The Unsung MOD (Vietnam War)

[nettrucker 142]

Awesome. Looks very good. Will patiently wait for this to be released.

Keep up the good work.

kind regards

[dimitri_harkov 10]

Is there a way to add random booby traps to an area via a module or script? I think that'd be cool, so even the mission maker doesn't know where the traps may be.

That should be no problem. Cool idea btw! :)

[Warrior Xâ„¢ 0]

Is there a way to add random booby traps to an area via a module or script? I think that'd be cool, so even the mission maker doesn't know where the traps may be.

Being a mission maker for the mod and having placed a hell of a loooota traps for people to step on/into over the past years, i can say this wouldn't be a bad idea. Except, there is one problem there. With the current vegetation we have, the jungle undergrowth is so thick that manual placement is very nescessary. If we do not do it like that players would not be able to spot the traps at all almost. Although realistic to hardly be able to see tripwires, it would seriously have an impact on play itself. I can see the comments already "I can't see sh#t! I can't spot these traps at all, they invisible" etc etc

Just a small show of how traps can look that are manually placed by me and what happens when you step in one.

Tripwire grenade trap placement somewhere in the jungle:

Tripwire grenade trap placement somewhere next to a rice paddy wall:

Example of what walking carelessly around the jungle can do to you...and you step on a man sized punji trap (warning! might have a "oh damn that had to hurt" effect hahaha):

The guys within the Unsung hate my tricky trap placements so much. That for when we playtest missions...guess who they send on point hahaha And to be honest, i can't figure out many of the times where the hell the traps are untill i actually see them myself or...yeah actually walk into them myself. Every piece of jungle looks like...well the next piece of jungle two blocks over or the last 5 kliks you just humped out there for example hahaha

And here's just two random pics from humpin' along somewhere out there. Destination and location unknown. Out there in the jungle i guess...

All the stuff seen in above pics is still WIP and getting tested and perfected with every day. As can bee seen from even last two pics, random placement without knowing where the traps are placed can be very difficult in game play eventually because no way to spot them untill it's to late.

Quote from Platoon:

Your gonna love the 'Nam! For *peep*-ing ever!

[jw custom 56]

Nice pics. Those traps can they be placed by script? If so it should be pretty simple to place them randomly for those who wants that :)

[Warrior Xâ„¢ 0]

Nice pics. Those traps can they be placed by script? If so it should be pretty simple to place them randomly for those who wants that :)

Well we have no scripts to place them yet. We have tried it once to have VC/NVA units carry them as sort of a weapon so that players could manually place them just like satchels. But we decided to eventually not do that as it gave a few problems.

The current traps are placed through the editor, so manually by mission makers/editor fiddlers. So i quess once you know the trap object names you could basically call them through a own made script and have them be placed at random. But again, you would most likely have a difficult time spotting them on the ground. I seen it myself. Placed tripwires, couldn't spot them at all as they were just bellow the undergrowth leaves. Only way i noticed them was when the trap got sprung and you hear that deadly "click..BOOM"..dead. ;)

[PolishGI 0]

Theory vs application...

In theory, good idea... application, not very practical I think. As X stated, it is difficult to see given the garbage you have to walk through. You will most likely place them in strategic locations (e.g. paths, doorways to hootches, roads) but then that requires precise placement via manual process.

But that is the beauty part of the community. We create tons of different things so have at it!

I'm glad there are more screenshots... not enough IMHO... (looks at X....)

[Kiki 10]

Great work, the gun sling is a very good idea, it adds more realism

[jeza 5416]

Stunning guys, aside from the traps, i love the vegitation thickness, good work.

Any Joy with the Bamboo Whip ?

Edited June 2, 2010 by Jeza

[PolishGI 0]

Any Joy with the Bamboo Whip ?

Joy and bamboo whip should not be used in the same sentence... haha

Its on the list of To Dos at the moment... But nothing built yet. We have certain items we want included in Release 1, and we are working on those atm. But you are thinking on the right track and we hope to include this down the road.

[Devil Dogs SF 13]

I see about the trap placement, those jungles look so realistic too. Looks so much like the actual jungles seen in the combat vids of Nam.

[PolishGI 0]

its quite offensive when fighting in that vegetation as well... you learn to distance yourself from the pigman (m60)... he attracts a lot of attention...

[NoRailgunner 0]

Just curious how the AI will find their way through the dense jungle? Is the AI vision blocked by vegetation like human players vision?

How much impact does the jungle have on performance because A2 fog isnt really a good looking option?

[PolishGI 0]

Good question, that is where the issue lies with creating a jungle environment within A2. To clutter or not to clutter? That is the question. Or do you place each and every piece of vegetation now that a tool exists to do that? There appears to be some questions coming up about the auto-clutter feature and its ability to CTD the game.

