Mando Missile ArmA for ArmA 2

[Mandoble]

MMA 2.35 conversion to ArmA2 has started. So far it seems the required conversion time will be less than expected :) while some problems with missing particle types for the smoke trails, launch FX and detonation effects might take more time to get fixed (I dont know where these types are hidden in A2).

See the first MMA 2.35 ArmA2 test in action here working with a default AH1Z and using some TV systems for onboard sidewinders (IRST) and Hellfires.

SWO-YWsyYpA

Update 15 August

Automatic missile launchers and countermeasures are working well too :)
Here is an example of ArmA destroyer armed with two automatic missile launchers, a SAM and a SSM fighting against enemy planes and ships in automatic mode.

tRhd8Bqnd7g

Dev update August 19 :)
MCC is now working well in ArmA2, as well as a more advanced version of the MMC TV systems. Torpedoes are working too with new particle effects, flares effects changed to ArmA 2 flares FXs, Missile Lab mission ported and working well too, also Vikhr TV cameras (AA and AG modes) and missile included (laser guided so you always need to keep the lock, inmune to flares, but quite small boresigh horizontal angle and pretty poor maneuverability).

See here the A2 MMC system in a stealth planes test mission. A LAV25 is used here to simulate a HAWK SAM launcher (MMC system). The SAM can detect, lock on and track the Harriers, but the F35B remains invisible to radar (for this mission its class was added to the stealth types array).

You may see also some automatic flares in action. The MMA flares are effective only if dropped inside correct range and aspect angle with the incomming missile, else the missile will ignore them. The missile might also reacquire the target after passing through the flares clould (as seen in the last seconds of the video) if the original target is still inside muissile's active detection cone.

9d_sYOHmfMU

Dev update August 25
Now the MMC TV systems admit any custom backgrounds (paa files). Raptor6 provided an outstanding MFD with fully working buttons. You may also use F keys to use the button's options.

The camera has also two new red arrows to indicate max track probability arc for the missiles, so if you fire with the target inside that arc the hit chances are maximum. Firing outside that arc will result in most cases in a miss. In next example for Vkihrs missiles that arc is quite limited, so you need to ensure the target is well in front of the Ka52. Of course you can adjust this arc for each missile type you customize.

A navigation map and a help htm file have been added too and are accesible from the camera. You can use the map to order the AI pilot (if any) to move the chopper to the desired position or just shift-left click with the camera center over the desired terrain position.

8bji9mQsxOs

[Fortran]

Looking fantastic mate, real happy to see this essential system coming to A2! Great work :)

[Smoot178]

Looking forward to a release :D

[Defunkt]

If you don't mind me suggesting something cosmetic I think the TV system would benefit from some post-processing desat/grain and/or a surround/bezel to make it more camera than crosshair if you know what I mean. But functionally brilliant! People are hanging out for more completely modelled air-power in ArmA 2.

[Mandoble]

Hi Defunkt,
what you see there is a raw conversion from the beta TV system of MMA 2.35 for A1, so I do not consider this camera final at all, I'm quite open to any suggestion.

Your suggestion about post-processing effects seems quite interesting, but all of these are new for me. I will need to experiment a bit before applying any of these and any help on this matter will be warmly welcome :)

I was also planning to surround the camera area with a control that can be customized with a texture with transparencies, so that the inner part would be the camera (3/4 of current area) and the rest might be covered by a paa simulating the instrument panel aera surrounding the camera. But I'm null when it comes to bitmaps, textures, etc :(

[Mike84]

maybe you should replace all your calls for hint to hintSilent, will keep you sane during testing ;)

[Kremator]

Gotta say :yay::yay::yay::yay::yay:

Welcome to the A2 fold Mandoble !

Just need to get ready for any beta tests that you need carrying out. You know where I am.

[p75]

Fantastic!!!

[GoOB]

Missed this for ARMA, but wow... This looks really impressive - It will no doubt make aerial combat more enjoyable!

[Kremator]

GoOB,

It was the dog's danglies of scripts/addons. Made the pilots job a lot more pleasurable (and DEADLY - if used against you !)

Just wait until you see the Mando Bombs suite ... it will knock your socks off !

[Raptor 6 Actual]

Hi Mandoble,
I have a MFD (multi-function display) paa that I have ready in CS3, and was currently waiting to try and implement it into the OH-58, and try to make a code to use some shortened versions of the weapon systems. I think I have too many ideas and not enough knowlegde LOL. Anyways, If you need a blank version or paa of it, even to just look at for an example, I'd be glad to send it your way.
Love the work btw, forgot to mention that.

[Mandoble]

Thanks Raptor, as soon as I have the new background control implemented I'll contact you to test your MDF. The idea is to have a paa with the center (MDF) area transparent, which will be the visible area for the camera. Anyway I plan to implement it so that the users can set their preferred backgrounds as will, just adding a parameter to the script which might be "" (for no background) or the name of an existing paa in the mission folder.

[Dwarden]

nice work as always Mandoble ... can't wait to get it :)

[Raptor 6 Actual]

@<hidden>

Yeah, that sounds awesome, just let me know, and I'll be glad to help. Thanks

[RobertHammer]

Very nice work Mandoble :)

[Mandoble]

Automatic missile launchers and countermeasures are working well too :)
Here is an example of ArmA destroyer armed with two automatic missile launchers, a SAM and a SSM fighting against enemy planes and ships in automatic mode.

tRhd8Bqnd7g

EDIT: More than probably a first beta will be available next week, while do not expect too much documentation about the new features :p

[Kremator]

LOVELY ! Brings back all the A1 loveliness and more.

[Binkowski]

Awesome! I love the video...and can't wait!

[[APS]Gnat]

Awesome mate!

Request: torpedo scripts working and PBO addon version available :D
(needed for another ArmA1 to ArmAII project)
Thx

[Mandoble]

Gnat;1407544']
Request: torpedo scripts working


Hey Gnat,
to test the torpedo and ASROC scripts I would need a torpedo object, do you have any for ArmA2?

[Kremator]

hehe ... can you feel the magic yet :)

[mankyle]

the mu90 addon works in Arma 2.
I have ported GNATs subs and their torpedoes work

[Mandoble]

That's true, mu90 works well in ArmA. The part that is missing in ArmA2 is "\Ca\Data\ParticleEffects\watereffects\watereffects" for the water trails of the torpedo.

[mankyle]

I have reenabled them by using the \Ca\Data\cl_water.p3d as a substitute of that missing model.

Works quite well

Alternatively, \Ca\Data\ParticleEffects\Universal\Universal.p3d could work also.

cl_water is more white, universal is more blue

Both of them look well


Mandoble, I'd love having a RUM-139_VL-ASROC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RUM-139_VL-ASROC) with your mando missiles.

Hope to see your script magic soon

[Mandoble]

Thanks Mankyle, using CL_water would ensure compatibility, but \Ca\Data\ParticleEffects\watereffects\watereffects was far more reallistic.

Do you know the shapename parameters of Universal for the watereffects?

[mankyle]

There is a Hwater1 class inside the universal folder that could be what youre looking for

class HWater1 : Default {
interval = "0.02 - 0.019 * density";
circleRadius = 1.5;
circleVelocity[] = {"speed*0.8", 0, "speed*0.8"};
particleShape = "\ca\Data\ParticleEffects\Universal\Universal";
particleFSNtieth = 16;
particleFSIndex = 12;
particleFSFrameCount = 13;
particleFSLoop = 0;
angleVar = 0;
animationName = "";
particleType = "Billboard";
timerPeriod = 1;
lifeTime = 1;
moveVelocity[] = {0, 0, 0};
rotationVelocity = 1;
weight = 1.2;
volume = 1;
rubbing = 0.1;
size[] = {3, 7};
sizeCoef = 1;
color[] = {{0.7, 0.8, 1, 0.0}, {0.7, 0.8, 1, 0.2}, {0.7, 0.8, 1, 0.1}, {0.7, 0.8, 1, 0.08}, {0.7, 0.8, 1, 0.05}, {0.7, 0.8, 1, 0.03}, {0.7, 0.8, 1, 0.01}, {0.85, 0.9, 1, 0.0}};
colorCoef[] = {1, 1, 1, 1};
animationSpeed[] = {1000};
animationSpeedCoef = 1;
randomDirectionPeriod = 0.1;
randomDirectionIntensity = 0.05;
onTimerScript = "";
beforeDestroyScript = "";
lifeTimeVar = 0.2;
position[] = {"positionX", "positionY", "positionZ"};
positionVar[] = {0, 0, 0};
MoveVelocityVar[] = {0.1, 0.1, 0.1};
rotationVelocityVar = 1;
sizeVar = 0.6;
colorVar[] = {0, 0, 0, 0};
randomDirectionPeriodVar = 0;
randomDirectionIntensityVar = 0;
};

Otherwise, I'm using GNATs cpp for the frigates to enable the water trails for the torpedoes.

interval = "0.1 - 0.075 * density";
circleRadius = 0;
circleVelocity[] = {0, 0, 0};
particleShape = "\Ca\Data\ParticleEffects\Universal\Universal.p3d";
particleFSNtieth = 1;
particleFSIndex = 0;
particleFSFrameCount = 1;
angleVar = 360;
animationName = "";
particleType = "Billboard";
timerPeriod = 1;
lifeTime = 5.5;
moveVelocity[] = {"speedX", "speedY + 2", "speedZ"};
rotationVelocity = 1;
weight = 1.45;
volume = 1;
rubbing = 0.1;
size[] = {2, 6, 8};
sizeCoef = "size+0.5";
color[] = {{1, 1, 1, 0.5}, {1, 1, 1, 0.0}};
colorCoef[] = {1, 1, 1, 1};
animationSpeed[] = {0};
animationSpeedCoef = 1;
randomDirectionPeriod = 0.1;
randomDirectionIntensity = 0.5;
onTimerScript = "";
beforeDestroyScript = "";
lifeTimeVar = 0;
position[] = {"positionX + 1", "positionY -1", "positionZ - 65"};
positionVar[] = {0, 0, 0};
MoveVelocityVar[] = {0.5, 1, 0.5};
rotationVelocityVar = 1;
sizeVar = 0.5;
colorVar[] = {0, 0, 0, 0};
randomDirectionPeriodVar = 0;
randomDirectionIntensityVar = 0;


I haven't tried the first one, but the second one doesn't look too bad

[Mandoble]

Thans Mankyle,
what I'm looking for are anim divisor, anim starting row and number of frames to play for the watereffects.
I tried ["\ca\Data\ParticleEffects\Universal\Universal", 16, 12, 13] but then I see blood and wood between others. Not sure how to get the water effects from universal in order to be used with particle commands.

