ECS + ACE mods (and maybe GL3), are they really compliant?

[madmatt 10]

Hello everyone!

Hi everyone! Over the past week or so I have gotten back into ARMA and have been amazed at all the incredible mods now available.

I am running ACE as my primary mod, along with the HiFi sound set and that works fine.

I also really like some of the AI enhancements included in ECS (along with the ambient sounds) but I am curious about the two separate wounding/bleeding systems.

It now seems as if when I get wounded the two systems seem to overlap on one another. The ECS system will usually allow me to perform First Aid and stop the bleeding but sometimes it seems as if the ACE system superceeds and my guy will still succumb to shock or pain.

It *seems* as if they work in tandem with each other, but I am not sure this is how it supposed to work. Are many people running ECS and ACE together anymore? I used the Mod guide posted on this forum and both systems are initializing and seem to be fine, but I wanted to see if anyone had another experience with these mods running aside each other.

Now, to muddle things up a little more I am interested in adding the GL3 1.4 mod as well. Again, it looks as if there is some feature overlap and I was looking for possible guidance with anyone running a similar config.

One last question, the documentation for many of the mods really seem to assume a lot of familarity with the games scripting and editing and its never really clear if when I play the stock missions or campaigns if I will I get all the moded AI effects. I certainly see graphic and sound differences (and the wounding system and UI changes), but it's hard to really determine if the enemy AI is really acting much different in those older missions. Do i need to somehow update them to support the mods that add new AI behavior or are these mods basically plug-play?

I know I am asking a lot but I am really enjoying AMRA all over again (and excited about ARMA 2) and was hoping for some guidance from those that have been doing the mod shuffle for years.

Thanks!

Madmatt

[manzilla 1]

All that I do is "turn off" the overlapping features from ECS + GL3 and use the features from these mods that ACE doesn't have. I never have any noticeable problems. But in full disclosure I haven't tried GL3 v1.4 with ACE yet.

GL3 is pretty much plug and play. ECS as well. What's great about these 2 mods is that features can be disabled, which really helps with ACE compatibility. The hardest thing for me was to figure out what features I wanted to use and which ones I need to disable.

Edited May 27, 2009 by Manzilla

[Maddmatt 1]

Well the major mods like ACE and ECS aren't really designed to work together, but as Manzilla said above it should be fine if overlapping features are turned off in ECS.

LOL nice choice of login name :D

[madmatt 10]

Hi there Maddmatt!

Well, I have been known as "Madmatt" for well over 20 years. Although I am new to this community, I am much more well known for my work in the gaming industry with Battlefront.com and games like Combat Mission and Theatre of War (among dozens of other games published over the last decade or so...).

I try and keep a low profile when I post on other forums, but I am first and foremost a gamer and when I find a sim that grabs my attention, I do what I can to promote and enjoy it, regardless of who makes it!

Madmatt

Edited May 28, 2009 by Madmatt

[dmarkwick 261]

This is going to get very confusing :)

[madmatt 10]

Yeah, sorry about that. If it makes it any easier, you could refer to me as "Madmatt from Battlefront" maybe?

Actually I am glad you posted here as I have a question about your JTD Smoke Effects Mod.

When run all by itself, I notice the new smoke effects and grenade explosion and the added HIDE functionality, however when I combine JTD with any other mods (like ACE+ECS), I seem to loose the new grenade smoke graphic effects but the HIDE command is still there.

How can I retain the smoke graphics when run with other mods? Is the load order important? I have tried disabling various features in ECS but it seems that when JTD runs alongside any other mod, the other mods enhanced effects take priority.

I am running the new XEH extenders although I wasn't really positive on how to load them. I have included them both in their own unique mod folder (and called it in my -Mod" string as well as embed them into JTD's own Addon folder. I notice that there are a variety of different XEH entenders floating around though. I think i have the latest, which is 1.93 but are there customized extenders meant for specific mods?

Madmatt

[dmarkwick 261]

No no no, the XEH addon only needs one instance of it. I (accidentally) had 2 versions for a while and it caused me problems. Here's what I do:

XEH is so important, that I place it in the ArmA/Addons directory. Now, I know you're not supposed to do this, but I think that XEH is so important to ArmA that it is warranted. So, get rid of all the others, and have the latest XEH addon in your ArmA/Addons folder ONLY.

As for the JTD effects, load order does seem to be important. People do tell me that they can get the correct blend of effects by shuffling the order about, try placing JTD either last or first in the load order and see which one of those two gets you your preferred blend. And, thanks for trying them out :)

Edited May 28, 2009 by DMarkwick

[Maddmatt 1]

Hi there Maddmatt!

Well, I have been known as "Madmatt" for well over 20 years. Although I am new to this community, I am much more well known for my work in the gaming industry with Battlefront.com and games like Combat Mission and Theatre of War (among dozens of other games published over the last decade or so...).

I have actually had a couple of people ask if I am the Madmatt from Battlefront and Combat Mission, now I know who they were talking about :)

Personally I've worked on a couple of mods (in my signature), and done a little bit of work for a certain game developer that I wont name at the moment.