FINALLY!.. Bringing in old work from SABOW to GTOS..

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Still sorting out errors in configs but finally got my m113a1's to work in GTOS.  Unlike default, the commanders copula rotates 360 degrees meaning when dug it is less likly to back out and face the enemy.  Has a basic interior....its BASIC! But its more than the default one.  I hope I still have my texture masters around for this.  I need to improve some things.  Also bits will get blown off with battle damage like the side skirts. 

Still need to test my m113 with m40 recoiless and my M106a1 mortar carrier.  All my add in grenade types are missing and need to sort that one.    :cuss2:  My textures for the US m1 steel pot helmet are borked so I need to fix that too. 

Will likely modify default shield or the prophet for an initial release.   Have some screens.

 



I may or may not add in my m38a1 jeeps at some point.  For shield sort of death traps.   

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I just found these screens striking for some reason.  Main reason why posting here as well. 



The m113a1 with m40 recoiless rifle. Starting to narrow down issues.  Looks like quick battles config refuses to see the m113 with m40 and m106 mortar carrier entries.  Vary strange.  The m113's of mine are gonna get a face lift.  The model is solid lower poly but probably add in more triangles to details.  The textures need help.    Not that bad, but not that great either. 


 
Another one just cause.   

[Dane49]

My biggest complaint with the M-113 in this game is the TC buttons up to soon and very rarely  uses the 50 cal to engage the enemy.

Plus not being able to use the M-113 in quick battles without all the Arabic writing on them.
I'd rather it had no markings for QBs.

[Flashburn]

My biggest complaint with the M-113 in this game is the TC buttons up to soon and very rarely  uses the 50 cal to engage the enemy.

Plus not being able to use the M-113 in quick battles without all the Arabic writing on them.
I'd rather it had no markings for QBs.

Lucky for us I don't know how to place the dummies right in model for ANY writing to show up.  Pictures I have seen of Iran/Iraq war have the m113's clean green.  I am totally sure that some units did place stupid writing all over them in red shoot me paint but not in my plans. 

Yes not alot to be done about the TC buttoning up when suppressed.  I have raised the rank of the TC..which helps.  And I know from sabow that separating the infantry squad from its track REALLY helps that.  So far the testing I have done shows it is more likely to fire off those 8 to 10 round bursts.  But when return fire happens they still button up, but not as bad. 

[Flashburn]

I also have some half done rockets and pods for air craft.  The F5E will likely get those as well as something else if it ever gets stuck into game.     So expect at least zuni rockets for the F5E at some point.  I should probably revisit that F5 too. I made that thing in like a week and a day as an experiment on getting vehicles in game.  Textures are sad sauce.  Made in 2 evenings at a stupid low 1024 x 1024 resolution.  WTF was i thinking?

[Dane49]

Who are the infantry guys in your winter pics with the M-113s?
I like that they're wearing helmets and assume they're Iraqis from SABOW.

I think with some more work on the Iranians and Soviet infantry(helmets,flak jackets) that there would probably be quite a bit of interest in some cold war gone hot campaigns set in the early 1990s after the 1st cold war supposedly ended, using the existing maps of Russia and forces already in the game.
Especially, with what's going over there right now

[Flashburn]

Their Iranians with their m1 style steel pot.  Its something I did for SABOW but i screwed up their textures somewhere.  No Iraqis in GTOS as far as I can tell.  In the configs but no meshes I think.  I have never quite gotten a handle on spec and the "shinny" map in Graviteam games.  Never get it quite right.  Map is Kraynsia  Polanya (I can NEVER spell that right) taken 2 hours ago in GTOS. 

FYI I am going to throw out the textures for the m113's.  When i made them it was logical to combine the m113 with the m106 and all the weapons.  But its 2014 now... Better to make one for m113 types and 1 for m106.  Found my old master texture psd for it just know and well....hell no.  I can make this 60 percent nicer.     Probably just drop the m106 from this.  Iran did not buy any.  I did not know that when I made it. 

[Flashburn]

Got sick of problem solving the quick battle file issues.  Really weird that one. 

