LOST BROTHERS ADDON PACK #3 FINALLY RELEASED

[Supernova 0]

Yes I believe it was a prototype with a better engine but it seems it never went into production due to it being very costly.

Btw google search for Merkava 5:

http://gamla.org.il/english/article/2003/dec/win3.htm

Quote[/b] ]Merkava 5 is the latest version which incorporates battle-tested systems making it the most advanced tank in the world.

http://www.acpr.org.il/ENGLISH-NATIV/04-issue/fishbein-4.htm

Quote[/b] ]With the future of the Israeli tank program in limbo, the MoD has shelved plans to develop the next generation armored vehicle, the Merkava 5. Reports emanating from the IDF hint that the Army was considering replacing the Merkava’s tracks with wheels in an effort to make it faster, lighter and, in the view of some experts, more maneuverable.

Btw another bug report the Hizbullah BM-21 Grad included in the LOBO pack #3 turret doesnt turn when in gunners seat.

[Ase290406 0]

Wow Merkava 5? It was canceled a year ago. They concentrate on getting the Trophy system installed on the Mk4's. They also wanted it on every APC but I doubt it. Maybe on the Achzarit fleet and the future Namera.

[miles teg 1]

I've never heard of the Mk5 and some of the stuff in the article is questionable so I take it with a grain of salt. At any rate, as Ase mentioned, the Trophy system is the #1 priority for the IDF as well as continuing to field the Mk4 system since the Mk3 and even Mk2 tanks are still used.

As for the S-300, if we get a modeller and texture artist to make them for us (or someone else makes them and allows us to use them) we will have those for our Syrian forces who are now well under way in development.

But at the moment are chief project is finishing up the Jordanian pack which is going to be a really nice little pack and will be a fun force to have fighting against our Syrians when those are done. We also are hoping we can get one of our members to create a Jordanian Falcon and the latest Phoenix series of tanks. Currently we only have the Phoenix Mk1 developed (an M60A3 with a L50 120mm smoothbore cannon). It will likely be released along with an IDF update.

Both the Jordanian pack and the IDF update will require Addon Pack #3. Updates on the IDF will include bug fixes (including a few Egyptian bug fixes) and new modern IDF units with new infantry models and with some of the units outfitted with the Tavor. I might also see if one of our team members can model a trophy system and then use a script to destroy any RPGs or ATGMs that are fired at it 70% of the time. But then, to be honest, that might make things boring as already it takes a large number of RPG hits to take out our Merkavas and Achzarits. Nevertheless it would be good for missions in which the player must face a large number of enemy advanced ATGM systems in a mission.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Supernova 0]

Thanks for the quick reply again Miles Teg

Concerning the trophy system I guess if you can get permission then you can use the script from VIT-APC's BMP-3 Arena.

Btw what about Syrian/Egyptian S-125 (SA-3) would they be also included in the future ?

[miles teg 1]

For right now, other then bug fixes, we don't have any major plans for further Egyptian updates simply because we have so much other stuff to work on that has higher priority and already Egypt has a fairly well developed number of SAM systems now in the mod.

But if we develop the SA-3 for the Syrians, we may make an Egyptian version as well since its basically just a matter of some .cpp config work to add that.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Supernova 0]

Thats good news for the update do you have any approximate release dates for it because I can't wait to make a golan heights scenario

[miles teg 1]

Right now we don't have any release date for the Syrians.  It is possible however that we may release a small Syrian pack with the Jordanians when they are done.  But hopefully it won't be longer then a couple of months.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Supernova 0]

Btw any plans for the Merkava 4 conversion APC version to be released as well ?. It would be awesome to have the SS-21 scarab released with the syrian unit pack because the syrians have it in their possession along with the Pantsir S1.

