AMK Weapon Add-on - WIP

[Skullhunter 0]

Good news everyone. I'm not dead.

 

Sorry I've been away for so long but real life stuff has been a bit crazy. We're down three people at work, I've only got a few weeks to get my apartment in shape before cold weather hits, I'm trying to get up enough money to afford a space heater and a dehumidifier, plus I've had some relationship issues happening. I've been a bit on the busy side.

 

But I've finally gotten a bit of a breather so I've spent almost all day working on AMK-A V2. I've managed to do the preliminary coding for 29 of the new weapons and right now I'm taking a little break before I start working on all of the textures. There's about 126 of them that need to be moved, annotated in textures.ltx and then half of them need bump#.dds files to go with them so your computers don't choke when S.T.A.L.K.E.R. tries to create them all on its own. Then there's weapon descriptions, randomizing, inventory icons and trader placement. After I've got all that done, I'm going to dig into the code and rework the ballistics and pricing for all the weapons in the game.

 

silverpower helped me solve the pistol problem Hamish mentions; I accidentally used an ef_weapon_type number for the Fort12 and some other pistols that causes NPCs to favor them over every other weapon type in the game. This has been completely corrected in V2. I've also made some improvements to the new weapons that should eliminate the problems others have encountered with Arsenal RC1, like the previously mentioned bump#.dds files and also the "shooting at the sky" bug some people have encountered with NPCs that are using AK-platform weapons.

 

I'll try and keep you guys more regularly updated when I can.

[Lithe 0]

Forve me for asking, but how long will it take for you to maybe start on Clear Sky? The structure of the games is pretty similiar, so are you going to wait until you complete this one and then port it easier?

[Skullhunter 0]

Forve me for asking, but how long will it take for you to maybe start on Clear Sky? The structure of the games is pretty similiar, so are you going to wait until you complete this one and then port it easier?

 

I actually don't even have Clear Sky yet. Also, it would depend on whether or not the new models from the Arsenal team can be directly dropped into CS or if CS requires something for models that SHOC doesn't. But, having a complete version of AMK-A would probably make transferring it over to CS a lot easier if it's possible.

 

Right now, I just finished all the new icons I need, so now I'm heading over to Sid's to test 29 weapons.

[UnholyTiger 0]

But I've finally gotten a bit of a breather so I've spent almost all day working on AMK-A V2. I've managed to do the preliminary coding for 29 of the new weapons and right now I'm taking a little break before I start working on all of the textures. There's about 126 of them that need to be moved, annotated in textures.ltx and then half of them need bump#.dds files to go with them so your computers don't choke when S.T.A.L.K.E.R. tries to create them all on its own. Then there's weapon descriptions, randomizing, inventory icons and trader placement. After I've got all that done, I'm going to dig into the code and rework the ballistics and pricing for all the weapons in the game.

 

Which guns can we expect next? Would you kindly tell us?

 

 

On a unrelated question, has anyone seen a proper model for the SVU? One with a proper ejection port and and working iron sights?

[Skullhunter 0]

Which guns can we expect next? Would you kindly tell us?

 

 

On a unrelated question, has anyone seen a proper model for the SVU? One with a proper ejection port and and working iron sights?

 

Not a problem. The guns currently added to AMK-A are as follows:

 

AK-47(SVD-style stock)

 

APS Stechkin

 

RPK-74

 

AK-101

 

AK-102

 

AK-103

 

AK-104

 

AK-105

 

AK-107

 

AK-108

 

Steyr AUG 1

 

Steyr AUG 2

 

FAMAS G2

 

FAMAS P3

 

FN FNC

 

SIG 552 Commando

 

HK G36C

 

HK G36K

 

HK MG36

 

Galil AR

 

Galil MAR

 

M16A1

 

Colt Commando XM177E2

 

M16A2

 

M16A3

 

M16A4

 

M4 Carbine

 

MP444

 

Glock 18c

 

Glock 18c Expert

 

Saiga 12K

 

Valmet RK95

 

Vz58

 

