Flanker562 Arma 3 WIP Thread

[Flanker562]

Okay, right now the Raven Warfare Group mod is pretty much ready. I have a heli variant to introduce and may upload it sometime this week. It's nothing special, and I recommend you swap out the weapons (mostly modded BIS weapons) to match your style. The mod seems complete right now, barring a helicopter variant I'm thinking of using with the group. It'll include some of what the Helicopter Pack has so far, so you won't lose functionality with the units, and so on. So I'll work on it throughout the week, pending any ideas (I'm debating including the AT4 from the Weapons Pack) that I may come up with in the meantime.

[Flanker562]

Okay, right now, the Raven Warfare Group mod is "finished." I have a few things to do today, so I may not work on it much. The good thing about using a mod folder (Local Mod) is that you can separate a mod and hunt down errors as you go, which makes troubleshooting a little easier. It's time-consuming, but in the end your mod looks good, with no noticeable errors when you release it. Nobody's perfect, but neither am I. So anyway, I may think of more stuff to do sometime this week, but as it stands, it's uploadable right now.

[Flanker562]

One thing I never liked about using A2 stuff was the textures. Sometimes they sucked and sometimes they were good. The M134 textures just looked like crap, and so therefore I needed to finally do something about it. I just edited the base texture, and it looks ten times better than a rusty weapon system, as they wouldn't be in real world use. I guess BIS thought it was impressive, but didn't look right. Now that I finally fixed the issue I feel better about the appearance about the mod and the helicopters:

[Flanker562]

On a whim decided to change the weapons a bit on the regular Security units, than the RWG Tactical units. In this case the regular security members have black SPAR-16s, and the Tactical ones have Tan, to sort of differentiate them and such. I'm looking to do a maybe Corporate Representative of some sort, but I don't see much in the way for a need for a unit with a three-piece suit, unless somebody wants that kind of play involved.

[Flanker562]

Got a bug report on the AT4 in the Weapons Pack. I don't know what caused it to be unselectable, but I think the scripts are holding it back. I tried removing the scripts, and it didn't work. For Sunday, I will remove the AT4 and other versions from the pack and work on a standalone system that will hopefully start working, because, well, I liked the system very much, and I figure something is causing it to not work. I saved most of the mod files and will work on something in the near future. In other news, I reworked the Titan-D systems; now they're not disposable and will work like any other launcher the game offers (able to be reloaded, etc.). I'll mess with it and see if I can improve it somewhat, or not.

[Flanker562]

Okay, now that's sorted (I'm sure you all saw the release of the AT4 standalone mod), I can get back to work on other things now that the crisis is over. I'm already looking at some updates. I tweaked the Raven PMC Gun Trucks, putting the Tactical Team Member there instead of the "regular" security units, since it makes more sense for a gun truck to be more prevalent on the military side of a PMC or something. I've gotten things settled down now, and going to look at integrating the scripts and stuff I tore out of the Weapons Pack, and fix the Titan-D launchers so they're disposable again. In my zeal to fix the AT4s, I sorta just said, "Screw it," and now I have to fix it and put it back together. So for Sunday:

- Flanker562 Weapons Pack
- Flanker562 Helicopter Pack
- Flanker562 Raven Warfare Group

[Flanker562]

Took a leaf from the Project Hatchet team, and redid the heli pilot/crew for the 160th and US Army. Overall nothing special as they use a better vest and use the standard MTP uniform that comes with the game. I figured that they know the uniform standards better, so why not just fix it? The Multicam Flight Suit has been removed entirely and going with this now since it looks more realistic, even if the BIS uniforms look bleached and stuff:

[Flanker562]

Did some more work with the Raven PMC units. I added two types of regular Offroads. One will be the "normal security" Truck, and one will be a "Tactical" Offroad, specifically for the Tactical units. I'm also adding spare M136s for the Tactical (Gun and regular Truck). I try not to use mods a lot, but I think the AT4 as a standalone makes it easier on people as it doesn't depend on the Weapons Pack to use, and I don't want people to download a big mod for one weapon. The AT4 mod weighs in at 10MB or so, so it's like CBA_A3; it's there and not straining your hard drive. Personally, I'm thinking of doing the Titan-Ds as a separate pack, but more to follow on that, and probably not, unless there is some demand for that to happen. Anyway, I'm set to upload stuff on Sunday and make sure the AT4 requirement is included.

