MattWales

Evening all, Just wondering what people's thoughts are on whether having delayed fuse or air burst type munitions would bring much to the game? I only ask because I know that a GBU/JDAM set to detonate at 500ft has a very different effect to one that detonates at ground level, which is different again to one that has a 300ms delay. Air burst cause lots of frag in a cone shaped pattern, originating from the detonation down in the direction that the munition was travelling, with the explosion obviously causing an element of lateral frag, creating what is in effect a "cone". This can, and has been used to great effect in the SE Asia AO, when danger close fires were required (some, I shit you not, as close as 40m with 500lb warheads) where the so called 'bug splat' technique of air bursting an incoming GBU/JDAM which is being delivered at a specific angle by the air asset can have dramatic effect on target. Consider a group of infantry in the open - you are probably best of hitting them with an air burst, as the frag coverage is greater, causing a greater effect on the target. That said, frag won't do much against a reinforced structure - you'd probably want a delayed fuse, so the warhead hits, buries itself 50ft under the structure, then detonates, causing an upheaval by sheer explosive force, whilst keeping frag down - particularly handy if you want to take out that one building but leave the rest of the street intact. Then, lets say you want to hit a column of AFVs - well, air burst frag probably won't harm them, delayed fuses won't do much except maybe flip the one vehicle you aimed at, so you're best off hitting them with ground-burst HE, which will still provide a good mix of frag AND explosive force. I also ask because it adds more depth of realism, where a FAC/JTACs decision on what type of fuse to employ could cause the exact effect he wants, or result in something else entirely, potentially dramatically changing the course of an engagement. Food for thought, or at least, discussion! Matt

Larger Maritime Vessels: It'd be nice to see some larger Maritime Vessels - I appreciate that these will appear pretty quickly with various Mods that always spring up, but a few pre-packed merchant vessels could provide some extra depth for scenarios, (especially with the added dimension of combat diving). Take for example freeing a vessel from pirates; you could perhaps perform a rescue using Littlebirds, or combat divers, or RHIB boats, or all three in a coordinated rescue attempt. You could parachute onto a large tanker in the dead of night with the added advantage of NODs, which most pirates tend not to have. The vessel could feature as part of the old "Attach a limpet mine" mission. Further, the vessel shouldnt be a stationary object - they should be able to proceed at speed and manouevre, providing that extra challenge for any helicopter pilots trying to put troops onto the deck, or for RHIBs to come alongside. Shooting from helicopters/vehicles: I must be honest, I havent browsed through this entire thread, so I am 99% certain that this request is already here. That said, I wanted to add my vote for this. It's been modded into ArmA2 by the boys at ShackTac, and having watched their videos, they did a cracking job of it, but it shouldnt stop at just Littlebirds. http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=16497 That link should take you to the Armaholic page with their mod, which includes shooting from Littlebirds using the soldiers individual weapon. Airborne sniping is now becoming more "mainstream" - by both Law Enforcement and Military. It is definately a useful aspect of any airborne heli-assault. An MH-6 doesnt have its own organic weapon system. Making a 'gun-run' using an AH-6 or anything heavier isnt exactly conducive to hostage-rescue operations - you cant really be that accurate with 4000rpm and 2.75" unguided rockets! Once you have dropped off any troops, the ability to render accurate small-arms fire on to targets that present themselves in an environment where hostages may exist would be incredibly useful, and faithful to real-world ops. Its as simple as having a position for a guy sat, legs out the door/crossed, sat on the floor of the aircraft (exactly as you would sit on the ground with a weapon - practically the same animation!), with the ability to aim and fire his own weapon out the side of the aircraft. This guy covers the movement of the guys performing the assault/rescue, whilst the aircraft remains in orbit around the target. This provides opportunities for communication/teamwork to flourish - lets say the guys on the ground have a threat they cant engage, but the airborne cover can. Alternatively, produce an aircraft with a set "Airborne sniper" position, just a modification of the current KA-60, where the door gunner is replaced with an airborne marksman. This is - again - as simple as an Mk14 EBR with a low-power optic (Thinking Eotech/Dual-Power here) on a karabiner and bungie cord suspended from the roof of the aircraft cabin, aiming out the side. 2 Passenger Slots on sides of Apache for 'downed aircrew rescue' Easy enough idea - an Apache can carry 2 passengers on the side fairings next to the cockpit, in order to rescue downed aircrew from another Apache. In the past this has been used in anger. It was used in Iraq to rescue the crew of an OH-58 Kiowa Warrior who were bought down by gunfire, and in Afghanistan when British Royal Marine Commandos strapped themselves on to the sides of an Apache in order to try and rescue/recover a missing Marine. Unfortunately, the missing Commando hadnt survived, but it showed the capability that the Apache possessed. Its simply a case of adding two passenger slots labled "Crew Rescue Harness" to the sides. Matt.

