Tracked APCS have messed up controlls

[Qosmius 10]

is it only me that find it very weird that the tracked apcs controls act very weird.

if you have tryed the btr you know what i mean, it keeps twitching all the time when you drive it, the turning rate is just enormous at low speeds which makes it hard to do smooth driving. at hight speeds it is basically uncontrollobale, it turns automatically sometimes too.

THIS is not have a tracked apc/tank is supposed to move. as a former tank crew i am fully aware of the vehicles movement and how it should be. pls bis do something about this

[KingScuba 1]

a little further explanation would be nice.... it makes sense to me personally. A controls left track backwards, D controls right track backwards. You also have to realize in real world you have a lot control over how fast the tracks go. Arma is all on, all off.

It might be rather interesting if instead of using their setup, the control could be something a bit more like this for tracked

Q = Left Track Forward

W = Both tracks forward Slow

E = Right Track Forward

A = Left Track backwards

S = Both Tracks Backward Slow

D = Right track forwards

Shift = Full Speed

Or maybe

Q = Left Track Forward

W = Faster movements

E = Right Track Forward

A = Left Track backwards

S = Slower movements

D = Right track forwards

I think that might give it a bit more response and a hair bit easier to use.

It shouldn't interfere with many people i don't think, since 3 keystrokes is what most lower end keyboards use a cap. my keyboard personally has a 5 key max.

Edited July 26, 2013 by KingScuba

[liquidpinky 11]

Maybe as you see A3 as a simulator, maybe do yourself a favor and get analogue controls and ditch the keyboard.

That's low speed sorted.

Now also understand that at the max speeds you are already outside of the vehicles handling envelope, also understand that driving any vehicle on bumpy surfaces at high speeds is very twitchy indeed.

Why not everyone is a pro rally driver, it isn't easy and takes balls of steel.

You can however keep the vehicles under control if you do have any real off-road driving experience and can predict their reactions on terrains. Just holding down W for backwards keyboardist I think, down a hill and hoping for the best just won't work out for them in the end. It is a simulation after all so treat the vehicle like you are in it and like you will die if you stuff it up.

So many moan about it being a poor simulator without actually doing actions in the game like they would for real.

[-=seany=- 5]

I have noticed the tracked vehicles turning on their own, I think this is due to going over rough terrain. If one of the tracks goes over a mound or into a dip while the other track is on level ground the vehicle pulls to one direction or the other. I have never driven a tracked vehicle so I don't know if this is what really happens. My guess is probably for early tracked vehicles it did happen, but I doubt modern tracked vehicles would have the same problem. They would most likely have some kind of "differential" that sorted it out, or some kind of fly by wire system that controlled the power to each track automatically.

I have also noticed that the Iranian tracked APC over steers pretty violently at high speed. Of course this can be quite fun :)

I think the tracked vehicle physics in OFP/Arma have always been very good (nowhere near as bad as Wheeled physics). They just get a little weird when they go over their center of gravity and the object collisions had problems. But the weight transfer/gearing/torque/understeer/oversteer/suspension/acceleration/braking was all perfect. I am not 100% if the Arma3 tracked vehicles are quite as nice to drive as Arma's, I need to play with them a bit more. It will be interesting to see how the big tanks are.

Edited July 27, 2013 by -=seany=-

[Qosmius 10]

well you dont see the cars twitch the same way as the apc does...tracked vehicles are more stable than wheeled vehicles, yet it feels like driving a untammed lion because of the not smooth driving and automatic twitching at a bit higher speeds. even if you go in terrain with a tracked vehicles this is not supposed to be happening. for real guys. try out the opfor apc first then come back and talk. try driving it for 20 minutes and you wll soon get annoyed how bad it is..

also the ai controlls are horrible, they do not do what you order them to do sometimes so you have to manually jump into the driver seat and go where you want to then change back to commander or gunner

---------- Post added at 06:11 ---------- Previous post was at 06:07 ----------

if you order the driver to turn right..he does a violent turn to the right then turns back again. i dont understan why this is happening, you have to hold down the right button for it to work in some way, but then it often happens that you oversteer and have to right, left, right, left to be able to hold the vehicle on the road.

tank driving is not really user friendly in arma 3

[heruon 1]

Totally agree with this, the oversteering that is. It makes it hard to even stay on the road at decent speeds. Is there a ticket about this on the feedback tracker?

[dunk 10]

The controls do not bother me so much as the fact that the tanks still cannot climb over rocks and various obstacles for at least three reasons.

Off Topic Rant In The Spoiler

(I refer to the APCs as tanks out of force of habit)

1.The tank tracks do not appear to be taken into consideration when calculating the suspension, collision, and traction of the wheels, ie, the wheels will instantly snap to their maximum extension when they pass over a curb, wedging said curb between two wheels with the tracks phasing right through it instead of said track suspending the wheels and allowing a smooth transition over it. Also it just makes the whole thing jarringly bouncy.

2. The tank loses its momentum too quickly and will not rev up when it thinks it is pressed against something thus the tracks cannot dig in and force its sloped front end to slide up the obstacle until its tracks can grip it themselves, which brings me to my final point.

3. The tracks/wheels do not grip said obstacles and thus either do not rev at all when supported by it or experience no traction and thus spin uselessly against it. On the other hand the tank can spin and bounce on the obstacle just fine.

In Arma 2, a tank flipped up-side-down could spin around just fine as if turning was completely independent of any physical influence or constraint (the actual tracks moving the tank). I have not been able to test this in Arma 3 as flipping on my roof is nearly impossible (while the tank is intact) as it appears the tanks are programed to flip right-side-up from impossible angles (in my personal experience), same thing can be observed to a more extreme degree in Borderlands 2.

Ultimately I personally do not mind the the way they control and handle, maybe add an option to reduce the sharpness of turning or, implement like a user above me said, a q.e.w.a.s.d. of controlling the tracks independently or all at once with variable speed options for each.

[D_wolf 1]

Yes the controls are horrible and also the amount of ammo in the new tracked APCs is ridiculous, especially in Blufor one. 10 grenades and 40 machine gun bullets? Seriously... These APCs MUST have thermal vision like all the other armed vehicles.

I think the speed from the new apcs should be increased but specially the speed from marshall. The Marshall is way too slow and I noticed the new Blufor APC is slightly faster than the Marshall which is ridiculous since the new APC is heavier.

[Bee8190 10]

Totally agree with this, the oversteering that is. It makes it hard to even stay on the road at decent speeds. Is there a ticket about this on the feedback tracker?

Agree it feels little too quick & easy to turn tracked vehicles and its even more significant in high speeds. I am sure that its speed sensitive and just haven't been tweaked yet

[x3kj 1247]

Wasnt it the same way in arma 2? when you hit W and A/D all was fine. But if you let W go (while moving at high speed) and push A/D ever so slightly, you enter into "soap mode" that lets you glide like with 0 friktion and dance like a ballerina. This also was/is the case with analoge control iirc no gas + speed + steering-> soapmode

[Shagulon 1]

Have those rubbishing the reports of the tracked vehicles handling very strangely even driven them recently? They are very much messed up. I drove the heavy APCs when they were first released and they handled much better, something has happened, and if it was intended it needs to be looked at again.

[Bee8190 10]

I think we should have dedicated vehicle (sub)thread ( like suggestions and feedback ) with separated class like air and vehicles general as the general feedback is getting all over the place?

What say you mods of my proposal?