[Flanker562]

I don't know if it's me, but Arma 3 is in a bad state of affairs, as it's constantly freezing every now and then, so work and play are not happening. I don't know if it's just me, but I did submit a report on the Feedback Tracker about it. I mean, it's good I have other games, but A3 is pretty much my go-to for gaming stuff, like for videos and just to sit back and fly around for a bit to relax and just detach from the reality I live in the US of A. Anyway, it's pretty much a wait, and hopefully they'll fix the situation, which, to be fair, is something that has really been interesting because, bugs notwithstanding, A3 has been a reliable game more or less, very stable, and you fire it up, and you do your thing. Anyway, I can release it if it stays on the builds I have now, so if it takes time, at least you'll have some updated mods waiting for you.

[Flanker562]

Despite the freezing, I managed to improve the RWG unit categories, making it easier to tell what is what, and so on. Not much motivation anyway (got some stuff going on) to play the game if the freezing continues and BIS doesn't do anything to fix it. Maybe they're working on a fix, hopefully, as it's kinda boring (even though I have other games to get my flying fix) without the game, so I guess I really am addicted to Arma now. Not going for Reforger, but yeah, I can wait.

[Flanker562]

Okay, no work, since no matter what tricks I use, I can't stop the game from freezing, because I think McAfee is doing this, claiming that a file is being blocked, which I think is what started the whole freezing escapade. Sometimes it works, and I think I have to disable the Firewall when I play A3, at least. Other games are okay, and that's fine, as I'm glad it's Arma 3 only, so I can just disassociate somewhere else due to the way our country is heading. Anyway, mods will still go out tomorrow as scheduled, since realistically I have no work to do right now.

[Flanker562]

Okay, right now the freezes aren't *that* bad; I can still play, just gotta deal with the occasional freeze. As long as I don't play multiplayer with people, I'm fine, and I guess recording sessions will still have to be done. As far as work? I don't know this week. I think I might put my effort into Helisim, but not sure yet. Other than that, whatever else comes up. I did figure out that the video driver may be causing it, since it messes up like it's doing. I'm hoping that it's the issue, and not something else because I've been googling things and no worky in fixing the freezes.

[Flanker562]

Soooo I think it was McAffee creating the issue. I couldn't stay away from A3 and well... I just finished up a session with no freezing, so that was good to see. Was expecting it of course, but it ran fine as intended, so it may have been that instead. Hopefully tomorrow when I record it's okay, and so on. Anyway, now that's somewhat sorted, I just did an AH-6 in RSLF colors. I think it's close enough and looks almost correct, but yeah, here you go:

[Flanker562]

Okay, scratch that heli above; I had to "get rid of it" (I backed it up, though, just in case) because the requester wanted the Pawnee and Hummingbird in Saudi Arabian colors, and I can do that, but not the Arabic inscription and numbers that he wanted on them. That's because I don't deal with ripped models, so I can't do anything yet. When BIS releases the models sometime, I'll probably look at doing that just for touch and class. Anyway, I let a pistol slip by in my normal workflow, so I fixed that, and I'm debating if I should upload, as the Helicopter Pack is only for Sunday, but we'll see. I'm floating the idea of removing the Titan-Ds from the Weapons Pack and making them a separate mod, though it is tempting but nothing concrete yet, unless people like that option, and I'm thinking of bringing back the AT4 into the Weapons Pack, but I'm not sure about that either, unless some people want to do such a thing; then I will.

[Flanker562]

Okay well at a point I thought I was good with Arma 3, and looks like it was McAfee affecting the game, nothing else. Now I got AVG and that's never failed me. AVG is my preferred antivirus, and A3 seems to be stable enough. I've played a couple of sessions already and no freezing, so an update of something affected the game. Anyway, I finally got the M17 fixed, had to fix some model issues and whatnot, but it's working as intended. I may have to work on some more of it though, as you can see through the mesh when the slide is locked back, so more than likely I'll not upload it, as nobody is clamoring for a fix, yet. I'll see what next week brings. Tomorrow is only the Helicopter Pack, things seem okay right now with things. and need to get with @gatordev about what he'd recommend for a US Navy themed pilot, for the USN birds. I really haven't looked much as I'm former Army, so I don't look at people like that, but would be a nice touch for the pack. But that's for next week, not now though. 

[Flanker562]

Despite the above (I may just figure something out with the Navy pilot thingamabob sometime), I don't have much to worry about. I've thought about removing the Titan-D from the Weapons Pack, and frankly, it might be a good idea. I don't get many metrics on what players like and don't like (I honestly don't know what's liked/disliked, so I'm at a loss for ideas), so removing/adding things is a bit of a hit or miss. So far, there's no traffic on the pages for my work, so things must be copacetic for now, I guess. Nothing else planned, though, like most "slow" weeks I may have. I probably will upload the Weapons Pack regardless, because the M17 is a glaring issue, and I should have really done it today, but next week is fine, and if, of course, somebody comments on it, well, I'll tell them next Sunday.

