CarlGustaffa

From the few heli videos I've seen so far, it looks more like current flight model than TAKOH on easy.

LOL. I enjoyed that intensely :D How it that not possible in A2/OA/A3, except maybe by being immediately forced into a parachute vehicle preventing you from accessing the required actions? A custom HALO eject might not think that far (I certainly don't think it would occur to me) thus allowing the actions to show up which are only governed by proximity and lucky timing :D I don't like BF, don't even have it, but I don't think this was a deliberate "feature" in the game.

Can you path to internal music like that, or do you have to copy the music to your mission and thus increase it's size? I haven't tried music, but I've been unsuccessful trying to redefine internal sounds to other sound classes (like changing/copying "alarm" or whatever from cfgSound to cfgSFX). Btw, I'm not sure if you can use the stereo sound files with say command. If you want spatial localization of the sound (vehicles, triggers etc), I suggest downsampling to 22kHz and compress the hell out of the file and just include it with the mission. If the vehicle is moving (like an attacking UH1Y playing "Ride of the Valkyrie" - classic :p), it will also be subject to doppler effect and sound way off what you expected.

SWEEEEET! That basically means no more 180° flips and instant 500 meter bullseyes.

I don't call it a gimmick as long as it proves to be a real obstacle to the player. Changing to grayscale would be gimmicky since you'll still see fine. Radial blur would actually impair your vision. You and me may get properly immersed (subjective I guess), but we got tired of idiots on our server that couldn't care less about immersion and was one of the reaons we shut down the server for public access. They would complain about other mechanics placed into the missions, such as long respawn times (5 minutes, before we got variable respawn time possibility as a reward/penalty for staying alive/dying), but as a difficulty setting that was known, it might attract more of the right people. I agree, it might not be for everyone - then again there are plenty who complain about motion blur for creating a blur rather than the fps penalty or how it seems more penalizing during lower fps. They scream about immersion but they "play to win at all measures possible".

That might not work, put it in quotes, like isnil "_myvar"; Ref the notes on isNil command.

They do in A2/OA, if you change from 8 bit to 16 or 32bit. Quite a bit actually. Increasing HDR quality removes banding from nightly scenes, but it also makes Holo aim devices render horribly. Sure hope this is no longer an issue in A3.

Some sizes. According to this: The SMAW should be like the MAAWS, each rocket taking three slots, given how they come in a paired tube anyway. Sure, the disposable should be one shotted, but if they can't, the 6 slot system suits me fine, as it acts a a deterrent to becoming a one man tank wrecking crew. Sure, you might be able to actually carry two or three to a shooting location, but the encumbrance (not only talking pure weight here) is extreme. In mobile operations, you still don't get a shitload of these, and they are also normally stowed rather than carried all the time like we do - I do wonder why.

I prefer such reminders, and I even prefer motion blur activated if the fps hit isn't too high. In own missions I have also added dust goggles, which will narrow your view somewhat but you can see clearly. Without them, you get radial blur when looking into the wind. I also always use the EW effects like dirt and blood. For effects like these, which does have a small impact on the players capabilities, I'd like to be able to force them on the player using difficulty settings, and also the player should be able to review the difficulty settings a server runs before actually joining. And finally, the server should allow people to choose more difficult option if they want to, but obviously not more easy ones :) Maybe we would allow mods that changes the effects. JSRS (bullet snaps and cracks) is about the only "mechanic" that actually makes me scared. During suppression we'll get a bit agitated and have some additional weird weapons shake, but I don't think it's nowhere near enough. We don't even have to worry about backblast, and need ACE for that. It's understandable though, as I think it could be a challenge to make AI aware of this danger.

Thanks. Have missed that video :) As for crosshair, definitely a move in the right direction. Not sure if its inaccurate enough, but my idea was always this: 1) Rectangular position of tickmarks rather than diamond/square. 2) Ticks at NW, SW, NE, and SE, which are drawn as perfectly 45° angles. 3) Size of rectangle based not only on movement, but also on weapon class - an SMG would seem more accurate "from the hip" compared to a sniper rifle or medium machinegun. 1 & 2 combined makes it much harder to interpolate where the actual center is. 3 makes use of a damn M107 as a CQB cannon less attractive. And naturally (as now) TrackIR people still get an indication on what they're pointing at while not engaged.

That'd be pretty neat actually. I'd like to be able to turn it completely off though, as some crashes may be directly related to own development that doesn't need to be looked at by BIS. In which case I don't want to be bothered with the popup at all.

