Better Weapon Selection and Customization

[rampo]

How many times has this been re-suggested?

[Mr. Hader]

how about using the BF2142 system?

[M.Warren]

How many times has this been re-suggested?

It has been suggested before, even by myself briefly and had not gone into deep detail on the matter.

This is the other problem about PR in relation to having so many factions as it just adds more kit structuring and such. They'll have to make more kit variations for the British, M.E.C., Militia, P.L.A., Taliban and U.S. forces. This is also why I had given up on the idea as it would most likely be deemed too time consuming for such a small and inconsistent factor in weapon variations amongst other factions. Then again, who knows? A lot of time and effort has already been put into the infantry aspect of PR, which is more than any other department.

This will also possibly increase the downloadable file size of the PR core files. I'm not a developer, but common sense would suggest that BF2 doesn't have enough sense to recognize that the weapon kit is otherwise the same, but just has a different gun sight on it. So thus it would result in multiples of the same kit.

In other words, imagine a Rifleman Kit "copy and pasted" 5 times over with the only difference being the optics modeled on the rifle. Seems like a lot of work for a minor gain. There may also be an increase in the size of the "PR Core" files when people have to download PR. This also includes the potential consumption of time and development manpower.

As much as I like new ideas, it is unsettling at times when these new ideas and concepts could potentially displace already existing material that's been on the "low priority" list for years. I can think of several more important things that could use fixing that's been neglected over the past releases of PR that's long overdue to be taken care of otherwise. Not only that, but Operation Flashpoint 2 and Arma 2 has the potential to take away from the available player base to PR in the near future. I'd like to see PR finally address the last bits that need to be taken care of. There's always time to comeback and refine gameplay afterwards, but we don't always have time to be waiting for content to be fixed to the way it should have been all along. For all we know, PR could jump ship from the BF2 engine and begin on a more promising gaming platform in the future. Just running out of time folks, let's set it straight and wrap it up right.

[hiberNative]

i approve of the OP's ideas.
i don't want kit requests bound to tickets, though, so my gameplay is affected when Mr_gunfun2008 constantly wants the biggest piece of the pie.

[waldo_ii]

This might be possible, I'm not sure. But, what I do know is possible, as evidenced by the Sandbox mod, is that right-clicking a menu item can be coded to have a different effect than left clicking. This means that we can have a kit request system that is cosmetically exactly as it is now, but right clicking can give you optics and left clicking means irons, or a different set of optics. The number of kits that can be made is virtually unlimited.


HOWEVER, this won't be done, at least for most kits, for a reason. There has to be differences between kits. For example: Medics are not supposed to have magnified optics. That would turn them into a combat soldier, and that is against the wishes of the mod team. The same goes for HAT, AA, Combat engineer, etc. They all have the weapon that is in game now for a reason; they do not have fancy optics because that would turn them into something they are not supposed to be.


This is a good idea for a limited number of kits. I think that the number of kits that would be positively affected by this idea doesn't justify the extra amount of work and complication required.

Kits that this would not affect due to desired usage

• Pilot
• Crewmen
• Sniper
• Marksman
• HAT
• AA
• Combat engineer

Kits that would be positively affected

• Grenadier (new model required)
• Light-AT
• Officer (already done at the spawn screen

[gclark03]

All we need to do is provide limited kits with a choice of irons/aimpoint or scope with an extension of the command rose. That's it.

[Solid Knight]

It has been suggested before, even by myself briefly and had not gone into deep detail on the matter.

This is the other problem about PR in relation to having so many factions as it just adds more kit structuring and such. They'll have to make more kit variations for the British, M.E.C., Militia, P.L.A., Taliban and U.S. forces. This is also why I had given up on the idea as it would most likely be deemed too time consuming for such a small and inconsistent factor in weapon variations amongst other factions. Then again, who knows? A lot of time and effort has already been put into the infantry aspect of PR, which is more than any other department.

This will also possibly increase the downloadable file size of the PR core files. I'm not a developer, but common sense would suggest that BF2 doesn't have enough sense to recognize that the weapon kit is otherwise the same, but just has a different gun sight on it. So thus it would result in multiples of the same kit.

In other words, imagine a Rifleman Kit "copy and pasted" 5 times over with the only difference being the optics modeled on the rifle. Seems like a lot of work for a minor gain. There may also be an increase in the size of the "PR Core" files when people have to download PR. This also includes the potential consumption of time and development manpower.

As much as I like new ideas, it is unsettling at times when these new ideas and concepts could potentially displace already existing material that's been on the "low priority" list for years. I can think of several more important things that could use fixing that's been neglected over the past releases of PR that's long overdue to be taken care of otherwise. Not only that, but Operation Flashpoint 2 and Arma 2 has the potential to take away from the available player base to PR in the near future. I'd like to see PR finally address the last bits that need to be taken care of. There's always time to comeback and refine gameplay afterwards, but we don't always have time to be waiting for content to be fixed to the way it should have been all along. For all we know, PR could jump ship from the BF2 engine and begin on a more promising gaming platform in the future. Just running out of time folks, let's set it straight and wrap it up right.