[Mandoble]

Dev update :)
MCC is now working well in ArmA2, as well as a more advanced version of the MMC TV systems. Torpedoes are working too with new particle effects, flares effects changed to ArmA 2 flares FXs, Missile Lab mission ported and working well too, also Vikhr TV cameras (AA and AG modes) and missile included (laser guided so you always need to keep the lock, inmune to flares, but quite small boresigh horizontal angle and pretty poor maneuverability).

See here the A2 MMC system in a stealth planes test mission. A LAV25 is used here to simulate a HAWK SAM launcher (MMC system). The SAM can detect, lock on and track the Harriers, but the F35B remains invisible to radar (for this mission its class was added to the stealth types array).

You may see also some automatic flares in action. The MMA flares are effective only if dropped inside correct range and aspect angle with the incomming missile, else the missile will ignore them. The missile might also reacquire the target after passing through the flares clould (as seen in the last seconds of the video) if the original target is still inside muissile's active detection cone.

9d_sYOHmfMU

[Raptor 6 Actual]

EXTRAORDINARY WORK Mandoble, keep up your progress. It will be a great addition, and should be made an actual part of the game from now on here at my computer.

[Myshaak]

Wow, Mandoble, that's an awesome piece of work!

[[APS]Gnat]

Awesome work

[Fortran]

Fantastic stuff Mandoble, amazing bit of script work!

[wolfbite]

Just intrigued about the stealth class how exactly does it work?

[Mandoble]

You simply define an array with stealth classes in your init.sqf. Mando missile launchers will not be able to lock on them. Next revision will include pairs of [class, %stealth_lvl].

[Kremator]

Sounding very good..... looking forward to this release!

[Mandoble]

Now the MMC TV systems admit any custom backgrounds (paa files). Raptor6 provided an outstanding MFD with fully working buttons. You may also use F keys to use the button's options.

The camera has also two new red arrows to indicate max track probability arc for the missiles, so if you fire with the target inside that arc the hit chances are maximum. Firing outside that arc will result in most cases in a miss. In next example for Vkihrs missiles that arc is quite limited, so you need to ensure the target is well in front of the Ka52. Of course you can adjust this arc for each missile type you customize.

A navigation map and a help htm file have been added too and are accesible from the camera. You can use the map to order the AI pilot (if any) to move the chopper to the desired position or just shift-left click with the camera center over the desired terrain position.

8bji9mQsxOs

[.kju [PvPscene]]

Amazing stuff Mandoble!

Coming from PvP, some parts I like, the parts like to automate the targeting and missile
guidance I see rather septic for competitive play.

Would you consider to adapt parts for a second version / make possible to configure it,
to make the system usable for PvP play?

To give you an example. Instead of the autolock of the target, it would be better to
have the play keep the target in the scene of the HUD to get the missile hit.
So like a laser painting a target the missile following the path.

Another element is green rectangle / square icon indicating new units into the view.
For PvP instead of this support system to make target recognition easier, that should
be possible to deactivate, so that the player has to do that part all by himself.

If possible, it would be a great feature to showcase the targeting process of an AA:
like that you are keeping the target for a few seconds in the optics/cursor to get the
lock. The icon could visualize that the lock was successful, along with a sound.

Thanks for the considerations!

[BogdanM]

I think the TV system works just fine and as close as possible to the real thing.



To give you an example. Instead of the autolock of the target, it would be better to
have the play keep the target in the scene of the HUD to get the missile hit.
So like a laser painting a target the missile following the path.

I'm pretty sure thats not how things work in the real word. I think that once the pilot locks on the target, the laser designator automaticaly adjusts the laser to the target so the pilot doesn't have to do that manually.



Another element is green rectangle / square icon indicating new units into the view.
For PvP instead of this support system to make target recognition easier, that should
be possible to deactivate, so that the player has to do that part all by himself.

I have to disagree with this also. It would be unrealist if the pilot/gunner would be aware of enemy vehicles only by visual recognition. The vehicles/planes are detected by the radar so some sort of situation awareness must be included.



If possible, it would be a great feature to showcase the targeting process of an AA:
like that you are keeping the target for a few seconds in the optics/cursor to get the
lock. The icon could visualize that the lock was successful, along with a sound.

This idea sounds very good and I totaly support it. This could simulate the delay until the laser designator head aligns with the target.

[Defunkt]

Very, very cool Mandoble, before long ArmA2/OA truly will be the Ultimate Military Simulator!

My thoughts on kju's suggestions:

Instead of the autolock of the target, it would be better to have the play keep the target in the scene of the HUD to get the missile hit. So like a laser painting a target the missile following the path.
Might be verging on sacrificing realism for gameplay. Possibly it should be enough that the firing platform be held reasonably steady to ensure the auto-targeting system maintains its own lock. Or possibly configurable per-vehicle?


Another element is green rectangle / square icon indicating new units into the view. For PvP instead of this support system to make target recognition easier, that should be possible to deactivate, so that the player has to do that part all by himself.
Totally agree, if it is desired to simulate the existence of radar then provide a blip on the green overhead map. Too easy if the gunner doesn't have to at least switch instruments.


If possible, it would be a great feature to showcase the targeting process of an AA: like that you are keeping the target for a few seconds in the optics/cursor to get the lock.
This would be awesome!
Very nice MFD surround Raptor6, I wonder if you'd consider making more or at least one Russian one?

It would also be great to be able to configure some other properties for the display B&W, Grain, NV Available, FLIR Available so we could present differing capabilities for different vehicles, (i.e. US in colour with bells & whistles, Russian mostly in B&W).

One always feels a bit sheepish making so many suggestions for something which is already so thoroughly well done, but hopefully you're interested in the input. Look forward to the end result.

[Mandoble]

kju, I would say almost whatever you might need to balance gameplay is already there ready to be parametrized for each system by the mission editor.

Between others you may configure via script parameters the following just for the missile:
Missile accuracy.
Missile resistance to countermeasures.
Missile agility in vertical and horizontal planes.
Missile cone of track (nose angles to track a target).
Active seeker range, speed, acceleration, endurance, warhead power, time between updates if inertial guidance is selected.
Terrain avoidance (terrain following) or not.
Type of pursuit: lead or direct

And for the TV system:
Operational modes: Remote, Local or both. If local, the camera will try to detect potential targets and show them on screen (engine on vehicles). If remote, the system will show only targets marked by other units (for example using mando laser designators).
Type of targets for local mode: vehicles, air units, ships, radar (if radar is set, it will show active mando surface radars)
Camera position and maximum angles of movement as well as camera initial heading.
Camera sensor range.
Operation mode: automatic (fire and forget), semiauto (you need to keep the lock until miss or impact, and LOS is not broken by terrain), or manual (you need to manually guide the missile).
Maximum angles relative to camera center to be able to lock on a target (if quite small, you will need to put the camera center just on spot to be able to lock on a real target instead of just the terrain).

With all these you may create quite deadly systems or quite noisy ones (scaring a lot but rarely hitting and damaging even less). So, all in all, the mission editor have many "tools" to balance gameplay for PvP games.

Also consider that deadly airborne systems might be compensated with SAMs, that also might be compensated with chaff/flares or just stealth tech.

In that video example no target is locked on automatically, it is the camera operator the one locking on targets, and the camera shows only engine on targets with clean LOS with the chopper. So, if a chopper is detected nearby, you may stop your engine. If so, the camera will not show that vehicle marked with a square and then the pilot will need to locate it visually using zoom and then lock on it (something that for long range shots is complicated).

BTW, you have a message in ofpec, in case you want to contact me and share ideas about this PvP gameplay matter ;)

[Kremator]

Mandoble does it again. Looking VERY good mate ... very good indeed !

I noticed the FLIR on that MFD from Raptor...... does you system work perfectly with that?

[Mandoble]

does you system work perfectly with that?

I would say yes, pretty well :cool:

[Kremator]

Hehe great stuff Mandoble. REALLY looking forward to this release.

Now here's the thing. Remember the gun camera that could be attached to the old C130 in Arma1 .... will that be available for the new C130 with this release?

[Mandoble]

Yes, that one is already working too. It is the very same TV system but indicating that the weapon is a gun and setting up parameters for the gun.

[Kremator]

I feel a LOT of VERY happy A2 players being able to have an AC130 and a FULLY FUNCTIONAL UAV !!!!

Keep up the good work Mandoble. Keep those scripting fingers going !

[Raptor 6 Actual]

Very nice MFD surround Raptor6, I wonder if you'd consider making more or at least one Russian one?

It would also be great to be able to configure some other properties for the display B&W, Grain, NV Available, FLIR Available so we could present differing capabilities for different vehicles, (i.e. US in colour with bells & whistles, Russian mostly in B&W).

As a matter of fact, Mandoble and I were discussing this earlier as one of his wishes. I'd love to find one and implement it. If there is any reference material for one, I'll take a look and see what we can do. Without Mandoble's help, I never could've gotten the MFD implemented. I hope other systems, like the Kiowa warrior, can have it implemented also. And, I am looking for any other type of console windows, MFD (multifunction displays), mpds (multipanel displays) and anything else so that I can ask Mandoble to help put in ArmA 2.

[Defunkt]

Su-34 MFD (not actually a great deal different to the one you've done):

http://www.ausairpower.net/Su-34-FRP-Cockpit-1S.jpg

[Kremator]

If you were a woman I'd kiss you ... but not until you release Mando Missiles !

[PuFu]

great work Mandoble...really looking forward to it.

I was on the same page with kju (looking at it from a PvP POV mainly), but your answers gives me a warm feeling.

Also, i am assuming that the AA missile hit ratio can be less if countermeasures are active

About countermeasures
- will those be manually fired? could them be set to auto deploy if wanted?
- does AI deploy countermeasures as well?
- will mando work with 3rd party countermeasures system suck as RKSL ones?