I'll also mention that I have reveal key set to TAB (which also does cycle targets). I don't want to report a target every time I'm right clicking to zoom in, especially with AI. Reason being that sometimes I may want to review and change the AIs behavior before revealing, to avoid undesired surprises :p

I may have to recheck, but I'm pretty sure for the night scenes that the crosshair agreed 100% with the laser.

I use WASD now, but once upon a time I really preferred ESDF, as it allowed more keys to be utilized on either side of the main movement group. My current settings goes like this: WASD - Main movement group. 2xW - Sprint. Shift+2xW - Evasive Forward (not sure if this still works). QE - Lean and roll, Q up for air vehicles. ZXC - Stances, Z down for air vehicles, XC turn for air vehicles. 2xC - Jump (vault). Shift - Walk modifier. 2xShift - Walk toggle. < (right of shift) - GPS hold. 2x< - GPS toggle. L Ctrl - Hold breath (very important to me that it is not coupled to aim/"zoom"). V - Optics (just like in OFP), although only for few cases where RMB doesn't work properly. H - Hint/Help. G - Gear. M - Map. TYU - Teamswitch commands (normally not used). K - Compass. O - Clock.

Where did you see this?

I do fine with 2xW, but I guess I can live with either. Then again, you can change this. Sprinting isn't something I do a lot, and probably even less with fatigue added to the mix. Usually sprinting for me is a deliberate act, typically from standstill, which is why it works so well for me. I can agree there could have been better transitions from jog to sprint though. I'm assuming typo, so ZXC, or you have special keyboard layout. How are these "hard to reach"? They make perfect sense to me, and several other games use C for crouching. Also, Q and E are kinda reserved for lean and roll, which wasn't in OFP (okay, there was a mod down the line, but still). I'm not worried about new animations being hard to access. It just takes practice getting them right. Looking at them, I'm guessing I would rarely actually use them. They look awesome, and I'll enjoy seeing them put to good use, but I might not use them myself. I'm more concerned about that hand grenade bug coming back to life... Edit: So hiring the mod authors doesn't count? :D :D :D

Unfortunately this is kind of a limitation of the current engine. We have a "night" parameter that obviously lasts from dusk till dawn. Real bird sounds can't be programmed using this, as they are hyperactive in the late night/pre dawn. I live right next to a "forest", and the noise they make at these times are sometimes unbearable. Pretty sure they're just mocking those who can't sleep :p Not sure about environment sounds, especially the last couple of night ones sounded really really off. Maybe suitable for a fantasy role playing game (that "weird fog" sound or whatever it was), but not for something that tries to portray realism. I guess it would work wonders for DayZ though, where it would be fitting with this "scary" atmosphere. The rest, although a bit minimalistic, was pretty good. Think I'll still use my own though, guess that's just a matter of stupid old pride kicking in :D

You'd have to use an addon. Remember it only moves your latitude, with fully normal effects on day lengths. The following one (in addon config.cpp format) moves Takistan to Orkney Islands (lat 62°N), a few degrees south of the arctic circle: Keep in mind Arma3 will happen in the Mediterranean, closer to the equator, so sunset speeds will be more constant throughout the year, as will day and night be even more equally divided. I don't know if this old thing work anymore, haven't tried it in ages. If it works, for fun, you could try to use positive latitude (70-80°?), which (only in Arma) takes you to the southern hemisphere - navigating by stars suddenly ain't that easy anymore :D

I still believe compass menus are the way to go (2x8 ring, 2x8 square, 2x8 diamond, 2x8 list, 1x16 list, whatever serves the specific menu best), that pups up while holding a qualifier key. Not all the 16 slots of each menu will be used, which now leaves room for expansion where the current command menu is totally exhausted. I.e. press F for formation menu, and the various formations could be put in logical places on the rings. Offensive formations north, defensive south, flanking east and west. Some major concepts behind this idea: 1. Fully customizable. Create your own compass menus that makes sense to you. Example from Realsoft3D. 2. Consistency. Menu items always appear at the same place. Another example showing the SDS compass, which is similar to the Triset compass except for the tools that doesn't apply, and shares selections/tools as appropriate between faces, edges, and vertices. 3. Context sensitivity. Hide items on the menu that doesn't apply to the selection. Reacts to what you have selected (yourself, one or multiple squad members), and where you're pointing (weapons crate, vehicle, ground position, enemy etc). 4. No navigation or submenu popouts to slow down finding your stuff. 5. It's extremely fast in use and may not even have to require a click; press the qualifier and move the mouse, then release the qualifier to activate the slot. You loose headmovement/aim while doing it, but could be programmed to work with still receiving keyboard inputs for movement, stances etc. 6. Shown information on a per compass basis. So you learn the formation compass instantly? Then turn off various aids from it, like graphical elements, sounds (really? :)), or bring down its opacity to 0% so you'll only see the highlighting box area only, effectively making it "nicer" and less screen cluttering. You'll still get the help on the compass menus you still haven't memorized. I don't think we'll see the action menu gone, despite its many flaws. The most significant one being that it can prove to be a fatal UI system. God knows how many times I've blown myself up trying to set a timer or ejected helicopter when trying to "attach vehicle" in Domination :p Even without it, if we at least could get scripted access to the low level commands in the current command menu, the scripting community might try out different approaches as to what will work, what are good ways to organize it - this does require a bit of experimentation and trial and error. Also, there are stuff in the current command menu that doesn't translate well into any kind of compass, for being way too dynamic (ex the "target" menu). Same goes for actions available to selected squad members, as these can be related to distant objects you can't "point at". I have already setup a system that would work for me, regarding most of the current command menu. The one I've having most difficulty with (except "target menu", which is outright impossible) is as a replacement for the action menu, giving its very dynamic nature.

