doc. caliban

That's the easiest way for sure to get a good vehicle early on. I don't like destroying vehicles if I can help it because: A: If I don't I can capture and use it. B: If I only damage it, the crew gets out and I get 2-4 more bodies to search for supplies and intel. ---------- Post added at 20:45 ---------- Previous post was at 20:43 ---------- I can confirm that I once had a vehicle that was not generated by AC or a mod disappear on me. I had to load a save game to get it back, and it never happened again throughout the rest of the mission, despite having left it behind farther and for a longer time than when it vanished. Never figured out why.

Ah, that explains it. I think I will pass on AC during my next play through then as one of my favorite realism aspects of the mission is the fixed number of enemy ... the "every kill counts" factor. While I like the extra atmosphere of AC and the chances of getting more supplies and info (I play with loot disabled and rely on what I can find on enemy casualties), I like knowing that an area that's been cleared out will stay mostly cleared out to a somewhat predictable degree when planning a larger attack on an airbase or stronghold. I play with AC on medium right now, so maybe I'll try low before disabling it. Thanks for the reply! - Doc

Hello! A few ways to save: 1. You can go into the game difficulty settings and enable unlimited saves. 2. The mission auto-saves when churches are checked, you find intel on a body that eliminates some churches, and when you get intel from a base commander. (2 airbases and 2 strongholds, locations for which are randomized) 3. There is a brand new feature that allows you to enable autosave every 20 minutes: Hit 0 then 8 to get to the "supports" commands. On of them will enable / disable the auto saves. Have fun! Rydygier, Are AC-spawned troops finite in quantity? I have been in the same area for several hours scoping out an airbase, but am greeted with AC troops pretty regularly. I'm thinking that they are all spawned but cached at the start of the mission and should eventually stops showing up. Is that correct? - Doc

I can appreciate the work and thought you put into the AC gravedigger conditional scripting ... very intricate. Now that I know how the script works, I think I can find a solution that will work for me and my system personally. Thank you again for the informative answer! ---------- Post added at 17:33 ---------- Previous post was at 17:24 ---------- Yep ... I just do mine manually after I've finished with them, and make sure I never get more than a couple clicks away from them in the mean time. Works perfectly! On another note, this is my first play through with 1.8C, my last being with 1.78 I think. I am playing with the same settings as last time with the exception of disabling civilians this time around. No new mods. The issue I'm seeing is a huge drop in framerate for 10-20 seconds from time to time ... like down into the teens from my normal 40-60. There is a great deal of lag when it's happening as well. I have not seen this with any versions before now. I'd say that it's happened 4-6 times in several hours of play. I could be wrong, but it seems like it happens around the time that AC vehicles / patrols are appearing. I play without logging so there may not be much to do about it troubleshooting-wise, but thought I'd mention it just in case. Still loving the mission though! Thanks again, -Doc

Rydygier, I have a request, or perhaps there is a workaround. I just lost a bunch of AT weaponry that I really needed. I killed two teams, between them which were at least 3 Titan AT missiles that I needed, but I was too loaded down to take. Vehicle was a click away, and there was more work I had to do before I could go get it so I just marked the bodies that had the missiles. You can probably guess where this is going. I got back to them later and all that was there were their rifles. The bodies, launchers, packs, everything else was gone. So I realized that they were AC generated, but of course I had no way of knowing that when I first go to them. EDIT: This is several house later now - I was just now caught up in a ton of AC and was able to personally take out almost 30 enemy. It took a long time, they were never more than 800m from me, and in the end almost 2/3 of them disappeared before I could get to them to check for intel or loot. I am playing with the -B mode default cacheing with the understanding that it automatically clears AC bodies, but not my own kills, correct? If I don't do the B mode, will it leave all of the bodies? Ideally, is it possible to have the AC gravedigger script not run if the player is still within some distance of the bodies? That would have worked perfectly for me in this case as I was never more than a click away from them. In other words, regardless of who kills the AC-spawned enemy, if the player is with in 2-3 clicks, the bodies do not go away. As a workaround, if I take the missiles, or whatever else I want, and then dump it on the ground next to them, will it still be there even after the gravedigger script removes the body? If so, that will work well enough if the script can't be tailored to run based on player proximity, though that would be the most desirable. Thanks for your time! - Doc