6 Degrees of Movement in vehicles: This would be very handy - the ability to lean to the side when in a vehicle/aircraft would be awesome. When approaching a difficult LZ, or peeking over the top of your weapon whilst on top-cover in HMMWV, the ability to lean would be awesome, especially with TrackIR. Especially leaning out of helicopters - as a door gunner or "Crew Chief", you could lean out and talk the pilot into a difficult LZ. As the pilot of a Littlebird, you could lean out the side door as you set up an approach. Tonnes of possibilities out there, why not?

Evening gents, Having not played ArmA in years, I am not sure if a mod already exists out there for this. I know that there are mods out there that replicate the old "Zodiac up the ramp" boat recovery onto a Chinook, but for simply recovering swimmers from the water, is there a way of having a helicopter come to a low however over the water, at which point a wire ladder is deployed from the side (For Blackhawks etc) or from the centre hatch (For Chinooks) that the swimmers can climb up and into the aircraft. An alternative is the old SAR "winch-and-sling" system, by which you could recover 2 blokes at a time from the water. This would also provide some fun for impromptu SAR missions if aircrew are forced to abandon an aircraft over-water. Their buddy flies out in an appropriate aircraft, finds the guys in the water, comes to a low hover and deploys a winch/ladder to them, allowing them to climb aboard and live to fight another day! An extra script that might come in handy is a hand-held smoke/flare that helps the aircraft/crewman find the person in the water (PIW). Just thought this might be fun, instead of the old story of surviving a crash, only to find yourself an hours swim away from shore, at which point you go "Oh sod it" and end up killing yourself. Instead, you give your mate a call (Maybe showing a "distress beacon location" radius of say 1 kilometer on the map?), he flies out to you, you pop your flare/smoke, he flies down to you, performs an epic hover, deploys a ladder, and you climb on, back for tea and medals... come on, that'd be cool wouldnt it? My 2p... Matt.

I think breaching should feature; it is a capability possessed by most infantry units around the world; British Infantry were blowing holes in compound walls during the more "intense" years of Op Herrick, because going through a compound door/gate (which were sometimes booby-trapped with IEDs) was far too dangerous. A mousehole charge would create a hole big enough to get a fully-equipped infantryman through. This combined with the dust cloud produced made it quite effective. SF Teams doing HVT/Hostage Rescue Operations have also been using them in various guises for years. It could be as simple as going up to the side of a door, selecting an option to breach (Either to kick it in, or to place an explosive charge - which is then command-detonated) and then following it through with a room clearance drill. I completely agree that having a door open outwards and not go flat to the wall is stupid. Ballistically, anything above 9mm will go clean through a wooden door and do a lot of damage to whatever or whoever is on the other side. If you are "slicing the pie" and slowly creeping around the half-open door to clear the room by angles, you have no protection from someone inside if they decide to light up the door itself, and you're behind it. It would be far better for the door to open flat to the exterior wall at the very least.

One thing I have noticed whilst browsing through the forums is that the general consensus is that ArmA2/ArmA3 are quite CPU-intensive, and that for larger view-distances and object viewdistances, combined with high/ultra graphic quality, you need a quite beefy CPU. When you start bringing in to account large-scale amounts of AI, intense night-time firefights, and large-scale multiplayer games, I am worried that the i5 3570k combined with a Radeon 7950 (my new GPU preference) wont be enough. I was previously wondering whether or not it would be best going for an i5 3570k or an i7 3770k CPU. I appreciate there is a difference in price, but in the interests of getting the best from the game, as well as future-proofing, is it worth saving up a couple more months and picking up a i7 3770k with 8GB of DDR3? Cheers gents!

Also, don't fall into the trap of thinking they only wear Military-issue kit - have a look at the single-colour "tactical soft shells" by people like Triple Aught Design, or Arcteryx.

An iPhone/iPad app that ties in with the game (via WiFi, and using server information) that provides moving map displays for flying, a GPS for infantry, a replica PRC-117F radio for communications, and a Combat Swimmer Nav Board for diving navigation. Just a thought, the technical aspect is probably a helluva lot more tricky to implement than I realise!!

