Flanker562 Arma 3 WIP Thread

[Flanker562]

I'm going to try and take a break this week. Somebody on the Flanker562 Helicopter Pack requested the Ka-50, so maybe I'll do it as it stands, not a dual rotor (I want to see how it goes with coaxisl rotors than futurizing it. But yeah, it's not because of the new laptop, as it took rougly (total in time) hours to set up again, and it's easy if you back your stuff up. I learned that lesson in Afghanistan, and since I've been backing up stuff, so getting a new laptop isn't as troublesome as it could be.

[Flanker562]

Well I did start the process of starting the MEV UH-60M. I think that's more of a necessity and nobody is complaining about the lack of UH-60M or the variants. Or they've been keeping up with this Discord or elsewhere and so on so I guess they don't miss them or something. But overall it'll be added two Sundays from now while I try to catch a breather for once again.

[Flanker562]

Okay I don't know how I did the other UH-60 models, especially the MEV variant. I could fake the funk and make it without the ESSS system and tanks, but there's no backlash (as far as I know) of the removal, so I'll just keep it to the "vanilla" UH-60M and so on. I do have a hankering to redo the Unarmed version, but that's probably as far as I'll go though, given that it's pretty easy to make. Next week though, gotta pace myself.

[Flanker562]

Well after some thinking, I'm slowly putting together a MEV variant. I think having a MEV for players (along with the UH-92 version) is probably a good idea. I just need to adjust some stuff and get it functioining. It'll look different from the previour version (I didn't intentionally back up the old one since it was "corrupted"), so it seats four people, and have some FFV slots where the MGs would be. The source model I have has rockets and tanks, and stuff, so I can just remap the tanks and get some sort of "standard" for the model, and so on.

[Flanker562]

Here's the "new" MEV variant, just like the old version. I will be updating Sunday, and this will be back in the loop. I may limit the US Army Helicopters to two or three, depending on how I feel. I will be adding FFV points to the crew chief/door gunner locations so you can protect the helicopter somehow:

[Flanker562]

I almost did a Unarmed UH-60M and stopped. I've worked on it enough and I think that there isn't much player request for it anyway. I just want to take it easy for the rest of the week, and just upload the Flanker562 Helicopter Pack Sunday, and then "get back to work" bringing in a requested Ka-50 back in. Overall it requires some fine manipulation, and the model is added to the mod, just not configged and the like, and so on.

[Flanker562]

Well since I was refreshed from sleeping, I did manage to bring back the Unarmed UH-60. I'm keeping it more or less to three USN, and three US Army helos, while the bulk of the UH-60 and XX-92s will be the majority. It seems that people more or less prefer the SOAR birds (And I just love the MH-92), so I just wanted to round it out with some "regular forces" helicopters more or less. Most of the work is just tweaking and adding (though the Ka-50 will probably start after I upload tomorrow. Other than that not much else on the horizon, just tweaks and see where it goes with everything. I've been debating making some fictional HVTs for the Taliban Fighters, but haven't moved on that yet.

[Flanker562]

Okay well... the Ka-50 is essentially dead in the water. I do have a BIS model from the A2 Samples to mess with, and focused on that. The issue is that I don't have the textures for it, so I can't port it to fulfill a request, and I wanted to see how a coaxial rotor sytem would work. So no, not this time if you were interested in seeing it in-game. I may work on an Mi-24 or -35 though, so stay tuned. I got some HVTs to do so I'll do that while I figure out what if anything to do next.

[Flanker562]

Well it turns out that I found some textures of the Ka-50, but now it's the "Ka-125 Hokum C" (I believe the Ka-52 is Hokum B), and so on. Not much but most of it is roughly complete and such:

[Flanker562]

Ran into some game limitations apparently, as A3 doesn't seem to like single-player helicopters, preferably with a co-pilot and such, so for the Ka-125 it'll be just the A2 stuff on it. I really wanted the dynamic loadout though, the Pawnee does it, but for some reason I can't use it on a pott. Oh well, it's not hard setting up a basic loadout and such.

[Flanker562]

Current look of the Hokum C

[Flanker562]

Here's a WIP video. The instruments have been very techy with me, refusing to work, so you'll see the Compass ball float around, but otherwise I may not animate the instruments if it's going to be stupid like everything else: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23MldS0HnTo

[Flanker562]

As you may have noticed, the instruments in the cockpit don't work. Why? I don't know, they had been set to work in the old A2 environment and for some reason wouldn't work even when copying and pasting the correct memory points and such. So I may look at it tomorrow (I have nothing much to do except wait for a package) or something, or later, who knows.

[Flanker562]

Okay, not much is going on this week. There was a Black camo from the files I found for the Ka-125, so I made a Black Ka-125. The model is outdated and isn't working for much. I wish I had the original PSDs for liveries, but right now, it's the default camo and Black version. I tried the texture list, and it wouldn't work with me, so the HIddenselections do work, and that's what I managed to do. I'm working with Quiggs and I'm going to help him with the helicopters and such that he's making, so I think I can move on to that without upsetting people from a different look at models and stuff. I'll be helping him bring them into A3 and such, so go to s Discord, and so on, he's got a lot of quality stuff for you to subscribe to, so check him out if you haven't already.

