ITC Air Systems - V1.8 - CCRP, Encore, Updated Compatibility

[yax 597]

1 minute ago, ski2060 said:

Hmmm.. how much of an impact will it be to keep them as keybinds?  I ask because one of our pilots has F16 MFD sets and can only utilize them with controls that can be bound to keys.
If they go mouse only that may impact people that use MFDs or HOTAS setups.

If it's not possible I understand.  Just want to give you an idea of where the interest is coming from.

 

I'm toying around with the idea of in the future giving all the MFD buttons hotkeys so you could bind those, so that could be an alternative options.

[ski2060 167]

Sounds great!

[Crielaard 435]

If only this RHS depencency could be dropped. Needing to download 10Gb for just this is a bit outragious. 

[yax 597]

Currently it's only dependent on RHS USAF, which is 700mb. I do understand though that the dependency is a bit much considering how few RHS things I rely on, so I will work towards removing the RHS dependency soon.

 

In the meantime, I've been focussing on getting a single MFD to work, and am coding it as modularly as possible so both MFDs will support all MFD pages once I re-introduce the second MFD.

Currently the MFD supports full configuration of all JDAM features. Aesthaetically the MFD also gets dark at night and you can turn on the backlighting for the buttons.

 

[yax 597]

Posting twice in a row I feel like a bit of a spammer, but progress has gone quicker than expected! I've released an early version of the MFDs on the dev version of the mod, so anyone who feels like it can test it!

Standard hotkeys are shift+left and shift+right to toggle the MFDs, up arrow to toggle the cursor to click the buttons.

 

[SnakeDocc 72]

This is incredible dude, I have been waiting so long for this in Arma, good luck with the development of it.

I'm sure its something you have thought about already but adding some sort of JTAC/FAC tablet like the one in the link would be next level

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/forward-air-controller-uses-android-tablet-to-rapidly-o-1696705764

[Crielaard 435]

Very nice mate.

However RHS USAF has dependencies for RHS AFRF. 

 

But but, as you said, you are moving away from that so happy days.

Need a mod maker to help you fill the gaps, or an extra hand? I can help. 

[jone_kone 158]

 

Awesome mod! It really redefines A-G A-A combat in Arma! @oukej really needs to see this!

 

Since jets released it´s always been frustrating when the engagement ranges has been so short that you only have a few seconds to lock, fire and then turn and burn. Usually ending up in the best tactic being a kamikaze run just spamming missiles (because turning and defending still usually always gets you killed anyway).  The increased A-A and A-G lock ranges now makes for much more dynamic gameplay as you can fire a first harassment salvo and then either turn and defend or turn, reaquire and fire another salvo before merging.

 

A-G with AGM-65:s and all the diffrent version now feel much better. You can actually lock and fire from 5+ km instead of vanilla ~ 3 km.  Also like how the AGM-65E (laser version) only locks on the laser and require pilot skill to find, aquire, lock and kill targets (can´t just spam the lock button and hope for the best).

 

That being said. Now with the increased lethality of the Jets. Any ideas on improving SAMs? 

 

[yax 597]

2 hours ago, SnakeDocc said:

This is incredible dude, I have been waiting so long for this in Arma, good luck with the development of it.

I'm sure its something you have thought about already but adding some sort of JTAC/FAC tablet like the one in the link would be next level

https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/forward-air-controller-uses-android-tablet-to-rapidly-o-1696705764

 

Thank!
I've had something like one of those tablets in my head, if it's going to happen, it won't likely be soon, I feel like there's more sorely missing capabilities the game that I'd rather address first.

 

1 hour ago, Crielaard said:

Very nice mate.

However RHS USAF has dependencies for RHS AFRF. 

 

But but, as you said, you are moving away from that so happy days.

Need a mod maker to help you fill the gaps, or an extra hand? I can help. 

 

There's actually one huge gap that I can't myself do anything about, which is models. I understand models are pretty hard to come by and even harder to import in to arma, but I'll just write down some models I feel like I'm missing, and why I'd like them in the mod, just in case anyone is interested.

