DUX0726

I'm not much of an artist. I'd really dig seeing someone improve upon it and add their own touches: really get creative and explain every change with a back-story. I think it would be fun.

I have to admit I'm probably not as up to date on the Mexican kit as I should be but, as I stated earlier, the "Steel Pot" idea really is more of a personal preference. I just don't like the "Fritz"; it looks to "wehrmacht" for my tastes. Although I usually keep that to myself because I know it's a big "no-no" to make that affiliation in the U.S. military. Ultimately my desire to see the South Sahrani in them is mostly to help "set them aside" from the modern U.S. gear. I know they are not common anymore but some armies still use them. Why not the South Sahrani, IMHO. BTW, the knee-pads that I have on him are the soft "soccer player" variety, dyed Israeli O.D. green. (Another cost-cutting element of the defense budget in my mind) All the soldiers would look like this except for prehaps the snipers, in that case i would just substitute the Steel-Pot with an O.D. knit cap. Anyone else have a different take on it?

My thoughts on that are that they were just given the old PASGT vests by the U.S. so it's a mish-mash of their old equiptment and their new "hand me downs." ...and thanks, I'm glad you dig it!

Please forgive the crude nature of my sketch but this is an approximation of what I had in mind. (based upon my original thoughts and some really great suggestions so far) -IMAGE TAKEN DOWN BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN SUPERCEDED BY A MORE ADVANCED DRAFT-

Well, Deadmeat, with all due respect--and you defiantly have mine, I've enjoyed your work for many years--whether B.I. only began working on this version of ArmA one year ago or not is a bit irrelevant to my expectations. The coding for the things that this community has come to expect was already created. It's was just a matter of “cut and paste†for B.I. to implement them so far as I know. (If I’m wrong about that then that’s fine but it still doesn’t change the reasons that I initially felt let-down by ArmA.) But besides that, B.I.'s time management is not really of concern to me as a consumer. I have waited for 5 years for a sequel to OFP , and as such I was expecting a bit more than I received. What B.I. did during those 5 years is irrelevant to me; all I know is that I've waited 5 years, and that is an amount of time that is sufficient to create a new video game. I think that is what is at the root of a lot of people’s frustrations, right or wrong. We are not employees of B.I. and as such we are not required to have any “understanding†for their management decisions. We are customers however, and the customer is always right if you want to keep your business successful. Now, having said all of that, I would like to reiterate that I am not so disappointed that I plan on ditching B.I. products or trashing ArmA to other people on the street. I am simply voicing my concerns in the proper forum thread, and I have great hope for the future of ArmA. I just wanted to shed--perhaps--a little bit of light on this subject for those of you who can not understand why some of us were disappointed with the initial offering of ArmA. No need to become vexed with peoples take on the subject for there is a reason for everything, and so long as we all respect each others reasons and apply patience to the games growth process, then everything is going to turn out fine; and this is really just a “blowing off steam†thread, nothing more. I respect B.I.'s willingness to allow such a healthy thread. It shows confidence and benevolence towards it's loyal customers. In the end that type of attitude by B.I. will only streangthn this community, as it already has for many years previous to ArmA.

I am perfectly willing to be patient with ArmA and let it progress as OFP did. With that said I would be lying if I didn't say that I expected ArmA to include every great add-on innovation from the OFP MOD community, married to better graphics and tighter physics engine. I think that ArmA will indeed one day include all of these things but I, along with a sizable amount of others, were expecting these things "out of the box" considering how long B.I. had to work on ArmA. Please don't think of my statements as derogatory; I am simply stating my opinion and I recognise an opinion for what it is.

Well stated. I think you have some very logical ideas there. I'm not going to lie though, I love the Steel-Pots more than the Kevlar helmets. To me, they just have more kitch factor, and I won't deny being a fan of certain cliches.

I think that taking into account my best guestimate of the economic level of activity across the whole of Sahrani and the dominant "greenery" of the landscape that simple Olive Drab would be the most logical choice. It's moderatly effective in the majority of environments. It's cheap, and it tends to take on the basic underlying tones of it's surrounding environment once it has been fielded for any length of time. The israeli version of Olive Drab, with it's more brownish hews would probably describe my more specific preference of "Olive Drab" for the island. So in a nutshell: Israeli Olive Drab.

Agreed, and a very fair assessment I think. My previous views were based upon the idea of the South Sahrani forces being an Army with one strategic purpose: To hold-up any Northern Sahrani invasion at the choke-point of Corazol for 12 to 24 hours so that government papers could be shredded and burned, the ruling family could be evacuated from the country, and so that limited guerilla actions could be set-up until the arrival of U.N. assistance. A scenario very much in accordance with what Kuwait did after suffering invasion by Iraq in 1990, albeit on a much more “low-rent†scale.

Perhaps I am being a little stingy in my suspension of disbelief for the topography of the game, but the reason that I think that South Sahrani would not have such nice equipment is because it is such a small country. I only counted 6 oil wells. (Not a great deal of wealth for a whole country to draw upon) It seems to me that the economy of South Sahrani is primarily based upon tourism, as indicated by the large bungalow/hotel spread on the western side of the territory. Also, it looked to me as if 2/3rds of South Sahrani was dominated by grass and trees interspersed with more rocky terrain. Only the bottom ~1/3rd of the landscape actually contains sand as its defining characteristic. Judging by the amount of territory and size of most of the cities, and coupled with what I believe to be a tourist economy, only slightly augmented by small oil deposits; I still would tend to think that the defense budget for the country would be quite small and probably only support a military force of less than 600 troops all totaled. I could see the Royal Guards being well equipped, but in a country that has so few resources and troops and equipment; I just can’t see the average grunt being all that well off. Olive Drab uniforms, Steel Pot helmets, little to no body armor, and old FN-FAL or G-3 weapons instead of current U.S. issue M-16’s would be the order of the day in my estimation. I do like your idea about special operations units and spies. I think that South Sahrani would indeed have a cadre of those types of specialists, and plain-clothes would certianly be required for such operations, by and large.

Since this is the official complaint thread; I would like to take advantage of this gracious opportunity and throw my hat in the ring. Here they are: 1.) Where are the stear-able parachutes? (OFP has had them as a mod for 5 years) 2.) Why does AI not swim to a way-point if they are spawned or dropped into the water? 3.) Why do the RACS soldiers wear a 6 color chocolate chip desert camo when the majority of their country is green and lush? 4.) Why do the BLUFOR troops wear U.S. Army camo and yet use primarily U.S. Marine corps equipment? 5.) Why are we not able to customize our troops for missions? (I.e. select their uniforms, weapons, equipment, etc.) 6.) Why does the smoke on the camp fires look like its burning industrial waste instead of wood? (The smoke from normal wood-burning campfire is white, not black) There is my short-list. Thanks for making ArmA and thanks for letting me point out my pet-peeves; I’m sure you guys will fix them soon enough.