[SP/CO8] A 3 - Antistasi Altis.

[steel rat 5]

I agree with harmdhast. The mortars are too much. As soon as you start to combat you get shelled to the stone age. Need to be more balanced.

[jamie1992 17]

Yup, like I said a page or so backwards. The Mortars are just too much. Not for the challenge of them, just the fact they are ALWAYS pinpoint accurate, and ALWAYS what seems to be instant the moment you get spotted. At-least they are when hosted via my dedi anyway.

 

The mission is frigging amazing aside from the Mortars being a total ballache that rips the fun out.

[barbolani 198]

Antistasi aims to simulate guerrilla warfare. Of course it's intended to be fun, but, hell yes, this is not Altis Life (I had to say it, sorry)

 

It has no sense at all allow the player to have his own mobile arty and not allow the enemy to make the same intensive use of it.

 

In real warfare, indirect fire capabilities are a must, and you play as commanders, you are not grunts and Arma has a fantastic combined arms experience which allows this.

 

You have an Outpost in the surroundings of your AO, you have another problem to solve.

 

In past editions you (and me) used the outposts as loot positions, now are what they are supposed to be.

 

Some players just changed their tactics and are happy.

[jamie1992 17]

Although Mortars are accurate, providing said mortar has a spotter, getting generic grid coords from troops under heavy fire will not lead to a Mortar round ON my face seconds after being spotted. Not even accounting for Wind, Crew skill etc etc etc.

 

I love the idea of having Mortars at bases and Outposts and the likes, however, our point is that they are just TOO powerful. Like, usually you'd have to step the rounds in till you get the EXACT angle dialed in to hit the specific Grid Coordinates BANG ON, especially in heavily windy weather which would affect a Mortar rounds Trajectory heavily. However, this doesn't happen, we get spotted, and rounds appear pretty much within a 25-50m radius about 5-10 seconds after being spotted. Sometimes a tad longer.

 

We aren't saying to remove them, but having Mortar Teams DECIMATE you without a second thought because they aren't affected by things they would be in real life, doesn't really "Simulate" Mortar rounds. (I know I know Artillery computers and such, but that doesn't negate external forces, like weather and such from changing them.

 

My point is, or our point I guess is that they are too powerful and aren't balanced really at all. They suck the fun out of the mission at points. Example is attacking a town from the south, tiny town, happens to be a AAF outpost not THAT close but a decent distance, no mortars, attack the town from the west, which is a difference of 50-100m, suddenly now they can fire and get it bang on, even when it was evidently at the very edge of their range. I dunno they just need reworks in my opinion.

 

Everything else about the mission is BANG ON excellent. Stupidly fun and I've lost many hours to it, but Mortars are the one detriment to the mission, again in my own and apparently some other peoples view.

[barbolani 198]

Well, thing is BIS made mortars extremely accurate. As I am not a mil expert, I cannot say if that's the current or near future situation (remember...2035). You may check it using one and see how accurate the shell finishes in the point where you clicked in the arty computer.

 

Some friend with knowledge in this affairs told me in the laser designated arty can put the shell in a fly ass firing kilometers far. Of course you and them are firing normal shells.

 

Indeed, I scripted those mortars with +-10 meters from the perceived position, I can script a bit more, but obviously I won't place a number which makes mortars useless.

[stk2008 14]

i agree about laser guided but that reqiures some ai to be actually aiming the laser pointer which they dont in this i think.

What i think could be cool is have a random time for first round fired relate to accuracy eg

I shoot

First round takes 30 seconds to fire = no time spent getting accurate grid ref,spotting etc - round will land with in 50m? of you

or

First round takes 2 minutes to fire = lots of time has been taken to get grid ref etc - round will land with in 5m? Of you

There could be more variables in between and off course the numbers suggested are rushed and just picked from my ass lol.

But gives an idea

[barbolani 198]

Will add a bit more dispersion rate by default.

 

In a to-do, that rate will depend on distance.

 

And BTW I made some tests and wind affect mortar accurancy.

[stk2008 14]

Really appriciate you looking at this mate.

Love it when a some one listens to the players and at least looks into it.

