krzychuzokecia

Our intelligence reports increased military activity in western Belarus. Here's one of the photos captured by informants. Our analysts recognized that the photographed individuals and their vehicles are part of Belarusian Ground Forces light infantry. Man in the foreground is probably a team leader - his equipment (modern light-weight LBE of local manufacture) and armament (AK-74N rifle capable of mounting optics) is a testimony of a fast modernisation effort led by Belarusian Armed Forces. Vehicles are typical for light infantry, and other units of Belarusian army: UAZ-469 4x4 of Soviet vintage, and modern Belarusian MAZ-5316 light truck. Stand-by for more intel, which will be posted on our Facebook page.

As I said before - I expect more from a for-profit developer selling product (DLC), than from a group of guys making free mods for fun. Especially when developer claims to have made "most authentic Vietnam war game ever created". Don't blame for situation that Savage Game Design put themselves in, voluntarily. Why critique can't be also an effect of love? When I joined this forum, after years of playing OFP "casually", I found myself in the magnificent world of crazy "rivet counters", passionate about creating the most authenthic content possible. People with various backgrounds, often coming straight from military, or military industry even, or just enthusiasts of warfare history. The amount of knowledge shared here in years past was simply astonishing. Since when it's a thing to look down upon? I'm sorry, but you're literally grasping at straws here. The model in question is plain and simple a BI-made asset from Arma 2 (class Empty->Ammo->Local Ammunition Box), there's no "story" behind it, except it was (probably) free for SGD to use it, and fits the era better than vanilla A3 plastic containers. Still, with such care and attention devs gave to the smallest details (cigarette pack, and "Napalm" hot sauce bottle are amazing!), this one stands out. In a bad way. And no, Democratic Republic of Vietnam was not in need to scrounge ammo from shady sources, since they were openly supplied by both communist China and Warsaw Pact countries. Now getting them from DRV down south, to the Viet Cong forces was another matter, hence Viet Cong reliance (especially in early stages of war) on captured weaponry (either from US/ARVN forces, or earlier from French). ...and that's a bad thing. The quality dwindles while prices rise. Not to mention the emergence of scammy practices like micro-transactions. That's a topic for a completely different discussion, however it pains me to hear that even on these forums there are people who think it's not a big deal. Quo vadis gaming industry? Oh, I beg to differ. I can easily differentiate between making a game, and making a mod. Modding is a far easier task, where you built upon a technology already developed by somebody else. You just create your own assets/art, and (if there's need for it) scripts - all within constrains of the game you're modding. Not to mention the fact that you don't have to be bothered with boring tasks like accounting, legalities, marketing, publishing deals etc. And all the CDLCs are just that - mods. Ones that are paid for, sold on Steam, and bring revenue to their creators, but still mods. It was especially noticeable in case of GlobMob, which first release was painfully lacking for a 20 Euro "game". But if looked through the optic of "community made modification", it made perfect sense. I guess the cold reception of GlobMob, in it's infancy, is what caused BI to postpone the release of CSLA DLC. What if I told you that all I posted comes either from old historians, or even involved parties themselves? Heck, I can give you references for every issue I brought with regards to PF promo pictures. I'm pretty sure that the idiosyncrasies I mentioned are not based on supposed advisement from the veterans, but come from devs themselves, based on their design vision.

