=VG= SemlerPDX

Spending that much time in the chute is not safe, it's suicide.
Listen to what Calv said, it is good advice. People are trying to help, not contest.

Here is the PJ Test with an MC-5. The goal is to land within a certain distance from the target (white X, red smoke) while spending as little time as possible in the chute.
HALO - High Altitude Low Opening
Walk up to the helicopter and on the mouse wheel Action Menu, select PJ Test - you will jump at 10,000 feet, and if you cannot see the ground, change view distance settings with the mouse wheel Action Menu "Settings".

As I stated above, there is no one number for a correct Pull Time - you'll have to train. Around 200 meters from the ground will work if you get the feel for it. 600 meters above sea level on reshman is rediculously high, as I wrote above and the time spent in the chute is far from acceptable.
Proof is in the pudding - see the pics, try the HALO Training Mission here and prove me wrong....


demoae.parajumptest.utes.rar

!dash !wack !suicide

OMG! Really? Isn't that just lovely.....

Well, gonna do what I said, and transform the VG Warmup Area (Zargabad) into a multi-training module area with automated and manual training courses for a variety of procedures, actions, and maneuvers. Will adapt something at some point for "earned certificates" so that people can "prove" themselves in a variety of roles (inspiration taken from our friends at L.A.M.B.S.). Perhaps this will develop more when we get more database systems and website connection to our missions, including something more advanced using the Squad XML system. Who knows?

First things first - I'm sure some people would love to throw themselves out of an aircraft over and over to try the above concepts out, and this ParaTraining script I wrote way back will do just fine once I polish it up for ACE. (attachment file coming soon.)
!coffee

P.S. used parachutes on the ground will not cause lag, or use up tons of server resources - but given that the proper procedure in ACE is to "interact" with your chute and re-pack it once you have landed, players might as well do it. This action creates a black parachute bag that is not flush with the ground, and you'd either have to hide them (in PvP) to make your insertion invisible, or deal with the open parachutes on the ground (which in all reality are flush with the ground, not as visible as a black backpack).

Still, I always instruct players to take the time, when appropriate so as not to hold up the group, to re-pack one's parachute after landing.
That being said, never feel that you must do so in order to assist the server in running fast - an object in the world is just that....an object is an object is an object - if you went by that notion, any FOB we build "causes lag" - it's untrue.

Eventually, a world could only hold so many objects, but that number is so high we don't have to worry about it. Technically, the "_dead_chute" is added to the FIFO cleanup in ACE, and it's limit is 99 - this means (first in first out) the 100th chute on the ground would make the 1st chute disappear.
No need to quote any crap about the dead chute not being added to the FIFO properly, and that mission makers should make their own little cleanup script...a cleanup script may use more "resources" than actually letting chutes litter the field.

Just FYI for those "not in the know".
!hi

At one point there was a discussion about best altitudes to pull an MC-5 Rip Cord in a Parajump - a lot of numbers got thrown around, and of course, was a first time jump for many people. There is no exact "minimum" to pull the cord, it depends on your distance from the terrain, and the type of parachute, but it's certainly not 600m ASL.
One of the key factors that could have helped with a coordinated "pull time" on our altitude would have been that map's altitude above Sea Level as the Suunto Altimeter Watch reads out in Meters Above Sea Level, and not above terrain level.

Still, there were several casualties (perhaps from late pulls, and some from terrain and hills), but the sea level difference on that map, though notable, was not much, and a 300-400 meter pull time would have been sufficient if properly trained, or experienced.
Poffadder goes by sight and feel, and landed just fine (though he said once was to late).

Here is an example from my ACE Halo Training Mission on the map we were playing, at the same jump spot we used:

(PULLED CHUTE DIRECTLY AFTER THIS PIC - <10 Seconds in Chute - Good Landing)


You'll notice a bit of difference in the Above Sea Level and Above Terrain Level.

Here is the same scenario on Utes, an island nearly at Sea Level:

(PULLED CHUTE DIRECTLY BEFORE THIS PIC @ 200m ASL - <6 Seconds in Chute - Great Landing)

In both scenarios, the shortest time in the chute is achieved by pulling ones Rip Cord at an altitude of ~200 Meters Above Terrain Level, and to correct for Sea Level Differences, you could add 50-100 meters for safety. After 4 seconds of free-fall, terminal velocity is reached, and once the chute is deployed, if it's not open in ~3 seconds, you've got a serious problem. You will travel ~150 meters at terminal velocity waiting for your chute to deploy - take these things into account and you can become some kind of Spec Ops pro. Just know that the update speed on the ACE Altimeter is kinda slow, so feel it out...

