contact_discussion

[lyric spear]

Is it known if the contact files will ever be de-ebo-ed (Same question for Tac-Ops)? It would be really cool to take a look at the mission setup and data.

[agile hatch]

Will become PBO, eventually I'd say, it's safe to say there's no ETA

[vernal moth]

Not really, missions might stay EBO forever, as making them PBO basically gives the DLC for free.

[spare narwhal]

Will there ever be a co-op campaign or mission for contact?

[agile hatch]

Not officially I'm sure

[mellow anvil]

I am sure many of the very talented mission makers in the Arma 3 community wanted to do a Coop version of Contact after playing it, yet even after years from its release we still don't have many if any Contact related content in COOP format on the workshop.

I might be wrong but the reason for that could be that the alien assets, unlike the weapons and buildings, were not ported into Arma 3 vanilla (without activating the DLC). I don't remember if it was devs or just some random person who commented that the aliens and other assets did not made it into vanilla because those assets rely on scripts not compatible with MP. I don't fully believe that story thou because devs could have easily add scriptless versions of those assets and just letting mission makers and moders do their own MP friendly scripts for those assets or even make the original scripts compatible with MP.

[mellow anvil]

To my knowledge I still can't find the right answer of the main reason or reasons for such lack of COOP content on the workshop but given just how good the SP Contact campaign it is indeed a shame we where not able to enjoy some simplified version of it in COOP.

[hybrid stump]

We cannot confirm the timeline, but there's a chance this happens in 2.12 or 2.14.

[mellow anvil]

Any chance to get some BIS Fnc also unlocked for everyone after the de ebo ed happens? Such as: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/BIN_fnc_attachChemlight

[fluid granite]

the first time I used the shovel on the enemy squad was quite confusing

mostly because of the incorrect instruction from my friend

[sacred bane]

what shovel

[fluid granite]

electronic spook device

[sacred bane]

ah, right

I played through the contant campaign two times, still don't get it what do I have to do with the spook shovel when encountering aliens, but redirecting Poles Livonians was fun

[fluid granite]

it's a memory game with the aliens

find the right channel on every phase

[fluid granite]

spook shovel is the official name now

[lean ivy]

Hey

I noticed that today's sitrep says:
Contact consists of 2 data packs / folders:
Contact (via PLAY CONTACT or -mod=Contact): for the singleplayer "First Contact" campaign experience (accessible only to owners - optionally loaded)
Contact (Platform): for most other use cases, including sandbox multiplayer (loaded by default for all players)

Does that mean we should be able to play on Livonia even when some players don't have the expansion?

[agile hatch]

No. Nothing has changed regarded to Contact/Enoch

[lean ivy]

What does the update mean, then?

[agile hatch]

A hotfix

[lean ivy]

Specifically meaning "loaded by default for all players"

[agile hatch]

Loaded =/= Owned. The DLC strategy hasn't changed

[lean ivy]

Sad :/

Anycase thanks for clearing it up

[agile hatch]

Also, the lines about Contact are always there on every SPOTREPs for... some reason

Why it's always there, Bohemia?

[mossy mauve]

because " vague answer insert here "

[ebon spire]

Because of the "platform" part, meaning the Contact files get modified, even when it's not specifically targeted for the DLC

but that's just my guess

[hybrid stump]

Because while you and many people here probably read all SPOTREPs, we still have many new players arriving every month. So some information does not hurt to repeat, especially when it's non-standard like how Contact works as optional DLC. Maybe we should introduce an Advanced SPOTREP Mode, that hides some of this stuff

[craggy ermine]

is there a map of the roots in mission 4 somewhere? i'm replaying contact again right now and it seems the root heat map bugged out. it's all just blank, so i'm pretty much running blind right now

[sacred bane]

not in game definitely, but I found a map from some walkthrough and the roots should be on points 1 and 8

(don't blame me if it's wrong :P)

[craggy ermine]

only 2 roots? i thought there are 3

can't really remember tho

[sacred bane]

first one is the one you have to get Eddie for first, 2nd one was with the drone you should hack so it fights for you

[craggy ermine]

that was the last mission

i'm in mission 4

[sacred bane]

"Anomalous Phenomena"?

[craggy ermine]

ok, i'm in mission 5

carpe noctem

[sacred bane]

ok, give me a sec

[craggy ermine]

all i can find on google is stupid videos and all of them are > 1 hour

[sacred bane]

numbers 1 and 2

[craggy ermine]

looks like i just have to follow the drone data

LDF is already at the roots and they have drones in the area, soo...

[sacred bane]

aren't they in the market positions or they just don't trigger?

[craggy ermine]

the heat map doesnt work

something is broken there for me

that's why i have to go by walkthrough if i dont just want to randomly walk around

[sacred bane]

so roots should be where are marks on the map I gave you

[craggy ermine]

yes

what i'm saying is that i might as well just follow the drone signals :>

[sacred bane]

right

shovel gun is great for dealing with bigger LDF masses and you can just hack the drone once rest is sent away

(I won a direct fight with them once, took me way too long)

[craggy ermine]

funny that you can find almost every weapon in the game spread out over the campaign. for some reason i never realized that when i played it back in release days

then again, i'm also pretty sure that i didn't fire a single shot except for the final mission

[sacred bane]

you might have fired in first one

during the excercise

unless you were really passive

[craggy ermine]

what i meant is that i didnt pick up any other weapon since i didnt need to

[sacred bane]

but yeah there's so many guns to play with yet difficulty and overall scenario design is done for stealthy non-lethal approach

optional missions usually require shooting here and there but risk of dying is pretty high

[craggy ermine]

some of the looters are suspiciously heavily armed

[sacred bane]

Brasilian cartel members

[craggy ermine]

i'm thinking more of ctrg since i also found ctrg stealth uniform :>

[sacred bane]

on a looter in optional task?

[craggy ermine]

yes

and everyone equipped with black mx rifles

[sacred bane]

guess I'll have to replay it then too

[craggy ermine]

and now i got a mar-10, though not sure if it's good to use it, since it's so heavy and i'm about to run over half the map

[sacred bane]

btw do you run any mods so the heat map is bugger, or just clean vanilla experience ™️ ?

[craggy ermine]

no mods

[sacred bane]

run on x4 speed

[craggy ermine]

not possible in danger zones

[sacred bane]

go around the danger zone then

[craggy ermine]

damn, spgm on the ground. so many toys, but no way to carry that

[sacred bane]

there is a working traktor on point E

use it as a portable stash

[craggy ermine]

nah. i'm not shooting much anyways so it doesnt matter

seems most of those "points of interest" are only about gear/weapons

[craggy ermine]

and done. nice campaign. just sad that the ending with the russians has a bit of a weird taste now

[sacred bane]

is First Contact font (that one imitating handwriting) available to use in-game just with Platform?

[agile hatch]

It should be

[sacred bane]

any clues where can I find it? It definitely isn't listed in biki

[agile hatch]

Caveat

[bold ridge]

what is the font used in Contact DLC?

In this picture
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/835854573766836244/1028738574717308928/unknown.png

[agile hatch]

I was sure it was an existed font but can't find now in WhatTheFont web app

[stable vine]

I also tried 3 don't finding websites and couldnt

How important is it? I can poke around and probably find who designed that

[sacred bane]

very

[bold ridge]

yes

for design and stuff

[stable vine]

No Font in itself
Base font with manual editing or even fully manually made letters

Actually sounds like its fully custom font

[sacred bane]

there are some similar ones on 1001fonts if you search with "blocky square" filters, won't be 1:1 but the concept stays

[peak thicket]

Hello

Why does the screen not rotate when moving the crosshair?

How can i fix this

[sacred bane]

what do you mean exactly, like you're moving the gun around and it moves without turning your head around? if so then check deadzone options in your game settings

[fluid granite]

that's not what this channel is for

[sacred bane]

what's the name of Contact's big crater from SIŁA factory? Making a scenario with both platform and the actual DLC but I can't find the big alien hole. Too bad map itself doesn't have it already placed, only a concrete texture slapped over terrain slope.

[agile hatch]

You mean className?

[smoky void]

its hidden, not available in Eden

private _sinkhole = "Land_Sinkhole_01_F" createVehicle position player;
//--- or as simple object A3\Rocks_F_Enoch\Sinkhole\Sinkhole_01_F.p3d;

[agile hatch]

create3DENEntity ["Object","Land_Sinkhole_01_F",getPos player]````create3DENEntity` can create anything than scope=0

[sacred bane]

is there any mod that brings back either the original main menu or shows campaigns other than the Contact one? I'd like to avoid having to upload missions separately and have them as a campaign addon instead

[hybrid stump]

Unless you're playing or modding Contact, I'd recommend to run without Contact loaded. There may be plenty of ways Contact affects the vanilla experience that you don't want in other campaigns f.e.

[sacred bane]

I'm asking because Contact has some pretty useful modules that I am using in my missions like the gravity anomaly, and I wanted to have my missions using these features to be uploaded as a working campaign instead of separate scenario uploads.

[hybrid stump]

Ah right, gotcha. I do think I've seen such mod on Workshop around the time of release.

[sacred bane]

has anyone got diary records working with Contact? They are replaced by Notes but I see Contact-restricted functions still refer to them as diary records. BIN_fnc_setDiaryRecord is probably for adding these notes but no matter what I try it throws errors, I don't understand how the parameters have to be provided.

[hybrid stump]

`["Intro1"] call BIN_fnc_setDiaryRecord; //Most scenarios have just this, so the contents below is from config

params [
["_recordInput",[],["",[],confignull]],
["_textInput",[],["",[]]],
["_texture",DEFAULT_TEXT,[""]],
["_isLeaflet",-1,[false,0]],
["_updateList",true,[true]],
["_markAsRead",-1,[false,0]]
];

configfile >> "CfgContact" >> "Diary"`

[sacred bane]

alright, so [["customDiary1", "Briefing"], ["Test title", "This is some random text"]] call BIN_fnc_setDiaryRecord; creates a record that can be selected from the dropdown list, but doesn't display any text. From what I understand, _textInput has just two text params:

_textInput params [
    ["_title",DEFAULT_TEXT,[""]],
    ["_text",DEFAULT_TEXT,[""]]
];``` but despite being literally the same, it reads only the _title and _text is ignored

[hybrid stump]

It's entirely possible (but just guessing), that Contact functions are less sandbox-compatible. Perhaps we only used the config variant in the end and never tested the this syntax 😇 If so, perhaps write an alternative function that sets the correct data to missionNamespace?

