Some of you may already be familiar with either the Wargames League mod for Operation Flashpoint, or the in-development Advanced Combat Environment mod for Armed Assault. For those that aren't, the intent behind both mods is basically to turn their respective games more towards in-depth combat simulation, enhancing playability through the use of positive changes and additions to the simulation framework inherent in their respective games. In short, it is an evolution in gameplay, taking what BIS has created and expanding on it in as many positive ways as possible, with the emphasis being on realism focused towards enhancing the gameplay experience. .

Advanced Combat Environment is the ArmA followup to the Wargames League mod. WGL for OFP was easily my favorite OFP mod by far - when ShackTac switched over to it in 2006, we never could go back to anything else. It totally redefined how OFP was played for us. From the testing we have been doing with ACE in recent weeks, ACE is set to have the same impact on ArmA as WGL once did on OFP. In a word, it's incredible.

I'm creating this topic on TG to open up discussion and field any questions that might be on your minds.

A brief rundown of some of the ACE features follows. There is a lot to this mod, and this is only part of it.

Originally Posted by ACE Features

- Robust stamina system that factors in the weight of your gear, speed of movement, steepness of terrain, weather, wounds, and more. The pacing of combat becomes a lot more authentic when people can no longer endlessly sprint around the map and exploit their superhuman endurance.

- Detailed medical system. The current implementation takes what worked well and builds on it, and the in-development version goes even beyond that. Bleeding, self-aid, buddy aid, bandaging, transportation of the wounded, etc - you name it, it's in or being developed in. The gameplay we have had from this alone has been spectacular. There's nothing quite like seeing someone get hit, running over to them, dragging them away, then doing a quick examination and following that with the appropriate medical attention.

- Greatly enhanced damage model. When you're shot, you can expect to be wounded more often than killed, as is the reality of combat. Stunning can occur, based on the severity of the injury, as can being knocked down, dropping your weapon, being rendered temporarily unconscious (ie: from an explosion). Can't walk? Stunned? Unconscious? No worries - a buddy can drag you from the battlefield and call a medic over to tend to you. The same system applies to vehicles as well - if a vehicle takes a hard hit, it's likely that the crew will be knocked out, which may cause their vehicle to drive erratically or come to a halt. Fellow soldiers can then run to it and drag the unconcious crew members out of the vehicle and to safety.

- Rucksacks & improved inventory system. The rucksack system from Wargames League has been greatly enhanced - the interface is integrated with the gear menu and is absolutely trivial to learn and use. Pack extra ammo, grenades, medical supplies, etc, in a rucksack that can be dropped when necessary to lighten your load (ie at the final staging area before an assault).

- Crew-served weapons. An M2 team may consist of several people - one with the gun itself, one with the tripod, and another with ammo. You can deploy these weapons anywhere (even on top of buildings), break them down to transport somewhere else, or even pick up the fully deployed weapon with the help of several players and move it to a new location.

- Realistic aircraft egress. Jets have ejection seats that will propel you clear before deploying your parachute. There are no more "magic parachutes" - if you jump out of a helo and aren't packing a parachute, you're going to plummet to your grisly demise. Parachutes are an inventory item that must be present for parachute functionality to happen, and you'll be able to choose when you pull the ripcord to avoid those awkward "Oh god please don't shoot me in my chute" deaths that can otherwise happen.

- Authentic startup times for vehicles. No more instant-on Abrams. While you will not have to wait the full amount of time that some vehicles require in reality for the sake of gameplay and fun, there will be delays to encourage proper and realistic gameplay behaviors.

- Fantastic visual effects, created by none other than Maddmatt. If you've used his public ArmA Effects stuff, you'll have a good idea of what to expect.

- Tweaked vehicular damage, resulting in less catastrophic kills, and more of a focus on mobility kills and other non-catastrophic-explosion-causing forms of destruction.

- Authentic helicopter gunnery. Currently in the mid stages of development, the ACE Cobra features a fantastically modeled set of weaponry and functionality taken straight from the actual Cobra flight manual. More details on this in the future - we're keeping the specifics under wraps for right now, but rest assured that the end result is going to please anyone who has ever wished that the ArmA helo experience was more than just "lock-fire-rinse-repeat".

- Enhanced AI behaviors and more authentic levels of accuracy and lethality. Combine this with other aspects of ACE and you have firefights that last longer, result in more wounding and less killing, and just generally are more enjoyable to partake in.

- Other assorted cool things - backblast for anti-tank weapons, blast overpressure effects, no ammo counter for rifles and such (with the ability to do a "magazine check" to get an idea of how full your current magazine is), enhanced recoil modeling, simulation of unexploded ordnance, wind influencing helicopter flight, new character types (ADF, USMC, USN/SEAL, USARMY), weapons, and vehicles, proper anti-tank rocket ballistics, etc etc etc. That's not even counting a ton of things that are in the pipeline (such as the radio enhancements, map enhancements, and a ton more).

- Over 25 islands ported from WGL for OFP. While not as visually pretty as Sahrani, these islands provide tried-and-true gameplay that gets you off of Sahrani for some varied terrain and new combat and mission possibilities. They don't look half bad in the ArmA engine, either! There's also a brand new ArmA island that has been created, but the details of that will have to wait until a bit later.