instagoat

A large blueprint poster of the MX Rifle. That would be cool.

Sketched with broad brush for bodyshape and pose, roughed the outlines of the gear and weapon, and then went over that with detailed blacklines. I copied the blackline sketch, made the copy invisible and then began painting straight over the sketch. You can use multiple techniques for sketching the details other than that, but painting is basically the Idea not to use outlines to define the shape, and instead use the shape, colour and illumination instead. It´s a pretty tall art, actually, and getting good at it takes years. I am pretty shitty myself compared to the person who taught me the basics, but I am getting there. Picture showing the two sketch layers here. Total layers I painted is three: one intial sketch, one detail sketch and all colour on a single layer (apart from the red lighting, which I added later for contrast) The final picture in my other post above shows the final picture after painting over the copy of the detail sketch layer. Nevermind the US flag, I turned him into a greek during the colouring process. Last thing I have to add is that what´s important is patience and persistence, and the willingness to try out new stuff. Instead of saying "I can´t" say "I can´t yet". Hope this halps. Insta

Greek Free Army Special Forces Rifleman, firing the MX-6.5 Long-frame Rifle. 4 ish hours from photographic reference (not traced), but with lots of liberty taken with the details. Not finished, but my hand started to hurt too badly to continue, so I stopped for now. Plus, it´s very late. I might continue working on this if I feel like it, details, background, camo, etc. Also, if anybody has questions or whatevs, feel free to ask. I am not very good at this, but maybe I can also share some helpful thoughts on arts and stuff. Also obviously credits for the brand go to BI. May you be inspired! Edit: Imgur wrecked the picture, I apologize for that.

To think that there was a time when people were getting killed over getting photos much worse than these in the past. If you had shown up at the CIA in the 80s with this kind of stuff you´d have received a lifelong pension and a (secret) intelligence star. Also, that boat looks positively neglected.

Searched the forums, no joy. The question is, are there any official photoshop templates around for the PMC (and possibly the BAF) Units? BI noted before the release that the Units would be fully customizeable as far as decals and textures, and all infantry units indeed have hidden selections to apply retextures. The only easy one is the IOTV Unit, because you can do a hack-job template from the normals that can be extracted from OA. PMC is encrypted, so that naturally isn´t possible. I suspect there are no templates, so as a last ditch attempt I am asking here. Also, if there are none, could they be provided? Manually checker-mapping the Units in detail is difficult because getting the texture to line up with the normal map in the details is helluva difficult without access to the normals. Thanks in advance for the help, Instagoat

It would be neat if this actually turned out to bring results. All I´ve read and heard so far mentions the minuscule energy output by these effects... not really good for energy production. I think, unless a major breakthrough takes place, this maybe-technology will develop even slower than hot fusion. And hot fusion is already a slow project, with the first reactor to supply the grid scheduled to come online in 2040. And that´s an optimistic date, considering the problems and challenges involved with hot fusion power generation.

Some sort of tech tree for both sides would be great. Having all technology right from the start is a real bummer, I think, it takes a lot away from the potential depth of the game. It would be great if you had the tech randomly sitting on islands and you had to capture the islands to get the tech (no egoshooter like in the campaign to speed it up.)

My suggestion is to have a look at Dysl... Dsyll... the shacktac founder person's youtube here, and his "art of flight" videos: Three about basics of flying, emergency management and landing. Those, I found helpful in getting a few basics straighter myself. Hope this helps Insta

If this is actually true, I´d be worried about a lot of our current dating techniques outside of ones based specifically on the speed of light and redshift measurements. Though I´d expect it to average out over time, the Sun as far as we know is a pretty rythmic star. If not, however, quite a lot of our radioactive dating techniques may have produced wonky results. Not that I really expect this, though, but in some way this could be future fodder for the creationist camp. As far as neutrinos not interacting with anything, that´s not exactly true. There are several neutrino experiments around the earth, which have recently contributed to solving the solar neutrino problem (Turns out the neutrino count as observed was way below the predictions. I´ve not go the magazine article on hand right now, however, some convincing evidence was found that explained how this occurs. I suspect it is being confirmed right now.). Predicting solar storms is good, however. Next thing we need to do is figuring out a way to harden the infrastructure. But, knowing humans, that will only happen AFTER the catastrophe is over and the blame has been shifted to everybody who was available, the sueing is over and the fines and jailtimes have been done with. No way anything will happen BEFORE the sun burps in our general direction. Not human nature to positively anticipate problems like that. I for one will make sure that if the news comes around, I will have fresh water, cake and canned food while I watch everybody else freak out over their ipods not working anymore. More sensible than preparing for an evil government, I think.