Good games! We'll do just fine next time we jump!

!cheers

I'm there
!2cool

Good idea with the Mod Set - obviously there will be exceptions like i44.

F2 is the way to go, has everything in one package.
Should make it simple for new mission makers to have a reliable foundation to work with.

Wow! Thank you! that abandonia is amazing! Already found 3 lost titles from ages past - great links!
And, Desura indeed rocks! It downloaded and installed that EoD mod for me in less than 20 minutes (true story: it installed while the manual-installation mod was still slowly downloading from a popular game site. Desura won the speed test!)

!2cool

!shok I think so... um... wow. That is one dedicated troll - usually they are severely undereducated.

We'll get it taken care of - will pass the word along. Thanks for the report! An admin may wish to talk with you or your witness in TeamSpeak3 at one point.

read how it works

*was not joking about gear

**VBS2 is not a "video game", it is a pro training simulator sold to government and law enforcement facilities for use in real world training


again: https://store.bisimulations.com/

It has been suggested that LEA loadout manager may be coming soon to the VG MSO server per Poffadder. I think it may help people set up a basic structure of essential gear for different roles they may choose in the Main Lobby menu. On top of that, they should then adapt and change minor items needed depending on the situation, time of day, style of play to be used, and specific objectives. Just the other day, my demo team fell too far behind of the fireteam in an attempted ambush of a convoy. Because of the redundant weight, the plan was a fail. (Sorry, Poff)

A simple solution: ditch all gear to backpack, except a few mags and one primary weapon, and the satchel charge each of the 3 of us had one of.
This would have allowed our team to keep up and not pass out on the swift march to intercept the convoy and place our demolition charges.
I personally had one satchel charge, a primary rifle and 3 mags, and one smoke grenade. I kept up with the rear member of Poff's fireteam, but each time I looked back, my other two members were so far back, even after the order to "lighten up", that it was a fail before it had a chance.

Sure, shit happens, but you and your backpack/gear are not alone in MSO - soon, with training and promo videos, this may become more noticeable. People will rely more on the game and support systems and feel confident to go out into the MSO world with appropriate gear and setups that will maximize both fun and lethality in the field.

!eatmyuzi

What do you mean "most ARMA players don't play ARMA for its realism.... If you would why not play VBS2?"
I just don't know where you get some of these nuggets that come out....
Perhaps because no large numbers of gamers have $2,320 to spend on a piece of software? Hell, to set up a full system, a group could end up paying well over $100,000.

ARMA 2 is "THE MOST REALISTIC FPS ON THE PLANET" (written right on the box, by -PCGAMER)
If people aren't playing ARMA for the realism it brings to the genre, then I am not sure what they are playing it for. Certainly not the "fluid controls that never feel boxy or slightly delayed actions" and I'm sure it's not for the flight physics which are far out of reality. That pretty much leaves the mulitude of realistically portrayed gear, items, weapons, and vehicles in a combined ops open-source MMO FPS.

Familiar gear is not going to make anyone play better or worse - in that, you only have one useable item in your hands at any given time, and carrying a bloated backpack filled with gear that was not picked with an MSO op in mind, but one of that "personal standard loadout for all situations" style mindset, is not very adaptive at all. We RTB plenty in MSO, why carry overly redundant gear to such extremes? If it's noon, why have NVG? (the answer I hear too often for such examples is "Because I always carry it.")
Different game modes require a different ways of doing things. That is what I apparently failed to communicate above.

It is best to have someone other than the mission maker as the leader - in many ways it makes it more fun for all involved.

As for the CLAfghan suggestion, if someone goes to make one, I'd like to give them some tips so the AI doesn't bug out during (they hate complex waypoints and have a hard time with certain roads on CLAfghan)

I am reading the logs from that time now.
Thank you for your report! (ha - nothing sayin you can't turn around and make an introduction post, if you want. My very first post was a disruptive player report, too, over 2 years ago.)

Discussion over.

players permanently banned.

Thank you for the report, Dallas. !pals


/locked

Hold up here - I just read through the report and the entire conversation....

If you want to get down to the "rules", this is a grey area; sure there never should have been the overly bossy execution of a squad mate, but try to look at this from all sides, people!!!

This will be in review over the next hour - if you want to discuss, please join TS3 now and look for SemlerPDX.
I would like to finish this and get back to my game.

