LorenLuke

Allow multiple connections to the UAV. This would enable several potential benefits to open up. For example, it would allow the simultaneous inclusion of a pilot and gunner, allowing better coordination and usage of the drone. It would allow having a squad leader/commander unit use the AV cam (or brand new sensor panels that came with the Jets update) and see what the drone does without having to operate the drone itself (Not much point in having the AV cam if you can just look through the drone already, anyway). Allow for more back(pack)-mounted, or even smaller, drones. Various fixed-wing style drones such as the RQ-11 Raven (or on the civilian market, Parrot Disco) could be emplied for less noisy/visible presence as compared to a quadcopter at the cost of inability to lase and hover. A small two wheeled drone for clearing rooms and the like, or even just a grenade-style drone designed to be tossed in somewhere as a camera for places beyond arm's reach. Reduced visibility for the darter. Having been an owner of a Phantom 2 drone, I can confirm they are noisy. However, 50 meters up and 200 meters away is about when I can't hear it anymore. Being able to have it spotted with no lights on from 500 meters away when it's just poking over a hilltop is silly. The ability to datalink to a squad from a drone. An actual set of crosshairs/UI for the MQ-12. With the advent of jets and the turrets used on the USS Freedom aircraft carrier, the ability to emplace remote turrets in addition to the HMG/GMG has been demonstrated to be possible. Potentially have the ability to interact and place player weapons in to be used by the turrets.

ACE 2 has an XM109 though I do not believe it is anywhere near that powerful modelled in ACE. AS for attacking vehicles, rather than aim for the engine, go for the crew, If not, the tires, if not, the guns. -Thanx, Luke

@LDL: Looking at the latest version with a bit of playtesting I noticed something and wanted to ask you about it. The ammo counts for the ordinance seems to be a tad on the low side (real AC130s carry I believe 3000x25mm, 256x40mm, 50x105mm 100x105mm, have to check with my cousin on that ;)). The 25mm cannon seems to fire slow... it's a Gau-12 equaliser that fires at ~ 1800 rpm, with your delay of .05 seconds it can fire no faster than 1200 rpm assuming was no script lag, an adjustment to 'sleep .0035' appears to correct this to ~1800 with script lag. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-12_Equalizer#Development Lastly, Would it be possible to shift to a toggleable weapons system? e.g.: If you have the 25mm and the 40mm toggled, they will both fire together as fast as each can muster without any need to switch weapons. I know all these statements likely seem like nagging, but I just wanted to supply this information to you for your consideration in the name of realism. I have no idea how these changes would affect playtesting or balance, and as such leave them to your discretion. I hope this input will be helpful to development. -Thanx, Luke

If by 'hole' you mean that you expect to see through it, you'll be on that quest for the better half of forever. -Thanx, Luke

Honestly, my problem with the vanilla module is, to me, it's unituitive and non-customisable, and lacks several features I think would be necessary to any arty suite. But I am very much liking what I am seeing come out from the community, however I would like to see something come out that's script-based and compatible with vanilla. -Thanx, Luke

Absolutely!!! As for the script example, it's an example that you can have a trigger kill any say... East side units (should be '_x setdammage 1' not 'kill') and so it's difficult to restrict the commands except by list, disable it entirely, or to have it based on the honor system... Also I would recommend allowing the player to play on their side as a unit, to show them who is the better tactician, strategist, commander, designer, and soldier all in one, plus it allows them to actually see the action. Possibly to have them respawn as a seagull cam when and if they die. Have you plans to have it work in vanilla only, or with addons as well? -Thanx, Luke

You don´t. That´s the thing with this... try to build a meticulously engineered plan, and then have the AI smash it against the wall at high speed. Everything after building your own units operation is up to the AI, and for better or for worse, you´ll be dependent on it. The AI in Arma isn´t bad, and I´m sure some interesting scenes will play out with this. To me this brings the morbid mixture of emotions I feel when I imagine someone getting squished underneath an industrial elevator: 'glad that's not me', 'jeez that has got to hurt', and 'Good GOD! Yeesh.. >P' How will people create if-then scenarios, or will they use triggers? Which if they do (and know what they're doing: 'If side thisgroup = east, {kill _x} foreach thisgroup') can get rather overpowered, or be a legitimate defense of when the enemy gets near 'X'. -Thanx, Luke