[Flanker562]

Okay, so far I had to replace some mags for the Recon Team Leader in the Better Infantry mod, swapping the Tracer mags for more efficient FMJBT mags, which will be more effective. I think that it'll be a "light" upload. I do want to make a recon LMG gunner, though; it's necessary for the team on various maps, like Kidal, where volume of fire matters, and I'm sure a lot of real-world SOF can appreciate a good LMG for their use in the field. So I'll make a unit specifically for missions where going loud is required, and a mod by Vicious Resilience is working out pretty well; just gotta give the team more firepower for missions

[Flanker562]

Finally got the Recon LMG Gunner set. He's just got a total of 5 mags (he spawns with one loaded of course), so he'll be able to support any team that may need the firepower. Overall I've noticed in the Pilot missions it's a good idea to have one or two LMG gunners on a team, even though ROE in real life would keep him from firing until they were compromised. In any case I did some other stuff with the Better Infantry units, so some fixes will be had, but the Recon LMG guy is pretty nifty, able to support a team he's put with in case it gets loud. Mods for upload Sunday:

- Flanker562 Weapons Pack
- Better Infantry Squad

[Flanker562]

Managed to create a "Recon UAV Operator" that can carry the AR-2 drone. It's nothing special, just a UAV guy with the Recon teams. I mean by now it's coming to commonplace that drones will be used, and recon teams would surely use it. Also, I changed the scopes to RCOs for the recon elements for the Better Infantry mod, since you get better results with them than the ACO that's setup by default on the Recon units:

[Flanker562]

Okay, for now, the Beam Eye Tracker is causing the freezes. I haven't brought it up yet, and probably should, but that seems to be the cause, since the update happened on October 8 and that's when the freezing started. At times, I just deal with the freezing, as it's LAN with myself. As for recordings, I won't until the freezing is confirmed to have stopped. Sometimes I get a good session in, and sometimes it's almost unplayable, hence me saying that it stopped and so on. I'm sorry, but I thought (and tried) the numerous fixes online would magically fix it. I tried another head tracker (Look Pilot), and it was freezing, so it may be a similar file, or the small update by BIS screwed the pooch, but in any case it hasn't stopped me from modding, so there's that. Anyway, I tweaked the Raven Warfare Group Kitbags, switching one to the Tan version. I had created a custom texture, but it was crap, so I said screw it and used the BIS one instead. It saves time and is easy to implement.

[Flanker562]

Okay, there's not much going on right now, just that the freezing is still going on. Right now I'm on development, which I thought would spare me the freezing, but it worked fine for a half-hour-or-so session; then it started freezing in another session where I was practicing hitting the LZ more or less on target. Some flying in Kidal and elsewhere has me off the LZ a bit, but it still works, so I don't know if I need to worry about doing that practice. But it keeps me from being bored, so whatever. Nothing is planned this week. Something might come up, though, so we'll see, like any week, depending on what interests me. The mods are safe in the Workshop, so maybe this week it'll be "slow" and not much to work on. I might break the Titan-Ds from the Weapons Pack, or make a separate unit mod. I don't want to though, since they use the weapons from the pack, and think they're fine where they're at too.

[Flanker562]

Well, I did find something to do. What started as a personal loadout has become a functioning loadout for the RWG group pilots and heli crew, which I like. The change is that the SPAR-16 is used, something better than the Varmin SMG, and features a 300m zeroed Mk17 Holosight, which I set up for my Weapons Pack, but figured it would work nicely for support troops, rather than the frontline soldiers and operators and such. I wanted to replace the models on the Helicopter Pack, but figured that was a little beyond my reach, or maybe it isn't? Anyway, the RWG will feature the image below as a standard setup for the pilots and heli crew, and they will only have like four mags, just for defense. I'm not sure how many a pilot carries in reality, but I figured that would be fine for incidents where infantry combat isn't the focus of the pilot's job, and so on.

[Flanker562]

Okay, it looks like an old mod was causing the freezing issue (a script or something was broken). So far, after some time, the game seems to be working as intended, so I should make the effort to take down the Feedback Tracker entry, if possible. Going to give it some time to make sure, like a day or two. But if so, it's a weight off my mind. Found some errors: the crew for the UH-92 Cherokee (RWG- Assault) is the wrong style, so I fixed that, and it will show up Sunday. Apparently, when I copied and pasted the code, I forgot to go back and adjust it for the RWG faction. Fixed now, and I'm doing other things I think I did but can't remember. IF the fix holds, that is a weight off my mind on the game, though, as I can focus on gaming and modding now rather than trying to fix the game and see what was causing the issue in the first place.