Weapon tests

[pooroldspike 129]

Well Greenfist seems to have got it figgered out alright so there's nothing much I can add..:)

Here's a recap of the explosive toys currently in Arma3, the Explosives Specialist carries the items in the top pic, and the other 3 can be found in Explosive crates-

At great personal risk, i've tested these below-

M6 Slam AT mine (page 5)

Explosive Charge (p 6)

Explosive Satchel (p 8)

Claymore (p 10/11)

APERS mine (p 11)

APERS bounding mine (p 11)

AT MIne (p 13)

Sea Mines (p 13/14)

Edited August 3, 2014 by PoorOldSpike

[snubz 10]

PoorOldSpike, thanks for all these tests. Very helpful.

I fly planes a lot on MP servers. Do you plan to do any tests of aircraft vs various targets? I've seen some stuff showing the A-164 Wipeout's cannon is underpowered (mainly due to all HE rounds, no AP), but I wonder how it's rockets do against vehicles. The only AA weapon with any punch seems to be the Macer (basically an AGM-65 Maverick) and of course the LGB, but without a lase, it's hard to hit anything (BIS, can we get some CCRP and CCIP symbology? Is this 2035 or 1935?).

If this information exists in other threads, would appreciate anyone pointing me to them!

[pooroldspike 129]

Okay I've just made a start on WIPEOUT TESTS and will do more over the next few days.

Here's its 30mm cannon against T-100's, the rounds are not listed as AP or HE, maybe they're a mixture of both?

I kept scoring hits but none of the tanks burned, I'll keep landing or bailing out of the Wipeout in the next tests and boarding the tanks to see if any damage has been done.

I'll also hit them in front/side/rear and top armour to see which is weakest.

And i'll test out the Shrieker rockets, Macer guided missiles and bombs, and will also throw in some Kamysh as targets to see how they hold up.

A 30mm cannon round hits a T-100-

Edited August 18, 2014 by PoorOldSpike

[Variable 322]

Great! Looking forward to your results.

---------- Post added at 10:29 ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 ----------

Oh, while you are at it. Can you check two things that completely confuse me regarding the Wipeout (and maybe the other aircraft weapon systems).

1. I can't seem to lock manned targets unless I hit the "cycle empty target" control. The regular "cycle targets" control doesn't seem to do anything for me.

2. I can't seem to lock AA missiles on other aircrafts using either of the above controls.

I must be doing something wrong but I'm not the only one, friends have also complained about the same problems.

[pooroldspike 129]

Wipeout gatling cannon 30mm test v T-100

(Incidentally I updated the game to 1.24)

The test setup..

The 30mm shells begin bursting on the T-100..

..and after about 200 shells the T-100 blows up!

Summary- The Wipeout's cannon can kill T-100's through their thick front armour at close range.

The cannon carries 1000 rounds so theoretically that's enough to toast 5x T-100's IF you can hit them, but it's very hard which is why I had to park the Wipeout on the ground to guarantee getting hits.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wipeout Shrieker HE rockets v T-100 front armour

The Wipeout carries 7 under the right wing, here's one in flight..

..it hits the T-100 front..

NO the tank hasn't blown up, the fireball is from the rocket splatting on the front..

After firing all 7 rockets I boarded the T-100 and found the main gun was working and it could be driven around, but the commanders MG was jammed down (below) and couldn't be moved..

Summary- 7x Shrieker HE rocket hits on the T-100's front jammed the cdrs MG, but the main gun and mobility weren't affected.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wipeout Shrieker AP rockets v T-100 front armour

Disappointingly they only had exactly the same effect as HE rockets, namely they only jammed the cdrs MG.

7 are carried under the left wing, here's one in flight..

..and hitting..

Summary- Shrieker rockets (HE and AP) can't seriously hurt T-100's frontally, they can only jam the cdrs MG.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Shriekers v T-100 rear armour

HE simply jammed the cdrs MG.

But AP jammed the cdrs MG AND wrecked the engine, immobilising the tank! (below)

Summary- It makes no difference whether you hit the tank front or rear with HE Shriekers, as the only damage will be to jam the cdrs MG.

Likewise, AP Shriekers to the front will only jam the cdrs MG, but if fired into the tanks rear, they'll ALSO wreck the engine.

