Weapons choice

[PZ]

*****CONCLUSION- if found the idealspot.. the old sniper can do a lot without being a pain in a$$ and burning holes  in pocket.... kill like as50 without alerting the militia....

Good find - while I've been able to do something similar with the dart, I always assumed that it was because the weapon is silent (even though on other occasions a single dart alerts everyone in sight)

[fragger]

Nice info sourav190994, thanks for posting it :) :-X

I have noticed that when you're more than a certain distance away from the mercs, they don't seem to hear the sound from the M1903. But I have noticed this at Petro Sahel: if I approach from the NE and take out the sniper on top of the oil tank from the rocks where the railway line makes an inverted "U" shape, the other mercs generally don't seem to notice (no mercs between me and target). But if I take down the sniper from the south (you can target him from way up near where the hang glider is and which is a farther distance to shoot than from the NE rocks), when I get down closer the mercs are alerted. It seems that if they're between you and your target they somehow know you've fired, as though they don't hear the shot but do hear the round whizzing over their heads or something.

[Art Blade]

the flare gun should alert everyone seeing it, yet they seem to ignore that..

[mandru]

The flare gun was a bit of a disappointment when I realized I couldn't use it to summon a random AT when I was stranded out in the middle of nowhere so I could steal their ride.  :(

[fragger]

I remember reading somewhere (I thought it was in the original game manual but I can't seem to find it there) that you could fire a flare near, say, a GP, and attract mercs from the opposite faction and thus start a merc war, but I've never been able to get that to w@&k. You guys are right, they don't seem to notice or respond to flares, except when they get set alight by one >:D

But having said that, a curious thing happened while I was playing earlier. I was trying stuff out at that newly-found high vantage point near Cock Fights when one of the CF mercs ran out into the middle of the road and fired a flare into the air. Just a few seconds later an AT came barrelling down the road from the west as though responding to the flare, and in fact stopped right in front of the guy who'd fired it. The AT crew then got out of the truck, drew their weapons and started looking around for something to shoot at - a plan which was as short-lived as they were when a couple of seconds later an M-79 round sent them all aloft.

So where did that AT come from, and how did it respond so quickly? The nearest patrolling AT west of CF is the one that goes up and down the north/south road that links the middle-western and south-western sections of the map, and that's actually quite a distance away. I don't see how they could possibly have driven that distance in that amount of time, only about seven or eight seconds after the flare was fired (afterwards I drove over there and it took me at least twice that time, and I saw the patrol in the distance, although they could theoretically have respawned by then). I doubt they could have seen the flare from way over there anyway as there's quite a bit of high rock in between. My first thought was that maybe a couple of mercs from CF had slipped past me undetected and commandeered the AT I'd driven up in (I pinched it from the Scrapyard) but when I checked the AT was still where I'd left it, near the start of the path. There is a safehouse not far west of CF and at that stage of the game came equipped with an AT, but I'd already unlocked that SH so there were no mercs there and anyway that AT was still in place. So I don't know where the AT at CF came from, it was like it appeared out of nowhere ????

[mandru]

I'm pretty sure that when a merc fires a flare a (as I referred to it) random AT  is generated to rush in.  It's an otherwise unexplainable behavior I've seen many times even when a merc launched flare gets lofted at the furthest out of the way locations.  In fact it was seeing ATs called in like that which caused me to experiment to see if I could summon a AT to hijack after high centering my ride on a boulder or tree stump while running cross country.  :)

[PZ]

Sounds logical, mandru - I've never seen an AT actually stop when there was a merc in the road - the AT guys will run down one of their comrades as quickly as they will  a bug on the road.

[Art Blade]

I played around with flares and observed mercs firing flares upon which an AT comes flying by. Especially at Cock Fights I saw that happen several times and I too was wondering where that patrol might have come from. I came to the same conclusion as mandru: randomly generated.

Funny thing with modded weapons that are tuned to instantly kill, flares go up much higher and the response is almost certainly causing an AT to rush in. :)

[fragger]

... the AT guys will run down one of their comrades as quickly as they will  a bug on the road.

True. I think the merc I saw was just lucky and the AT just happened to stop in front of him :-D

Art & mandru, cheers for the input. Now that I think of it, there have been times in the past when I've thought, "where did that AT come from" but never connected the dots to the flares. It does sound logical. I'll keep an eye out for that in future :)

[mandru]

When I'm engaging an area I will often hear a merc call out "I'm launching a flare!" or "Quick, launch a flare" (something like that) which always causes me to scan for the merc that setting up to call in assistance.  If I can find and shoot him before he can fire that will thwart the attempted launch blocking any intervention from an incoming AT.

(Here's some comments on Flare Guns I recently posted over in the Details Gallery.  http://www.openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=482.msg51462#msg51462  )

[PZ]

On an aside, the flare animation looks really cool on a proper dark night

[fragger]

Yes, it does :-X

Petro Sahel is a fun place to fire flares into. There's something flammable every few feet in that place! Great fun from a distance, watching the mercs running around in a panic while stuff is blowing up all around them 8)

[Art Blade]

Petro Sahel incident.. staged, arranged, composed and particularly well executed by the Blade his self. :-D
[smg id=698 type=link align=center width=500]

[PZ]

I remember that photo - most excellent execution.  :-X

[TheStranger]

HOLY mother of explosion!  ???

[fragger]

I remember that photo too, classic :-X Has to be about the best FC2 explosive scene anyone's sent in, perfect timing and composition. Nice one, Mr. Blade :) 8)

[nexor]

Yep nice one Art, had a few myself but not as spectacular is this one   :-X

[Art Blade]

cheers, guys :)

Although I did that, it still makes me burst out with laughter every now and then when I get to see it. What a spectacle :)

I had carefully placed a couple of IEDs "where it hurts the most" and blew them up with my remote control. I was lucky it turned out this way and the light of the sky merges with the flames.. one of my best shots, ever. :)

[mandru]

A thing of beauty to behold.  :-X

[retiredgord]

What a fantastic shot.  You should print it and frame it to hang on the wall...I would.