[miles teg 1]

Yeah we do have plans to eventually do a Namera APC. But it will require alot of modelling work to convert a Merkava tank into one which will include raising the roof, removing the turret, and modelling the interior and the new remote weapon systems. So far with the Syrians we only have a T-72, BMP-2, BDRM-2, Mig-29, and Mig-25. We'll probably add at a Mi-17, Mi-24, a Shilka, and maybe a few other goodies. However the full Syrian pack will be a long ways off as we also have other stuff like the Palestinians and our Gaza map to work on.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Ase290406 0]

If you people want to release a small Syrian pack, get them fighter planes and Commando units to "help" Hizzballa in Lebanon. Maybe you guys will want to trow in some updated Iranian Revolutionary guards from the Iran/Iraq pack. The Israeli press mentioned IDF soldiers saying "It was like fighting an Iranian commando division".

About trophy, you can take an AT-14 Kornet from WGL, and empower the RPG-29. Both have done damage even to real MK4's

if I remember correctly. So the throphy system will be relevant against that.

Oh and great news about the "Namera" and "Tavor".

[miles teg 1]

Yeah the Syrians are important for all kinds of stuff.  We're trying to get remcen from the now defunct IM:UC mod to join us and continue work on Iran/Iraq stuff.  That way our Iranian addons can continue to develop.

But as for Hezbollah, yeah there were a few Iranian Revolutionary Guards, but from what I've seen most of the Hezbollah first-line units are basically trained as commandos.  In other words they are trained to a very high level of tactical expertise and unlike most Arab armies, are actually disciplined and not usually suicidal.  Our current RPG-29's from ORCS we can not modify.  That is our agreement with them.  However, as they are, two hits on a Mk4 from the ORCS RPG-29 will knock it out of commission.

We still need to import a Kornet model/textues into our mod. WGL made some.  We'll have to get permission from them, but yes we definitely want that. I didn't know that anybody made a Kornet ATGM.   The Kornet is quite possibly the world's most powerful ATGM.  

At any rate, yeah I will probably make some missions where during an assault on a Hezbollah base, you get surprised by Syrian commando units backed by aircraft and T-72 tanks.

I'll also probably make some Jordan vs Syria missions.  

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Supernova 0]

ooh a Kornet for the Syrians Can't wait for the next pack to come out.

Btw Miles Teg any plans for the 57mm S-60 AAA ?

As for the Mi-24 and others Im sure the other addons will suffice. Btw loving the C-802

Btw did u get the bug report on the hizbullah BM-21 gunner position where the turret cannot turn ?

[miles teg 1]

Hehe... glad you liked the C-802.  Right now there are no plans for a S-60 AAA, however as that was an important AAA gun historically, we may later work on one when we start doing the Syrian units for our historic pack.  But that will be much later.  Right now all priority is on the Jordanians just so we can get them released as we've been sitting on a 90% complete pack for a while and they really need to get released so we can move on with other stuff.   Later on the Jordanians will get updated with new digital cammo which is what most of the Jordanian military is now using.  When we started the Jordanian pack they were still using the older cammo patterns.   So currently in our pack only our Jordanian special security forces are using digital cammo.

The rest are using the old woodland cammo and chocolate chip desert cammo uniforms.

A bit of bad news: The Spartan APC unfortunately we had to remove as it still needs its interior completely redone for it to be even close to realistic looking inside.  So that APC probably won't make it into the pack.  The good news is that the Scorpion light tank will be in the pack.  We have it REALLY hauling ass at high speeds across the desert. In addition we gave it high detection range since it's used for recon work.  Its 76mm low-velocity gun however we made very inaccurate except at ranges under 800 meters.   Calm Terror has actually redone ALL of our tank gun/ammo settings so that they are much more realistic and reflect the different accuracies of fire control systems (or lack of). We also tried to reduce engagement ranges as well because some tanks were literally engaging targets half-way across the maps with pinpoint accuracy which lead to very boring and quick missions.

At the moment, the main obstacle to its release is updating the F-16 pack which includes IAF F-16's which are in the middle of being updated.  So that is taking awhile.

Nevertheless while I am waiting on that, I am working on Jordanian missions for that pack.  

