Arma 3 the eridanus insurrection

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sirnaut

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Dog88 the lead dev wanted me to post this

greetings 405th,


i am part of a small team working on a project that might peak your interest. we are currently developing a mod for the PC game ARMA 3 called "The Eridanus Insurrection". for those of you who dont know what arma is, its a first person "combat simulator" which aims for realism. that being said it serves as a great platform for our mod which will be a mod based on the halo universe however we are focusing on the inssurrection war rather than the covenant war. I would like to take a few minutes of your time and tell you about this project and maybe gain some support from you.
as mentioned above we are focusing on the inssurrection war rather than the covenant war for a few reason. first and foremost arma 3 handles a lot better with human models which means less time in development as we dont have to rig and animate the covenant. 2nd off the lack of visual reference (to my knowledge) for the insurrectionsts allows for some lead way in creativity to put our own little spin on it. last but probably the biggest reason for the choice in era is due to the fact that this era has not really been addressed and explored in the console games. so we basically want to leave it up to you to explore this part of the history through our mod.
in regards to gameplay it will vary heavily from the traditional style on console. arma 3 is a military simulator which means it has a heavy regard for realism. realism in ballistics, damage, physics and all other aspects you can think of. this means that we want to bring the halo universe a bit away from the "run and gun" style gameplay and introduce it to realism a bit more. i believe odst somewhat went in that direction as you were no longer a super soldier. you had to pick your fights and/ or sneak past enemies. i believe in live actions you can see it the most though. it doesnt take people 20-30 hits to get killed, no, they take one good needle to the stomach and its game over. our mod's gameplay will be similar, more realistic in regards to how many aspects. in our mod we would also like to focus on the average soldier with the highest tier being ODST. down the road we might explore spartans but initially we wont address that.
now i hope i didnt scare you away because now we get into what we have so far. we've been at it for a few months and have made great progress. the models we deal with are either made from scratch, donated, or free to use by the author so no rips or anything. we would like to avoid that to prevent a mod shutdown. before i show you what we have i must warn you, we didnt have a texture artist until recently so hes playing catch up, but here we go.


odst's - we have odst's working in game that are currently being textured. actually they are being textured by one of your fellow members. the model allows the player to remove the helmet, chest armor (vest style) and of course his uniform. you can turn on and off the visor which makes it dissappear visually on the unit. customization is big in halo so we followed suit. the armor comes inseveral variants for you to choose. you can create custom textures to completely customize it in color. arma also has a system for insignia and clan logos. this means that you could rock the 405th patch in game or pick one of the many we made. the helmet comes in several variants as well with a lot of attachments of course so you can gear up however you like and drop into combat.
in action:weapons are placeholders)
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652989400916062/3E9BDE4D055BB7B548E2CAE38FEE75A250575653/
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652270947921407/708C99A694B612AD018C06D6FE8EA44FD07AEF11/
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652270947914963/17E0D2FD2E11509860DB6BF0F2ED6BE0CFA6504C/
helmet variants: http://i.imgur.com/1FkRx7s.png
clan logos and insignia demo http://i.imgur.com/GbVnPQc.png
custom textures in color demo http://i.imgur.com/niv6EEvl.png
first person visor demo http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652270947900967/6D96107AF2A244180976CCDBCDCFAA619EC547B9/
visor off demo http://i.imgur.com/ySZveX1l.png
again to re-iterrate the textures are placeholders as well as the weapons. the units themself (armor etc) will be rescalled a bit to be more accurate as well.
quick sidenote, in some of the pics you can see the landscape. arma 3 is a sandbox game with large open terrain so you can explore the world pretty freely and make your own missions etc. anyways back on topic since i just mentioned dropping into combat, lets go right to that.