BRU-42 Triple Ejector Rack(TER)

Currently this is one of the RHS USAF dependencies, the triple mount for bombs that don't need a smart station. I think these TERs were in Arma 2 so they might be available through the A2 assets.

GBU-39 SDB / GBU-54 SDB II   +  Quad Station

SDBs is something I'd like to implement to fill a sort of capability gap. The guidance for the GBU-39 is almost completely in the game already, I'd mainly then have to add a guidance path for the impact azimuth.

GBU-38 JDAM and GBU-54 LJDAM

This is a case where I'd just enjoy having models for the stuff I've implemented so far, but it's not actually in any way anything other than looks. Honestly someone taking a grey paintbrush to the Mk82 would already be incredibly cool.

 

1 hour ago, jone_kone said:

 

Awesome mod! It really redefines A-G A-A combat in Arma! @oukej really needs to see this!

 

Since jets released it´s always been frustrating when the engagement ranges has been so short that you only have a few seconds to lock, fire and then turn and burn. Usually ending up in the best tactic being a kamikaze run just spamming missiles (because turning and defending still usually always gets you killed anyway).  The increased A-A and A-G lock ranges now makes for much more dynamic gameplay as you can fire a first harassment salvo and then either turn and defend or turn, reaquire and fire another salvo before merging.

 

A-G with AGM-65:s and all the diffrent version now feel much better. You can actually lock and fire from 5+ km instead of vanilla ~ 3 km.  Also like how the AGM-65E (laser version) only locks on the laser and require pilot skill to find, aquire, lock and kill targets (can´t just spam the lock button and hope for the best).

 

That being said. Now with the increased lethality of the Jets. Any ideas on improving SAMs? 

 

Thanks!

I have to give a lot of credit to the Jets DLC, its(often underrated) sensor config and pilotcamera system are incredibly detailed and I couldn't have made any of this without the Jets DLC being as awesome as it is. They made realistic sensors adjusted for vanilla gameplay, all I had to do is essentially turn some knobs and flip some switches in the configurations for the planes to set it to overpowered realistic mode.

There's something very satisfying about cruising 8km out, slewing my tgp to the FCR, releasing a JDAM from 7km out, turning away and watching it hit while I'm orbiting 6km out. I intend to make a more detailed FCR page similar to the one on the F-16 for the planes that have an FCR, and of course also make a TGP page.

 

For SAMs I'd love to do some more work on company and battalion level air defense systems. I started on a script a while ago that would calculate for a MANPADS gunner when to best engage, but the main issue with it was that I couldn't actually get the AI to fire when I told it to. I'll revisit this stuff in the future and maybe release it as a standalone if I can get anything useful out of it.

[Crielaard 435]

Doesn't Pooks SAM pack allready do something like that? 

[the_one_and_only_Venator 163]

59 minutes ago, yax said:

BRU-42 Triple Ejector Rack(TER)

Currently this is one of the RHS USAF dependencies, the triple mount for bombs that don't need a smart station. I think these TERs were in Arma 2 so they might be available through the A2 assets.

GBU-39 SDB / GBU-54 SDB II   +  Quad Station

SDBs is something I'd like to implement to fill a sort of capability gap. The guidance for the GBU-39 is almost completely in the game already, I'd mainly then have to add a guidance path for the impact azimuth.

There is a triple and a quad station for the Scalpel ATGM in game. Probably at least the triple ejector could serve your purpose. I configured it once to carry 3 Mk82s and it looked okay. Also there is a triple ejector for the Macer/Maverick missile in game. You could also take a look at that although I find it to have too much spacing between the individual weapons.

Also the models of the cluster bombs could be worth a look.

[yax 597]

17 minutes ago, Crielaard said:

Doesn't Pooks SAM pack allready do something like that? 

 

I think it does, and I definitely don't intend to compete with any of that. I'd probably just make a little script module you can sync to some vanilla SAMs. But that's a thing I'd do when I run out of aircraft stuff to make.