[sacred bane]

oh yeah, I wasn't expecting nothing more from Contact functions 😛 Just had a thought that since people have been trying to decipher campaign-related functions and modules for few years now, someone managed to make this one work outside of First Contact. I'll try redoing the functions so it won't check for CfgContact config entries.

[hybrid stump]

It's still our wish to deEBO the rest of these addons in one of the next platform updates too.

[vernal moth]

Personally I wish we had the models for alien props in the base game. The glowing balls () etc. would be pretty nice for post apo and similar.

[sacred bane]

@potent hull here's the whole params list

[potent hull]

look up the function in functions viewer, maybe it's indeed config compatible only

you said you called it like this [["This is _title param text","This is _text param text"]] call BIN_fnc_setDiaryRecord, which isn't correct, try this instead: [configNull, ["This is _title param text","This is _text param text"]] call BIN_fnc_setDiaryRecord

[sacred bane]

[["customDiary1", "Briefing"], ["Test title", "This is some random text"]] call BIN_fnc_setDiaryRecord; this is the one I actually tried and it kinda worked, the one I left in #arma3_scripting was only to figure out what these params actually take 😄 Your example returns "" and no diary record shows up, instead if you click in the journal/notes too many times, game CTDs

diary record has to be parent of Briefing to show up (all BI diary records for Campaign do that at least), the issue is that my call doesn't display any _text, it will be either empty or will still show any other record's _text parameter

[fleet ice]

Even just smaller things I think would be very helpful - Like the .p3d for the defunct NVG, or the broken optics and flashlights.

[craggy ermine]

but that's just config classes. can easily make them yourself / look them up via config viewer

[vernal moth]

Not really, you need the p3ds

[craggy ermine]

i'm confused. why? nvg is just config stuff

[south karma]

Sort of. It's mostly config but some of the reticle models are only available if you have Contact loaded. NVGoggles_INDEP_broken for example is the regular NVGs but uses a optics_night_broken.p3d reticle for its modelOptics. Shouldn't be too hard to replicate on your own though since the NVG reticle is basic anyway.

Same goes for the MAAWS' FCS and the Rangefinder.

Only the ACO/RCO/MRCO are problematic since they need their own unique defunct models...which can only be found in Contact's files.

No MLODS, no defunct 3D optics. 😦

[craggy ermine]

ah, so it's about the reticle model / black screen

well, presonally i think it sucks that the training rifle muzzle thing is only in contact

[south karma]

• blank magazines

[craggy ermine]

yeah

[hybrid stump]

How do you mean that? The Livonia terrain is part of the vanilla sandbox, so you can create scenarios on there in Eden Editor.

[sacred bane]

I think he means the campaign map replacement, so with just Platform player would see the First Contact map looking like a brochure, with gun-free zones marked with red borders etc

[craggy ermine]

i think you can script that with some tricks, but it's advanced scripting for sure

and not sure if it can be done 1.1 (cursor graphic / behavior etc)

[proud karma]

Does anyone know how messing with the aliens works? First time trying the campaign and I'm just stuck on Field Science

[fluid granite]

you have to find the right order of playing the sounds

if you play it at the wrong peak it reverts back to the beginning

[mighty steeple]

hi. ive found the second eddie dropped it on the ground i cant figure out how to activate it

[fluid granite]

pick it up and use scroll wheel to deploy

[mighty steeple]

thanks bud

[unkempt bison]

Where are the borders marked on the map i want to make a mission where the russians atack Livonia but i dont know where kalinigrad starts

[sacred bane]

Kaliningrad starts nowhere because the playable terrain is a central part of whole country "Livonia".

Kaliningrad would be north-west from that province, but it's a few dozens of kilometers

[bold ridge]

I'm trying so hard to avoid killing the livonians during the story, but alas it happens.

[sacred bane]

it is possible as long as you don't do side task iirc

[south karma]

You forgot Elimination Coda. 😛 Can't beat that without killing the Livonian AA teams + reinforcements that attack the core.

The Spetsnaz AI won't be able to finish all of them off alone.

[full lynx]

Livonian AA? Weren't these ||Russians||?

[south karma]

At least not before the core goes boom anyway.

Nope. The LDF are the ones attacking the ship and later the core.

[full lynx]

I know it's 2023 but I guess this still warrants spoiler tags 😉

[sacred bane]

ah right, mb

[nova mortar]

how can i access the rest of the campaign missions with the optional dlc mounted?

is there a specific list of the changed features that are non-standard?

[grizzled cosmos]

you are not supposed to

so dont try

the default campaigns are designed to play without contact and are likely not goint to work quite right with it

if you want to play contacts campaign then you run it but otherwise you pretty much dont

the vanilla compatible stuff is already added to your game when you dont run the DLC

and the DLC is needed pretty much only to run the contact campaign

and possible some mods that do stuff with it if there are any

[sacred bane]

it is Arma

it just works ™️

this happens because the script isn't initialized on loading a save (at least after you restart your game, not sure if loading save without closing A3 has that issue too)

script limitation, maybe someone forgot to implement that, but that's nothing new and happens in multiple scenarios (Old Man, Extraction) with different custom features. You just have to play as-is, use a walkthrough or restart the level and manage to end it in one run @mossy mauve

[smoky condor]

Do I need the DLC to fly the LDF Hellcat or drive the LDF APC? On the DLC restrictions page in the wiki it says

The following restrictions only apply to DLC assets that have DLC Restrictions applied to them.

• Cannot get in the Driver, Commander and Gunner positions. Passenger seats including FFV seats are still open to non-owners.

However both vehicles are not listed as restricted? I.e have "restricted" no. But in the Arma Fan wiki it says that those are DLC restricted vehicles

Linkage: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_DLC_Restrictions

[craggy ermine]

they are unmodified vanilla vehicles just with a different skin, so you can use them without any restrictions

it's different with the new offroad variant, since that one is a new 3d model

[smoky condor]

Aaaah ok makes sense. Cheers for clearing that up 🙂

[obtuse shard]

Does the ED1-E have a function in regular Arma I have the DLC but I am not sure if it does anything in operations that don't use anything from contact?

[fluid granite]

duct tape and c4

[obtuse shard]

huh?

[sacred bane]

it's used exclusively in First Contact campaign, I think there is a bunch of workshop missions that use it too

it is functional, you can do most things like you could in campaign but it is pretty useless in combat

[obtuse shard]

ok thanks

[fleet ice]

You can indeed poke people and hurt them

[austere parrot]

hello, is there any way to get Contact map with the DLC checked without the latter being active? I mean, in game when you open the map [M] get therefore markers etc. from the campaign map. Thanks in advance

[mossy mauve]

uhhhh
I accidentally accelerated the time in arma 3, how do I set it back to normal??

[full lynx]

Non-numerical "-" (the one close to backspace)

[sullen drift]

is it possible to make drones jammable with the spectrum device in custom scenarios?

[agile hatch]

If you struggle enough, yes

[sullen drift]

and how?

[agile hatch]

Good question. You will need some scripts either premade or yours

[craggy ermine]

i wrote a script for that for my old man mod

it's terrible and extremely simple, but gets the job done

https://fodev.net/pastebin/?p=152

that script needs to be called on mission start and it should work.. in sp, i never tested it for mp.

[mossy mauve]

Why is the contact DLC so specially distinguished with its own button in the launcher

[sacred bane]

Because it introduces a lot of new features that may break compatibility with other stuff. And some of that stuff cannot be disabled by player like changed map view

And it's the biggest DLC. These are my two guesses

[bold ridge]

use that only when u want to play the contact story

[mossy mauve]

Biggest in size or in content

[bold ridge]

both

[craggy ermine]

it has lots of mechanical changes, like the map screen etc. which can't be one that easily in a regular mod/dlc format.

[mossy mauve]

Just did the first 3 missions of contact, on the 4th which is proving difficult

Cool af

The spectrum device, eavesdropping and deceiving enemy squads, feels hit and miss

Sometimes I'll pick up a squad and get the circles, and sometimes I'll be sat there pointing for 5m with nothing.

More specifically, trying to get another Eddie from a Astra van

[hybrid stump]

Are you taking into account terrain elevation and other signal strength factors? From my most recent playthrough, it was not really needed to use electronic deception to get to the van. There are some relatively safe routes into the base.

[fluid granite]

it was not really needed to use electronic deception because i went in guns blazing

[mossy mauve]

So what I did initially was hide in the trees on the (west?) Side of the compound so I could see the guard on the roof. From there it wasn't the best.

But if I did it from further away, lower down the hill where the road is, pointing up from the (south?) Side then it was way better.

From the first way, I was getting the circles through the terrain, which probably was why

[mossy mauve]

Also for Carpe Noctem can someone explain what it means by "tips" that I need to find

[sacred bane]

root tips

the woody glowy thingies

[mossy mauve]

Oh. I was assuming it had something to do with the tips of the red veins on the neutrino maps

Still a little confused on said maps use then

[sacred bane]

iirc the red fields guided you to the overground root glowy sources

[mossy mauve]

So I should be walking along the red lines, basically?

[sacred bane]

yes

I mean this map

[mossy mauve]

Yep this one. So red means that I'm possibly close to a root, it would seem

I should read tooltips better

Tbf I was playing it sleep deprived last night so second time may be better

Oh and thanks for the help honger + Yoris

[mossy mauve]

---

Just finished the campaign

That was amazing

[clever nexus]

I'm halfway through and really enjoying it 🙂 Can't wait to do some Antistasi or Liberation on this map afterwards

[mossy mauve]

Enjoy!

My favourite episode is either 2, 3 or 6. They're all good

[vocal swan]

Is all the campaign stealth? I dont really like stealth

[mossy mauve]

The last one isn't stealth

Well, ep 6

Episode 1 isn't. Episode 2 has some. Episode 3, maybe a little

[south karma]

You can pretty much go in guns blazing once you get to Anomalous Phenomena (and for every mission after that).

The free roaming missions give you plenty of chances to loot heavy weapons that you don't actually need.