I like the use of rock objects to apparently completely block accessway through certain passages and instead force us on some detours to get where we want to be. Like "no, you can't walk up that way, you have to go around", leading to longer maneuvers for flanking, defendable elevated positions, and nice ambush opportunities where concentrated fires may work better than before.

If you're making the mission for clan purposes, you have the option of supplying an addon that moves your island of choice to whatever latitude you want. Latitude have great effect on sun altitude during the year, leaving you endless options. Suns altitude and "sunset speed" are the only observable effects of doing this, afaik at least.

Ability to use the debugger in multiplayer. Who gets this ability should be defined in server.cfg using players UIDs, and possibly only while admining. External dialogs, commands and parameters entered should be broadcast (not as chat, but somewhere in the map menus or something), and all players should have access to see the history of commands, including when they were given and by whom. Maybe difficulty settings could also disable it.

Added these by request from a friend - the ability to doubleclick in the fields to clear them: Something to consider for the official one in A3? I tried to get some right click functionality in there, but was unsuccessful, which is why I went with doubleclick instead.

You could embed something like that into the debugger, which should be standard in Arma3. Example from a slightly modified version of Gaia's (dev) debug console mod for Arma2:

The irony was that the full screen slightly delayed map on main screen currently have a secondary effect of slowing down gameplay since you can't run & gun while viewing the map, and you want to get rid of that by having full screen map on 2nd monitor even if the GPS serves similar purpose - without the extended map info additional cheat that too many public servers already use - and that have to be deliberate, right? Some points about handhelds and eye mounted: 1) Limited size and resolution, especially for the eye mounted one. We currently get close to that with the GPS. 2) Handhelds in bright sunlight is a bitch to use, and you can't fire while looking at it (unlike 2nd screen map). 3) Handhelds have focus problems that wouldn't be present on a 2nd screen. Try reading your watch and scrolltext at the same time - you can't. 4) Equipment can be destroyed. That will never happen in Arma. 5) Equipment have battery issues. That will never happen in Arma. 6) A handheld would instantly give away position at night (since it emits light). Would never happen in Arma. 7) Making up decent and intuitive controls for it might be a challenge on its own. Point is that there are numerous disadvantages to using these systems in real life that would never happen in a game, that would just make it over the top convenient. One of my greatest worries is that of public gameplay. We've already seen that many public servers play at (imho) horribly easy settings. When these enable 2nd monitor map combined with extended map info, crosshairs, and 3rd person (they will, trust me) - the advantages between those with and without 2nd screen will become humongous. We don't need an even worse public gaming scene. Personally I've given up completely, and I'll rather play solo on own (closed for public) server than join up on public. It shouldn't have to be like that. And I don't get this idea about "oh it's only a server setting". We only run coops on our server, so difficulty settings isn't much of an issue (all same except AI skill). How about those running different game modes requiring different settings? If someone hosts and plays warfare (the way it was meant to, with players as squad leaders), then extended map info and 3rd person might make sense. So what happens when switch to a PvP or coop map? You'd have to rely on using different settings (so forget about having same bit different AI skills) or different server profiles where you have to restart the server. I think TAKOH (preview) did it fairly well. Hold GPS to get a fullscreen non interactive but semitransparent overlay, whereas toggle GPS gives you the old one. I'm guessing it still didn't show extended map info (since that is mostly for commanding purposes, where you need to have an interactive version like the normal map anyway). And the interactive map still had the limitations it does today, including that of slowing down when used. If anything, I'd like the option to turn off "show own position" on the GPS instead for those of us who enjoy fighting "old style" :) I wouldn't mind FarCry2 style map either, as this "hold" version - it would simulate a handheld fairly well, without going over the top wrt possible resolution.