afp

It comes way too late and its more like a workaround to be really usefull, but some people may find some fun with it. It removes reloading animation while performing a reload with sound and inability to fire. ReloadOnMove v1.05 Changes: - fixed some issues in pistol mode; - non-ACE version now available too but the key is hardcoded on R - you still can change it with a bit of editing. Read the "readme.txt" file inside archive. demo movie: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1vyq9QxmiU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1vyq9QxmiU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="320" height="265"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peLiFwujW9A&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peLiFwujW9A&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object> Others: -Heavily inspired by ACE code, cheers guys :)

Footsteps, gear and some ambient sounds for Alpha version. How to install: 1. Set your speakers / headsets volume to the "normal" volume you use to play other games or listen to music. That should be around 40-60%. 2. Edit you audio settings, make sure the "sound effects" volume is close to default value, somewhere around 80%. 3. Install the mod like any other mod, copy the "@AlphaSound" folder in ArmA 3 folder (mine is "G:\Steam\SteamApps\common\Arma 3"). 4. Click on ArmA game properties on Steam and add this to the command line (startup parameters): " -mod=@AlphaSounds;", then launch the game. Or you can start Steam in background then create a shortcut to ArmA3.exe where you can add that to the start command line. 5. Enter the game, tune up the sounds, you need to hear the ambient "buzz" as a "natural" background noise, not disturbing, not the wind, barely hearable, until you have the feeling of space "depth". For server side you need to use PlayWithSix (check for the last version) Download AlphaSounds 1.04 Changes log Version 1.04: - footsteps and gear adapted to the new Alpha version (+0.60);

I haven't play ArmA 2 for a while (basically because of texture flickering I couldn't get rid of) so I dont know what is the progress about this but it looks like it isn't fixed yet in the last beta patches. I just discovered that the game textures are actually messed, in the video bellow we can see the gates are closed when zooming, meaning that the lower resolution mipmaps are messed and do not corespond to higher resolution ones. It could also be some video driver / video card bug, by selecting the wrong index, but I really doubt. This would expain a lot, I just hope this wont be in ArmA 3 too... Could you please tell me what is the progress about this? Any intention to have it fixed?

Amazing, it sounds great!