As said this mission is amazeing truly is and i love the artilery thats not the issue its just a bit in ya face......litraly lol :)

Thanks

[jamie1992 17]

Well, thing is BIS made mortars extremely accurate. As I am not a mil expert, I cannot say if that's the current or near future situation (remember...2035). You may check it using one and see how accurate the shell finishes in the point where you clicked in the arty computer.

 

Some friend with knowledge in this affairs told me in the laser designated arty can put the shell in a fly ass firing kilometers far. Of course you and them are firing normal shells.

 

Indeed, I scripted those mortars with +-10 meters from the perceived position, I can script a bit more, but obviously I won't place a number which makes mortars useless.

 

Mortars by todays military standards are pretty damn accurate. Can be zero'd in pinpoint over the range of a mile or two, however it all depends on the skill of the crew manning the mortar itself, and the troops on the ground relaying splash confirmation and adjustments to that mortar team. Sadly it doesn't simulate this.

 

The current system is, spotted, enemy relays info of posistion, mortar fires and the round is on your head within moments. Sadly this detracts from the fun and any form of simulation in regards to simulation of Mortars/Arty itself in general, again the game based in 2035 has Arty Computers and the likes to automatically calculate pitch and angle. It sadly however doesn't negate factors such as wind speed/velocity, and direction of the wind itself.

 

STK raises a good idea, Shells land a distance away from intended target, and then get closer and closer with each volley/round that gets fired, simulating troops relaying information of splash back to the mortar team in question so they can adjust and compensate for such things as like Wind speed and Velocity. (Lets face it, firing a mortar the distance of say 1 mile or 2 in 80mph winds pushing against it will decrease that rounds range tremendously, or if the wind was behind said round, would alter its trajectory to overshoot, and likewise with sidewards wind affecting the round's tracjectory and altering it's landing

 

Mortars add a much needed element of danger and fun, but the current implementation of them doesn't do the feature within itself justice. With tweaks the Mortars would go from. "Great I got hit by a mortar *Sigh*" To "Oh crap they are zero'ing mortars on our actual and we seriously need to move before they get it nailed."

 

Again this may come across as a bit abrasive, but honestly with a slight tweak to accuracy and implementation, they will further enhance an already amazing experience.

 

EDIT:

 

I stand corrected on wind affecting Mortars. A wider dispersion from intended zone and slowly closing in would do WONDERS for the feature of Mortars.

 

As STK said. Creators listening to playerbases and working with them is indeed quite a thing. And it makes the love for a mission or mod in general even greater, knowing the person creating the content is indeed listening to concerns. For that I thank you. :)

[stk2008 14]

Quick question do the enemys actually have spotters helping or do rounds come in when combat starts etc?

Im just curius how its all implemented.

Any way realy looking forward to more updates and thanks for listening

[barbolani 198]

As I said in a few posts before, garrison mortars are UPSMon manned. This is a third party (extremely complex and big) script which I tweaked a bit to fix some errors.

 

So, I cannot give answers to 100% of the questions.

 

But yes, UPSMon arty batteries fire based on being spotted by any ally in a certain radius, the fire orders are given for the last perceived position of what they consider an enemy, also consider if there are friendlies or civilians around (that's tweaked by me), the caller maneuver is compatible with calling arty strike....

 

Indeed I see the code allows to call flares to illuminate the AO, but I've never seen that. It's a wonderful script that makes garrisoned AI much smart than standard BIS.

 

Bad news is: I cannot script the way you ask, it would require a heavy modification of UPSMon which with no doubt would lead to some malfunctions.

 

The only thing I can do is to raise the spread distance, so you will be more unlucky if the shell lands in your head :)

[jamie1992 17]

Script in the sense of slowly zero'ing in?

 

Is the ability to spread radius based on distance also a viable thing to change/add within the scripts without being too heavy of a workload?

[barbolani 198]

No, the spreading based on distance is easy, but I am thinking about if it's needed or engine is doing it instead of any script, as the wind affects the shell.

[jamie1992 17]

No, the spreading based on distance is easy, but I am thinking about if it's needed or engine is doing it instead of any script, as the wind affects the shell.

