Jimpy

It has been some while since our last news update but the Northern Ireland mod (NI mod) team has been hard at work in the meantime and the mod is still firmly on track to deliver a unique Operation Flashpoint (OFP) gaming experience. We would like to introduce you to some of the recent developments in the progress of the NI mod: A new website. Designed and produced by our members Smiley and Jimboob. This will expand to include information about the progress our work as well as background information on the conflict that the NI mod campaigns represent. New team members. UNN and Paddy have recently joined the mod team and are already producing some interesting and innovative work in the fields of scripting and mission design. Missions and campaigns. Much effort and thought has been devoted to research and design work on a set of interesting and unusual missions and campaigns. The NI mod campaign missions are intended to immerse the player in the Northern Ireland troubles by allowing them to take on the persona of various members of the British crown forces and of Republican paramilitary volunteers. Much effort is being devoted to historical research to ensure that the incidents, environments and even the attitudes expressed in the missions are authentic to the place and period. The accent with all of the campaign missions is very much on realism and authenticity, all of which will put very different, unusual and interesting new demands on players. Improved AI and behaviours Design and implementation of several interesting new technologies that will increase the realism of the campaign missions. These include enhancements in the behaviours of objects as well as interesting improvements to the game AI. Our member UNN has been working on a system that will enable buildings and other objects to exhibit more realistic effects when damaged. At the same time Paddy has scripted improved AI routines that make AI soldiers behave in a more realistic manner when on "urban" patrols. As well as having the men move in a more authentic manner through the streets, the new routines have them react more intelligently when in contact with an enemy; moving into cover positions appropriately, covering and supporting each other and maintaining an all round lookout. It is intended that the new "Urban AI" scripts will also be applicable outside the NI mod environment. New Addons In parallel with all this, work continues on researching and building a comprehensive set of units and island environments to support the mod campaigns. Several islands are under development all carefully crafted to portray typical Northern Ireland landscapes and features. These include both townscape and rural environments. Troops The new units represent a wide cross-section of the troops and vehicles that took part in the conflict. The emphasis with all of these is always on authenticity and attention to detail. Nothing is accepted for inclusion in the mod unless backed up by personal experience or verifiable from reliable sources. The British Security forces are represented by British regular army and reservist units and by constables of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The British troops include members of all the essential corps and services that were deployed to Northern Ireland during "the troubles". As well as infantrymen, the mod units include; drivers, sappers, armoured corps troopers, SAS troopers, bomb disposal officers and military policemen. The troops are authentically dressed, equipped and armed both for deployments in urban situations as well as operations in rural areas. The paramilitary forces of both "sides" in the conflict are represented by a set of units dressed appropriately based on evidence from authentic sources. The paramilitaries are equipped with a wide variety of weaponry, reflecting the multifarious nature of their sources of arms supply. Vehicles The troop units are supported by a set of high quality vehicle addons made by SniperUK. These represent all of the most common types of military and police vehicles that were seen (and in some cases still are seen) on the streets and roads of Northern Ireland. Civilian transport (all meticulously correct for the period) is also included both for use by the civilians that play an important part in many of the NI mod campaign missions and by the security and paramilitary forces on "clandestine" operations. Model "work in progress" images We present here several images that showcase the standard of work that is being done by the NI mod team's model makers. Please understand that these represent only a fraction of the content of the addon set, and that all of the pieces shown are still under construction. SniperUK's British army "Alvis Saracen APC". The model is very highly detailed and skilfully realised and very accurately represents the form and features of this vehicle. SniperUK's military vehicle addon set also includes several variants of the Land Rover general purpose light truck as well as more heavy transport vehicles and armoured cars. A montage of images of some of Whisky's (aka Jimpy's) British soldier units. The British troops in the mod addon set date from the period of the 1970s and early 1980s and the several new pieces of equipment that were created specifically for use by the army in NI are all included. Many of the troop types and equipments are unique to the NI conflict situation and thus also unique in the form of OFP models. British army anti-riot equipment by Whisky. The inventory includes rubber bullet firing guns and tear gas (CS gas) grenade launchers. New behaviours and anims allow the soldiers to use the anti-riot gear correctly and to react to riot situations A small selection of Whisky's new weapon models. These include British army issue weapons as well as weapons from various origins in the arsenals of the paramilitary groups. Some "Northern Ireland [mod] Tourist Board" pictures of Smiley's "rural Northern Ireland" islands. We hope that this has proved of interest and has made it clear that the "NI mod for OFP" is still going strong and is making good progress. If this conflict interests you and you have some provable talent in any of the variety of skills needed in mod production (particularly in model making, texturing and mission making) then we would be pleased to hear from you and to perhaps welcome you into the mod team. Contact our mod team leader Smiley at <nickgregnick@yahoo.co.uk> if you need further information. Our new website is currently off-line for construction but you are very welcome to participate in the NI mod discussion forum at http://www.nimod.net/forum Please feel free to look in sometime. Visitors' comments, suggestions and questions are always kindly regarded. -- The NI mod team