Giving a more realistic basic load of ammo to rifle guys of Iran and Soviet armys.  Everyone gets 7 magazines.  No more 4.  Cause I say so Probably do the same for South Africa, Unita, and Cuba too.  Advantage goes to guys with 30 round ak magazines over 20 round G3 and Fn Fal sorts.  I need to do more testing and fix more strange things in textures of rifle grenades and adding in a worthless smoke grenade of rgd2 type to Soviets.  I made, its sitting there...why not.  They will not use it right.  But if like SABOW will throw at tanks or if out of anything else to use.  Hopefully it works like in SABOW.  I made that low poly M1911a1 for Longstop project.  Guess who less used them...that's right, Iran did.  Have to see if that would be worth the headache of attempting to add in .45acp ammo and getting model to not look retarded in soldiers hands.  Maybe give to tankers.  Place that one in the maybe if i get bored pile. 

Anyone know if Iran was using the mp5 in 1979?  Might be stupid fun just cause.  I am guessing they bought the license to make the things the same time they did the G3.   

[Flashburn]

Testing of energa rifle grenade.  In GTOS they are no where to correctly centered on the flash suppressor/rifle grenade launcher.  This will be a royal PITA to correct. 

 
 And they still work like in SABOW.  Against a tank forget a front armor kill.  Not likely at all.  A lucky side hit can knock out a tank.   

 

M113's textures are just gonna have to be good enough for time being.  I did rework the normal maps.  Helped a little.  But to really bring these up to current neato, have to just redo.    :sigh:





Got the M106a1's working.  Alas Iran never bought them, just regular m113a1's.  But I think something is wrong with my 106mm mortar ammo config.  Seems to be hitting like a 175mm howitzer. 

I may not release this thing as it does not fit.  Or if i do just in quick battles.   



Not to sort the smoke nades.  See if I can get them to actually "smoke".  LOL  You know.  Last ditch smoke on an armored vehicle right before Mr. Crunchy dies. 

[Flashburn]

So far looking vary encouraging that the m113's will fight it out more after small tweaks of config.  Really small things too.  Of course testing with my m113's, but no reason the same would not be with default ones. Just tested with infantry squad attached to apc.  Now to test just apc with no squad. 

 


 

[Flashburn]

Well I got rifle fired smoke grenades to work.  HMMMM slight problems however.  They can be fired at 550 rounds a minute it seems.  THe ROF of the G3.  LOL  That never happened in SABOW.  Also can damage and maybe kill apcs.  Well that is not right either.


 

 

[Flashburn]

GUess I will be sticking in the zuni rockets for the F5e. 

 

Cross your fingers I get the last kinks out by the weekend.     Will be basically old ISABOW in GTOS with some fixes here and there (small stuff for now).  Default campaign will have the m113's swapped, rifle and smoke grenades, every one gets 7 magazines, and hopefully F5 will have something other than just bombs.  Modded campaign (still have to do), will be the same as DLC except adding in m113a1 with m40 recoiless.  Added into reserve pool.   

Quick battle will have a few m106's for now.  If time will check on my configs for 107mm m30 heavy mortar.  Damn thing hits like a train.     But when I make the configs I input all the data I had on its HE rounds.  So it might be right...

Still testing how the m113's fight.  Its better than before but a weird problem occurred with just m113 with no squad.  The gunner seems to be incapable of doing anything.  LOL  Only happens when my m113 with squad is present.  If only m113 and no squad is present works fine.  So need to track that bug down.   Other bug I have no clue how to solve is the track around rear idle wheel.  It is hovering off of it.  Just no idea how to fix that one.  Something in config, but no idea what.  If anyone knows, TELL ME!   

[Flashburn]

Found my old source files for the F5e. Perhaps a face lift?  This thing is a scant 4450 triangles.  More details would not hurt anything right?  Ponders...

 
 

[Flashburn]

Still plugging away at this. 

Run into major weirdness on getting the lau10 pod with zuni rockets to show up f5E model.  Really REALLY odd that one.  In fact seems to be a larger problem as S5 rockets and u32 rocket pod will also not show on F5E.  But it will fire the things.  Just odd.  I suspect something in dummies of model but not sure at this point.  Next step is to see if Mig23, implala, or hind can have the lau10 pod and zuni rockets show and useable. 

Also updated the armor map of the m113's.  The trim vane was stopping heavy MG fire!     Well it certainly should not be doing that.  How that one slipped by me in SABOW is odd.  Then again was testing it against tank guns mainly.  So it blew up like it should.  Still, aluminum armor like that on the m113 is sort of guess work.  The vehicle IRL has a lot of thick slabs of the stuff.  But of course it takes many more times the stuff to equal a similar level of protection such as steel. The fact that the m113's are taking a pounding by 14.5mm fire SHOULD result in a damaged or destroyed m113.  That is not happening like it should.  So either something is off with the 14.5mm or I need to lower the frail armor bit of config?  Maybe quality?  Hard to know. 

