Vietnam: The Experience - final alpha

[Snake Man 407]

This is the Vietnam: The Experience Final Alpha release (05-08-09), it is our sixth release for ArmA. This release has been done after heavy multiplayer testing and several suggestions and requests from the players.

Pre alpha means that this is work in progress. Usually the release cycles go from alpha to beta to release candidate into the final release. This release is still incomplete but the earlier versions have been proven on MP to be very enjoyable, this release should enhance the MP even more. We just want to warn anyone who is interested to not get their hopes up, VTE team is not in the business to overhyping their work.

• - Many models have no normal or specular maps.
  - Soldier models with bad texturing.
  - No missions or campaigns (except on our dedicated server).
  - No shadows on ported objects.
  - A "few" errors on arma.RPT file...

The bad list continues.

DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THAT THIS IS WORK IN PROGRESS.

This release contains the following: A1 Skyraider, ACH-47A Gunship, AH1 Cobra, A4 Skyhawk, A6 Intruder, B52 Stratofortress, C130 Hercules, CH-34, CH-47 Chinook, F5 (camo and grey), F4E Phantom (camo and grey), F105 Thunderchief, MC130 Combat Talon, MiG-17 (two camos), MiG-19, UH-1 Huey (slick, dustoff and gunships), O1 Birddog, OH-6, S56 Sikorsky, LSSC, PBR, two sampans, USS Kittyhawk, M48 Patton, M113 ACAV (3 machine guns), M551 Sheridan, PT76, SA-2 SAM, T55 and ZU23. For personal weapons we have: AK47, AR-15 (Colt Commando), CAR-15 GL, Bren2, Browning, DP27, Enfield, Garand, Ithaca, Kar 98K, L1A1, M1 Carbine, M3A1/SD, M14, M16A1, M21, M39 Hush Puppy, M45 Swedish K, M60/shorty, M72 LAW, M79, M1911, Mas36, Mosin 38, Mosin Nagant, MP40, PPD40, PPS43, PPSh, PRC25, RPD, RPG2, RPG7, SKS, Sten/SD, Stoner, SVT, Thompson, Type63, Type 56, Type 68, Uzi and XM177e.

Config for all the VTE v0.4 soldiers (in theory basic OFP VTE v0.4 missions should work with little tweaking), there is now new models for most of the infantry branches. And of course the VTE objects/terrains, including two prototype terrains and few single tree terrains for us to try out in MP environment.

Disclaimer: If you create missions with this release, be prepared to overhaul them completely in the future when we release next version, we guarantee you that classnames and stuff will change to break your missions. However the soldier classnames are now set, I would not think they will get changed, but nothing can be promised at this moment. Be prepared to expect bugs and broken things in this release. More mission porting compatibility has been added to this version.

Screenshots: I run ArmA with all details set to low/very low and disabled, but I did take some shots from our MP sessions with the first release, check them out in VTE ArmA screenshots topic. However here is the earlier screenshots by granQ:

A4

O1 Birddog

M79 grenade launcher

VietCong face (old vietcong).

CH-34

GI Joe (old Army soldier).

NVA (old NVA soldier).

M113

Weapons 21st June 2007.

Huey's

Here is few screenshots of the new stuff.

SEAL

SEAL 2

SEAL 3

SEAL 4

SEAL 5

LRRP ERDL

LRRP ERDL 2

LRRP ERDL 3

LRRP ERDL 4

Future plans: We have alot of work to do, all of the models need to be reworked, textures done, terrains... configs... oh boy, dont get me started, anyone care to help? Hehe. I'm looking forward to working for the NAM stuff, it will be great.

Please join to PMC Tactical (VTE) dedicated server to test MP with this release, the more testing and bug reports we have, the better we can develop this further. Read details of the addons etc in PMC Tactical (VTE) dedicated server ADDONS topic. Hope to see you all on the server.

Vietnam: The Experience online manual can be found here.

When you see something missing or wrong in the manual, please send feedback to us in our forum, thank you.

Download VTE_final_alpha.rar - 1.15gb.

Mirror 1: Armaholic.com.

Mirror 2: Gamingsa.com.

Mirror 3: Armedassault.info.

We appreciate the mirrors and more would be very welcome.