This oughta be interesting. There´s many things I know that could be involved in this, all are exciting. However, I actually hope it will be something that nobody is expecting at all, but that is equally exciting as all known possibillities. I should try and keep an eye on this.

As far as grip animations go, can we get one one with a tacticool extended combat operator costa style assault rifle stance? Like this: http://soldiersystems.net/blog1/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Costa-Sportin-FS-Take-II.jpg http://www.defensereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Chris_Costa_of_Costa_Ludus_Shooting_Suppressed_FERFRANS_SOAR-P_Tactical_Piston_AR_Carbine_SBR_Sub-Carbine_on_Full-Auto_2.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ezo6UJndL1Y/TriWMtg3olI/AAAAAAAAuyg/O1s9vNVqiA0/s640/Chris-Costa-Leaves-Magpul-Dynamics-Forms-Costa-Ludus-Tactical-Training-Stickman-Photography-Pyramyd-Airsoft-Blog-Tom-Harris-Media-Tominator.jpg That would be just too rad. I love this ridiculous wide extended tacticool style of working the gun. Better than any magwell hold or broomhandle vertical foregrip. I dunno. This pack looks fantastic, this would just be the cherry on the pie for me, personally. :> Hope I´m not being too intrusive with this. Cheerio Insta

I don´t think it counts as a confirmation, but I had a dream where I played Arma 3 extensively and it was just about as awesome as it could get. Seeing as I am a certified clairvoyant, parapsychologist and ghost communicator (As my degree here http://thunderwoodcollege.com/degree.pdf?t2=Insta+Goat&t1=School+of+Social+Sciences&t3=Doctor+of+Sciences&t4=Parapsychology&captcha=jkp&Submit=Create+Diploma%21: proves) this is actually the truth and it will be an awesome game. From my vision I can confirm that the handling is awesome, the weapons are fantastic, the game runs smooth as silk and is beautiful as heaven, and is delivered in a box by parachute right to your front door, containing a BIS brand of survival soap that can be used in many applications, a set of nightvision goggles that show the scene how it would look 25 years in the future, a radio that can only receive the signal of sputnik and a velcro backed flag-patch that will display the flag of any country you are currently located in. (Also, I am getting a little antsy in the light of lack of news, can you feel it? But, better late and finished and sooner and broken, right?)

I have been mucking about on these things, and been looking into military R&D to see what kind of things are really being implemented. Historically, the two driving factors in military technology development have been lethality and protection. In small scale conflicts, the protection of soldiers is really not done for humane reasons, if you look at it an a really cold fashion, but to protect an investment. A soldier today carries around tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear, and has hundreds of thousands of dollars and years in training invested in him. The issue gear and training of a soldier in 1900 was a fraction of what it is today. I have found that some experts even have expressed the raise in equipment costs in the shape of an exponential function. One of the more humorous ones predicts that by 2050, if the US defence budget will remain unchanged, the Pentagon will be able to field two fully equipped soldiers + assorted supports. However, this will only continue until we see a conflict that produces major losses: any replacement gear fielded will be reduced in quality and complexity as expenses and production time and effort are lowered to meet raising demand. Then it comes down to what new technologies will actually stay being used: to stay, they need to be simple and cheap enough to remain on the "have got to be used" list. On a sidenote, the new swedish Stealth tank using the BAE IR camouflage system: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?207206-Today-s-Photos-Friday-January-13th-2012&p=5972608&viewfull=1#post5972608 It´s fair to say that, if we take the F-22 development as a baseline example, this technology is likely to be fielded in some shape or form by the time Arma 3s date rolls around. I am still trying to write up a meaningful (and properly formatted) post that supplies some Ideas of what may or may not be possible. I am trying to figure out what is worth being put in and what is superfluous. I hope whatever I come up with will be helpful and interesting at least to some. Cheerio Insta

Beautiful, now it works! Thanks a lot, I think I confused the fixed Boss.sqf and moved the one I corrected to the wrong folder while thinking I had it in the right one. On to do battle!

