PBs Semi-Active Laser-Guided Ammunition

CE-Only Mod

Adds several semi-active laser-guided munitions, currently including:

152mm Krasnopol-M 155mm Krasnopol-M2 155mm M712-M "Copperhead" 155mm HVP Series (including Kinetic, HE, EMP, Smoke, Incendiary and Anti-grain variants). HVP-Antigrain can only be obtained through quest rewards.

The first three munitions have a world-map range of 70 tiles, while the HVP series has a range of 120 tiles. HVP rounds fly faster during cross-map strikes, but their warhead payload is lower than that of standard 155mm ammunition.

You can use the 155mm howitzer from AOBA's Fortification-Industrial Mod to fire these new rounds.

Guidance Mechanism Features:

1. Without laser guidance, these rounds function like the PG rounds in the Turret Collection Mod—capable of precision strikes against fixed positions but incapable of sustained tracking, with a shot dispersion radius of 2 grid squares. Therefore, when using kinetic energy rounds or HEAT rounds—or any munition that requires a direct hit—it is strongly recommended that you use a laser designator to guide them for precision strikes. 2. When provided with continuous laser guidance, these rounds can persistently track the laser-designated target, and

support cross-map tracking of moving targets (though tracking excessively fast targets with these rounds will not achieve a perfect direct hit).

3. If these rounds are already in flight within the target map but have not yet struck their target, and laser guidance is suddenly terminated, they will fly toward the last location indicated by the laser designator.

(The laser designator can be built by right-clicking on the KPV to bring up the fold-out menu. When locking onto a target with the laser, it will not alert the designated target, just like using binoculars.)

(This laser designator is from the automatic laser designator in Arma3, though I've modified it for manual use.)

The following series of images illustrate the relevant mechanics:

First, let's familiarize ourselves with the two states of laser designation: Next is the complete operational process: If you are engaged in cross-map operations, you can still change the laser-designated target before incoming rounds from elsewhere arrive at the target map. Once the laser-guided munitions enter the target map, they will continue tracking the newly designated target. I've also utilized a feature from the Fortified Features Framework, which allows you to right-click to directly store the laser designator into the pawn's inventory, streamlining the process. This action ignores weight and volume limits (though if you are over-encumbered, you will still receive the debuff as usual).

Q&A

1. Can this Mod be added to or removed from an existing save mid-game?

Yes, but but please make sure D-Lib is up to date. And before removing the Mod mid-game, please make sure to clear out all items from this Mod beforehand.

2. Will there be more new munitions added?

There can be—I hope you all will give me plenty of interesting ideas.

3. What about the balance of this Mod?

The munitions may be somewhat expensive to produce. Appropriate pricing and material requirements will need to be determined based on feedback from more players' gameplay experiences. This mod is primarily intended to test and promote the new guidance mechanism, and I hope it can inspire other mod authors to come up with even better ideas.

4. Which framework Mod provides the guidance functionality?

All of it comes from the D-Functional Ammunition Library Mod, abbreviated as D-Lib. This Mod is specifically designed to provide Combat Extended with special features that require C# code. You can find an HTML-format function reference guide in D-Lib's local files.

Partial references are as follows:

Soviet/Russian armor and artillery design practices : 1945-1995 (Page 547) Guided artillery ammunition: "Krasnopol"(Note: This article has the ammunition calibers wrong. The correct calibers are: 152mm Krasnopol-M and 155mm Krasnopol-M2.) 155mm HEAT M712 CopperHead in Bulletpicker

Below are some real-life reference images:

DLL: DsW-4 XML, Ammo Textures, Description Images: PolandBall Laser Designator Texture: FLY-SF