Decision pending.....

The day will come soon when we have an MSO server running in the full way that it's designers intended. MSO features a persistent database that allows players to continue on, with a persistent world, that will not revert back to empty upon each server restart.

MSO is nearly an MMO with several RPG elements to it, and unlike these MSO Project tests we have been doing, a player will not start at the main base each time with no gear. This is the starting position for a player new to the server - once you have played your first match, the next time you join in your gear will be just as it was, and your position may be recalled so you can continue from where you left off.

People who played DayZ long enough to understand the game will recognize the need to be aware of food/water sources, as these may be portrayed in game in a realistic manner. Not sure what amounts to a "shit load" of food and water, but without even playing this mode yet, I can tell you that it would not be advisable to carry inappropriate amounts of items just because the game mode could consume them. Humans don't really need to eat more than a few times a day, and water is more important than food at times.

I find it funny that people go to play more realistic game modes with more "systems" to use, but do not recognize the many ways to play those game modes - they just load up their personal gear with a set they have used over and over in many different game modes, assuming they need to be some kind of one-man cache and army. Hello - this is ACE calling, and my new friend MSO is here; our names are acronyms and have nothing to do with "Log In, Play Fast, Log Out, Start Over Next Session".

Advanced Combat Environment Multi-Session Operations

HEY! Welcome to the website, Navynuke99!! Yea, the DCS series is sure "taking off"! !lol
I think this is the video you're talkin about - and it ROCKS!
(feel free to join us in TeamSpeak3 for some COOP flying)




I am still kicking myself for missing the sale on DCS A-10C this X-mas (it was down to $15 according to Poffadder...)
I will get DCS titles soon - like Iffn said, all this flight sim gear cannot go to waste!! haha!


BTW - this is the video by Chaz that made me want to buy this game way back: awesome music, great editing:



!fans

I looked into map making a long time ago. It is a rather involved process but many people have made many maps for Arma over the years using this same editor. Each map is like an advanced Paint program, with it's parameters set in stone in the early stages of creation. Once a map is done, there is no way to alter these parameters to (for example) include another map into it. Each map is specifically coded with map grids, altitudes, cities, and roads.

CLAfghan is the largest Arma map I've ever used, aside from Sands (which is blank - no cities, no nothing). It's a 40km x 40km map, but the valleys of CLAfghan would make it a terrible map for DayZ. Most large maps you find in Arma (like Chernarus and Taksitan) are 20x20 maps. Any fully finished map can be converted to a DayZ mission, it just requires a little configuration and know-how to make it work.

That Lingor map is 10km x 10km and by comparison is much smaller than Chernarus, 75 percent smaller -- consider that if you have 30-50 players on Chernarus DayZ trying to find places to hide camps, you will have that much harder time trying to find a safe place on the island of Lingor.
Taviana is slightly larger than Chernarus, with a size of 25km x 25km - and is also an island, surrounded on all sides by water.

When I played DayZ in the early Alpha stages, I liked Chernarus for it's large forests, and certain areas that may have far less foot traffic than others, like the Northern areas - I had a camp set up for awhile, but server issues finally made it disappear.
Just remember that this game will be much better when it becomes a full release. For now, you can try to play on the largest map you can find, but those are the only options available at this time.

Map making in Arma is not something that I myself am interested in. It is a very in-depth process that would require much time to learn, while requiring all kinds of creativity in design that would certainly take some time to develop.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it never hurts to ask. Good luck and have fun!
!cheers

Castor -- Do not get overwhelmed by a bad outcome or bad situation - no need to apologise, no worries! I'm sure we all still had as much fun as possible, given the circumstances in certain ACE Test Ops we've been doing lately. Also remember, especially in certain game scenarios, formations aren't as necessary as we'd like to assume. At times, for sure - but other times, you can rely on the game experience of your fellow gamers to clear an area in a safe way. Even moreso if you have personally trained with them on such techniques in any game.

-----

-----

I can proudly report that I have practiced several of those above named concepts in several different games, at different times, with some of the people I have gamed with often. As far as drilling each one in a game with the same folks - that would be lovely! Some games are able to employ maybe one or two of them, but certain games allow us to attempt to employ all of them in that one game. Arma comes about as close to being perfect in that manner, even with all it's flaws. It has so much to offer in one environment.

