A-10 Pylons

Hi guys,

Just been attempting to edit the A-10 to allow for more Mavericks and no GBU12's. All is fine and I now have 6 mavericks on the pylons, the 2 sidewinders and the 2 FFAR launchers. However I have a problem, when firing the Mavericks. Initially they are all sitting on the correct pylons...ie 4 under the fuselage (where the GBU12's usually are) and 2 on the normal AGM pylons (left and right mid-wing). However when I fire them and I am slowly left with less and less Mavericks on the plane they begin to switch pylons and not just the Mavericks do this, the Sidewinders also jump pylons as well.

So for example:

1: ALL HARDPOINTS CORRECT:

2: 2 MAVERICKS FIRED: 2 MidWing Mav's were released, 2 Fuselage Mav's jump to Sidewinder Hardpoints...Sidewinders jump to 2 MidWing Maverick hardpoints

2: 2 MORE MAVERICKS FIRED: 2 SideWinder Hardpoint Mavs were released...2 Fuselage Mavericks jumped to replaced SideWinder hardpoints

Is there any way around this ? Or is it simply that the models hardpoints are defined for certain weapons only in the models actual file and this is why this problem is occurring ? Its obviously not a major issue as its only visible in 3rd person but it would be nice for the correct hardpoints to relate to the correct missile which have been released and not be jumping around all over the A-10 like this.

Any help is appreciated.

weapons[] = {"GAU8", "MaverickLauncher", "SidewinderLaucher_AH1Z", "MaverickLauncher", "FFARLauncher_14", "MaverickLauncher"};
magazines[] = {"1350Rnd_30mmAP_A10", "2Rnd_Maverick_A10", "2Rnd_Sidewinder_AH1Z", "2Rnd_Maverick_A10", "14Rnd_FFAR", "2Rnd_Maverick_A10"};

Yep, it depends on the numbering of the proxies.

I had the same problem when i was researching how proxies are handled. It seems if you apply more than one magazine, when the weapon is reloading, the missiles of the second magazine are set where the first missiles were.

What i'm wondering, you applied 3 times the mavericklauncher. Does this work? do you really have 3 independent launchers with 2 rounds each? I would have guessed that only one would have been used but holding 3 magazines.

However, it seems that the sidewinderholder is, numerically, between the maverick hardpoints.

In this case, i would recommend either waiting until BIS releases the ArmA 2 MLODs as they did on ArmA 1, or work with the ArmA 1 model which is available and can be used.

For sure you'll have to adjust proxy numbering as this affects the whole weapon/magazine system.

Ah ok fantastic, thanks very much for your reply Myke, appreciate it. Do you have any links to any info on proxies I could read up on? As for the Maverick launchers, It doesn't quite work as expected as you pointed out. I have 6 missiles and they can all be fired, however as you noted they are in pairs due to the actual magazine layout for the Mavericks but they do fire off correctly, only other thing is they don't show up in the HUD correctly, I get...(as they fire off)

2/2

1/2

2/1

1/1

2

1

0

Anyway thanks again for the input, might have a crack at porting the original ARMA A10 as you suggested. (if thats legit?)

EDIT: just looking at the original A-10 I see that it has 2xFFAR pods on each wing which is going to be a bit of a problem as there is only physically room for 4 mavs. I take it the FFAR pods are actually part of the model and not just additional geometry (like the missiles) ?

The FFAR pods can easily being moved or even deleted, thats no big deal. Look at the main body, there are even 2 unused pylons. So it has 11 pylons to use and i guess this should be enough.

I personally would set it up as follows:

on the outhermost pylons, i would have 1 AIM-9x Sidewinder each side, followed by a FFAR pod, also each side. The center Pylon i would leave empty and use the other 2 left and right of it instead.

All in all you would end up with 2 Sidewinders, 6 Mavericks and 14 FFAR.

Besides this, if you're already working on that, make it IAWS compatible and you may also use my GLT_Missilebox to add different loadouts.

The fire sequence you wrote states me right: you don't have 3 independent mavericklaunchers but one with 3 magazines. Thats why this place-changing happens. Multiple magazines wont work for visible ammo like missiles and bombs, they may work for FFAR's or tube launched missiles like on the KA-52.

If you decide to not use my Missilebox (which is absolutely ok) you'll have to create your own weapon and magazine definitions for it.

Ah great stuff, might personally stick one GBU12 on the centre pylon if it will fit. Also will definitely take a look at your Missilebox, was actually having a look at it the other day, great work!