 

Well don't put yourself out too much for the sake of it. Just some tweaking should hopefully appease both sides of the "Issue" with arty, those who dislike it will find the feature a lot more fun and less aggravating and those whom like its current implementation will find it to still be fun within itself.

 

I honestly think just a larger radius to Mortars will make a big difference to the introduction of Mortars.

[vengeance1 50]

Barbolani,

 

Is there UAV's availible for FIA?  If so how do you aquire them?

[jp613 0]

Been having issues with the mortar squads. They keep spawning as a foot troop with ground mounted mortar and a truck. When I give them a way point the mortar teleports into the truck and the troop runs into the passenger seat, the truck moves to the way point and the troop/mortar teleport to the ground again. This wouldn't be a big problem is it were not combined with no artillery to call in 0-8. I am playing with all mods disabled. Anyone know how to fix this?

[Sikario 0]

Please translate for spanish!!!!!!!!!!!! Good Mission!!! 

[barbolani 198]

@vengeance1: Yes, sometimes on NATO boxes.

 

@jplafor: Because radio 0-8 is not the way since a few patches. Check Antistasi manual thread in Steam forums.

 

@Sikario: Translation is difficult today, maybe a tutorial yes.

[stk2008 14]

Hi again

 

We have an issue.

 

We decided to make use of one of the headles client slots so created a HC.

 

Server FPS is now realy impressive but it appears some AI are realy not responding at all.

 

Where as some AI are realy good and respond right away.

 

I was able to shoot at this ai from about 200m away he never once responded to the sound nor sight of my tracers incoming.

 

When i hit him he then decided to run and hid but went back to walking towards me as if nothing happend.

 

He then walked right past me.

 

http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/321251624515907332/878BECD18802B1816785B2FB17FD5BB788A586EE/
 

 

is this a headless client bug as we are only using one of the three slots for headless client.

 

please help

 

Thanks
 

[jamie1992 17]

You might wanna find a DECENT filehost for your manual. I opened the page in my steam browser to tinyupload, got a TON of popups and adverts shoot up, along with audio playback that was loud as hell and couldn't be turned off at all. Had to force restart my rig before even more of the crap popped up, and a few friends went to access it and all their antivirus software blocked the site before it had a chance to run all of it's crap. Just saying.

 

Secondly. Destroy/Steal Ammo Truck won't work. We stole it, and took it to base, currently sat near the flag but it refuses to see it actually being there. So that is a thing.

 

EDIT: Also.

 

"Doubled mortar dispersion rate to make Antistasi more enjoyable for the Casual player."

 

Seriously. Casual player?

 

EDIT2:

 

-Snip- Nevermind.

[barbolani 198]

@stk2008: What I think is happening is the server has a lot of offloading and my monitor scripts work only server sided. Which means HC is thinking "server FPS is doing well, so let's spawn another group". Result is HC is over loaded and AI is dumber. Will script something for the HC to make load checks the same as the server does.

 

@jamie1992: Please post that on steam forums, I am not the owner of the manual so I can do nothing.

[stk2008 14]

That would be amazeing to have ai acting realy smart and fast using a headless client.

really cant wait for this one :)

Thanks matey

[barbolani 198]

Well, I started to work on it and I found something very good. It is just implemented already!

 

Despite the procedure is designed server sided, it works also with headless clients.

 

So, as long as you haven't set your FPS limiter to zero, your HC is not spawning too much AI, as it will stop spawning garrisons and civilians.

 

Can you please tell me your settings: civ spawn rate, fps limit, spawn distance?

 

Also if the HC is a wood PC or got busy for another reason, it will be easily overloaded.

 

What is for sure is: dumb AI = HC overloaded.

 

Try without HC and tell me the results.

[barbolani 198]

@jaime1992: I missed this:

 

Secondly. Destroy/Steal Ammo Truck won't work. We stole it, and took it to base, currently sat near the flag but it refuses to see it actually being there. So that is a thing.

 

90% of the reports come from having stole the wrong truck. There are two. The good one gives mission accomplished once you board on it (or destroy it). Please confirm. 

[stk2008 14]

Hi every thing is default apart from spawn distance which is set to 2000m.

Thanks