User Add-On Guide for more Realism and Immersion (ACE2-based)

[jpinard 10]

The.D I sent you a pm with an offer for comprehensive islands addons. Let me know if you're interested.

[the.d 0]

sorry, jpinard - rl calls at the moment :-)

I read your pm and it's always appreciated! Thanks!

[stevedrumsdw 10]

So adding the slx dismemberment wounding feature to this setup is a no go corrrect? I wish I could get that to work, almost seems like the last thing I would need:D

[the.d 0]

stevedrumsdw: Mh, well, you can add the wounded features (all of them or none of them) without any actual game breaking side effects. It's just not 100% seamless - call me a nit-picker ^^

[Leovelli 10]

This is surely the most extensive list of client-side modifications compiled to date, my thanks go to the author. Although I have many of these add-ons already installed there are a few I'm eager to try out, after which I shall report back here and give my verdict ;).

The main issue I've found with adding these modifications is their inexplicable ability to create conflicts regarding compatibility issues. This is truly a shame, as their enhancement of ARMA is quite phenomenal.

Am I the only one desperate to see all the slight miniature modifications be merged into a greater resource such as ACE2? Wishful thinking I'm sure, but ARMA is a game for dreamers :D.

[the.d 0]

Leovelli: Thanks, your input would be very appreciated! And, yeah, it would be quite convenient and user-friendly but nearly impossible to combine all the smaller, independent mods to one big, organized mod project.

It may even be the game's true strength not to be dependent on one single mod - not even ACE2 claims to be the unifying solution for everything - there's a lot of room for tinkering and customizations! I am very much looking forward to experiencing Project Reality for ArmA2! I jumped off BF2 (and rigorously boycott any further EA games "productions") before you guys made it there, sadly.

Cherry-picking the best fan projects and trying to balance them into one custom-made compilation has almost Zen qualities to it! :-D

On other notes, I added an "Islands" section (3.1) to the list's "New Content Add-Ons" chapter. It's a small set for now but it should be growing as times goes on. I hope I don't cause any feelings of arbitrariness or injustice by not adding "Add-On XY" - There are thousand of fan projects out there, quite many of them with highest quality standards.

I want to keep the guide as structured and clear as possible so I won't be able to add all of them. Suggestions are always welcome, of course!

[DMC_RULEZ 10]

I still like some of the simple things one can add to a mission to make it feel more real..ie, colour corrections..mine are abit extreme...but it costs nothing to add it in the mission, plus all can see it....kinda ....everyone has different monitors and such.

http://www.otakubrothers.com/arma2Thirsk07.jpg

http://www.otakubrothers.com/arma2Thirsk06.jpg

http://www.otakubrothers.com/arma2Thirsk01.jpg

http://www.otakubrothers.com/Arma2sand1.jpg

http://www.otakubrothers.com/Arma2sand3.jpg

[the.d 0]

DMC_RULEZ: Yup, no doubt - but colour filters (as well as weather settings, local patrol scripts and anything of the sort) are mostly very mission-specific and should be implemented by the mission's author, instead of enforcing generalized/generic set-ups for every scenario, don't you think? Love the screenshots, by the way - very moody! :-)

[stevedrumsdw 10]

Just wondering if this new version of the SLX changes anything about compatability issues? I guess this this going to have to be tested again?

[velzevul 32]

The.D, how about small visualFX addon: Wizz

[the.d 0]

stevedrumsdw: Yes it does indeed make a difference - lots of testing now. Very likely no more "lite" version - Solus did an awesome job with the modular design and integration .

We're actually having a test game right now with ACE2/GL4/Zeus and an almost full loadout of SLX - having some problems with passive impact damage and healing - but we should be able to sort it out :-)

Velzevul: SLX has that sort feature covered, actually! But cheers! :)

Edited April 13, 2010 by The.D

[stevedrumsdw 10]

stevedrumsdw: Yes it does indeed make a difference - lots of testing now. Very likely no more "lite" version - Solus did an awesome job with the modular design and integration .

We're actually having a test game right now with ACE2/GL4/Zeus and an almost full loadout of SLX - having some problems with passive impact damage and healing - but we should be able to sort it out :-)

Velzevul: SLX actually has that sort feature covere, actually! But cheers! :)

Wow this is great, Solus is the man. Hey thanks D for answering my questions:yay:, and for this great thread! I am hoping we get the dismemberment to work!

Edited April 13, 2010 by stevedrumsdw

[Thunderbird 0]

Hello,

If you aim at combining GL3 and SLX then make sure to take out SLX_GL3 because SNKMAN GL3 system is slightly more optimised than SLX. and both do bring many similar features.

Best Regards,

TB

[the.d 0]

stevedrumsdw: Dismemberment works as it's part of the wounded features of SLX. And there is no need to exclude these it with the latest version!

Thunderbird: Yup - thanks, mate! Already did that - we had a test game yesterday with GL4 and Zeus AI joining the latest SLX features - was pretty stunning, imo :-)

Hope I find the time for another coop run today. Should be fun!

[HG_Havok 10]

Excellent guide which helps a lot! This needs to be required reading for every noob who wants to use add-ons.

As for the title, I skipped over this when I first saw it because the title made me think it was a guide for folks who wanted to make add-ons, not use them. My suggestion for a better name would simply be "Users Add-on Guide" or "UAG".

Thanks The.D for taking the time to write this as you will save people lots of time and frustration figuring all this out by themselves.

Rock on dude!

[Thunderbird 0]

Thunderbird: Yup - thanks, mate! Already did that - we had a test game yesterday with GL4 and Zeus AI joining the latest SLX features - was pretty stunning, imo :-)

Hope I find the time for another coop run today. Should be fun!

