DPICM Artillery Addon

[charon productions 10]

I am currently working on an artillery addon that adds the option to fire DPICM and ECM rounds to the ingame artillery. The ballistics are kept and at a certain deployment altitude above the target the submunition grenades are dispersed and fly to the ground (and not just setpos-ing them right next the target) at whatever angle the delivering projectile had with a little dispersion.

Maybe someone has additional ideas what to include.

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And here with tracers to visualize the submunition trajectories:

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The MLRS uses M26 tactical rocket with M77 submunition.

Each M26 contains 144 M77 shells (644 in reality).

The BM-21 uses 9M27K projectiles (actually for BM-27, but to keep ingame balance)

The M119 uses M916 projectiles and M80 submunition grenades.

I have found no online info on the names of DPICM projectiles for the D-30.

Anyone familiar with their names?

Cheers

Edited September 30, 2009 by Charon Productions

[Binkowski 26]

Looking good! Can't wait to see it in game.

[Steakslim 1]

That looks diabolical, I love it.

[Lunatic 10]

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/dpicm.htm

According to this article DPICM is only fired by MLRS and now probably GMLRS

[usarmy19dsniper 0]

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/dpicm.htm

According to this article DPICM is only fired by MLRS and now probably GMLRS

what? look on the right side of that webpage, lists all the different calibers and their respected munition type.

[Lunatic 10]

what? look on the right side of that webpage, lists all the different calibers and their respected munition type.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/122_mm_howitzer_2A18_(D-30)

here is the list of know munitions for the D30, and only two ICM canisters are known, 1 Israeli and 1 chinese.

M335 (CL 3153) and Norinco Cargo respectively.

There is 1 other, egyptian but name not known.

[charon productions 10]

@Lunatic:

Thanks for helping.

I am sure the russians manufacture their own DPICM munition though.

Will ask some russian friends to do a cyrillic search for it ;)

Just wanted to name the munition correctly in the config, maybe i`ll just keep generic names for now.

Apart from DPICM submunition, there will be Artillery Delivered Expendable Jammers (AD/EXJAM) to disrupt enemy communications:

9M519 122 mm Radio-Jamming Unguided Rocket Projectile

3RB30 152 mm VHF radio-jammer cargo projectile D-20

XM867 AD/EXJAM low-cost, gun-rugged, broadband barrage transmitter

Could be fun in MP, when suddenly your radio stops working and you have to track down the jammer to destroy it and bring up the comm again especially when clans are fighting with each other.

Usually these jammers have a radius of 700 meter and battery life of 1 hour.

Will make it something like 10 minutes for the game variant.

Also working on an ECM protoype submunition that basically barrage jams radar-based ground vehicles in that vicinity. So it can be used to jam anti air enemy vehicles.

First test are promising, the aa when jammed can not lock on any missiles or fire the cannons at longer ranges than visual (~1000 meter).

If attacked by land vehicles they are however able to use their cannons effectively against ground threats.

Test with 7 enemy aircraft:

Jammed Tunguska:

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Unjammed Tunguska (just for comparison):

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Edited October 1, 2009 by Charon Productions

[.kju 3244]

Pretty cool stuff. Especially FX and sounds are great too!

In the end thats most important - without the right feel, it is only half the story. :)

Edited October 3, 2009 by kju

[charon productions 10]

@kju: You are right. I am adding custom sounds too, because the ingame artillery sounds are only "half" ;)

Does anyone else also believe that the ingame Mortar HE damage and impact effects are way to "blown up" ? I think they look like heavy bomb impacts rather than mortar shell impacts. Have the idea to size them down to an accurate level. Also all HE in the game uses the same impact sound, which gives a wrong impression about the ammo strength.

EDIT: I went ahead and did it and it looks much more closer to the real thing now. Demonstrates more realistic sound effects too:

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Edited October 4, 2009 by Charon Productions

[beita 10]

Is that an incoming artillery sound I hear? Nice. The impact effects look better, the damage radius also seems better.

Would it be possible for you to do any work on 60mm mortar rounds? They would be fantastic additions to the game, an easy platoon mobile mortar piece (rather than the 81/82mm mortar, more of a Company piece).

[charon productions 10]

Yeah all shells have exactly timed incoming sounds now. The arty module was actually designed for it, but for some reason there were none added.

It would be no problem to do 60mm rounds, just the actual mortar model would be needed. Was there something like that in Arma1 that could be ported?

Even the 80mm rounds are very devastating, so 60mm could be more adding to the atmosphere without players dying instantly hehe.

[charon productions 10]

A little demonstration of the artillery delivered expendable jammers (AD/EXJAM) on the battlefield. The models and scripts work as intended.

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[charon productions 10]

I have finished the models for Area Denial Artillery Munitions (ADAM) and Remote Anti-Armor Mine (RAMM) that are delivered by artillery.

There is an issue with the anti tank mines.

If the tank is damaged by the mine explosion then the crew just jump out

with 0.3 damage value and continue their WP on foot ?!

I am not sure if that is realistic.

I could damage the crew more by script but maybe the damage is really limited to the vehicle only.

Also the mines should be evaded by the AI when placed on a road, but hidden in the grass, they should not be detected.

The AI evades them pretty much all the time because it just sees them as an obstacle. The complete removal of the GEO lod might help, need to test that.

If there is people who would like to alpha test the artillery mod a bit, feel free to contact me.

Edited October 8, 2009 by Charon Productions

[noubernou 77]

As an artillery SUPER freak, I am totally blown away by how awesome this is.

I am mulling over a whole system of player enabled artillery systems (including Jones Mortar type aiming with elevation and azimuth, real FDC, and guns tied in with the FDC) and was wanting to add in DPICM and other projectiles. I would love to talk to you in the future about using your projectiles.

