Sunday, June 12, 2016

Arma 3 - Suppression, Bot Style, Now Available in Plain Vanilla Version

I know everybody is very excited about the upcoming Apex and Tanoa but just let me share my excitement about the complete rehaul of the "suppressive fire" command that a player can give to computer-controlled members of his squad.



I recently modded my Arma 3 with the latest version of the aggregated mods by SimHQ.com. By the way, SimHQ is one of the best places to play Arma 3 online. They offer a semi-casual atmosphere that will serve very well to mature players both casual and pro.

So, as seen above I'm fighting like it is 1991 :) and getting my hands dirty with the new suppressive fire command. I have a US fireteam that includes a light (or medium?) machine gun.

This enemy MG is located at an entrance of a campground, with some defile protecting him from our guns.

Suppressive fire on that entrance! They shoot nice and long enough for me to watch and move towards the enemy.

The enemy goes prone, under fire. This is not new. The new thing is my fireteam shooting at the entrance (note the impact of rounds) in a direction where they don't see a target.

I move forward, just myself (not a good idea but this is just an experiment) and I think I hear a shot from the enemy. I go prone immediately as the suppressive fire from my men wanes. If I want to move I will need more suppressive fire, but my LOS is blocked by that bush and I can't point my men's fire using the regular interface.

And take a look at this: you can order suppressive fire using the map. Just remember that your soldiers can't shoot what they can't see, so check if they can see their suppressive fire aim point.

A new round of suppression allows me to get really close for the final assault. Not the dust lifted by the rounds impacting nearby the entrance.
An it goes downhill from here. The enemy bot gets very distracted by the suppressive fire (he keeps aiming at my unseen men). He throws a grenade and that allows me to see and shoot him in the head. Done!

Make sure to check out this new feature. It works best when you are a squad leader. Just make sure that you don't walk onto your men's line of fire. Or call a suppressive fire mission too close to you ... I once got blown by a tank under my command while doing that.

Cheers,





9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been really liking the new improvements in Arma 3. And look at these screenshots!!! A couple looked like real pics to my eye!
-tFS

JC said...

Hello tFS, nice to see you around here!

Indeed. All those improvements adding up, it is great.

Cheers,

badanov said...

I think the designers intended the suppression fire order to be used in conjunction with the flanking maneuver order. The rest of the squad can pepper the area you order as your flanking maneuver makes its move.

Anonymous said...

I have a love hate relationship with Arma 3. Every time I see your posts it brings back the love. But then I remember the frustrations I've had with it. I have two questions:

1 - There are a ton of mods available. I find the UI a bit of a challenge are there any mod(s) that you don't play without?

2 - For solo play I've spent most of my time with the campaign but its a bit of a drag for me. What are your favorite SP missions?

3 - Your comment about SimHQ online play peaked my interest. I'm looking for a community that offers casual, mature gaming with people who are willing to help others out.

Great blog! Cheers!

JC said...

Hi badanov, how is going?

Exactly. Thanks for bringing that up.

Cheers,

JC said...

Hi Anonymous,

I hear you. But nothing comes close to what this game offers.

1 - Mods. I like to run my games plain vanilla. I am a devout "out of the box" type of guy. However, for Arma 3 there are some cool mods that deserve attention. Right now, my essential mods are the ones posted at SimHQ.com's Arma 3 forum: CBA3, RHS Russian and US forces and the SimHQ mod pack (includes a lot of maps and other goodies). Really compact and good. The guys at SimHQ have an exquisite taste for mods.

2 - I play solo missions made by my brother, my son and myself. I can't comment on the included SP missions because I never played them.

3 - SimHQ is one of the great communities for playing Arma 3. They are mature enough to have a good and satisfying tactical mission. No ranks, no over the top gimmicks like some other groups that have promotions and "show up or you are demoted" type of things. Try it.

Thanks,

Mike said...

Hey JC and Anon,

I thought I would add a couple of mods to JC's list that I think are a must.

The first in 3denEnhanced (you can find it on the steam workshop). it adds a large number of checkbox style controls to the unit properties in the Eden editor, you can also set idle animations so that the ai is not just standing around. It also adds controls to the weather that give you some nice additions.

The second is a small one, Arma Enhanced Movement, which will let you climb over short walls or onto low roofs.

Last is a rather big one, ACE 3. I can't go into all the things it adds, mostly it is the medical, but also a lot of interaction with yourself or others, including vehicles. It's a very long list and it works with RHS.

good luck and if you want to every try out coop with a mature, small group let me know.

mesha

Hopefully this will post this time

Anonymous said...

Blogger JC said...
Hello tFS, nice to see you around here!

I'm always around even if I don't always check in. ;)

I'll add since we're talking about mods that the Arma 3 launcher has improved greatly and it makes it much easier to use mods. So many downloaded missions require mods and the launcher will tell you which ones you need, which takes away a lot of the confusion, especially when you end up with tons of mods sitting around. It will also update your mods as well when it can.
-tFS

JC said...

Hi Mike and thanks for your suggestions. I will take a look at those mods.