Realistic Drone Warfare

3.1.3

Realistic Drone Warfare 3.1.3 - hotfix

CHANGED
- Conflict base jammers are OFF by default. Players found flying near objectives far too hard. A server that had them on from 3.1.2 is switched off once when it updates. Owners who want them can set baseJammers to 1 in DroneOpsPack_Settings.json; they then come back softer than before: at about a third of the bases (drawn again each game), cutting drones at 220 m instead of 400 m, satellites lost only within about 250 m, and a jammer box in the base's centre that anyone can walk up to and switch off.

FIXES
- Conflict: the base jammers and the AI FPV crews at FIA bases now come back when the server moves on to the next mission without restarting. Before, only the first game after a restart had them.
- Drone jammer detector: it no longer points at your own side's base jammers, or at the jammer of a base nobody holds. Before, a detector near any base showed that base's jammer and could hide a real enemy jammer close by.
- Server performance: base jammers now check the terrain between them and a drone only within about 800 m, where hills make a difference. Before, every drone in the air checked against every enemy base within 3 km twice a second.

3.1.2

Realistic Drone Warfare 3.1.2 - hotfix

FIXES
- Drone sound: a drone's rotor noise now stays with the drone. Before, it could stay at the place the motors were started: an FPV pilot did not hear his own drone in the goggles and heard it right beside him after leaving the view, and a Vampire 200-300 m away could sound as if it were next to you.
- Anti-drone jammer rifle: it works only while its trigger is held, with the rifle in your hands and no drone view or menu open. Aiming alone does nothing.
- Anti-drone jammer rifle: a friendly drone that its pilot let go of (he left the link, was killed or disconnected) still counts as friendly. Before, the rifle could take it down.

NEW: CONFLICT BASE JAMMERS
- Every Conflict base now jams the drones of the sides that do not hold it: their control link, video and GPS get weaker the closer they fly. The side holding the base is not affected. Capture a base and its jammer works for you.
- A drone flown from far away loses its link well short of an enemy base; a pilot who moves up close gets much further in. Hills between the base and the drone weaken the jamming. So bases cannot be hit from a safe distance any more, and can still be hit by a crew that takes the risk.
- The pilot gets a hint when his drone nears a jamming base.
- Server owners: DroneOpsPack_Settings.json gets two new lines on the first start, baseJammers (true / false) and baseJammerMetres (400: how far out a drone flown from 1 km away is cut). Your other settings stay as they are.

NEW: AI FPV CREWS ON CONFLICT MAPS
- When a Conflict game starts, a few of the bases the FIA holds now have an AI FPV strike crew (a pilot and a guard with FPV RPG drones). They fly at enemies their side has spotted, as the crews from the build menu and Game Master do.
- Rare on purpose: each FIA base has a 20 in 100 chance of a crew (at least one crew on the map), the operators are novices, and a crew gets no new drones: kill the two men, or let them use their drones up, and that base's drones are over.
- Counter them like any FPV: the jammer rifle, a jammer backpack, shooting the drone, or taking out the pilot. Your own bases' jammers stop them too.
- Server owners: aiFpvBaseCrewPercent in DroneOpsPack_Settings.json (20; 0 = none). aiFpvCrews false turns all AI crews off, as before.

3.1.1

Realistic Drone Warfare 3.1.1 - Workshop page update

- New Workshop description laid out as Current Features / Planned Features.
- No changes in the game since 3.1.0 (released earlier today): the same drones, AI FPV crews and fixes. Servers can update whenever convenient; nothing to change in DroneOpsPack_Settings.json.

See the 3.1.0 notes for everything new in 3.1: the new name Realistic Drone Warfare, AI FPV strike crews, the FPV RPG drone, the portable drone direction finder and the fixes.

3.1.0

Realistic Drone Warfare 3.1.0 - AI FPV crews

NEW NAME: the pack is now called Realistic Drone Warfare (it was Realistic Drone Operations Pack). Same mod, same Workshop ID: subscriptions, servers and saves carry on and there is nothing to change (the server settings file keeps its name, DroneOpsPack_Settings.json).