Also, the following guns from vanilla have new models:

 

AK-74 (2 versions)

 

AK-74U (3 versions)

 

AN-94 Abakan

 

Colt 1911

 

HK G36

 

SIG 220

 

HK USP Compact

 

SIG 550

 

Beretta 92F

 

Walther P99

 

Browning Hi-Power

 

PB Pistol

 

PM Pistol

 

Fort12

 

OTS-33 Pernach

 

SVD

 

I'm also working on phasing out the generic silencer that magically works on all weapons in favor of the caliber and weapon style specific suppressors from Arsenal RC1. The new SVD has the option for iron sights or a scope that uses the original AMK scope texture. As far as I know, no one's done a replacement for the SVU just yet.

[UnholyTiger 0]

Thank you for the information, Skullhunter. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

[Lucan 0]

Cool, new weapons.

 

But one question: Are all of the AK-100s needed? Maybe just including the AK-101, AK-105, and AK-108 would be good? Because, as it is, it seems like there's just alot of the same gun (AK-100s) with different names and slightly different looks. Also, 1.31 is broken. It keeps removing files that cause CTDs. This time, it removed some file called fire or something.

[Skullhunter 0]

Cool, new weapons.

 

But one question: Are all of the AK-100s needed? Maybe just including the AK-101, AK-105, and AK-108 would be good? Because, as it is, it seems like there's just alot of the same gun (AK-100s) with different names and slightly different looks. Also, 1.31 is broken. It keeps removing files that cause CTDs. This time, it removed some file called fire or something.

 

Lucan, if you can track down the exact name I'll see if I can fix it as well as trying to figure out what's causing it. As far as the AK series guns, they are all pretty different; though some have similar calibers and looks, some are short carbine variants for those trying to economize on weight, some are chambered for 5.56 instead of 5.45. Plus it adds more variety over the predictable vanilla loadouts.

[Lucan 0]

I'll try to find the error. Also, make sure to includ every weapon file you've ever made for this mod. 1.31 removes alot of them. I'll go get the fire file it removed now.

 

Oh. No I won't. Turns out I uninstalled AMK. He he...

[Servalion 0]

Ahh, good to see ya alive and kicking, Skullhunter. Been busy trying out CS since its release. Naturally it falls short in quite a few areas, but the latest patch from yesterday helped smooth things out. Get it as soon as you can, these new sounds and animations are quite nice. Porting them to SoC may be another issue.

 

Modding weaponry in CS is very similar to SoC with almost no changes. Some differences are to be spotted, however.

 

 

Weapons.ltx sports a couple new ballistics values. For instance, your typical 9x39 AP round stats (modded)....

 

k_dist = 1

k_disp = 1.6

k_hit = 2

k_impulse = 0.2

k_pierce = 1.2 <-------New: SoC's pierce factor's been split up. k_ap represents piercing effect against NPC armor, while this represents penetration through the environment, such as boxes and such.

k_ap = 1.15

impair = 1.05

buck_shot = 1

tracer = on

wm_size = 0.05

k_air_resistance = 1.6 <------New: Not sure. I assume that a higher value allows it to travel farther and resist the gravitational pull downward.

 

 

The upgrade system is great. Basically you're allowed to take armor and weapons to mechanics and have them alter your stuff for a substantial fee. Mechanics also do all the repairs now. However, not all upgrade options can be had - most armor & weapons have two upgrade trees of sorts to follow. You can opt to lower recoil by -20%, or you can do it by -50% at the drawback of a reduced RPM rate. You can insert kevlar plating, or add a relief vest so you can carry 5kg more. But you can't do both. Taking one will dim out the other option. By following the series of related upgrades, the tree can open up later until all are had. Will you optimize your L85 Enfield to have a 1.6x scope with a much higher rate of fire and reduced recoil, or will you make it more sniper-oriented with sharper accuracy, a 4x scope, a steady fire rate with minimal recoil & shots with higher velocity, distance, and flat trajectory? Perhaps you wanna beef up your SEVA suit with better nightvision, teflon plate inserts, and a hardening solution to make the material more durable against rupturing? Or maybe you think its best to improve what the SEVA does well, with ointment coating and foam lining to raise resistance to shock/thermal/chemical damage, and a psy-system to guard against telepathy?