Once again, awesome work!

[charon productions 10]

I will make sure that Arty+ will be compatible with Nou`s FDC that he is working on which is a great idea.

The mines are fully functional now.

Both the dropped anti personel mines and the anti vehicle mines will be evaded by the AI if they are lying clearly visible on a road, but deep in the grass the AI will not see them and not evade them.

Can a single shot of an M4 make an AT mine blow up?

Trying to figure out the right armor values for the mines, so they go off if a too close neighbouring mine goes off or if they suffer damage from other projectiles.

I am also thinking if an area that has been mined should receive a map marker for friendlies warning of the mines or not ?

[noubernou 77]

For the mines being taken out by an M4 it would probably depend on the sensitivity of the explosive. If the mine is shot out of a cannon I would imagine the explosive sensitivity to shock is fairly low, at least at the velocities that a rifle round would impact it at (probably detonates on the order of a few thousand feet per second of force, that of which a blasting cap would cause).

For the map markers, maybe make it show up only on easier difficulty modes? I know that for us when we play that would be another thing that operation commanders would need to keep track of, where we lay down mine fields, etc, and that is a good thing.

[charon productions 10]

@NouberNou: You are right about the markers, in SP the player should know where he deployed the mines and in MP there is commanders to take care of that.

About the mines vulnerability to shock you are also right, i just wanted to give players the chance to somehow neutralize a mine (if they even managed to detect it in the first place).

Here a little demo of the artillery delivered mines :

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[noubernou 77]

@NouberNou: You are right about the markers, in SP the player should know where he deployed the mines and in MP there is commanders to take care of that.

About the mines vulnerability to shock you are also right, i just wanted to give players the chance to somehow neutralize a mine (if they even managed to detect it in the first place).

There has been suggestions about having engineer units in our group, being able to go up to mines and disable them one by one, or developing some sort of MICLIC type mine clearing vehicle/system (yea, that'd be sweet/hard).

I know EOD use high powered .50 cal rifles to disable some explosive systems, not sure if they can be used to disable mines (assume they can disable them).

---------- Post added at 05:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:02 PM ----------

There is an issue with the anti tank mines.

If the tank is damaged by the mine explosion then the crew just jump out

with 0.3 damage value and continue their WP on foot ?!

I am not sure if that is realistic.

I could damage the crew more by script but maybe the damage is really limited to the vehicle only.

Depends on where the mine goes off. If its armor piercing and it goes off under the tank (using magnetic/noise detection) it can probably pierce up into the crew cabin causing issue with the crew. If it detonates near the ammo hold it could possibly cause secondaries.

A lot of AT mines are meant to disable the tracks on tanks, causing them to slow down and do repairs. ArmA of course assumes tankers will leave their nicely armored tank with a working main cannon... I do not think thats the case in real life. It would be nice if they kept in their tank and fought with their remaining systems if they were able to, and AI engineers would move into replace a busted tread... If only...

On the other hand, a disabled/degraded tank is as good as a dead one in mechanized warfare because cant move along with the fighting front. It creates a burden on the engineer and maintenance forces in the rear who need to move up and help the actual fighting force. It is my understanding that Russian doctrine for mechanized warfare would have left disabled tanks along the wayside and just continue to bring more forces to the front, hopefully getting repair crews to salvageable vehicles at a later time.

[Apocal 10]

Now that is freaking awesome.

[.kju 3244]

Indeed - very much looking forward to it!

Btw Luke at OFPEC sent you a PM.

You may have missed that one until now.

[charon productions 10]

Just had an idea to implement a feature that would make infantry warn their group about "incoming shells". Maybe even force them into prone position which would be the most likely real-life reaction to such a warning.

[Gedis 0]

wow, i haven't even thought that such artilery stuff could be implemented.

this artillery MOD gonna be topnotch!:eek:

Just a little note, jamming vehicle's/aircraft's radars... you know some of them have optical target finding/engaging possibilities in real life, so jamming tunguska is only reducing it's range of engagement.

[charon productions 10]

@Gedis: Thanks for your input.

so jamming tunguska is only reducing it's range of engagement.

That`s exactly what this does.

The Tunguska can`t engage aircraft 4 kilometers away, but

the gunner can still use the cannons to visually target the aircraft.

I am not so sure that the missiles could be fired without a lock though.

If the player is the gunner he can fire all weapons if he likes, just the bullets

won`t lock.

It´s a hard decision between realism and feasability, since if the AA

is only 80% functional instead of 100% there is pretty much no point in

adding this even ;)

Edited October 10, 2009 by Charon Productions

[charon productions 10]

The reaction to incoming artillery turns out to be not that easy to implement.

The artillery scripts should not screw up the mission makers waypoints and what he wants his groups to do and to move to.

However having a group just continue advancing into the artillery barrage is non-sense.

So when a shell will impact within a range of 150 meters (for HE),

i figured the steps to do are:

1) Get down

2) all group members stop true

and now comes the hard decision.

It could be

3a) wait until the barrage is over, then continue with the current waypoint

or

3b) crouch away from the artillery impact zone

or maybe even

3c) compute a new waypoint around the barrage zone (if the wp path leads through it) and then continue the normal waypoint order

What do you think?

Edited October 10, 2009 by Charon Productions

[noubernou 77]

If there was a way to make AI displace and spread out and then get down that would be the best. AI tends to cluster up and not practice safe spacing. If they can all get away from each other then they will survive longer. Having them continue to move through the fire area is just as effective as it would be otherwise since artillery (modern artillery) at least will be able to train on them again easily.

The key in fighting against artillery is do not give them a nice target.