NEW
- AI FPV strike crews: a pilot and a guard with four FPV RPG drones, for US, USSR and FIA. Place them as a Game Master (groups, "FPV strike crew"), or build them in Conflict from a base's build menu for 300 supplies, like an AI team. They hold where they are put. When their side has seen an enemy within 3 km in the last minute, the pilot puts a drone down beside them and flies it to where the enemy was last seen (not where it is now), finds it with the drone's camera, arms the warhead and dives on it. The next drone is ready 2 minutes after the sortie ends. Once its four drones are spent, the crew is an ordinary two-man team.
- Where they may not strike: within 300 m of a spawn point of the target's side (a crew still defends its own base), or at a target with the crew's own side's soldiers within 15 m of it. Checked all the way down: a target that moves into such a spot is let go, even in the dive, and a drone that gives up near one is made safe and put down rather than crashed there armed.
- Operator skill: US and FIA crews are experienced, USSR crews are novices. Novices take longer to be sure of a target, botch more launches and get more dives wrong (short or long of the target), more so on moving targets, in wind and with a poor picture. In four test runs against men standing in the open with nobody shooting back, experienced crews put their man down with 11 to 17 of 20 launches and novice crews with 5 to 10 of 20. Under fire, against cover or moving men it is less.
- What the drone's camera sees: only what is in front of it (about 120 degrees), a soldier out to 125 m and a vehicle out to 380 m in a clear picture, less as the picture breaks up.
- Soldiers under an FPV: AI who hear one coming look for it and shoot at it; once one dives over them (within about 90 m), or races in low straight at them (within 50 m), the men in its path dash a few metres and drop flat, each to his own side, so one drone gets fewer of them. The later they hear it coming down, the fewer make it flat in time: against a steep dive from high up most do, against a fast, shallow one often few. Men already flat, in a vehicle or under a roof stay where they are. Works for player-flown FPVs too.
- AI FPV crews look the part: each man carries analog FPV goggles; while a drone is up the pilot crouches with the radio in both hands and his goggles down, rifle slung, while his mate stands guard.
- They fly the same FPV RPG drone you do, so you counter them the same way. Jam its video and the pilot is blind: he cannot see or follow his target any more, and the drone carries on toward the last spot he saw it. Jam its control link and it drops. Shoot it down. Or take out the pilot, killed or knocked out: his drone drops. Direction finders mark AI pilots too. A drone that kills after its pilot was shot (a live warhead falling) still counts as his kill.
- Direction finder: with a fix inside 150 m on an enemy drone operator, the nearest idle friendly AI team within 1.5 km (one with no orders of its own and no players in it) goes to search the spot for 10 minutes. One team per operator every 5 minutes, across all of a side's direction finders.
- Video channels: at most 3 of a side's AI FPV drones are up at once (analog video has only a handful of clean channels in one area); more crews take turns. AI crews' drones also count toward the server's drone limit (maxDronesOnMap): at the limit they wait.
- Commercial quad: a small folding consumer quadcopter in a case (with its controller and three spare batteries), a day camera only (no thermal or night mode, no rangefinder to mark targets with) and one small grenade (M67 or RGD-5) on a strap-on release. 20 m/s top speed (12-14 m/s with a grenade), about 28 minutes in the air (about half that with a grenade on), 6 km link; folded, it fits in a backpack. In the USSR and FIA drone cases, which now hold only the FPV RPG drone and this quad among the drones; the US keeps the full pack.
- Drone direction finder (portable): in the drone arsenal for US, USSR and FIA. Carry it and set it on the ground: it hears drone operators transmitting within 3 km and marks the enemy ones on your side's map (the longer they stay put, the tighter the fix); Read drone direction finder shows what it hears. Picked up, it stops. The Game Master posts are now called Drone direction finder post.
- Server owners (DroneOpsPack_Settings.json): aiFpvCrews (false = not offered in the build menu or to Game Masters, and crews already out do not fly), aiFpvDronesPerCrew, aiFpvTurnaroundSeconds, aiFpvSpawnClearMetres, aiFpvInAirPerSide.

