ACRE in F2 (Radio Reassignment)

[SpecialSoup]

Suggestion!

It makes little sense to assign all other roles with the 148. It's self-defeating in terms of gameplay to allow every soldier access to such a high powered radio.

Removing this section so most units will be using just the 343 would be an improvement.

[head]

How i set it up, that i think wolf copied


CO - 148/117f
ASL - 148/117F
A1 leader - 148
A1 sqaudies - none

etc

[wolfenswan]

I copied what I got from Head and iirc that was exactly as it is now as I've got no idea about ACRE radios

Anyway, it's set up like the other assignGear scripts so changing it is a minor thing. Here's a pastebin of a version with fewer 148s.

[fer]

Are we happy with the new version proposed by Wolfenswan? Need feedback (and possibly testing reports from) Head, SpecialSoup etc., please.

[Macaco]

Not that I'm in the list of people that you want feedback from but when playing with ACRE I've typically seen the Fireteams/Squads given 343 radios (short range, super simple, only able to talk to other 343s) with FTL and SL having a 343 AND a 148, and COs/Deps having 117s.

Also needs consideration for RTO slots for HQ squad, if they want to be used. Folk probably wouldn't use that slot but we also don't use ACRE so I assume the ACRE implantation in F2 is for the other groups that use F2 to make missions, and they may like to have it, or at least a pre-built kit for an RTO, if not pre-added to the spawned groups.

[Ferrard Carson]

Keeping in mind that I haven't played terribly much of ACRE, this is what I've seen from maybe a collective 30-40 hours in an ACRE environment:

In terms of practical usage, there's really only need for two radios:

• PRC-343: Really crappy walkie-talkie with a max range of about 500m, or less if there's terrain in the way. Used for intra-element yakking.
• PRC-148: Significantly less crappy walkie-talkie with a max range of about 5km. These are used for inter-element yakking, or when element members are often outside of 500m from one another.

Between these two radios, there are waaaay more than enough channels for suitable comms to be mucked with. The general rule of thumb would be as Macaco said, 343's for everyone, while element leaders get 148's. There are a buttload more fancy radios, but AFAIK, they don't serve any additional purpose but to satisfy the odd radio-jockey.

The only exception to that would be for a CO / JTAC coordinating aircraft or non-mortar artillery, in which case a PRC-117 with its 20km range would probably be required*. If you're not using aircraft, though, 5km should be just enough for your purposes. If it's not, then either your group is big enough that you go by the initials ST, or your CO has spread your forces waaaaay too much.

~ Ferrard

*Pilots don't need 117's, as ACRE default equips all vehicles with a 117 that overrides any other command radio.

[fer]

@Ferrard - if we go with your reasoning, does Wolf's pull request need editing? Also, opinions are welcome from all, not just the comrades I'm calling out by name. I'm not an ACRE user, so rely very much on the views of ACRE-using FA comrades when making decisions about what to merge into F2.

[SpecialSoup]

• PRC-343: Really crappy walkie-talkie with a max range of about 500m, or less if there's terrain in the way. Used for intra-element yakking.
• PRC-148: Significantly less crappy walkie-talkie with a max range of about 5km. These are used for inter-element yakking, or when element members are often outside of 500m from one another.

The 343 can manage significantly more than 500m over flat ground. It is highly terrain dependant though.


Fer - Wolfenswan's edited version is fine. The only minor suggestion I would make is to issue spotters with a 148 due to the nature of how a sniper/spotter partnership should work, but given how rare sniper squads are used in missions it's a feature that can be set per mission.

Thanks all for such a speedy resolution for this.

[Ferrard Carson]

@Ferrard - if we go with your reasoning, does Wolf's pull request need editing?

Anyone remember if giving someone two different types of command radio results in problems? I vaguely remember reading somewhere that having a -148 and a -117f could lead to strange setting overrides. Other than that concern, it all looks kosher, presuming that we have F2's ACRE default converting the Arma radio to a PRC-343.

~ Ferrard

[Kefirz]

My opinion might not be relevant because I have fumbled around in ACRE for like 2-3 times, but it seems logical as US Fer said.
Basically:
- CO gets the 20km PRC-117

-SL's get 5km PRC-148, let's be honest.. 5km is a large distance and even if there are hills that should be sufficient because the SL usually rolls with his fireteams together (I guess he would need 2 of those though one for the CO and one for FT1, FT2, FT3, but as I said I really haven't played with ACRE that much.)

-FTL's get either 2 PRC-343 or one PRC-148 and one PRC-343, doesn't matter really which combo because as I said all the fireteams usually move in a 500m radius around the SL.
(Again dunno about the quantity, does he need two or he can just live by one, because he, and the SL need to be on 2 frequencies at all times and I don't know if there is a ''scan all predefined frequencies'' option.)

-FT members get PRC-343 which is pretty self explanatory.


Regarding the channels, I think there are 10 channels on those radio's, that is if there is a 0-9 channels.
So let's say that there are full squads of 9 FT's total then those are 9 inter FT channels + CO to SL chan. + 3 SL to FTL chan. = which sums up to 13 channels, I know that you can get more channels with the larger radios, but how about PRC-148, can you add custom ones in there as you can in the larger radios?
(I just read the thread again and it looks like there might be a solution to this by removing the inter FT channels so it would be a grand total of 4 channels, but how well does shouting work in ACRE? I have never tried it is it like local VON? If it is then that is rubbish)

About the RTO attachment to the CO, the CO really is his own radio man, because without that he would have nothing to do but stare at his map and mumble something to his RTO. Although that might be mil-sim I think it is not needed because that just adds one more person who isn't at the front line.