We have to run down each rabbit hole to see how A2 reacts and how the performance is...

So to answer your question... AI finds their way through the vegetation quite well. Obviously, AI avoids rocks, buildings, trees etc. On the larger veg models, there are paths everywhere for the troops to follow. Vision is blocked using View LODs in each model. We have large grass fields with view LODs setup to conceal troops as long as they remain below the grass level (read prone). This view LOD could be small in width or it can be wider depending on the density of the grass. (e.g. you can see further is lighter grass or 5m in front of you in dense grass) So the AI will not have an advantage.

We finally figured this out in OFP if you ever played our MOD back then... We figured it out in A1... And we believe we are getting close to utilizing the A2 engine effectively. The performance on the current setup is very good.

We will not release an island if the view lods are not setup properly or if performance is in the toilet. This kills the island entirely and takes away any enjoyment. So we do not intend on wasting our time or the community’s. There is nothing fun in fighting in a jungle atmosphere and someone shoots you from 300m away through bushes, trees, shrubs etc.

Rest assured we have a minimum expectation to reach as we have been doing this for five years now (OFP)??? Geez, goes by quickly… But this is what is causing the delay in releasing the MOD. Meeting our expectations with the island…

[sparks50 0]

Is the gun sling visible in third person? It sounds like a bit of a pain to make animations for it?

[PolishGI 0]

Is the gun sling visible in third person? It sounds like a bit of a pain to make animations for it?

Yes, it is visible in third person.

[madrussian 347]

Vision is blocked using View LODs in each model. We have large grass fields with view LODs setup to conceal troops as long as they remain below the grass level (read prone). This view LOD could be small in width or it can be wider depending on the density of the grass. (e.g. you can see further is lighter grass or 5m in front of you in dense grass) So the AI will not have an advantage.

You're post inspired me to start a thread on the matter (AI x-ray vision and view LODs in ArmA2). A while back I did some messing around with the default ArmA2 vegitation, to my dismay. If anyones interested, it's here.

btw- Good luck with the mod. Can't wait! :)

[Takko 10]

We will not release an island if the view lods are not setup properly or if performance is in the toilet

Wasn't that the case with the ArmA 1 version, that a lot of players badmouthed

about the performance?

[PolishGI 0]

Wasn't that the case with the ArmA 1 version, that a lot of players badmouthed

about the performance?

With A1, you could get away with using an older machine... typically the same one that people played OFP with... With A2, you most likely going to need a newer machine, and gfx card to run the game because of the shader versions.

So, perhaps! If that answers your question. A1 was kind of middle of the road and if you had an older machine/card, you might experience some lower FPS. I will assume that most of us have newer equipment now to run A2 (I had to purchase a new machine) so performance should be increased.

Not knowing your background, you will find that people (community) will bit** and complain about something or everything so we cannot account for all of those statements. But I will tell you that I am getting about 35-50+ FPS in the bush with the current setup. Under load (large battle), it maybe is 25-45. For me, that is acceptable since I do not notice any lag, just a number in the upper left hand corner.

Hope that answers your question.

[Takko 10]

I have a rather good rig, but I can't wait to try your mod out.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Thanks for answer and hope that its good to play with or against AI in the jungle. Somehow I remember it was much easier for AI to spot targets and the usual procedure was to send them as forward superscouts :D

[PolishGI 0]

Thanks for answer and hope that its good to play with or against AI in the jungle. Somehow I remember it was much easier for AI to spot targets and the usual procedure was to send them as forward superscouts :D

Funny... isn't that cheating? hahahaha

Good idea though... Fight fire with fire...

[Kiki 10]

Do you guys are planning to make the PBR Mark II boat patrol ?

[Sif 10]

I know this may be an odd question but have you guys considered using the M16A1's from the RH pack? The sounds and the model itself are pretty good.

[deadpool2894 14]

will you have tanks like m48 pattons and apc like m113

[PolishGI 0]

Do you guys are planning to make the PBR Mark II boat patrol ?

Yes, but down the road… We have a riverine pack we want to put together that would include most of the river craft seen in Vietnam. But again, this upcoming release is more of a foundation in which to build off of…

I know this may be an odd question but have you guys considered using the M16A1's from the RH pack? The sounds and the model itself are pretty good.

Not an odd question, but no, we will not be using a 3rd party model for our M-16. All of our weapons have been hand built for A2. We have quite a few new sounds for the weapons as well. We have two sound guys that are very good.

will you have tanks like m48 pattons and apc like m113

:bounce3: :)