Setting up a server that provide a nice gameplay with proper configured AI strength it's not really an easy task. Keep in mind that mission designers set different skill for AI in mission editor, there are several places both in ArmA UI or in config files where difficulty can be changed, some game conditions can also affect accuracy, etc, all these may lead to a bad gameplay experience if they are not properly matched. The present tutorial not only refers to the dedicated servers but they can be applied to the single missions too. So what is a nice gameplay? Well, in real soldiers miss their shoot depending on various condition, distance, morale, weapon condition etc. So in game, being hit every time at the first shot is not realistic nor pleasant. In a similar manner, shooting to an enemy that always misses is not challenging nor fun. There should be a balance where AI can shoot you close to the rate you can shoot them, without weird behavior like seeing you instant at a mile away and giving you a headshot. Beside that, the sound of bullets flying close to you or ripping objects apart is nice and creates a lot of adrenaline. What are the factors that affects difficulty? There are several factors involved, defining the AI skills and accuracy. First you need to understand that each AI soldier has a number of parameters defining his strength. Internally, these parameters look like this: class CfgAISkill { spotDistance[] = {}; spotTime[] = {}; courage[] = {}; reloadSpeed[] = {}; endurance[] = {}; commanding[] = {}; aimingShake[] = {}; aimingSpeed[] = {} aimingAccuracy[] = {} general[] = {} }; So these parameters basically are related to how far the AI can see / identify a target, how fast the AI will abandon the combat, how fast the AI reload the magazine or the stamina is drained, etc. You cannot set each of these params individually, but only with the AI "skill". Either in mission editor, or in menu->options->game->difficulty slider. Once you rise the AI skill, all these params go up together. I have to mention that these params have nothing to do with the pathfinding, covering behavior or other skills related to how "smart" the AI seems to be. Maybe only the "general" value but waypoints parameters are really more important in defining their "intelligence". A special parameter is the aiming accuracy, which can be adjusted separately too. So you can have a very fast moving AI soldier, courageous, seeing far, no shaking, but always missing its shots, if the aiming accuracy is reduced. This can be done with the "precisionEnemy" entry in .arma3profile file. Now, to sum up all the factors that affect the AI strength, here they are: 1. AI skill in mission editor. You can chose each AI skill when designing the mission, from 0 to 1. This affect all above internal parameters. On the same server configuration, a mission can have some very weak AI while some other mission can have very strong AI. My suggestion for mission editors is to set AI close to middle of the strength (skill 0.5) so the general difficulty is chosen by the player or the server administrator. 2. Chosen game difficulty (main menu->options->game->difficulty-> drop down recruit/regular/veteran/expert) This will multiply all the internal AI parameters with a factor depending on the chosen difficulty. For example if you chose "veteran", spot distance will be higher, reload speed shorter etc. Also aiming accuracy. Actually this automatically update the "AI skill" slider in the difficulty settings. 3. "Super AI" option in difficulty setting. This will maximize all above internal parameters, without affecting pathfinding or behavior. I do not recommend it as it makes the AI turns or spot you instantly, making them unrealistic. 4. The "AI skill" slider in difficulty settings (main menu->options->game->difficulty->AI skill) This will combine with the default AI skill from mission design, setting up a general AI skill. 5. "precisionEnemy" entry in your current .arma3profile file. This only affect AI shooting accuracy, without affecting any other parameter. So you can have an AI skill 0.9 (almost maximum) but missing all shots if you set "precisionEnemy=0.001" in .arma3profile file. 6. Used mods(addons) Keep in mind that some mods can internally modify the above skills array, so the AI can became more accurate or faster when playing the same mission with the same settings, with the mod enabled, then without it. If you use a mod for a server, read carefully the settings you need to make and what changes it performs. Some mods may force a lower accuracy for the AI, so you don't need to go in .arma3profile file anymore. Once you set a configuration for your server, you need to test it with a default simple mission and check if everything works as expected. 7. Used scripts Some missions are using scripts that may change the AI strength on the fly, which is not quite fair as the AI strength should be let to the server administrator decision. Some scripts creators or mission editors assume that some people don't know how to tune the difficulty and try to force the difficulty at a decent value. If the server administrator already tuned down the AI accuracy for a specific mission and the scripts tune down AI skill in some other mission, the result will be a very weak AI. 8. Weapons accuracy Each weapon has an internal value for accuracy, so each one can be more or less accurate. Also, optics, caliber etc affects the accuracy so you may find out that a decent accuracy for an enemy shooting an "ak" like weapon becomes too precise if the enemy has an optic on that weapon. There are also weapons addons packs where their designer changed the default accuracy with a better one. This will not make their weapons more likely to play with but unbalance the whole mission. This also happens with some units packs, I have seen soldiers having 4 times more armor then default game soldiers. The game difficulty Let's have a look at the game difficulty that you can adjust with the game UI (main menu -> options -> difficulty) or directly in .arma3profile file. If you edited the .arma3profile file, next time you start the game the changes will appear in game options UI too. Actually you need to have the game off when you edit the .arma3profile file, or the changes you performed can be overwritten. As we can see, there is a difficulty for single player missions and another one for multiplayer (this is from OpF times but lately only one may be considered). As you chose a higher difficulty, like "veteran" on "expert", you cannot change some setting anymore. So what if you want to enable third person view for a specific mission? Then you need to change the whole difficulty level on the server and check all other precision settings are fine. That's why I suggest playing on "regular" difficulty and adjust the values as you wish. If you need to adjust one of the option for a specific mission, just go to that option and change it, no need to change the whole level. You can have "expert" settings even playing "regular", with proper adjustments. (Just make all entries "0" and make AI precision "1" -though not recommended at all) .arma3profile file: difficulty="regular"; difficultyMP="regular"; class Difficulties { ... class regular { class Flags { Armor=1; FriendlyTag=1; EnemyTag=0; MineTag=0; HUD=1; HUDPerm=1; HUDWp=1; HUDWpPerm=1; HUDGroupInfo=1; AutoSpot=0; Map=0; WeaponCursor=1; AutoGuideAT=1; ClockIndicator=1; 3rdPersonView=1; UltraAI=0; CameraShake=1; UnlimitedSaves=1; DeathMessages=1; NetStats=1; VonID=1; ExtendetInfoType=1; }; skillFriendly=0.7; skillEnemy=0.6; precisionFriendly=0.4; precisionEnemy=0.25; }; ... }; As long as we wish to adjust "regular" value, we need to assure that both "difficulty" and "difficultyMP" are set on "regular" in this file. This will make either single player missions or dedicated server mission to start with this difficulty and take values from "regular" entry. Let's discuss some of these values, particulary important in dedicated server missions: Armor - give improved armor, pretty much realistic since soldiers using plate carrier vests etc. Recommended value "1" FriendlyTag - see the name of the guys in your team, in real you would recognize them. I'd recommend "1" EnemyTag - this should be set to 0, as it give too much information about an enemy, like type and distance, things you don't get in real life. MineTag - I'd say to go with 0, or the mines will have a graphical red diamond, not really needed. Hud - hud related entries plus waypoints can be set as desired, some may want them removed, some not. No recommendation here. AutoSpot - auto reporting of enemy, not really needed especially in cooperative multiplayer games. I suggest "0". Map - show enemies on map as red dots, even if you didn't see them in 3d view. Strongly recommended against, since it can be used as a cheat. ". so "0". WeaponCursor - set as desired, have in mind that without cursor you can't see the friendly names either. AutoGuideAT - the player has to press lock key or auto lock when using launchers, not so important, I would recommend "1". UltraAI - will maximize all internal skills like turning speed and spot distance making AI unrealistic. Strongly recommend against, so "0". UnlimitedSaves - I would let it to "1" for single mission unless you're a hardcore player who don't like saves at all. DeathMessages - display death messages in multiplayer, set as desired. NetStats - gives access to score, I'd say "1" as some people really like to see their performance. VonID - recommended "1" as if VoIP is used, you can see the name of the speaker. You can adjust some other options not mentioned here like "clock" or "camera shaking" as desired. Very important, the precision and skill for AI are bellow, having some decent values at this time, but BIS may adjust things in time. Particularly important is "precisionEnemy", which at current time should be set to 0.2 for decent AI shooting accuracy. However, it may not work yet as expected. Some advices for modders and mission creators - If you are working on weapons or units addons, try to stick around game default values. Making them stronger won't make your weapon more likely to play but will unbalance some servers, especially if they are used by AI or as AI; - Don't change the AI skill on the fly as it can combine with server values giving unrealistic values. Let the difficulty at the administrator hand; - Avoid maximizing AI skill to 1, as this won't make them "smarter"; - Try to stick around at 0.5 for AI skill, as this will avoid some extreme values in case of wrong settings; - Don't set your own AI precision programatically as BIS may change some default values or internal skills array; Conclusion - setting a server difficulty step by step: 1. Download or make a test mission like this one, so you can test how accurate / fast the AI is. You can also test with some other simple missions, don't use scripted ones for now; 2. If you're using mods, make sure you read how they interfere with the difficulty and set them accordingly; 3. Edit your .arma3profile file, set difficulty on "regular", adjust the "regular" entry as above, tune up other options as desired; 4. Play the test missions, make sure the AI performs well in terms of turning speed, spot distance, shooting accuracy. Ignore covering behaviour, pathfinding or things like this, you cannot adjust them. If they are too slow (like on turning to you etc), rise "skillEnemy" value a bit in arma3.profile file (restart needed). If they are too accurate, adjust the "precisionEnemy" value down, to 0.20, 0.17 etc. Play enough missions as in some the AI may be accurate, in others not, depending on the AI skill given by mission designer in editor. That's why a test mission with AI skill 0.5 will be close to the most values. 5. If your server only play a particular mission, create a server on your own with that mission and make sure the AI works as expected, by playing several times, before making it public.

