RUG High Dispersion (Beta test)

[Wolfrug 0]

RUG High Dispersion Addon

V.1.5 BETA

9.9.2010

by Wolfrug

Edit: Updated to 1.5. See changelog below + FileFront or OFPEC mirror. Also updated the missions with the latest 1.5 version of RUG HD: oops!

NOW WITH BETA MISSIONS! See below for links! The addon is bundled with the missions, so I very much suggest you download the missions and try the addon out in them, instead of just downloading the addon alone :)

How to use this addon, for the uninitiated

Since a lot of you seem to have missed the point of this addon, I thought I'd take a second to explain to you how it all works. I will address some imaginary issues, and hope that will be enough: if not, feel free to ask me any questions you may want.

Why a High Dispersion addon? In OFP, HD units were introduced with JAM, the Joint Ammo and Magazines project which created an amazing, uniform system of magazines which could, and were, used in hundreds of different addons. JAM in itself however is not important: what's important is the High Dispersion weapons that were distributed together with JAM. These weapons were copies of the regular OFP (and many addon) weapons, except for the fact their dispersion values were much higher. Although practically useless for players, in the hands of the AI they created an exciting and dangerous, but not quite as hair-trigger deadly, battlefield experience. They were put to excellent use in the legendary Tonali by BAS, where the AK-wielding natives fit the bill for this kind of weapon perfectly. This is what I wanted to recreate in Arma 2, and where my inspiration came from.

This is not necessarily an addon for the casual addon consumer, since it does not directly ADD anything new to the game in terms of tanks or airplanes or islands. Neither does it change AI behaviour automatically, or change anything automatically in fact: it replaces no weapons, and no part of your gaming experience will differ in the slightest by just having the addon in your addons folder. This is an addon you need the editor to use. However, considering you still have to use the editor to test out new addons in the first place, this really shouldn't be such a big leap.

Rather, however, this is an addon for the editor-dabbler. Whether casual or serious doesn't matter. With a few simple synchronizations, you can switch whole groups to HD. Using a mix of HD and Regular (permanent), you can create a battlefield in moments where -nothing- changes on your side: every weapon you pick up is still a regular one, but all your enemies (or friends) are using HD weapons. It works with any addon, be it vehicle or unit, that uses the default vanilla weapons - say, Icewindo's Resistance/FIA units or IcebreakR's Isla Duala Molatian/Afrene soldiers. Obviously it does not work for addon weapons, but nothing is impossible: all addon makers would need to do for the scripts to work is to create a HD set of weapons and prefix them RUG_HD_ and hey presto, it'd work.

In just a few minutes you can have a raging, long-lasting, hair-on-your-neck-raising battle, between any set of units, on any island.

Here is the caveat, however: I do not support this kind of dispersion as some kind of rule. I did not want to create a high dispersion total conversion mod: I like the standard dispersion, the standard 'fairness' of a fight where you and the AI are every bit as accurate. This addon is meant for editors, for mission makers, who are designing their missions based on this addon, based on the higher dispersion. Any campaign, any standard scenario, would probably break and be unplayably dull if this addon was used everywhere: it is meant to be used intelligently, with forethought.

That said, the final and most important reason why editors would find this addon useful is just that: it is reliable. You might be thinking: "if you don't like getting one-shotted, why don't you change the enemy's precision in your user config like everyone else?". This is the biggest threat to mission makers everywhere: how can you design a balanced, fun mission, if you can never know what settings and addons your potential players might be using? By using this addon, the dispersion is a given: it will look identically the same for anyone else playing this same mission. Now you can worry less about single unit placements, and instead focus on movement under fire, flanking, bases of fire, artillery support, armor support, etc etc., instead of wondering if most of this or that group will be wiped out by a single lucky machinegun burst from one lonesome soldier.