[Manzilla]

Raptor 6 Actual,
Damn good job on the MFD. That's sorely needed.

pufu,

I was wondering the same thing about the CMs and hopefully it will be just like A1. If I remember correctly I couldn't find anything that wouldn't work with his A1 system. The way he had it set up in A1 was complete and utter user definedness(if that's even a word.) You could basically tweak everything, leave or add what ever, etc. The RKSL stuff didn't have any problems that I remember, I could be wrong though.

Damn I just remembering how f&*$in' badass this was for A1. What I've seen thus far looks even better.

Thanks Mandoble and Raptor 6 Actual for his contributions. Exciting times ahead.

[froggyluv]

Exciting times ahead.
+1

Damn if those RKSL's countermeasures didn't get me into flying which I generally avoided like the plague. With this added, it's going to be like a whole nother game within a game.

Seriously this game just wins me over more and more.

[Raptor 6 Actual]

I appreciate the compliments. I have more backgrounds coming. It takes a while to find photos and then make create a black and white template, especially one that fits into the viewscreen of ArmA 2.
I'll try to write down the coords of the button placements for Mando, but he's very wise and much quicker than I am in setting these button functionalities up ingame.
I love the fact that every game from OFP to ArmA 2 and OA, allow us to customize the game, and without you all, the community, the game would just be another game.
Thanks Mandoble, and everyone else. I'll try to post progress either in this thread, or another one, so as not to steal Mando's thunder :D

[Mandoble]

pufu, a bit info about mando missile countermeasures here (http://www.terra.es/personal2/matias.s/mma_readme.htm#countermeasures).
And some more info about the RWR at the bottom of this section (http://www.terra.es/personal2/matias.s/mma_readme.htm#visual).

Mission editor has full flexibility to decide which planes/choppers will have automatic countermeasures, and which planes/chopper types will have them manually dropped by the pilot.

Also, for the automatic conuntermeasures the mission editor may configure (even per each individual plane) which is the maximum range between missile and plane where that pilot gets aware of the missile, and a delay between this and having the countermeasurs on air. This way you may have quite effective "pilots" and quite noisy ones. Basically all this is to simulate the reaction skill of the pilot when a missile is incomming.

As explained in the link above, the geometry fo the attack is everything when it comes to evade a mando missile. For example, if you have a missile at your 6, you drop countermeasures and you dont break left/right, the missile will pass through the flares, will "see" you again and will keep pursuing you. If the missile comes from 12oclock then an evasion is even harder, as you would need to drop countermeasures and then make sure that your plane goes away of both, missile and flares giving the flares closer to the missile and with the missile being able to "see" the flares, else the missile will keep tracking you.

All this might sound complex and risky, and it is as in RL. But for playabilty purposes the mission editor has some parameters to play with and make missile avoidance easier:
- Missile resistance to countermeasures.
- Missile accuracy.
- Missile agility (so that after passing through the flares, and even "seeing" the target again, it cannot turn fast enough to get the kill.
- General flares/chaff extent, with this alone you may create very safe missions or missions where evading missiles requires a lot of skill.

About other countermeasures systems, they do not affect/interfere with mando missiles because Mando missiles are not stock ArmA missiles (while all stock arma missiles may be used as mando missiles).

Now Im testing an ECM system too, that can help pilots to both:
- Make them hard to get locked on by missile launchers.
- Affect negatively the accuracy of incomming radar guided missiles.
The ECM would have an operational rage, so all the planes closer to the ECM emitter than that range will benefit of the ECM effects. Might be this system will not be fully ready for first A2 MMA 2.35 beta release.

[Kremator]

Mandoble,

Was just wondering if it is possible to give an indication of WHERE the missile is coming from? It's been so long since I played Arma1 I can't remember if you included that.

Keep on scripting, you guru you !

SERIOUSLY looking forward to playing MMA 2.35beta !

EDIT to acknowledge my 1000th post !

[Mandoble]

For that purpose you have the on-HUD RWR:
http://www.terra.es/personal2/matias.s/missile_rwr.jpg
There you will see as many red lines as incomming missiles as well as the direction of your plane, so you can drop countermasures and maneouver in the most effective way.

The RWR was located in the UR corner of the screen in A1 (as seen in the pic below), in A2 I will change the position to avoid interferences with Hint messages.
http://www.terra.es/personal2/matias.s/missile_visual.jpg

[Kremator]

Yes of course !!! How stupid of me.

Getting excited with the thought of this release !

[txalin]

Mandoble, i think u seriously need a new interface for your web site :D

Regarding Mando missile, as usual, top work ;)

[Mandoble]

The HUD system is now fully working in A2, it incorporates a new RWR display too ;)

The RWR shows incomming missiles locked on your plane, this allows you to maneouver in best position and drop countermeasures. For playability purposes the incomming missiles are displayed in light green lines in the RWR display which display area covers 2Km around the plane.

This system is applicable to any existing or future plane type with the execution of a single script. The parameters passed configure the system capabilities as well as the hud itself (RWR available or not, HUD info available or not, ammo and countermeasures left info available or not, etc).

WpNWGHmFEBI

[Defunkt]

Wicked! :bounce3:

Can I suggest the RWR be placed bottom-center as, when looking forward, this is over the largely irrelevant joystick and amongst the vehicle 'instruments' (or is it perhaps configurable)?

[.kju [PvPscene]]

Very impressive Mandoble. :)

Thanks for the detailed explanation of the possibilities. I will come back to that in a moment.

Just to give you an idea how PvP competitive play was adapted to reduce the game mechanics
of locking:

* Viewdistance reduced to 1200 to make tank and air locking less strong,
and to be reduced to the effective range for unguided inf AT (SMAW, RPG).
* No Javelin due to very simple auto lock.
* Inf AA (strela, stinger launcher) still in, yet essentially way too simple via the strong
and fast auto lock.
* No attack chopper or planes (or all guided rockets or more removed).

This is needed to avoid very one side, luck based and simple gameplay - unfortunately.


So any community made improvement, like your work, is very welcome here.
While no military expert at all, for PvP probably in terms of realism WWII or < 1980
vehicle and plane warfare what is best for gameplay.


The possible system:

* Disable direct click and tab lock for any weapon.
* Allow targeting process via center of the HUD / cursor for AA / guided missiles.
Process means to keep the cursor/weapon for several seconds in the target.
The process only works for line of sight and without friend or foe detecting.
* Add laser weapon to more vehicles. Add laser scanner, and to some extent also laser
guided weapon. Either to be get missiles fly to point of impact on launch or to have
them "ride" on the laser beam. Means if the laser target is moved, the missiles adapts
to the new target / position.

In addition to that you have defensive systems like smoke, arena, laser detector, flares.

So the local operational mode for the TV system seems to fulfill one aspect here.
Operation mode semi auto and manual are fitting nicely as well.
Low angles relative to camera center add up as well - can you configure time for the
locking process or is it currently always instant?

So in summary thanks again for the details. It is very very powerful already. Looking
forward to a play-test to see how it works out and what might be still missing. :)

[Kremator]

MIssile RWR looks very good Mandoble.

I like kju's idea of a locking time (perhaps you could keep the diamond lok but have a countdown timer INSIDE that diamond) and having it configurable by the mission maker.

Again I can't remember if you allowed the TV camera active on your missiles to view them inflight (for us fighter/bomber jocks to see some of the death and destruction we cause :) )

If you need a beta beta tester then just PM me. Can you tell I'm desperate to get my hands on your scripts yet?

[Manzilla]

Join that the club Kremator! :) After seeing the most recent video he posted I'm actually looking forward to getting in a plane.

Damn that looked and sounded wicked. Beautiful work there Mando.

[Mandoble]

Defunkt, actually the placement of the RWR is not configurable, or at least not per plane class, while there are two globals that the mission editor can change to set its x,y (if not set, then default values are used). I would agree with you, bottom center might seem the best place, but then you might have choppers with that area "empty" and in these cases the RWR would interfere with visibility of terrain in front of you.

kju, about your "possible system for PVP".
Mando missile HUD allows you to configure the lock on process in several ways:
- Boresight: You can lock on targets only if quite close to your hud´s center.
- HUD area: You will lock on the closest target to your hud center, between the targets that are displayed in your hud area.
- Remote: You can lock only on targets locked on by others. So you cannot detect and lock on targets using your vehicle. An interesting example is locking on submarines detected by mando sonobuoys ;)
- RADAR: You can lock on enemy active radars only (the lock is lost if the radar is switched off).
No lock at all: Manually guided missiles like the TOW.

In the case of TV camera systems you need always to move the camera and point to the desired target. Between others, you can configure the maximum and minimum deviation angles beetween marked position of the camera and potential target, so you may force the camera user to move the camera to point directly on the enemy, if not, then the camera will lock on a terrain position instead of a vehicle. But once the camera locks on a vehicle, the camera will follow it automatically while visible (LOS nos obstructed).

the camera also support what you call "laser mode", it generates also remote targets able to be locked on by other units. For example, you may have a reco chopper armed only with a mando laser camera, but you can use it to mark targets for a ship armed with cruise missiles and able to lock on targets locked on by others (your chopper).

Im looking for a way create a feasible locking on way based on time with the desired target centered on HUD or camera center. But I cannot promise to have it implemented in next A2 version, or implemented at all in the future.

Kremator and Manzilla, PM me if you are interested into some testing, might be we can arrange something there ;)

[Kremator]

Have send you the PM Mandoble ..... I'M IN !

[Kremator]

Dear All,

Mandoble has allowed me to see MMA2.35beta for Arma2 to do a little testing before it is fully released. This post will satisfy two positions 1) for infomation on what the addon can do 2) issues to be addressed.

It's looking GREAT !

The addon comes as an addon and in installed in a mod folder. The init.sqf is very easy to understand and modify (for you budding tinkerers) and mission.sqm just needs a mando_missile_Arma logic.

All missile functions are modifiable and flares are included as standard for AI and players.

Mandoble gave me a series of missions to try and without listing them all I will give you a breakdown of what you can see.