As for the BM-21 bug, Calm Terror might know about it and most likely ignored it.  The primary reason is because the gunner position was never intended to be used by players.  It is based on Remo's system of long range "Line of Sight" artillery system where the AI BMP-21 crew bombard targets from long range (in a realistic manner) as long as they have line of sight to their target such as from a hill top.   They are also meant to be primary targets for air strike missions and commando missions.   So basically that bug is not a high priority as long as the unit serves the purpose intended.  Getting caught in a BM-21 rocket barrage in our mod is not pleasant.  All you can do is get under armor and hope you don't take a near or direct hit.   lol

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[NoRailgunner 0]

Well amazing Addons! Maybe later (end of year) you make an full conversion with 2-3 campaigns

Sometimes i got error warning that eg lobohmwv or awmcams missing... but they are in the right place. It's a kind of "ofp-miracle" or not?

[Supernova 0]

Ok thanks Miles Teg that clarified all my questions. I am not sure but will you also include UAV's for Hizbullah and will there be an Iranian army pack ?

[miles teg 1]

We actually already did a co-release with Bucketman (with heavy collaboration with the IM:UC mod) of an Iranian Army pack that included a wide variety of infantry units and an EE-9 armored car with a 90mm cockerill cannon.  That was made as part of our side project which included our Southern Iraq/Iran map.  Sadly nobody has made any missions with that map aside from the ones I included with it.   It is one of the least laggy Iraq maps with large cities.  Iran especially is quite beautiful on some of the routes up into the mountains as well as some of the cities.  In Iraq, the map includes the Shi'a city of Basrah.

We also threw in the Iranian F-4 fighter that was made earlier by someone else (can't remember off-hand).  All of those you can find on OFP.info here:

http://ofp.gamepark.cz/index.php?showthis=9336

Check 'em out.  You'l like them.  There is also a nice 73 Easting Iraq map there as well for large armored warfare missions against the IM:UC mod's Iraqi guys and vehicles.

We've always had good colaboration with the IM:UC guys which is why I hope Remcen joins our mod if he gives up the IM:UC mod.  That way we can help each other out more as our team while small, gets things done slowly but surely. We're actually one of the oldest (if not the oldest) mod teams around.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Ase290406 0]

Yeah that's the pack I was talking about in my last post. Just update them with new weapons and let them loose in Lebanon. Good hunting as they say.

[Supernova 0]

Oh yes I remember these fabulous and I especially love the Iran-Iraq map I staged invasions on that one

[miles teg 1]

Hehe...yeah of all the LoBo maps, the Iran-Iraq map is probably my favorite as it is loaded with lots of unique little places hidden away in remote areas of the map and has some nice cities. Its not perfect and could use an update, but it really is a quality map. I can't wait to be able to port this map into ArmA with the higher quality ground and vegitation textures of ArmA. But for now it really is a lovely map in OFP with opportunities for an enormous range of missions on it. I probably should sit down and make some missions using the Iranian pack and some of the more popualar US military addon packs (like HYK+COMBAT+King Homer's/someone else who I can't remember's updated M1A2).

I just really wish we had some Iranian MBT's. Bucketman was going to make some Iranian AH-1 Cobras and a T-55 with ERA for them, but I haven't heard from him in ages. I might see if one of our mod team members wants to do a quick Iranian T-55 as we do have permission from RHS to use their T-54/55 tank. The ERA boxes we already have. They would just have to be laid out in a manner similar to how they are in pictures of actual uparmored Iranian T-55 tanks.

Likewise a reskin of one of the BIS AH-1 Cobra shouldn't be too difficult. The hard part is just converting all the textures and cpp.config stuff over to new file paths. Thats a bit tedious and time consuming unless we just add it on to our existing pbo file with our IAF Cobras.

Until then if I make a mission for it, I'll probably just use the Resistance FIA BMP's and T-72's for the Iranians.

I've also been meaning to finish up some British missions using that map featuring the best of the DKMM and UK mod's British addons.

Challenger 2 tanks, Lynix helicopters, and British commandos raiding Basrah kicks ass.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Supernova 0]

The zolfiqar 3 does look a bit like an M1A2 so when I want to pretend im driving a zolfiqar I put my soldiers inside an empty M1A2 SEP. Most of the units that are needed for the iranian army are already released but it would be nice if we could get a model of the COBRA BMT , twin tail F-5 and others.

