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ACEREP #00005

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It has been a while, but our next update (3.6.0) has finally arrived. And it’s a big one! We’re saying this each time but the changes are really getting more numerous on each release.

Very fitting: We recently passed 10.000 commits on the ACE3 repository. Which is about 19 commits per day since our first commit on the 10. January 2015:

This release though has been mainly focused on improvements and fixes, while also largely being one where we cleaned up our internal frameworks. See our blog post about deprecating frameworks in favour of CBA. Our goal with 3.6.0 is to polish the project and mature its code, making it easier to maintain and work on ACE3 in the long run.

We wouldn’t be ACE without adding and improving a few things though. So here are some of the highlights of the ACE3 v3.6.0 release:

Our previous release had some issues with fast roping. We have since addressed those and enhanced the component. For example, fast roping now includes sounds and doesn’t stick you into the ground (Yay). We also ported another feature from ACE 2, the mine detector. Those familiar with the ACE 2 version will recognize it. This is a first step in porting over more of the old features from ACE 2, CSE and AGM to ACE3. More of the EOD equipment is being worked at for one of the next releases.

An EOD clearing a convoy's way with a mine detector.

We also addressed one of the standing issues with our medical system. In one of our previous updates, the amount of bandages necessary to properly heal a patient was significantly increased. This caused problems and was not in line with how we feel the medical system should behave. This update changes the effects and benefits from a bandage for advanced medical:

  • The field dressing bandage is now the average bandage.
  • Packing bandage has average effect, but can fail more often, though can last a lot longer.
  • Elastic bandage has higher effect but can fail more often and quicker.
  • QuikClot has the lowest effect, a very low failure change and can last quite long.

While not directly impacting our users, 3.6.0 includes a huge amount of changes and clean up within our systems. The previously mentioned deprecation of some of our internal frameworks is one of those, but we also started on preparing for some larger changes coming with 3.7.0. We continue to go through our whole code base and to optimize our code, using new script commands and making it more reliable.

We have also added in support for custom rank icons within the name tags component based on factions. Here is an example of how that looks by commy2:

The ACE3 name tags component showing german rank insignias.

Initial ACEX release

The ACEX logo.

Today we are pleased to announce the first release of our ACEX package. This is a mod aimed at adding in extra and optional modules on top of ACE3.

At the moment ACEX is focused on gameplay that the ACE team considers added value, but does not properly fit within the main project itself. The initial release contains mission and multiplayer enhanced frameworks, such as the Headless Client Load Balancing.

This is an initial release. Over time we plan to add more and larger components to expand ACEX. Among those larger components are “Artillery”, similar to ACE 2 artillery, and Blue Force Tracking, a rewrite of the CSE and CTab BFT modules.

Download

ACEX is available on Github.

Content package

We realise that ACEX is largely considered a content package. This is based off the old ArmA 2 days. With ACE3 however, we feel that large content are best suited for modificaions such as CUP or RHS. We will therefore focus on delivering gameplay mechanics and frameworks with a small amount of content to support those features.

Open source

Just like ACE3, ACEX is entirely open source and all contributions are welcome. Feel free to maintain your own custom version, so long as the changes you make are open to the public in accordance with the GNU General Public License (GPLv2).

Project structure template

Along side our releases, we have also made our project structure available as a template. This has been done to make it easier for other developers to create new projects and leviate the building and tool chains developed for and by the ACE team.

While we support other modifications going open source (Yay AliVE!), we will not force you to when using this project template. It has been released under the MIT license, so feel free to do with this as you wish.

A few notes: At the moment the tool chain uses PboProject (and pbo builder optionally). We are looking at migrating this to Armake soon. Support, issues and bug reports can be reported on our GitHub page.

Armake tools

Our very own Koffeinflummi has been working on an open source Arma tool. It is a project aimed at making it easier for developers to pack their projects into PBOs and focuses on cross-platform compatibility. Meaning that PBOs can be created on both Windows and Unix based systems. You can check out his project and process on GitHub. A pre-release version is also available.

The End Things

We welcome baermitumlaut as our newest core developer. He started as a fresh contributor on ACE3 and has rewritten the whole fast roping module by himself and is currently working on some promising new features. So Welcome!, we’re glad you’ve joined.

The full changelog for ACE3 v3.6.0 can be found here: https://github.com/acemod/ACE3/release/v3.6.0

We are still in need for translations for some languages within the ACE3 project. Please have a look at this github issue to track the progress and what languages lack translations. Any and all help with this is appreciated.

And most finally, we would like to invite you to our ACE3 public Slack chat. Here you can chat with fellow ACE3 users and developers, ask questions and receive help. Registration is open for everyone: https://acemod.org/slack.

Make sure to follow us on twitter and to like our facebook page.