It has its weaknesses. One is the vehicles: due to the lack of a "addweaponturret" and "removeweaponturret" command, it's impossible to add and remove weapons from turrets, including the commander one, which in multiturreted vehicles will leave some HD and some regular weapons. Also, they lose all their animations, which can look a bit sad when operating the weapon oneself. Another weakness is that the HD effect is so pronounced as to sometimes be immersion-breaking (as when units are lying prone and shoot the ground in front of them due to the dispersion), not to mention making them almost impossible to use as the player since it entirely removes the element of skill and precision shooting and replaces it with blind luck and blanket fire. Once again, this addon was not designed with the player in mind; the weapons belong squarely in the hands of the AI.

Even so, these weaknesses can be worked around. Maybe you want to limit the player's access to weapons, so you only give him some non-HD weapons and leave the rest as HD, forcing him to use only certain weapons as well as conserve his ammo. Maybe you divide soldiers into trained and non-trained, and hand out HD and regular weapons accordingly - meaning every encounter might either be a quick bullet to the head, or a merciful panicked burst above it. Maybe you leave vehicles as non-HD, turning their machineguns into the deadliest weapon on the battlefield, rather than just being one precision-death device among many. Or maybe you ONLY change the machineguns to HD, allowing them to blanket a large area with impunity, suppressing your men and making return fire and movement difficult, without being impossible.

Ultimately, this is an addon for messing about, having fun, and experimenting. The module approach assures it's easy enough to do so. For more advanced editing, there are some scripts you can use, but 95% of the time you won't need them.

Thanks for reading, and have fun. Please let me know how, if at all, you're using this addon, and if you happen to create any missions using it, also let me know so I can link them here :)

*** End of extra description ***

Description:

This addon creates an exact copy of every default hand-held weapon in vanilla Arma 2, except that their"dispersion" config value has been changed. This means the weapon is considerably less accurate, which leads to longer firefights between the AI (and the player, should s/he choose to use a 'HD' weapon).

The inspiration for this comes from the wonderful HD version of all the JAM weapons from old OFP (featured heavily in for instance the Tonal campaign). The soldiers wielding these weapons might represent untrained militias armed with sub-par weaponry.

Features:

- Comes with simple modules (F7) which can be synchronized with group leaders/individual vehicles to switch all weapons on mission start.

- Can be used either in Arma 2, Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead, or Arma 2 Combined Operations.

- Comes with a simple script, "switchHD.sqf", which is used as a "killed" eventhandler: will switch the primary HD weapon of a dead soldier to the corresponding normal weapon upon death. Called: unitName addeventhandler ["killed", {_this execvm "RUG_HD_Core\switchHD.sqf"}];

- Can also be called without synchronizing with modules (but the modules still need to be in place to initialize the scripts). The script versions of the modules are: RUG_HD_AssureHD (permanent HD weapons), RUG_HD_AssureReg (permanent regular weapons), RUG_HD_RegToHD (switch weapons from regular to HD), RUG_HD_HDToReg (switch weapons from HD to regular). All of these are called in the same way: [unitname] spawn <script>. NB: You may want to give the modules a second to initialize before running the script!

- Comes with (invisible, Scope = 1) unit classes for every HD unit in both A2 and OA. These have the same classnames as in vanilla, except with an added RUG_HD to the front, so e.g. "RUG_HD_Ins_Soldier_AR". This is for ease of use in various spawning scripts etc, although you can also use the scripts to switch weapons.

- Fully signed for MP play

Instructions:

- Put the RUG_HD_Core.pbo, RUG_HD_Vehicles.pbo, and either (or both) RUG_HD_A2.pbo/RUG_HD_OA.pbo into an addons folder (e.g. @RUG_HD/Addons). Note: for ONLY A2, use RUG_HD_A2.pbo + vehicles & core. For ONLY OA, use RUG_HD_OA.pbo + vehicles & core. For CO, use all of them.

- When in the editor, access modules (F7) and find the new modules: RUG HD: Switch Regular to HD (Men), RUG HD: Switch Regular to HD (Vehicles), RUG HD: Switch Regular to HD (permanent) and RUG HD: Switch HD to Regular (permanent). Note there is only one that works on vehicles.