I´ve tried altering the code, however, it didn´t seem to change anything. This is the updated version of the mission I´ve been testing with, it runs no mods, only vanilla OA Units. I have added your altered code per instructions and am running (obviously) from script instead of addon now. http://filesmelt.com/dl/OPDevoutpilgrim.rar This is the error in the .rpt I am getting again: ... "Big Boss A is looking for strategic objectives." "Big Boss A is analyzing forces..." "Big Boss A is checking own forces placement..." "Big Boss A orients the flanks." "Big Boss A assigns front sections to divisions." "Assignment of Big Boss A : Left: [LeaderHQB] Right: [LeaderHQD] Front: [LeaderHQ] Reserve: [LeaderHQC]" "Big Boss A issues orders." "Side: A - Losses: 0 Number: 267 Value: 676 enValue: 0 enFactor: 676 lossFactor: 0" "For Big Boss A cycle is completed: 1 (mission time: 141.104)" "Big Boss A will now use some break for coffee and cigarette." "Big Boss B awakes (time: 143.25)" "Big Boss B is looking for strategic objectives." "Big Boss B is analyzing forces..." "Big Boss B is checking own forces placement..." Protocol bin\config.bin/RadioProtocol_EP1_TK/: Missing word Message Protocol bin\config.bin/RadioProtocol_EP1_TK/: Missing word ImOnIt Error in expression <enAr) > 0) then { { _eA = _x; _eP = _eA select 0; _eT = _eA select 2; { _sA = _> Error position: <select 0; _eT = _eA select 2; { _sA = _> Error select: Typ Zeichenfolge, erwartet Array,Config entry "Morale C (EAGER): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" "Morale D (COMPETENT): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" "Morale A (EAGER): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" "Morale B (BRUTE): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" ... I really have no clue. Again, the error highlighted in the .rpt is here: http://pastebin.com/S45PzqWn starting at line .572 and onwards. I do not know what it is trying to do and what is going wrong, though. Especially since this runs perfectly fine for BBa but then stalls for BBb. Hope this helps in figuring out the problem.

My selfish opinion is that they need to wait until I have a DX11 ready rig that can run the game actually, and not my steam age computer I´m running now.

http://pastebin.com/S45PzqWn http://pastebin.com/j08YNink here are the two files. For some reason when doing BBb it stalls at the marked line (line 572 in the first one). I have replaced all Units of the B side again by copypasting and deleting them and putting them back in the same positions. I have also tried shifting the names of the commanders around, to no avail. Replacing the fronts or objectives didn´t do anything for me either. For some reason it seems to hang up when running boss.sqf? I´ve looked at the file that comes with the .rar, which is how I extracted the code to the hidden pastebins. And again, no haste, I´m just keeping things up to date as I try to figure what is what here. A coder friend of mine is helping me a bit with it, maybe I can figure it out on my own.

Thanks, fixed it. There was another comma error in a different place at line 738 that I also fixed, RPT is clean now as far as the init file goes. However, in the RPT, this shows up all the time after BBa finishes his thing: ... "Big Boss A will now use some break for coffee and cigarette." "Big Boss B awakes (time: 53.942)" "Big Boss B is looking for strategic objectives." "Big Boss B is analyzing forces..." "Big Boss B is checking own forces placement..." Error in expression <enAr) > 0) then { { _eA = _x; _eP = _eA select 0; _eT = _eA select 2; { _sA = _> Error position: <select 0; _eT = _eA select 2; { _sA = _> Error select: Typ Zeichenfolge, erwartet Array,Config entry "Morale C (EAGER): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" "Morale D (COMPETENT): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" "Morale A (EAGER): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" "Morale B (BRUTE): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" "Morale C (EAGER): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" "Morale D (COMPETENT): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" "Morale A (EAGER): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" "Morale B (BRUTE): 0 - losses: 0 percent (0)" (Ends here.) Error select apparently reads: Type String, expects Array,Config entry. I have nil understanding of programming language, so I can´t really interprete what is going on here. Thanks for your quick reply too, no haste! I will try to continue figuring things out, updating this post if I find out anything. Thanks for your help! Edit: Also found I am running JSRS along with this. Haven´t heard the normal sounds for so long, didn´t even know the difference. I doubt this affects anything, though I will try it without. No luck so far.

