[Effects] NEW Flare Effect

[Daniel]

Wow spirit, but what was that big plane in the last seconds of ur clip? Not AIX mod, huh? "DCON" or what?

[spirit03]

Comments really appreciated!

@[R-DEV]Rhino - This is smoke effect which I got accidentaly. Flare has almost perfect path just like in vanilla BF2 and PR, but because of smoke it gets effect that it is affected by wind. Trust me, AA still gets me down most of the time

@Daniel - This is AC130 ported by ]NAW[ clan from DCON to AIX2.

Thanks!

[Daniel]

AC-130 ? I really couldn't make out the gatling, Bofors and howitzer on the side... -.-

[spirit03]

It is AC-130, it can be clearly seen from 1st picture (105mm Howitzer and 40mm Bofors), and on video too (105mm, 40mm and 2x 25mm Gatling).

[Daniel]

WOW, AWESOME, so we get this AC-130 now into PR, as JDAM like (on SOME maps at least), like, AC-130 up for 10 sec. 1x howitzer round, 3x bofors, 3 sec. gatling? That's a nice idea, actually...

@spirit: How can I fly that AC-130 in AIX2, and can I shoot those guns actually?

[spirit03]

Daniel if you need to ask about AC130, you can PM me
Here is download link but my AC130 is totally tweaked from their.

http://nightwatchmilitia.net/

Cheers!

[saXoni]

Looks good, but as Rhino said, it might take the gameplay into the wrong direction. If this will get implemented, the amount of flares has to be increased, which I don't think the DEVs would like.

[Daniel]

Why should then the amount of flares needed to be increased, Saxoni?

[saXoni]

Why should then the amount of flares needed to be increased, Saxoni?

Because the amount of flares being dropped per click is increased from one to two flares, at least by the looks of it.

[Daniel]

Because the amount of flares being dropped per click is increased from one to two flares, at least by the looks of it.

Oh, okay. thx 4 the answer.

[-=anders=-]

While yes, I think we can all agree a more realistic flare dispersion system dose look much better, we also need to consider its gameplay impact. That amount of flares all popping out and from all thous angles are going to seriously confuse missiles, possibly to the point where evading missiles is just way too easy, which some would say it is already.

Needs gameplay testing to really determine if this is a big factor or not but it is a deciding factor unfortunately.

Keep up the good work spirit

Maybe theres a way to get rid of the heat locations from some of the effects. Just show the other flares with no heatsource??? Dunno if its possible, but should be. By this youll get closer (visual wise) to irl flares.

[spirit03]

I really can't seem to find problem here. Can someone please explain it to me? I have only changed effect, I haven't changed script or flare dispense system. Flares behave exactly as they do in PR, only change is that smoke is tweaked and flare colors are adjusted. Fuzzy and non-perfectly-linear smoke path have nothing to do with heat source, they are there for the effect. This is from AIX2 mod which has absolutely nothing to do with PR, this was just to show how they look, as I didn't wanted to ruin my PR files (I actually play the game).

Thanks for the feedback!

[Rhino]

I really can't seem to find problem here. Can someone please explain it to me? I have only changed effect, I haven't changed script or flare dispense system. Flares behave exactly as they do in PR, only change is that smoke is tweaked and flare colors are adjusted. Fuzzy and non-perfectly-linear smoke path have nothing to do with heat source, they are there for the effect. This is from AIX2 mod which has absolutely nothing to do with PR, this was just to show how they look, as I didn't wanted to ruin my PR files (I actually play the game).

Thanks for the feedback!

Ye if its only the effect that's updated its all fine, just from your first set of screens/videos showing the C-130 etc, it looked like part of this was also having a more realistic flare launching system, with many more flares about which would seriously impact on the gameplay.

Also you can setup a "pr_edit" to mod with, keeping your normal PR files good for gaming

[Tarranauha200]

Realistic flares-->AA sux--->Make realistic AA-->AA not sux

IRL handheld missiles have more range and are more effective and harder to detect. So if flares make current AA useless just make that too more realistic.

[Rhino]

Realistic flares-->AA sux--->Make realistic AA-->AA not sux

IRL handheld missiles have more range and are more effective and harder to detect. So if flares make current AA useless just make that too more realistic.

And how do you suggest we change how flares affect AA missiles?

You really have only two options:

1. Stick with vBF2's system of heat targets on the flares, so that missiles get confused about what target they should be going for
2. Remove heat targets off of flares and have the flares confuse the missiles in some other method, or not at all...

[rushn]

you could increase the number of AA to combat the number of flares

[CanuckCommander]

We can do it the way PR: Combined Arms did it.

-Remove heat signature from flares, but change them into "heat shield" idea by Rhino
-Increase flare count to 120
-Shoot flares in at least 2 directions
-Greatly increase flare dispenser Rate of Fire (flares can now be DUMPED like AC-130, not just fired)

What you get is:

-longer and more interesting Air vs Air combat
-dodging missiles is now possible and much much LESS based on luck, and more based on evasive maneuvers and tactical flare usage
-also, the performance of AA missiles can now be improved, proximity detonation can be made less effective/ridiculous
-BVR missiles can be added + radar can also be added

*Overall, this system makes air combat more tactical and strategic like chess, a vast improvement on the current system which is more based on whoever sees who first and missiles that miss by chance rather than pilot skill.

[AquaticPenguin]

-also, the performance of AA missiles can now be improved, proximity detonation can be made less effective/ridiculous
-BVR missiles can be added + radar can also be added

I'd like to see that myself, or at least see it tested. I never played combined arms when it was active so I've not seen how it plays out. Only thing that could be a problem is currently you don't get much time to do any meaningful evasion of missiles, BVR would alleviate that, but maps are still fairly limited in size so I would've thought very slightly slowing the missiles or increasing their acceleration period would be a good way to balance it.

[spirit03]

I really like these ideas. Especially one with changing flare dispense system. For example that you can choose either you are going to pop 120 from one or 60 from both directions.

Many good ideas, but let me hear more about effect I'm working on newer version of it, totally tweaked as I had smoke bug 'till now. I'm going to post new ones soon, they are much better than my first ones.

[Rhino]

-Remove heat signature from flares, but change them into "heat shield" idea by Rhino

Ye, I'm aware of my idea that we tested out in CA

There is one massive flaw with it, which is you can use it as a shield, which can protect the aircraft fully even if the missile detonates only 1m away from the aircraft, you can still be fully protected by the "flares shield".