Thank you for the in-depth reply! I was misunderstanding the term "teammates" in your original post as I just thought of those guys as "hostages". I knew you could hire them, but I was also thinking you'd meant you could get intel from them ... my misunderstanding. I do like hitting strongholds air airfields as well, but if I get a circle that eliminates a big portion of the map, I like to stretch the mission out by leaving it at that instead of trying to further reduce the search area with more circles. I do still search enemy for intel though. It's fun to try different play styles each go through. - Doc

Reminds me of when I got my Marshal stuck in shallow water ... too shallow to propel itself with the props, too deep for the wheels to get traction. I had to "gently nudge" it at full speed over and over with a huge refueling truck.

Ah, I was not complaining. :-) I was wanting to show anyone who might think the missions are too short that, even with half the map eliminated, it can still take a good amount of time to finish a mission. I usually go for checkpoints as much as possible due to the officers on location, and I hit any stronghold I happen across. I usually skip the air bases if I don't happen across one or if they are outside of the initial green circle. This next play-through though I may go hit them for the fun of it. (and the bonus intel, but there have been a few times I've hit a big airbase or stronghold and never found the commander) I wonder if they do the same as the discussed Team Leader and Squad Leader behavior in combat ... hide and run away. You mentioned "two teammates" in regards to intel ... are you talking about prisoners? I have taken down several strongholds and never found anyone other that once when there was a dead guy in a closed outbuilding. Rydygier, this may have already been answered, but is it possible to move the body from one vehicle to another? If not, I can see when it might be desirable to do so ... for instance, coming across a better vehicle, having a damaged vehicle that you can't repair and going out and finding a replacement, etc. - Doc

I will most likely be wrapping up my current 1.78 mission tonight and am looking forward to starting another one with the latest version and a few changes to my startup options. Looking forward to more trunk capacity with the little side-mod. - Doc EDIT: Done. 21 hours, and that was with getting to skip about half of the map due to intel from one officer. I may take a break until the weekend. Who knows... maybe another update will occur by then as well. :-) Thanks again, Rydygier. - Doc

It's almost entirely random, so it has to be expected that that could happens sometimes. Should be relatively rare. For instance, I am on a long, ongoing search even with the help of intel and civilians ... it's taking forever, and I'm all the way across the map diagonally, but closing in on the correct church. - Doc Oh, and I found a TANK with only a few churches left to check, and a LONG drive back to the boat. That should make it go a little smoother!

I was looking for something like this as well ... thank you. Does it work with the Steam version? And welcome to the forum, rsoftokz! - Doc

That would be great! A big part of my play style is hunting AI teams to try to get intel. Knowing that there's at least a chance that each TL might have intel would be nice, instead of wondering if a given team is AC or not. If AC never does, it dilutes your odds of even having a chance at finding some. - Doc

I may be running into AC TL's then ... not realizing they don't have the potential for intel. Could it be added to them as well? As for the officers at checkpoints, I could be mistaken but I think I've run into them not having the option to check for intel. I'll let you know for sure if I have it happen again. Thanks for the reply. - Doc

That would make sense. It's just become a personal chuckle for me when I come across a lone guy running through the hills and it's, yet again, a Team Leader. :-) BTW, how often to TLs have the option to search them for intel? Seems very rare. (Even officers at checkpoints rarely have the option to search them for intel about the brother.) -Doc

In my imagination, I think of it as just getting from point A to point B without having to actually go through the motions of doing it in real time, whether driving, walking, or hitching a ride. An appropriate amount of time being changed on the clock to show that the time was spent. I haven't thought much about what it's actually called. So I would vote for keeping the feature since hardcore mode allows people to play without it if they wish. And there's always the factor of "Don't use it if you don't like it." :-) - Doc ---------- Post added at 17:35 ---------- Previous post was at 17:11 ---------- BTW, is it just me, or do other people notice that the Vanilla AI Team Leaders and Squad Leaders are VERY often the sole survivors of combat; both with me, and in AC? I can say that the majority of the time that I have "one who gets away" during a firefight with me, or I come across enemy AI AC survivors fleeing the firefight they were in, it's Team Leaders and Squad Leaders. They seem to have specialized "running away" training. Very inspiring leaders! Really, it happens so often that it's actually funny.