REALISM
- Night: the Matrice 350's vision obstacle sensors need light (DJI: over 15 lux, about 20 minutes after sunset on a clear evening). In the dark only its infrared sensors see, out to 8 m, so it can fly into what it would brake for by day. The RC Plus says so before take-off. The Matrice 4T's low-light sensors work down to about the light of a lit street at night (DJI: "a nighttime city light scene"), so it keeps its sensing about 10 minutes longer into the dusk, but in a dark countryside night only its downward infrared sensor works. The commercial quad's sensors need light like the Matrice 350's; in the dark it senses only above and below.
- Payload weight: a loaded Vampire is slower, louder and flies less. Empty it flies 37 minutes and up to 80 km/h; with 10 kg, 23 minutes and 40 km/h (the maker's figures). Each round dropped makes it lighter.
- Terrain and jammers: a hill between a jammer and a drone flying low now takes part of the jamming away (radio and GPS), the same share it takes from your own link. Up high the drone is in the open and gets all of it.

FIXES
- The FPV RPG drone now has printed landing legs under its motors and stands level on them: put down from your hands, a backpack or a case it no longer lies on its side, and it no longer rolls off its warhead onto an arm. "Turn the drone over" also leaves it standing level, on a floor or a truck bed as well as the ground.
- The FPV RPG drone has turtle mode, as Betaflight quads do: on its back, disarm, then press the motor key again and the props flip it back over. You can still turn it over by hand.
- A soldier struck by a drone's body, or thrown by the blast onto the spent charge, is now hurt in the pilot's name (kill credit), not "by nothing" (a script error in the server log).
- The FPV RPG drone's warhead now shows and sounds its explosion for everyone (flash, fireball, smoke and the RPG-7 blast), in multiplayer and single player. Before, it did its damage with nothing to see or hear.
- Game Master sessions: a player with no side picked counts as his soldier's side, so he no longer gets "You hear a drone" for his own side's drones, and the jammer rifle, direction finder and interceptors treat him as on that side. His drones now fly for that side too: before, AI neither shot at nor ducked from them.
- Drones seen at range: the FPV RPG drone, the Matrice 4T and the commercial quad, and every drone's rotors, stopped being drawn a few dozen metres away (the 4T between 50 and 100 m, even through binoculars), so other players lost sight of them. Every drone is now drawn as the M350 always was: through 7x binoculars the M350 and the Vampire show out to about 1.5 km, the 4T and the FPV to about 1 km, the quad and the Avata to about 700 m.
- Drone lights (strobe, arm lights, the Avata's lights, the S1 beam) now carry as far as your binoculars or scope magnify them.
- The FPV RPG drone flies smoothly in your goggles. Your screen used to slide it toward each server update, so it turned in bursts and stood still for a moment now and then. It now flies on between updates and blends each correction in: in a measured test flight the turning is about six times steadier, and it no longer stops mid-air.
- The FPV RPG drone answers the sticks at once. Your own game now turns the drone the moment you move a stick, by the same flight rules the server uses, and sends its attitude to the server, which follows it; thrust, speed, collisions and the warhead stay on the server. Stick to screen took about 100 ms on a test server on the same PC before (plus your ping on a real server); it now takes about 20 ms, whatever your ping. If the server cannot turn the drone the way your game does (a crash, held on the ground), your screen shows it as it really is.
- The FPV RPG drone on keyboard: in ACRO the keys ease in like a thumb on a stick (a tap is a small correction, a held key reaches full keyboard rate in 0.3 s), and the turn stops when you let go instead of carrying on. Easier to fly without overturning.
- The FPV RPG drone on a gamepad or radio: Betaflight's default rate curve (70 deg/s around the centre, the full 670 deg/s only at full stick), so small thumb moves turn it gently; yaw tops out at 400 deg/s, as 7-inch long-range quads are set up. Before, half stick was already 335 deg/s and the yaw overshot.
- The FPV RPG drone disarms in the air when you press the motor key, as Betaflight does: the motors stop and it drops. The DJI drones still refuse to stop their motors in flight.
- No drone lifts a soldier any more: stand on one and arm it, and it strains but cannot climb. Before, a soldier standing on a drone was carried into the air.
- A soldier who bumps an empty vehicle hard (diving away from an FPV next to a parked BTR, say) no longer logs "INSTIGATOR_OTHER is not supported" as a script error.
- The FPV RPG drone's camera key works, and it has a night camera: the key goes day, night (a low-light camera, black and white, as real night strike quads fly), thermal. The goggles show NIGHT or THERM next to the flight mode. Before, the Avata's no-sensor lock caught the strike drone too, so the key did nothing (thermal included).
- Settings > Controls has an "FPV RPG drone (kamikaze)" section with all its keys: bind and goggles view, motors, ACRO / ANGL, arm warhead, camera mode, throttle, pitch, roll and yaw.
- A soldier thrown against a drone's wreck, or hit by a rotor or camera a crash threw off, is hurt in the pilot's name (kill credit), not "by nothing" (a script error on the server and every player's machine).
- The FPV strike drone is now called the FPV RPG drone.
- Avata 2 M (manual) mode flies like the FPV RPG drone: your game turns it the moment you move a stick, it moves smoothly on your screen, and the sticks have the same feel (the same centre sensitivity on a gamepad, keys that ease in), up to the Avata's own top rates (250 / 250 / 180 deg/s). N and S fly as before.
- The FPV RPG drone's warhead stays armed when you take the goggles off (it used to be made safe, so a drone you left diving at a target hit it and did not go off). Press the arm key again to make it safe; fire is now listed in Settings > Controls too. Shot down with the warhead live, it goes off in the air.
- An FPV RPG drone disarmed at speed falls on smoothly on your screen (it used to stutter and jump). A drone falling with its motors off now has the air drag of its airframe, so it no longer sails on unbraked.
- Anti-drone jammer rifle: 300 m (was 200) and a wider beam (24 degrees, was 12). An FPV RPG drone is cut in about half a second and drops at once (its analog video and control link go under a jammer at once); DJI drones still take about 3.5 s. It has no weapon safety any more, and its sight sits above the rifle, so you see what you aim at. Charges, recharge and the noise it makes are as before.
- Interceptor drone: flies nose first (it flew tail first), chases at 30 m/s (was 19; no drone in the pack outruns it now, a hard break turn still dodges it), and with nothing to chase it climbs to 50 m and hunts for 20 s, then blows itself up in the air. It no longer gets stuck low over the ground after a drone that dived below it.
- AI FPV crews put their drones down on level ground: on uneven ground a crew could lose every launch (the drone tipped over before it lifted off). A failed launch no longer logs a script error on the server.
- Game Masters can select and delete the Drone Pickup's generator once it is set down.