Edited August 20, 2014 by PoorOldSpike

[pooroldspike 129]

Incidentally here's the Wipeouts teeth, the other wing is the same, left to right-

2x GBU-12's, 3x Macer air-ground missiles, 7x Shrieker rockets in a pod (AP on left wing, HE on right wing), 1x Falchion air-air missile. Plus of course a 30mm Gatling cannon in nose.

-------------------------------------------------------

Wipeout Macer air-to-ground missiles v T-100's

The setup- I placed T-100's around the area, then took off and banked around to have a go at them..

That open diamond stays fixed on the HUD and doesn't move, point it roughly at the area where you think the enemy is, and keep hitting key 'T' to try to lock onto something..

Below-After a few presses of 'T', I get a lock, and a box in a diamond appears with a T-100 in the middle of it, accompanied by a beeping "class 2 lockon" sound.

You can fire now OR wait til the beeping changes to a high-pitch trilling to indicate a solid "class 1 lockon" which has more chance of getting a hit than a class 2.

I fire a Macer..

..and it hits a T-100..

Another sortie, I go gung-ho and get in closer this time and lock up a T-100 and let a Macer fly-

a hit..

I circle back to gloat at the burning wreck..

Summary- 1 Macer can kill a T-100. (the Wipeout carries 6)

I did it manually which means you have to know roughly where the enemy is so that you can fly towards the area while jabbing the 'T' key to get a lock on something.

I knew exactly where the enemy were because I set them up, but in a real game you'd probably need ground units or recce choppers to sniff them out and tell you where they are, or lase them for you.

PS- I'm no ace, I kept flying into the ground a lot and generally messed up dozens of times but managed to somehow muddle through..:)

Edited August 20, 2014 by PoorOldSpike

[Bee8190 10]

Good to see you back in business Spike :)

and yea I just logged in to say only that :cool:

[pooroldspike 129]

Good to see you back in business Spike :)

and yea I just logged in to say only that :cool:

Haha thanks mate, i've been over in Arma2 because all the TV news stuff about Syria, Donetsk, Gaza and ISIS have given me a hankering to come back in time to 2014..:)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Continuing the Arma3 tests- Wipeout Shrieker rockets v Kamysh

As we saw in earlier tests, Shrieker rockets (AP and HE) couldn't destroy the T-100, so now let's see how they do against the lighter-armoured Kamysh.

First, the Shrieker AP's..

Bingo! the Kamysh burns after the 4th AP rocket hits it..

--------------------------------------------------------

And now Shrieker HE's v the Kamysh..

No kill! I fired all 7 rockets.

But the only damage they did was to jam the gun downward like this-

---------------------------------------------------------

Next I turned the Kamysh around to see if the Shrieker HE's would have better luck against it's rear armour, but no, it wouldn't burn after all 7 rockets hit it..

Summary- Shrieker AP's will burn a Kamysh, but Shrieker HE's will only jam its gun

Edited August 20, 2014 by PoorOldSpike

[pooroldspike 129]

Wipeout Falchion air-to-air missiles

The Wipeout carries 2x Falchions, an enemy Neophron is up ahead (and note its red blip on the radar at top)..

Falchions don't auto lock on..

..so I hit the 'T' key to lock on, note the lockon box and diamond (accompanied by a trilling sound)..

I fire a Falchion..

..the missile curves on an intercept path, you can run boy..

..but not hide. The Falchion hits, and as the lock is still there I fire the other Falchion for good measure..

It hits and down he goes, you ain't walking away from this Charlie..

Summary- just lock on and fire, I can't remember if 'T' is the default lockon key or whether I assigned it myself/

(Incidentally all my tests are vanilla AA3 at 'Regular' difficulty level without any mods or addons)

Hey Variable, I'm not sure what you were asking when you said-

Oh, while you are at it. Can you check two things that completely confuse me regarding the Wipeout (and maybe the other aircraft weapon systems).

1. I can't seem to lock manned targets unless I hit the "cycle empty target" control. The regular "cycle targets" control doesn't seem to do anything for me.

2. I can't seem to lock AA missiles on other aircrafts using either of the above controls.

I must be doing something wrong but I'm not the only one, friends have also complained about the same problems.

Edited August 20, 2014 by PoorOldSpike

[the_demongod 31]

I find it very interesting that AP shriekers kill a BTR but HE doesn't. AP is "Anti Personnel," not armor piercing (it doesn't make sense to have Armor Piercing rockets because they are very inaccurate).

