Keep it up P@LaD!n...

Apex - We look forward to seeing you here again = )

Welcome to the forums, SpA!

Weapon accuracy and external ballistics are something I'm pretty much constantly working on during the entire development phase. The game doesn't make this job very easy, because just like many other shooters, Ghost Recon uses a "cone system" with randomized deviation for accuracy, and terminal ballistics employ quite a bit of randomness in Ghost Recon, too.

With the v1.0.0b5 update, I have reworked the entire ballistics system yet again - hopefully with positive results. I dropped the commonly used gun ballistics calculator and created my own - quite complex - formulas. To me, the outcome seems quite an improvement over previous versions, but there certainly is still room for more fine-tuning.

An important factor is to find a setup that represents the characteristics of each individual weapon while maintaining a common "feel", I think. Something that bothered me in the original game were the sometimes inexplicably huge differences in weapon handling and ballistics between certain weapons. So it is a fine line to work out the individual character of a gun while keeping a common standard.

All in all, I would not be surprised to be fine-tuning the weapons in Heroes Unleashed for quite a long time in the future. So rest assured, there will still be a lot more work done in this regard.

The crashing and save file corruption I cannot reproduce - my systems run rock solid with the mod, but they admittedly are quite a bit above minimum system requirements. When I play online or over LAN with my friends, the ones that encounter technical problems usually run their machines at their performance limit - and that is easily reached with Heroes Unleashed.

The mod requires a LOT more resources (RAM, VRAM, CPU, etc.) than any other Ghost Recon mod I have ever played, due to the increased AI, more complex 3D models, larger textures, etc. - so please make sure your system can handle the workload. As a rule of thump - setting all graphics options to "medium" and disabling all shadows should allow adequate performance (and avoid resource-related crashes) on most modern hardware that fulfills the minimum system requirements as outlined in the ReadMe file.

Oh, and thanks a lot for the kind words! It is always very much appreciated to hear someone likes Heroes Unleashed!

Hmm... looks like your system should be able to handle the work just fine, so I don't think the crashes are resource-related in your case. And the Island Thunder expansion (if properly converted for Mac ->link<- ) should not cause any problems either, so I guess your problem lies elsewhere.

I'm glad you like the new drawing and viewing distances. After playing around with different setups I think the increased vision ranges are the most realistic solution and also improve the level of tactical freedom.

The amount of weapons is of course also a matter of personal preference - while some people will always ask for additions, others think it's more than enough already. Meanwhile, I tend to agree with the latter and for the moment adding more weapons is not among my priorities, but that does not mean that there won't be any more additions at some point in the future. BTW - both AK47 and AK74 are available in Heroes Unleashed (the AK47 is called AKM nowadays).

Yep, ACU and other updates to game characters are certainly on my list for future versions of the mod, but there is still so much else to do that I cannot say when I will get around to that. I'll probably concentrate on scripting for a while to finish the campaign missions first, but you never know...

Welcome to the forums and thanks a lot for the kind words - very much appreciated!

Sadly, most of your suggestions are impossible to implement in Ghost Recon, because the shortcomings you describe are hard-coded into the game and cannot be altered through modding at this time. If RedStorm would ever release the source code of the game (one can still dream) it would be a different story, but for now we will have to live with these issues.

The 50 cal <could> be altered to damage vehicles through a little 'hack' - but then it would also destroy tanks and there are a number of other issues with ballistics and visuals that pose a problem. Again, I am limited by what the game "allows" to be modded and the current setup is - in my opinion - the best compromise.

Poor Audio!

I'm really not a big fan of the audio in the Ghost recon set. The only thing it really has going for it is the EAX/surround sound support which is great on my 5.1 system.

There are quite a few issues. The first is the mix down. A lot of the sounds such as the atmosphere and wind between the trees or valleys is simply just much too loud when compared to a lot of the sounds like footsteps etc . Furthermore, there is an inherent lack of sound stage in a lot of the audio, particularly again in a lot of the atmospheric audio.

Furthermore, there is issues of monotony and lack of variation in some of the audio. For example, lets say I'm popping off rounds whilst standing on a metal surface. I can hear the clang of the empty shells hitting the metal staircase, but its far too cold and sterile. To make it more realistic a really simple solution could be applied, but I don't know if the game's hard coding would allow it.

The solution would be simply to grab the old audio sample, and run through some basic editing by increasing/reducing pitch, and increasing/reducing the speed/length of the recording. So for example, for that 1 sound of the shell hitting the metallic staircase, you can have a range of pitch increases from -10% to -20%, in 1% increments, giving you 20 new sounds, and another set of speed/length increases ranging from -10% to -20% in 1% increments. The game would then have to be coded to randomly play the 40 audio samples of the shell hitting the metal surface, instead of the same sound over and over. This would give the audio a life-like variation in quality and would sound way more realistic.

The same thing could be done to a lot of other sounds, such as say the bullet landing in the soil or rocks around you.

IF I could, i would do all this myself, but it comes down to a matter of whether or not it's possible to do so according to the game's coding and how to actually open up the sounds and covert them into wave, and back from wave into the original format.

It'd also be good if I could mix down the sounds in the "effects" category a lot better. This would allow for much loud gunshots, and more realistic relativity in the sound in general. IT would be a lot more like the sound and audio in COD, which is a lot more appealing.

ALl this in mind, it's important to remember that Ghost Recon is an old game. For it's time the audio was acceptable, though nothing too fantastic.



Just some ideas... hope the help and i don' sound annoying and whiney!

Hey Apex! so great works!
my wishlist here:
1, enhance the enemy's AI,especially the reaction when they are shot or suppressed(the ambush .etc)! , sometimes the AI has no feeling of the teamate being killed nearby although they "see" or "hear" the killing and keep walking along........they should spread as quickly as they can and find some cover to shoot back.
2, increase the frequency of availability of the grenede or rifle grenade the AI use especially when they are assaulting or being assaulted. They need heavy fire for surface suppress ,not the single shot back and waiting for death.
3, Can AI has some sense about some essential tactical point in the map (highest point in region, good shooting view place,some hardcore cover place, etc),eveytime we are fighting in a "plat surface" and the AI never has the sense that they should firstly take and occupy the main point or the region in the gun fighting.
4 IF they are flanking, pls run faster and more far,pls dont only walk some steps away and suddenly staydown in the uncovered place when they are being shot.