PERFORMANCE
- A large community server told us the pack lowered their FPS. We measured a busy test server (96 AI, 40 drones, Drone Pickups, cases, loose gear, AI FPV crews, jammers): most of the cost was on the players' machines, all of it the pack's scripts, not drawing. Fixed:
- Parked drones cost almost nothing on players' machines now. A drone nobody is linked to, with its motors stopped, stops updating after a second, along with its lights, gimbal, camera, spotlight, battery and dropper models, and wakes the moment it is linked, started, moved or its camera turns. On our test server 40 parked drones took 1.2 ms of each player's frame before, 0.2 ms now.
- Past 300 m from you (or 300 m times the zoom of your binoculars or scope), a drone's rotors stop turning and its gimbal and spotlight head are re-aimed once a second instead of every frame, and a Drone Pickup moves its parts 4 times a second. At that distance they are a pixel or two. The drone itself is drawn and moves as before at any distance.
- A Drone Pickup more than 100 m from you updates its parts 10 times a second instead of every frame (every frame while its operations area unfolds or folds).
- A drone's camera, gimbal and spotlight head are re-posed only when the drone or its camera moves. An RC Plus lying on the ground no longer updates every frame. A dropper's hanging rounds update a few times a second instead of every frame, and the moment a round is loaded or dropped (before, a dropped round could hang under the drone a quarter of a second longer).
- Dedicated servers: the Drone Pickup's parts are checked once a second (the server moves them itself).
- The server's drone limit (maxDronesOnMap, default 40) now counts every drone on the map, however it got there. Before, only a drone unpacked from its case was checked: an FPV RPG drone, Avata or quad taken from the arsenal and set down, or a drone taken out of a vehicle onto the ground, went past it, so a busy base could fill up with drones. Over the limit, a drone you set down goes back into your inventory with the "Drone limit" notice. Game Master placements are not limited.
- Fewer error lines in the server log: an AI soldier's "contact!" about a target already gone (a drone that blew up or was put away) is dropped quietly. The base game drops these too; it just printed two script errors each time.