- Synchronize (F5) the (Men) module with any group member to switch all possible weapons in that group to their HD versions. Also men inside vehicles etc. will be affected, but only if their weapons have a HD equivalent (currently only vanilla weapons supported)

- Synchronize (F5) the (Vehicles) module with any INDIVIDUAL vehicle (empty or occupied) to switch all MAIN TURRET weapons to their HD equivalent. No non-main turret weapons (commander MG, crewchiefs etc) will be affected - this is because it is currently impossible to access these weapons using default BIS commands. The static guns and most 'simpler' vehicles work fine though (such as the BRDMs and the USMC IFVs).

- If you want a vehicle to both have a HD crew and be HD itself, you need to use both modules.

Feedback requests:

* Technical stuff

- Would you prefer to get the HD units/factions etc back (simple config tweak)?

- Any weapons that don't work (the pistols have no discernible dispersion, despite having a value - no idea what's up there).

- Does the addon accidentally interfere with vanilla weapons/addons (i.e. have I screwed up an inheritance someplace)?

- Any other addon-related error messages?

* Functional stuff

- Is the Dispersion too big? Too small? Just right? It's easy to change, so please comment!

- Would you prefer the dispersion only affected AI? (tweaking only aiDispersionCoef variables)

- Would you prefer a more sophisticated dispersion model which would incorporate for instance recoil? (might be a lot of work)

* Notes

- NOT COMPATIBLE WITH TOTAL CONVERSION MODS E.G ACE2! This is meant for Vanilla use only! No addon weapons will be modified, and any modifications to vanilla weapons will probably NOT SHOW UP (almost all inheritances etc. inside the .pbos are internal to RUG_HD)! This includes Sound Mods I'm afraid - don't blame me, blame the BIS config system.

- The dispersion is now a set 0.03 for every weapon in game, including vehicle weapons: this is slightly modified by their own original dispersion (dispersion = RUG_HD_DispersionValue + <original dispersion>), but this effect is too small to be noticeable.

- Vehicles can be given HD weapons (via module), but ONLY their main turrets are affected (i.e. the BMP-3 has two forward gunners + its main gunner + its commander. Only the main gunner's weapons are changed). This is because it is impossible at the moment to manipulate non-main turret weapons with the default BIS commands (addweapon/removeweapon).

- All vehicle weapons changed this way lose all custom animations (i.e. recoil anims and reload anims).

- Many vehicle weapons have HD variants, but aren't HD otherwise (e.g. rockets): this is because they do not have any dispersion by default.

- All of the weapons have UNCHANGED DISPLAY NAMES - therefore there's no way of telling if a unit is using a HD weapon or not at a glance! This is intentional, and you should use the (permanent/assured) scripts to assign HD or regular weapons to your units/players as you see fit!well enough for me currently - you just have to keep tabs on what units are what.

- Only one of the two Assures should be run at once (otherwise the scripts would be switching weapons back and forth like crazy!). If you want a certain unit not to run the script (e.g. in a group), simply add one of the two vehiclevariables to it in its init: unitName setvariable ["RUG_HD_HDAssured", false] OR unitName setvariable ["RegAssured", false]; If you ever want the script to -stop- running, simply do the same thing (set the variable to false) - note that this will not switch the weapon to HD/regular automatically, it will simply stop the monitoring and switching scripts. Also, the 'assured' scripts will stop on death, so you can't use corpses as a factory for HD/regular weapons ;)

Changelog:

- fixed a typo for the HD weapon of RUG_HD_Ins_Woodlander3 -> he is now properly armed

- removed scope = entries from the unitscfg.h file -> no more units showing up that shouldn't (for instance bugged Men (RACS) man under Guerilla/HD CDF)

- very slightly increased the dispersion rating

- Tweaked dispersion ratings a bit more

- Added all vehicle weapons (although some still have no dispersion, e.g. missiles)

- Removed added HD units & factions & groups, replaced with Modules (F7) for Men and Vehicles

- (1.13) Readded HD units, but hidden, so as not to clutter the editor - can still be used with createUnit

- (1.13) Added script + modules for "permanent HD" and "permanent regular": these will either assure that a unit's weapons are always HD (if available) or always non-HD. More resource hungry than the standard switch script since it is in a constant loop.