Edited July 19, 2012 by Snake Man

[wld427 1705]

Glad to see you guys back on the release page. congrats!

[.kju 3245]

Very nice to see another release of VTE.

Do you consider doing some replacement configs SnakeMan?

I would love to play some of the OFP campaigns with VTE units again!

[manzilla 1]

Beautiful my friend! Thanks to you all!

[soldier2390 0]

cangrads... smake man! cant wait to try this one out

[GI-JoE 0]

Great new ;) . Thanks VTE team.

[Sgt.Spoetnik 10]

Great stuff Snake man,looking better every update,got me straight to the "Nam" again ,gonne swing by the server this week-end to play a bit ,time for some aircav, cya later.

[RUDOLF 9]

Great release and good mod updation strategy. Yeah, don't need to wait for everything perfect and that could be done later. That could also avoid to let everbody waiting with nothing to play all long.

[Snake Man 407]

Glad to see you guys back on the release page.

Technically we were never there (BIS forum), even though we did 5 releases already ;)

Do you consider doing some replacement configs SnakeMan?

I would love to play some of the OFP campaigns with VTE units again!

OFP campaigns hmm... like... what? I don't understand... You want to play like CWR 1985 in Malden but using VTE units?

Release frontpaged at the Armaholic homepage.

Thank you very much, appreciated.

looking better every update

To me, this release has kicked off way way too low key, I mean perhaps I should completely rewrite the release announcement as this version is miles away from the old ones, the amount of fixes and performance improvements is just amazing.

I mean if I'd paste the changelog here direct, nobody would have interest to read it through completely, its that long.

Just checked, there is 1194 lines in the changelog, yes one thousand one hundred ninety four... now that is bunch of fixes :D

gonne swing by the server this week-end to play a bit

I really hope to get some multiplayer time on Vietnam again, so hopefully we meet in the server.

don't need to wait for everything perfect and that could be done later. That could also avoid to let everbody waiting with nothing to play all long.

To me its enough if the addon won't give errors in game, it works and its high performance... we can tweak the nuts and bolts on the artistic side later (when we get texture artist for example HEHE).

Of course there are some items in VTE which doesn't work properly, but if they work at least some degree, again sufficient for me, for now.

[.kju 3245]

Do you consider doing some replacement configs SnakeMan?

I would love to play some of the OFP campaigns with VTE units again!

OFP campaigns hmm... like... what? I don't understand... You want to play like CWR 1985 in Malden but using VTE units?

Yep basically. Not CWC 1985, yet for example PMC ones or fan made campaigns.

I don't care much if the theme fits. As long as the atmosphere is good, I am happy.

:bounce3:

[Alphadelta 10]

wow. There's a heck of a lot of content here! This is a treasure trove to a mission maker. Tons of objects, loads of units, lots of vehicles. I couldn't believe how many islands there are, and just how accurate they are. Blown away by this mod!

The mod definitely has it's fair share of bugs though. Sorry if I sound negative, just want to do what I can to help.

Armour seems to be a mixed bag. The T55 textures seem to be distance textures like lod 2 or 3 or something. The PT-76 chassis mesh is missing, and the decal on the side makes the hull transparent. The M551 sheridan has camo coloured tracks and the textures on top look really stretched. The M113 ACAV is awesome and for the most part the tanks are usable in missions.

There are a few bugs with units. The Vietcong shadows are messed up, they drive right into the ground. The Cambodian mercs are white guys/black guys when they should be Asian. Generally units dont seem to be buggy at all.

Weapons seem generally good although there are some bugs. The M14 has a weird lighting/texture bug where the left half of the reciever is compeltely black, the M21's receiver is fine, though it has some other texture bugs on the scope and scope mount. The M1 garand has no front sight aperture, the weapon card style seem to be very diverse, and the recoil for some weapons is non-existant. A lot of the ammo icons seem to be M24 ammo icons which is a bit weird. The m67 recoiless rifle has no sound. The ithaca is the ugliest model I've ever seen in my life :P and it seems to have a mag containing 39 rounds. The M60 shorty has no rear sight apeture. You can't zoom forward when using the BAR sights, and also the rear sight has no notch. Last thing about the BAR - Not sure which version you simulated, but the M1918A2 had no semi-auto, but had a selecter switch that would reduce the fire rate from about 550rpm to about 350 rpm, might be a nice feature. The M3A1 greasegun has a really high rate of fire, should be much slower I think. Last thing about weapons, the M16 used by units from 64 - 67 was pre-A1 spec, it was essentially the same as an A1 but it had a tulip flash hider. The A1 introduced the bird-cage flash hider and was used from 67 onwards. Not nit-picking, just giving out an idea.