It's a shame that you have to lock on with 'T' for Falchions, since in real life IR missiles work like this:

Here's a relevant thread I wrote a while ago: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?180867-Air-to-Air-missiles-and-why-they-need-to-change

[mr_centipede 31]

I think for this game purpose AP is Armour Piercing.

[Santi871 10]

AP in the game means antipersonnel. Goes for Neophron/Wipeout rockets and Titan AP missile.

[pooroldspike 129]

I'll try to find out something in the manual about how exactly HE and AP rocket warheads differ, and what target types they're meant to be used against.

I vaguely remember once reading somewhere (maybe in a book or another game) that AP rockets contain a mix of high explosive AND shrapnel to give them a capability against infantry AND against light armour that pure HE doesn't have.

Also, because they're inaccurate, I believe the whole pod is fired in quick succession at one vehicle or vehicle group to increase the chances of getting a hit.

As for Falchion air-air missiles, they don't seem to auto-lock in AA3, but in some flight sims they do; but strictly speaking AA3 is not a hardcore flight sim anyway..:)

[pooroldspike 129]

Wipeout GBU-12 bombs

They're presumably laser-guided jobs and the Wipeout carries 4.

I can't get the hang of them at all, I've been away from AA3 for a while and have forgotten half the keys and stuff (don't you just hate it when that happens) and shall have to dive into the manual to try to find out how to make them go.

Meanwhile I just tried to bomb that big hangar (red arrow) with GBU's but missed by a mile because I dropped them in 'dumb' mode without any sort of lock or aiming indicator on the HUD.

I dropped all 4 in quick succession a fraction of a second before this screenshot..

but they all fall well short (sniffle)..

Edited August 21, 2014 by PoorOldSpike

[pooroldspike 129]

Found this 1-year-old thread about how to laser-designate GBU's, but it looks like there's a heck of a lot of scripting and stuff to be done, I might give it a shot sometime-

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?163274-Laser-Designator-System-script-for-A143-Buzzard-%28CAS%29&p=2491545#post2491545

[Gutsnav 13]

Found this 1-year-old thread about how to laser-designate GBU's, but it looks like there's a heck of a lot of scripting and stuff to be done, I might give it a shot sometime-

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?163274-Laser-Designator-System-script-for-A143-Buzzard-%28CAS%29&p=2491545#post2491545

No need. You won't need to download anything, & I'll tell you how. Batteries not included.

Parts list:

• 1 Aircraft (Preferably with bombs)

• 1 Personal UAV (The "Darter" or something)

• 1 UAV Terminal that will connect to the personal UAV you use

Assembly Instructions:

1 - You'll need to be in the editor. Place the aircraft of choice & name it "air".

2 - Place a personal UAV, and put this in the init for the UAV (choose a line corresponding to the aircraft from the list below):

• For A-164: this attachTo [ air ,[7.5,0.3,0.05]]

• For Buzzard: this attachTo [ air ,[4.4,-0.5,-1.3]]

• For Neophron: this attachTo [ air ,[4.78,-1.715,1.5764]]

3 - Either get a UAV terminal out of an ammo box or just place down a UAV Operator.

User's Manual:

1 - Open up the UAV terminal

2 - Connect to the UAV

3 - You can now spot targets with thermal / night vision, as well as designate or "paint" targets. Keep in mind it will not stay on target when you release controls (unless you do step 4).

4 - To self designate targets, you can lock the UAV's turret to the ground or a moving target with Ctrl + T, and just flip on the designator. To improve the UAV's camera stabilization fly slower with flaps at half, just not too slow. Or you'll die.

5 - You can also bring up the PiP UAV feed using whatever key binding you have that set to. It helps.

I got the scripting info from here:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?178721-quot-Home-made-quot-targeting-pod-for-ANY-aircraft/page3

Edited August 24, 2014 by Gutsnav

[pooroldspike 129]

Okay, Gutsnav wins the Blue Max for telling us how to make GBU's go..:)

(Incidentally AA3 is now version 1.26)

Here my Darter eyeballs a radar dome-

The Darter view..I laser-designate the target with CTRL T to lock the designator on it, then left-click to activate the laser beam. The red star indicates it's shining..