[Flanker562]

Well I managed to happen on my US Army faction for the Taliban Fighters, and found out that I had listed the wrong type of magazine for the SPAR-16s. I switched it from Yellow Tracer to Red Tracer, and increased the amount of applicable mags for some units to 12 magazines, offering a more realistic load of magazines (I had about the same amount in Iraq towards the end of the deployment) given individual Soldier preference.

[Flanker562]

Some work, it's been a little less busy than the past few weeks, so right now just keeping the work minimal and came up wth this guy, Daryab Ghazail (or something like that), and an assassin archetype with his tricked out Rahim sniper rifle. I gave him a captured vest and so on, for maybe a little protection and the ability to carry the amount of magazines I gave him. But that's how it looks so far, and more than likely won't come up with much, as if you can see on my server, I've been doing some DCS stuff to pass the time.

[Flanker562]

What it's looking like is that I'll upload the Taliban Fighters Sunday, and work on some civilian containers for the respective packs. I have them for all the major factions except Civilians, so that'll be done for next week's upload. I want to just chill this week, and so on, so it was a "light" week for me this week. Anyway I still don't have much to do still, just the containers, and perhaps revisit the CSAT containers, redo the paint job maybe, as I'm not too happy with it, based on stuff like Quiggs stuff he's doing. I want to make the containers look somewhat better, but I can only get so much mileage so far.

[Flanker562]

Something I managed to figure out how to do, I finally (this was an intended feature) figured out how to categorize some of my stuff. This update won't come out tomorrow (still have some things to do, I think), but the Cherokee Containers are now away from the BIS structure, and now it's own Category. I think it needs it, and frankly wanted this for a long time whne I started to incorporte them into the Helicopter Pack, and as a seperate mod. Also being added are Civilian versions of the Cargo, Medic, Fuel, and Repair containers, being Light Blue in color for some commonality with the containers. Theoreticcally I could do more updates than the Taliban Fighters, but we'll see how I feel tomorrow. I really just wanted to chill out this week, but anyway I may or may not update the others.

[Flanker562]

Okay scheduling:

Tomorrow:
- Flanker562 Taliban Fighters

Next Sunday:
- Flanker562 Helicopter Pack
- Flanker562 Barriers
- Flanker562 Cherokee Containers

I did some fanagling with the Barriers and now also it's own category. I thought of a blanket "Flanker562 Objects" for the Props section, and may do that just to organize things for mods and the like. I think it would make sense since it's all in one spot, and not hard to do either, so more than likely next week that'll be done.

[Flanker562]

Managed to update the UNA Containers, so they now require the current game version, and adjusted into the "Flanker562 Objects" Category in the Props menu in the Editor. Since it's a small mod I'll upload that tomorrow as well, so:

Tomorrow:
- UNA Containers
- Flanker562 Taliban Fighters

[Flanker562]

So far I've cut down some files from the Helicopter Pack, stuff that is just not used anymore, like the A2 Dust Filters on the UH-60s, which were never to my knowledge used in any service, but what do I know. Anyway I thought it would cut it down, but seems more like getting rid of models seems to affect it, not so much RVMAT and image files. It helps, but not much really. Anyways, the mod is in a good spot and I think after uploading next week, barring any requests (I had one for an SH-3, but it is a nichje gameplay mechanic that isn't implemented, so maybe not) and other suggestions for the mods. Right now not much else on the horizon, other than these mods for next Sunday:

- Flanker562 Helicopter Pack,
- Flanker562 Barriers,
- Flanker562 Cherokee Containers

[Flanker562]

Right now apparently taking it easy with the modding and Arma 3. I didn't play today, which is pretty odd because I get soem play in, but doing other things like some DCS stuff. I generally have nothing for this week (other than the above uploads) and little idea what to work on. I know I need to work on the entry anims for the Ka-125/145 and such but at the moment nobody complains too much, as long as they can sit in and play. As for the Ka-125 I want to work on enabling pylon racks that the player can use rather than the inbuilt weapons that are limited. I mean it would be nice for players to make their own loadouts for the helicopter, but I need to go on the Arma Discord and see if I can't do that, as that's something I'd like to do.

[Flanker562]

Other than the uploads this Sunday, I have no new work to be had or planned. I got a request to do a four-rotor Chinook, but I said that somebody else was going to do it, so I backed off. I'm not particularly interested in doing the big helos, as I'm more of a medium-lift person. Anyway, I've been enjoying something I don't do with Arma 3, and that's just being a player more or less for DCS World, enjoying learning some things like the F/A-18C and such, so that's been a relaxing time for me this week. Who knows what will come to mind next week, but it's just nice to play a game (which I'll start tomorrow morning for A3) rather than worrying about modding it for once. I still will work on A3, but at a slower pace unless some idea comes to mind. We'll see.