Sounds very good.

By the way, please could you mention the newly added SLX Addons (If you added more of SLX) ?

Or did you keep the same SLX Addons than the ones mentioned in the first page?

Best Regards,

TB

[velzevul 32]

SLX has that sort feature covered, actually! But cheers! :)

Hm... didn't notice such effects in SLX. The.D, did you try it? The difference seems appreciable.

[stevedrumsdw 10]

I really wish mission makers would start designing missions solely based on the core module addons on this thread. I can't believe how wonderfully these combinations of mods improve the immersion and overall realism of the game. With the impelmentation of the newly designed SLX into this collective group the game has reached new heights. I was playing the AI and witnessed actual military tactics including: dragging the wounded out of harms way, taking cover and peaking around corners, falling back when a position is flanked or overrun, and suppression fire. I have almost every mod for this game and nothing comes close to this setup. When the new SLX is configured to work in perfect cohesion with this setup lookout.

Edited April 14, 2010 by stevedrumsdw

[katipo66 94]

But not everyone uses every mod based on this thread for one reason or another.

[the.d 0]

HG_Havok: Thanks! That's a good idea, really. I think the title is accurate, but - agreed - not very catchy. Defunkt already suggested to find a proper acronym for easier identification. "UAG" sounds good to me! Shall try to use it, cheers :)

Velzevul: Not the in the same sense of audiovisual additions, but more in a "combined" way:

GL4 as well as SLX have "bullet whizz" sounds - neat supersonic cracks are also added by many sound mods. In addition there's:

SLX_Suppression_Effects: When people are shot at close enough a lot they duck lower, breathe quickly, and their hands shake a little.

Dependencies: SLX_NetCode.

(for instance)

stevedrumsdw: Thanks for the compliment, appreciate it :-) But I gotta agree with Katipo66 here. Not every mod is to everyone's taste - combining them to achieve general enhancements (I'm not necessarily talking about "improvements", because that can be very, very mission-specific) is usually advisable but to really perfect a certain gameplay scenario is solely up to the mission designer and their abilities. The less a mission relies on external mods, the better, in my opinion (arguably with the exception of GL4, which really shows its true strength when being specifically used and adapted as internal mission scripts).

This list should be seen as a suggestion on how to combine several stunning mods (not necessarily all of them) in order to get a "generally advanced" gameplay. As far as it is possible without causing client/server mod dependencies for the files used (sometimes you can't help that, e.g. ACE2 and SLX animations). On the other hand, the more mods you add, the more complex it gets. Personally, this is what I want in a game*. Our little squad manages to complete 1 out of perhaps 100 missions we start; this might seem a "bit" embarrassing, but I stand to it, as I enjoy the challenge, not winning.

*(Then again a very good and experienced squad mate of mine, Jaeger, already told me not to "overdo it" - I agree that (sometimes!) "ACE2 is just enough". Personally I wouldn't want to miss out on the the core mod features though and the unpredictability of enemy maneuvers et cetera. Wow, I am rambling... sorry ^^)

[stevedrumsdw 10]

Well I did not exactly word that above post in the right context now that I have re-read it. I meant that I wish that there were some missions based of this mod group because I am not sure if I have any that work without compatability issues. No it would not be fair if eveyone made missions based off of one thread although it would be for me :D lol.

I am wondering what missions will work with this setup because I have little knowledge of how to design missions?

Edited April 14, 2010 by stevedrumsdw

[the.d 0]

^^

Sorry, my English is a bit... erh.. peculiar at times.

Well, our team is usually playing "straight-forward" missions, like "start at A, destroy B, then capture C" - doesn't mean it's easy, of course. The re-playability is enormous, due to the simple possibility of adjusting the probability of presence for individual enemies, the placement radius for waypoints etc in the editor - and the fact that, even (and not rarely especially) without any heavy mission-sided scripting, the core mods will always add a lot of surprises.

Why, just a couple of hours ago we had a small coop test run on JW's Charlie-7. Without the mods, you can basically walk towards the first objective and nicely ask the enemies to leave. With the AI mods kicking in server-sided, we had to devise several strategies of which only a crazy "spec op goes in, infiltrates, sets C4 to the trucks, the rest of the team hangs back, waits for the explosion and then charges into the town with HMVEEs" finally worked. The plainer (few internal scripts) the mission, the more likely it is to benefit from the combined add-ons' effects, I would say. JW's missions have been quite a blast, but there's tons out there, really. Feel free to join in for a game sometime, if you like - should be fun!

Edited April 14, 2010 by The.D

[velzevul 32]

Not the in the same sense of audiovisual additions, but more in a "combined" way:

GL4 as well as SLX have "bullet whizz" sounds - neat supersonic cracks are also added by many sound mods. In addition there's:

SLX_Suppression_Effects: When people are shot at close enough a lot they duck lower, breathe quickly, and their hands shake a little.

The.D, thanks for description, i missed it for some reason. And now we see that "Wizz" addon doesn't interleaves with GL4 and SLX at all. It only adds visual FX (blurring) caused by stress of bullet's flyby and impacts.

[the.d 0]

Velzevul: Tested the add-on for a bit. It's great for single bullets hitting the wall near you - but while under actual enemy suppressive fire your soldier seems to almost suffer from epileptic fits - it's a bit too much imo.

[AmnesiacJack 10]

Been using this setup for a few days so far and have to say it's really helped round out some of the rough edges for me that were just annoying. Hope to see some missions made specifically with this set in mind as there is a ton of fun possibilities that I'll never be able to take advantage of in the editor by my self :P

So cheers and thanks for the great write up, it helped me get every thing sorted out and working smoothly.