Camouflage nets have been part of Arma 2 since its release. In the real world, these camo nets are frequently used to hide units and vehicles, enabling defenders to surprise attackers. However, camo nets have seen little use in Arma2...

Concealed SAM site consisting of a 1S91 radar and two 2K12 launchers (Arma2)

French mountain unit manning mortars (Arma2)

Y2003 USMC TOW HMMWV manning a line in the desert (Arma2)

This PlannedAssault update attempts to change that. Building on, and inspired by, hcpookie's 'Deployable Camo Nets' add-on for Arma2:CO, PlannedAssault now generates missions that include include orders for selected defending units to deploy camo nets. As a starting point, all Arma2:CO crew served weapons, all crew served artillery, and all light-armored anti-tank vehicles and all anti-air vehicles are configured with camo nets.

The screen shots here clearly show what a camo net can do: hiding a defender or break up its shape making detection harder.

Stryker MGS engaging threats from camouflaged position (Arma2)

Bundeswehr Wiesel 2 Ozelot set-up under camouflage net (Arma2)

Bradley IFV crew mounting up after deploying a net (Arma2)

Hcpookie's 'Deployable Camo Nets' add-on introduces camouflage nets in different sizes and colors, along with a script enabling human players to set-up a net for a vehicle in a 30 second animation.

I have written a new script that makes a group of AI vehicles deploy their nets one-by-one. In many cases*, you'll see a crew member dismount to set-up the net using an animation and afterwards remount. I have added orders for each 'camo-net equipped' defender group to trigger this 'deploy camo net' script when they are to hide or perform a 'guard' action. Unlike hcpookie's script, camo nets won't automatically disappear when units move out of their camo net position.

I have reviewed all Arma2:CO units in PlannedAssault's unit database, and added camo net matching the unit's size and camouflage where applicable.

Just to clarify: the Arma2 AI doesn't decide on its own to the deploy a camo net. It is the additional orders in missions generated by PlannedAssault that make the AI units use the camouflage. It's been a simple addition for PlannedAssault and me, because PlannedAssault generates orders from a larger battle plan from which it is obvious when and where it make sense to deploy camo nets.

Four M119 howitzers firing from a concealed position (Arma2)

Cold war US M60A3 platoon on Kolguljev (Arma2)

CWR2's AH-1F Cobra w shark graphics (Arma2)

This update also includes a new map: Cold War Rearmed 2's Kolguljev island.

As an experiment, I've chosen a larger area size than for previous maps. The (North) Kolguljev map is 8 x 6 km, whereas all earlier maps were four times smaller at 4 x 3 km. Larger maps provide more room and freedom to define battles, but making positioning units in your browser more difficult. Larger maps used to take too much computing time on my side, but with a faster planner now in place I'm ready to explore this.

For testing CWR2's Kolguljev, I've added and used the new CWR2 AH-1F Cobra. It is available in the unit database with and without shark nose graphics.

Have fun!

William

*: In case the vehicle has cargo or has a gunner that is not a commander. This follows from Arma2 AI limitations: if the driver dismounts, all other crew will dismount as well. If the commander dismounts, other vehicles will move around, potentially leaving their camo net position.