Coc unified artillery 1.0 released

[tankieboy 0]

I used to call in fire missions via VHF and BATCO from Sqn to O even 0 to FOO back as late as '99 in my little old Challenger 2 and Sultan. Sometimes we used Ptarmigan.

[Supah 0]

Hi Consigliere

Yes.

Counter battery fire is directed by radar that picks up the round in flight and performs reverse balistics calculations tracking the round back to source.

Picking up radio traffic by RDF is what KTM_Calle is talking about. That is the old fasioned thing you see in WWII films with the van with the directional antena moves around and some one plots lines on a map usualy capturing a spy.

The latter is fraught with problems in the modern era.

1) Modern systems can be and are typed then a burst transmission is made no voice involved (so our requests for fire stuff is half obsolete) typed transmits are more accurate and silent (Modern FOs can be a few feet from enemy forward positions looking into their rear areas at major assets such as HQs, Logistics, supply routes and strategic area assets such as artilery batterys.

2) As well as being burst transmits of less than a second modern systems are high speed frequency switching (meaning you have to monitor a broad band of frequencies to catch a message)

3) Finaly they are digital and encrypted (meaning that even if you monitor a broad band of frequencies to catch a message; would you know to put all the random bits tegether? Would they even add up to a transmit and not just random noise?)

Other options to further confuse the RDF picture are:

i)Short range radio to multiple long range relay

ii)Land line to multiple long range relay

ii)LOS laser to multiple long range relay

All result in the transmitions apearing spread over a vast area that is nothing to do with the FO making it all you can get in CB is the ten a penny transmitter relays about the size of a few stacked CD cases

Then again just plant fake FO radio transmits by air drop with relayed and recorded messages.

All in all modern RDF on the battlefield is a tail chasing waste of time.

It is reasonable up to vietnam era though.

Straight radio transmits still do happen and people even use diggital phones but you only catch the FOs doing it a couple of times then the rest will learn.

Kind Regards Walker

If your in western europe it would be lots easier to use a cell phone, lots of signals around and prepaids are hard to track anyway since noone knows who owns it :P You could like sms for fire support

[Sxep 0]

I really like it, thats great profesional work there!

[havocsquad 0]

I just have one small request to add for any future additions or changes to CoC UA.  I know I've mentioned it before, but I would like you guys to create a regular MRLS HE launching unit to add to your CoC UA.

I'm not asking you to do this solely because of just my wants, but for opposing forces like China and other countries would be using regular HE MRLS rockets.  In addition, if you were simulating a conflict with the U.S. in the 1980's or early 1990's before the end of the Gulf War, you would want to only have regular MRLS HE rocket support.

The other reason I ask besides the first topic reply I posted is..., I have a fighter campaign that will involve a few ground based missions, but these missions will have a very realistic combat environment. (hopefully...   )  If this campaign is sucessful with the ground-based missions, then I will have done my job well of simulating a "War of Attrition"

Anyways, I hope you will earnestly consider a MRLS HE addon added to the CoC UA, in order to add variety to artillery based missions and hopefully prevent any pathetic begging in this forum by me.  

Later,

Havoc.

[Wadmann 0]

First of all, let me say that this is a great addon for OFP that had been sorely lacking since the inception of the game! Great job!

One thing that I am curious about is this:

CoC UA + CoC Nuclear Torpedo Explosion = Tactical Nuclear Artillery?

I think that this would be a neat, albeit a rarely used, feature for this addon. I could see missions that would require you to destroy an artillery battery before it has a chance to fire the nukes at an advancing tank column thereby using it as more of a deterrent or as a consequence rather than as an actual weapon for everyday use. Is this on the drawing board for one of the future implementations for CoC UA?

                                             Wadmann

[dinger 1]

There's a good AMOS model in development.

MLRS: The M26 rockets fired by the M270 do not, last I checked, carry HE warheads. They do scatter these DPICM bomblets which spray fragments and have about 2cm armor penetration straight down (they use streamers). At least, that's my understanding.

As for a soviet or chinese MLRS: Yes, it can be done. The BM-21 for example would be a good choice, and it'd be easy to convert. Again, UA is an expandable system. At CoC, we're not the best at modelling (although we do have a few talented artists), but we can throw down a mean stack of code when we have to.

Other and "special" ordnance. Other ordnance is in the pile. Tactical Nukes on artillery shells, I'm not sure about. but that would make sense for say, CoC_CruiseMissiles, which will plug into CoC_UA.

[hellfish6 7]

There is the ATACMS, which is a cruise missile carried by the MLRS. I think it has an HE, not submunition warhead, though I may be wrong.

[edc 0]

Are you sure the ATACMS is a cruise missile?  I thought it basically had a ballistic trajectory.  And think it actually does have bomblets.

edit:http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/atacms.htm

It'd be really cool to have in OFP, but I bet the minimum range is bigger than most of the islands for OFP are.

And tactical nuclear warhead/chem weapons would be really cool. Especially somethin like atomic annie.

[thirtyg 0]

The ATACMS come in quite a wide range of missile types, guided, unguided, HE (WAU-23/B) and bomblet (M74 & BAT varieties)

If COC could made different payloads in the future that would be awesome!

M74 bomblets

BAT bomblets

[hellfish6 7]

I'm under the impression that the ATACMS has a programmable guidance system, which would qualify it as a cruise missile in my mind.

[ozanzac 0]

I beleive the TACMS in ATACMS states the purpose of the missile pretty well!

Tactical Missile System.  It's not strategic, it's not a projectile and it is a system.