[shell barn]

Weird that CTRG had left some perfectly good gear unattended though

[brave blade]

They too busy looking at the aliens

I would honestly be heavily distracted by smth like that

[glacial kayak]

could someone please help me out. Does anyone have some code that can be added to a enviromental object hider to remove grass and seaweed?

[hybrid stump]

I think you'll need to use 'clutter cutters'. Those are objects that you can spawn by script though. Search for "cutter" in 3DEN props.

[signal ridge]

I tried it a while ago, bur I'm going to once more try to beat contact by only killing with grenades

[dim cedar]

can someone help me with a audio problem i cant hear gunfire and other in depth things

[agile hatch]

Is this Arma 3 Contact related or Arma 3 related?

[dim cedar]

arma 3 im playing sog prairie fire but pretty sure its doing it for everything

[agile hatch]

#arma3_troubleshooting

[lunar cove]

How can I use the spectrum device against drones?

[agile hatch]

In First Contact or outside of the campaign?

[lunar cove]

outside

[agile hatch]

Without any scripts or maybe Mods, no

[lunar cove]

Do you know a good mod for this?

[shell barn]

I think it's called Spectrum Device Functionality Rebuilt or something like that

[lunar cove]

thanks

[shell barn]

There's probably a newer better one out there just look up spectrum device or something

[fleet folio]

If you use the DLC on it's fullest, you don't need any mod, you just need the module of the spectrum device set up, now if you only have the platform version of contact On, yeah you will require the Mod Wheezer said

[lunar cove]

Is there anything else waht I can do against uavs?

[sacred bane]

bullets

[lunar cove]

For those who might be interested, I have now found another mod
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3018212379

[forest pike]

Can anyone help me? I get around 80-90 FPS in vanilla game in ultra settings but I only get 20-30 fps standard settings in Contact campaign. What to fix?

[agile hatch]

Nothing really

[forest pike]

I changed to ultra in contact but it remains the same 20-30 fps, I got dizzy playing at 30 fps

[heady fjord]

what is your viewdistance?

I limit mine to 500 when playing on livonia

[forest pike]

3800, maybe I will try that later, thx

[sacred bane]

You get dizzy from variable framerate not 30fps. If you limit it through your GPU control panel you wouldn't mind the constant 30 frames at all

[sacred bane]

who designed the Livonian Park Rangers logo? Is there any high resolution version of it, or any other than what's on their trucks? It's pretty messed up with the dirt marks etc.

[hybrid stump]

I remember it as a co-op between Ivan Buchta and Scott Alsworth, but could not find higher resolution sources so far. They would probably have been added to the samples then.

[sacred bane]

shame

[opal yew]

how many singleplayer missions does contact campaign have?

[sacred bane]

7 , although most of them is more than 1 hour long iirc

[opal yew]

good to know

[thick inlet]

Can anybody here confirm if people who don't own Contact can or cannot use the drone added in the dlc (i.e. connect to it via UAV terminal). This ofc only in missions where the cDLC is not required (as that would prevent them from joining in the first place).

[agile hatch]

1. Contact is not a Creator DLC
2. If you mean the ED-1D/E drone, indeed non-owner can't use it

[thick inlet]

Good to know, thanks. Yes I did mean the mine clearing one on tracks.

[pallid basalt]

Anyone knows a server of RHS arma 3 ?

Where i can play with others

[sacred bane]

how is this related to the Contact DLC

[agile hatch]

So, the Contact's font that is used in promo, is this the right font?

https://www.inhousetype.com/typefaces/p/neusa
Or this? Just checked the official website and it says neusa

Also a friendly reminder: anniversary is incoming 😄

[hybrid stump]

Going over some old documents, I do see mentioned: Neusa Next Wide (but also good old Roboto and Purista).

[smoky void]

Is there any reason why RPG-42 (Camo) launch_RPG32_camo_F is protected with scope=1; (hidden) weapon on the platform and Contact expansion?

[fickle iron]

Is there any remaining concept art or design documents from the early draft of the final mission for Contact?

Back when it was meant to be an additional terrain that was a spaceport

[prisma falcon]

There is any mod that adds Contact objects to normal Arma?

[potent fulcrum]

They are already in vanilla Arma.

[prisma falcon]

But not this alien roots (idk what it is) and round, red anomaly

[potent fulcrum]

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_Alien_Entity_Behavior

[mellow anvil]

Any way to spawn the ships as simple objects or vehicle?

[potent fulcrum]

Don't know, read BIKI.

[untold inlet]

does anyone know how to fix the mission terminated DLC content required bug? I have the contact DLC but it is not letting me launch any of the missions

[hybrid stump]

For most non-Contact missions, you should not have Contact optional DLC enabled. In the Launcher's DLC section you can toggle it. Or can you otherwise specify the errors?

[mellow anvil]

ChatGPT 4.5 is even worst than 3:

in the arma 3 DLC "Contact", who is the main protagonist of the story?

"In the Arma 3 DLC "Contact", the main protagonist of the story is Senior Lieutenant (Lt.) Ksenia "Ksyusha" Koval. She is a member of the Russian Armed Forces and serves as a key character throughout the campaign."

"While Lt. Ksenia Koval is the main playable character, the story is also influenced by various factions, including the Russian military and NATO forces, which adds layers of tension and intrigue to the narrative."

😅

Aiden Rudwell is the protagonist... so ChatGPT 4 completely made up the contact story, I did not even remember the name Ksenia "Ksyusha" Koval, the suposedly female protagonist of Contact

Someone needs to update its database so it knows that Bohemia Interactive did not even include females in the game, much less a female protagonist

[agile hatch]

And what it does do with Arma 3 Contact? You're only saying haha AI bad

[mellow anvil]

Well, so many people these days rely on info from ChatGPT and/or other ai sources... that for any company is not convenient that information sources are spreading misinformation, creating false expectations on potential players

Imagine potential buyers asking chat GPT what is Arma 3's Reaction Forces CDLC about and it telling them that it is about female firefighters putting out fires in california

[agile hatch]

And what it does do with Arma 3 Contact still?

[mellow anvil]

You mean "what is has to do" with Arma 3 Contact?

[agile hatch]

Well yeah. I still don't see there is any valuable topic to make in this #contact_discussion

[mellow anvil]

Well, the mistake ChatGPT made was when it was asked about the CONTACT DLC's main story, which it failed to convey accurately. It is spreading misinformation about the game and biasing its answer towards both Russia and females, which I find funny because nothing could be further from the truth

[agile hatch]

And it is about ChatGPT, not Contact?

[mellow anvil]

Yes, it is about ChatGPT... you see in ChatGPT, the protagonist is Senior Lieutenant (Lt.) Ksenia "Ksyusha" Koval, isn't this the ChatGPT channel? Ohhh if it isn't it is my bad, taking this to the right channel ASAP 😉

[gusty root]

@signal socket u wanna fight

Eggy bum

[signal socket]

why 😄

[gusty root]

U smell

[signal socket]

no u

enough spam though 😉 back on topic!

[prime veldt]

Do you really only use the 433 mHz jammer antenna in Stype's demo or am I forgetting something?

[open anchor]

since the aliens on contact are drones and probes, which mods are good to create scenarios and missions with actual alien infantry?

[prime veldt]

What do you mean?

[winter elm]

Try Alienz, various mods by Moose/Outworld Studios, OPTRE first conflict (halo stuff) (also the flood mod if that's what your thinking of
Various others are scattered across the workshop
Or just the viper team from apex with an optional gasmask

[open anchor]

fight actual ET beings on the ground lol

[open anchor]

thanks, will take a look!

[charred forge]

Just curious, does anyone here have a realistic mod collection with AI just wondering

[prime veldt]

#arma3_questions is a better place, but most mods will likely break Contact. Realism mods include ACE and ACE dependant mods, and AI mods include the DCO mods and LAMBS mods.

[zenith surge]

Can anyone put me in contact with the creator of the eurofighter typhoon for arma reforger

[prime veldt]

First, this is the channel about Arma 3's Contact DLC's campaign.
Second, look for a thread or post in the Enfusion channels.

[zenith surge]

Sorry

[raw sigil]

Does anyone know of a mod that replicates the broken optics / devices from Contact?

[sacred bane]

There's none afaik. CBA however adds them to arsenal so you don't have to load contact to use them.

[raw sigil]

Can you clarify what you mean by not loading Contact, do you mean not owning in this case? Because those assets are in the CDLC part and you would need to load them to use them regardless, no?

[sacred bane]

I meant not pressing the button to start with Contact DLC. But yes effectively what you said

[raw sigil]

ah, alright. thanks

[grand patrol]

Alien funny

[shy summit]

Over the next few weeks we’ll be inviting you to participate in conversations related to #Arma3Contact’s “what if we suddenly encounter extraterrestrial intelligence” premise.

Our first Contact Starter:
In the event of First Contact, who do you think would make for Earth's best ambassador, and why?

Let us know in this channel!

[scenic lantern]

first!

[brittle hemlock]

second!

[junior notch]

send @scenic lantern to talk to the aliens

[dim jasper]

Alex Jones 👍🏿

[scenic lantern]

@junior notch
Why not.... I hate humans anyway, maybe aliens are cooler 😉

[junior notch]

see thats the spirit

[royal lichen]

I vote Elon Musk tbh

its more than likely

depends on the aliens though, they might just think we're all douchebags and melt us from orbit

[summer fiber]

also likely

unless the aliens help the repubs nuke iran without having to do it themselves

[royal lichen]

why nuke them when they can probe them 😄

[scenic lantern]

@royal lichen
I'm with you on elon.

He's an alien himself, so....

😆

[royal lichen]

nah i think he's about the only one able to realistically contemplate first contact without losing his mind, figuratively and literally.

as for aliens on earth we already have zuckerberg and he's a twit, so there's that.

eh?

[scenic lantern]

I thought the zuck is an android...

[royal lichen]

he looks like the alien from that paul film that hasn't quite gone through mass-g acceleration.

[scenic lantern]

😂 😂

You're not wrong

[ancient ice]

as Eart's ambassador..

Earth's.

I'll simply let the aliens do their thing and stop the wars

if they harm us ill just launch every nuke

[wild ledge]

Miller 👍

[west charm]

Study case Brexit. If aliens contact us we'll tell them we currently don't have a system which allows us to make decisions on the issue.

