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New Feature: Externally fed machine-guns

ModderFlugente

StatusRELEASED

Go to Project

Machine-guns can now be fed externally. Flugente has implemented a small feature that can alter the ways we treat MGs. Basically, we can now have dedicated ammo bearers (and thus create ‘true’ machine-gun teams). It works like this:

When a merc has ammunition in his hands, and that ammo item is defined as an ammo belt, he can feed the guns of his teammates. A icon on his portrait will show you that.

In order to do that, his teammate must be next to him, and they must look in about the same direction, or he looks at his teammate.

Also, the gun of our teammate must allow external feeding. This can also be done via an attachment (G3 to HK21, anyone?)

The calibers of the gun and the ammo must match, as must the ammo type (AP, Tracer…)

 

  • – What now happens is this: If the gun is fired, the bullet is not deducted from the gun’s magazine, but instead from our ammo item. So we provide the bullets that the MG shoots.
  • – We can feed a gun by holding ammo in our hands, or we can feed our own gun from our inventory:
    • — Certain vests (in the trunk the only one will be the LRAK vest) have slots in which ammo belts can be stored.
    • — A ammo belt in these slots can supply our own gun, if it is the ONLY ammo belt in this slot.
  • – To avoid exploits, the gun’s ammo is not restored to full capacity when it is fed externally. All that happens is that the bullets get removed somewhere else, so to speak.
  • – Note that the shooting mechanism does not counter in the fact that a gun is fed externally. This means that if your gun’s ammo count is down to 1, you can only fire a single bullet at a time, even if someone esle supplies you with a fresh 100-bullet belt.
  • – This system also works if you have a gun in every hand and each one is belt-fed. So yes, you can now wield dual-belt-fed machineguns, provided some modder would allow something this wacky.

This feature can be controlled via the JA2Options.ini.

All necessary xml changes are in the . AS of now, several people are developing new features that need this tag, so I’ll decide the definite number once this reaches the trunk.

This does not break savegames at all, as this is a pure xml-based feature.

My advice to any modder wanting to truly emphasize MG teams with this: Lower the magazine site of your MG (like to 20 or so). This will force the player to either reload hideously often, or rely on this feature.