I performed some tests to see how "realistic" the fatigue effects occurs in beta version. Some general considerations for the beggining. First, we don't have to assume that if the weather is sunny, there are necessary 45C degrees outside, there can be as well as 25C. Second, you can see in the following video people running at marathon, lasting about 40km and 2 hours, with pretty high speed: Soldiers may not be marathonist but for sure they are not fat kids playing console all day long. In fact they become closer to marathonists by training. Now, I've put a soldier on the top of Stratis airport and removed his plate carier, keeping only main weapon and helmet. Started running to the other side of the airport, so pretty easy gear and no slope at all. The fatigue effects occured after about 800m and about 3 minutes, all of them including blur and that dark margins. And that happened without any sprinting!. If I sprinted ocasionally, I could do it only for like 30 seconds, sprinting becoming unavailable at all after that! This lead to a single conclusion. This is not even realistic any way, not to mention you don't go blind or look through a tunnel after 800m of light jogging...

Can you please add the right tooltips to the icons in editor streamlined layout mode? Its been like this since alpha, never fixed. Ideally, the icons should have small text bellow.

The groups don't always share critical information, I'm not sure how it works though, some time ago I tried to make a script to get past this issue, check my signature for the awareness script. However, such mechanism should be in AI engine, groups close to an event should share the information somehow.

It may be because of "extended armor" option, it was just perfect 2 months ago, enemies taking maximum 3-4 shots before getting killed then they changed it... I imagine in the future it will be the same balance between armors and penetration, if the armor evolves so the bullets.... the fairest thing to assume. Default settings right now makes the enemies some kind of iron robots...

I haven't checked lately but last time I did there were flaws in the basics of the sound system. Like volume and hearing distance not working correctly for config sounds. If the basics are buggy you cannot expect a good sound balance. I might be wrong too but reading the comments I suspect bugs are still there. Also lot of sounds need manual amplification tuning, for example some footsteps have internal amplification of 0.9 some other 0.1, setting the same config volume for them will lead to a high difference in output.

