kill an entire squad at a distance above ~+500m. Of course you aren't completly useless either, but the danger is pretty manageable. A single enemy with a, for example, Titan compact can easily instead, kills an armored vehicle (even APCs) with a single guided missile. Very easy to use - no chance for the vehicle crew. If someone is goign on about that the disabling of Thermal is because of balance, they should nerf the Titan weapon system too. But nerfing is the wrong way!. I again refer to my post at page 22. Armored vehicles should be able to fight a squad. They should be able to obliterate an engaging squad without anti tank weapons and they should die against anti tank weapons! - but not without standing a chance! (At nighttimes you don't even have to fear them at close range cause they can't see anything anyway) they are too rare to get and the hardships to keep the vehicle running with ammunition is pretty tough. We get to the point where armored vehicles are more like deathtraps (i know im exaggerating in this sentence a bit ;)).

I appreciate every feedback to my comments and i would really like to discuss this Topic with everyone who still consideres Thermal overpowered.

sincerely, Akiba

[Yashamalu 10]

Whether you can find a gun that can really be helpful in mountain areas depends on luck and server setting.

Yes players build bases, but that only happens when:(1)Server just started;(2)There are enough players around to make building a base worth it;(3)Teammates all committed to help the course. These only happens on a few servers at specific times.

As for APC thermal vision, well actually one APC is not a big long lasting threat if there are about 50 players on the map cause someone will have AT for it. But on servers with a few players or that one side already gained dominant victory, that one APC is gonna be hell of an annoyance.

[inch 2]

@Inch:

The Uk servers are the best servers around at the moment, at least for the EU Players. The EU servers need admin support and a fixed restart timer like the UK servers.

@Sa-matra and Inch:

I would really like to get your opinion on the whole Thermal+Nightvision topic, because i think it hurts the mission really bad atm (see my post at page 22 of this thread). Also i would like to know your thaught process behind the whole Idea of disableing it.

Thanks, secondly, I think the main reason is that thermal themselves on such a small map is a little over-powered. Given the size of Stratis and the player numbers, it only takes one decent group of players to get a thermal wep/tank etc... and they can dominate the whole server.

The overall issue is balance. We need to ensure that there is some soft-of balance in-game after all 45 ish players whats to say that they all have AT? Nothing. 90% of users just cry/rage when they keep getting owned by a tank with thermal partly to do with not being able to do anything about it.

At the moment size of the map and not wanting to just totally kill game play, plays a part. Maybe on Altis given its size and more places to hide in. Thermal might get switched back on.

---------- Post added at 11:30 ---------- Previous post was at 11:28 ----------

I dont know if those issues are fixed, but if it isnt the uk servers crash regularly or a large amount of the players get an error which crashes arma3.exe, I have never noticed this on the EU servers so far. (Note: this is meant for the uk servers if the crash problems arent fixed) Have not been on the UK servers since the last crash, damn sick of getting the error on arma3 (which a lot of players did at the same time) Or that the server crashes.

The EU servers are fine, but they could use a little more admin support.

This is partly to do with the player load and skiddies. Given that things are still in beta and there a huge bugs that spam and fill server logs. This does not help with the arma 3 server stress, I'm sorry but all servers crash some more than others. Why some more than others you may ask, well those that have a higher level of traffic by a rule of thumb will have a higher percentage of skiddies and or players triggering bugs that cause server crashes. Don't believe me? Spend 30 minutes on the bug tracker, then spend a few hours looking into the current holes in BattlEye.

Also please don't mistake server RESTARTS for crashes as some do. Its quite clear in the MOTD and in the scrolling messages and restart warnings shown in chat what are and what are not crashes compared to restarts.

Hell my local copy of ARMA 3 sometimes crashes too, I have 200%+ the resources that ARMA 3 can and will ever need to use. Saying that no game on the current market can use my machine to 100%.

UK #1 Crashed once last night: 13/08/2013 22:35

UK #4 Crashed once early this morning: 14/08/2013 1:23AM

That is it... I'm sorry for something that is not a complete build and still has bugs. That's not bad going and people NEED to understand that keyword >(Beta)<.

Thanks again,

Edited August 14, 2013 by Inch
Typo...

[akiba 10]

Thanks, secondly, I think the main reason is that thermal themselves on such a small map is a little over-powered. Given the size of Stratis and the player numbers, it only takes one decent group of players to get a thermal wep/tank etc... and they can dominate the whole server.

The overall issue is balance. We need to ensure that there is some soft-of balance in-game after all 45 ish players whats to say that they all have AT? Nothing. 90% of users just cry/rage when they keep getting owned by a tank with thermal partly to do with not being able to do anything about it.

At the moment size of the map and not wanting to just totally kill game play, plays a part. Maybe on Altis given its size and more places to hide in these thermal option will get switched back on.