 

1 minute ago, the_one_and_only_Venator said:

There is a triple and a quad station for the Scalpel ATGM in game. Probably at least the triple ejector could serve your purpose. I configured it once to carry 3 Mk82s and it looked okay. Also there is a triple ejector for the Macer/Maverick missile in game. You could also take a look at that although I find it to have too much spacing between the individual weapons.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'm planning on using the scalpel triple station when I remove RHS. I'd definitely like to bring back a realistic looking TER as soon as possible though.

[ski2060 167]

First off, this mod is great! It is bringing some awesome capabilities for pilots in my unit and JTAC integration with the ROVER SIR and Marker Spot.
We're anxious to see your future development and looking forward to more weapon types and quantities on racks along with the MFD implementation.

So I understand you want to start reducing dependencies to a minimum for ITC.  It looks like the suggestions above will work to help that.  Maybe you can use the GBU-12 models for one or more bomb types?
If you are looking for texture work to do different color variations on the Mk82 to differentiate your Weapon types I can ask one of our guys that has done some texture work to see how hard it would be to do them for Mk82's.

Have you thought about making a Compat file to integrate With Firewill's AWS mod and/or Aircraft?  AWS and his aircraft have some amazing features that would work well with ITC I believe.  I know A26Mike is working on some form of compat mod for them, just wondering if you had thought about it also. FIR AWS has all the custom Ejector racks and Weapon models you could possibly want.

[kimi_uy 135]

Wow, now this is awesome!

[yax 597]

UPDATE V1.2 - MFDs, Compatibility, LJDAM

Changelog

• IR Laser no longer requires Rover
• RHS USAF requirement removed
• LJDAM added
• JDAM reliability improved
• Functional MFD system

Known issues

• COM page radio volume doesn't work
• TAD markers disappear when IR marking laser is enabled

Description

V1.2 features the MFD system first release. All ITC Aircraft features can now be configured through MFDs. For ACRE users, the COMs page can also be used to change the channel on their radios. For non-ACRE users they currently don't do anything. Documentation is not yet up to date, and will be updated in the following week.

 

An overview of all current MFD pages

 

Future plans - MFD framework

The MFDs are already pretty modular as it is from a developer point of view, so in the future I intend to take advantage of this and push it further.

Currently planes can be defined to have left, right, or both MFDs possible, to allow simulation of planes that only have one MFD.

Next up will be page-restricted MFDs. The goal here is to allow people to enable limited MFDs for various vehicles, ie letting users configure a single MFD for their transport helicopter with only a COM and TAD page

Finally will be user-programmable pages. To allow people to completely fill out their own MFDs to add any feature they'd like.

 

Future plans - General

I intend to expand the MFD pages as I add more functionality, upcoming features will likely be

• Nose and Tail fuzes on bombs
• MFD TGP page displays live TGP feed

[ski2060 167]

Freaking awesome quick work!

I am running ITC on a server for testing, and having some issues.  I can't seem to spawn either the F-181E or the A-159 while in Zeus.    I will check to see if they are in Eden, but for sure I can't see them while in Zeus.
This is on the version previous to 1.2. 
I'll check again as soon as possible though.

[yax 597]

38 minutes ago, ski2060 said:

I am running ITC on a server for testing, and having some issues.  I can't seem to spawn either the F-181E or the A-159 while in Zeus.    I will check to see if they are in Eden, but for sure I can't see them while in Zeus.

 

F-181E worked on 1.2, but not the A-159. I just pushed a hotfix for it, and now that should work just fine too.

[ski2060 167]

Just now, yax said:

 

F-181E worked on 1.2, but not the A-159. I just pushed a hotfix for it, and now that should work just fine too.

Awesome!  Thanks for the quick turnaround.

[Scotty_Z 46]

would love to see Firewill compatibility with his jets and weapons systems

[ski2060 167]

Ok, 181E and A-159 are both spawning for me now.
We did some testing last night, and things seem to be working for the most part.  I noticed it seems that Insert Key is not working for Datalink Broadcasting.  We tried deleting the keybind and resetting it, but Datalink for Rover seems to only work from the MFD.