...and what's that supposed to mean? Well, neither do I, but with the huge effort devs went to recreate some of the art and assets, things like those poor ammo boxes just stand out as a sign of... well, I don't know, since I'm not dev, but either oversight, laziness or lack of funds/time? Reminds me of the modern Goodyear tyre texture in the Iron Front. On the other hand, inclusion of Mi-2 is just wasted effort, because (if we're talking about "realism" and "immersion") you never heard about PAVN doing their own air assaults into South Vietnam, nor you'd find it immersive. I guess it was included due to the CTI-style game-modes (like Warlords) that are built on balance between opposing factions, but that's really boring game design (it gave us Arma 3 with identical RCWS turrets on each faction vehicles). Praire Fire apparently already includes a few smaller scale TvT game modes (better fitting to the Vietnam War theme), so why forcing anachronistic assets only to tick off the box by the "Warlords" name? This issue of "wasted effort" is what (in my opinion) plagues the other CDLC - Global Mobilization. And don't get me wrong, Mondkalb is a stand up guy, but why his team is working on 1990s Denmark and German assets, while the 1980s stuff is far from being finished? I know that it's easier to make another M113 variant, but it's a cheap excuse. For me it's important, because the story of Vietnam War wouldn't have happened like it has, if not the supposed technical advantage the US had over Vietnamese. All the bad this war brought, and all the good it brought, was because it was a confrontation between a post-Red Scare, nuclear-powered space age United States, and the fledling independent Vietnam, which finally made it's mark on the map after centuries of captivity. There's fantastic quote from Coppola about filming "Apocalypse Now": "we had too much money, too much equipment and little by little went insane". It kind of explains US actions in Vietnam too, especially the technocratic craziness of Robert McNamara. Every war has it's heroic moments which are worthy of praise, but what makes these stories stand-out is the historical background. You mess with the history, and you end up with monstrosities like latest Battlefield games, where World War 1 and 2 are fought with full-auto scoped rifles - even though the stories it tells are interesting, the setting is changed so much, it works to the disadvantage of the whole game as a medium. Of course you could always say you're presenting an alternative history, or science fiction (see "Return of the Jedi" and George Lucas retelling of Vietnam War with cutesy teddy bears in place of Viet-Cong, and evil Empire instead of US), but it still lacks the emotions of the true story as lived through by real people.

If BI own "Apex Protocol" can be any indicator, then campaign is doable in SP but only if you're not afraid about over-using the arcade respawn mechanic (in "Apex Protocol" playing alone meant no AI team-mates however, maybe it's different with PF?). If it's any consolation to you, it seems that PF devs are focused on multiplayer themselves, and from what I understand, at least some of them are active in MP groups. So I guess even if no one else would buy this DLC, you'd be at least able to play with people who made it. Now, few things that caught my eye, when looking at a beautifully crafted website for this DLC. Seems that a number of assets is reused from earlier Arma titles - that's understandable, but some details are quite funny, like those A2 ammo crates with Yugoslav markings. I mean, it's possible that Igman ammunition found it's way to Indochina, but it should not be a secret that Yugoslavia and North Vietnam were not on the best terms in 1960s and 1970s. The only PAVN air asset in the DLC is Mi-2. Now, I'm not one of the people who will scream "give me the MiG-21", but why Mi-2? From my limited knowledge (I happen to know few people associated with Świdnik plant that made those things), North Vietnam was not among the users of this type in 1960s and 1970s. Maybe Soviet Union gave few to the DRV, but I never seen any photographic evidence of this either. From what I know North Vietnam wasn't even using their (more common) Mi-4 and Mi-6 helicopters in combat during Vietnam War - so is Mi-2 in Praire Fire only because for gameplay balance? When even the website says that factions are assymetrical? Porting An-2 STOL airplane from Arma 2 would provide a more realistic, and interesting asset (imagine landing this thing in the jungle - North Vietnamese did it!). One of the weapons for US side is M40A1 rifle with Unertl 10x scope. However in 1968 this weapon is very anachronistic - A1 version was introduced in 1977, and the Unertl scope was not available until 1981. Even as late as mid-1980s USMC Scout Snipers would utilize "transitional" M40A1 rifles with older Redfield 3-9x scopes, as used on (proper for Vietnam War) M40 rifle. There are few other minor errors that are not worth mentioning, but while I could accept any mistake from a free mod, I have higher expectations from a commercially sold product. Especially since devs themselves boast about their military advisors - who, by the way, are amazing people, I highly recommend everybody to listen to the interviews on PF YouTube channel.

I'm not BI, but: Yes, it doesn't have roof, and even external walls. It doesn't have to, since you're not supposed to be outside of it. There is not an official template as of yet, but @drebin052 created a template on his own. There's even a config few posts down.

Armor? I'm not sure myself, because my Arma modding skills are still stuck in 2001, but yeah, in OFP/CWA it was armor.

The green accents on the facade remind me of the so-called "city hall" in Karbala, which was one of the places that saw the action during Mahdi's Army uprising in 2004. Both Karbala and Al Kut were in the zone of responsibility of Multi-National Division Central-South, which was led by Polish contingent in Iraq, so your work is double interesting to me. Good luck!