I have to admit that i am fairly disappointed with this statement. You only responded to to the AT Argument. And lets face it, when you encounter an enemy squad you face certain death in your vehicle.

I strongly disagree that missions should be balanced because of users crying/raging.

I also disagree that you need only one thermal weapon (GMG) to dominate a server. Like i said several times before, the GMG is not very effective at somewhat far distances. A Thermal APC should be able to dominate a server, considering how rare you get one. A good squad of players should be able to dominate servers. I will go ahead and list some arguments again:

-Nighttime makes every armed vehicle useless

-Every player has the same chances to get one theoretically

-Every armred vehicle has only 1/4 of ammunition when you get it under your control - you have to rearm it for 1000$ (or even 2-3000 until it actually works) which is only available at a gunstore, the most dangerous zones on the map!.

-APC's should be able to dominate considering how rare you get one.

-GMG armed vehicles would only get a little buff considering the inaccuracy of the weapon and that you need a 100% hit to actually kill someone with 1 shot. The travel speed of the projectile is very slow which makes it very hard to kill a target at a range ~500m+

-Don't you think players in a helicopter or armored vehicle who get killed by a titan locked missile can do anything about it? actually most of the times it comes out of the blue and you are dead. Armored vehicles are pretty loud but you can't hear an infantry men aiming at you from 1000m away*.

-Players should die to enemys with better equipment otherwise the whole game mode of searching and fighting for better gear is absurd.

Changing the balance* without considering different aspects of the game (Titan compact/MPLR) is half-assed and hurts the game even more.

*There is nothing more frustrating for a squad

*I still do believe that ArmA isn't about balance like BF and CoD....it is a war simulation. When people don't like this aspect of the game, they can return playing CoD or BF or any other similar game...

sincerely, Akiba

[inch 2]

-Nighttime makes every armed vehicle useless.

True. NV is needed in assets - taken on-board.

-Every player has the same chances to get one theoretically.

Theoretically. Hmm... yes... I suppose. Apart from the random variables. Fuel Can, Damage, Transport there, distance from the objective etc.

-Every armred vehicle has only 1/4 of ammunition when you get it under your control - you have to rearm it for 1000$ (or even 2-3000 until it actually works) which is only available at a gunstore, the most dangerous zones on the map!

Agree'd i don't see any issues with ammo myself. I often prefer playing infantry.

-APC's should be able to dominate considering how rare you get one.

I suppose I personally as per my reply above, am not bothered by tanks again i like to play as infantry shooting "tactical" campers in the back.

-GMG armed vehicles would only get a little buff considering the inaccuracy of the weapon and that you need a 100% hit to actually kill someone with 1 shot. The travel speed of the projectile is very slow which makes it very hard to kill a target at a range ~500m+

I've not noticed this myself but... take note that its not a Sa-Matra/Wasteland 'buff' AFAIK but a BI issue.

-Don't you think players in a helicopter or armored vehicle who get killed by a titan locked missile can do anything about it? actually most of the times it comes out of the blue and you are dead. Armored vehicles are pretty loud but you can't hear an infantry men aiming at you from 1000m away*.

Flares maybe? Not sure if it shows on radar I think it does, I've triggered flares many a time.

-Players should die to enemys with better equipment otherwise the whole game mode of searching and fighting for better gear is absurd.

No disagreement really, those that work hard for this sort-of stuff should indeed have a better chance of coming out on top. You can have a Low-Orbit-Ion-Cannon and still miss.

Changing the balance* without considering different aspects of the game (Titan compact/MPLR) is half-assed and hurts the game even more.

Offer detailed suggestions rather than sub points, take into consideration all aspects, player count, server load, player spawns, (children) yes kids lol... plus many other things... so far though some of your comments have been quite constructive.

All my previous comments are not my personal views but more observations of people moaning like children "awh this tank is too op cry"

As I said I love playing infantry but i also enjoy flying.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Inch

[akiba 10]

Hi,

First of all i want to thank you or your time to comment on this topic. I hope everybody understands that i don't hate on sa-matras work. Like i said before, i think it is the best mission around at the moment. If it was just another map, i wouldn't go through the trouble of listing up my thaughts and concerns to hopefully contribute to a even better mission. Therefore i am trying to be constructive.

-Nighttime makes every armed vehicle useless.

True. NV is needed in assets - taken on-board.

You can't activate NV without Thermal as mentioned by sa-matra

-GMG armed vehicles would only get a little buff considering the inaccuracy of the weapon and that you need a 100% hit to actually kill someone with 1 shot. The travel speed of the projectile is very slow which makes it very hard to kill a target at a range ~500m+

I've not noticed this myself but... take note that its not a Sa-Matra/Wasteland 'buff' AFAIK but a BI issue.