If you want to make an accurate representation of a 1970s Irish Army FAL then your model still needs work on several areas: Flash suppressor Gas plug Handguards (yours still has the British Maranyl ones) Cocking handle Change lever Takedown lever Backsights Butt (again you still have the British one fitted) You're looking for something more like this:

Yes, it looks nice but it isn't entirely correct. Do you mind if I make some suggestions on possible improvements? If that's supposed to be the No. 32 Mk. 1 sighting telescope then it is badly out of scale (too thin), is wrongly positioned on the rifle (way too far back) and the pads and turrets are incorrectly shaped. Also bear in mind that the real No. 32 telescope was made of heavy brass, so when the paint scratches off it, it looks a characteristic "golden colour", not a "silvery-white" colour like you have there. The heavy mounting bracket (on the left hand side) was cast iron. Also, all No. 4 rifles that were converted to the (T) variant had the battle sight aperture milled off - your model still has it (digging into the 'scope tube, it looks like). Your rifle is also apparently missing its foresight - I presume you have this in the "pilot-view" though. Sometimes users found that the standard foresight blade reflected light into the telescope and unit armourers made adjustments to prevent this, but the foresight was never removed entirely. Apart from those small niggles, I must say that it's jolly good work overall. Always nice to see British stuff being done so well.

The troops are very good as they are but do have some slight innaccuracies. None of the issues are very major, though, and should be simple and quick enough for you to fix. In no particular order, the observations I made while watching your "OosterbeekTrailer" are: 1. The helmet chin straps on your men are apparently the canvas webbing type. These are not typical for British airborne troops on Op. Market. At that time the vast majority of British troops were still using the second pattern all-steel jump helmet with a black leather chinstrap. Webbing chinstraps were used first by Polish, French and Canadian airborne troops and only became generally used by British troops very late in the war and post-war. I can send you pics of the correct chin strap if you need these. 2. The type of Denison smock used most commonly on Op. Market was the (so-called) second type (although a small number did still wear the earlier first pattern smocks for that operation).The texturing at the cuffs of your troops does not have a great amount of detail but it appears that all the troops appear to have green woollen cuff closures. This is not typical for the type of Denison smock most commonly used on Op. Market. Woollen cuffs on Denison smocks imply: a) A first pattern Denison smock (circa 1942) worn only by a  few individuals on Op. Market, the first pattern smocks were designed and manufactured with woollen cuff closures; or b) A second pattern smock unofficially modified by adding stocking tops to the cuff closures - although this was not a very common wartime practise at all and became more popular post-war. The wartime second pattern Denison smocks had cloth cuffs with an adjusting tab and three brass snap-fasteners to close them. This type was used most commonly on Op. Market and afterwards; or c) A postwar dated Denison smock (Denisons were worn by British troops until the end of the 1970s) which was again designed and manufactured with woollen cuff closures. Postwar Denisons can be easily differentiated from wartime Denisons by their cut and camouflage patterns. I can send pictures of the cuff closures and details of the second pattern Denison smocks if required. 4. None of the men appear to be wearing their conspicuous parachute qualification badge - it should be on the right upper arm of their Denison smock. Please advise if you need a picture of the parachute qualification badge. 5. Most wartime airborne troopers wore a green and dark- chocolate-brown coloured netting face veil as a scarf tucked inside the neck opening of the smock (this was separate from the scrim netting worn as a helmet cover). None of your troops appear to wear such a thing as far as I could see. Some men of the Glider Pilot Regt. alternatively wore a silk escape map as a scarf and others (a very few) wore green camouflage patterned scarves made from US parachute silk. 6. The men are wearing 1937 pattern webbing battle order, which is correct for the period, however their equipment order is incomplete and incorrect in some details. I noticed that their utility pouches (the two large rectangular ones at the front) appear to be too small, none carries their waterbottle (always carried in the field) and they do not have their light assault respirator cases either. Pictures of troops on Op. Market clearly show them carrying this last item sideways at the left rear of the belt (at least initially).  The entrenching tool carriers are also carried a little too high up on the belt. I have detailed pictures of the light assault respirator (Mk III) case if you require these. 7. The webbing is also not correctly coloured. Your troops wear webbing in a mixture of a green and a light golden tan colour, however, although in fact British webbing equipment at this time in the war in the E.T.O was always coloured a mid-khaki green colour by the application of a preservative paste (called "Blanco" - a there's always a but  trade name) in colour "Khaki-Green no. 3". Only commonwealth troops in this theatre wore webbing in a light tan colour (especially Canadians) and much '37 pattern webbing used today by many modern reenactors is not correctly blancoed (as it reduces the value of the pieces). I can send pictures showing the correct "Khaki-green" colour for the blancoed webbing, if required I researched all this some time ago with the intention of making some WW2 British Airborne troops, until I discoverd that you guys had it all well-covered already (I'll most likely be instead making post-war [ie. 1970s] British Paratroopers for the Northern Ireland mod).