- (1.14) Added compatibility with OA, and split the addon into an A2 and an OA pack, plus a Core pbo to allow for either pure A2, pure OA or CO.

- (1.15) Added British Forces DLC/Lite compatibility, simply add the new RUG_HD_BAF.pbo to the mix (might only work with OA - not sure?).

- (1.15) Signed all the files!

Dedication: I want to dedicate this addon to Planck, who helped me in the early days with not only config work but also worked as a springboard for ideas. Rest in peace.

Enjoy!

Download:

FileFront RUG HD 1.5

OFPEC (forum attachment) (1.5)

ArmedAssault.info (1.5) (Thanks to Old Bear!)

ArmAHolic (1.5)

For your FURTHER ENJOYMENT I have created two BETA missions for you to use, one for A2 and one for OA. Operation Cape Horn (mirror: [link]) has been properly beta-tested and is a fun romp through Chernarus, whereas Operation Scott Free is a quick and very simple escort mission in Takistan which is compatible with either CO or OA only. :)

Please let me know what you think about the addon after playing the missions! (NB: Addon comes bundled with both missions, so no need to DL it separately!)

Regards,

Wolfrug

Edited September 10, 2010 by Wolfrug

[caprera 0]

I'll keep going with the testing, btw keep in mind that a madule could be versatile as well but without the need of updates for new units, like PLA, Pedagne, our GRU pack and so on

Just suggestion ;)

[Mark XIII (DayZ) 18]

You sir, are the MAN.. I've been wanting HD units forever :D

Thankyou, I'll report any bugs/issues if and when I find them.

[Binkowski 25]

Nice! Thank you for this, downloading now.

[Wolfrug 0]

btw keep in mind that a madule could be versatile as well but without the need of updates for new units, like PLA, Pedagne, our GRU pack and so on

Thanks for the suggestion, I'm just not sure how such a module could work. I suppose that as long as all the units use only standard weapons (which are included in RUG_HD) then I could make a simple script which automatically switches all the weapons from regular to their HD equivalents, possibly activated through a module (no idea exactly how to set that up, but there's probably an example around here somewhere). However as soon as they use something other than standard weapons I'm afraid they'd have to create their own HD versions of them for such a script to work :)

But a good idea in general on the module - would that be a lot less clutter than the current system of HD Factions/Groups, or would it simply make things more complicated rather than less? I sort of like the current system myself...

Regards,

Wolfrug

[thales100 10]

Thanks, gonna try it.

[Mark XIII (DayZ) 18]

Hi mate,

I've had a play with the addon and have to say, great work so far.. I've not had any issues yet but do have a small request. However, I'm unsure if it will fit in with your current work. Anyways, I'll tell ya about it...

Remember back in the OFP/A1 days when the Ai would attack ANYTHING with RPG's ??

I'd like to see that back please :D Seems to me it would fit in perfectly with the user made missions coming out atm. Lets be honest, the taliban/ANA use the RPG7 to mow their laws ffs.... LOL Having this feature would make 'insurgent' battles more dare I say...'Realistic'... within that scenerio at least !

Anyhow, just an idea. Don't shoot me :P

[lee_h._oswald 0]

Great addon!

No more AK47 sniper AI and CQB is much more fun now.

Thanks!

MfG Lee

[Wolfrug 0]

Remember back in the OFP/A1 days when the Ai would attack ANYTHING with RPG's ??

I'd like to see that back please :D Seems to me it would fit in perfectly with the user made missions coming out atm. Lets be honest, the taliban/ANA use the RPG7 to mow their laws ffs.... LOL Having this feature would make 'insurgent' battles more dare I say...'Realistic'... within that scenerio at least !