Afternoon all, I understand that fast-roping will be scripted in to A3 helicopters. That said, for aircraft such as the MH-6, has anyone experimented with AI approaches/landings in a "hot" environment - that is, rounds coming in, in a Direct Action/Combat Role? I only ask as my previous experience of the series showed that an AI helicopter coming in to land takes a month of Sundays to do so, with a ridiculous amount of time in a high hover, before an almost vertical decent profile, and when it finally does touch down, the troops pop out one at a time. This is rubbish - real world, its a case of a quick approach, flare to a rapid stop, land on, and get out the troops out as quickly as possible - if its a Chinook, the guys will literally pour out of the back ramp as if its a landing craft on D-Day. If its an MH-6, all 4 guys can leap off at the same time. Thats the point of it. MH-6s barely stop when doing assault landings. The moment it comes to a stop, the guys are leaping off, and as soon as they are clear and its clear for the pilot to do so, he pulls in power and gets the aircraft out of there. An MH-60 will see the guys scrambling out as quicky but as safely as possible. Two can leap out at the same time, in pairs. Then, the pilot gets the a/c back into the air as soon as possible, flying up and forward at the same time - none of this "go straight up, hold a precarious hover at 50ft, the slowly depart". As soon as you are off the ground and clear of obstacles, you are transitioning and getting the f**k out of dodge. It'd be nice to see some realistic scripting of helicopter assault landing profiles, would make life a lot easier than tweaking and editing a mission 800 times because a single well-placed infantryman took out the approaching MH-6 which decided to enter a hover directly above an objective for 30 seconds, before landing... upside down... on fire. Matt.

UKSF are, at the moment, using Crye Combat kit in Multicam - MTP is generally used if they want to mix in with the regular forces. That said, I know for a fact regular infantry guys have worn Crye Combats out in theatre, simply because they are a damn sight more comfortable than PCS trousers and strapped-on kneepads. That combined with the fact that EVERYONE loves gucci kit. I am sure they also keep DPM/DDPM for other uses. This is UKSF after all; if it works, they'll probably wear it.

You might want to check up on the Para Helmet - dont quote me on this, but I dont think they use it any more, its all pretty much Mk7s now, with the exception of SF types and a few other "special application" helmets (HALO jumping, Maritime CT etc). I'd stick with 5.56mm for now; if you are going with the L85A2 series. Be sure to put the L115A3 (The .338 Lapua Magnum chambered snipers rifle). With the whole "Modular weapons" system being used in ArmA3, it would be nice to have the options of L129A1s with various scopes - the Schmidt and Bender scope from the L96A1 has been used on some, as have Eotechs for airborne marksmanship tasks. From the sounds of things, UKSF these days are running around with Crye Precision kit, with HK416s/417s in various set ups. Pathfinder Platoon might well still be using L119A1 Diemacos, again in various flavours. Looks like you're well on your way though bud, cant wait to see the finished product!

Looks excellent to me, not only will it make games a bit more interesting and firefights more "intense" - lets be honest, that one you just had at 300m is going to be a damn sight more tricky at 30m - but CAS goes out the window unless you are using FLIR or GPS guided ordinance. Thats a point - is the game scripted to allow FLIR to look through fog? Whilst I doubt providing GPS coordinates for JDAMs is built into the game, the ability to use FLIR to deliver weapons through low-lying FOG should be create some interesting scenarios... "Type 2 in effect..." Aside of that, and perhaps most importantly, the landscape looks pretty cool with low-level fog.

@Jumbify - Thanks for that mate, I imagine once the final version of A3 is released and has been optimised, (especially after BI have been working with Radeon on drivers), that set up should last a good few years. Thats the beautiful thing about the ArmA series; the longevity of it all. Once you've finished a console game, thats it - its done with and unless you enjoy playing against 14 year olds with more spots than I've had hot meals, there isnt much left. When I were a lad, I played Op Flashpoint and ArmA to within an inch of its life, and enjoyed every bit of it!

Sorry to pester gents, but any thoughts?

Evening guys, Right, have got bored of console titles, and getting that old itch to revisit my youth gaming days of Op Flashpoint and the original ArmA, I have decided that its time I became a big boy and built myself a gaming desktop PC. I must admit, I dont know all that much about building computers, this would be my first time, and I would be getting assistance from friends who are more in the know than I! A bit of research and a lot of time wasted in work later, this is what I am thinking - budget wise, looking at max £650... CPU/Motherboard: i5 3570k w/ 8GB DDR3 RAM (I have read everywhere that the i7 is a bit overkill, as the hyperthreading doesnt bring much to the party. Without wanting to open a can of worms, any thoughts on this?) GPU: GTX 660 3Gb or Radeon 7870 2Gb - any thoughts on these, if you had the cash, which one would you pick and why? HDD: 1TB HDD - would a SDD make any significant changes to the in-game performance? I wont really be recording gameplay much, maybe on occassion, and to be honest, after working my way through the SP campaign and doing a bit of flying (I am, by profession, a military aviator), I will be using the game for the MP side of things mostly, doing co-op bits (I fancy a bit of JTAC work!) So, should the above work, would you make any recommendations, and what sort of performance could I expect in SP and MP ArmA 3? Many thanks all! Matt