Oh, I believe you - IIRC the original one was so bad that the hex screws were egg-shaped, instead of round. To be honest: last year I was thinking about porting the Mk17 myself (as a free replacement of the Marksmen DLC Mk-1/SIG), but when I saw how bad it was, I decided I'm not up to this task. So I'm very happy someone took this challenge! :D

Unless something changed in last two years, only the Arma Sample Models packs contain debinarised ("usable") data - and those don't have any textures.

The "big" (not really) issue is that the addon is apparently reliant on CBA Joint Rails and Joint Mags, but neither Steam config, nor addon itself (CfgPatches) seems to have that requirement set. I loaded it without CBA, and when equipping in Virtual Arsenal, I got an error about missing CBA magwell (weapon still fired though), and couldn't equip any scope/accessories. As for the not important things - I love the "Armaverse logo" from the Mk20/ADR (whatever it even says, I think it's "BIS"?). However on BI textures it is "engraved", while on yours it's embossed - stands out a bit. Also, changing the name on receiver from Ex16 to Mk16 would also be a nice touch. Otherwise, I love the "lore-friendly" and "lightweight" solution for SCAR in A3! Edit: just to be clear, with CBA it all works as intended. Edit 2: two other issues. 1. The magazine proxy on Mk16 is way too high - you can see the mag in ejection port, that would introduce a lot of problems in terms of proper feeding and ejection! :D 2. With bolt locked to the rear I can see through the charging handle slot to the other side of the gun. Also, it's not really your fault, but with the added logo, and camo paint, it's obvious that BI reused Mk16 texture for Mk17 - the stretching of the texture is clearly visible on mag well, and near the charging handle slot (one can see the "shadow" of the slot on the texture is not matching the actual slot on the model) - blame BI!

Just wanted to say "thank you" to W0lle and all the CWR3 team and contributors for continous updates! You guys are doing amazing job with this mod, and keeping it free for anyone to play.

Great news! Good luck with your project!

Die Hard 4... The movie that made me realize that Bruce Willis' career is going downhill... and the whole Die Hard franchise went with him too. :( Otherwise Joostsidy is spot on - you can make some wild maneuvers with vanilla Xian, sometimes even too wild (watch for the trees!).

Yeah, depending on how big of an area you want to feature, performance issues are a given: in your case you're essentially rendering half of Zargabad on top of what your character sees normally. And Arma being Arma... we know how it ends! That's why I mentioned Dirty Dozen before: this script seems to work fine when used to depict small area/single building like in the movie. Not to mention the "realism aspect" - I guess when planning operations in cities very few outfits would make such model, usually just resort to using maps and/or aerial/satellite photography. But this looks way cooler! EDIT: Not a request, because I don't think it's possible in Arma, but imagine how great it would be to apply custom material for spawned objects, to make it look like a sci-fi movie hologram display!

A new original content addon for OFP in 2021? That's enough for a big thumb up from me!

An update of sorts. Ability to easily set up our own drills was something that many people wanted to see in A3 in the past. Sadly, firing drills don't seem to be that popular in 2021 - truth be told, I haven't found yet a timed shooting competition except for my own. I think there's a simple reason for that - as opposed to vehicle races, firing drill requires a lot of scripting, and often those scripts are not really applicable outside of one particular mission (mostly because of the drill flow). With no "simple" solution drill-style mission fell into obscurity. But this may hopefully change: since A3 patch 2.02 we now have access to BI Firing Drill module and documentation! This allows really anyone to create custom Firing Drills in a matter of... hours (realistically speaking). To prove this I've decided to once again join the Arma firing drill pioneers, this time with possibly first ever community-made drill using BI FD module! The mission is very simple - features only one checkpoint with targets (including bonus), and only one gun is used. It is still a fun "high noon showdown" type of shooting challenge. Download: Steam Workshop. Going back to my original idea of "FPSC" - a more "realistic" type of drill - naturally the new FD module and documentation will also be useful. I still haven't figured some things out, for example changing weapons mid-course (it's done in BI Purple drills so it surely is possible), or having checkpoint with both pistol-only and rifle-only targets (seems like weapon limitation is applied to checkpoint, not to target, and I haven't had much luck with having two checkpoints in one place). But even with limitations, it's still way easier to make a playable mission than it was before.