odst drop pods
these pods will feature 2 types of drop systems. the first is a simple map click system which means you can request a drop and click anywhere on the map and you spawn in the pod dropping feet first into hell. the 2nd method is from the frigate, which ill show you in a sec. you will spawn/ respawn inside a barrack room on the frigate. from there you can walk down the hall to the armory and grab whatever gear you need and head to the drop room. there you will get in the pod and request to drop which will then launch you from the frigate to the ground. upon impact you will be able to hit the emergency release which fires the door off or you simply open it and climb out. we will try to add in limited maneuverability as well. same thing with the textures applies, none just yet so dont be let down.
pods coming down http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652270949357603/AF9859B630B154E0616AE5E426AA7123C75A5E98/
internal view (the screens will actually display
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652270966384990/DA632C05B9A547B92EFBECBB74CCFF1CC3F3D43E/
drop room on the frigate
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652270921556714/BF4DDA7744262146C1D2C95059151EFB0EC386DB/
and here is a special treat, the pods in action. 2 videos of the drop


moving on, since i mentioned the frigate let me introduce you to this thing. it will be a full sized frigate with multiple enterable areas. it will feature 12 pelican hangars, a view deck, the bridge, a drop room, limited halways, auxiliary drop bay for cargo drops and a odst barrack room. you will be able to fly into the hanger with the pelican and explore this thing to an extent. the frigate will serve as a sort of base for the game from where you can launch operations. we will try to implement weapon systems aboard the ship as well such as tactical nukes and missiles. these will be fired from the bridge where you can access control panels to gain access to the weapons. sounds neat? lets see it right?
the full view of it http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/588035533445634384/2030766E8AE0C8AB31E5C801A6AFA8B79573F928/
odst dropping down from it
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/591412339817613840/BADF0D76634ECAD0E31F9E4CD94E53BAD27518C6/
size comparison to a few helicopters that are in this game http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/588035533449129601/F8123F18D4EF63CFDAABCC196B02E3C5E71F29DF/ (it might be a bit off scale, so we will size it up a bit soon)
the bridge with placeholder textures again (the map on the map table will feature different maps for the player to cycle through and allow them to plan missions on it
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652270946125355/EA72520FCAB3052D1B678C6A07FC8F5CF216C876/
some of the screens
http://i.imgur.com/VNoFV9E.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/NT0WJgJ.jpg
auxiliary drop bay, where you will be able to drop cargo for logistical aspects
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/588035533449099425/70603869D2C55CD1879C6C8EE20375276DEC5F17/
the left side pelican bay, which can hold 6 pelicans
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/588035533449115078/1EF2175C4EC18FE43B5720703BA973F3DB9E2DF0/
older shot of the bay with placeholder pelicans
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc...FBC25B57F0CD468A63B9943/2048x384.resizedimage
pelican coming into the bay (again old pics with placeholder pelicans)
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc...D7B6D43782DD91E87697663/2048x384.resizedimage
odst barrack room
http://i.imgur.com/o22Lmgw.jpg
armory just outside the barrack room
http://i.imgur.com/MfQjap1.jpg
layout of the drop area (left is barracks room, connectin hallway goes right to the drop room and down to the armory)
http://i.imgur.com/CRaH1ck.jpg
the view deck/ mess hall
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/588035533424079037/CACA33E070B7A98FA8FAEB2BF664A26468CB5FA4/
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/588035533424084813/B3F9CA04A1D9ECBE8A0F137122F61EDD7B686922/


now since i mentioned the pelican let me talk about that next. it will come in several variants from armed to unarmed, troop carriers and all that jazz. . it will feature rocket weapons systems and the main machingun mounted on the nose. later version will include the gun on the back ramp, which the ramp can be closed and opened. the landing gear will come out before landing and lights are functional. it can carry a good amount of troops in the back so you can fly this thing to the front and drop off your marines and make supply runs to and from the frigate.
here is a pic of the pelican firing the rocket system at night
http://i.imgur.com/nOcmHIC.jpg
here is a wip picture of the cockpit, we had to put our own spin on it for realism purposes
http://i.imgur.com/sSVgELB.png
pelican firing the modern day flare system (game mechanic from arma, figured would be good to keep)
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652271018596139/1D74A40FFC6079281186C3184491CF852117B4CD/


lets talk more vehicles right? how about the warthog? its not much yet but it has functioning lights and a smooth ride. we are working on getting its game mechanics up to speed to come close to what we are use to with the hog. we will make several variants like troop carriers, cargo variants, unarmed and gun mounted, but here are a few pictures
overall model (scale is still a bit big)
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652906968051850/42AA8DF09FE587F2840C324D38B330887A6B1195/
lights at night
http://i.imgur.com/aXGssVH.jpg


i hope i still have your interest at this point. as you can see we are hard at work. lets move on shall we?
how about some more units? how about the average joe soldier? we have UNSC army in game thus far, again textures are placeholders. we will have medics, machingunners, riflemen, commo, all for you to choose and play. helmet and armor variants just like the odst as well as the unit patches and clan logos.