I watched the "OosterbeekTrailer". It all looks very impressive indeed. Are the British Airborne soldiers going to be revised before final release? In the video they are apparently incorrect in several respects.

I am working on a No.1 Mk III rifle too for the "Northern Ireland mod". This rifle was used by the Irish Republican Army in the early 1970s. Here are a couple of quick WIP pics of the "Smelly": The colouring is not really textures, just flat colours. The model still needs work in places. The images posted earlier of an actual example will be useful. Thanks! I am also doing the No.4 Mk. 1, No.4 (T) and the L42A1. Links to some WIP pics of unfinished models, again with flat colours: Rifle, .303", No.4 Mk.1(T) with no. 32 Telescope http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/whisky01/No4Ta.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/whisky01/No4T.jpg The same rifle but wrapped in hessian for camouflage (based on a photo of an army sniper training cadre from 1970) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/whisky01/No4Twrapped.jpg Rifle, 7.62mm, L42A1 with Telescope, Straight, Sighting, L1A1 http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/whisky01/L42b.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v692/whisky01/L42a.jpg Many, many other new weapons are also under construction for the mod. Northern Ireland mod is at: http://www.nimod.net/forum  [site temporarily down]

Can you please tell us when exactly the Irish Defence Forces adopted the AUG rifle?

IMHO the Llauma "replacement head" is not especially good. That default face that is distributed with it is especially awful - he looks like a shop-dummy, I always cringe whenever I see yet another screenshot of that bland, plastic-looking, "boogly" eyed countenance. Of the head models I have seen, I am much more impressed by the heads on the Red Hammer Studios Russian Federation troops. These are very skilfully "sculpted" and use less polys than the Llauma head does.

An "exploding guitar" booby-trap? "Take guitar" KA-BOOM!

"Master & Commander" is the best I've seen for a long while Favourite quote: Captain Aubrey: "D'you want to call that raggedy-arsed Napoleon your king!?" The crew: "NO!!!"

The "smart 'scope" reminds me of the gyro-stabilized gun sights that were used on Battleships during and after the first world war. They compensated for the motion of the sea to keep the image of a target (often many thousands of yards away) motionless in the viewfinder.

They'd have to disable it if trainee SCUBA divers are using the pool and doing the old "giant human lobster" swimming technique.

Actually you can play CDs over the crew comms system in Brads and Abrams. It's done all the time. Â Â Edit: Well, some of the time

Make a military band instead, now that WOULD be "kool"

I do not know what "standard SAS" is but SASR and NZSAS in Vietnam mostly wore the US ERDL camouflage uniform together with SAS belt kit and various rucksacks, heavy use of camouflage face paint and an assortment of more or less modified weapons (SLRs with drastically shortened fore ends, SLRs with handguards removed and 40mm grenade launchers added, sawn-off M14s, SLRs bodgied to fire full auto only, etc etc). In all the photos I've ever seen of them they look extremely "business-like" and very hardassed characters.

Ok thanks for letting me know. Some of the troops could be used as RAR I suppose if you overlooked some of the little details, or remodelled them oneself (and supplied some with L1A1 SLRs). Nothing really suitable for SASR or NZSAS though. I might well make some Vietnam era Diggers myself. I quite fancy making some "bodgied" SLRS Â

Are ANZAC troops included in the pack?