The mines don't seem to work, I get a bug when i try to preview about how the game cant find a fire anim.

The M1XX Artillery doesn't seem to have any ammo, but maybe I'm missing something. The M19 mortars only work if they are EMPTY objects, but when you do get in the mortar operator sits 4 feet in the air. The big M30 mortar has a weird gunner position looking straight into the sky.

A couple of the helicopters have alpha bugs (you can see through the huey dash board and straight through the right side of the S-56). The CH-34 USMC and SOG both have semi-transparent doors. I haven't really tried out the fixed wing aircraft, but they look decent! Very impressed that they have authentic cockpits. I noticed both versions of the THUD have no cannon. B-57 canberra cockpit position is down on the floor looking at the pedals. O-1 Birddog pit has a transparent dashboard like the huey.

By far the biggest bug I've found is the complete lack of voice sounds.

One small point about terrain. During the war, the vast majority of the land in Vietnam that could sustain agriculture, was farmed. It'd be really nice to have a rice paddy heavy map. Parrots beak is good, but there's no real variation in the paddy textures.

A lot of great content, a lot of islands, a lot of potential. Looking forward to updates.

Edited May 9, 2009 by Alphadelta

[Alphadelta 10]

Yeah I'd love to make some missions. Probably aim for a mission by mission set that works itself into a campaign as I did with my Porto P'85 campaign. The missions would be co-op capable.

The hardest thing is trying to choose a topic from the thousands of stories that came out of the war. I'd love to make a dustoff campaign. If you haven't read "Dustoff: The Memoir of an Army Aviator" then I highly-recommend it! It'd be quite a refreshing campaign I think. The battle of Ia Drang would make for another fantastic mini-campaign and everything I can think of that it needs is already in the mod.

Perhaps evolution or domination could be ported to the mod? That might help to make it popular online. It would need to be modified to remove the focus on towns, and instead focus on capturing firebases, small airstrips, villages, tunnel complex's, communication centers, brown water navy ports. The possibilities are endless.

Regarding the removing of sounds. I wonder if there's a possibility to add in hand signals, not 3d Model animations, but simple 2D graphics. Did you ever play SEAL team? It had a great atmosphere and some very interesting details. For example, when you gave a command a small graphic would show the hand signal for that order. Perhaps in VTE the text could be removed, and instead, when you are given an order or give an order, a small graphic shows you the corresponding hand signal. It might seem a bit pointless but it was a very nice detail. But I don't know what can be modded and what can't be in that respect.

If you have some ideas for missions let me know and I'll start working on them.

Cheers

Edited May 11, 2009 by Alphadelta

[wipman 1]

Hi, something like The Lost Patrol (for Amiga500) may be pimp, get to Duhoc. Let's C ya

Edited May 11, 2009 by wipman

[sparks50 0]

Any missions for this interesting mod would be appreciated :)

[horror1 10]

first i want to say ur mod is absolutely mind blowing, i was playing for hours and it never seemed to feel like a mod for arma but more like a game on its own:)

As for multiplayer, last night we already had nice fun on the PMC Tactical server, even though some missions still had some pre-alpha bugs (will be fixed today).

yeah i was with u -=TB=-HORROR ingame , i found some missions ready to play on pmt with ur new release.

one of the best was vte coop lost patrol and amazingly i found a fully working vte warfare mission on my hd Warfare_Vietnam_9uVTE_09beta.VTE_IaDrang it was modified but it works perfectly with the new release without any addons, just one thing was missing, the jeep.

this might be a part of the addons but the mission runs perfectly on la drang and i played yesterday as host for 5 hours and NO PERFORMANCE issues whatsover.

so ur mod is one of the best playble mods outthere with the best performance by far even on warfare as host:)

excellent work ;)

the only thing whats annoying is that the ai soldiers cannot move over the rice paddies barriers.

it would be awsome if u could fix this as fast as possible, bcause vietnam was rice paddies fights AND jungle fights

Edited May 11, 2009 by horror1

[Alphadelta 10]

Snake-man,

I read your thread about a possible SEAL team campaign. Was anything ever produced? I think it has the most potential. The meekong map is great and offers a lot of possible scenarios. I'm thinking about a good story line and direction.