Because you could argue the Contact changes situation dramatically, we must hold new parliamentary elections in every country. Countries without parliamentary democracies have to redo their revolution/coup/whatever.

When that is done we can start the regular politics. So please check back in 12 years or so if you want us to take you to our leader.

Of course, that doesn't stop various people from claiming they are the real Earth's Leader

[summer fiber]

Because you could argue the Contact changes situation dramatically, we must hold new parliamentary elections in every country
That doesn't make any sense though

The amount of time and effort you'd waste in organising a snap election you could spend on figuring out solutions

[north jungle]

I like this... people say that we have contacted aliens already, area 51 and stuff like that. Lets see how the military handles that in a world were this is confirmed

Just one thing... this DLC will be fully implemented and ready to use with zeus, yes?

[pale void]

@north jungle they handle it like this: they force/sponsor video games with alien content, to increase acceptance of the idea of aliens... then after wards they'll tell you the truth, that they have been there all along and those sent now are just the first official (voluntary) 'exchange students'

[keen bramble]

Claude Lacombe, why?...been there , done that.

[north jungle]

Oh no.... pls dont bohemia

Give zeus some love

There is so much stuff that can be done with those assets

Put them in so that they can be spawned in zeus..

[pale void]

maybe add it with a patch after some days

[next lark]

Does anyone of you devs know Jiří Kunt?

[daring basin]

"Classified Intel
Little is known about the extraterrestrial visitors, but their largest observed vessel is hard to miss. Presumably employing a form of gravity control, it appears to have little trouble maintaining levitation despite its massive size. It is unclear whether Livonia is the only arrival site on Earth, but the UFO is believed to purposely hover above an underground alien network that spans at least several kilometers. This network’s purpose and origin are entirely unknown, but it appears to be incredibly old since it has gone unnoticed for the longest time. Recent reports also mention sightings of highly advanced car-sized alien entities surveying the UFO’s nearby environment. However, much more information is needed before their true capabilities and purpose can be evaluated."

"" but the UFO is believed to purposely hover above an underground alien network that spans at least several kilometers. ""

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoAw9W9iz7g

[summer fiber]

if they do try to set some missions in that, i assume it will be some sort of placeable objects like the the trenches on tanoa

also VBS is a heavily modified engine and doesn't share much common tech with current arma 3 engine

although i think what's shown in the video should be possible, but i've also heard arma engine doesn't doesn't deal well with simulated things placed below the surface

but you can make static objects sink into the ground

so 🤷🏽

I doubt it will be several km long though, likely just a small section of it

(trenches on tanoa don't let the player go below ground level, they just raise the height of the ground around them)

[daring basin]

I had some errors when I made my map with the texture of the terrain, and as it seems, the sea is still under the ground

we could see that average height has livoa ...

maybe because of this they did not use the sea level to simulate the river that crosses it

[summer fiber]

hmm? they did

[daring basin]

the river, is it sea?

[summer fiber]

yes, just retextured

[daring basin]

I did not see the map yet, but it seemed to me that it was not sea

[summer fiber]

yes, because they retextured it to look like not-sea

but it is

Weferlingen, the map included in the Global Mobilization CDLC, uses ponds to create the river.

But afaik no first party BI map does this.

[daring basin]

Damn, I was looking for a good excuse to buy it xD

I think we can still expect a surprise

[summer fiber]

Regarding?

[daring basin]

underground objects

[summer fiber]

Oh. Maybe, let's see.

[daring basin]

or whatever it is, I do not think much of what this "expansion" offers, even so I'm going to buy it

[median smelt]

New map.

Decent sized asset for the money.

[daring basin]

dayz sa buildings...

[mossy mauve]

buildings that are too big for arma soldiers... not worth the money

[daring basin]

I do not think it's very ethical to resell dayz assets

[median smelt]

Plus, if you have friends who play, getting official DLC isn't like arguing over mods.

[keen bramble]

oversized dayz sa buildings...

[median smelt]

And why's that?

If I can make money twice on something I did once, is it unethical or just smart business practice?

[summer fiber]

Decent sized asset for the money
not reaaallly (imo)

I'll probably pick it up next year i think, on sale 😄

[median smelt]

@summer fiber
I'm just saying that I'd pay more for a map than a handful of units.

[summer fiber]

well, maybe i would, but not this much, is what i mean

especially not in contrast to GM

[urban sand]

I'm happy with the map and MSBS coming to arma before polish modders got their shit together

[daring basin]

@median smelt 3 times, they already resold us chernarous with dayz sa xD

[summer fiber]

(and well i just got GM as well so)

MSBS?

[urban sand]

(but yeah, wtf bohemia, we only just got GM)

next-gen rifle of polish army

[summer fiber]

Ah

[urban sand]

currently (because of politics) only given to the scouts, not to the military, but by 2035 they should get it

*boy scouts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSBS_rifle

[summer fiber]

boy scouts get military rifles?

[median smelt]

Do any of you think that BI is holding back announcing any 'Pew Pew Lazorz'-type content for Contact, but that it'll include it?

[urban sand]

not real boy scouts, weird paramilitary organisation they founded for whatever reason. not real military, not real national guard (thankfuly not ss neither)

[summer fiber]

i see.

[urban sand]

I do hope they'll limit aliens to drones etc

and since it's the best BI studio working on this dlc, I believe in them not turning it into star trek all aliens are people in rubber suits situation 😛

"realistic" aliens should be alien

[median smelt]

Right, but I'm talking things like the Alien drones being armed with... What exactly?

Or just not armed at all?

[summer fiber]

tracer rounds that make pew noises and no ballistics

[urban sand]

lazors are doable

just make a bullet with very long tracer

as I believe mods do it

related 😛

[median smelt]

When the reality of high energy lasers is a weapon with no sound, recoil, and wounds as messy as a bullet?

[summer fiber]

yeah but that's not alien lasers

alien lasers make sound, have you not seen the movies

[brave lintel]

is the non bullpup msbs coming or just the bullpup one?

[median smelt]

I mean, I left out that they're invisible too. :P

[summer fiber]

i do think there's a chance of some more funky alien weapon/unit/vehicle, because that would explain keeping part of Contact optional

but it's also entirely possible it's just anomalies, static ships and heavy scripting

[median smelt]

Yeah.

Though it'd be something to see some sort of 'Independence Day' weapon come out of the massive ship, considering its shape looks like something exactly suited for that.

[daring basin]

If we see extraterrestrials, surely they are of the humanoid type with advanced uniforms, of another color and with a different head, but same skeleton

I hope this dlc brings some surprise

[summer fiber]

so like CSAT Viper? 😄

[daring basin]

exactly 😅

[urban sand]

@brave lintel from what I've seen both versions

It's on Livonia military picture

Aliens might even not be an enemy

Just manacing monolith that acts as a mcguffin

Aliens in contact we're like that. And in arrival to some extent

[summer fiber]

yeah gives me strong arrival vibes

[north jungle]

Which is kinda dissapointing

Wish we'd get a War of the Worlds type deal

Cilinders falling from the skies, once landing, the martians start mounting the fighting machines to strike humanity down. All forces do a joint operation to try and destroy the cilinders as quickly as possible

Else Altis will belong to the martians.

I dream of seeing a mod like that...

[urban sand]

SK do you have jay png?

Because war of the words is impossible on this engine

See Mecha and Warhammer mods

That tend to flip and fly 🤣

[north jungle]

Indeed...

Still I dream... a mad genious might still be able to

And Bohemia has acess to the source so yeah, I'd imagine they have the best chance of doing it.

[woeful kite]

All I saw were floating orange orbs

[gritty pond]

aliens i think are going to be just structure objects in the editor

that's what I'd bet

[urban sand]

There's a chance aliens are sp only. Iirc nl team was the one to add in-editor animation

[summer fiber]

@urban sand https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/104982724762157056/242667823535620096/2Q.png 😄

[urban sand]

Funny that i did t have it at hand

[summer fiber]

I had added it to my favourites when you posted it the first time 😄

[wide meteor]

@brave lintel as far as we've seen only the bullpup
@summer fiber alternately, someone at Bohemia believes that even said anomalies, static ships and heavy scripting would be too much for the people who already vocally criticize the First Contact theme

[woeful kite]

I think next update will have weapons and equipment

[next lark]

I have a long suggestion , is there anyone i should contact?

[scenic lantern]

address it here

[royal lichen]

if it's too long for a discord message post it up on the forums

[scenic lantern]

or that 😉

[royal lichen]

heheh damnit chris you ninja 😛

[scenic lantern]

meh, not really 😄

but almost

[next lark]

But as i mentioned earlier i was sent to a forum by Jiří Kunt, the forum was for bugs and technical help

[scenic lantern]

the feedback tracker is for bugs and issues, the forum is for general discussion, ect

https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/forum/218-arma-3/

@next lark

[next lark]

Thank you, my suggestion have been submitted!

[scenic lantern]

uhm... where?

[calm crescent]

Yay contact discussion

Honestly why not make the alien a drone of some sort? Could be all the sci-fy like you need, without the need to worry about custom skeleton rigs and such

[median smelt]

There are mention of alien UGVs or something like, but only mere mentions.

For all we know they're just going to be setpieces if they exist as anything other than offscreen 'fluff'.

[calm crescent]

Yea, I think the biggest seller for me(even though I pre-ordered it). Will be how much bang for your buck you get out of fluff part at least

Like will their be anti-gravity modules, good documentation for EMI stuff, ect

[dry wren]

not sure if the ambassador discussion is still up
you cant really represent the whole world with just one man or country
or at least not a real one
Santa claus would be more elegible than any of the world leaders

which gave me a mission idea

[urban sand]

G8 countries vs santa?

[mossy mauve]

car-sized alien entitites 🤔
The floating thing shown in the trailers seems bigger than car size, so potentially alien mechs or something survey the envrionemnt?

[harsh gate]

or the alien are the floating thing

or they are the balls on the ground

[languid tartan]

I still hold out hope that BI will be releasing alien units (otherwise why would this be an expansion not a dlc)

[harsh gate]

it's an expansion I believe because it's not canonical with the rest of the series

[pastel dagger]

I think the vessel seen at the end of the trailer is actually the car sized one though

[woeful mauve]

there is a 3,7 gb update to the dev branch anyone checkt it out yet? the new weapons to try out maybe?