CREDITS
- The commercial quad's model is based on "DJI Mavic 2 Pro" (https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/dji-mavic-2-pro-3e5b8566dbe24f4ba65473179650abd1) by MattMaksymowicz (https://sketchfab.com/mattmaksymowicz), licensed under CC-BY-4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Changed: scaled to the real aircraft, brand marks removed, textures re-packed at 1K, props separated, levels of detail added.

Tested on Arma Reforger 1.9: dedicated server with real game clients and single player.

3.0.0

Drone Ops Pack 3.0.0 - Standalone

NO MORE DEPENDENCY
- The pack no longer needs Realistic Combat Drones. Pairing, the drone camera view, the on-screen display, camera zoom and gimbal, controls, rotor sound and every drone's base are now the pack's own.
- It still runs next to Realistic Combat Drones. (With both loaded, the small map in the drone view is off: that mod's map cursor breaks small maps.)
- Realistic Combat Drones' own drones are no longer in this pack's arsenal lists; that mod's arsenal still has them.
- Your keybinds: the drone keys are now under Realistic Drone Ops Pack in Settings > Controls, same default keys.

READY FOR ARMA REFORGER 1.9
- The Drone Pickup 4x4 is tuned for 1.9's driving physics and drives like the real truck (0-100 km/h in about 12 s, 100-0 in about 43 m), with power steering.

NEW
- FPV strike drone with analog goggles and its own radio. Flies like Realistic Combat Drones' FPV: same keys, ACRO (ANGL on the mode switch), keyboard and mouse at a quarter of the stick rates; Z (gamepad Y) arms the warhead; a white-hot thermal camera on the sensor key, as night strike drones carry. In the drone arsenal cases; fits in a backpack.
- Realistic electronic warfare: jammers work on the drones' real radio bands. GPS jamming takes satellites away and the drone drifts with the wind. GPS spoofer for Game Master. Link lost with a GPS fix: it flies home; without one it hovers, then lands.
- Satellite search: after you connect, a drone needs about 10 s to find its satellites; a satellite icon goes red, yellow, green. Take off before the fix and it flies in ATTI with no home point until the fix comes. The Avata 2 flies on its own sensors.
- ATTI on the mode switch (Matrice 350, 4T, Vampire): N, S, T and now A, to practise flying without GPS.
- No altitude limit, real air instead: stronger wind up high (about 1.75 x at 500 m), thin air cuts climb rate and battery time, each drone stops climbing at its real ceiling (Matrice 350 and Avata 2 5000 m, 4T 6000 m above sea level).
- Part-by-part damage: motors, propellers, camera, battery, GPS and frame. A quad that loses a motor goes down; the Vampire flies on five.
- Avata 2 turtle mode: on its back, start the motors and it flips over. The FPV strike drone is turned over by hand. A drone on its back with its motors running can now be shut down.
- Each camera has the modes the real one has (the Avata 2: no thermal or night vision).
- AI soldiers spot and hear drones at real-world distances (size, noise, day or night, lights, weather), fire only within small-arms range (about 100 m, the Vampire 200 m), and shoot back at an FPV strike drone they hear coming. As in real reports, rifles rarely stop a well-flown one.
- Interceptors lead their target and slow for tight turns, so they no longer circle a drone without hitting it. The anti-drone rifle now takes down enemy interceptors too.
- Drone Pickup: the left screen is the route board, a deployed pickup is a link repeater (+3 km for pilots within 25 m), and the rack's top shelf takes FPV strike drones (and Realistic Combat Drones' drones on servers running both).
- The Vampire has its own ground-station screen.
- Observer tablet: watch your side's drones without linking (Right Shift; Numpad 4 / 6 switch drones).
- Controllers are held properly in both hands: RC Plus, FPV Remote 3, FPV radio, observer tablet.
- Goggles: the description says how to wear them (in a pocket, not the backpack; into the backpack to take them off).