As for the FFAR pod how would I go about removing them ? I just took a quick look in the original config for the ARMA1 A-10 and I see they don't seem to have a model path assigned to them (unlike the Mav's "\ca\a10\agm65"). Am not new to moding in general, have 10 years of experience with various engines but this is my first attempt at working with the ARMA engine and am a little unsure how to go about clearing the FFAR pods from those pylons.

Anyway thanks again for you help, very much appreciated.

Right, FFAR's dont have a so-called proxyShape as they are spawned when firing. before this point, they are "physically" (in model terms) inexistent. Thats the oposite to missiles and bombs.

As for removing them, just open the model in O2 (as you surely already did), select the outer FFAR pod on each side and hit delete. You might want to copy/paste the mounting mechanism from the other Maverick pylons.

Then just add proxies as you need them. Model-side, thats all you have to do.

:EDITH:

Please take also a closer look to this thread, as this is also helpful to get different weapon loadouts working, even if you don't plan to make it compatible with it. The GLT_Missilebox follows this standard and therefor the proxy adjustement is a little different than usual.

Brilliant, cheers Myke been a huge help. I just took a look at the MissileBox and it seems like its going to work out alot easier to use that, just swapped over the Maverick launcher + ammo from the MissileBox onto the new A10 model and its already fixed part of the issue (the jumping pylons). Will continue working at this and will def. be using it with the A10.

Anyway big thanks again for your help. Will report back here as I make some more progress with this.

Argh...forgot to insert the link in my last post:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=75310&highlight=IAWS

Had a good read through it, thanks mate! Is a fantastic concept, will most certainly be attempting to include that in this port. Will probably have to go back and edit the proxies now but it will be worth it.

Have made some good progress tonight, managed to get the new A10-CAS model edited and running in the original game and have just quickly tested porting it over to ARMA2. All seems good, animations all work, model looks fine, just have some small issues with the glass textures (probably the rvmat needs work for the ARMA2) and also no sound as of yet, but I will have a good look at that tomorrow.

Anyway here it is running in ARMA2 with the new single FFAR pods on the 2nd hardpoint in on the midwing. As you suggested will probably stick the Sidewinders on the outer points and fill up the central hardpoints with the Mavericks and possible one GBU12 on the centre most point. Will also need to add 2 more pylons + proxies left & right centre as the original ARMA model just has one pylon dead centre. This should give 11 hardpoint stations total. (9 missile pylons + the 2 FFAR pods), which from having a look around the net is the real-life amount. Am also now considering possibly modelling a couple of external fuel tanks or flare dispensers as well and making a couple of extra variants (or by utilizing the IAWS system you suggested).

Not entirely sure but take a closer look as i guess Flare dispenser is already there. Look at the wheel rests on the wings. I might be wrong but for me it looks like there are flare dispenser.

Ahh ok yeah you might be right, not entirely sure. Been thinking about having something a little different to fill that single central pylon and thought perhaps I might have a bash at making a clusterbomb for that. Maybe one of the following CBU-52/58/71/87/89/97. Not sure how complex it would be but after jumping in at the deepend with the engine I feel its something I could perhaps tackle now.

Also made some more progress, fixed pretty much everything now (aside from the camera clipping when climbing the ladder). Sounds working, Glass fixed (although I would like a better material) Also would like to tweak the body material of the A-10 itself, this one looks decidedly dull compared to the gloss and shine on the new model. Finally need to fix the Proxies and implement the IAWS system, proxies are now sequenced correctly so it fills the hardpoints as you described in your IAWS thread.

Fortran can you do me a big big favour friend, can you please explain how you changed whats on the pylons, what files do i need to edit or do i need to make new sqfs or init files or something . I want to make a su25t anti tank variant. To do this i would need to swap the 4 guided missiles that one on the wing pylons to be the Vikhir missile tubes that are on the KA-52 ,.thanks in advance

Not sure if thats actually possible at the moment. I presume, if they are anything like the Hydra tubes, that the Vikhir tubes are part of the actual model and not just added via the weapons[] = / magazines[] = config lines like missiles are. Obviously you could have it firing Vikhirs now, but there would be no pods on the pylons. You will probably have to wait until Bis release the Arma2 Mlod models so you can edit the SU25 yourself to add the Vikhir tube models im afraid. The only reason I could edit the A10 was that its the exact same model (minus the changes to the pylons) as in ARMA1, so could use the ARMA1 Mlod model to edit it.

Aww, thanks for the help anyway Fortran, im sure someone will do it when the models come to be able to be edited.

Not entirely sure but take a closer look as i guess Flare dispenser is already there. Look at the wheel rests on the wings. I might be wrong but for me it looks like there are flare dispenser.

You're correct, the countermeasures are dispensed from the aft section of the main landing gear housings, as pictured in the thumbnail images

Source: GlobalSecurity.org