Jones's Mortar script

Updated from 1.2 to 1.4

1.4 changes

Added ammo handling and saftey checks for the M119 and D30 artillery.

Demo mission folder for the editor.

http://www.yourfilehost.com/media.php?cat=other&file=Jones_Mortars_V1_4.Chernarus.zip

Rounds are actually fired, no cam created rounds. I designed it around the real artillery mod I did for Arma. If you like that mod then you will love this script.

WP and HE ammo available.

Tube data is in US military standard Mils. 6400 mils. If you haven't used mils might want to do a bit of research on it.

Registration fire mode shows impact coordinate. The pos2grid function wokrs for chenarus and utes beyond that I will have to update the function for other islands at a later time.

Settings that can be adjusted: (listed setting can be adjusted in the mortarinit.sqf file)

Safety checker script. This ensures an the specific mortar faction's ammo truck does not get any closer than 15 meters. If the ammo truck is with in 15 meters, it ejects the player from mortar. This is used as a way to restrict ammo. When this is used you have to reload ammo via the action menu and an ammo truck has to be 15 to 40 meters from the firing position. on by default

Ammo reload time: can adjust the time it takes to reload a magazine for further ammo restriction. to prevent a 30 minute spam fest. 15 seconds default.

Registration fire mode. Can adjust the time for the registration fire mode to be used. Default is 1 minute wait after impact.

Strictly player controlled, no ability to have Ai use the mortars.

Scripts are portable to any vanilla mortar ( or artillery system Version 1.4) just add the following code to the mortar init line

this addEventHandler ["GETIN", { [_this select 0] execVM "scripts\mortarUI\mortarinit.sqf"}];

Tips: Turn mouse sensitivity down for more precise aiming.

Once you have the desired tangent and elevation hold down free look (default left alt) to lock tube postion in place.

For aiming pull up compass turn mortar in desired direction and open map, place corner of compass edge, notched side by compass face. The notched side of compass will be the line you are aiming down. see image 2.

I didn't make a transoprt system for the mortar yet. There are enough scripts floating around now. I might implement a way to transport and deploy the mortars later. But for now I would suggest using Norrins attachto examples to move them around.

image 1: user interface

Image 2: Map is fully accessible with UI open

Saftey check to prevent ammo truck being parked ontop of fire position as a ammo restriction option

Tube data is in US military standard Mils. 6400 mils. If you haven't used mils might want to do a bit of research on it.

Yeap never used it before, where is a good place to start besides random to unrelated searches on the Internet?

great work mate, is that jonescrusher AKA 'Death' ?

Nice work man, but that safety violation must go before i download. Imagine in a heat of battle when your guys are getting slaughtered, you get a damn safety violation.... In real war if there is a damn elderly lady sitting on top of that mortar you will shoot it if you have to.

Both folders to be used with init line if i dont use the demo mission? Description file needed?

Yeah im green with these things. But im getting there. Slowly. :)

Thanks for the scripts!

Alex

Yeap never used it before, where is a good place to start besides random to unrelated searches on the Internet?

short explanation.

1 MIL = 1 milliradian

the compass is divided in 360 degrees or 6400 MILS.

6400/0 is north, 1600 = East, 3200 = south, 4800 = west

the scale goes clockwise.

and ofcourse the angel of aim is measured in a quarter cirkle = 1600 MILS where 0 is horisontal and 1600 is vertical (straight up)

also.

1 MIL = 1/1000 of the distance.

so if you have a object that you know is 1m wide and you measure it to 1 MIL (with the cope on a sniper rifle for example) you know it´s 1000m away. if it´s 2 MILs its 500m away.

and so on.

(a human body is usually around 0.5m at the shoulders if im correct, so if it´s 1 MIL wide in the scope it´s about 500m away)

as you can se, MIL´s is a much more accurate way of calculating direction, angle and even distance then using degrees.

That "monitor" seems to be out of my screen (1024x768). I can see it's frame out to the right.

Anyway of moving it for me or is a new version needed for smaller res?

EDIT: Also had a CTD when aiming straight up. 1.03.

Alex

That "monitor" seems to be out of my screen (1024x768). I can see it's frame out to the right.

I will make an alternate .Hpp file for lower res monitors.

not sure about the CTD being related first I have heard of that. I will look the the script for possible conflicts

Nice work man, but that safety violation must go before i download. Imagine in a heat of battle when your guys are getting slaughtered, you get a damn safety violation.... In real war if there is a damn elderly lady sitting on top of that mortar you will shoot it if you have to.

It can be disabled via the mortarinit.sqf file. set this variable to false

MortSafety = true;

great work mate, is that jonescrusher AKA 'Death' ?

yep one and the same

Both folders to be used with init line if i dont use the demo mission? Description file needed?

Just transfer the folders to your mission folder and add this line to your description.ext

#include "dialogs\mortarUI\JonesMortDialg.hpp"

Dont really get the mils in the elevation part. Can any one explain how to calculate the distance??

Yea need it too, I shot a little bit and it was like:

500 meters = elevation 1485

700 meters = elevation 1450

1000 meters = elevation 1400

And is there some kind of cluster-ammo ?

When I try to hit T1 I never hit the bus because it's so small, only the big house next to it.

Dont really get the mils in the elevation part. Can any one explain how to calculate the distance??

Horizontal to the ground would be 0 mils and perfectly vertical would be 1600 mils. 1600 mils = 90 degrees. As far as distance that is why the registration fire mode is available. To make a fire table would be impracticale as you will never find perfectly flat ground, so your firing table would vary. The script is basically for people who want a higher degree of difficulty with mortars.