I thought about that too, but I wonder if it goes beyond the scope of this addon. I guess I should've mentioned that this changes all hand-held weapons but does not do anything with the launchers (since a max of 3 shots from an RPG with any kind of dispersion value would basically mean a 0% chance to hit). But I was thinking about maybe adding an RPG which also attacks air units or people, or all three if that's possible, but we'll see: as mentioned, it's probably outside the scope of this addon :)

Thank you for your comments! If anyone has any thoughts on the dispersion values (higher, lower?) please do tell.

Regards,

Wolfrug

[woodyB 10]

wolfrug,

how do you predict this will behave with ace2 and more particularly with Zeus? curious if anyone has feedback. Im going to test it tonight

[jblack9 10]

Yea does this work with ACE2?

[Mysteryman5150 10]

Thank you for this:). Could this possibly be turned into a replacer for certain infantry groups within the game, specifacally the insurgents and locals. What I mean is could it be set up through a config file in which certain classes would use the HD weapons and the US and Russians use the normal weapons as they should infact better trained military groups. This would allow for a sort of realism at least in regards to the accuracy. If done as a replacer it could then take affect in any mission played. You could even go as far as creating an inscreased accuracy weapon group to be added to Highly trained groups such as SEAL, Rangers, SAS and such so they would have some appearance of being better trained. Just an idea and suggestion if it is at all possible;).

[teilx 4]

Yes, several replacer would be nice.

[ziiip 1]

Doesnt this make the game less realistic?

[Wolfrug 0]

Thank you for your input, but:

1) Works with ACE: No, probably not / depends on the order they are loaded. ACE is a Total Conversion mod which replaces all default weapons + adds a lot of new ones, so if nothing else, there wouldn't be any HD versions of the new weapons. You can try, however!

2) Zeus/other AI mods: I think RUG HD will work -very well- with any mods that change the AI to be more clever! I heartily suggest you try it!

3) Replacement configs: I'll think about it, but this addon was mostly meant for mission makers. If you want less precision overall, across the board, there are various mods and tweaks you can perform yourself without needing RUG HD (try searching for Dispersion on ArmaHolic for instance). Besides, it would basically completely break any mission not explicitly designed around using HD weapons, and I don't want people to have their hard (mission-making) work thrown away because of that. Using or not using RUG HD units is a matter for the individual mission-maker - I'll consider a replacement config for testing or evaluating purposes, but it's not really what the addon was made for.

And finally, at ziiip:

4) Yes, of course - have you tried shooting someone with a HD gun? :D It goes all over the place! The idea here is not realism per say, but fun and gameplay: as mentioned, the HD weapons can simulate poorly trained fighters using sub-par weaponry to spray as much lead as they can downrange while shouting curses - as opposed to the precise, completely cool under fire, expert marksman that is the average vanilla Arma 2 soldier. it is NOT meant for the player, really! This is exactly why I don't want replacement configs or the like - adding these 'poorly trained' soldiers to a mission is the responsibility of a mission maker, not a matter of changing the whole game.

Phew. That out of the way: how is the dispersion? Too big, too small, just right? Is it good at different ranged, CQB, long range (150m+), medium range etc? If you're planning on using them in your missions, please do let me know, I'd be happy to pimp it here ;)

Thank you for your interest!

Regards,

Wolfrug

[caprera 0]

Someway this mod ADDS realism to Arma2 because as now poorly trained units have no significant difference with others. Arma is perfect to simulate infantry VS infantry firefights, but special forces and militia are not well represented. Wolfrug created this to simulate at least the less precise fire of the formers...Ok maybe not completely realistic but it's great for now!

Btw Wolfrug, it's now 2 days i'm trying different situations with your HD_units and i have to say good work man, even if to me as it is now they are "Dumb"... I mean it's too much for me. Just adding more targets HD units are completely un-effective. In all 1vs1 team encounters this setting works well and Insurgents/guerrilla units are perfect.

But as soon as you add units to the battle the worse it gets. I tried today the ultimate verification with 10 Insurgents teams against 3 infantry on defensive. I went as sniper observing. Open ground was deadly for obvious reasons but suppressive fire by attacking insurgents was useless.