NoPop Targets - for the Firing Drill afficionados! Since Arma 3 patch 2.02 it's possible to create your own Firing Drills. However, the process requires manual editing of mission.sqm file, and changing target entities availalble in Eden Editor to their "NoPop" variants which are hidden by default. This addon unlocks "NoPop" targets in the editor, placing them in separate "Targets (NoPop)" subcategory. With this addon you can easily make new Firing Drills without unnecessary messing with the text files. Your Firing Drill can then be released on Steam Workshop, requiring the NoPop Targets addon, or you can manually remove any entries regarding this addon in mission.sqm, for a completely vanilla Drill - which is still easier than replacing class names of many targets. Usage: create your own Firing Drill according to the official guide, publish it on Steam Workshop and add NoPop Targets as requirement. Or: open your mission.sqm file in text editor and remove entries regarding "A3_Structures_F_Training_NoPop" (this addon) from addons[]={} array and class AddonsMetaData, publish your Firing Drill on Steam Workshop without unnecessary requirements. Note: this addon doesn't modify the behaviour of Arma 3 target objects - whether they are "NoPop" variant or not. The only config changes are related to "scope" parameters and Eden subcategory. It is completely safe to play Firing Drills (vanilla or otherwise) with this addon loaded. Credits: Bohemia Interactive Studios, krzychuzokecia - config changes and repackaging. Download: Steam Workshop.

@Cysiu well, nope if you want to make a Firing Drill using BI module.* According to the guide: When you look into the config files, NoPop variants of targets lack any EventHandlers. That's probably because all the scripting is applied by Firing Drill module, so it would conflict with target's default EHs. Now, I don't really understand why devs decided to introduce additional variant of the target objects, instead of using removeEventHandler command. Additionaly, some of the target types (clay, steel plates) require placing with non-standard attributes, like simulation off. In other news: just noticed I haven't unlocked NoPop variants of balloons, oranges, pumpkins and Miller's Essence - apparently those are hidden in other places than _structures_f_training and _structures_f_mark_training, so there's going to be an update when I find those. * When I made my firing drill using custom scripts (way before patch 2.02), I naturally used the "nopop" variable. BI system has some limitations (or I haven't found out how to utilize it in more complex courses), but it's way easier to make playable drill than to script it manually.

Gastovski goes in where the others have been. We all come out like it's Halloween! Addons and mods: CUP, CWR3, POLPOX's Artwork Supporter, Nikoaton's Animations Pack, Whiplash Static Animations, DIREONE's Relax poses. Also featured: Model Village Script by Sebsterbl.

The only issue I had was that when using terrain resolution variable less than 20, the cubes get bigger also in height, so they can stick out from under the table. Otherwise, it seems fine to me, but I haven't checked it in MP, for example.

...suddenly I hear Lee Marvin's voice from "Dirty Dozen". Great work, thanks!

What do you mean by "rvmat is attached"? How your Addon Builder settings look like, can you post a pic?

I haven't had any problems with performance really, maybe only longer time to load the mission. The "popping" of the rocks was visible without fog, but adding a little bit of it made it unnoticeable.

Make sure that in Addon Builder options you have *.rvmat in the list of files to be copied directly. I've seen several threads in last year where people were going on a wild goose chase trying to find the issue with specific rvmat, or even suggesting reinstallation of whole operating system. In 99%* of cases the issue was because of Addon Builder binarizing the .rvmat - I wonder why it's even an option, when clearly game won't work with such file. * disclaimer: 87% of statistics posted on Internet are fake

The island is beautiful in it's original state, and amazingly intriguing with vegetation replacement module. However, the mysterious, barren, rocky landscape is hard to capture on picture: POLPOX's Artwork Supporter won't work with module activated - buttons and keyboard controls are unresponsive. Maybe that's because of the phantoms roaming these lands, we know how they react to cameras... Also, if an addon is used, that doesn't have units array in CfgPatches (because it doesn't have any units), game will throw an error about missing config entry at the start of the mission. Workaround would be adding empty units array in CfgPatches of that addon, but that may not be always possible (author is long gone etc.). Without vegetation replacement module all works without a hitch.