- Action menu items for the different gun/bomb/missile cameras (yes I did say GUN !)
- On entering the camera you get a lovely MFD (working function keys with updating information)
- There are instructions on how to use that camera on top of the window
- The camera is moveable using the mouse ONLY if the mouse is inside that window box
- Targets have a dull green box around them (if in range) that changes to a bright green box containing a diamond and a lock tone when you LEFT click on it.
- Missiles/bombs/guns can then be fired using the RIGHT mouse button.
- The aiming window can be given limits and direction (for instance out the LEFT side *COUGH* AC130U !!!!!!!)

As for improvements that need to be made....

- Mouse control in the camera view is very sensitive ... needs to be less so (perhaps dependent on zoom level ?)
- FLIR needs work - have you seen the FLIR addon - that's perfect.
- In the AC130 if oyu go past the 90deg limit (towards the front of the aircraft) the window shoots upwards and will not reset until you come out of the camera.
- VERY easy to damage you own AC130 - limits to be investigated that they dont conflict with model.
-Once in camera view the aircraft retains its speed/direction/angle etc which can look REALLY wierd (hard bank remaining for ages while going in the same direction!) - perhaps a way to just level the wings (unless in AC130?)
- Add a HOLD WP for the C130 so that it actually flies a circular orbit
- Kamov crashes in the destroyer mission unless you give a WP to the left of the kamov - it is fine then.
- Rotor is appearing in the camera window - not good for epileptics ! needs a little lowering
-LGBs look good and fly well - can there be a bomb camera to follow the death and destruction ? Perhaps having a 'guided' option where the pilot actually flies the bomb to target?
- Hawk console - can the mouse wheel be used for the zoom level?


OK that's all for now. I'm now going back for more testing.

Thanks again for the opportuntiy Mandoble.

Kremator

[.kju [PvPscene]]

Thanks once again Mandoble!
Very much looking forward to it. :)

[Mandoble]

Hi Kremator, and thanks for testing ;)

Now about the improvements you proposed:
- Excesive mouse sensitivity is a problem related to last A2 beta.
- Everything related to camera/weapons angles, position and arcs is configurable via script parameters or globals for any vehicle class.
- About FLIR, I will check what you are looking for there.
- Kamov crashing: This is unrelated to MMA, and quite related to A2 pilot skills (or lack of them ...) ;)
- LGB or missile nose camera (not in manual guidance mode): this is something I was considering to introduce, not sure if in first open beta.
- MCC using mouse wheel to zoom in/out: I will include that :)

[Manzilla]

Mando,
I got you set up on hotmail, I hope.

[Defunkt]

Thoroughly looking forward to it. Just one thought I had when viewing one of the WIP videos which is now on my mind again having read Kremator's summary; is there really going to be a visible mouse pointer to select targets? Ideally given the MFD paradigm it'd be function keys for everything and TAB to cycle targets, click-and-shoot with a little white arrow strikes me as a trifle 'gamey' though I guess it'd be a lot of work to change. Maybe in a later version or if somebody else (like me) submitted a tweak/patch at a later date?

[Mandoble]

No, you cannot use the mouse to select any target (except in a prototype of targeting radar I'm planning to include sometime). The mouse is used in the TV system to move the camera, it is used as an "analog" virtual joystick. There is an steerable area in the center of the camera, moving the mouse inside this aera makes the camera to move (but not to move where the mouse is pointing, just getting some movement speed and acceleration depending on the mouse position).

[Manzilla]

Here's something I've noticed so far:

-I'm having a helluva time locking onto heli's with the Vikar AA and the AIM9's. I can't seem to do it at all. The planes are fine.

-The Su-25's are marked as Su-39 when you get a lock on them:
http://s806.photobucket.com/albums/yy344/Manzilla_photo/?action=view&current=arma22009-09-0115-03-37-46_CROP.jpg

[Kremator]

A useful thing would be for the pilot of the C130 (that controls the camera) to be able to directly steer the aircraft whilst in camera mode. Something similar to the way the bombadiers were able to control the bombers on bombing runs. It just needs left/right enabling.

I have also seen that the camera window flashes when it comes up. Any way to smooth that out ?

Tracking with Mando Gun is sometimes a little off (firing a line of rounds). Possible to do a spread around the desired location ?

Lock growl ... possible to vary pitch in relation to kill probability ?

Still testing and LOVING IT !

[Mandoble]

Manzilla, you should not have any problem at all locking on choppers, that sounds quite weird. About Su39 tag, that is correct, these are Su39s (or Su-25TM BTW). In any case this is the A2 class name for that plane.

Kremator, there is no plan to incorporate a "fly" while in camera mode for the TV system, what youd be good is to have a C130 with pilot and gunner (even without any gun) this way from the game you would be able to indicate destinations for the AI pilot.

I do not notice any initial flash effect with the camera, while I keep trying overloading the mission, might be temporal low fps would be causing that.

For mando gun lite you may define dispersion factors (vertical and horizontal), that might help to get the spreading effect you are looking for.

About growl sound related to kill probability, this cannot be done A2 doesnt allow to "modulate" or modify the played sound, and changing the volume would affect also to anyother sound.

Thanks guys for keep testing :)

[Manzilla]

Mando,
This is great. I forgot how much this adds to flying.

Some more problems with the Heli targeting:

-I can't get the AIM9 AA's or Vikhr AA's to lock onto any opposing heli's in the example missions. Unlike planes left-clicking on the acquired target does not lock. The box just sits there.

-The AG missiles fired from heli's will not accurately head towards the target. The seem to go off in the distance and never really head towards the ground. When they do hit the ground, it's pretty far away from the target.

- When tracking an air target sometimes the viewed area in the HUD jumps straight up once the camera is 90 degrees from the front of the heli. I can be following an Su-39 that is flying level with me on the "mma_test_frigate_addon.utes" mission.(Without locking on) Once I get near perpendicular with the nose of my heli the screen all of a sudden heads straight up towards a focal point in the sky. Eventually I can get the camera back under control. I hope this makes sense.

[Mandoble]

Hi Manzilla,
- Being able to lock on planes but not on choppers is really weird, as the TV in AA mode doesnt make any distintion between them. Definitively this is a point that needs further investigation, mostly because I'm unable to recreate that problem with my ArmA2.

- The Vikhr present in the demo has a quite small "tartetting" window, marked by the red arrows to in the camera, only when the target is inside the area pointed by the arrows and the range is in green you should fire the missile with high % of hit. Else that missile will fail in most cases, quite the opposite to the hellfire example for the TV working on the AH1Z.

- The camera in AA mode for the Ka52 has some angle limits configured, if the point you are looking at or targeted gets out of these limits, the camera tries to track but finally breaks the lock and gets free again.

[Defunkt]

Wow! This basically creates a whole new game within the game, I've had a heap of fun this evening just working my way through your test missions. It's an amazing achievement for one person in this slightly cranky scripting environment. Other than the C130 arc of fire already mentioned and which you've suggested is more about parameter fine-tuning I think I only struck one bug; The HUD' 'Show Ordnance' menu action didn't appear to do anything [Edit: Mandoble has since told me it's an obsolete left-over.]. That aside this seems well and truly ready for public beta, I will probably check its behaviour on a dedicated server at my own next sitting.

Found my way around most things quite easily though as you know I couldn't work out what the grey circle was for. I also didn't work out the purpose of the following MFD function keys (possibly a WIP):
F4 Man / S.Aut [Edit: Okay just read a little on this function in an earlier post, is it working? Can you manually steer? With mouse?]
F3 Loc / Rem

RWR is just perfect, SAM's are still downright dangerous but if you're fast enough, show them your tail and launch flares at the right distance you'll usually get away. The firer can increase their chances by picking the shot that prevents you from doing that.. I still think the RWR should be bottom center and in fact there's no reason for it to be shown until a hostile launch is actually detected which should do away with any issues about chopper pilots' view of the ground (least of their worries at that point). I think the flare launch should have a sound effect. Hopefully the RWR texture can be specified per-vehicle along with the MFD and I think there may be other UI components like the ACTIVATING SYSTEMS and THREAT indicators that would benefit from nice raster graphics. I'm no artist but these things are quite easy to knock up with bevel and drop shadow and it'd be great to have instrument sets that suit the various different vehicles:

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg80/ANZINS/RWR.png

HUD is a little problematic for me as I drive and fly everything with my left hand and am always free-looked with my mouse, then there are those who use Track IR. Can't be helped but I think there should be a key to toggle the HUD on and off. It might then be possible for me to pair it to the freelook bind and have it switch on and off with that mode change. If the RWR was auto-shown on threat then this would completely do away with the action menu entry (always a good thing).

Not sure if there's any provision for people to map their own keys in advance but if not then I think you should consider using the 'Use Action NN' binds as the first choice for default keys so anybody who regularly plays on Mando equipped servers can have their preferred keys pre-mapped (in which case some of the help text could be assumed unnecessary as well and turned off) then fall back to the current defaults only if those aren't bound. Great to have the option to change keys in game though.

As for the camera, mouse as analogue joystick makes perfect sense but I'd love to see the pointer go, apart from being a bit 'PC Game' it can be a little frustrating to have to click on the target with the same device that moves the view around (not sure if that difficulty is intended). IMHO TAB would ideally select the lockable target nearest to sight center but of course it has to be very close to center in the first place (as it is now).

I'm sure more will occur to me even before I try it again. I'd just like to say I've enjoyed playing around with it very much and ended up doing much less work today than I should have!

[Mandoble]

Hey Defunkt, thanks for testing:
F4: man/aut or man/semi aut is not wip, it is fully working. If in man mode, then you steer the missile (you guide the missile), if in semi auto, the missile selfguides as long as you keep the lock, and if in auto the missile selfguides and you can break the lock and select and fight against a new target. Depending on script parameters you may allow one or two of these modes (auto and semiauto are selfexcluding).

F3: Loc/Rem: you might have one of these or both allowed for any system. If "Local op mode", then your system will be able to locate targets by itself (IE. a thermal system, radar,etc). If Remote mode, then the TV will show only targets locked on by other units. For example, a unit in LOC mode using a mando laser designator TV locks on a target, and a second unit, well far away, and working on REMOTE locks on the target locked on by the first unit and fires a BIG cruise missile against it ;)

- There is already an action menu to redefine the keys using a small dialog, and after mando missile is initialized you can also redefine the keys modifying some globals from init.sqf.

- There is already an action menu to toggle mando hud on/off.