[royal lichen]

given the content is ebo files, it might just be minor updates to some content within existing containers,. ebo's can't be delta-patched like pbo's iirc.

[simple zinc]

I checked it out , couldnt find anything new though

[woeful mauve]

feels bad man

[woeful kite]

Change log has no new contact shit :(

[woeful kite]

I beg for new stuff

[summer fiber]

it's an expansion I believe because it's not canonical with the rest of the series
not exapnsion, i think you meant "spin-off"

[languid tartan]

But it is an expansion so it’s very likely aliens will have units OR this is the smallest arma expansion ever

[summer fiber]

most likely the latter

[woeful mauve]

someone know why we have so many destroyed villages on livonia? is it a pre war /civil war area?

[coarse palm]

nah just a alien after math

[woeful mauve]

i guess the bunkers are from ww2 but the houses cant be that old

[woeful kite]

@coarse palm the abandoned towns are part of a military gunnery range

The towns get bombed and mortared while towns closer to civilian areas get used as urban combat ranges

[coarse palm]

i think its alien arty rang

[woeful kite]

Naw

To the north of the area there is an artillery range

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/305796002617491456/584920624586293248/20190602184432_1.jpg

[coarse palm]

nah its where ever there is a civilian presence

[woeful kite]

All the abandoned towns are within the military zone except Drewniki

However some are really close to civilian areas so they must have been binned back in the 90s when there was less civilians

Also there’s a theory that the place used to be home to anti-soviet partisans so the soviets rolled in and burned the place down

[woeful mauve]

Thanks for the info

[wide meteor]

@calm crescent afaik both anti-grav modules and EMI are (probably for the former, definitely for the latter) SP campaign-specific

No new content in today's dev branch changelog (https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/140837-development-branch-changelog/?do=findComment&comment=3360608), only fixes and a few additions:

• user actions to toggle on/off the Decon Shower as well as both an Eden Editor attribute and a variable to disable said actions,
• regular Jets DLC fighters are among the CAS module options,
• three diary-related script commands,
• calculatePath got enhanced,
• and now there's RVExtensionRegisterCallback and "ExtensionCallback" mission EHs

[calm crescent]

Will see

I mean, people are already like "aliens" it would be a huge selling point to at least provide framework in a MP environment for EMI and other stuff. Just like magwell stuff, they don't really need to do a massive mission to show it off, just provide the community the framework.

[wide meteor]

Well Bohemia seemingly got spooked into having 'the alien stuff' be a separate download in the same way as 'retracting the railgun tank' instead of just leaving it all in the sandbox 🤷

but yeah Bohemia's said from the get-go (e.g. on the Contact page and on the forums) that the EM/EW stuff is SP-campaign-specific scripting... so hopefully the scripting can -- but may not be -- extrapolated for the sandbox

[calm crescent]

Yea, that is my hope based on community feedback.

Even if it means just slapping a few lines of code so it runs global

[glacial minnow]

Kinda sad they don't introduce a new systemic gameplay mechanic for us to use in any situation we'd want... Scripting, for large MP missions, with desync and all, is not even an option.

[scenic lantern]

why should BI do that for a game that was released over 5y ago on an engine that was initially created almost 20y ago and it's now in it's 4th stage?
better invest the recourses to develop something new and more powerful.......

[glacial minnow]

They already invested in assets and missions, why not in a functionnal gameplay feature then...

But I agree, contact should not even exist.

[sage anvil]

I dont think he is saying that the DLC should not exist at all

[mortal fractal]

I think Contact is the thing I've been most excited about since Arma 2. Although GM too

[wide meteor]

@glacial minnow They already invested in assets and missions, why not in a functionnal gameplay feature then...
Possible answer: the former may be all that's possible by whoever's left

That and -- to some degree like Apex -- this 'expansion' isn't a 'focus-themed' DLC with corresponding 'selling point' features, although you did have Vehicle in Vehicle (ViV) Transport coming to the base game alongside Apex's V-44X Blackfish

[calm crescent]

At this point I'm not even asking for new mechanics, more just provide a few modules, or functions that cover a MP environment. I'm sure modders will do it anyways, but it would make things a lot more worth it for those who buy the DLC and want to utilize the assets in their own way.

[wide meteor]

Contact's project lead:The Arma 3 team has a very different skill mix available these days than during its primary development years. Many of the things that would be cool to add / tweak are no longer possible 6 years down the line.https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/223442-contact-expansion-feedback/?do=findComment&comment=3360373
otoh, also Contact's project lead, regarding EW:Campaign (or rather Contact 'Total Conversion' mode), but its designer is thinking about ways to make it as 'available' as possible. If not on release, then after hopefully. This may for example include methods for other scripts or mods to 'hook' into the system somehow. We are being rather cautious, because these systems are not MP-proven for starters.https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/143930-general-discussion-dev-branch/?do=findComment&comment=3358440

[calm crescent]

Yea that kinda bugs me

But I mean month and half to go, so you never know with the MP aspect.

[wet tree]

for anyone who is interested, wallpaper engine has a interactive wallpaper for contact

I disabled the clock and visualizer that came with it, but the cursor effects are cool.

[harsh gate]

@summer fiber No, I was answering the question as to why this is described by BI as an expansion (like Apex) instead of a DLC

[summer fiber]

yes but that's the wrong answer 😛

it's an expansion essentially because it adds a map and new factions

it's a spin-off because of the alien stuff/non-canon

[harsh gate]

Malden added a new map, LoW added new factions ... both were DLCs, unless you're saying the math here is that Map = DLC, Faction = DLC but Map + Faction = Expansion ?

[summer fiber]

kinda

[harsh gate]

GM also adds both, so should it actually be called a Creator Expansion instead of a Creator DLC? 😃

[summer fiber]

well, they do call it a "total conversion"

(and imo yeah, GM is an expansion in size)

[slate umbra]

Malden and LOW were tied in to The East Wind campaign, weren't they?

[summer fiber]

yup

Even Apex was, wasn't it? because of the device? or was it running in parallel?

[slate umbra]

Sort of, but more of a sequel than the others

[summer fiber]

i see

[slate umbra]

Malden was mostly about celebrating the game's anniversary though. So I can't imagine they'd choose to categorise it as an expansion because its scope was more limited

No campaign shipped with it initially

just a few missions

[summer fiber]

Yeah, Tac Ops came later

[wide meteor]

Now that I think about it, the whole 'optional' split does mean a difference in download sizes albeit I imagine not by much

[slate umbra]

I imagine the terrain and Polish and Russian radio protocols will be the largest elements of the DLC

[pale void]

i hope there is bandit radio too... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBhh23-paLU

[ancient ice]

So, how about we get shot at in in the face by a Spetsnaz sniper in the End

of the campaign

pretty well if you ask me

[languid tartan]

I think the aliens are the biggest element of the DLC since it’s called contact and has a giant alien spaceship on the cover

If not DISSAPOINTMENT

[urban sand]

*biggest element of the campaign

[woeful kite]

Prob just bigass props n stuff

But when they said they said they had to separate the files gives some hope it’s more than stationary props

[languid tartan]

I know you guys don’t wanna board the hype train because it always crashes but I mean if the expansion doesn’t have ANY alien units that we can use in the editor then that is very lackluster unless the campaign has a lot of replay ability

So in my opinion at least some units being in the editor is the bare minimum of my expectations for the expansion

[summer fiber]

we don't board hype trains because we're familiar with BI's MO

[mortal fractal]

hype train already arrived at the destination for me with both GM and Livonia so I'm set. Excited for the rest of Contact but the terrain is where it's really at

[woeful kite]

I like the new LDF off-road

https://arma3.com/assets/img/contact/screenshots/arma3_contact_screenshot_10.jpg

[brave lintel]

^^

Sexy

[woeful kite]

Hopefully there is a police version and skin

[wide meteor]

On the one hand that Offroad variant has two loadspeakers, on the other hand the two antennae have me thinking 'reskin = FIA Offroad (Command)?'

[royal lichen]

it has a canopy, existing offroads dont.

[pliant summit]

there should be a giant potato

[wide meteor]

@royal lichen Where is where I'd say that the 'command vehicle' gear was housed in such an Offroad (Command)

Courtesy of reyhard on the Bohemia Interactive forums: https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/143930-general-discussion-dev-branch/?do=findComment&comment=3360380 Promet is based actually on 2 rifles - MSBS & VHS-2 with some 2035 changes requested by Livonian government ;). As for name, Promet follows Polish army designation pattern for rifles which used chemical element names as nicknames. It is worth to note that MSBS was meant to follow that pattern too and Radon was used as name for some time till it got officially adopted as Grot

[royal lichen]

or for transporting goats, could quite easily be textured in civilian colours to fit in with the farmers on livonia

gives options for adding more civilian variety to the vehicles too

[mossy mauve]

Yall think spilling water will make that effect on the ground?https://arma3.com/assets/img/contact/screenshots/arma3_contact_screenshot_10.jpg

[mossy mauve]

No.

Pretty sure it'll be a placeable object just like those oil spills from Kart DLC.

[inland cosmos]

IIRC it is

[tidal badger]

I don't really agree with making Arma 3: Contact Optional DLC, considering from my POV this means a painful divide for the people who do or don't have it added or bought at the time of playing

[stark viper]

It’s not optional

[tidal badger]

Don't really want to have to exit Arma 3 to click it because someone forgot to deactivate the DLC

https://dev.arma3.com/post/sitrep-00234

Yes.

[summer fiber]

i think you misunderstood what they have written though

[stark viper]

It’s like previous dlc where it’s always enabled

[devout seal]

Nope

[summer fiber]

Contact: this component is only downloaded to owners of the expansion. It is only loaded when you manually opt to do so via the Launcher for example. Examples of this data are the actual ET, the "First Contact" campaign, and several unorthodox systems. This data will be in the contact folder of the installation. Owners can also uninstall these files via the Arma 3 DLC section of Steam client by unchecking Contact there.```

[devout seal]

Part of it ( the platform) is loaded for all

not the aliens or campaign assets

[stark viper]

The campaign is optional

[tidal badger]

Probably, I did just see the Picture and instantly went 'Ah great, now I have to keep track if it's ticked or not.'

[summer fiber]

Wait so you didn't actually read it?

[tidal badger]

Okay. Thats a good clarifcation-I was about to but I was concerned as soon as I saw the image.