FIXES
- Vampire mortar rounds dropped from low height could fail to go off. They now explode, the kill counts for the pilot, and the Vampire is not hurt by its own drop. Spent rounds no longer stay on the ground.
- Connecting to a second drone while flying one now says "Disconnect your other drone first".
- The Avata's connect action reads "Connect FPV Goggles 3".
- In multiplayer, a drone unpacked from its case (or parked) could rise and bob on players' screens. It now sits still.
- A Game Master opening the editor while flying kept the drone display on screen. The drone view now pauses (the drone hovers, still connected) and the camera key brings it back.

SERVERS
- Parked drones cost the server about a tenth of what they did and send one small update every 10 s while nothing changes.
- A flying drone is sent to its pilot and players within 3 km, not to everyone on the map.
- Drone wrecks are removed after the settings file's wreck time, once no player is within 25 m.
- The settings file no longer logs a warning on every start; a stream of script errors from the drone view's small map is fixed.

Tested on Arma Reforger 1.9: dedicated server with real game clients, single player, Conflict, and with Realistic Combat Drones loaded.

2.3.4

Drone Ops Pack 2.3.4 - Multiplayer and Game Master fixes

DRONES AT RANGE
- A flying drone is now seen by every player at any distance. Before, players far from the pilot could not see it, even with the drone right above them.

GOGGLES
- Other players now see the FPV Goggles 3 on your head. Before, only you saw them.

JAMMER RIFLE
- The jammer rifle is now in the arsenal (US, USSR, FIA).
- It only locks on to enemy drones. Your own drones and your side's drones are not affected.

GAME MASTER
- Everything from the pack in one place: Entity Browser > Filters > Drone Ops Pack. A hint shows where it is the first time you open the Game Master. Typing "drone ops" in the search works too.
- To remove one drone, click it and press Delete. If a player is flying it, they are sent back to their character.

Nothing else changed. Your server settings file stays as it is.

Tested on a dedicated server with real game clients.

2.3.3

Drone Ops Pack 2.3.3 - Drone Pickup fixes

DRONE PICKUP 4X4
- The front wheels now turn with the steering wheel. Before, they stayed straight while the truck turned.
- The maker's emblem is gone from the steering wheel.

Nothing else changed. Your server settings file stays as it is.

Tested on a dedicated server with a real game client.

2.3.2

Drone Ops Pack 2.3.2 - map markers, faster landings, server cleanup

MAP MARKERS
- Every drone drops its own home marker: M350 HOME, 4T HOME, VAMPIRE HOME, AVATA HOME (the Vampire used to show M350 HOME). Home is now a blue flag.
- Designated targets are a red X called ENEMY 1, ENEMY 2 and so on. Click one on the map to rename it, so your team knows what you marked.
- Briefing station waypoints use the waypoint icon. A direction finder fix is a red exclamation mark.

LANDING
- Drones come down faster on return-to-home and after a lost link. From 60 m the M350 is on the ground in about 15 seconds, and touchdown is still soft.

SERVER CLEANUP
- Batteries, RC Plus, observer tablets, FPV Remote 3s and launch mats left on the ground with nobody around are now removed after 10 minutes. The game's own cleanup never saw them.
- Gear is kept while a player is within 25 m, while it sits at a FOB (next to the Drone Pickup, a dock or another launch mat), and a launch mat is kept while a drone is on it.
- Admins: new setting looseGearMinutes in DroneOpsPack_Settings.json (minimum 2). Your existing settings file gets the new line by itself on the next start; your other numbers stay.

NAMES AND LICENSE
- Manufacturer logos removed from the models and textures, and item names no longer carry the brand: Matrice 350 RTK, Matrice 4T, Avata 2, RC Plus, FPV Goggles 3, FPV Remote Controller 3, BS65 battery station.
- The Hilux Drone 4x4 is now the Drone Pickup 4x4. Same vehicle, same place in the vehicle list.
- The hints now point to the right controls page (Realistic Drone Ops Pack).
- Credits for the third-party models are on this page, and the license is now APL-ND: no reuploads or modified copies.