The disabeling of Thermalvision is not a BI issue AFAIK. I have seen it on different servers still enabled. Sa-matra can enable it again.

-Don't you think players in a helicopter or armored vehicle who get killed by a titan locked missile can do anything about it? actually most of the times it comes out of the blue and you are dead. Armored vehicles are pretty loud but you can't hear an infantry men aiming at you from 1000m away*.

Flares maybe? Not sure if it shows on radar I think it does, I've triggered flares many a time.

Theoretically it should be possible to dodge an AA-missile with flares when you see the warning on the radar. The problem is, the missile is so fast that you can't react in time. Even the AI helicopter gets shot down when it uses flares. It's just not in time. A warning sound on lock on would be awesome and should fix this problem but there is still the problem for Armored Vehicles...

Changing the balance* without considering different aspects of the game (Titan compact/MPLR) is half-assed and hurts the game even more.

Offer detailed suggestions rather than sub points, take into consideration all aspects, player count, server load, player spawns, (children) yes kids lol... plus many other things... so far though some of your comments have been quite constructive.

I think the Titan compact should be able to easily destroy an enemy armored vehicle...the weapon itself is fine. The only problem is that you can't do anything against it as a vehicle driver. Even at daytime you cant really watch out for infantry at a long distance. Armored Vehicles should be able to defend themselves better against it and the only way it is possible is thermal.

You can't watch through cover with thermal and the Titan compact only needs 3-4 seconds to lock on. Ergo you only have to be 4-5 seconds out of cover to land an almost certain hit and that is fine. AT weapons are the counter to vehicles. The chance should be better for the AT but there should be still a possibility that the "Tank" wins the encounter.

So basically my solution for this topic is to enable Thermal and Nightvision again and to implement a warning signal for helicopters on lock on*.

*I know that is probably hard to make such a thing actually work

Edit: A very interesting video about flares: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fd0vPWDZwk&feature=player_embedded

sincerely, Akiba

Edited August 14, 2013 by Akiba
adding the youtube link

[Alo Keen 7]

I just wanted to pop in and comment on how nice it is to see a proper civilized discussion without crybabies and trolls. Kudos!

BTW, I've had an idea for a while, and someone on a page or two back reminded me - what do you think of not having blu/red/ind, but just one side, and have people form groups/teams on their own? Group menu would need a revamp, because the JIP issues are still there...

This is an attempt to make groups and team play more cohesive.

Might need some new UI elements (list of existing groups, from which some could be open, some closed for new member requests...) to facilitate joining players in finding their mates or a bunch of friendly strangers, perhaps even group score?

What would be nice to have in such a situation is some playing with fraction/group uniforms and their effects - for instance, the group leader's uniform is taken as a reference, and if all the group members have the same suit/headgear (... variations), that group can benefit in a way... I haven't thought this through obviously, just laying down ideas as I write :)

I think this would tone down TKs for gear too - you wouldn't end up in a situation where you'd have a bunch of non-friendly, non-cooperative people playing for one team (blu/red) just because they like blue/red uniforms or whatever.

[akiba 10]

I just wanted to pop in and comment on how nice it is to see a proper civilized discussion without crybabies and trolls. Kudos!

BTW, I've had an idea for a while, and someone on a page or two back reminded me - what do you think of not having blu/red/ind, but just one side, and have people form groups/teams on their own? Group menu would need a revamp, because the JIP issues are still there...

This is an attempt to make groups and team play more cohesive.

Might need some new UI elements (list of existing groups, from which some could be open, some closed for new member requests...) to facilitate joining players in finding their mates or a bunch of friendly strangers, perhaps even group score?

So you want only a indie team where players can form their own groups? I would like to see more details about your idea, as you mentioned, you are just writing down ideas ;). A group score is definitly a cool idea, it would form stronger bonds between the group members i think.

What would be nice to have in such a situation is some playing with fraction/group uniforms and their effects - for instance, the group leader's uniform is taken as a reference, and if all the group members have the same suit/headgear (... variations), that group can benefit in a way... I haven't thought this through obviously, just laying down ideas as I write :)

So when the squad gets the same gear (with variations) as the group leader, the whole group will get an bonus? can't think about a bonus that will actually work. I think you have to consider the survival aspect of the mission. There should be a wide variety on patched up gear. You are grabbing what you can that will help you survive.

I think this would tone down TKs for gear too - you wouldn't end up in a situation where you'd have a bunch of non-friendly, non-cooperative people playing for one team (blu/red) just because they like blue/red uniforms or whatever.