[devout seal]

mixed feelings personally, I hope they get as much stuff into the platform as they can

[tidal badger]

Yeah same, I really couldn't care if there are alien static crafts in the Eden Editor or Zeus

[summer fiber]

on the other hand as little issues we have to deal with for dedicated servers, the better

If there's stuff that overrides vanilla behaviour then it's best left separate

[tidal badger]

like....Who cares you can avoid the content, like you can avoid the Tac-Ops DLC

[devout seal]

yeah not much choice for the overwritten configs

[tidal badger]

Yeah, but one of my concerns are if a server has the Alien stuff ticked and a majority of people who join cannot stay as they haven't ticked the DLC, is how it's going to effect things

As that could be the choice between going back to that sever after loading the DLC or just ignoring it and choosing another as you'd prefer not to close Arma 3

[summer fiber]

So, it's unlikely to work that way

The server will have the enoch (read: platform) component loaded, just like any other client

The missions are SP only so won't be available for the server files

So the open questions are now - will the campaign parts be signed with a vanilla BI key, and if so then what happens when a DLC owner joins a server on which some people are non-owners?

if the answer to the first is "yes" and the answer to the second is "nothing" then it's all good. However i doubt the latter will be the case

[tidal badger]

Yeah that's what I'm really concerned about. I really don't want my community to be split

[summer fiber]

And therefore, whether or not BI signs contact with a different key, you'll likely have to untick the campaign bits before joining multiplayer

There's no real danger of a split

just ask them to turn it off

The danger is owners joining with the thing enabled and it causing funky behaviour in MP

[tidal badger]

Well I feel if it's just to get rid of some of the Campaign assets what's the point? It's not really going to change too much I assume, so why not leave it alone so we don't get the possibility of bugs that we don't understand or something.

[summer fiber]

As i mentioned above, and as alluded to in the spotrep, they will likely be overriding some vanilla behaviour

Which won't fly in MP

[tidal badger]

Well yeah that's the thing I have a problem with. Having tick it on and off because there is one to 29 other people who don't have it ticked. I've probably missed the answer to this situation, if I have sorry I'm not entirely awake right now.

[summer fiber]

The problem isn't that others don't have it

the problem is that the content might change behaviour of the vanilla game

So you shouldn't have it enabled in MP, period (that's my reading of the information so far provided)

Beyond that there aren't any details so we'll have to wait and watch

If BI sign it with a separate key then people with it ticked won't be able to join at all, which is probably the best way to deal with it

[woeful kite]

Will LDF use other DLC vehicles

[inland cosmos]

they have a van in one of the screenshots IIRC

I recalled incorrectly, it was a truck

[wide meteor]

@inland cosmos Would that be a base game Truck? (I don't know which screenshots we looked at)

[inland cosmos]

Yeah, base game truck

The AAF one

Zamak/Kamaz

It's in the screenshot where they're decontaminating an LDF offroad

The truck is behind the offroad

[sterile mesa]

try removing barriers from all sides and snap platforms to each other 😉

[summer fiber]

arma 3 getting fancy 😏

[vernal moth]

👌

[sterile mesa]

if you lower that platform legs will adjust their position too

[stable vine]

What is this sorcery

[royal lichen]

maybe they finally adding jumping in the platform update 😂

[sterile mesa]

@mossy mauve are you sure you are in correct placement mode?

[stable vine]

How is the auto leg adjust done? How does the animation know where the ground is?

[royal lichen]

ground contact lod possibly

or some reyhard voodoo 😄

[sterile mesa]

script is getting position of memory point every time you move it

[stable vine]

Now we only need snapping in 3DEN 😄

[cursive echo]

Are those structures not conveniently sized to snap using the existing gridsnap?

[vernal moth]

Neat stuff!

[dire yacht]

Factorio/Satisfactory in Arma 3 engine confirmed??

[harsh gate]

huh, so Contact has actually been in the pipeline for years?

(twitter video)

[chilly tartan]

afaik Contact was planned as Arma 3

[harsh gate]

Arma 3 was planned to be a sci-fi game, but I don't know that it was going to resemble Contact?

[woeful kite]

New update 4 gb but no new contact stuff

[slate umbra]

that's .ebo files for you

[harsh gate]

maybe in Arma 4 they'll have a better encryption system

[stable vine]

ebo is already good

steam just redownloads stuff because it can't read whats inside it. Which is a good thing

[harsh gate]

a better container might use file based encryption instead, then it only needs to patch out the individual segments not the entire thing

redownloading an entire 4-6GB EBO because of a one line change in a config is definitely not a good thing

[urban sand]

It's be enough if they used smaller packages

[pale void]

it has always been like this on devbranch, no idea why its an issue now all of a sudden 😄

[summer fiber]

i guess a better way of saying it is that "it's always been an issue"

and it was also an issue when DLC were in ebo, even on stable

[dire yacht]

most ebo files had been changed to pbo but now we're back to a lot of ebos again 😛

[summer fiber]

yup, it's also an issue because of the way steam switches branches

[dry wren]

oh my fucking god those platforms made me cream my pants

[woeful kite]

Electromagnetic warfare!!

One of my parents used to work for a DoD contractor to test military assets for risk from EM interference

[slate umbra]

You rotate the walls with the sliders in the attributes menu

[stark viper]

But can you walk on the walls?

[dry wren]

well @mossy mauve in 70% of the missions I make I always use some editor object to make flat surfaces
now they added one that does exactly that

[devout seal]

The added sliders and interactive pieces are really great

it would be cool to see similar additions to other older assets if possible

[near solar]

Are the new guns on dev branch yet or nah?

[royal lichen]

dude, it's the weekend, give devs a break

[stable vine]

!purgeban @woeful kite 14d abusive language towards developers

👋

[coarse ridge]

*fires them railguns at @woeful kite* Ò_Ó

[royal lichen]

pew pew

[wise hare]

Meanwhile I’m in Washington rocking sandals and short sleeve shirts as soon as I can. “Oh it’s medium 50s? Yeah I’ll wear my summer stuff.”

[slender raft]

I have seen that some of the ruins in the city branch like the V5 and V4 (i think) is the same from Arma 2, while the other once has been reworked. Will these also be reworked once it releases?

[near solar]

@royal lichen Its a simple question considering they posted about it today.

[royal lichen]

@near solar I was replying to nathan who got himself removed for being abusive

without his msgs it looks out of context, so apologies if you have confusion 😃

[near solar]

Gocha, no worries.

[royal lichen]

all good 😃

[west charm]

A bit excited for that new machine gun 😁

[wide meteor]

@west charm The RPK-12? I ask because it looks very similar to the version from Battlefield 4, as does the AKU-12

[west charm]

Aha ... you figure it's like zafir with more controllability? (Did I just describe about 3-4 existing machine guns in the game 😏 )

It's based on some existing weapon too?

[wide meteor]

I have no idea regarding its stats

And no both the AKU-12 and RPK-12 have no publicly known iteration that looks like that

@west charm Remember Apex's AK-12?

[west charm]

sure

not used it that much but I know it

[weary terrace]

RPK in real life has 7.62x39mm ammo, zafir has 7.62x54mm

so, it's more bang in each bullet's case

[wide meteor]

Apex's AK-12 (along with that of a bunch of other video games) is based on the 2011-2013 prototype (http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:Ak-12.jpg) which was not adopted due to shortcomings in trials and/or 'don't need a rifle replacement now', but in the second half of 2016 a visibly-different-looking version (with AK-12 for 5.45 x 39 mm http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:AK-12_2017.jpg and designation AK-15 for the 7.62 x 39 mm version) was revealed -- along with a corresponding RPK-16 in 5.45 x 39 mm -- and the final production model was officially announced as adopted in January of 2018

while as far as I know the 'AKU-12' and 'RPK-12' were never shown IRL, only in a certain image going around on the Internet (http://i41.servimg.com/u/f41/15/11/39/27/sai-6713.jpg or http://cdn.fishki.net/upload/post/201604/02/1905402/tn/pnce408.jpg), and may or may not have actually existed

but Battlefield 4 did 'em anyway and now so did Bohemia's artists

[west charm]

A worthy addition then

Wonder what would be the best MG benchmark... maybe I'll just cook up my own in the editor

never fired the small 6mm-ish caliber ones that much, nor SPMG; koth seems to prefer Zafir

and 5mm ones are a bit special purpose, I've used the Spar and some Zerty guys seem to prefer the CAR

[wide meteor]

According to Contact's Web page both the AKU-12 and RPK-12 are said to be in 7.62 (x 39 I'm certain) mm and the latter has a 75 round drum mag in the renders

[west charm]

Oh, oh, almost forgot the legendary lim-85 (5mm). But don't have that in the current iteration of koth

[sonic isle]

when is ayylien out

[stable vine]

@sonic isle you already got your answer in #general_chat_arma

[west charm]

@sonic isle don't cross-post, the regular frogs will be more than mildly upset 😃

[sonic isle]

I saw this channel existed so i put it here

Did the delete not go through?

[west charm]

Looks like it didn't 😃

[sonic isle]

Sorry my internet isn’t the best in this corner of the world

[west charm]

Fair enough...

[spare wind]

Hi guys! Any idea how to get that anounced sneak peak to livonia after preordering? ;)

[royal lichen]

switch your game to dev branch on steam via the beta's tab in game properties

[empty bear]

Or use SteamCMD to download the dev branch separately so you don't mess up your release branch game and have to download gigabytes every time you want to switch... 😃

[shy summit]

Contact Starter:
What would be the most likely motivation for intelligent extraterrestrial life to visit Earth?

Share your thoughts in this channel!

[scenic lantern]

to study the extreme idiotic behavior of our governmental leadership and stupidity in general to use us as a bad example of what stubbornness leads to

[summer fiber]

"don't do to our planet what they did to theirs"

[summer vale]

To help implement Fully Automated Luxury Space Communism™

[subtle ember]

genetically engineered cat girls, what else?

[royal lichen]

Most likely resource farming, if they are intelligent they will already know we have a history of destroying each other and if they are from outside our solar-system then they already have access to tech that is far superior to anything that exists here, except cat pictures, they come for the cat pictures.

[subtle ember]

resources on the earth are pretty common in space though. There are probably better choices for that (asteroids, larger planets ect.). Unique/rare for earth is the location in the habitable zone of our solar system & ofc the nature and different species that could be sampled or observed.