Blur should be an option, like in all other games. Both in menu background and in wounded effects. Is just annoying as hell...

I've never heard in real gunfire shooting in my direction but I'm pretty sure that cracks are highly exaggerated while you don't hear the gunshot sound almost at all. However, I have been in a city during extensive firefights and the distant sounds where less like cracks and more like "boom"s, pretty much like here: This is not how it is in ArmA right now... I suppose there are enough people here that can help adjust the balance of cracks and gunfire sounds to make it more real.

I think the ArmA 1 could be have been a much higher success if it had good sounds. ArmA 2 had better sounds still not at the mods level. Now it seems that the individual sounds are much better but the balance and overall usage still full of flaws.

Regular difficulty, one single enemy AI, skill 0.5, having one "HOLD" waypoint, open fire engage at will, full speed. (this setUnitPos "DOWN" in init field, but this is not necessary, you can shoot so he prone). Approaching from behind, I'm still able to move around him, without being shot. Conclusion: need to increase the rotation speed for AI prone stance or make him aim faster with upper part of the body, or something else.

I think you shouldn't make the tolerances too large, like skill 0 - completely dumb, skill 1 = super human. This will lead to more difficult tunings.

Just tested the new turn speed a bit, things are obviously pushed forward in the right direction. After accuracy, the turn speed is the second main important factor in defining the AI strength. The way it is now it is natural, probably the real life speed. However I think its a bit too fast (for standing) and make them a bit too overpowered. They turn and open fire precisely a bit too fast.. maybe some aiming time should be added after turning or slower the turn speed a bit. (regular, skill 0.5)

60fps distance to enemy 15m enemies standing enemies skill: 0.5 regular There is a new "turning" way, like fast small steps. This speed is slightly faster then the original very slow speed but still very slow. I think this speed should only depend by skill and stance and nothing else.

Where is that? I always liked ACE sounds, they were always pretty neat and realistic without too much "hollywoodish" reverb. As for JSRS, the "indoor" sound for hand weapons should be added in the game engine, so everybody can create an "indoor" version without scripting overhead.

The way it is now is too harsh and annoying. Fatigue should be very "light" with standard gear, it should appear only when the character is heavy loaded. Most likely everybody will end up disabling it in most missions just like it was in the first versions added to ACE.

I wonder how you got that, I've tested a couple of days ago on regular/skill 0.5 and the turn speed was still slow like hell.

Yeah, it needs a revision again, with the standard gear, a rifle, several magazines, few basic items up to 10kg, the character gets tired in few tens of meters.

Yesterday change log: "Sounds of movement has been tuned for all soldiers" Really. Guys, you're do it wrong. You're doing it for the tenth time and its still bad. With sound engineers and gear like yours this game shouldn't need and sound mod. I don't know what happen there but tens of people around the forum already told you that. Can't you just learn something from all ArmA 2 sound mods? All footsteps sounds have higher volume! Here is how a game with sounds rated 10/10 looks like. Everything is immersive, like you're there. Yours are low, not immersive, there are lot of bugs when switching from grass to roads like gear volume get lower etc. there are no bush sounds, the ambient is awfull. Instead, the sounds in the next one are amazing:

One single comment on this one: hit & miss GUI – for example, “Exit†button in main menu does not request to confirm your choice, people tend to press on it accidentally Exit confirmation is close to the most stupid thing related to the computers UI. Statistically, 99% or more "exit" clicks are intended, I mean the user really wants to exit the application. He shouldn't be forced to an extra click just because once in a lifetime he may press exit by mistake. There is no big deal at all if "exit" is pressed by mistake. The user will run the application again.

We need some standards for test missions and difficulty etc to tune up AI against some basic configuration. Then AI strength can be adjusted up and down a bit for lower or higher difficulties. I would say that standard tests should be performed like this: - Difficulty - Regular - this allow tuning of most difficulty variables and is closest to "medium" game level. This will minimize the differences in case of test errors. - Accuracy for friendly and enemy - default for regular, in .arma3profile file or game difficulty settings. - AI skills in editor - 0.5 - for the same reason - we deal with "medium" values. Never let AI groups without waypoints. For enemy groups make them "open fire engage at will" and "combat / aware / stealth" behavior. The speed should be usually run so they don't stick too much to formation. For friendly AI don't forget to set their behavior with UI commands - usually "open fire" and "Aware" behavior (~ 3 1, ~ 3 5, ~ 7 5) so to be sure they engage when they see the enemy. When you put a video, make sure you specify the difficulty used, used mods (highly preferably without any), the map with waypoints. As the devs said, include the test mission as often is possible (just upload the .pbo file it on a file sharing site like mediafire.com - pbo in editor - "save as user mission")

It's breaking immersivity and identification with the character. It should be like it always been and like any other game.