Hello again! I have been going back to the mission I talked about last, here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?129003-HETMAN-Artificial-Commander&p=2217288&viewfull=1#post2217288 I´ve not been using RYD for a while because I have been busy with real life, and I´ve just returned to it seriously today. I am still trying to get this mission to work properly after figuring out how to make artillery work (that was easy, thanks for implementing this feature). The problem is, still, the following. BBa runs trough its paces, assigns fronts and objectives, issues orders and finishes the cycle normally. BBb works fine until it checks placement of its forces, and then stalls. The longest I have waited for it to finish was about an hour, but no luck. I have changed setup of the Units, changed placement, worked trough the init.sqf for errors, checked the RPT but no luck. It is full of errors I don´t understand, too: on my view, the init.sqs seems fine, but the RPT complains about lots of things. Mods or no mods doesn´t matter either, currently I am running Arma in vanilla mode to see if I can figure out how to fix the problem. Again, I am having no luck. I even completely replaced units for the problematic force commanders on the map, and placed all of them in the same location, but BBb still stalls at finding out the Unit locations. I am running out of Ideas right now, and wondered if you could have a look at it? Big Boss is about the greatest feature of this, and I would love for one mission to have properly working to use as template for future missions. Uploaded a file containing the mission and the most recent .rpt here: http://filesmelt.com/dl/BBMission.rar I´ve changed the mission name, but the last RPT entries are for this mission and all it contains. I have -no- clue why the things are not working, so any help from anybody would be appreciated. It would be also cool if my mistakes could be documented, whatever I did wrong, so other people can avoid doing the same mistakes. Edit: I also am using the last version available on Armaholic, no beta or trial version, if that helps any.

Hi. Fiddling around with rearmed again, I wanted to try making an Airbase at the border airfield at Sumrakent, however, the AI has major problems with this airfield. They take off from the (by designation closed) short airstrip next to the main runway (which is also, realistically, way too short for Jet aircraft). And, they are completely unable to land. They go into the pattern, and then fly along the runway (the wrong one, again) at an altitude of about 100 ish meters, until they have left the airfield, when they start to climb and go around, only to repeat the pattern. This is a pity, especially since this is the only mapped airfield useable by aircraft. I wish the others (Dirt strip at Shapur-e-Dalanper, Vashakum Dam lake airstrip and whatever other fields I missed) would also be useable, for extended air combat missions. Is there any possibillity to make these available in the next patch, if this is still being developed at all? Thanks for any information. Insta

http://imgur.com/eUoMi,tlNPs,l9yyX,MkGDs#0 Shots here. First pic shows the plane just slowly hovering along the runway (does this from city limits until it crosses the fence at the other side). Rest of the pics show the airbase on map and ingame. The hangars are same as Arma 2, for size ref.

I am using it in a little mish I built for PMC. HQ BRDM with a ZSU-23/2 on top, ammo crates strapped to the sides, and backpacks dangling off the front. I think it´s generally not used in a very obvious fashion because it´s mostly a gimmick in 90% of all cases, and the AI often doesn´t work well in my experience with these tack-on guns. You can make serious missions with attachTo, too. I think those would actually help promote the feature more, so it gets used in a sensible fashion. Planes with tanks strapped to their backs are fun, but only once. Cheers, Insta

Nice. Not going for the same market increases my interest in the thing you´ve got going there. In the past couple of years not a lot of games in this field have been really impressive, so I am keen on seeing what you do with the material. So, while I am skeptical towards wether or not the thing will be successful, you have my attention. If it´s any good me and my friends (who are more into the speedier type of tactical gameplay, not the slow paced stuff Arma offers) will pick it up. I am unsure, however, about accepting things said on websites at face value. Following OFP Dragon rising has taught me that anything you cannot test and confirm for yourself has to be taken with a grain of salt. And with games, the whole code thing is such black magic that even while you can put a lot of things in, they may not work perfectly (or at all. Case in point, Manhattan. Arma 2 players will know what I mean.). So, if I say marketing I mean advertising your Ideas to draw in people. It is not meant in a negative fashion. I think the whole tactical sim genre in all its broadness has been neglected by the industry recently, with the decline of Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon into speedy shooter gameplay, and the complete decay of games like Splinter Cell and Flashpoint, so any move in the other direction is appreciated. Maybe you got something going there, if yes, it can only be good for the genre as a whole.

If it was only that, I would be happy :p If I ever re-work this in colour, I´ll do something about it. For now, it´s just his genetics, I guess.

Quickly whipped up another picture today. I am not quite happy with it, but that is very usual for me. NATO trooper on patrol. I used no references at all, so nothing really looks like it should look, but oh well. This was just training for composition, space and contrast. I think as far as those things go, it looks okay. More may be following in the coming days and weeks, depending on how I feel. Toodles! Credits: Arma 3 badge from some Arma 3 thread where devs posted it, font from Simmers Paintshop, 7th ID badge from Wikipedia.