Coc unified artillery 1.0 released

[dinger 1]

Nice job on figuring it out Killswitch.  We're not trying to hide anything .  The documentation should explain it, although it's not a "this is what you need to do" sort of tutorial.

basically, there are a bunch of sqfs in the root directory you need, plus a gamelogic named after the addon pbo directory, and a dynamically-assigned variable name registration system that adheres to UA specs.  That's all anyone needs to make something work with UA.  Simple, huh?

[canukausiuka 1]

Would the model have to conform to certain parameters, or would just modifying the .cpp of an existing addon work (example: I44's mortars)?

[dinger 1]

depends on what you want to do.  If you've got your own fire control system and just want to plug it in, then all you need to do is correspond to the certain parameters.

For example, we're working on cruise missiles.  Ideally, addon should work on its own: just place the cruise missiles on the map, give them some waypoints, and ideally they fly to target and detonate (they're not released, so this is subject to change).

But place a Cruise Missile launcher object on the map and the obelisk, and it registers to UA.  The user sets an aimpoint, and the thing finds a path.

So likewise, if say Ceph's equations work perfectly across the map, you can make an artillery unit with them instead.

Still, for shells to fly across the map, you'll have to use the "LGB" hack:

the shells that are fired have to be shotmissile simulation with a thrusttime to 0.  That kicks OFP into what looks like a BIS hack on the missile simulation that they did for bombs, giving them a TTL of 2 minutes.

Everything else you can play with, but these simulation parameters are essential.

Of course, once you do the "LGB hack", you lose any .cpp weapons clouds.  And the projectile kinda plops.

So then you need a fire EH that takes care of both of these things (sending the projectile on its merry way and kicking up smoke).

Incidentally, with UA the barrel's elevation is set to the projectile's trajectory. Otherwise it looks silly.

[Chill 0]

Great Addon! But why the limited ammo? And can you make it that you can readjust the amount of rounds? You can add at first and subtract but you cannot add.

[iNeo 0]

But why the limited ammo?

Realism?

[the_shadow 0]

i have a few questions... first of all, where did the ruskie artillery go? i want it now (so i have some stuf to blow the shit outta)

then i have another question...

when do we get smoke, illum and air detonations?

as a third point... it takes too long time before the artillery starts fiering, i know this becouse irl i´m making the calculations (fiering elements) for the swedish artillery and when we get the fiering order it only takes a few seconds before the guns fires the first rounds, (around 3-5 seconds) well, if we don´t have any problems with the fiering callculator that is

but it takes maximum of around 40 seconds until the first rounds are in the air...

and at last, i want the guns to fire the first round simultaneous, then it would be more realistic

[dinger 1]

The explanation for the delay has been given before. Here it is again:

It's flashpoint 1985, and we tried to include a set of artillery that would work for the era, and be more or less useful for missions from vietnam to contemporary stuff.

The delay takes in the time to transmit the call for fire, adjudication and engagement.

The Field Manual mission response time for the MLRS is a maximum of 3.5 minutes, with a minimum somewhere like 2.5 minutes.

The UA MLRS gets the rockets in the air 55 seconds after the "call Fire" button is pressed. The M101 and M252 have similar numbers.

The big delay is with the M109, and that's only when they're not in a firing position. 1.5-2 minutes consists in those things trundling around and lining up into a firing position. We'll say they're "positioning and stabilizing". We sorta need to do this because with OFP's idiosyncratic physics maximum range on a LA trajectory is at about 23 degrees elevation. Sometimes they're firing pretty shallow, and if one of the other howitzers gets in the way, that can be trouble.

Once the M109s are in a "firing position", they will stay there until ordered to move. Subsequent calls for fire take about 35 seconds. This is 20 seconds for adjudication and 15 seconds to line up. 15 seconds is pretty near the minimum needed to get the barrels pointed in the right way. In fact, I need three more seconds (as you can see in the intro tutorial, where the last m109 hasn't swung around yet). So in the next revision, I'm going to increase this number.

Now, if you take a weapons system like the SFP_strf90 in development, I've implemented a faster response time for them. It's 10 seconds to transmit the call for fire, read it back, judge it, and issue the fire order, then 18 seconds to elevate the barrels.

As for why they're not firing all at once, well there's a good technical reason for that: FPS. We lose a little accuracy with slowdowns, but in severe cases we get an interesting variation on a hangfire. In developing UA, we couldn't make this "hangfire" impossible, so we made it very, very unlikely (as in 4x accel on Tonal, with 2000 units on a Duron 500). Firing a salvo at exactly the same moment loads the simulation more than staggering them.

Of course, how much we stagger them depends on what we're trying to simulate.