Works for me. Makes sense that maybe you scrounged up a few gallons siphoned from someone's truck or whatever, but definitely need to get to a proper fuel station to fill up. Good idea. - Doc

It sounded to me like he'd just made a mistake in the config file of a mod, which is what caused the issue ... not the mod itself. Is that right, D4NI3L3? My butt is currently pinned down in a big town, but I have high ground and plenty of ammo. Bed time though ... 2AM here. :-) - Doc

I agree that the existing stations are enough, but wanted to throw the idea of trucks in in case other players didn't agree. I usually play with no civilians and would probably not ("in real life") look around non industrial type sites for fuel. Also, a can would not fill up a big fuel tank. The reason I thought of this last night is that I happened to look at my fuel and realized I never have to go get any because on the occasions I have to repair damage to the vehicle, I get a free fill up. Because of that, I never have the realistic factor of having to keep an eye on the fuel and plan for refueling at some point. The total fill up when inspecting/repairing is the one factor that seems a bit "magic". Not an important thing, but I think it's a plus for realism when it comes to dealing with your vehicle. - Doc

Have you tried restarting the game altogether? Any sound mods? Have to go back to work ... good luck! - Doc ---------- Post added at 21:44 ---------- Previous post was at 21:02 ---------- A suggestion / Idea in regards to inspecting your vehicle: The one thing that is not particularly realistic in that event is refueling. It could be argued that there are fuel cans on/in the vehicle, but certainly not a full tank worth I'd think. I suggest removing the refueling portion of that script, requiring another game play factor of having to actually refuel in specific locations. Fuel stations are a given, any spawned fuel truck, and perhaps you could add fuel trucks to air bases and/or the big military locations (maybe just 6 trucks total). That would give a fair number of places to get fuel while still adding the challenge of doing so. Again, just a thought that occurred to me last night. - Doc

I've had that happen a time or two and simply restarted the mission. I'm sure you've already tried that, but that was my experience. - Doc

I have not had a chance to look into doing this yet, but I really do appreciate all of the replies. For Ghost Recon it was simply a matter of changing the shape of one graphics file that served as the mask over the NV visual effect. I changed it so that it looked like the three overlapping circles that are shown on the product's webpage. They aren't perfect, but what a difference they make in the game. Looks like it may be a bit more involved with ARMA 3, but I will definitely have a go at it sometime this week. Thanks again, - Doc

Hello, I created a mod for the old, original Ghost Recon which mimics these modern, 4-tube, panoramic night vision devices. I suspect that it would be easy to do for ARMA III as well, as it's probably only a mask, but I have no idea how to do it. Modeling a matching headset is another thing entirely, and definitely way outside of my skill set. I'd love to at least have the mask if someone could create it! (Or just give me concise instructions for which files need to be edited, and exactly which tools to use.) Info about the GPNVG-18 Screenshot from the site: http://i.imgur.com/Ybnq3zh.jpg (141 kB) - Doc

Could be a legit game bug then ... it's a vehicle that was spawned at the start of the game, not related to AC or a mod. This is the first mission I've played on the latest game update and it's never happened before, so I wonder if it's a potential issue now. - Doc

Weird. I parked the vehicle I've been using the whole time, marked it on the map, went over the hill on foot and took out about a dozen guys, checked the church, got a few intel reports from civies and one surrendered soldier. Went back to the vehicle ... it's not there. Gone. Do AI steal player vehicles? Had to reload a save from about 90 minutes back to get the truck back. - Doc

Thanks for the info! I'll have a look at it sometime this weekend and will report back here. Thanks again, - Doc