Do you have any plans to update the SEAL units? One thing I notice is that they all look identical. They all wear the same headband and have the same camo clothing. Have you thought about maybe giving two or three SEALs tiger camo boonie hats? Perhaps another two could get camo beret hats they commonly wore. Talking of clothes, SEAL's and ASAS regularly wore denim jeans into combat. That'd be nice to see and would add some variety.

Either way, I think I'll start on a meekong campaign SEALs campaign soon.

Cheers

[ANZACSAS Steven 395]

Hi everyone,

I am happy to see that people are getting some fun out of the Mod.:)

We would like some feedback on the test versions of 5 of the islands/Terrains.

In particular Quan binh son ,Parrotsbeak and MDSZ single tree test versions.

Quan binh son -(test) has approx. 700,000 objects.Medium sized Terrain.

Parrots beak has approx. 800,000 objects.Large Sized Terrain.

MDSZ has approx. 300,000 objects .Small sized Terrain.

We are interested in how everyone's pc's are coping with the single tree terrains.

Please note MDSZ is a very "Vietcong" inspired terrain and will be demanding on your pc with high view distances.In this terrain i prefer to run my viewdistances low and run as high shadow settings as possible.:)

Also, Turning your shaders option to very low it takes the "shiny" effect off the trees on all the islands.

Steve.

[Alphadelta 10]

The single tree maps run fine on my rig (Q9550, 2GB RAM, GF 9800GT TOP).

One bug a lot of the islands share is floating bushes. Like this one.

They seem to be particularly bad on the crests of sharp hillsides. Is this a general bug with a bush mesh or is it something that has to be fixed in every location it's found?

Cheers

[horror1 10]

Hey please send me the Warfare VTE version.

sent :)

another excellent fully working mission on pmt server was a revive map with mission name : vte_public_event_final1.vte_poleikleng.pbo

played yesterday with up to 7 ppl and later with another guy and it was AWSOME, i must say the revive option is WAY better than the stupid ace uncoscious feature.

it was absolute intense and besides some minor things, like no vehicle respawn when something is destroyed, it was an amazing experience in the jungle as a team working together as it should be in vietnam, and not everyone is running wild alone on the map like so many countless missions out there:)

so in my opinion this mod needs MORE REVIVE MISSIOOOOOOOOOONS :)

cheers and cu on the rice paddys

Edited May 12, 2009 by horror1

[ANZACSAS Steven 395]

Thanks Alphadelta for your feedback.

The floating bushes you have pictured are the 50mx50m object "blocks" that were used in OFP but dont seem to work anymore.In OFP these objects used to "fit to ground by way of the game engine coding.This does not exist anymore in ARMA1 that we know of.There has been a couple of experiments to fix the "fit to ground" but unfortunatly there hasn't been one that doesnt introduce bugs of its own.

So unless ARMA2 is coded differently to ARMA1 the only remedy at this time is to re-do all the islands/terrains using single tree/bushes objects.

Which means that some islands that existed in OFP may very well have to be "thinned out" to avoid serious frame loss.

Also ,previously i mentioned that there are 5 islands to try (testversions),there are only 4.There was a test version of Long son that was supposed to be in there,but didnt make it somehow.

Steve.

[Alphadelta 10]

It's a shame to hear that it can't be easily fixed because it's a real immersion killer crawling up a river bank only to see folliage climb into the sky as you get closer. Are there any plans to re-populate the MeeKong map with single tree/bush objects? If so I'll probably wait before starting work on my campaign.

Cheers

[ANZACSAS Steven 395]

Alpha delta,

With ARMA2 around the corner ,i would say there wont be anymore VTE releases for ARMA1.

The 4 islands that i have converted to single trees and that are in the Alpha Release i was hoping would keep us going untill ARMA2 or someone releases a hi-quality NAM style island for ARMA1.