[royal lichen]

life is a resource too 😃

[grizzled cosmos]

They come to outsource their production to China?

[harsh gate]

habitable worlds are few and far between, so colonisation is a plausible reason to come to our marble

[fallen wren]

well arma furnature ofc course because aliens dont have it 😛

[summer fiber]

unless they're happy with their own and haven't run it into the ground

[harsh gate]

they would have run out of space just like we will eventually

[mossy mauve]

The most likely reason for visitation is for purely scientific reasons. Samplings of wildlife and planets including humans.

Scoop up a couple of good subjects probe'em dump'em and off to the next planet

[inland cosmos]

maybe they're looking for intelligent life

[mossy mauve]

Which also fits in with the scientific thing.

[harsh gate]

scientific curiosity is a good reason, but sending actual living beings to remote worlds instead of just probes is unlikely because it's an order of magnitude more costly (resources) and difficult

[mossy mauve]

Good point

What is Earth was a test experiment to see how life on other rplanet would evole

[royal lichen]

pretty sure if they are interplanetary species already and going off-world to different planets and systems, they will have already overcome any resource penalties in doing so

[mossy mauve]

Unlikely I know but fuck it I can't think of anything else tbh

That's a very good point

Perhaps they did just come here for pics of doggos

[harsh gate]

@royal lichen We're already going to different planets and we've not solved those problems even over the short distances within our own solar system

[royal lichen]

we're not, we're probing them with robots

[harsh gate]

sending a probe to another planet is significantly easier than sending a living being, because you don't need to worry about carrying food, water, a breathable atmosphere, heating, waste handling and a thousand different safety systems just to make sure they survive the trip there and back

@royal lichen precisely

Why would you send a living being when you can send a robot?

nevermind considerations like the maximum speed of travel and the fact that your scientist would be long dead before they arrived

[royal lichen]

also we have no idea about aliens sustenance/needs, they are alien after all,. but yeah i figure if they are inter-planet/system capable, then resources for the trip would be negligable

[lusty sparrow]

human mercenaries for intergalactic wars

[summer fiber]

@harsh gate that's hardly a given. Space required is dependent on consumption and population, neither need to (or can) grow indefinitely

[median smelt]

Hydrocarbons. While there's other sources in space, life is the only process we know of capable of readily forming naturally occurring hydrocarbons.

And of course, life as we know it only exists in abundance on our little blue marble.

That or a freaking lot of liquid water.

Fusion fuel and all.

[mossy mauve]

@lusty sparrow The aliens have come to draft the humans into a intergalactic war so that next Arma game we can have some awesome space battles.

[harsh gate]

@summer fiber Take the Earth as a model here. How can you constrain population growth or reduce consumption without, say, banning reproduction or culling the population? Reducing consumption alone won't help, because population growth would take up the slack and it would just delay the inevitable.

[summer fiber]

It will, consumption and population go hand in hand when it comes to how much you need.

[harsh gate]

having cured so many of the diseases that naturally keep population under control, you can't maintain a stable population without drastic action. Meaning eventually you run out of space or exceed the planets ability to support the population and you need to expand beyond that planet.

@summer fiber So starvation will control the population?

[summer fiber]

You don't ban reproduction, you take measures like family planning awareness etc. and other schemes to raise public health standards and dissuade repro

what the hell

yeah i mean if we go on like we are then yes

but as a plan that's silly

[harsh gate]

@summer fiber Family planning has been the norm in the West for decades, but population is still increasing. In China the one child per family rules didn't prevent population growth, it just slowed it.

[summer fiber]

well of course

but they slowed it a lot

And in the west the growth is tiny

[harsh gate]

unless you stop or reverse it, eventually ...

[summer fiber]

not to mention you folks still seem to have families with 3+ kids for some reason

The replacement fertility rate for a stable population is something like 1.8 or 2.1 or something similar

[mossy mauve]

What's this convo about O.o

[harsh gate]

@mossy mauve What would motivate an alien race to colonise other planets

[summer fiber]

Yeah it went off the original topic of this channel 😛

[royal lichen]

resource management, tiberium depleted.

[mossy mauve]

What if they where a nomadic alien race and where just looking to crash on our couches

[royal lichen]

maybe they are looking for groot

[summer fiber]

but tldr you can't expect everyone to live like folks do in NA, but at lower consumption levels and fairer distribution you absolutely can provide a reasonable quality of life sustainably. And imo any advanced civilization would have the ability to rationalise this and implement it.

[sage anvil]

now that there is a 75 round magazine for the AKM, would be awesome to see after release the original RPK (and maybe an AKM GL variant as well)

[minor adder]

goddamn the new 6.5 mm sound sexy, even the mx

[harsh gate]

they added new sounds?

[minor adder]

yeah, the mx has new sounds

and so many new reskins

a black mk200

green 4-five

the promet sounds great

and its so silent

with the suppresor

thats probably a bug

the rpk is sadly just a slightly reskinned ak12

same sound

is 6.5 caseless?

[minor adder]

slightly reskinned AK

ak-12

even uses ak-12 mags

the middle part of the gun is the same

[devout seal]

thats how its supposed to be

they are the same family of guns

[minor adder]

seems kinda lazy to just slightly reskin the ak-12 and call it a rpk

shotgun reload looks nice, but is extremely slow

[devout seal]

but

that’s what the rpk 12 is?

[minor adder]

basically the only really new weapons are the promet and the shotguns, the mk14 classic is just a shittier normal mk14, then the ak12-u hjas a slightly shorter barrel, and the rpk is a slightly reskinned ak-12

[devout seal]

look at this picture of the weapon family https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5e/d8/c6/5ed8c606b8194f6ceba14fcebb1dafa4.jpg

they all share the same parts, with minor variations

[minor adder]

yeah, thats just kinda boring

if you get what i mean

all sound the same

[sage anvil]

well, like everyone said here, they are part of the same platform, so there would barely be any differences

mostly mechanical, maybe a longer barrel

[minor adder]

yes, im saying that they maybe should have picked another weapon to spice things up

[sage anvil]

maybe, but me personally, I am glad to have it, along with the AKU-12, it really rounds out the Russian Infantry arsenal

[scenic grail]

Any videos of the new guns out yet?

[minor adder]

probably not

search on youtube i guess

[west charm]

@shy summit the green things that grow on top of the planet make them feel very romantic and the temperature is just about right for laying their eggs too

Can't believe people missed that 🙄

[brave lintel]

Are the new weapons in dev build?

[fallen zephyr]

Yep

[summer fiber]

@brave lintel yes see https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/140837-development-branch-changelog/?page=55&tab=comments#comment-3361710

[harsh carbon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyQfQYFXX4k

the new weapons

played on a toaster though

[silent minnow]

well my fps was good but i recorded it with the standard windows 10 recorder so that turned it into a potatoe

had to get it out quick didnt care too much about the quality

[scenic lantern]

@silent minnow
OBS
😉

[royal lichen]

hm interesting, Square Enix's Outriders world name is Enoch, some reason for the name change to Livonia?

[boreal steppe]

are weapons in the dev branch now?

[chrome osprey]

Wasn't Enoch the son of Cain... Was LoW Cain? 😉

Yes, weapons are in the dev branch

[boreal steppe]

ok ty

[mortal fractal]

Cain was Kolgujev in OFP

Malden was Abel

Everon was Eden

[mossy mauve]

hey I'm having an issue with contact

how did you guys get the map

I got the dlc several days ago

and it never installed

[trail heart]

@mossy mauve Did you update to dev branch?

[mossy mauve]

oh no how do I do that

[trail heart]

Open your steam library and right click on Arma 3 select properties select "BETAS" tab then at the drop down bar select development - Development Build and it should update.

[empty bear]

Um... with the warning that you won't be able to play on non-dev servers with that version. That might have been handy info. 😃

If that's something that's important

[kind egret]

Is there a simple way of opting in and out of dev branch without having to download it again?

[stable vine]

GameUpdater from Arma 3 tools

I have dev branch and RC and release branch all installed in parallel

[woeful mauve]

Does not work if you have 2 way Authentication with steam app

[stable vine]

could do it manually via steamcmd

[kind egret]

@stable vine @woeful mauve Thanks for the quick help, guys! I don't have 2-way authentification enabled, so I'll try the GameUpdater method first.

[near solar]

Are any of the new weapons on dev branch yet?

[stable vine]

Yes

[mossy mauve]

Arma xcom

[near solar]

That underbarrel SG is on a whole new level

[harsh gate]

yes, a lower one, underneath ...

[mossy mauve]

@trail heart thanks so much

[sonic isle]

So is it out yet

[summer fiber]

i mean the release date is july 25th or something so you should be able to guess

[mossy herald]

https://www.reddit.com/r/arma/comments/bzjjnf/whats_about_upgrade_virtual_arsenal_huh/
😉

[weary terrace]

I'm not sure if it's related to contact
Also I'm not sure if it's possible to add buttons to a listbox row

[wide meteor]

Doesn't sound like this is changing: https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/143930-general-discussion-dev-branch/?do=findComment&comment=3359286
"We just need ONE item in the list for EACH object, and select the color/texture under a sub-menu."
That requires major rework of engine code and item configs, in vanilla game and mods. I can tell you with certainty that's not going to happen.``````We also thought about combining different textures per weapon, but for the same reason as stated above (major config rework needed) and because you can already search for "woodland" for example we decided that would just be a waste of time.

[chrome osprey]

For people using black market or other trader systems on servers, the separate classes and separate descriptions are pretty welcome (though I realise that that is a niche thing)... Having 15 Urals in a trader all called Ural but each with different camos that you can't tell without having class name to description translations in the trader code is a pain (looking at you CUP and RHS... 😉 )

[scenic lantern]

@chrome osprey
https://media.giphy.com/media/f8oqjTlp0PdMA/giphy.gif

😉

[chrome osprey]

🤣

[scenic lantern]

let's continue on CUP discord. i don't like cluttering the chat here with OT

[chrome osprey]

Roger that

[versed brook]

Are the Spetsnaz going to have their own vehicles (namely helicopters, tanks and other armored attack vehicles), or are they going to just be exclusively infantry with a small amount of recon/transport vehicles?

[chrome osprey]

Looking at the newspaper in Contact... what is the announcement on CSAT by the Russian Federation? Are they leaving?