If it were a cruise missile, it would reach a certain speed, then stay at that certain speed. For some reason, I beleive this missile is a burn out type of missile, as it will burn all [edit]if not most[/edit] of it's fuel up at an optimum altitude going as fast as it possibly can, then mayby activate a second stage of the rocket during the final stages of the attack.

[thirtyg 0]

I'm under the impression that the ATACMS has a programmable guidance system, which would qualify it as a cruise missile in my mind.

They do have a programmable guidance system.

Sorry, looks like they are only single stage rockets

[hellfish6 7]

Maybe. I figure there's gotta be a tube monkey around here somewhere that knows.

[dinger 1]

ATACMS are fired by the MLRS, but it's in a completely different configuration (we'd need a 2-tube MLRS model). ATACMS also have range characteristics and engagement conditions that make it even less of a choice for OFP.

ATACMS is more likely something you'd see on your AH-64 deep-penetration strike 60 miles or more behind the lines. In other words, while it is conceivable, especially on a double- or quad-sized map that a MLRS launcher firing M26s would be on the same OFP map as the target, we didn't think that was the case with ATACMS. (and it is a rocket)

The stuff I read had an HE charge, and several other types in development. And who knows what type of warhead the original TACMS design called for.

And yeah, I believe it does have a guidance system

[PunkSk8 0]

Love the artillary it kicks so much ass! For your next version just as a suggestion can u give the FIA some stuff like small mortars and howitzers?

[The Frenchman 0]

Somebody should revive the good old scud and give it balistic properties and dammage.  

Yeah, they should. Maybe give the explosion the CoC nuke explosion effect.

[Supah 0]

I've been blasting away at lipany for a while now with groups of 12 m101's. Its really cool, houses collapsing, trees falling over, loads of explosions and enemy infantry and armour flying all over the place Great work!

Edit: BTW is the sound of the guns firing really that loud? I had the guns on the airport on nogova and was on a hill overlooking the town, on the other side of the island. I could still hear the guns firing really clearly. Is it that loud in real life too?

[USSoldier11B 0]

No

You can hear them for a few miles, but that's quiet a distance from the Airfield to Lipany.

[bn880 5]

Yeah we're still trying to figure out how to get the best bang at 100m but yet not have it be clear across the island. The DB level of the sound effect was never quite painstakingly set. Perhaps on the next release we will have a look at what can be done to get more muffled sounds across the island. No promises though.

You should see my post on the OFPEC review, it may explain a little. (or confuse)

[Supah 0]

 Yeah we're still trying to figure out how to get the best bang at 100m but yet not have it be clear across the island.  The DB level of the sound effect was never quite painstakingly set.  Perhaps on the next release we will have a look at what can be done to get more muffled sounds across the island.  No promises though.

You should see my post on the OFPEC review, it may explain a little.    (or confuse)

i had heard stories of my granddad that they could hear the sea battles in WW1 in the northern netherlands while the ships were up north on the northsea, but those guns were of a much larger caliber i think I am a complete n00b at army things, you could have told me anything .... I have never been around artillery besides, It doesnt detract from the fun i am having with it at all. Again great job CoC

[Eda Mrcoch 0]

Great job CoC! Maybe too much realistic and professional for us military-dumb people.

I have one question though. You stated that addonmakers can add new UA compilant artillery pieces and it does not require to modify original .pbo. So why did you made UA with all the vehicles in one big pbo instead of making core engine and vehicles separate?

If I understand correctly, it means that if someone would like to use some other UA compatible artillery he has to d/l 11MB .pbo (not mentioning the documentation) with addons that he doesn't want. Is there any chance to make something like "CoC UA lite"? I mean only the engine without additional models.

(Please excuse my poor parody of English.)

[Wick_105 0]

the training area that we shoot at is about the same size as one of these maps and when the guns are firing from across the base you can still hear them, and for reference we fire 105MM howitzers

[dinger 1]

The CoC_Arty.pbo zipped is around 6 megs IIRC, probably less.

The reasons why everything is bundled in there:

A) Our initial plans for the release called for a disabling of the DLL feature. Frankly, the specs were liable to change and we didn't want addons that would suddenly become non-compliant (and in fact there will be at least one change to the specs -- on the waypoint feature). oh yeah, and nobody but me understood how the feature worked and jostapo was uneasy about it (as he should have been).

B) When negotiating for the models, we made inclusion in the pbo part of the deal. This ensures they get distributed.

C) inclusion also means that we're guaranteed to do at least one revision/update to the core. We gotta update those models, might as well fix the bugs. And who knows? We might "separate" the models in the future. It's not likely, but it could happen.

[edc 0]

So, its not possible for other addon-makers to make artillery, and have them in seperate pbo's, or am I missing something(I probably am).

[killswitch 19]

So, its not possible for other addon-makers to make artillery, and have them in seperate pbo's, or am I missing something(I probably am).

On the contrary - the beauty of UA is that you roll your own artillery piece as a separate addon ("pbo"). (It still requires the CoC_Arty addon, of course.) How you do that is hinted at/outlined in broad strokes in the CoC_Arty_Documentation.doc, however, a specific "how-to" isn't there yet. IIRC Dinger has hinted at doing some sort of tutorial at a later date. Right now, I wish him and the other chaps a well-deserved vacation from the CoC Labs

I know its possible since I have been able to do a "wrapper addon" around a 3rd party arty piece and made it work with UA, but it took some time and involved digging through a lot of scripts in the UA suite. And no, I wont let that one out the door, since its not my addon and I need to get more acquainted with the inner workings of UA. In time, when UA stabilises I will probably approach the original maker and suggest him to add UA magic to his addon, or ask permission to release the "Frankensteins Howitzer" I hacked together.