MDSZ (test) has a Meekong "swampy" feel.I hope that will suffice for now.

Are most people enjoying the AI M60 bursts? I have spent prolly around 50 hours all up editing and splicing them and then getting the ai to match the human behaviour....I hope most people like as much as i do.But iam prolly a bit biased considering the time i spent on em.:)

Steve.

[horror1 10]

@snakeman

hmm somehow the warfare mission doesnt work on pmt server when i try to start it, it says "no entry´bin/config.bin/cfg.vehicles.claymoresammobox´."

so it seems to be broken,while hosting and starting on my system works fine.

seems to need some rework i will try to find out wich addons cause that problem :)

on topic:

i have played vte final alpha now for more than 40hours and i would like to give some feedback about it and a few suggestions too.

1.) the glass in the planes and choppers seems to be white, i cannot see properly through the windshields of f4 and f5 i also have problems with the huey windshields.

i dont know if this is a feature but i think a pilot should have the best posible visibility so i suggest to rework the windshields.

2.) the empty us jeeps dont seem to be drivable,the actiomenu dont show up

3.) in the huey gunship the feet of the passengers stick outside

4.)the shadows of the rifles are displaced.

5.)tanks cannot drive through high grass

6.)ai soldiers cannot go over the ricepaddys barriers

i have a few suggestions regarding the server name and the lack of players.

1.i can only talk for myself and how i go for a arma match when i like to play arma.

i allways filter out pwed server, bcause iam aware that i need a pw wich i dont have most of the time :)

so its useless to see pwed server unless i get somehow the pw.

in the pmt case its easy to get but i fear most of the ppl dont even bother to visit the site so they wouldnt even know, like i didnt knew , that the pw is on the site.

this limits alot players.

as i saw yesterday the pw was removed and i think this is a good way.

2.the pmt server is the vte-mod server but i think it should be CLEAR in the servername what kind of server it is.

vte-mod is only known as vietnam mod by interested arma players, but alot players dont have a clue what vte means , there fore they try to connect and they get kicked because they have not the mod and they have no idea what is needed to play here AND they dont know that this is an vietnam war mod wich would makes them curious in some way to try to get the mod.

most dont bother because arma is full of addon servers and many ppl dont bother to get every needed addon just to play a mission.

so it should be clear in the server name for every interested in vietnam warfare that this server is dedicated to VIETNAM VTE-mod only.

in the server description it should state clear WHERE to dl the mod and that ONLY this mod is needed to play so ppl dont get lazy as i do when i see i need 20 addons to play on a server :)

i would type it with capitals so everyone can see it and try to get the mod.

something like this : PMT´s VIETNAM Mod Dedicated Server @Vte-mod

just a suggestion, bcause i know how hard it can be to have a mod loaded but i cant find a server with this mod and every other server kicks me bcause i have this mod loaded, so next time i dont even bother to load the mod :)

3.and please get back the radiostations in the sounds, i miss radio saigon alot

cheers and see u in nam:)

Edited May 13, 2009 by horror1

[Alphadelta 10]

I tried out MDSZ test. It's a nice map, but it's a bit linear and there's no villages or clearings along the river bank. Parrots beak and Quan binh son are good, but the rivers are just too narrow to trust the AI to navigate down.

Cheers

Alpha delta,

With ARMA2 around the corner ,i would say there wont be anymore VTE releases for ARMA1.

The 4 islands that i have converted to single trees and that are in the Alpha Release i was hoping would keep us going untill ARMA2 or someone releases a hi-quality NAM style island for ARMA1.

MDSZ (test) has a Meekong "swampy" feel.I hope that will suffice for now.

Are most people enjoying the AI M60 bursts? I have spent prolly around 50 hours all up editing and splicing them and then getting the ai to match the human behaviour....I hope most people like as much as i do.But iam prolly a bit biased considering the time i spent on em.:)

Steve.

[Sgt.Spoetnik 10]

hi guys, yep its been fun online these last days, and the mod have been improved again but still here and there some bugs,it came a long way sinds beginning,

Steve when can we see you or you brother online? cant wait to play a bit with you aussies.:bounce3:

Cya later.

Edited May 13, 2009 by Sgt.Spoetnik