All tested on a dedicated server with a real game client.

2.3.1

Drone Ops Pack 2.3.1 - player fixes

VAMPIRE
- Vampire batteries are in the arsenal: US, USSR and FIA, and the drone arsenal cases (100 supplies).
- The Vampire case comes with 4 spare batteries (was 2) and recharges batteries packed in it, like the 4T case.
- Range 8 km (was 5 km). Flight time 30 minutes (was 15), so it can reach that range and still fly home.
- The BS65 battery station now charges Vampire batteries too. Every battery comes back out as the same battery.

BS65 BATTERY STATION
- Before, the station took any drone battery and gave back an M350 TB65. It now takes only TB65 and Vampire batteries, and you get back exactly what you put in.

HILUX DRONE 4X4
- Drone cases in the Hilux's storage now always show on its rack for every player. On servers they used to vanish after a minute and come back only when someone opened the storage.
- A deployed Hilux no longer drives off by itself when someone gets in. The pulled-out rack was pushing the truck forward.
- The field generator stays with its vehicle. If the vehicle is destroyed, the generator on the ground goes with it. If the vehicle ends up more than 20 m away, the generator goes back aboard. No more generator left behind with a cable across the map.

All tested on a dedicated server with a real game client: 0 script errors on both, server at about 60 FPS.

2.3.0

Drone Ops Pack 2.3.0 - lighter download

SMALLER DOWNLOAD
- The pack is about 70 MB smaller: 334 MB down to about 263 MB.
- The M923A1 Drone Operations truck is removed. The Hilux Drone 4x4 is the pack's vehicle: it deploys into a drone post with live feed and map screens, and US players can request it at the vehicle depot in Conflict (250 supplies).
- Arsenal cases now restock their batteries and spare parts next to a Hilux (this used to be the truck's job).
- Removed dev test worlds and unused meshes that were shipping by mistake.
- Texts and hints that still talked about the truck now say Hilux or vehicle.

FOR SERVER ADMINS
- A saved M923A1 truck from an older version does not load after this update. Everything else in your saves stays.
- Mod list: Realistic Combat Drones 65AD60E204191D37 and Drone Ops Pack 6A66FB702789762C.

2.2.0

Drone Ops Pack 2.2.0 - server and controller update

Every change below was tested on a local dedicated server with a real game client joined: 0 script errors on the server and on the client, server at about 60 FPS, memory flat over long runs.

FIXES
- Hilux and operations truck: on servers the rear section (canopy, doors, rack, cart) was missing for players until someone drove the vehicle, so deploying, the doors and the cart looked stuck. Fixed: everything shows and moves for every player, also for players who join later.
- The engine can no longer be started while the operations area is out ("Pack up the operations area first"). Nobody drives off with it deployed.
- Hilux is on the US side, in the Game Master too.
- M350 / Avata batteries: a battery you took out can go back in or into another drone (before, only a fresh battery fitted).
- Vampire dropper: the load prompt showed "1/4" on an empty rack. It now shows how many rounds are loaded ("0 of 4 loaded").
- H30T camera and S1 spotlight are built into the Matrice 350 and are no longer loose items (servers filled up with them).
- Truck screens only show live feeds from drones flown by your own side.

US VEHICLE DEPOT (CONFLICT)
- Hilux Drone 4x4 (250 supplies) and M923A1 Drone Operations truck (420 supplies) can now be requested at the US vehicle depot, with their pictures. The Hilux uses the same parking spots as a Humvee, the truck the same spots as the M923 trucks.

CONTROLLERS (PLAYSTATION / XBOX)
- New drone menu: hold View / touchpad while connected to a drone, point the right stick at an action and let go: motors, return home, camera, spotlight, dropper, mark target, map, disconnect. The drone hovers while the menu is open. A short tap still opens the map. Tested with a real PlayStation controller.
- All on-screen controls and hints show the player's real buttons (keyboard, Xbox or PlayStation).
- RC Plus power on a gamepad: R2 / RT while holding it (L1 + Create still works).
- Clear exit line while flying: one button leaves the drone view (the drone hovers and stays connected), another disconnects (the drone lands by itself).

