ja391045

I've been playing through Apex, and it's a blast. However, on the missions where you have NVG IIs, the thermal capability which should be a life-safer in the thick jungle, isn't nearly as useful as it should be. The reticles on the rifle optics all-but disappear in thermal. In 2035, I'd imagine someone would have figured out how to add a little heat or chill to the optic reticles just for contrast, maybe not the reflex dot, but the in-scope reticle. What I've ended up doing is using the thermal capability more for scanning, and once a heat signature is located, I'll switch to NVGs to actually engage the target. I end up switching NVG modes a lot. If you can put your scope right over the target, you can barely make out the reticle over the white background of the target. However, for the most part, if you leave your thermals on while engaging, you are just tube shooting and hoping for the best. Are there any reticles which are more thermal friendly in the arsenal?

First off, I'm fairly new to Arma 3 mission editing, and after a lot of searching, I've not found the answer for a specific atmosphere I'd like to create. The mission I'm working on should begin, following several helicopters and trucks being sabotaged. So when the mission loads, the first thing I want the player to see is the burning/smoking wrecks of a lot of vehicles, as well as crews of personnel trying to put out the fires. What I'd like to do, is to be able to set an empty vehicle, and then somehow attach it's wrecked skin, instead of it's normal skin. I've tried the setDamage method, but when you do that, all the helicpoters explode. So the first thing the player sees is a bunch of explosions instead of a bunch of burning wrecks. (These explosions would also wipe out the crews who are firefighting). The vehicles were supposed to have been sabotaged hours beforehand, not in the presence of the player, so the explosions wouldn't make sense. I've also tried the "setHitPointDamage <part_name> <value>" method, which wrecks the various parts of the helicopters independently. However, that makes the vehicle look like it's been in a firefight, it doesn't look like someone slapped a half pound of C-4 to the bottom of the helo, lit the fuse, and let it burn for a couple hours. Finally, I've tried using setPosATL to place the helo underground, then setDamage1, then using setPosATL to put it back above ground, but this looks...strange. I either have to keep the helo underground for a few seconds, so that from the player POV they pop in to existence after the mission loads, or the explosion isn't finished so that they pop into existence while they are exploding. What I would like to be able to accomplish is the same effect as: "setDamage 1", without the explosion. While looking through all the variables and .pbo data associated with the MH9 (a.k.a. B_Heli_Light_01_F), I was able to find it's wrecked model. This is the model that is used after you setDamage 1, and the explosion goes off. ( "\A3\Air_F\Heli_Light_01\Heli_Light_01_wreck_F). If I could just place this model on the map, it would serve my purposes, I could set it on fire, etc. Does anyone know of a way to fully wreck a helicopter without the explosion, or how to place a specific skin or model of a vehicle on the map? Thanks for any suggestions.

Thank you both for trying to help out. My apologies for the late thanks, but I was caught up in one heck of work week, and didn't get a chance to hop back on the forums to say thanks. Neither of these suggestions prevents the helicopter from exploding. Disabling simulation prevents the helicopter from burning, but the explosion still happens. For some reason, createVehicle doesn't do anything. No errors, nothing appears, it just doesn't do anything. I think it's because Heli_Light_01_wreck_F isn't a vehicle, but just a vehicle's skin/texture. I do have an idea about how to accomplish what I want, but I don't know how to do the specifics, I'll have to read up on that. I'm thinking I can use config.cpp or description.ext to subclass the helicopter I want to turn into a wreck, and in the subclass, change the vehicles model "skin" to that of the wrecked version. So I'd have to create both an add-on, to provide the wrecks, on top of the mission/scenario. Something like this is what I have in mind: class cfgVehicles { class B_Heli_Light_01_F; class B_Heli_Light_01_wrecked_F: B_Heli_Light_01_F { model = "\path\to\B_Heli_Light_01_wrecked_F.pba" }; }; I think if I create a vehicle with the wrecked skin in an add-on, I can then place the vehicle on the map, set it on fire, etc.

On my first play through of this mission, it took me 3.5 hours, on Recruit difficulty! It also took quite a few saves and loads, but I lost no people, and ended up commanding two FV720 IFV's and an unarmed Strider APC. while I got the HVT and the fuel delivery objectives. My 4 guys started out with light weapons, and no AT gear. Even though I saw the APP-6 symbols for mechanized infantry and armor on the briefing map, it wasn't on the gear list, so I thought I'd have support like mortars or armor support of my own once I was in mission. I was thinking this was going to be one of those stealth missions where there'd be some diversion, or too much armor for one RPG to handle anyway. When none of that happened, I improvised. I decided to take a close look around since it was dark, all my guys had NVGs, and I didn't think I make it up against all that Armor with no Anti-Tank capability. Since I was all set up for stealth, I had a KRISS Vector w/ a silencer in my backpack, so I switched out my Katiba GL for the Vector, told my guys to wait, and dropped my pack. And took a walk around the perimeter of the AO. I came across a tank (well, Infantry Fighting Vehicle, not tank, but the game calls them tanks), just sitting on a hill top in southwest area of the AO, Just north of a repair truck. I killed the two infantry standing around that tank, then snuck up behind it and hit it with a explosive charge. To my surprise, it didn't kill the tank, but the crew jumped out. So I shot them. Then I saw the repair vehicle. So I had one tank in the bag. I drove that tank down to about where you start the mission and parked it. When I was scouting around the south east side of the AO, the most easterly AAF marker, I came across an empty Strider with a bunch of infantry standing around. So I killed them with the silenced vector, and took the APC. On my way back to my squad with the strider, I saw another tank driving it's route. After watching it's route a bit, I crippled this one with another explosive, even though I had an AT weapon by this time. I then, took the stider back to my guys, put my guys in the strider and hopped in the tank I captured previously, then went to the repair truck, put a guy in it, then went all the back to the 2nd crippled tank. Now I had just 4 guys and two tanks and an APC. So I rounded up the rest of the guys, just to fill the seats. Once I had all that armor up and running, clearing the place out was a breeze. To get both the HVT and the fuel delivery: This is what I did in version 1.36.128579. Remember, I had two tanks, an APC, and 8 guys after hooking up with all the detachments in the AO. I left the construction site where you steal the fuel truck via the dirt road that runs northwest past Alikampos. I told the fuel truck driver, and the APC driver to stop when we passed by the turn off into the area where you are supposed to drop the fuel truck. I kept going north, passed the area where you originally tried to steal the empty fuel truck, all the way up to where the highway intersects with that dirt road, right in the center of Agios Dionysios at 0919 1583. Then I backed one of the FV720's to 0921 1578. The other tank I parked up the offset road at 0916 1584. I waited for a bit, and got a call from Miller. He was pissed off, and said something about snap decisions and not seeing the bigger picture. So that mission was "failed". I sped up time and waited some more. After a bit I heard faint engines, so I normalized time. It was probably a good 5 minutes after that call from Miller when the armored convoy rolled by and got chewed up by my ambush. After I killed the HVT, I called Miller and gloated about my awesome "snap decision". Then I had the fuel truck driver and the APC driver pull into the drop off are they were sitting just outside of, and the mission completed.