in action
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652989390557441/036AB93F50DA01DCE83211D581C71AAB9E3DC4A1/
frontal view
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652989389630711/33ED8EF58009422C212A798B84C8BC2E701D3796/
next to an odst
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652989400493100/23A0A237558CF4DC795A2BC7B57329D49D40EB52/
riding in a hog
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/575652989400490344/0935DF935E991C26DF604533BD6F5619FF1F7D31/
we are going to cover marines as well at some point. all your favorite weapons will be in the game as well of course, lets see what we have so far right?
the textures are ripped placeholders, they will be completely replaced
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/212/6/d/2014_07_31_00002_by_atinakiri-d7t3r4c.jpg
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/212/0/d/2014_07_31_00001_by_atinakiri-d7t2i85.jpg


now lets talk about environments because im sure you are thinking about that as well. we are planning on bringing at least 2 maps to you, possibly 3. 3 maps? thats nothing... is probably what you are thinking, but in arma 3 maps are several square km large. the first map we plan on bringing to life is a small piece of reach. rocky and ruggid terrain with tucked away colonies and remote unsc bases. this will be about 2 square km large which in arma means that you can walk every cm of that 2 square km map. the nexto ne will be a 4x4 or 6x6 square km map of new mombasa featuring some tight urban areas to fight in. we plan on having every building enterable to a certain degree. that counts for high risers as well. you will be able to access a few floors on the high risers and of course the roof for foor top battles. last but not least we want to bring a large scale reach to you, maybe 10km by 10km. same terrain just larger with more room to play war. the map will feature several small towns, remote bases and a bunch of areas to explore. thinking what it might feel like exporing in arma? well here is a environmental demo of some of the buildings we've worked on thus far. they are some of the new mombasa buildings for tight urban combat. you can also see the pelican swoosh around a bit as well as get a feel for what arma looks and plays like (3rd person is optional in arma3 which on that note i should add that arma is mainly coop based but pvp is possible if wanted).
few pics of course
space elevator (far from done) next to a modern greek city for size comparison
http://i.imgur.com/J7dA7rE.png
from way up there
http://i.imgur.com/aJL9wG5.png
building demo
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/563268007987314950/18A4F0900D45807718EBD4014C2CEF21CED6ACA5/
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/563267372032572779/6BED1E8FF828DCB6BD4B6EA2C3D4A17BEC77CCBD/
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/563267372032574814/76293510B70E0076EC29BD9F77A1C461742BB042/
interior demo
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/563267372032573976/7FD9EE7BFEB18AFBFFFED18D2B912C1D97B98045/