Thanks for testing ;)

[Defunkt]

No problem. I meant to ask, with regard to the flares, is the number of launchers and flares configurable per-vehicle? And is the spoofing modelled to the point where more simultaneous flares will influence the result? Or even to the point where the attitude of the launcher (i.e. the direction the flare is launched) comes into play?

[Mandoble]

You may use the default flares FX script incorpotared or you may define the flares FX script to be use by any plane/chopper (with FX I mean particle effects). Each time you (or the AI) drop flares there in one that acts as the "real" flare, the rest are plain eye-candy. And this one acts as a real flare, so it matters a lot the direction where it is fired in relation with incomming missile as well as your plane. The idea is to launch the flare there where the flare is more attractive for the missile than the plane, and also there where once the missile heads to the flare (or once the missile pass through the flare cloud), the missile will not be able to see your plane again (else it might re-lock on you). Also consider that for missiles you may configure how resistant are each one (or type) to flares. So you may have the case where the missile will head to the flare as soon as it sees it, and the case where the missile will head to the flare only if clearly closer than the plane (and visible by the missile), or cases where the missile is simply immune to flares. This last case is quite interesting for missiles configured with quite low maneouverability and quite limited cone of tracking, so you can play to outmaneouver the missile instead of using countermeasures.

[oktane]

Hi Mandoble
Looking forward to your release. Remember that issue we talked about on OFPEC about some scripts only storing variables on the client side? (I was making PvP warfare with mando and that was one of the issues.) I had tried to make vehicles purchased have both AI and player controlled mando functions on them, but the scripts did not share the same variables such as ammo count and stuff. (You recall that the AI attachment was a dumbed down version of a launcher without all the gui and stuff, just some nice LOS checks and such) Now that BIS has let us set network synced variables to vehicles, do you think that the AI and Player modes could share information? It would really help for PvP when there are AI teams involved.

[Defunkt]

Each time you (or the AI) drop flares there in one that acts as the "real" flare, the rest are plain eye-candy. And this one acts as a real flare, so it matters a lot the direction where it is fired in relation with incomming missile as well as your plane.

Where I'm heading with this is, can certain classes of aircraft, I'm thinking of slow and otherwise vulnerable types, have a greater ability to dispense countermeasures. So in the case of this C130 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLllMYXcY2k) it is dispensing in large quantities in multiple directions, extra eye-candy aside, what would be the best way to model this? More than one real flare (in this case 3)? Or an approximation by making the efficacy/attractiveness of the one real (rearward-launched) flare configurable (in this case higher)?

[Kremator]

When a C130 fire flares it looks like an angel. It should be possible to change the shape of this by a script.

EDIT Ahhhh just noticed Mandobes post !

[luckyhendrix]

Will the number of flare vary with the type of plane ? (I'm thinking about the mi-24 wich RIL has 192 flares whereas Ah-1Z only has 60)

[Mandoble]

Defunkt, I will investigate the possibility to have more than one real flare per pack drop (potential problem might be performance hit).

luckyhendrix, of course, mission editor is free to set the max number of flares per plane type, or even individually (planes of same type but with different max number of them).

Just an example of how easy is that for automatic flares:


[["plane_class1","plane_class2","plane_class3"], 800, 1, 20, false, 0.5, false]execVM"mando_missiles\units\mando_missileecm_by_type.sqf";

[["plane_class4","plane_class5"], 1000, 1, 40, false, 0.5, false]execVM"mando_missiles\units\mando_missileecm_by_type.sqf";


mando_missileecm_by_type.sqf parameters:
- Array of vehicle classes that will use this setup for flares/claff
- Minimum distance beetween incomming missile and the unit to drop flares or chaff
- Type: 0 - Chaff, 1 - Flares
- Number of chaff or flares packs, each usage substracs one to this initial quantity
- radio: true/false, if unit sends radio messages indicating a missile incomming, chaff or flares dropped, missile evaded, etc.
- reactiontime (optional): The unit will wait a random number of seconds between 0 and this value before dropping countermeasures. This parameter is optional, if not provided the reaction delay time will be 0 seconds.
- Active only if pilot is not human (true, false): Optional parameter, default is true. If false, then while pilot is human automatic countermeasures are deactivated.

[Cyborg11]

Cool that you are releasing this for ArmA2 too :D

Question: Do you make a script version and an addon like in ArmA too ? :)

[Defunkt]

I asked the same question and the answer was; "Of course". :)

[Mandoble]

Yes, it will be available as addon and script suite, as the A1 version. So, if you want to keep away of addon dependencies, no problem ;)

[Mandoble]

Dev update:
- From TV you can now order the pilot to go higher or lower.
- TV Flir now self-adjust, so you can use it also during day.
- TV MDFs backgrounds and buttons positions and sizes are now fully configurable per plane/chopper type.
- RWR position is now configurable, as well as RWR image for west and east,res, civ planes.
- Added a script to enable flares per plane/chopper classes, there you indicate if they will work in auto for players in drive position or not.
- MCC has now FIRE button just below TARGET button.
- Added a button to the TV system to transmit locked on target, if you keep the lock, remote targetting capable units will be able to engage your target.

More to come ;)

[Raptor 6 Actual]

Sounds outstanding mate. Keep up the work.

[Kremator]

Any more MFDs Raptor ? First one was great !

[Blueteamguy]

HOLY SH*T!!!!!!!
(as in this is awesome)

[Kremator]

I have been testing this early beta for Mandoble and I can say that it is REALLY shining !

Mucho respect for what he is giving us here.

You guys will just be amazed when you see what it does for Arma2 missiles !

[Raptor 6 Actual]

@<hidden>

Sorry, I've been busy with some minor issues elsewhere. I do have another MFD that comes from the SU-34. I just need to get the RGB values for that Russian rust proof blue paint. With Mandoble's configurable script now, you should be able to implement all of the buttons. I'll try to PM you later today or tomorrow and let you see the alpha version of it so you can compare the RL photo to the one I made in CS4

[Kremator]

Cool mate.

Don't worry about the PM ..... perhaps post a screenie here for the rest to drool over !

Good work BTW !

[galzohar]

How do you make missiles able to lock onto buildings (or any objects for that matter)?

[Mandoble]

Well, first of all, mando missiles are not arma missiles, but scripted missiles. For example, you may have a tractor converted into a deadly ICBM nuclear missiles ;). Based on that, anything might be used as missile but also anything might be used as target for the missile. Of course you have there scripts to help you to lock on different types of things (potential targets). The target might be just a position, ground position, or a game logic placed there, or a plane, vehicle, ship, building, flare, chaff, etc.

Find here (http://www.terra.es/personal2/matias.s/mma_readme.htm#t7) the full list of parameters you may use when firing or defining a mando missile.

[Mandoble]

First ArmA2 anti-missile tests went well ;)

Patriot vs SCUD duel here:
MPBJGF7ZUjM

[.kju [PvPscene]]

Looking great!

What I dont quite understand is, why most people make transparent dialogs.
It makes dialogs less readable. In addition most of the time you don't need the viewable
area anyway. At least the mix allow you at best to see motion (movement).
Story short: How about making the background solid and instead move the dialogs to
the edges of the screens

Realism question to anyone: Do those US launcher batteries fire at such low angle
or only at a very step one?

[Simon C]

Realism question to anyone: Do those US launcher batteries fire at such low angle
or only at a very step one?

Judging from the pictures on Wikipedia of the Patriot, they seem to aim at about a 45 degree angle.

[vengeance1]

Looking good Mandoble, can't wait to get it back in the Mission.

Also: I like the Transparent Dialog, it has saved me more than once when I can still see an enemy approach.

[Blueteamguy]

wow, that scud vs patriot battle is looking great! any chance this will be implemented into the GRAD as well?

[Mandoble]

kju, one of the parameters of the script is the colour of the dialog, including alpha, you can set whatever you want as background colour for it. Another parameter is the vertical angle, which might be fixed to any value (45 for example) or automatic. In this lastest case the angle is calculated just to point at the target (this one is used in the video).

Blueteamguy, Grand is an unguided rocket, right? You can simulate these too with Mando Missile, while for unguided weapons it might be better just to use normal ArmA2 rocket types, like the MLRS. In that video I'm using MLRS acting as Patriot launchers not as rocket launchers.

[Lhowon]

Looking forward to this hugely Mandoble, please release soon! ;)

[-=GA=-Toetagger]

That looks really,really .......good!

[Raddik]

This is going to be epic/awesome/legendary.

[maxsword]

Hello Mandoble,

Can You estimate the release date for your marvellous addons?

Masword

[Mandoble]

Put the blame about the delay on kju, defunk, kremator, manzilla, cyborg11 and some others providing ideas I want to put inside the pack before first open beta ;)
There is not so much pending to be implemented, but in any case always depending on my quite limited free time. With a bit of luck we might be talking about only few weeks.

[Manzilla]

Put the blame about the delay on kju, defunk, kremator, manzilla, cyborg11 and some others providing ideas I want to put inside the pack before first open beta ;)


I will gladly take part of the blame. :D

I will add that whatever the amount of time that is still needed you guys will be very satisfied when it's released. There's a lot of great, really functional stuff that is being added. Mando's done some amazing work thus far. But there's a lot to script and also test. Really the best answer is the proverbial it will be done when it's done but no worries this will change the way air combat is looked at in A2. Hell it will add air combat to the game. Stay tuned....

[Kremator]

^^ same here. We want to help mandoble make the BEST addon for you all to use in your missions.

Take it from me .... it's gonna blow you away.

[maxsword]

Mandoble,

I'm available to help You as tester in case of need. Obviously I'm standing in the line waiting for my turn. He he....

Maxsword

[maxsword]

Hey Mandoble, ready for messaging?

Maxsword

[Mandoble]

TorM1 lauch type is now working quite well ;)

DM8HQgNWXGs

Now you can define up to two acceleration stages, and during the first one there is "guidance" or aiming. So you can set an initial speed to eject it vertically, and then a -9.8ms^2 accel for the first second, having the missile being already oriented to the target, and then engine burst and full acceleration.

[BogdanM]

That really works well! But thats no surprize, its made by Mandoble. :D
Although I think the missile behaves a bit slow, in the first launch stage the missile should go twice as fast and twice as high(~20m).

Anyway everything looks great so far!