[wide meteor]

The headline is that Russia sets date for major vote on CSAT membership

[chrome osprey]

I always thought they were members LOL... don't do vanilla ARMA3... all my stuff is 2025

[wide meteor]

Mind you idk if that means that they're voting about an existing membership; here's the screenshot for context: https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/223395-arma-3-dlc-contact/?do=findComment&comment=3361711

[charred beacon]

If you bother to turn the newspaper over, the story continues and you get a much bigger insight on the situation

https://i.imgur.com/0UW1YLI.jpg

Russia received its invitation to become a CSAT member state in 2035, but delayed a formal response until an investigation could be made into the 'Apex Protocol Papers', which almost led to the bloc fragmenting from within.

[chrome osprey]

LOL... I never, ever thought of turning it over. Bravo Bohemia, bravo!!!

[charred beacon]

I'm not gonna lie, I was impressed to see it continues.

But maybe I just hang around lazy artists

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[chrome osprey]

Hans Brecht as SACEUR...?

[charred beacon]

That is indeed what the paper says

[chrome osprey]

Hmm...

Ah, yes, General Hans Brecht from Granville, Ohio

[stable vine]

@mossy herald if you want arsenal improvements, then I'd say spend your time asking BI to implement ACE arsenal, ACE Team would gladly help to replace this abomination that calls itself Arsenal from the base game.
But the chances are slim. But offering to do it for them still has better chances than telling them to do it themselves.
I'm quite sure that the buttons you proposed won't work.
We thought about a seperate list (maybe on the right side panel) to select camo. That would work.

[harsh gate]

I'm really not sure I'd agree that it requires a major rework, I think they are looking at this from the wrong angle. The proposal isn't that you have just one weapon with multiple textures in the game, but one weapon with texture selection in the UI. Changing how the information is grouped/presented in the UI shouldn't require changing any configs or engine changes

[stable vine]

It was unfeasable from ACE point of view

we cannot rework mods

And yes it does require config changes, else how would you know which weapons are supposed to belong together?

Also someone proposed a "parent" entry. That's all fine and dandy if all weapon refer to the same parent, but what if they are chained? oof.
Or maybe a circular reference?
maybe a "weaponGroup" entry instead, which gives the group a common name.

Have you seen the Arsenal code?

[summer fiber]

@versed brook CSAT vehicles seem to be mostly Russian built, so I'm going to go with "they just use vanilla vehicles". One of the screenshots of Contact shows them disembarking from a Mi-48.

Of course, now I'm going to wait for all the "how much content was cut" comments 🤣

[harsh gate]

@stable vine Don't the classnames follow a standard pattern (to a point)?

and I'm not really talking of mods, but vanilla weapons

the vanilla system wouldn't have to deal with mods IMHO, modders would just have to conform to the standard set by vanilla if they want to benefit

maybe I'm wrong, not pretending that I've done my homework here

[stable vine]

"Don't the classnames follow a standard pattern (to a point)" mods.

[harsh gate]

like I said, screw mods 😃

[stable vine]

Arma is a very mod centered game. Saying we don't need to care about mods...

[harsh gate]

ACE maybe does, being a mod itself. Vanilla game can and frequently has made necessary improvements which require mods to fall inline

[stable vine]

We can safely implement it like I said with a "weaponGroup" entry. Kinda like magazine wells.

[harsh gate]

and what's the worst that happens here? if the mods don't conform, they just get displayed like they do right now

[stable vine]

Multiple weapons belong to the same group, and they can then be grouped together in arsenal.
Question then is just which member of the group defines the preview image and name, before you click onto it and get shown the group members

"if the mods don't conform, they just get displayed like they do right now" a feature that no mod implements wouldn't be that useful would it?

Mods cannot just change classnames to conform to something and break all previous missions and loadouts

[harsh gate]

I'd only group on retextures - not group say all variants, that seems like the least messy option

[stable vine]

If one implements that generic weaponGroups thing, mods could group however they like

Group the AK with picatinny rail or different stock's together, even if they have the same "camo"

[harsh gate]

@stable vine Yes, but that requires the same config changes that everyone says is "too much work"

[stable vine]

Yes.

[harsh gate]

@stable vine No, same model, with different textures

i.e. different model options would still be listed separately

that's what was proposed above in the reddit thread

[stable vine]

Though.. It adds a big downside, if you first have to select the weapon and then get shown the camo's. If you are searching for weapons that have fitting camo's to your terrain, you cannot immediately see available camo's anymore. You have to click through every weapon and see what's available

[harsh gate]

The main argument here is that having 5 different texture variants of the exact same weapon listed separately makes navigating the arsenal (and editor) painful

search would still work?

i.e. search by "Lush" and you'd still get just the weapons with lush textures?

[stable vine]

"(and editor)" editor is a whole different story.
Yeah but if you add search, then you don't really have to navigate anymore if you know what you're looking for, which makes that feature not that useful

[royal lichen]

main argument here is that having 5 different texture variants of the exact same weapon listed separately makes navigating the arsenal (and editor) painful
I would counter that and say it makes it much easier to find what you want faster than adding yet another layer of UI ontop.

[harsh gate]

IF you know what you're looking for

Even after all this time I can't remember the names of every weapon and sometimes I just want to browse the different options available

@royal lichen Having the grouping be optional (collapse/uncollapse) would give people that choice

[stable vine]

I have 190+ weapons in my primary weapon list in arsenal.
Only times I actually scroll through is when I want to find something that looks nice and fits my other stuff. And for that I want to see available camo's too. And searching for camo doesn't help (woodland/lush/forest/humid/green)

If it's made optional and can be enabled/disabled on the fly then all the contra arguments are basically gone.

[royal lichen]

and a shedload more to configure for addon authors, for a few edge case scenarios,. honestly if this discussion was when the VA became a thing and still on dev-branch, then yes they might have done it differently then, but it isnt, and the system works fine for the majority of users outside of the edge cases.

[harsh gate]

I'm mostly coming at this from the Editor to be honest, in MP I have my favourites and loadouts there, but when building out scenarios the current list approach is slower

[stable vine]

IMO search is way more important than grouping of camos.

[royal lichen]

yeah a search similar to the way eden search works would be good.

[harsh gate]

also categorisation - SMGs, Shotguns, Carbines, Rifles, Sniper Rifles, LAT, etc

[stable vine]

It's the main factor in ACE Arsenal, it makes such a huge difference to just type 2 letters and get what you want, instead of scrolling for 2 seconds

"also categorisation - SMGs, Shotguns, Carbines, Rifles, Sniper Rifles, LAT, etc" no entries for that in config

[harsh gate]

again Search supposes you know exactly the weapon you are looking for

[stable vine]

also thought about categorization for ACE arsenal

[harsh gate]

@stable vine That's just another wishlist item, similar to grouping in the first place

[royal lichen]

similar to this entire conversation

runs off to do human things

[sterile mesa]

@stable vine 3Den is dealing with that and it's also scripted

it's making some assumptions though which may not be necessarily correct

[stable vine]

What is the shotgun categorized as 😄 Rifle?

Some info about what type a weapon is would be useful. But until official scripts use that info, adoption will be low

Does that thing also not have a search box in vanilla? I have one, I guess ACE adds that too

[sterile mesa]

shotgun is recognized as rifle

and there is no search box although on this one it should be fairly easy to add

[pastel dirge]

RC testing of Update 1.94 has started.
Added: Contact expansion (limited components - more to be added later - specific expansion feedback here please)

I assume there's nothing new compared to the dev branch. 🤔

[stable vine]

pseudo-changelog - see Dev-Branch for more details yup.

[pastel dirge]

This isn't really a candidate for release when it's still missing half the content. 😦

"First up next: characters / gear, and then vehicles. The campaign would be added last. Granted it's not a true RC in that sense, but we use the branch to test a version as close as possible to the eventual release."

[scenic grail]

What does that stuff mean with RC Branch anyways?

[pastel dirge]

RC is what will become the 1.94 update next month.
You can try it by switching the game to the RC branch in Steam.

[summer fiber]

Dev is what they're working on every day, so it's a "nightly" build. RC is whatever bits of that are ready for the next update. So usually by the time RC is being tested publicly, dev is ahead of RC. So Stable release and RC will be 1.94, but by that time dev branch will be 1.95 already. And then 1.96 when they're closer to releasing the next stable patch.

[stable vine]

"And then 1.96 when they're closer to releasing the next stable patch." dev branch is never on even numbers
dev branch is already on 1.95

[summer fiber]

oh so it'll be 1.95 then 1.97 directly? (after 1.96 goes live on RC/stable)

[pastel dirge]

or before

[summer fiber]

ah yes, good point. interesting.

[keen bramble]

Hopefully we get the gear soon, especially the civilian outfits....the CP modules are spawning dayglow Altians all over Livonia. 😆

[main cedar]

Can I use @everyone?

[scenic lantern]

nope, and that's very good

[hallow timber]

Are we sure the slugs aren't actually alien-made ammo?

[umbral forum]

hand-loaded by miller himself

[honest root]

I hope the map and campaign turns out great

Was a bit dissapointed with the weapons

lot of reskins with the same sounds and handling

just under a new name

[calm sphinx]

Sorry if I missed this, but I remember something about underground tunnels mentioned for contact. Does this mean the engine supports "holes" in the terrain now?

[stable vine]

no information about that yet

But I'm 99% sure that BI didn't make a huge engine change that was already unfeasable while Arma 3 was still in active development

[summer fiber]

More likely just a tunnel object

Like the trenches on Tanoa

[charred beacon]

I would bet that they're implied in name only, but I'm not a gambling man.

[calm sphinx]

I think I've seen some ways of "cheating" a way to go under the terrain, but as far as I can see the AI can't operate in such structures. Oh, well. What I was really hoping for was not underground structures per se, but the ability to make tunnels through mountains and such

Like a "enter" action that teleports you

or "glitching" through use of ladders

[ancient ice]

Where does one find Deer

[mossy mauve]

10-4, my apologies @stable vine

I didn't see the temple but I'll use it

[harsh gate]

@calm sphinx Underground tunnels were not mentioned. Underground network was, but that could mean anything from cables to tentacles.

[calm sphinx]

arh, I misunderstood lol

Read what I wanted to read I suppose!