So again, to use that SFP AMOS as an example, since we're firing in MRSI mode, we want the shells to arrive at more or less the same time, which means a very short separation. So currently that's a .1 separation between firing units and .5 seconds between the two tubes on the same unit (so it's 1-2-3-4-X-1-2-3-4 per mV/elevation). The rounds all come in with 1 second of each other. Yes, it would be nicer if it were all at once, but it's more realistic that the shells all arrive at the same place.

Russian stuff is coming too. We did it this way so we could get the bugs out of the system.

Smoke, Illum, Time and VT fuzing will come when I can talk jostapo into it.

[shinRaiden 0]

Disclaimer, I have not read 'all' of the code and scripts yet...

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Okay, the MLRS uses a derived rocket for ammo, but a shell proxy is displayed in-flight. Is the rocket logic essential for firing and visual effects (smoke trail), or is that ammo- independent?

If this logic could be applied to shell ammo types, a makeshift Katyusha could be implemented, with maybe a delete (or setobjecttexture) function on racked rockets (or not for tubes).

Thanks.

[the_shadow 0]

ok, thank´s Dinger for your answer.. it makes sense to me

it´s great work however

since i´m in the artillery myself, this rocks

[bucket man 2]

Is there anyway to make resistance able to use artillery?

[bn880 5]

Why not, it should function the same way as getting the East side to use it. Place the empty artillery pieces on the map, then perform moveinGunner/Driver/Commander(as needed) on your Resistance soldiers in the mission editor or init.sqs.

[Supah 0]

Hi guys, i want to make a old addon UA compliant but me being a complete idiot at scripting i have no idea how to. Is there an idiot proof (cuz i shureh em won) tutorial for this?

[munger 25]

I think the tutorial is still in the process of being developed.

[Supah 0]

I think the tutorial is still in the process of being developed.

Then i shall have to be patient

[OG_Killer 0]

Hi, I have one question

Can a M109 or any other Ari fire a Flare?

In real life i mean .

And when yes could you do it with your artillery ?

It would be very cool if you can call the ari for light.

OG

Sorry for my bad english!

[dinger 1]

RE: developing addons.

Yes, we're working on a tutorial.

If you are an addon developer and are looking to make your own addon work with UA, contact me directly, and we'll get you started.

RE: Flares

yes, the real-life M109, M101, and M252 are all capable of firing illumination rounds. Illum rounds are very bright and burn for anywhere from 1-5 minutes (or so). We do plan on including them in a future release of UA.

[uiox 0]

No depbo.

Only test player side.

5 hours test

Great work.

Bravo.

[mads bahrt 0]

Bug report:

There seems to be some problems when there are multiple laserdesignators in one mission. I've experienced that i had a reading even though I had my laserdesignator on the back.

I've also experienced that the reading it gave was false when more than one person tried to use the laserdesignator at the same time.

[dinger 1]

For multiple laserdesignators in a mission, you might want to use the triggerless detection system.

[ExtracTioN 0]

can you make a seperate Addon.pbo for the Bas artillery and SEB mortar addon I want to put those in NAM mod folder if I put the pbo now you got the MLRS and M109 too in editor i want only the mortar and BAS artillery in my NAM mod folder

[bn880 5]

can you make a seperate Addon.pbo for the Bas artillery and SEB mortar addon I want to put those in NAM mod folder if I put the pbo now you got the MLRS and M109 too in editor i want only the mortar and BAS artillery in my NAM mod folder

No we will not do that.

Wait let me consult the team... no need.

[Wick_105 0]

I've been using these addons since it came out, there great addons but the bas m101 is a bit of a let down...is there going to be any chance of a better light gun in the next installment?

sorry if I offended anyone.

[Viriato 0]

What´s going to be first?

The UA plug in tutorial or some new unit/units for UA

Want more!!

KA-BOOM.. Jeje

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

Suggestion for Version 1.2:

Better 105 model

Support for custom flags/unit ensembles on vehices (MLRS is widespread in Nato for example)

Small ship for naval support (Frigate/Destroyer perhaps), with both missiles and gun

Obelisk power-up - perhaps remove link, put it into first screen? It is a bit distracting ;)

Radar range fire, to combat enemy artillery? User could be asked whether assets should fire at enemy artillery?

[mads bahrt 0]

More suggestions:

An expert mode which should require the spotter to start out by marking his own position and his viewdirection (i've been told this is how it's done in real life...)

A better binocular with mils-markings on the axis of the crosshair (propably done as a pistol with no ammo since i'm being told it isn't possible to change the original binocular)

A pluggable language interface enabling people to translate CoC UA for use in national mods.