[oktane]

Looking awsome mando.

Hey I tested out the new features of A2 regarding vehicle variables that are public... they work well. SetVariable now takes an extra parameter that determines if its public or local. So I have made a dam script that has a control object.. clients can send and receive data from that objects variables to see which gates of the dam should be open, etc. It should work great for storing missile types and counts so that AI launchers on human gunnable vehicles will seamless. Let me know if you'd like any work done on that, I'd love to help.

[Mandoble]

Ups, you are right BogdanM, the missile is being ejected too slow compared to the real one, this is an easy to fix one ;)

Oktane, MMA for A2 is already using the globally broadcasted vehicle vars for ammo counts and countermeasures counts. And of course, if you want to help, you are welcome, check PM :)

[Mandoble]

CnZptPBW5_4

Now you can setup locking on timed. Once you press lock on key or button you need to keep the desired target more or less centered on hud for 3 seconds and then the lock on is confirmed. While the lock on is confirming the target its green square will blink quickly. This might be an interesting option for PvP matches where you want to avoid too easy or quick locks on targets (is that what you were looking for Kju? ;) ).

For any HUD system you can select between:
- Normal lock on: Target closest to the hud's center is selected.
- Boresight lock on: Same as previous, but target needs to be well centered in the HUD to be locked on.
- Timed lock on: Same as first one, but target must be in HUD's area for 2 or 3 seconds before lock on is confirmed (this avoids quick snapshots while in violent scissors).

Maximum visual engagement range from HUD is now increase to 10Km against air targets.

All the HUD's menu actions are now also mapped to user actions, in case you want easy mapping for joystick devices.

[Dwarden]

very nice touch

[Eble]

I'm really liking these HUD options, one pain in air to air combat in arma1 was with the speed you could release 6 missiles at 6 targets.

A more realistic 'locking' system would be great, actively hunting down, getting behind the target then locking etc.

I'd be interested in using these scripts in the jet addons I'm converting, I'll be watching the development :)

great work mate as always.

Southy

[Defunkt]

Outstanding work Mandoble, all very valuable improvements.

Must be getting close to a public beta now! :bounce3:

[nuxil]

Nice work Mandoble!

that radar on your left reminds me of the combatradar i made for arma 1, never released it tho. i see you made it with a nice gui :)



kju
Story short: How about making the background solid and instead move the dialogs to
the edges of the screens


that basicly means he needs to add a screen aspect detector. since screen cords changes when you change aspect. 0:0 is upperleft on 4:3 but not in 16:9 or 16:10.

imo i think its looks fine as it is.

[froggyluv]

Everything I've seen in this thread looks like alot of fun. As long as I've owned OFP to Arma2, I've never engaged in Air-Air combat but i'm going to have to give this a try. Actually Red Baron was the last FS I've played but i have to ask -does the AI have any basic evasive type scripts and manevours? meaning, do they understand threats and know how to move cutting attack and defensive angles or do they just circle and dump chaff?

[.kju [PvPscene]]

Super! :)


Maximum visual engagement range from HUD is now increase to 10Km against air targets.

What do you mean here - the top left radar, or target indication in the center?
How does it work for ground vehicles roughly?

An idea for release v2. It would be neat if you could make it read various unit specific
values from config, and use your default if no definition is found.
This way a small config addon could be easily made to set all the sets for each units,
and most important opt-in for new vehicles without changing the suite.

Cheers!

[Mandoble]

Kju, the circle in the left top corner is not a radar, but a radar warning receiver (your plane is at its center). It covers 2Km radious around the plane and draws vectors with the incomming missiles. It is there to help you to maneouver in the correct direction and drop countermeasures at the correct time.

The 10Km limit is for visual engagements using the HUD against air targets. So, the HUD will display green squares for detected air targets in front of your plane (or weapon in case you use a sam launcher from a moveable turret). These targets must be in range and with a clean LOS with your plane in order to be able to lock on them. For longer range engagements you would need to use an MCC, IRST camera or the "work-in-progress" long range radar MFD (I want an F14 for this ;) ).

Using only the HUD (without any extra MCC/TV/Radar system) you can enable:
- Air targeting: which works as indicated above.
- Ground targeting: Similar to air targeting, but shorter range (5Km). Only engine-on vehicles/ships with clean LOS are displayed on HUD.
- Structures targeting: You point to a ground position, and this ground position is selected as target.
- Radar targeting: You can cycle between radar emitters actively emitting. LOS and range doesnt matter as long as the source is emitting (radar on). It doesnt display active airborne radars, only ground/sea based ones. For example, a SAM with radar turned on will be displayed as potential target.
- Remote targeting: You can cycle between all the remote targets present for your side. Again range and LOS doesnt matter for these.


The HUD system mounted on ground vehicles works same as for a plane or ship. With a script parameter you select the HUD layout, for example, for ground vehicles you dont want the RWR present (same as for the flare counters).

[vengeance1]

Excellent work Mandoble as usual. Really going to add a lot to Aircraft capabilities.

[Grimm]

Just tested it a few hours ago. That is just brilliant!

[Mandoble]

Got some questions related to playability and stealth planes. Actually they cannot be detected by MMA systems, so they cannot be attacked with missiles, but this might be a bit unfair.

So the question is what do you think it might be better to handle with them? And current the possibilities are (think considering both, realism but also playability):

1 - They can be detected only at ranges closer than "X", but once detected they can be locked on and attacked as any non-stealth target.
2 - You can detect them at any ArmA2 range, but detection will be unestable and the lock will be broken frequently.
3 - You can detect them and lock on them normally, but missiles fired against them will have their accuracly seriously decreased.
4 - A mix of 1 and 3.
5 - Reduce a lot the maneuverability of the missile, so the missile will effectively guide against the target, but it can be easily outmaneouver.

Note about accuracy: Low accuracy doesnt guarantee that the missile cannot hit just on spot. Low accuracy means that the missile needs more time to compute the position of the target and potential interception courses, which means that the missile might behave with somewhat like an erratic course while aproaching the target. Usually low accuracy ends with proximity non-lethal detonations.

[[APS]Gnat]

4 (1 and 3) is my vote

[colligpip]

vote 4

[Defunkt]

vote 1

[vengeance1]

vote 1 for Stealth.

But should repeat as long as you are out of range "X" once again. Other than that have "Jammers" that do 3.

[BogdanM]

I'll vote for option 1.

I have another idea but this probably involves a lot more work. To my limit knowledge stealth planes are "invisible" only to radars operationg to short wavelengths but at long wavelengths the airplane can be detected but not properly located so missile's accuracy is greatly affected. So if you could perhaps set the radar to have short-wave and long-wave modes, the short-wavelength mode will be good for accurately targeting non-stealth planes and the long-wavelength mode can be used to detect and attack stealth planes with limited success.

I hope you can understand what I wanted to say. :)

[Mandoble]

Vengeance, you hit another nail in the head ;), because ECM is also included there, and this raises another question: what should be the drawback of activating ECM? And IMO it should be a terrible drawback. So, it should not be possible to activate ECM and then fly happily all around the map more or less safe from enemy fire. I really dont know what to do with it, and current decission is simply to remove/delete/erase the ECM option.

BogdanM, about Swlength, Lwlength the problem is that switching to L might result in the detection of something ahead of you, now you know there is something there, but you cannot effectively lock on it. I do not plan to simulate complex lwl radar arrays that triangulate all their data to conclude with a "positive" detection and then be able to fire a missile. So, while you are right, it is above my current plans.

[vengeance1]

Vengeance, you hit another nail in the head ;), because ECM is also included there, and this raises another question: what should be the drawback of activating ECM? And IMO it should be a terrible drawback. So, it should not be possible to activate ECM and then fly happily all around the map more or less safe from enemy fire. I really dont know what to do with it, and current decission is simply to remove/delete/erase the ECM option.

Just one mans view: The drawback for ECM could be you can only use it for X seconds and not again for some delay. Or/and, it is only availible on aircraft with known capability.

[Mandoble]

... or both, both suggestions seem fair enough gameplay-wise.

Based on that the ECM systems might end like this:
- Your plane might have ECM or not (script parameter). This parameter is a value between 0 and 30 and represents the number of seconds that ECM can be active (0 for no ECM capable).
- ECM will be displayed on hud just below countermeasure counters as number of seconds left.
- When you switch on ECM the number of seconds will start decreasing second by second until reaching 0, then ECM is automatically turned off and the number will be reset to default value after 30 seconds.
- The potential targets displayed on hud will include a leyend (ECM) if they have ECM active.

And now it comes a playability tradeoff, a missile is affected by ECM only if target has ECM already ON when the missile is fired. So, you cannot wait to have a missile warning and then switch on ECM (which might be something like gaming the game). This way you will need to administrate wisely when to switch ON your ECM.

A missile affected by ECM will have both, accuracy and maneuverability decreased.

There might be another kind of dedicated ECM planes (unarmed ones) but with unlimited ECM ON time. If your plane gets close enough to one of these, then your plane gets "covered" by the ECM of the "Prowler" plane.

[vengeance1]

WOW, that's why your the programer! :yay: and I am the future user! I like it!

[Defunkt]

Small possible refinement, how about rather than making ECM ineffective if not on at the time of launch it instead takes maybe 5 seconds to 'power-up/enable' so you can use it in response to a warning provided you can buy yourself enough time through evasion. I'm all for anything that allows people to influence their own fortunes.

[NoRailgunner]

There are sensors which are able to recognize ECM and missiles which can ride "home-on-jam" similar to those "anti-radiation" missiles. Thats ECCM ;)
Would say it should be possible to switch ECM on or off without limits. On the other hand there should be missiles which are able to home in directly on sources of radar jamming.
In the end it should be the decision of the player/pilot and his knowledge about enemys sensor/electronic threats.
Would be bad if the player + AI could feel safe & comfortable flying around with ECM and Flares combined as "magic shield".

[Smurf]

Nothing to add to the discution, I´ll just leave a "Great Work" here.

Congrats...

[b00ce]

I vote 4.

[Lhowon]

I vote 1.

I think both 1 and 3 would make it too unlikely for the plane to be hit, especially as it'll probably be flying very high when the missile is fired anyway, meaning its countermeasures have the most chance of working.