Even in tests we do get a chance to try out certain new things or radio use techniques, but know that it is best to be adaptive as a player and a leader. As a leader, if not in any real military position in the real world, these games force us to become many roles at once depending on the situation. In the end, leadership roles do indeed require the willing, the bold, and those who can at least take charge. Out of that, in these games, it develops that spark of desire. With Mil-Sim, often a desire for a decent way to employ these wonderful leadership opportunities, and Arma is prime for that if the mission is structured right.

With that being said, it almost always falls back to the need for the leader player to take the role of some kind of super-spec ops operative with the adaptive skills of a General crossed with a field-spec spy, and able to teach and train, and utilize any in-game available edge to lead his squad into and out of battle alive (while having a fun time). Well, that would be ideal, anyway. It is important to take things into perspecive in any given situation. You have to take the time to adapt, and being just a game, you have to recognize the core concepts as well before things get crazy. You gotta know when to scale it back a bit, and play it cool and light - it is a game, after all.

Just know your core well:

Where are your squad mates going to respawn? What gameplay style seems right? When to call fire support if available?
How best to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb?
When to call it a fail and stop "respawning" (or- how to disconnect ACRE and talk with key hosts as to the status of the game being played.
Gotta adapt to survive in any situation, games too.

For simplicity in Arma, we try to keep player roles filled as best as possible - with a mind to keep as many boots on the front as possible. One man can operate that M109 Paladin we tested today, and although Castor and I noticed that it can be marginally faster with 2 players, that would mean one less capable rifle on the front.

We will always need to ask for players willing to fill out any dry/dull/boring positions when they are needed, but truly, we try to avoid this by "wearing many hats".
I know it may be hard to lead a small element when you also feel you are supposed to be in charge of the larger element as well, but being a leader in a video game does require a little less time playing the game and some time managing real humans playing it as well.
There is no problem with taking it slow. We can continue to play some training scenarios and even learn a little while we play casually.

Just spending time leading is a good thing, and my advice to anyone who takes up that role in Arma, or most games, is to know your role, know your game, and keep your ears open (even if you have to tell everyone to shut up and keep the coms clear once in awhile!) Someone may be giving priceless advice or calling out for assistance just the same... What you hear is often more important than what you say, and the less you need to say, the better you are as a leader.


And to that end, this wannabe eLeader is still on that path, too - and taking my own advice, gonna hope that's all well enough said and sign off.
!hi

I just used Desura... simple... (well, once I found the button to install EoD)
!hi

!lmao

Depends on available cover - basically, dictated by situation, you can move standing up under fire if you gots some cover like big rocks, trees, etc. - otherwise you are stuck with low or high crawl...

I am familiar with 10/10 of these things, but have not drilled with others online in game, and that is the key. One man cannot cross a street with security, of course.
It takes a group, a team - and one willing to train on these concepts.

Like PITN said, it would be wise to adopt these concepts and practice in small teams. Just yesterday, I was in a small group of Rangers, we had a foot contact close in a semi-urban situation, and our vehicle gunner was reloading.
The order came down to dismount and secure the area around the vehicle. When I dismounted, that tango was 30 degrees to my left, so I swung my crosshairs directly after dismount and sent the contact back to hell - unfortunately, every other member who dismounted also came around that side of the vehicle and focused their attention on the now-dead contact.
On the OTHER side of the MRAP, a second contact proceeded to rape our squad, with me taking many rounds, barely survived...

The plain fact is, when contact is light, people tend to concentrate on the only reported contact, instead of securing an area, and trusting their team mates to watch other sectors.
People do too many frustrating things, such as staring at the medic or patient in a "healing" situation, people staring at others with gun up (not on SAFE) and either ALT-TABBING or some kind of AFK that eventually results in a misfire injury to another player, and people new to the game of Arma 2 using grenades (these are notoriously tricky in Arma 2 and require experience and know-how in order to use safely and effectively).

Getting on the same page with a group is imperative in some of these more difficult ACE/ACRE settings - everything takes longer, and therefore much more is at stake. Things need to be done with more patience, and drilling on the above concepts would be ideal.

Perhaps some automated in-game training scenarios would help, like the Kill House on the VG Warmup Map has helped so many to learn the basics of CQC building clearing. I recommend people download some Military Field Manuals to your smart phones (if you have one) and read/browse through them when not at your PC, say on a bus ride, waiting room, etc.
I got a bunch, including survival manuals, on my "semi-smart" phone, in the event that I get stuck and need to directly reference some plant or medical treatment while camping far away from civilization.
(gonna use PITN's list and some cool drawings from some FM's)