we plan on making several innie cells, more unsc assets, civilian assets and environmental assets. we still have a long road ahead of us though.
allright ladies and gents thats all i have to show you for now but you are probably asking why i'm posting this right? provided i had your attention up until now, i really hope you stay with me for a bit longer. as mentioned we are hard at work but we are 1 a small team and 2 as you can tell, not having a texture artist, we are limited in knowledge on some things. we try to post on pages, forums, social media to raise some awareness about the mod in the hopes of bringing in new dev team members in order to speed up the process and add more quality to the package. that being said, a member of your ranks came across the mod and jumped abord the frigate with us. he suggested i post something on the 405th, which is the 2nd time i was told to do so but never got to it, so here it is. i know its a long read but i wanted to be thourough to show you we are hard at work and take this pretty serious as we all dream of playing this mod ourselfs. that being said i wanted to post this to raise awareness and see if anybody would be interested in joining the dev team. arma has its own coding language called sqf i believe so coders might need some time to adjust into the different code but are still welcomed. 3d artists can crank out assets all day and our team can get them from model to in game object, basically do the coding for that. with so much to create 3d artists are of course highly welcomed. making terrain in arma is a whole nother animal but if you are interested in learning we have 1 guy that knows the ropes, so maybe get into that? texture artists... oh boy do we lack that. as you can tell all of our models are untextured for the most part. we are in dire need of good texture artists who know the pieces or the full package i.e. uv mapping and all the different maps for texturing. again, you can texture in your own program and we can get it in game, usually no problem. so if you are interested in joining the team to get in this game with us, just let us know.
what about donations? no not money donations, asset donations. do you happen to be a 3d artist that doesnt want to join a team due to time contraints but you have some models you wouldnt mind us using with your permission? if you do and you dont mind we accept any models that were created personally and from scratch. we want to avoid the mod being closed down so we can't afford to use rips or anything like that, even though its a non profit mod. so yeah if you have models you would like us to use for the mod please let us know as well. we will make great use of the mas you can see.
we are also looking for some music producers to make a halo style sountrack for us. theme songs and all that jazz, so maybe you want to help out in that department, again just let us know.


alright im finally at the end... too much reading right? but if you stayed with me this long i believe you are pretty interested in this project. even if you dont want to play it im sure you might appreciate us expanding on the halo universe a bit no? we appreciate you reading all of this and we appreciate your interest in this project. we hope you can spread the word or even join our endeavour in making the next big halo pc game ;)
we look forward to hearing your feedback as we take everything into consideration. we as a dev team believe its important to keep the community in the loop so we post almost every little update for people to see. your feedback keeps us motivated and i believe that is a big step in preventing a die out of the mod.


apologies again for the long read but thank you for coming along this far, and i hope you will drop feet first into hell with us upon release!


thedog88
the eridanus insurrection [TEI] dev team member
 
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Very interesting I play Arma 3 and I would love to see a halo mod for it.
I hope you finde some people to help you. [emoji106][emoji3]

Sent from somewhere that is not home.
 
hey guys, im glad this is being received well. i hope to hear some feedback from you guys and if anybody has a high res image of the 405th unit logo i will make sure it gets added into the game ;)

ill keep you guys posted in this thread from time to time on updates. looking forward to dropping into hell with you guys
 
Count me in! As a long time Wasteland mod player I'm certainly up for this!
Not sure I could be of any use to development though :p

I'll have to fix the stupid blocked multiplayer glitch thing I got when they added the bootcamp thing a few weeks ago... >.<
 
I was literally just thinking yesterday how awesome it would be to mod ARMA 3 to be Halo...

Can... can you read minds???

Right? I was thinking of something like this about a month or so ago lol.

thedog88, This is some seriously impressive stuff. I wish there was a way that I could help, but I know absolutely nothing about making stuff on the pc :p
The fact that you have actual drop pods that work is just awesome.
 
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hey thanks guys! i've personally been wanting this for a while now and actually this is my second attempt. i've tried once before in arma 2 but lacked the knowledge required to mod. i've came a long way and together with the team we've put together things are more promising than ever. we will follow suit with BI and go alpha and beta release before the full version. during alpha we plan on having at least UNSC Army and ODST as well as some innies ready for you. that way you can jump right into the fight.

also there is in fact a way you can help speed up development even if you possess no skillset in modding. we've seen great results from spreading the word about the mod. the more people know about it the more chances we have in getting new members on the team. it seems almost anytime we post up on reddit for example we gain one or two members. that being said we try to be proactive in posting around the net but us posting cuts off time we could be modding. that being said, if you want to help, spread the word around the net. feel free to link to this thread or the bi thread which we use as a development thread.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthre...danus-Insurrection-An-Arma-3-Total-Modication

alternatively feel free to link people to my steam account as that is a good way of contacting me regarding this

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198008259826/

anyways, i will keep in touch on here and as said, im glad its being well received. if you have questions or suggestions fire away :D
 
Yo Mauro! don't know if you remember me but I'm Cogdill from way back during the 173rd and 25thID days. Awesome to see you working on this man! Also excellent choice choosing the armor designs of Halo Reach.
 
hey yeah man remember you brotha. good to hear from you! hit me up on steam sometime. yeah we figured the units from reach have the most sense in regards to gear also they look the best imo.
 
