[WIP] NBS Mantis C-RAM

disclaimer - very much so a work in progress!

NBS Mantis C-RAM

a little sneak peak at what i've been working on -

video shows AI gunners in control (they can't handle the turret speed well), but automatic artillery tracking is working too (rough turret transitions). its modular in the fact that the turret and slew can be easily attached to any base mount static or vehicle - in the video is a proof-of-concept naval platform

the system will get its 35mm airburst cannon and companion radar setup initially when finished, and in time other components and weapon platforms should be turn-key. if i get the hang of this all, i'd like to do a few other c-ram's too

all and all its quite a ways out...but feeling positive; thanks nouber for getting me in the right direction!

sweet AA

my good sir this is sexy

omg did u see my request for this on the BW mod? dude it looks amazing. Idk about the floating water ones thats kinda odd but you got the land Mantis dead on. I will be using this For sure

looks very impressive, perhaps we could even have even floating platforms/bases.

Will this be AI only or with Terminal Control?

Could this gun shoot Missiles/Bombs/Artyshells/etc. down?

Will you add realistic Munition?

It would be nice to be able to control it by uav terminal, so you can jump to every turret you need, but the turrets still can work alone.

thanks for the kind words!

- i agree, the floating one is a bit odd (perhaps a more industrial, larger look, less like a spider heh, clearly i can barely model so be patient), but since the main object is only a turret & slew, you can easily mount it to someone elses model.

- at the moment, its a vehicle with a gunner seat, i'd like to change that, i've never had a chance to look at uavs, so baby steps. but yes, a terminal should be the proper control - preferably installed into a command building. realistically a person rarely operates these anyway and more just approves targets. i'm not planning any specific amount of reality to cram down peoples throats: there will be options.

from what i've seen and read, i should be able to simulate the 35mm AHEAD ammunition (proximity air burst tungsten subprojectile) and its giant ejected cartridges

one issue i'm dealing with, i had to create two separate vehicles - one for when a player/AI is gunner, and a separate one for artillery tracking - when an AI was in the gunner seat, no combination of disableAI could get him to stop turning his head around fighting the turret movement generated by artillery tracking (so one class has the animationSource set to mainTurret, the other class is setup with user animations instead, which disables AI control input). that issue can be fixed imho by eliminating scripted artillery tracking all together and adding an invisible lockable target overtop the artillery round so the AI can use the ballistics computer for tracking and firing. hits still need to be scripted tho (+ % chance of hit - wont hit them all) - any body know a good resource to read up on Locking and Targeting in game? obviously not any weapon should be able to lock an artillery target, not sure how to do specifically that yet

@r0adki11 - i was playing with floating bases yesterday, its definitely possible but theres that issue with standing on physx objects, so while you are standing, you are forever slightly sinking, then falling from about a foot :) but, i did find it cool that physx supported multiple separate buoyancy objects together in the same model, so you can drive a boat underneath and there is no geometry to hit, and it always follows the waves. for simple/small bases where maybe its a radar outpost, or offshore gun, it could just end up having to be a vehicle where you get into positions to do or see anything, no walkable surface (or VewPilot could be a dining room table with IK controlling the fork and knife, ViewGunner could be the cook ).

i'd really like to see walkable physx (funny, i never cared before!) and createJointExt - those two things on the water could help create some really awesome assets. (Waterworld anyone?)

thanks for the kind words!

- i agree, the floating one is a bit odd (perhaps a more industrial, larger look, less like a spider heh, clearly i can barely model so be patient), but since the main object is only a turret & slew, you can easily mount it to someone elses model.

- at the moment, its a vehicle with a gunner seat, i'd like to change that, i've never had a chance to look at uavs, so baby steps. but yes, a terminal should be the proper control - preferably installed into a command building. realistically a person rarely operates these anyway and more just approves targets. i'm not planning any specific amount of reality to cram down peoples throats: there will be options.

from what i've seen and read, i should be able to simulate the 35mm AHEAD ammunition (proximity air burst tungsten subprojectile) and its giant ejected cartridges

one issue i'm dealing with, i had to create two separate vehicles - one for when a player/AI is gunner, and a separate one for artillery tracking - when an AI was in the gunner seat, no combination of disableAI could get him to stop turning his head around fighting the turret movement generated by artillery tracking (so one class has the animationSource set to mainTurret, the other class is setup with user animations instead, which disables AI control input). that issue can be fixed imho by eliminating scripted artillery tracking all together and adding an invisible lockable target overtop the artillery round so the AI can use the ballistics computer for tracking and firing. hits still need to be scripted tho (+ % chance of hit - wont hit them all) - any body know a good resource to read up on Locking and Targeting in game? obviously not any weapon should be able to lock an artillery target, not sure how to do specifically that yet

@r0adki11 - i was playing with floating bases yesterday, its definitely possible but theres that issue with standing on physx objects, so while you are standing, you are forever slightly sinking, then falling from about a foot :) but, i did find it cool that physx supported multiple separate buoyancy objects together in the same model, so you can drive a boat underneath and there is no geometry to hit, and it always follows the waves. for simple/small bases where maybe its a radar outpost, or offshore gun, it could just end up having to be a vehicle where you get into positions to do or see anything, no walkable surface (or VewPilot could be a dining room table with IK controlling the fork and knife, ViewGunner could be the cook ).

i'd really like to see walkable physx (funny, i never cared before!) and createJointExt - those two things on the water could help create some really awesome assets. (Waterworld anyone?)

dont think the game is ready for somthing like water world haha not enough ships in the game yet. But u are actually making a separate vehicle terminal for the controls of the mantis?

