DPICM Artillery Addon

[charon productions 10]

@Nou:

You are probably right.

So have the group get down and then crouch to a more spread formation.

Everything else would be too complicated and depends on way too many factors.

This only happens when the incoming shells impact closer than maybe 100 meters for 105mm+ HE

and maybe 60 meters for ~80mm HE to not disturb the continuity of a mission.

For scripters i will add a variable to the attacked group that they are under attack and when the

attack occurred and by whom. Also i will place an open support call for counter artillery

for the rare case that the friendly arty is actually available for such a purpose hehe.

Here is what i have so far (the formation change is still missing, not sure if they bother while on the ground):

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrzIq3J96hM&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrzIq3J96hM&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Edited October 11, 2009 by Charon Productions

[noubernou 77]

What I could suggest, and this is messy scripting wise, is when artillery lands have them silently leave their group and have each one then being their own group have waypoints set behind them, their speed to fast and awareness mode set to careless. When the reach that waypoint behind them say like 50-100 meters from where they were and widely spread out, then they are set to stealth or another awareness mode where they are more likely to go prone. When artillery has ceased then they all silently rejoin the original group and continue on their way.

Since groups are seperate entities I think this could work since you'd just need to remember the order of the units (well basically who was commander) and then make sure they rejoin in that order.

The cool thing is you could even, say in towns search for enterable buildings and try and get them to run inside those.

*edit*

man those incoming sounds are really freaking sick!

Edited October 11, 2009 by NouberNou

[charon productions 10]

What I could suggest, and this is messy scripting wise, is when artillery lands have them silently leave their group and have each one then being their own group have waypoints set behind them, their speed to fast and awareness mode set to careless. When the reach that waypoint behind them say like 50-100 meters from where they were and widely spread out, then they are set to stealth or another awareness mode where they are more likely to go prone. When artillery has ceased then they all silently rejoin the original group and continue on their way.

Since groups are seperate entities I think this could work since you'd just need to remember the order of the units (well basically who was commander) and then make sure they rejoin in that order.

The cool thing is you could even, say in towns search for enterable buildings and try and get them to run inside those.

That is very valuable input! Nice one.

If i can really achieve that the waypoint and group coherence is not disturbed by that, then it`s worth to give it a shot.

What is the most likely reaction to counter the strike?

To look for the enemy FO and kill him or to request your HQ to make friendly artillery hit the enemy artillery? It could be given to mission makers as an option.

I am also considering to cancel the fire mission if friendlies are being hit.

(Close call situation)

man those incoming sounds are really freaking sick!

Yeah i merged a couple of samples and tweaked them, so 80mm and 105mm

shell whistles sound differently. I am more of a sound guy ;)

This will also have distant sounds that are not so catchy when done by the ingame sound engine.

Is there actually already someone creating Howitzer tanks (like M109 howitzer/Paladin) for Arma2?

For those big calibers like 155mm.

[noubernou 77]

I am not speaking from much experience here, but if counter battery fire was available then that would be the most prudent way of taking care of the artillery. Even though an FO is the one trained to call for fire, most anyone can do it (though usually not well) so hunting for the FO is somewhat futile. On the other hand, being an FO usually requires you to remain in a fixed position (I should probably simulate that in my FO script) and if you send out scouting patrols to flush him out it makes him not abe to call in missions as fast or as accurate as he would like.

[charon productions 10]

Yeah there is many possibilities for your FO script.

You could make the guy evade the patrols or pass the FO function to other units nearby or make him replacable if enemy patrols knock him down.

I really gotta read up on counter artillery, that could be awesome.

It is unclear to me how accurate they could really pinpoint where the other artillery is located. The shots would probably be more like guesstimations (if not aided by satellites or drones). However that could disturb the enemy artillery commanders operation, in case he decided to relocate his batteries to protect them.

[Binkowski 26]

I really like that video of the infantry response to artillery fire. Pretty damn good!

[charon productions 10]

Thanks Binkowski.

I am in a bit of a dilemma getting the units to crawl to their spread out positions. It is the old story with domove and given waypoints interfering with each other. Disbanding the group is not a good option, because for the scenario that the player is the group leader, he would have no-one left to give orders to )

What i am trying to do is give them domove commands every 6 seconds, but still they return to their old waypoint path and disregard the domove command.

Using the stop command prevents the execution of all movement and the domove command too. Lockwp would only work if the current waypoint will be completed, so i don`t know how to handle this.

One sick thing that comes to my mind would be to copy the waypoints to a dummy group, then delete all waypoints of the attacked group then domove them and when the artillery barrage is over then copy the waypoints back. Complicated, but might be the only way to go.

What works fine is that friendlies immediately cancel the fire mission if the shells impact closer than 60 meters. That only has a noticable effect if the fire mission has a very high round count. Most shells will be already in the air when the cancel call is made.