The Irish Defence Forces pack, I believe, contains only modern troops and equipment. The NI mod will include an Irish Army squad from the early 1980s.

The NI mod IRA are having a large arsenal of "all new" custom model weapons built for them. Weapons from the early 1970s as well as more advanced ones from the end of that decade are included (the NI mod and its units run in time from 1969 up until about 1985 - this time bracket chosen basically to make the number of security force unit types manageable for our small development team). These run the gamut from Martini-Henry carbines to AR-18 Armalite rifles with many of the improvised (home-made) weapons that the IRA created also included. The weapons we have chosen to represent are just typical examples (although we are making sure that there is documented evidence of such weapons being used by the IRA). Our researches have revealed that a staggering variety of weapons were used, or at least available to, IRA volunteers at various times. We provide a good cross section of the types of weapons that were used, but obviously cannot include everything that was in the arsenals of the paramilitary groups. We intend to publish a list of those weapons that we have evidence for as a hint to players who want to use weapons that we don't provide but who still want authenticity. Rest assured that the NI mod IRA volunteers (and other paramilitaries) will have a rich and authentic set of weapons to choose from.

The hedgerows will be passable in places and impermeable in others. We are also experimenting with technology to get the AI to climb over certain obstacles. In any case, there will be plenty of gaps, gates and styles. The idea is that the hedges are to provide concealment and hinder (but not prevent) free movement.

Well, assuming that you read the "missions and campaigns" paragraph in my original post, we are planning several campaigns for the mod. We are determined that the NI mod will not merely consist of a set of new addon units. Plans are currently for single player campaigns only, multiplayer campaigns will follow if there is sufficient interest shown in the NI mod by the OFP player community. Plans for SP missions are at the moment as follows: A campaign set in the early to mid 1970s where the player takes on the persona of a British soldier doing a 4 month tour of duty in NI. After several training missions in which we hope to "train" the player to act in a historically authentic manner once out on the NI mod "streets", the soldier/player's duties will take place both in urban areas (in the NI mod's "'Derry" and "Belfast") and in rural areas where the operations were somewhat different from urban patrolling. The player will experience events including urban riots, IRA "sniper" shoots, urban patrols by vehicle and on foot, "stake-outs", OPs, arrests, rural patrols, manning vehicle check points, bomb incidents and much more. We want to give a good cross section of the sorts of "activities" a typical soldier might find himself involved in. Another campaign will let a player be a member of the Special Air Service regiment in Northern Ireland. We want to try to illustrate the much more "robust" approach that the SAS had, or were allowed, in conducting the counter-insurgency war in NI. Missions in this campaign will include "covert" as well as "overt" operations, many carried out in collaboration with RUC special unit officers. Another campaign will let the player take on the persona of a volunteer to one of the Provisional IRA battalions in the NI mod's interpretation of South Armagh. Activities will include setting up and executing shooting, hand-grenade, culvert bomb and RPG attacks on security forces personnel and installations as well as on feuding members of other paramilitary organisations. The IRA in the mod will use a wide variety of weapons, many new to OFP including home-made improvised submachine guns, pipe bombs, grenade launchers and mortars. Items like IEDs (i.e. home made bombs) and truck based mortars will also be featured. In all of the missions much programming and scripting is being done to try to ensure authenticity. The NI missions will be for hard-core military sim and British army buffs as well as those with an interest in this particular war. We will not be shying away from "controversial" topics and care nothing for political correctness. We will post a warning to this effect with our download links. We are determined that an authentic Northern Ireland troubles atmosphere will be properly represented. The missions will therefore not be conventional OFP "run and gun" exercises by any means but will challenge the player in other and more interesting ways.

The forthcoming NI mod is likely to include a Charlie G also:

Wah-hey! Those highlanders are the 92nd Regiment of Foot Gordon Highlanders. My old regiment! Is there a way you could  make the kilts look a bit better, though? A kilt has an apron at the front - it's an important structural feature of the garment. These guys look like they are wearing some kind of "culottes". Apart from that, these are all very nice looking units. I applaud you for giving this a go.

Just as a matter of interest (and not meant as any sort of criticism) what do you think you could offer a player using the OFP engine that you couldn't do just as well (if not better) using the mission editor from "Delta Force: Black Hawk Down"?

Thanks for posting the new "wip" pic of the SLR. I've been looking forward to the FLK mods troops and weapons for some time. I think your SLR is one of the nicest looking ones that are available for OFP. One it's finished it'll  be a  cracker!