My personal preference would be to make the set altitude as high as is possible while still having the plane's equipment work properly with the viewdistance. It wouldn't feel right being able to (at least clearly) see the plane from the ground yet not be able to get a lock.

Fantastic work so far, this is easily one of my most looked-forward to mods :)

[bartkusa]

I vote 1+2.


what should be the drawback of activating ECM? And IMO it should be a terrible drawback. So, it should not be possible to activate ECM and then fly happily all around the map more or less safe from enemy fire.

A long time ago, I read a treatise on how to use ECM in some super-realistic flying game, like Falcon 4.0 or somesuch.

I can't remember much (the rest is cut)....

I'll see if I can dig it up. It can be mined for verisimilitude and game design ideas.

EDIT: "Using the Jammer in Falcon 4" by Raptorman (http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:C6tbWC5UkaIJ:www.frugalsworld.com/modules/zmagazine/article.php%3Farticleid%3D202+%22Using+The+Jammer+In+Falcon+4%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=opera), courtesy of Google Cache, because the normal host is down.

EDIT 2: A summary.

Suppose you are flying towards bandits, but neither of you is certain where, or how far away, the other is.
Turning ECM on early will defeat a lock. However, you risk exposing your existence before they would've seen you with active radar, and you expose yourself to people with their radars set to passive mode!
There's a sweet-spot where the bandits would've discovered you anyway, yet still cannot lock, so ECM is purely a good thing.
As the bandits get closer, their radar will eventually become stronger than your jammer, meaning they can lock. Some missiles (AMRAAM?) have home-on-jamming functionality, making them effectively more accurate.

Realism isn't worth including if it isn't fun. However, I see some good things coming from implementing this kind of ECM:
Encourage dogfights by making head-on extreme-range missile attacks less likely to succeed. Making air battles last longer = more fun.
Encourage prudence by making close-range missile shots against ECM-active targets more accurate, or require less time to lock. This way, people, don't leave ECM on all the time; once they merge, ECM becomes a big liability.

[Mandoble]

1 + 3 seems the easiest to implement combo and might be also better option for gameplay.
- Stealth can be detected/locked on only at close range (1 km?) and missiles fired against them will have less accuracy and, might be, greater "boom range". This "boom range" is another factor we might playwith. It determines the range to target for the missile's warhead to detonate. If this range is increased, this will ensure that stealth planes will NEVER be directly hit, but they will receive damage from proximity detonations.

About ECM:
NoRailgunner, with the proposed method you can have a no time limited ECM, just set ECM ON time parameter to 9999 seconds ;) But I disagree about ECCM missiles, yes, they exist, but if we add them then the ECM-ON would become a serious problem for the limited ranges of A2 islands, while it is intended (gameplay wise) to be an advantage. Said that, ECCM missiles might be hard to implement: the firing unit has no lock, but just an ECM source represented by a general bearing, the firing unit doesnt have range/altitude info about the target. Might be you are firing an ECCM missile with an effective range of 30km against an ECM source which is 60Km away. This RL drawback is not present in A2 due limited world sizes, you will always know that the ECM source is in most cases "close enough for sure".


Defunkt: 5 seconds to 'power-up might be an idea to encourage people to activate ECM before being attacked and not just after being attacked. But, if you know that there are long range SAMs in the area, you already know that 5 seconds would be a more than safe time-window to have your ECM effectively affecting to far away incoming missiles. So, again, we open the door for gaming the game. Considering that, I still think best option would be to have the missiles affected by ECM only if target has ECM already on at missiles's launch time.

Bartkusa, one thing that can be easily implemented is to make ECM effective only if firing unit is not closer than N to the target. That would mean that ECM might be the preferred defensive way ONLY for long range engagements.

[Defunkt]

...if you know that there are long range SAMs in the area, you already know that 5 seconds would be a more than safe time-window to have your ECM effectively affecting to far away incoming missiles. So, again, we open the door for gaming the game.
Obviously very happy with whatever you decide but I'm not sure I'd agree that exercising judgement based on the intel you have is necessarily "gaming the game".

---------- Post added at 10:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:46 PM ----------

Actually, thinking a little more about the real-world pros and cons of ECM I'd like to change my voteto 3 please. Ideally that option would actually be;

3 - You can detect them and lock on them at longer than normal range, but missiles fired against them will have their accuracy seriously decreased.

[NoRailgunner]

OK was thinking about of how to increase the pro/cons of ECM in Arma2.
Are you making the radar-blib jitter if ECM is activated or is it fully stealth to radar?
Some extra/special counter-countermeasures eg. switching wave frequencies would be nice to have - at least to know/report that there are aircrafts trying to slip through. :)

[vengeance1]

Run with it Mandoble, improvements can always be implemented. :) I just want to get this cool stuff working in my missions.

[Mandoble]

NoRailgunner, you will have one or two systems there:
- The HUD, as described above (10 Km limit).
- But also the long range interception radar.
In that radar the behaviour of ECM might be a bit different. For example, you see the dot, and you see it marked as ECM emitting. But you cannot lock on it, so you cannot switch to SST mode and you cannot IFF it, neither fire against it. So you will not know even whether it is friend or foe, it is just something there with ECM ON.

[USSRsniper]

Nice work Mandoble, are you going to make separate missile locking HUD for the OPFOR ? For example if you lock a target and fire the missile you have to keep the lock on, until the missile doesn't destroy target.

[Mandoble]

Yes and no USSRsniper. This has no relation with OPFOR/BLUFOR but with SARH mode. And yes, SARH is available too, and affects directly to the AIM7 Sparrows loaded, for example, in the GLT F16C (CAP mode). For this case, the missile is quite resistant to countermeasures, while it is weak to ECM and the firing plane needs to keep the lock all the time.

This might be a big problem if you want to fire a SARH missile against a target at the other side of the island, as you will need to keep focused in this target all the time until impact, even more, you will hardly know if there was an impact at all, or if the missile already missed the target, of if the missile crashed with a mountain 15km away and still far from the target.

[Charon Productions]

Hey mando.
This was just posted.
In case you have not yet seen it and that there might be any variable in the missile config parent classes that (just in case) was not yet totally understood by you : http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Weapons_settings

[Mandoble]

Thanks Charon, but Mando Missile uses a set of parameters completely independent (and different) of BIS Weapons. This (http://www.telefonica.net/web2/mandoble/mma_readme.htm#t7) is the list of parameters used by ArmA1 version. These parameters are not part of any config, but an array of values passed to an script.

[Mandoble]

Z1y70sZFxlY

Dev update:
Now Mando Missile in HUD mode has unlimited modes using virtual or bis weapons transformed into mando ones. In the example above there are 3 modes configured, GLT Falcon with Mando Missile HUD using aim 9, AMRAAM and AIM7 SARH modes.

Now you can define also lockon limits for each combo of mode/weapon, so you can force the lockon to be as boresighted as needed (you can also define as many modes as required for a single weapon and cycling through them is as simple as hitting TAB key). The lockon limits are represented by green circles in the HUD, the larger the circle, the more area to lock on a present target.

SARH mode also added, if you break the lock, the missile will miss.

[.kju [PvPscene]]

Pure awesomeness. :D

Love the new mode! How about a 1on1 duell against a human with large viewdistance as
promo. :P
Sounds like a good job for the testers. ;)

[vengeance1]

When the AI have MMA escaping the missile using Flares must take a special amount of skill I don't have. Seems like they always take me out regardless when I hit SHIFT and there is a delay (adjustable???) before you can use Flares again.

What is the proper way to use them?

[Defunkt]

Turn until the RWR indicator shows the missile is placed 45 degrees aft, release flares as it's closing and just reaches the middle circle on the RWR. Assuming they haven't got you dead to rights (i.e. too close to act) it'll work 90% of the time.

[vengeance1]

Turn until the RWR indicator shows the missile is placed 45 degrees aft, release flares as it's closing and just reaches the middle circle on the RWR. Assuming they haven't got you dead to rights (i.e. too close to act) it'll work 90% of the time.

Ah, very good will give that a go! ;)

[Mandoble]

You need to make your flares more attractive to the missile than your plane, and also make sure that your plane will not be attractive to the missiles once it passes through the flares.

Defunkt tip is valid for missiles flying close to your same horizontal plane, but not if the missile comes from well above or below, also you better dont do that if the missile comes headon unless it is far away. Using flares requires practice and intuition, so dont get frustrated if you are killed over'n over at first.

As a general rule, a missile will be attracted by the flares and not by your plane as long as, being the missile able to "see" the flares, they are closer to the missile than you. There is also a missile parameter which handles its resistance to flares, so, you might face missiles that simply are inmune to flares (then you might survive outflying the missile or with ECM). Your best chances to outfly a missile is when it has reached its maximum speed, so its turn radious might be quite bigger than yours, and turning towards the missile (trying to have the missile always at your 3 o 9).

For headon shots from above, your best chance would be to dive and drop flares, then breaking left or right. If the shot comes from below, similar but climbing vertically instead of diving, dropping flares and then breaking left or right. Also, dont drop flares too early, as they have a life of only 4 seconds and if the flares are not there but the missile can still see you ... ;)

If the missile comes from behind, drop flares and break right or left, if you simply drop flares and keep going, the missile will kill you after passing through all your flares.

[vengeance1]

Ok thanks for the tips, i need more practice. ;)

[RoDeX]

Hi,
Where can we all download this amazing thing?

Thank you,
RoDeX.

[vengeance1]

After several hours of testing LAV25 with the "Hawk Console" it worked GREAT very awesome!

Suggestion: When you are Gunner escorting a convoy for AA protection and moving it would be very helpful if you could move the view while "Hawk Console" is on otherwise Gun Turrent is fixed and catches on stuff as your moving.

Noticed in deep valley terrain low flying enemy helo's or planes are not always picked up until last minute, just before you say "I'm Dead" :). Very cool.