 

The lower weapon classes, such as handguns, shotguns & SMGs (with MP5 being the only SMG once again) have minimal trees, allowing the user to get nearly all available options. Furthermore, most weapons have some upgrade sections that are independent from the trees, such as an expanded magazine or swapping the weapon caliber (Make an MP5 w/ 9x18 barrel first on list to get made). Likewise, most armor suits have independent options to add more slots for artifacts (no more belt slots, artifact allowance is now purely dependant on the suit you wear)

 

I imagine the .ltxs for each weapon in both games aren't identical, but if not, they're pretty close. Editing the vanilla weapons will likely be minimal, but the new animations may call for some alters with the position and orientation settings, at least. Guess we'll see.

 

Also, I'll check in regularly again now that you're back.

[Lucan 0]

You know, I've been thinking, and there are two things that would make Clear Sky absoulutley god-like. 1. The latest (currently in devolpment) version of arsenal mod. and 2. Euphoria.

 

Ignoring the second one, I hear that you can't put new animations on anything in Clear Sky. I just heard it from some random modder, not sure if it's true, but yeah.

[Servalion 0]

Dunno about that one. The doubts of others have been proven wrong before in SoC, and its really a little too soon still to tell for CS. Sure sucks if its true though.

[Lucan 0]

Yeah. I think it's a bit early on too...

 

Skullhunter, I have a question for you: Obviously some of these new guns are going to be common/not rare (I.E Vz58, Skropians should be everywhere), but for the ones like the AK-108 and AK-105, will just some special NPCs, like Wolf or Guide or Fox have them? Because I can't see AK-108s being everywhere in the zone, but I could see a small number of AK-101s in DUTY and some AK-104s in Spetsnaz. And, the RPK-74. How would that be implemented? I think it would work well with giving something like 1 out of every 15 faction members that spawns a RPK-74, and for the Military I guess each squad gets an RPK-74? Just a thought.

[Servalion 0]

I'd been also thinking about various weapons that would make sense. I find it interesting how so many Desert Eagles can get around here and there in games, but that its more useable successor, the Jericho 941 - "Baby Desert Eagle" - remains completely unknown to almost all. With an initial magazine capacity of 10 .45 ACP rounds, and basically looking like a smaller Deagle, if only a game model existed, it would be an excellent handgun to put to use.

 

I also keep dreaming of seeing that Thompson in game some day, but I think I can keep on dreaming.

 

CS really needs more SMGs. Many mods of lately have edited the MP5 icon, removing the stock, so it can fit in the pistol slot. I'm sure people are dying to have the P90 return, but since the P90 reload is rather unique, not being able to put in new animations could be a serious hamper in making new weapons for the game. The Bizon would be more than a welcome return, but again, the reload thing. And weren't Mac-10s supposed to be in the game originally? Wonder if that was just a rumor, or if they were removed early on? The game needs more automatic uses of the .45 ACP. I'm actually very surprised that there's been no H&K UMP for Stalker yet.

 

Also, in CS, Shotguns (at least the animations and usage) have been majorly improved upon, especially after upgrades. Winchester feels like there's some practicality to it now, and SPAS is a beast - fully upgrades its firing out close to 4 shots a second. With a fire rate like that, only thing the Saiga can bring to CS is even faster automatic fire and a PSO-1 mount option. Well, the magazine feed's a plus too.

[Skullhunter 0]

Yeah. I think it's a bit early on too...

 

Skullhunter, I have a question for you: Obviously some of these new guns are going to be common/not rare (I.E Vz58, Skropians should be everywhere), but for the ones like the AK-108 and AK-105, will just some special NPCs, like Wolf or Guide or Fox have them? Because I can't see AK-108s being everywhere in the zone, but I could see a small number of AK-101s in DUTY and some AK-104s in Spetsnaz. And, the RPK-74. How would that be implemented? I think it would work well with giving something like 1 out of every 15 faction members that spawns a RPK-74, and for the Military I guess each squad gets an RPK-74? Just a thought.