Now I know why I put this project off for like 6 months.   

The positive is that the m113's are more deadly than ever.  Against light armor can do some damage.  But not so good in close range. The gunners die a lot.  And they still can get suppressed easier than I would like.  Commander turns turtle, but seems a lot better than before.  Time will tell. 

The rifle fired rfl40 smoke grenade actually is almost useful.  Rgd2 hand thrown is hmmm not.  But going to leave it in for the hell of it.  If you see some random smoke popped was likely from some close quarters fighting with an officer out of ammo.    

Looks like final stretch now.  Most bugs and config mishaps are taken care of.  Only truly unknown thing is the zuni rockets and wtf is wrong there.  In fact the only thing I can think of is that some dummy is not parented to another.  Testing the zuni and lau 10 pod on another aircraft should let me know if that is the case or not. 

[Flashburn]

Still fighting with the invisible rocket pods.   

[Flashburn]

What I was ideally after was the ability to have the air craft with random weapons over time. That is all bombs, or various rocket pods as the game is totally able to do this.  For whatever reason, it simply does not render the rocket pod when I add it in to the config, such as how bombs, or missiles do it now.  After 1 week of this I guess the lau10 and zuni rockets are going to be permanent load out on inner pylons of plane.  Adding them into the mesh actual.   As bonus I have been updating the F5 mesh.  Adding more triangles and will totally redo the textures. 

Although its quite possible that after I remake the LOD's and configs that dumb rocket pod starts working on its own.     Planning on making the mesh able to have bits blown off as well.  Since I am in there now, might as well.  Now or never really.  This mesh is not the best.  Made it fast once upon a time.  It works, but ya...  Guess I use this as a test mesh again. 

[Flashburn]

Ok think I am done with updating the bugger.  Fixed some stuff and all of the that.  Mainly smoothed out and some fixing of the wrong stuff. Mainly the model went from 4225 triangles to 6600.  But since I have no desire to start the thing over from square 1 I think this will do for a face lift.  Now to make non crappy textures for the thing. The ones I made 2 years ago where a pretty bad 1024 x 1024 set out kind of dumb.  New ones going to be 2048 x 1024.  That should mean just enough texture space for rivets and seams. 

 

[Flashburn]

Its going to probably be about a week before the new and improved F5 makes its way to this project.  Since this looks like its going to be an on going project of mine I think i will make a test version with what is done and works now.  Going to mod the default shield campaign now and add in the m113's with m40s.  An issue popped up with nearly worthless rgd2 smoke nade so will take it out for now.   

Now what to do with this stuff beyond simply modding prophet and quick battles is in the back of my mine.  Making strange campaign featuring Iran in South Africa has crossed my mind.     As has trying to make some random polygon using some ideas I have with using higher resolution satellite data.  Problem with that one is only the US has it for free.  Still, even if high resolution data is used and it works like I think it will, still take months of work to do.  If I do that would call in battle space or something.  Some semi arid bit of the US south west.     in the end I like this 1970's tech stuff.  It plays out faster than ww2, but not over kill like modern stuff would.  But this is what is floating around my head when I complete this deal. 

If all goes well expect a test version of "ISABOW in GTOS" some time tonight or tomorrow.  Unless something really screwed up happens. 

[Flashburn]

WOOT seems to work just fine 1st go.    

Few more things to make sure its right and release 1st  test version.  So far only modded the soviet campaign.  Ill do the Iran one once I have more done.  Like when the F5E's are done, er redone.  Man those chieftans have a glass jaw.    

[Flashburn]

First test version of "ISABOW for GTOS". 

https://www.mediafire.com/?9dvvoqyeai8c6gt  updated with fixed broken battalion leader crash resolved. 

Contains;
Totally new m113a1
M113a1 with recoiless m40 rifle
M106a1 (quick battle only)
M1 style helmet for Iran
energa rifle grenade for Iran
RFL-40N smoke rifle fired grenade for Iran
A slightly modded soviet shield of the prophet campaign. (m113's with recoiless, Afgan scout platoons have a slight suprise, and slightly more supplies for everyone. 

More later stuff later...
Reworked F5E
Rdg-2 smoke grenade (admittedly next to useless)
Iranian modded shield of the prophet.

REQUIRES the DLC shield of the Prophet.