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Author Topic: Modifying global aimprecision in Arma?  (Read 3067 times)

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Offline Aries144

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Modifying global aimprecision in Arma?
« on: 23 Nov 2009, 00:11:12 »
I'm late to the game- much money spent on rifles and ammo, and not enough spent on computer stuff. Finally upgraded from my Pentium 4. :D

Everyone always seemed to complain about the AI being too accurate in OfpRes. I have a heavily modified hodgepodge-of-mods version of OFPRes that I made years ago that completely fixed this: I remade all of the small arms in the game with realistic mechanical dispersion values, realistic recoils (I collect and shoot military small arms and have friends that collect and shoot full-auto), modified ammo values that made the AI use semi at range and switch to auto/burst close up, modifications to the ammo and soldier detection settings that allowed a chance for the AI to spot and engage you at extended distances if you did something stupid, like run around out in the open without taking cover often, and then simply used larger aimprecision values which not only made it harder for the player to hit distant targets while standing or kneeling but also made the AI miss at long range as the same position disadvantages applied to them.

The combination with the ECP mod is great, the enemy isn't retarted, unable to hit you if you're running around in the middle of an open field at 300m, but they don't always kill you with the first shot or MG burst either. It also made them unforgiving of mistakes at distances inside 150m- just like it should be. It feels perfect; keep your head down, don't run around like an idiot, engage from cover, don't stay in one spot too long, and you'll live a lot longer.

I'm trying to duplicate that mod in Arma. I'm really excited about finally being able to use small arms with realistic exterior ballistics like with the NWD mod with sight adjustment, as well as the other nifty improvements I see in Arma.  :D

In Operation Flashpoint and Resistance, "aimprecision" was what contolled the "wobble" of your sights when you were standing or laying still and the sights were "jittering". In opflash it was easy; global aimprecision modifiers for standing, kneeling, and prone were right in the main config.

"Dexterity" was a weapon value ranging between 0 and 1 that controlled how "heavy" or "Sluggish" the weapon felt in game. The closer to zero, the more sluggish the weapon felt. Good stock examples are the rocket launchers, which had lower values (more sluggish).

Okay, now to my issues:

*Does the "dexterity" function function the same way in Arma as it did in OFP?

*Has "aimprecision" been hardcoded or renamed? Is there any way to change the global setting in a way that it affects both players and AI the same way or change it individually for each unit in order to achieve the same effect?

*Is there any way to change the way Arma handles changes in damage based on position (standing, prone, etc.), or is it hardcoded? I understand that damage is reduced when you're prone- I'd like to eliminate this as I feel it causes more problems than it solves.

(The only thing it helps realism-wise are a very few small non-directional type explosives, like handgrenades. Big explosives don't care if you're flat against the ground- they kill through overpressure more than fragments. Everything else, smallarms etc, it just buggers up.)

*Is there any way to change the way the game changes dispersion based on position (standing, prone, etc.) or is it hardcoded?

(This is just silly. Aimprecision was a FAR superior way of handling this, as holding the weapon still is the real challenge in reality- and it could already adequately affect both the player and AI with just a small increase of the effect. I'm still scratching my head over this decision.)

*Has an ECP equivelent been made for Arma? Or does the stock AI already cooperate and sustain fire at a target's last known position for a couple seconds like they did in ECP? (With the ECP mod, if you got the AI's attention from a bush and then moved without exposing yourself to the AI's view again, it would often pour fire into the spot where it initially detected you for a set amount of time before "forgetting" about you and scanning for new targets. If you didn't move, this would result in your death.)

Sorry for the long introductory post, but I wanted to paint a clear picture of where I'm coming from and where I'm trying to go.

ETA: Speling errors...
« Last Edit: 23 Nov 2009, 00:30:19 by Aries144 »

Offline Gnat

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Re: Modifying global aimprecision in Arma?
« Reply #1 on: 23 Nov 2009, 13:46:23 »
Hi Aries,
Couple comments;
- Have you opened all the "weapons" PBO's and unwrapped the bin (CPP) files to see all the weapons configs?
- Assume you saw the dexterity parameter. Pretty sure this affects the natural "wobble" as you mentioned.
- I assume you saw dispersion. eg dispersion = 0.000200;
- Different dispersions can be set for semi auto, burst and full auto
- With each these you can also set the Recoil. Like recoil = "xxxxx" and recoilProne = "xxxxx"
- AI can have their own; aiDispersionCoefY and aiDispersionCoefX
- For AI, their "skill" I understand effects all of the above too.

Sorry, don't have much more I can add/comment expertly on.

Offline Aries144

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Re: Modifying global aimprecision in Arma?
« Reply #2 on: 23 Nov 2009, 18:20:00 »
Hi Gnat,

I haven't opened all of the weapons PBOs yet, but I've cracked one open and have been looking at it, along with the main game config.

Okay, I'll start experiementing with dexterity and come back and report. I've read another post where someone mentioned (might have been you?) that they thought dexterity handled this function. If it does, the BIS must have decided to totally change it from the way it worked in OFP. In OFP, dexterity and aimprecision were two totally seperate and distict functions.

Yeah, saw dispersion- my concern here was not the different dispersions for semi, burst, etc. (OFP had that too- easy to correct) but that NWD comments (in his config or on a forum, can't remember where I read it) that Arma also changes dispersion based on your position (i.e. bigger dispersion when standing than when prone). If there's a way to eliminate that change (make it so that dispersion is the same for all positions) I need to do that. There won't be any point in pursuing making a mod if there's going to be an unsolvable problem that big. (It's very counterstrike-ish.)

The recoil setup seems to be the same as OFP, so I'm good there.

The aiDispersion was in OFP as well, and I'm familiar with it. (I only ever used the Y aidispersion setting with the MGs, since without it, the AI tended to ride the gun up during recoil and always shoot over the targets' heads.)

Yeah, between looking at the code and reading some comments, I picked up on the same thing about the AI "skill" settings.

Thanks for the help Gnat.  :)

If anyone has any further direct experience with any of these things, I'd appreciate any comments. It would sure save me the time it would otherwise take me experimenting and figuring everything out on my own.

Offline Aries144

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Re: Modifying global aimprecision in Arma?
« Reply #3 on: 30 Nov 2009, 00:05:10 »
Ok, finally answered my own question.

Aimprecision is present and functioning in Arma. It works the same as it did in OpFlash.

Found the answer in TrueGameplayMods in the weapon-sway pbo. Plain as day in the first page.

Offline Gnat

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Re: Modifying global aimprecision in Arma?
« Reply #4 on: 02 Dec 2009, 02:56:44 »
Arh! Good to hear.
Feel free to post a summary of all your findings at later date.