 

Remember, there are no Skorpions just yet. The Vz58 is fairly common, since it's pretty much just a dirt cheap AK clone. I have completely reworked randomization and I've actually managed to make it easier in the process of trying to create group-specific loadouts. Loners have crappy guns at lower ranks (rookie, experienced) but they get much better gear and a wider variety of it at higher levels (veteran, expert). Bandits have similar loadouts, but with a lesser variety since they're scavenging off everyone else. The military and Duty have fairly similar loadouts. The Mercs have more Western weapons this time out with a few exceptions; notably missing from their loadouts are any weapons manufactured by HK. This was a creative decision to reflect a real-world falling out between HK and the mercenary, excuse me, security contracting, group Blackwater USA. Freedom has a much nicer selection of weapons than just about anyone, to reflect their looting of the Army Warehouse area as well as their close proximity to the more dangerous areas of the Zone. Lastly, the Monolith cult has many of the better weapons, likely added to their stores by those who've managed to fight nearly all the way to Pripyat only to succumb to the call of the Monolith themselves.

 

The AK-10x weapons will only show up in the hands of higher-ranking NPCs, usually Spetsnaz. The RPK, PKM and MG36 LMGs will also be pretty rare. Also, following silverpower's advice I've converted the RPK-74 into an RPKM chambered for 7.62x39mm, due to the fact that there never was an RPK-74 manufactured with a drum magazine. And I've completely redone the hit power, bullet speed, fire distance, silencer hit power, silencer bullet speed and silencer fire distance for every single weapon in the game as well as reworking the stats for the majority of the ammo. Now if you decide that you're going to use AP ammo, understand that you'll be sacrificing damage for the ability to penetrate armor. Hollowpoint ammo will increase damage but at the expense of armor penetration. I've used the statistics of each weapon's real-world counterpart wherever possible. I should also be done phasing out the vanilla Stalker silencer in favor of caliber-specific suppressors relatively soon.

 

I'll give you folks some more updates as I can.

[Servalion 0]

Wow, sounds like quite the complex system you've set up. Sounds like a sure-fire win, can't wait to see this all over again.

[Lucan 0]

Ah, that makes sense.

 

But, yeah, as for the machine guns, my suggestion stands. Maybe about 1 in every 25 faction member spawns with eathier a RPK (DUTY), MG36 (Freedom), or a PKM (Military, Monolith), and for Bandits and loners, they could have any of the three. But that's just my opinion.

 

Oh, and give some loners/DUTY/whoever snipers. It gave me a real thrill seeing a bunch of Loners with VSSs in Clear Sky.

[Lucan 0]

Wow. No activity here for a looong time.

[Skullhunter 0]

Wow. No activity here for a looong time.

 

That's because I'm busy working on stuff.

 

Finished adding the SR25 and Galatz sniper rifles as well as the 7.62x51mm ammo for them. All that's left as far as weapons that need to go in are a few AKM variants, the Tokarev pistol and the PPSh submachinegun. Cordon, Garbage, Agroprom, Bar, Dark Valley and Army Warehouses have been converted over to the new and more efficient randomization scheme and the respawning NPCs are covered as well. Yantar, Brain Scorcher, Pripyat and Stancia shouldn't take too long to set up. Descriptions for the new guns and ammo also need to be done. I discovered a few more textures that need fixed bumpmaps and parallax maps, but not many of them. Eventually I'm planning on using acdc.pl to dissect the all.spawn so I can have some REAL fun with you lot

 

And that's the state of the mod right now. As usual, I will get in as much work as I can before I have to go back to my real job. Hey, the DPMS AP4 carbine I have on lay-away ain't gonna pay for itself you know.

[Lucan 0]

Ah, I see. Randimization scheme oughta be fun. Running into bandits at the carpark with Vz.58s and Tec-9s. :V