Kits files are about two kilobytes in size uncompressed.
Creating a new kit is extremely easy and takes only a few minutes.

The hardest part would be creating the new UI but even then it's not a huge amount of work either. It could get done within one day.

I'm not sure how extensible the spawning script is but it should just be a matter of mapping some new UI events which shouldn't take very long either.

[Tonnie]

I hope you all realize that this will mean more weapon models as you cant just swap the sights on one model by code, it would have to be done using new models so say you want an eohtech on one that is 1 model the weapon and the sight... and if you want say 5 diffrent sights on the one weapon and you just choose from them thats 5 models allready and thats going to add to the size of the Mod... Only 5 extra you say... well put it this way say there 10 weapons you want to be able to custermise with diffrent sights... thats 50 models just there. you can see my point..

I like the idea dont get me wrong but the size will add to the download

[Solid Knight]

If you implement the system with the current equipment then you have the choice of: ACOG, Aimpoint, and ironsights. You can roll out other variations incrementally.

Here's how things would be as they currently stand:

US

1. ACOG: + 0
2. Aimpoint + 2 (M4--M203/M16--M203)
3. Ironsights + 2 (M4--M203/M16--M203)
4. EOTech +4 (M4/M16/M4--M203/M16--M203)

Russia

1. Ironsights + 1 (AKM-74--GP-25)
2. Scope + 1 (AKS-74U)
3. Cobra + 3 (AKS-74U/AKM-74/AKM-74--GP-25)

UK

1. Ironsights + 1 (L85--GL)
2. SUSAT + 0
3. Red dot + 2 (L85/L85--GL)

China

1. Iron sights + 1 (QBZ95--GL)
2. Scope + 0
3. Red dot + 2 (QBZ95/QBZ95--GL)

All other factions either re-use Russian equipment or don't have optics.

Twenty new kits which would equate to about 25-30 megabytes uncompressed. And again, this can be done incrementally. I'd start by using the existing equipment then expand to additional weapons.

Let's also not forget the benefits of making this new selection system from a programmatic standpoint. If you implement this new system you will now have the framework for adding an unlimited number of new kits with minimal effort. It would just be a matter of plugging in a new weapon on the menu. This system would scale a hell of a lot better than your current system. It's worth the effort for future extensibility alone.

UPDATE:
I'll put my money where my mouth is and build a proof of concept.

[Redamare]

I support the Idea like ( First you start with a stock Ironsights gun ) then you can go to the crate and request Diff scopes or add ons such as granade tube but keep it in mind the limitations...

PROBLEMS:
There will have to be 3 or 4 diff variations of grananadeer and extra variations to customisationation lolol it would be nice to customize like 2142 buut it might not be the best solution ^_^

[Conman51]

i thought some one would of suggested this before..i always thought about it.....lol nice idea showing it through paint...this gets my full support

although i think there should just be a red dot and acog, maybe in some kits just irons and acog..no eotech

[SkaterCrush]

My original idea for this was to keep this as minimum as possible (in size, and in in features, but not being too much of a nuisance just to add a few extra megabytes), such examples are:

-Only allowing weapons to allowed to switch between SIGHTS (no laser pointers, foregrips, etc), such as acog, aimpoint, and ironsight
-Not overly killing the ui (such as adding 50 bajillion selections to the 'T' commo rose and spawn menu)



Very well said though

Discuss further... we may even get somewhere with this

(Dibs on red dot sight ):


EDIT: Is memory size really an issue for this mod tight now?

I like the clunky EOtech one...I think its hawt

[Cpt. Trips]

EDIT: Is memory size really an issue for this mod tight now?

I get CTDs after a few maps with 2GB RAM and i'd rather I didn't.

[unrealalex]

I get CTDs after a few maps with 2GB RAM and i'd rather I didn't.

I doubt that has anything to do with it.

[gclark03]

PR file size isn't such a problem that new vehicles and new maps can be added, but a few KB of kits can't.

[Cpt. Trips]

I doubt that has anything to do with it.

I'm pretty sure it's known to be caused by bf2.exe running out of memory...

[gclark03]

If the problem were that dire, 0.86 wouldn't even be possible. Memory is no object here.

[Tonnie]

PR file size isn't such a problem that new vehicles and new maps can be added, but a few KB of kits can't.

its more then a few kb... you need to understand that one weapons folder size is about 1Mb i mean i know thats not much but it adds up when you have like 50 different variations on different weapons,

Dont get me wrong tho, i like the idea