I know you said that Documentation will be updated this week, but I have a question now.

Does the Laser coding work now for LGB's?  Or will it only work for ACE Hellfires?
We didn't get a chance to test that out.

Also.. what are the differences in the GBU-54 and GBU-54 LCBD?

[yax 597]

1 minute ago, ski2060 said:

We did some testing last night, and things seem to be working for the most part.  I noticed it seems that Insert Key is not working for Datalink Broadcasting.  We tried deleting the keybind and resetting it, but Datalink for Rover seems to only work from the MFD.

 

Are you sure it doesn't work? I removed the sidechat message when you toggle it, so now you have to look at the MFD to actually see if it's turned on or not, but the keybind hasn't been touched.

 

2 minutes ago, ski2060 said:

Does the Laser coding work now for LGB's?  Or will it only work for ACE Hellfires?
We didn't get a chance to test that out.

Also.. what are the differences in the GBU-54 and GBU-54 LCBD?

 

The Laser coding only works for the GBU-54 at the moment.

The GBU-54 LCDB is the "Low Collateral Damage Bomb" variant, it has the same BLU-126 body as the GBU-38(v)4/B, so its blast radius is much lower.

 

12 hours ago, Scotty_Z said:

would love to see Firewill compatibility with his jets and weapons systems

 

While I'm not making any compatibility mods myself, I documented my systems so others can make compatibility mods for aircraft they want to use, and there's one that supports RHS and FIR that just got updated to V1.2 link

[ski2060 167]

Thanks for the info.  I do have the Compat Mod that A26Mike just updated, and can confirm it is working as advertised!

Thanks for the great work so far, and look forward to more of it!

[yax 597]

I've reworked the fuze code, reliability on the JDAM's DLY fuze is improved, a programmable Prox height of burst and Delay timing might be coming soon, not sure.

What is likely to come soon is an updated version of the TGP page.

I also intend to make an SOI system to allow input in to MFDs with hotkeys. In the video you can see some initial testing where I'm moving the TGP around with my arrow keys.

[jone_kone 158]

On 3/18/2018 at 2:05 PM, yax said:

 

I think it does, and I definitely don't intend to compete with any of that. I'd probably just make a little script module you can sync to some vanilla SAMs. But that's a thing I'd do when I run out of aircraft stuff to make.

 

 

Pooks SAM-pack is indeed impressive. But that kinda is it´s problem. It has too much of everything for a community with 90% infantrybased gameplay to implement it. 

 

Utilizing vanilla content and improving on the original content as far as possible makes a mod so much more approachable from a community standpoint.

 

I could imagine an air only radar version with longer range of the Nyx in the tank DLC and maybe a mobile SAM launcher version of the NATO MLRS that can be data linked to radars. AAA and Manpads are already pretty much covered so I think we´re good there.

 

It still makes me sad that BI didn´t even try to improve on the AA in the Jets DLC. Especially with already really good modular APC:s/IFV:s that basically would have only needed a new weapon station to change roles.

 

(mockup)

 

 

However, glad to hear that you have plans for a SAM sometimes in the future! Sorry for the OT detour... :)

 

 

 

[ski2060 167]

@jone_kone  There is already a Data-linking Radar targeting SAM system based off the vanilla MLRS in the Bratwurst mod.   Silly name, but it works. 
The Bratwurst mod has a couple different versions of SAM vehicle (Active and Passive Radar seeking) as well as a decoy vehicle.  You should check it out of you're looking for something vanilla based.

I do think the Nyx from TANKS will be a good vanilla base for mobile SAMS also.  It comes as 4 vehicle variants with one a dedicated Radar vehicle with Data link for the other versions.

@yax Again, Great work!  We've already got ITC up on our unit's server.  Members were very impressed with your work.

Question.  You have ACRE radio integration with the MFD COM page.  Any chance you can integrate TFAR for it also?