Mine would have to be going back to the days of OFP with the Chain of Command's Unified Artillery Addon. If you're talking ArmA, then definately Mando Missiles and Bombs. -Thanx, Luke

How will you be sure to keep the AI from being a dunce? -Thanx, Luke

On my to do list!! I work around that by using some call compile script bits, and store the laser variables on a gamelogic, when it sees the target, it accesses the variables on the corresponding gamelogic, and if it returns what it wants it goes after it. Easy to script using the 'vectorup' command as disarming tilts the mine, and removing yields a null, so using a less than function adds that... just spawn an RPG and delete the mine, or remove the mine from the dead unit's inventory. BTW, Do you happen to know if there is a script command to set off a mine without a vehicle? What about APICM, and Incendiary WP (not just the smokescreen WP)? For models you could try porting some stuff around, or use the vanilla MLRS or GRADs. -Thanx, Luke

Really the angle is just adding a script suite that the community can use freely to distribute or use while just using vanilla ammo types or units to facilitate not downloading massive mods, and so that whomever can use whatever snippet of scripting or code they may chose... in short benefit the community with an open distribution project with the positive side effect of self-satisfaction in something that comes from my hands actually working... but also include things I haven't seen (though I've not tried ACE2 due to being rather n00bish in that I can't get it to run, instead receiving some client-error-thing.) such as: laser frequency coding for Simultaneous Laser-Guided rounds, adjustable height on VT fuzes, adjustable time settings on MT fuzes, XM982 (Excalibur) programmable GPS-guided rounds, ADAM Rounds with AP mines, RAAMS with antihandling devices on some of the mines, dud rounds and UXOs, a scaled 72 short ton yield for a W48 155mm Nuclear artillery shell, working TOT and MRSI, realistic ammo storage and tender vehicles, ability for a human player to participate asset-side, Mobile artillery, Mobile mortars, TOS-1 Buratino (cool stuff, that :D), a nice GUI to wrap it up in, a la COC's UA 1.1 FCC Dialog, and for everything to be vanilla; that is, all scripts or what comes in A2/OA. About this point I'm singing 'These are a few of my favourite things.' But I feel that should give you a good feel of what my aim happens to be. -Thanx, Luke

Much appreciated NNou. You see, I've been wanting to build myself an Arty Mod, way back in the OFP days, and have created, alpha'd and scrapped about four iterations. Unfortunately my lack of knowledge for the game's arty coding, and little more than basic calculus has left me scratching my head how they factor drag and whatnot into their equations, and has left me with managing perfect parabolic arcs (which I do rather well... ;p). But I wanted to get a feel for how many other systems are out there, what they have, how they aim, how intuitive they are, or how friendly their GUI is, etc... before deciding to embark on this project yet again, as I feel there are things here and there that are missing (like vanilla intuitive arty, and a nice bow of a dialog to tie it together with). So tell me what you think, is there room for another arty addon/mod/module and if so should I do it? -Thanx Luke PS if anyone cares to know the features, either post or PM.

Dear Community: I just want to get a brief survey from you guys concerning the vanilla arty module or any arty addon you used, such as: What mod (or lack thereof) was used or if you even used it, how easy it was to use, how balanced did you feel it was, what did you like or dislike, and if any features you would want added, implemented, or improved. -Thanx Luke

Can script, problem solve, analyse mathematics up to very basic calculus, think laterally, compose, and make a bomb chocolate cheesecake. :D Also, I had some arty simulations I wrote that I was field testing a while ago... think I trashed that, but I can assemble it as a portfolio for you guys. -Sorry for the late reply; Thanx Luke

Don't forget about a bona fide unscripted AC-130, any UAV's optic 'eyeball', a the above-mentioned laser designator pod, and potentiality for creating a YAL-1 or a C130 Advanced Tactical Laser variant. Also, @Rock: If planes don't work with turrets... how do you propose making a working UAV? -Thanx Luke