CCWashout

One way of doing slightly variable formations in flight sims is to let the flight model/engine modelling do the work for you - if there is engine spool up and control input "lag" then a following aircraft will have variations in relation to the lead element. It needs careful tuning and limiters though, as you can get "porpoising" or "elastic banding" effects, which IIRC the ARMA2 formation engine suffers from anyway (at least it did when I tried doing helicopter formations a while back to the point where I had to seperate the helicopters into separate units). Then there are other factors to take account of such as positional accuracy, which can be a problem when dealing with large terrains as you move away from the map's origin point and floating point precision errors creep in, which can lead to positional warping, which doesn't look pretty (it can be got around though). For infantry movement it's probably alot more difficult to achieve a coherant, but individualised movement system because of pathfinding, ground clutter, buildings etc and a more dynamic environment when troops are in contact compared to flight sims where there are no bushes, rocks etc in the way of the direction of travel for a formation. Not impossible but difficult to achieve also given every soldier would have to have the calcs running and even on the fastest rigs these days you still have limitations. Of course you could go the route of 2 levels of AI fidelity based on distance from a player's viewpoint to lower the overhead, but that's a large scale code effort I've only ever seen in one military simulator, but that's another story ;)

Qualification first - this is airsoft gear in a milsim situation, so I'm not trying to claim I'm some kind of operator or anything, but the weight is very similar to the real steel (gas blow back not electric). My standard loadout is a light/med combat load of 8xstanag mags, 2xsmoke, 2xfrags, 2x40mm, 2xP226 mags, P226 in Serpa2 drop leg, radio with headset, 2.5litres hydration pack (no bergen or mich (I prefer my boonie), but you really shouldn't be getting into a contact with one of those unless something has gone wrong) - to be honest the loadout weight doesn't affect the ability to raise the rifle that much, as you're only really using arms on ~8lb+ pivoting it upwards about the point where the stock meets your shoulder (pocket). The EGLM adds another 4lbs roughly. Using an indexed grip with thumb parallel to bore etc I can aim to static targets in similar times within a 60deg arc roughly as the squared up stance and grip technique helps stabilise aiming alot compared to using the vert grip (if attached) like a tennis racket, where you get a slight over compensation or "wobble" when trying to stop on a target. Obviously the SSR in my sig below is a different beast and is used in a different way tactically (prone and ranged normally) as would an LMG be (M249 etc), but the light load out assault rifles shown in the E3 demo is pretty good in my opinion. Also I'm an unfit 45 year old and I play a fair amount with serving guys half my age who can traverse ground at about 4x the speed of my tactical bimbling, whilst maintaining a low or high ready posture with their rifles and a similar loadout to mine - ah the advantages of youth.

It takes me less than a second to raise and sight a SCAR-L with a non-magnified red dot or Eotech 552 and only a little bit longer with an Elcan Specter at 4x or Acog and that's with or without EGLM attached - the speed of the rifles is just fine in the demo IMHO

I've not logged in here for ages and only take out my ARMA2 CO/BAF/PMC for a spin very occasionally, mainly because the guys I play with (and myself to a certain extent) cannot stand the current "unresponsive and imprecise" controls. I said to myself that I would not order ARMA3 until I could see that the animations, movement and combat had got to a smoother and more intuitive state (no more raptor head bob when sidestepping for example). I'm happy to say that the current E3 videos look fantastic and better than that, are way ahead of anything else in the FPS genre out there in terms of authenticity - hell you only need a beard on your avatar to play Chris Costa ;-) So I can live with a bit of Elvis hip swivelling if that's the price of this massive improvement. Yes it would be nice to have reaction side shooting and primary to secondary transitions by "dropping" your primary on its sling and drawing your pistol (hopefully we may see single point slings?) but if I'm able to even do half of the stuff in this vid ( ) at half the speed I'll be pre-ordering and so will the guys I play with. I'll also be looking forward to resuming mission making and scripting, which I had started, but abandoned because I couldn't get my virtual comrades to purchase the game/sim after they'd tried my copy. So my humble opinion is the movement and controls look great and are a great step in the right direction (BTW surely the CoD crowd will have a hard enough time dealing with bullet drop/ballistics for you regular guys to feel threatened by them? - perhaps think of them as untrained militia vs. trained operators ;) ). One thing I'd like to know is if the raise lower stance is tied to the mouse wheel (seems the most intuitive control for this to me) or whether its a key combo that only trained guitarists can achieve? Oh and if I see a screenshot of the SCAR series (including SSR) I'll be a very happy chap, but I know FN(H) have been getting very twitchy about their IP lately, as have alot of other RS manufacturers (or at least their tame ambulance chasers) but that's another topic perhaps......

I posted a question in the noobs thread on this in case I was missing soemthing that could already be solved, but its kind of related to why I think this awesome game/sim is not more popular: The basic movement controls need some work to maybe lower simulated fidelity, but make the experience more accessible to transitioning FPS players, namely: Remove the "stepping" motion which makes fine position adjustment in CQB's and when behind cover difficult and non-instinctive. Reverse the walk/run default keystrokes - I don't want to be lurching sideways from cover when all I need is a little six inch shuffle to get a line of sight on the enemy. Make the transition from standing to crouch to prone faster when static - you can drop to your knee in RL very quickly and especially if equipped with knee pads and certainly faster than the arthritic pace currently implemented. Oh and yes marketing needs to be invested in if the budget permits - I stumbled across this title accidently, which to my mind means the message is not getting "out there". That may all sound a bit negative but IMHO there's a ton of positive features that mean if the items above could be resolved there would be a much greater audience willing to deshackle themselves from the "stuck in a 300 yard box" FPS experience every other title offers.

Complete noob question I guess: Is there a way of mapping Walk as the default movement and Running when pressing shift? i.e. the reverse of the default setup. Also I notice there is a kind of simulated "inertia" when entering run or walk from standstill, where you kind of "lurch" forward to simulate a "step" - is there a way of disabling this so you can make more precise movements in CQB environments or just adjusting your position behind cover? Other than those two items this is a great game/sim.