If you want in the future I could do some promo art for you and the mod. I've always wanted to see the Insurrection in action since all we've gotten are the novels so far. Along with what Innies would look like. I always pictured them being very grab anything you can use type of rebels although some of the more economically pushed groups might actually get their own gear.

The only appearances of Insurrectionists are from the Marvel Comics which they just look like men wearing very large vests and berets.
640px-FoR_innies.png

While in Halo Wars they wore hoods.

URebels.png

And Forward unto Dawn they appear more like what I pictured just wearing civie clothing and throwing on whatever gear they could possibly grab from dead UNSC personnel.

FUD Innie
 
yeah man we actually plan on making a few different innie cells.

first one is the milita group (no name for them yet) but basically the green uniforms with berets and tactical vests as seen in your first image,

second one will be a everyday citizen type innie meaning civilian clothing with, like you said, grab whatever i can gear (basically old military gear and UNSC gear from fallen troops)

third will be a type of "boarding" cell. these guys will be in jump suits and lightly equipped. there was a vague reference here for them http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130925051831/halo/images/5/5e/Isla_Zane_squad.png the idea for these guys are basically they are the innies that would take over small civilian and unsc vessels by force. they will be very lightly armed though, pistols and maybe a hand full of assault weapons with little to no other gear as seen in the picture.

the hooded ones are still up for debate. i personally would like to see them but with 3 cells to play with already i think the players will have plenty of innies to kill... i mean play with xD


but i agree, i wish bungie would've expanded on this aspect a bit more but hell, this leaves our team with more flexibility in terms of development as we can sort of put our own twist on it. however if anybody has good imagery of innies, i would love to see it
 
Well with ArmA 3's loadout system it really helps with the appearance part of Innies. Since ArmA 3 has a disguise system with it that could lead to some interesting insurrectionist gameplay like disguising yourself as UNSC and sneaking into explosives to a vehicles depot.

with the hooded Innies you could just have hoods (if they are applicable.) be just a random head gear piece. I'm guessing the Innies' Warthog equivalent would be the Civilian Spade from Halo Reach. Heck although slow the all powerful forklift could be turned into a combat vehicle haha. UAVs are definitely still plausible to as they could look like something similar to the press camera at the beginning of Halo 2 on the Cairo Station.

You probably are already looking at and using Isaac Hannaford's art for references since he is the main concept artist for Bungie and Halo Reach.

Here is his Halo related Art on his site.
 
yeah i am really happy about armas loadout system. i really allows us to address customization a lot, especially thanks to hidden selections.

yeah i was thinking of making it a simple headgear piece, should be fairly simple too so i will make sure to add that in in some way for maybe the 2nd cell? and yeah uav's are def. plausible, just going to have to see how to pull it off.

bookmarked his site, will browse through it to get ideas :) thanks man!
 
Hello everyone!
SpaceNavy, one of the leaders of the Eridanus Insurrection mod team, here.

I just wanted to thank all of you for your interest and support in our project. A lot of progress is being made by our development team of over 10 members every day!
It is very exciting to finally be able to bring a true experience of Halo to the Arma engine, a place we all think Halo can live peacefully.

As you might be able to see from my profile, I have been a long time member of the 405th and while I haven't had the talent or motivation to create my own armor, I enjoy admiring every set of armor, prop, weapon or anything made by this community, especially the Marines, Army, and ODSTs. :)

If you would like to keep up to date on this mod, you may do so by signing up on the Bohemia Interactive forums and following our thread there:
http://forums.bistudio.com/showthre...danus-Insurrection-An-Arma-3-Total-Modication

We post new screenshots or videos of what we are working nearly everyday to keep everyone motivated.
 
in the Karen Travis trilogy, you get a pretty good mental image of what they look like from Kilo 5 describing the insurrectionists.
 
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