Could u possibly post a video of the ground mantis ?

The Kuma ( Leopard 2 A4 Revolution ) with the Mantis Turret System

could be nice ^^..or other Tanks löl..or Boats

apperently to make it a UAV

theres a config called isuav or something like that, my friend accidentally made his MI-35 a UAV

view larger

using BI textures for the moment, so you have something to look at; texturing for sure will be the bane of this project... model entirely in O2

Got the AI to track the mortar rounds, along with airburst trickery (invisible sphere model with only fire geometry superimposed)

- unless there is a "explode if in proximity" config i'm not aware of (and i'm not going to spawn distance checking for every round @1000rpm) i think i need to make either my own ammo with a large hit geometry, or replace all mortar rounds with a large hit lod :/

idea here is to get AI to use its own ballistics computations for tracking and aiming, then i can just tell them when and at what to fire. If it were possible i would much prefer to have ammo that explodes in proximity, and the submunitions be capable of contacting a moving projectile - that randomness. i'm fairly sure its not...?

it seems odd the stock 35mm autocannon is basically silent from anything past 100 m, do i need to inherit anything special for that or is it a vanilla thing? the mantis has a very particular sound i'd like to record eventually, not sure what it sounds like from a distance tho - badass for-sure!

Very cool !

WD

^I second that

Game is in need of Decent AA for once

thanks for the complements! im gaining a much better appreciation for what goes into even the simplest model, every day of this...i can only hope to drag this blob up to the level of quality the community has shown, in time :o

radar half-implemented, trying to build it open ended so others can tie-in or include it in their own mods... particle and smoke effects in progress:

(view fullsize)

love the quality of the mantis!!!, hopefully my C-ram can keep up with it :P

can't wait for the radar script to come out, looking forward to trying it out with the c-ram and hopefully i can get my script implemented by the time you do so there is some kind of competition hahaha, great job man, keep up the great work

Thanks for all of your work, this will be a big game changer in multiplayer and I can't wait to use your work in my mission. Thank you very much!

Hi! Maybe you are awere that the same guy that made the Eurofighter addon has a Rapier Missile System ready without a script that he might to get some help implementing.If you like to contact him...What about helping us with a Hemmit Truck and a Skyguard gun system or a phalanx MK-15 system ? tnx ...cool mod.

Hi! Maybe you are awere that the same guy that made the Eurofighter addon has a Rapier Missile System ready without a script that he might to get some help implementing.If you like to contact him...What about helping us with a Hemmit Truck and a Skyguard gun system or a phalanx MK-15 system ? tnx ...cool mod.

that would require access to models BI has not released (the MEMMT) and unlikely they will release them for a while (i know because i asked for the Hunter model)

thanks for the complements! im gaining a much better appreciation for what goes into even the simplest model, every day of this...i can only hope to drag this blob up to the level of quality the community has shown, in time :o

radar half-implemented, trying to build it open ended so others can tie-in or include it in their own mods... particle and smoke effects in progress:

(view fullsize)

http://shitnami.net/a3/3-5-mantis-wip1_t.jpghttp://shitnami.net/a3/3-5-mantis-wip_t.jpg

I dont remember what the name is but i have seen the Mantis mounted on a German APC ..... that would be pretty sick to have mobile AA system... but do have to say how u are able to take out incoming shells with the mantis is pretty epic and a game changer cause in my missions the base always getting attacked and the AA tanks are not enough lol

Any progress on this beast? Can't wait to build up some bases with it!

honestly i lost motivation the past month, but certainly not dead...just somewhere between extreme irritation with arma's methods and documentation (and new tools deleted all previous settings...yay figuring all that out again), and the irritation with how terribly ugly the model is - i cringe every time i load it up. It is all oxygen made from points, and it seems you need a real 3d program to get anything done properly: i don't have time to learn all of that atm :/

read: whine::whine:whine:: :D

so, the new end goal for this will be to continue on at current speed till tracking and radar are functioning acceptably, then release all of it under the APL-SA license, effectively making this a community project - anyone can modify and release without permission, but all modifications will also be APL-SA - this will keep the development open, especially in the case if i disappear from the forums for one reason or another. this will be the best for everybody. I'll continue to work on it after that at my own pace (like now) and not abandon it to the wild

Do not expect any apl-sa licensed content from me prior to the end of the arma competition - i just don't want to be involved in that in anyway. There will be alpha testing beforehand, just not soon. sorry.

--in short, im just tired and frustrated with what should be the simplest tasks in arma, being complex, veiled or undocumented. Its half-awesome BIs attitude is 'heres the jist, but you figure it out' to everything, and half-douchy/shitty...when large chunks of the wiki still have statements like "we think this is how its implemented: ...", "i pulled these from the exe"....

If you still work on this, you could ask alex for help with the script and the BWMOD guys for the AHEAD munition they are using on the SPZ Puma.