[Ase290406 0]

The Zulficar has a smaller turret than the M1A2 though. It's more of a box shape. But I prefer to see the Syrians ingame. That way we could fight against good old Soviet equipment in a setting other than the Soviet vs USA theme.

[miles teg 1]

Yeah both Iranian and Syrian opponents are loads of fun in OFP.   Hopefully we'll be able to develop both.  I think that once ArmA tools are completely released that we'll have a part of our team working on conversions of OFP stuff over to ArmA while the rest will continue to develop our Iranian and Syrian stuff.  Also many new units we will likely develop from scratch specifically for ArmA as I think slowly but surely, ArmA will develop into a rock solid game engine.  I'm already pretty much hooked on ArmA.  The main block however is ease of conversion of old OFP addons over to ArmA.  The need to use only one to five textures in ArmA is a real bitch and requires re-mapping of textures.   As long as we got the texture artists who can accomplish that, it'll be no problem.  But right now we only have one.  Calm Terror is in the process of learning, but its no easy task.  But we also may get new team members with more ArmA expertise as time goes on.  So we are fully committed to keeping the mod alive in both ArmA and OFP and we will look to recruit any new talent that is interested in joining our team.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

The Lost Brothers Mod Team.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Jeff2121 0]

I feel like an idiot asking this, but how do I install the mod? I tried the hard way, by copying and overwriting everything, needless to say it ended in disaster...

I couldn't find any documentation on how to install it in the thread though.

[Snuffy 0]

EDIT: Stupid question.

Hey do i need to install the previous packs of LoBo to play this mod?

[miles teg 1]

Snuffy: You only need Addon Pack #3 and the latest Sinai/Lebanon map pack which also should be posted on the first page. Oh also you need to have the BAS JAM3 weapons/ammo pack installed.

Jeff: The easiest way to install the LoBo pack is to first erase in your addons directory any .pbo file that starts with LoBo.

Then unRAR the stuff from the RaR file's addons directory into the addons folder that you're trying to get them into. If you just unRAR the whole thing into the directory it will basically put a new folder into your addons directory. You'll then have to manually cut and paste the .pbo files from that new directory into your addons folder (after deleting any old LoBo files). The .pbo files from your missions folder from the RAR file should be placed into your Operation Flashpoint/missions folder.

However... the Addonpack #3 RAR file is designed to be unpacked as a complete mod folder which is why it has those different folders in it. The ideal way to install the addon pack is as follows:

Step 1: UnRAR the Addon Pack #3 RAR file into your main Operations Flashpoint folder.

Step 2: Delete any LoBo pbo files from your Operation Flashpoint/Res/addons folder.

Step 3: Copy your Flaspoint desktop icon (the one that you click on to start OFP-Resistance) and paste the copy back onto the desktop. Right click on it and rename it to "LoBo Mod".

Right click on it again and go to "properties".

You will see one box called "Target" and in it you will see the file path to your flashpoint.exe file that starts the game.

Highlight this file path and change it to:

"C:\Program Files\Codemasters\OperationFlashpoint\FLASHPOINTRESISTANCE.EXE" -nosplash -nomap -mod=LoBoAddonPack3

That file path is assuming that you installed the original game in your C:\Program Files directory which is the default directory that windows installs all programs. If you installed it into a different directory the edit the file path to reflect whatever director you installed the original game into.

Now once you've finished editing that new desktop icon go to the LoBoAddonPack3 folder that you put into your main Operations Flashpoint directory. Copy the mission pbo files from the missions folder and place them into your main missions folder in your Operation Flashpoint directory.

Now go pack and copy the user missions from the LoBo directory and place them into your Operation Flashpoint/users/players name/missions folder.

For installing the sinai/lebanon map pack just unrar those files into the addons folder in your LoBoAddonPack3 mod folder. Do the same for installing JAM3 (the link should also be on the first page...if not I'll put it there right away).

Anyhoo...I hope that helped.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>