Edited October 11, 2009 by Charon Productions

[noubernou 77]

I wouldn't advise the ungrouping for human led squads (or squads with any human players) but for AI that shouldn't be an issue...

Groups are what waypoints are assigned to, thats why you would need to take them out of their groups I think. That way they can run away and take cover.

Also for the canceling of a fire mission, yea, HA rounds take a much longer flight path, if the guns could do LA that would be much more effective (flight times of 10-15 seconds instead).

[charon productions 10]

Looks like i had a syntactical error in the script, it really works now

with just domove to have the group spread a bit and no messy waypoint scripting.

The nice thing is that they will continue with their current waypoint

AND even if it is a spawned group with just a scipted move group command, they will complete that move command that was given prior to the artillery reaction domove command.

Now that needs adapted a bit for vehicles and then the AI suddenly makes a much smarter impression when they have incoming artillery.

Nou,

i think BIS have stayed away from computing the trajectories for LA because of the mountains.

It would be nice though to have for more flat terrain islands.

Edited October 12, 2009 by Charon Productions

[charon productions 10]

Here the working vehicle artillery evasion script in action:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx7zA3CjA-k&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx7zA3CjA-k&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

If the AI does not create a traffic jam, then the vehicles are much

harder to strike with artillery with this script.

I even consider a global variable to turn it on or off.

Basically only when the first rounds immobilize the vehicles then

they are an easy target. Or when the tanks are not moving at all.

However DPICM deployed at sufficient altitude will immobilize

light armored vehicles like trucks and cars in a big area.

[charon productions 10]

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1NRdYqVKcQ&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1NRdYqVKcQ&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

The DPICM will have duds just like the real thing.
They occur usually at a 3-5% rate.
They could be made in-game to detonate after 7 minutes, thats what the real thing is doing or they could just remain a nice mine. What do you think?

After testing many prone crawl scenarios concerning infantry reaction to DPICM attacks, i figured it is probably best to have them run as fast as they can out of there. At least some units survive then, if they stay prone in the impact zone, chances are they ALL get killed.

I haven`t done this before, but i consider making this a public alpha to get maximal oppurtunity to improve things and have a high number of different testing scenarios as each mission maker sets things up differently.
The fire mission names won`t be changed anymore, so it should be safe to integrate it into missions already.

[noubernou 77]

Id love to help test out stuff.

I have my working low angle M119. Been using Blakeaces firecontrol excel script and today/tonight going to work on getting that into the game, at least in a basic form.

[An Fiach 10]

This is amazing work, keep it up!

[jw custom 56]

Looks very nice... a little camera shaking on nearby artillery impact would make it even nicer :)

[charon productions 10]

Looks very nice... a little camera shaking on nearby artillery impact would make it even nicer :)

There is no way that i know of to affect the ingame camera settings of the permanent camera that has not been created with camcreate.

For cam-scenes, i leave that up to the scripter.

[charon productions 10]

A new ordnance for DPICM :

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFY7R8_l4Uw&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFY7R8_l4Uw&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Less friendly fire danger than with conventional DPICM fire missions.

Limited target area spread but higher target selectivity.

[b00ce 160]

Very very nice. I don't have any suggestions, other than "release this bad boy", at this time.

[CriminalMinds 10]

I think Group Link 4 simulates artillery impacts very well. With a nice cam shake. :)

Here's a link:

Oh sorry, very nice work of course!

[charon productions 10]

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SotxWvVJY7w&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SotxWvVJY7w&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

The projectile detects if a building is the target and releases the submunition
inside the building.

@booze: Soon man, soon. All features are fully functional in Single Player, i have yet to ensure that they work in multi-player. No point in releasing it before. Anyone with multiple machines is welcome as an alpha tester for the MP compatibility.

[Simon C 0]

Is there any news on this one? Looks like a really good addon, especially in combination with some of the Forward Observer scripts out there. :)

[charon productions 10]

Is there any news on this one? Looks like a really good addon, especially in combination with some of the Forward Observer scripts out there. :)

Sure, been modelling a 2S19 to add some 152mm firepower :

After it is done, i consider a beta release.

Also i have made a M224 60mm mortar, there is no russian 60mm mortars, so it will be only for BLUFOR.

The M224 fully works as an artillery battery and can be transported by one man (M8 Baseplate).

This is also a soundmod by itself, as it has many custom sounds.

Edited November 27, 2009 by Charon Productions

[Simon C 0]

Wow. :eek:

That thing will be fun to use... :D

[das attorney 858]

This mod is looking really professional Charon, all the best for it's completion :)

[major woody 11]

Christmas allready I guess... :)

[CriminalMinds 10]

I am so happy to hear that you are working on it. So I hope it will be released before 2010! ;)