This is another reason i'd prefer a module ;)

Btw i think the setting should be "lowered" a little.

[Mysteryman5150 10]

If you want less precision overall, across the board, there are various mods and tweaks you can perform yourself without needing RUG HD (try searching for Dispersion on ArmaHolic for instance).

I didn't mean completely lowering precision. I was refering to a way to make a replacer file where only specific units would use the HD guns to create an affect of not being trained as well as the formal military services would train their soldiers.

Besides, it would basically completely break any mission not explicitly designed around using HD weapons, and I don't want people to have their hard (mission-making) work thrown away because of that.

I don't think it would break any missions if it is done as a replacer. It should be no different then using RH guns as a replacer, or am I wrong?

Using or not using RUG HD units is a matter for the individual mission-maker

A replacer would allow for a client side adjustment, same as Zues or such, for people to choose to use it or not.

Again I am not trying to give a hard time, I was just making a suggestion when I mentioned this in my above post. I thought it might be a way to address one of the complaints I have repeatedly seen on the forums about there being no difference in AI abilities ranging from untrained street thugs to heavily trained military infantry and special forces.

[Wolfrug 0]

I didn't mean completely lowering precision. I was refering to a way to make a replacer file where only specific units would use the HD guns to create an affect of not being trained as well as the formal military services would train their soldiers.

I understand your idea, and I'll consider it. It would still break missions, but then again ALL replacement configs (aside from purely aesthetic ones, e.g. sound mods or replacement unit/weapons skins) will probably affect missions in one way or another. I didn't mean to sound mean or anything; thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely consider it, WHEN I've got a perfect dispersion setting in :)

Things to do:

- Figure out how to add HD vehicle weapons to vehicles as well. Harder than I thought >_<

- Tweak main dispersion value

- Try to get aiDispersionCoef to work, so that the AI can have a higher dispersion than the actual weapon itself, and then try to make this work together with the main dispersion value. Tweak tweak!

- Considering implementation of Modules and replacement configs as alternative ways of activating the addon...

Thanks for your comments so far!

Regards,

Wolfrug

[AnimalMother92 10]

Any chance of getting this in Module form? :pray:

[Chumba 10]

Link to Filefront didn't work - file is available at Armed Assault Info

Edited February 16, 2010 by Chumba

[Wolfrug 0]

Any chance of getting this in Module form? :pray:

Yes, definitely. I'll have to figure out how it works (with synchronizing and such), but then I'll absolutely add a module with a weapon-replacement script that works for both units and vehicles (mind, only default weapons supported atm).

@Chumba

Thanks for bringing it to my attention - link updated and should work + mirrors added. :)

Regards,

Wolfrug

[AnimalMother92 10]

Great news thanks! Hopefully there will be some way to make it support 3rd party units/weapons as well at some point. I'm just envisioning having tons of "poorly-trained" militia vs some SF and simply syncing the module to all the groups I want to have HD :D

[dialektiikka 10]

Hopefully there will be some way to make it support 3rd party units/weapons as well at some point. I'm just envisioning having tons of "poorly-trained" militia vs some SF and simply syncing the module to all the groups I want to have HD :D

Same thing here! :cool: Modules with userconfigs would enable adding 3rd party stuff, I think. Synching enables easy creation of veteran units with combat experience (Stock AI or with AI mods) and green reserve units (with dispersion).

Great to see the inclusion of vehicles too. We need more poorly trained tankers :D

[Mysteryman5150 10]

@ Wolfrug- I just wanted to thank you for allowing me to utilize your concept to create my weapons dispersion mod:).

[Wolfrug 0]

Has just been updated to Beta 1.2. The major changes are:

- Vehicle weapons

- Module-based (factions & units & groups removed)

- Tweaked dispersion values a bit

Feedback still much appreciated. :) See first post for notes and known issues and other specifics (and downloads).

Regards,

Wolfrug