Good idea but i think you will always have..lets call them "not-so-friendly-players" in your team. And who even likes the Opfor uniform? ;D. The only reason i see myself playing Opfor is, that it is not so overrun with people like Blufor.

sincerely, Akiba

[akiba 10]

Hey again ;)

Just wanted to ask how the chances are to get an "official" response on the whole Thermal optics topic from an Admin or even Samatra himself. Thank you very much in advance.

sincerely, Akiba

Edit: There is now a locking warning sound in the dev branch.

Edited August 16, 2013 by Akiba

[inch 2]

Myself and Ceh are admins... Sa-Matra has been very busy not had chance to cover this sort of thing with him.

[Iridium2824 10]

I think the real issue with thermal equipment is that there isn't any disadvantage to its use, currently. The first change would be the implementation of a physical item that deliberately masks the player from thermal imaging. Originally I would have suggested it be an item that takes up a slot in the player inventory, similar to how food/water/fuel/repair items work. However, it terms of balance it would be more practical to have it be a piece of clothing/armor.

Thermal Masking Armor

+Masks user from players using thermal imaging. (As in, they don't show up White Hot or Black Hot when being viewed from thermal optics)

-Takes up player's Chest slot (Perhaps it would have low armor rating or capacity. Or have nominal armor and capacity but prevents user from equipping a backpack.)

This would effectively provide players with an in-game tool to counter thermal imaging. Now one would have to weigh the pros and cons of equipment based on the situation.

An example would be: Assaulting a player base that has possession of thermal optics, but no proximity radar.

You can attack in force with gear that provides a lot of armor and capacity for equipment. Or you can attack perhaps more in-stealth with equipment that has thermal masking with less armor and less capacity.

Of course, on an engine level this may not even be possible to implement!

The above merely provides the player with a counter to thermal imaging, with clearly defined advantages and disadvantages. What about the players using the thermals though? Other than the 'rarity' of the equipment, there isn't an obvious disadvantage to their use. What if Batteries were introduced as another resource, handled similarly to how Food/Water behaves? (This is an idea I originally had submitted to Tonic's ARMA 2 Wasteland via DevHeaven over a year ago. https://dev-heaven.net/issues/30207#change-131638). With Arma 3's introduction of modular load-outs for weapons this problem isn't as serious as it was in Arma 2 where thermal weapons had static attachments, but the idea remains.

Essentially the way it could work is that players locate batteries as loot from buildings or missions and 'consume' them. There would need to be some art assets introduced to represent the current 'charge' on the player's HUD and physical objects in-game http://i.imgur.com/nUnV40m.jpg (171 kB)

Whenever players have electrical equipment in-use the current charge would drain. The rate of drain would have to be tested for balancing in conjunction with the variety of equipment of course.

Edited August 19, 2013 by Iridium2824

[akiba 10]

I think the real issue with thermal equipment is that there isn't any disadvantage to its use, currently. The first change would be the implementation of a physical item that deliberately masks the player from thermal imaging. Originally I would have suggested it be an item that takes up a slot in the player inventory, similar to how food/water/fuel/repair items work. However, it terms of balance it would be more practical to have it be a piece of clothing/armor.

Why should Thermal provide a disadvantage? where is the disadvantage of having and ARCO scope? you basically have the disadvantage, that you can't see the terrain as good as without optics.

The above merely provides the player with a counter to thermal imaging, with clearly defined advantages and disadvantages. What about the players using the thermals though? Other than the 'rarity' of the equipment, there isn't an obvious disadvantage to their use. What if Batteries were introduced as another resource, handled similarly to how Food/Water behaves? (This is an idea I originally had submitted to Tonic's ARMA 2 Wasteland via DevHeaven over a year ago. https://dev-heaven.net/issues/30207#change-131638). With Arma 3's introduction of modular load-outs for weapons this problem isn't as serious as it was in Arma 2 where thermal weapons had static attachments, but the idea remains.

I don't like this Idea. A equipment that masks the thermal signature of an player seems too futuristic to me. I also have to strongly disagree against the Batterie idea. Armored vehicles already need constant ammunition resupply which is, as mentioned before, pretty tough to get. You also still need food and water even when you are in an armored vehicle. In your theory a player with an armored vehicle needs:

-Batteries

-Food

-Water

-(Fuel)*

-Ammunition

-and let's face it, repair kits.

*You rarely need it, except for the single time when you capture it

Seems more like a burden than an actual upgrade. I know that you can still run the vehicle without batteries but i think that you need thermal as mentioned in several posts before.

sincerely, Akiba

[JonXu 0]

I don't like this Idea. A equipment that masks the thermal signature of an player seems too futuristic to me.

Futuristic nah, hide behind glass, invisible to IR thermal or grab a "space blanket/ thermal blanket/ Mylar foil. not so futuristic. i was wondering why this is not in ArmA thermal blankets i mean. and TI in arma is too simple also, rocks and other heat absorving objects must also appear on thermal image but in arma they are all grey/green