Edit: The crash to desktop is a BIS bug not a script bug. I replicated it on all the mortars in game with out any scripts on them. If you force the tube past 90 degrees it will stutter and bend backwards occasionally causing a CTD

Thanks for fixing for lower res. :)

About the CTD when aiming straight up - some other addons for ARMA2 have behaved in the same way. Looking at models etc from different angles have resulted in a CTD. Cant say either what it can be.

As far as cluster ammo, none of the rounds are scripted. It is all default rounds that are actually fired from the weapon. For that I would have to script the creation of the rounds. The perk to having the set up I use is that kill credit is given to the mortar operator. with scripted rounds the operator doesn't get credit for the kills.

Alex,

When made the display I did it with a normal screen aspect setting and my setting turned all the way down and I was still able to see it. When you access the targeting display from the action menue can you see any part of the GPS frame?

Any chance of this same being applied to the towed howitzers and rocket artillery? Loved your real artillery for ArmA1, way too underutilized addon. Oh yeah, the way we did firing tables in ArmA1 with real artillery was to fire from same elevation to same elevation. There were a few points of 0 altitude, flat ground and we'd shoot to the ocean (flat, 0 altitude).

Now i put the .sqm mission file into my missons folder but it doesnt show in the game. Am i missing something?

Any chance of this same being applied to the towed howitzers and rocket artillery? Loved your real artillery for ArmA1, way too underutilized addon. Oh yeah, the way we did firing tables in ArmA1 with real artillery was to fire from same elevation to same elevation. There were a few points of 0 altitude, flat ground and we'd shoot to the ocean (flat, 0 altitude).

I will have to check the ammo configs for the arty peices. if they have the right air frictions and time to live values it could be ran by the same scripts with a few changes. However I do beleive that they are probably the same configs from A1 and I would have to make an Addon for it to work. I will look into it.

My first idea was just to have a dialog that was a firing table but after testing and moving the mortar around I noticd that there was signifigant deviations between the firing data. However for the most part you can always assume that around 1450 mils eleveation will roughly land you around 1000 meters. and having the impact coordinate really helps adjust your fire data on the fly.

Eagle,

need to drop the whole folder into your mision folder. \Documents\ArmA 2 Other Profiles\username\missions then open it with the editor. you can modify it and export it to MP or SP from the editor.

I will have to check the ammo configs for the arty peices. if they have the right air frictions and time to live values it could be ran by the same scripts with a few changes.

Friction value is still 0.00038 (ArmA1). Time to live is 120 seconds. For both howitzers, all shell types.

I updated the file to include ammo handling and the safety check for the M119 and all the D30 classes.

max range is about 6k the balistics are a bit funky because of the airfriction values, but it works without having to install and addon.

I will have to make an addon for the artillery to behave properly. i.e multiple powder charges. These scripts are a good way to work bugs out of the system and fine tune the user interface before I attempt to wrap it up into an addon.

looks great!!... is it possible to change the range rings from shading to a blue and red thin line.. the shading is too hard for me to see through... or turn it off altogether

thanks...

The range rings are just part of the demo mission. They arent part of the script. I just placed them there to show the apporximate ranges of the systems.

As of now I have all the mortar systems wrapped up into a mod with 4 powder charges. I am tweaking the actual balilstics to find the perfect trajectories.

I am going ot redo the D30 and M119's ballistics and build a fire direction control system.

I also am expeirmenting with the possibility of manually controlled MRLS's over long ranges. IF i can get that to work as I want it I will include it also.

Hopefully I can get it all done in the next few weeks.

Only change from the script thus far is actuall balistics. custom ammo classes. And instead of an ipact coordinate I am going to use an impact distance with the registration fire mode.

Looking forward to this Jonesy. Keep up the good work. Glad to see you on the forums.

---------- Post added at 01:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:18 AM ----------

OK now Ive had another look at this. Awesome as usual. Its a little unsettling that you dont see round leave the tube like you could in A1 but we will live with it. The Registration system. Any way to get the distance of the shot on their like you had before. Right now it gives elevation and azimuth and the coords of where the round hit. But distance would be nice... or is this cheating.

Here is a quick fire table for the default ammo.

elev flt Time Rng

700 33 3900

750 35 3900

800 35 3800

850 36 3700

900 39 3500

950 40 3400

1000 41 3200

1050 42 2900

1100 43 2800

1150 44 2600

1200 45 2300

1250 46 2100

1300 47 1900

1350 47 1600

1400 48 1300

1450 48 1000

1500 48 700

1550 48 400

I am going ot redo the D30 and M119's ballistics and build a fire direction control system.

Something like blakeace's fire control calculator?

Fire direction control would be where you get all the needed firing data such as distance, direction, target elevation. In real world it would also include barametric pressure, humidity, wind. Not needed in arma though. I might create a dialog that handles a firing table calculator or something similar.

Something like blakeace's fire control calculator?

Don't worry, I am keeping an eye on Jone's awesome work!

At the moment it isn't really worth adapting my fire control calculator until until Jone's manages to crack the multiple ammunition charges. As long as the ballistics retain one air friction cooefiient value, then the calculator can simulate any rounds ballistics. Then it is just a matter of adding angles measured in mils for compatibility. Though the MRLS is a different story as the calculations require adaption to incorporate rocket thrust.

Always good stuff Jones!