JSj

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=80754

I agree, remove the ammo counter, and put in stance and injury indicators to compensate for the fact that you can feel these things instantly IRL, but not in the game. But I don't agree about the learning curve, how do you learn the game faster by having more options? It's just more things that you need to learn about. And ArmA isn't that hard to get into. It isn't a flight simulator with a 500 page manual. I think that any gamer that is interrested in a realistic game instead of just picking up an arcade shooter like Call of Duty can learn the basics quickly. The controls are not much more advanced than in a regular shooter. The more advanced things like the editor you can get into later if you want to. To keep this on topic, I really agree with CarlGustaffa, unaimed fire without the crosshair is accurate enough to simulate unaimed RL shooting. You don't need a crosshair for that, and we especially don't need a crosshair like the present one that you can use for long range sniping.

Are we still ignoring all the posts in this thread which explains why the "you can always turn the crosshair off" argument is BS?

Well, this IS all in the beta stage, so everyone who chooses to use ACE 2 right now are all beta testers. If you don't like that, just wait for the finished version to be released.

Are you using light machineguns like the M249 i Arma 2? If yes, then why? Especially if you are playing with ACE 2 this makes no sense. In the game, one of the full auto capable M4s, using MG36 100 round magazines, will give you virtually the same capability in a much lighter weapon. With the new weight based stamina system in ACE 2, it makes no sense dragging around a heavy M249. The reason real militaries use machine guns is barrel overheating. The barrel of a weapon rapidly heats up when used for sustained firing. An assault rifle is not capable of rapidly firing many hundreds of rounds downrange without the barrel taking serious damage. A machinegun has a much heavier, more heat resistant barrel that can be quickly replaced when needed. It is this sustained fire capability that makes it worth dragging along a 10 kg M249 instead of a 3-4 kg assault rifle. A sniper rifle is also affected by this, because the aiming point changes as the barrel heats up. So, I think that this really needs to be implemented in the game. Those of you who have played Red Orchestra knows that this feature already exist there, if you fire for long periods of time you need to let your machinegun cool down or change the barrel. A similar thing is needed for all weapons in Arma 2.

I have, but just to check I loaded Kronzkys movable target range and shot at targets at various distances. There was a slightly larger recoil climb with the M4A1, but when laying prone I had no problems knocking down targets just as far out as I could with the M249. And the M4 ironsights are a bit more open than the M249 and doesn't obscure the view as much. Not much difference in accuracy there. Especially when playing ACE 2, with the weight based stamina system, I would much rather use the M4 today. But in vanilla, where the penalty isn't so great for using a heavy weapon, I can certainly see that some still prefer the M249. The benefits would obviously be much more clear if a proper barrel overheating system was implemented.

It is, but in real life you need more than that in order to buy, test and issue a new weapon into the military. It will not be procured if it does not have a reason for existence. And the M249s reason for existence is its sustained fire capability, which the assault rifle does not have. So it would be nice if the machine gun was not made obsolete in the game because the real life limitations are not modelled. The game should be updated to include barrel overheating and machine gun barrel changing. I'm looking forward to see how overheating is implemented in ACE 2.

After thinking about it, with apologies to jason, you were right. It's just that we were talking about two different things. You are right, the reason the RL military don't use 100 or 200 round magazines for assault rifles is just what you said: they are cumbersome and difficult to carry. They are not practical for the rifleman to use during an assault. But what we are discussing here is really another matter. Why don't the military get rid of their heavy and bulky M249s, put a bipod and 200 round boxes on an M4/M16 and give this to the squad machine gunner? Such a weapon would be impractical for the average rifleman (for the reasons given above), but would be easier for a machine gunner to carry than the M249. And that is the point I'm making, such a weapon would overheat too quickly and it would not be capable of sustained continous fire. For that you need a machine gun, so the M249 stays.

Thank you STGN, that nicely illustrates my point. Barrel overheating (and barrel changes on machine guns) needs to be implemented in the game, because in RL you can not use an assault rifle as a machine gun, so you shouldn't be able to do this in the game. EDIT: Oh, and in case you are thinking, "but these were old M4A1 and M16A2, they have heavy barrels now as stated in the text". Yes, models with heavier barrels (I don't know if all rifles have that now?) will be more heat resistant. So these numbers might be a little bit higher for some models, but they are still not machine guns and will not be able to fire thousands of rounds continously like a machine gun can do.

Exactly! And the truth is that it is because of what I've been trying to say. You can easily put a bipod and the M249 feed system with 200 round boxes on an M4/M16. This weapon would be much lighter than a M249 But it could not replace the M249, as it would be incapable of sustained fire. An M249 can put thousands of rounds downrange in a very short time, as long as you keep changing out the barrel to let it cool off. The hypothetical assault rifle using 200 round boxes would heat up very fast and probably couldn't even manage much more than 500 rounds before it suffered a major failure due to overheating. @ Murklor, the M249 weighs about 10 kg loaded. I gave the loaded weight as that is the way they are carried in combat.