Then I teamswitch to the Wipeout, place the aiming circle over the target, hit 'T' to lock it up and make the "locked" square appear over the target (below)

You can release the GBU's now with just a square, or wait til you get a better "solid-lock" diamond appearing inside the square.

Incidentally note the useful red "designated target" blip on the radar at the top of the screen, it shows up from miles away so you can estimate where the target is before actually getting visual contact..

Below- the diamond appears in the square, so it's bombs away time!

After releasing them, the lock stays put so you can fly home for tea and medals and leave the GBU's to guide in on their own.

People are on the pitch, they think it's all over!

It is now!

Summary:- although this method works fine, it's a bit fiddly in single player mode having to teamswitch to the UAV operator to shine the laser, then teamswitch back to the Wipeout to fly the attack.

Edited August 25, 2014 by PoorOldSpike

[the_demongod 31]

AP in the game means antipersonnel. Goes for Neophron/Wipeout rockets and Titan AP missile.

While this is the obvious answer, I fear it is incorrect.

Unguided rockets have no business attacking armor (rockets are inaccurate and you need a direct hit for a HEAT round to work. Additionally, HEAT rounds are most effective when the projectile doesn't spin, which the rockets do), but tests reveal that the AP rockets kill armor way faster than the HE ones. It's pretty stupid.

[kimi_uy 135]

Hey, a friend of mine told me about this thread and well, I thought I'd pitch in.

Here's my concept for a "workingish" Targeting Pod to self designate targets for GBU-12's and other laser guided weapons, brought to life by Lala14:

BIS thread: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?179309-Release-Script-TGP-Targeting-Pod-for-Air-Vehicles

Armaholic Link: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=25763

Now, to drop bombs in dumb mode, I recommend using this script:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?179025-CCIP-script-for-aircrafts

It creates a CCIP solution (Continuosly Computed Impact Point), so basically shows a crosshairs showing where the bombs/rockets/guns are gonna hit.

Cheers!

[Chairborne 2594]

While this is the obvious answer, I fear it is incorrect.

Unguided rockets have no business attacking armor (rockets are inaccurate and you need a direct hit for a HEAT round to work. Additionally, HEAT rounds are most effective when the projectile doesn't spin, which the rockets do), but tests reveal that the AP rockets kill armor way faster than the HE ones. It's pretty stupid.

The obvious answer is Armor Piercing, like anywhere else in the game.

Tanks use Armor Piercing rounds, IFVs use Armor Piercing rounds, rocket launchers use Armor Piercing rockets, why in the world would AP mean something entirely different for jets?

[Jona33 51]

The obvious answer is Armor Piercing, like anywhere else in the game.

Tanks use Armor Piercing rounds, IFVs use Armor Piercing rounds, rocket launchers use Armor Piercing rockets, why in the world would AP mean something entirely different for jets?

Because BI have been inconsistent. For the Titan AP means anti-personnel (anti-tank, remarkably enough deals with armour). For the rockets AP would make sense to be Armour piercing since Anti-Personnel is basically just HE, and those rockets are called HE (shock, horror!).

[Chairborne 2594]

Hey, a friend of mine told me about this thread and well, I thought I'd pitch in.

Here's my concept for a "workingish" Targeting Pod to self designate targets for GBU-12's and other laser guided weapons, brought to life by Lala14:

//cut

It creates a CCIP solution (Continuosly Computed Impact Point), so basically shows a crosshairs showing where the bombs/rockets/guns are gonna hit.

Cheers!

Would be nice if BIS started implementing some of the community made features into the standard game.

So many modders work on good stuff that is forgotten after some time.

Because BI have been inconsistent. For the Titan AP means anti-personnel (anti-tank, remarkably enough deals with armour). For the rockets AP would make sense to be Armour piercing since Anti-Personnel is basically just HE, and those rockets are called HE (shock, horror!).

I guess someone should open a ticket in the feed tracker... :rolleyes:

[GregTheGangster 10]

This looks really good, looks like you've spent a lot of time on this hah

[the_demongod 31]

Would be nice if BIS started implementing some of the community made features into the standard game.

So many modders work on good stuff that is forgotten after some time.

I guess someone should open a ticket in the feed tracker... :rolleyes:

I've tried, but to no avail: http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=20478

[Chairborne 2594]

Sometimes reports seem to be ignored but they're really looked after by the devs, it happened a few times with mine as well then when the next stable patch came out they were fixed.