[Drew]

hopefully this will be included in Ace 2

[Mandoble]

Brief update on new Mando HUD:
http://www.telefonica.net/web2/mandoble/mando_hud.jpg

A: Weapon counters and current selected weapon (--)
B: Current HUD operation mode
C: Countermeasures counters and ECM. ECM may be in stby, charging or emitting.
D: ASEC circle: If there is a locked on target, the bigger the circle, the greater % of hit (its radious varies with the calculated hit %). If no target selected, it acts as boresight area to lock on targets.
E: Missile/Radar Track Box: If target closer than 2Km, target type is also displayed. Blue romb indicates the target is emitting ECM, else the romb would be green.
F: Target Aspect Indicator: Quite important for IR shots against air targets, as % of hit against targets showing you its engine muzzles is way greater than head-on air targets. This small triangle turns around the ASEC circle and shows the direction of the target compated with the direction of your vehicle (or handled weapon).
G: Current weapon ranges: AR stands for active range and applies only for missiles like AMRAAM with onboard active radar range (the missile flies in inertial mode until it activats its own radar), TR stands for Thrusted Range, or range with the missile engine having thrust. MR stands for Minimum range, do dont shot if target is closer than that unless the target is static in front of you. TR and MR change depending on the speed of the launcher vehicle
H: Target data, target type (if closer than 2km), target range, target altitude and TTI. TTI is estimated time to impact, which becomes important for targets BVR and SARH missiles. This gives you clues of when it is safe to break the lock for SARH or laser guided missiles when the target is far enough to be able to track the missile and/or target visually to confirm missile impact or miss.

The HUD is freelook/Trak IR friendly, if you move the sight around it moves to keep with the real 3D hud position. It also fades away if your sight moves away 3D Hud's center too much.

[.kju [PvPscene]]

As always, looks awesome. :)

How does the color tone work out during daylight?
If you zoom in, the display will enlarge and therefore easier to read?

[Uglyboy]

Maybe this was already specificated but, if you look around does the HUD "sticks" to the modelled HUD?

[Mandoble]

The HUD at 12:00Pm sunny day:
http://www.telefonica.net/web2/mandoble/mando_hud_day.jpg


Yes Uglyboy, as seen below.
AlyqrIonP6U

The HUD script has also adjustable paramters so that you can adjust the scripted HUD centered position to match 3D missaligned HUDs.

[Uglyboy]

Many thanks, i also like how it fade away when looking out :) Btw 00:10 to 00:16 made my jaw to hit the keyboard :D Seriously that's amazing :yay:

[Mandoble]

Added a menu action to cycle between three colorsets for the HUD, so it will be visible under any weather or daylight condition ;)

[Mandoble]

This might be pretty well the last dev update before open beta release:
- Included configured systems for all A2 choppers and planes, as well as Avenger and Tunguska and Mikes F16 variants.
- Added a new HUD mode (ground) where the ground position centered on screen is selected as target, so you can designate buildings and structures as targets directly from HUD.
- Added a new HUD integration of sonobuoys and torpedoes. You can drop sonobuoys to the sea and then receive surfare or underwater targets detected by them, you can cycle through these targets and then drop torpedoes against them. This system is integrated with the UH60S.
- For lazy people that doesnt want to add scripts to the init.sqf there is a new gamelogic which initializes everything with default setups, so you add that Gamelogic to your mission map and you will have:
- HUD systems and modes preconfigured for all the choppers, planes and AA units.
- TV MFD systems preconfigured for AV8B (GBU), A10, Su34, Ka52, F35, Mi24s, AH1Z and F16 Strike.
- Special actions to transmit laser designated tragets if you have an LD.
- Special actions to select between direct and hi flight profiles if you have a Javelin launcher.
- Automatic flares for all planes and choppers with non human pilots (human pilots have HUDs with RWR, ECM (depending on plane) and manual flares).
- Automatic missile replacement for all BIS missiles fired.

[Schilly]

Amazing work thus far Mandoble.... Keep it up man.

Looking forward to the open beta!

[Voodoonice]

And that is when the open beta? :D

[Mandoble]

How about this weekend? ;)

[Keshman]

Mandoble How about this weekend? ;)
It is a lot of people! Will be happy to spend this a week end with Mando Missile for ArmA 2 :bounce3:

[Mandoble]

Last minute addition, Helment Mounted Displays ;)

Aside of traditional HUDs, Helmet Mounted Displays are also incorporated as seen here with an AH1Z and paired with the sidewinders (also a Hellfire camera is added). While the targeting area is configured to be quite narrow, you still have the advantage of looking for and locking on targets just moving your head (freelook or TrackIR).

SlpO6YZJBYo

[Dwarden]

awesome :)

[Uglyboy]

awesome x2, i'm very looking foward to the beta :bounce3: and i hope to see all this amazing stuff implemented into ACE like it was in A1, just that this time will be even better :p

[Rocket]

Mando - just have to pop in and say that I think you've really outdone yourself this time. It looks absolutely fantastic!

[Raptor 6 Actual]

Still looking outstanding mate. Keep up the great work. Haven't talked to you on MSN lately, hope things are going well.

[Cptkanito]

wow, can't w8 to try this out :)

[vengeance1]

Hi,

Thought I would post a few pics of some testing of this new MMA for you guys. Sorry for the resolution Hotel upload speeds are the best and didn't have time to do all the aircraft.

Have Fun!

AH1Z
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/9145/ah1z2.jpg
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/5212/ah1zp.jpg
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4958/ah1z3.jpg
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/6727/ah1z4.jpg

C130
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9916/c130.jpg
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2239/c1302.jpg

F35
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/5228/f164.jpg

KA52
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/1393/ka52.jpg

MH60S
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/627/mh60s.jpg
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5160/mh60s2.jpg

MV22
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/1081/mv22r.jpg

SU34
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/7950/su34.jpg

F16
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/9960/f162.jpg
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/3956/f163.jpg

[Ebden]

Mandoble,

You've got a hand here for help with an open beta, and I'm sure I'll get some of the SPARTA vets to dive in as well. Let me know if you are still looking for bodies.

[colligpip]

HI Mando

I'm available for any beta testing as well.

Hopefully I will be able to port all this to warfare like I did in Arma.

[Manzilla]

It will be an open beta. Everyone can help test!!! :yay::yay:

[Ebden]

Since it's open beta, where will the addon itself be released, armaholic? Also, will Mandoble or another group host a server with the addon running?

[Drew]

Im just curious why does the c130 have a 40 millimeter cannon?

[maxsword]

Drew, the C130 You are talking about has been powered by Mandoble with guns to simulate the AC130. Here You can find specs of armament. http://www.nationalreview.com/images/pic_ac-130specs.gif

[oktane]

HI Mando

I'm available for any beta testing as well.

Hopefully I will be able to port all this to warfare like I did in Arma.

Hey if we're going to do that again, lets not both do it independently again. :D I guess I never released officially because it was WIP, but it was fully implemented. I think i remember talking to you about it a few times. The only issues I had were AI launchers, having the capability of being later human controlled (mando has this handled in the new version), and possibly retooling the WF AI vehicle creation so that the AI launcher scripts were running on the server. Other than that, it was awesome having all those missiles flying all over. The whole point of it was to implement mando's scripts because a) they were cool and had more depth, b) because the BIS static AI launchers never worked. I did get sick of spending a lot of time typing in chat how to operate them to new people though.. my fault for not putting in some instructional hints or something.

[Mandoble]

And the very last dev update before release.

CCIP mode for free fall bombs integrated on HUD:
http://www.telefonica.net/web2/mandoble/mma_ccip.jpg

As well as a new navigation mode where the hud displays locations, and if marked as special, in red as the "tower" present in the screenshot.

Current planes with CCIP mode already configured are:
AV8B2
Su25_CDF
Su25_Ins
GNT_B52
GLT_Falcon_MR family
GLT_Falcon_mk82 family

[Simon C]

I wouldn't suppose it's possible to get that lovely CCIP on our beloved A10 and other GBU carrying aircraft too would it? There's not always a laser... :p

Oh, and about the CCIP itself? SWEEEEEEET. :D :D :D

[puppi22]

-----

[Uglyboy]

CCIP? :eek: MP friendly? ( almost ) lag-free? tell me more :yay:

[oktane]

That is phenomenal!

So how does it work, fancy calculations based on speed, altitude etc? Or does it simply override the default bomb drop simulation and fix it so that it will hit the general indicated area?

Knowing your math skills i bet its the first one. :D

[Mandoble]

Uglyboy, CCIP on HUD is MP way friendly and lag free, yep.

oktane, yep, the first one ;)

SimonC, A10, AV8B, F35, and some F16 variants equipped with LGBs have LGBs mando cameras with onboard laser designator, so you dont need CCIP for these. Vengeance posted some pics of these before. CCIP is there just for planes using plain free fall bombs. Of course you can create custom modes for A10, etc to be able to use the LGBs in CCIP mode too (creating and customizing modes is way easy).

[[APS]Gnat]

And the very last dev update before release.


Goodo :)
My Subs are likely not far behind then either.
You are doing an addon version right?

[Scrub]

wOOt! aBooYA! And other noises of merryment!

Congratulations Mandoble. CCIP in Arma. Never thought I'd see the day.

[MattXR]

Oh very nice! good day for pilots :P

[Ebden]

Oh very nice! good day for pilots :P

It should be a good day for Mando too, but I don't think an FTD bouquet is quite the ticket. Although Mando's open beta isn't yet out (sometime today?), people like Mando, the ACE2 team, and others deserve some hardcore kudos, more than we can offer from a stack of smileys and 'huzzah's' on the forum (though still part of the necessary praise given how we communicate). For pouring god-awful amounts of time into flushing out this game for other players without the talent or dedication to do the same, and for lack of a budget to send Mando a check for his time...

'Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah!'
:bounce3::bounce3::bounce3::bounce3:

[TimRiceSE]

holy crap. I'll be drooling on this thread mashing refresh till it comes out :O

[Defunkt]

Mission makers rejoice! Mandoble has been really hard at it, not only adding new features but tweaking and improving the ease of use of existing functions. This creates a large documentation burden which I thought I would help with in a little way by illustrating how players can create persistant MMA key binds...

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg80/ANZINS/mma_binds.jpg

[puppi22]

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[Mandoble]

Here (http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1483673#post1483673) it is ;)

[Carl_D]

Hi

First, thank you Mandoble for this outstanding mod. Elegant work indeed :yay:

I have one issue - I always use reversed mouse i.e pulling the mouse towards me to move the POV up & vice-versa. So I find controlling the UAV POV very tricky, especially if trying to target. Is there any way to reverse the mouse in the UAV?

TIA

Carl