This is very interresting: http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/10/13/the-truth-behind-the-recent-m4-controversy/ I quote here the official guidelines for the M4, that are referred to in the text: "(B) FIRING 140 ROUNDS, RAPIDLY AND CONTINUOUSLY, WILL RAISE THE TEMPERATURE OF THE BARREL TO THE COOK-OFF POINT. AT THIS TEMPERATURE, ANY LIVE ROUND REMAINING IN THE CHAMBER FOR ANY REASON MAY COOK-OFF (DETONATE) IN AS SHORT A PERIOD AS 10 SECONDS. ... (D) SUSTAINED RATE OF FIRE FOR THE M16 SERIES RIFLES AND M4 SERIES CARBINES IS 12-15 ROUNDS PER MINUTE. THIS IS THE ACTUAL RATE OF FIRE THAT A WEAPON CAN CONTINUE TO BE FIRED FOR AN Indefinite LENGTH OF TIME WITHOUT SERIOUS OVERHEATING." Also, "No operator should empty more than 4 magazines rapidly." Seems that "cook-off", rounds in the chamber going off without the trigger being pulled, due to the heat, and the barrel simply bursting because it is weakened, might be a problem long before the barrel melts. Anyway, these guidelines of course have a lot of safety margin built in to them, but it gives you some idea of the numbers involved, and how much you could potentially fire before overheating your weapon. @ jason, "hundreds of rounds in a single day", that doesn't mean anything, does it? You could fire many thousands of rounds during a day, as long as you let the weapon cool off when it is necessary. I don't know the numbers for a machine gun, but I would guess from CarlGustaffas video and the numbers for the M4/M16 that you probably could fire about 1000 rounds rapidly before changing the barrel. And then you can keep firing with the new barrel while that one cools off. This means that in practice, you can keep up a much, much greater volume of fire over time with a machine gun. They are sustained fire weapons, which is why they are used despite being much bigger and heavier to carry around than rifles. If it was just about magazine capacity, you could just use a similar belt or box feed system for an assault rifle, and save a lot of weight overall. EDIT: To give another number, from this place: http://defensetech.org/2009/10/20/no-issues-with-m4-at-wanat/ "explaining that he’d done tests with SOCOM where they fired 560 rounds in two minutes before the barrel warped." I don't know what "warped" might mean here, just less accuracy or a total barrel failure? But this shows that an assault rifle is not a machine gun, it's not capable of keeping up sustained fire for a long time.

Good ideas CarlGustaffa. Replaceable barrels for machineguns would be nice. Overheating should be implemented for all weapons, including machine guns. jason, I do not remember the details, but on these kinds of tests they take long pauses to allow the weapons to cool off. You do not shoot 60,000 rounds without pausing. The barrel would melt completely long before you reach that number. The reason machine guns are used is indeed because they are sustained fire weapons. With heavy barrels that can also be quickly replaced they can keep up a much heavier rate of fire than an assault rifle.

You're right. I see now that it is mentioned in the ACE 2 features list. At least there's going to be reduced accuracy when your weapon overheats. I think they could make it a bit more severe, so that the weapon would ultimately be destroyed if not allowed to cool down. And since this is such an important feature, it is the whole reason why squad machine guns are used in the first place, I definitely think this should be made part of the game, not just modded in. Still, great news that it's going to be included to some degree in ACE 2.

About saved games. It's always a good idea to delete and not use old saves whenever an update or change have been made to a game or mod. The different versions can cause problems. And if there is a problem with saving and loading games when using the same version as when first starting the mission, make a bug report at the proper place and it will be fixed.

You can play Steam games in offline mode, you don't need to always have a functional internet connection to be able to play.

I had this problem too. I could play missions that I downloaded to the game's "missions" folder, but I could not open them in the editor. But when I moved them to "my documents\arma2\missions" I could then find them in the editor. Where have you put the folders for the missions you have downloaded? Where does new missions end up when you create them? Put the downloaded folders in the same place where new missions created with the editor ends up and you should be able to load them.

Oh, the player unit? I thought that unit was just there to be playable, and that all target info was in the target unit. Thank you very much for the help! jason, I just clicked the "2.7.0" under ArmA2 and downloaded the file. The link is fine, you must have another problem.

Yeah, I saw that. So you need to change the files? I have looked at the target unit in the editor, like I said I can change the type, but I don't see any place to change the speed.

Ok, so everyone needs to get this new thing? Even those of us that do not wish to use a separate soundmod?

Wasn't the soundmod just a temporary thing while waiting for the sound in ACE to be fixed? No need to rush and change anything then, if it will be adressed in an upcoming update.

Thanks for this! Extremely useful for shooting practice and experimenting with all the weapons. But I'm confused, how do you open the missions in the editor? I try "load", but there is no mission there to load. I can still play the missions, as they show up in the single player scenarios list. But to change the targets and the movement speeds you need the editor, right? Or do I have to change the scripts in the files themselves? I have both folders copied to \Steam\steamapps\common\arma 2\Missions. What am I doing wrong? EDIT: Ok, I created a new mission in the editor, just to see where it ended up. It was put in the folder "my documents\arma 2\missions". I moved the missions there, and now I can open them in the editor. So I now I can change the target units, but how do I set the speed of the targets (or make them stationary?). Do I need to change the script files for that, or can it be done in the editor? Are there any changes other than changing units that can be done directly in the editor? Any help would be much appreciated.

Awesome guide, thank you very much! I hope you keep updating it and lets us know when new versions are available.

Yes, if you uninstall Steam, of course all the Steam features (including games) are removed. Duh!

Ok, I understand. But it is located on the page "FAQ about ACE 2", so would a link to these files be so misplaced here? You could explain that it also works for other mods, and that you can just as well download other files in the same way.

Other than point 2, knowing which files to download, the FAQ couldn't be easier. It's telling you exactly what button or menu item to click on! If it is just updated with the links to the files to download in point 2 everyone should be able to follow it. EDIT: Oh, if TimRiceSE is right and this is not even necessary, that makes things much easier. Hopefully someone will remove that part then.