GOGGLES
- DJI Goggles 3: the flip-up arm sits on the helmet front (it floated off bulkier modded helmets) and flips higher out of view.

SERVER PERFORMANCE
- Drones left idle on the ground are removed after 6 minutes. The last pilot and players nearby get a warning a minute before.
- Interceptors waiting on the ground no longer scan every drone on the map every frame. A launched interceptor that loses its target removes itself after a minute.
- Less server work and fewer log lines (drone racks, smoke, diagnostics). No network message flood when a drone loses link in a GPS-denied zone.
- Smaller download: lighter textures on the TB65 battery, Avata battery, mat bag, generator and map screen.

FOR SERVER ADMINS
- New settings file DroneOpsPack_Settings.json, created in the server profile folder on first start. Edit, save, restart:
    idleDroneMinutes     minutes before an idle drone is removed (default 6)
    maxDronesOnMap       drones allowed out of their cases at once (default 40, 0 = no limit)
    wreckMinutes         minutes a drone wreck stays (default 1)
    dropperEnabled       drone dropper on/off (default on)
    interceptorsEnabled  interceptor drones on/off (default on)
  The server log shows one line at start with the version and the settings in use.
- New Game Master tool "Clean up idle drones": removes every drone nobody is using, in one click.
- Game Master: search "drone ops" to see every item of the pack at once.

HOW IT WAS TESTED
- Dedicated server (Game Master Eden and Conflict Everon) with the pack and Realistic Combat Drones, plus a real game client joining it.
- All 45 Game Master items placed before the player joined (join in progress): no errors.
- Hilux and truck: deploy, doors, cart, pack up; engine blocked while deployed, starts once packed.
- Battery out and back in (back to 100%), admin drone limit, Game Master cleanup tool, idle-drone removal and warnings.
- Interceptor launch, miss, turn, hit; the wreck removed at the set time.
- Conflict (Everon): the US light depot offers the Hilux, the US heavy depot offers the truck.
- Drone menu tested with a real PlayStation controller.
- 26 and 45 minute endurance runs: memory and entity count flat, no leaks.

2.1.1

2.1.1 hotfix - Hilux Drone 4x4 is now a US vehicle (it was listed on the Soviet side).

2.1.0

2.1.0

New vehicle: Hilux Drone 4x4 (light drone pickup)
- Double-cab pickup with a hard canopy. Deploy it on the spot: the side hatch lifts on struts to show the screens, the rear door opens, the awning rolls out on two legs.
- Live drone feed on the side screens, plus a map screen. The screens light up only while the engine or the generator runs.
- Slide-out rack at the back. Put drones in the truck's storage and their cases show on the rack: M350 and Vampire on the lower deck, 4T and smaller drones stacked two high on top, the BS65 battery station, up to 12 mortar rounds in their own rack, and the launch mat bag.
- Field generator rides on the rack. Unload it by hand, run it beside the truck with its cable plugged in, load it back when you pack up.
- Jammer detector and weather station built into the left side. The detector now also tracks hostile interceptor drones in the air: range and bearing, a warning beep, and a red INTERCEPTOR alert on its screen.

Interceptor drone (rebalanced)
- Slower (19 m/s) and turns wider: Sport mode M350 and the Avata can outrun it.
- It can miss. Each pass has a 50% chance, less if you break hard across its path. After two misses its battery is spent and it blows up harmlessly.
- The truck (both trucks) warns the crew while one is airborne.

New and remade models
- New Pelican-style cases for the Matrice 350, Matrice 4T and Vampire, built from real product photos. Names on the lid.
- BS65 battery station: new case that opens to eight charging bays with charge lights.
- New TB65 and Avata 2 batteries, built from real product photos.
- New launch mat bag.
- New jammer vehicle unit and encryption module.
- The Game Master jammer backpack now uses the Realistic Combat Drones jammer bag look.
- Zenmuse S1 spotlight remade from a new model.

Removed
- Maintenance kit, spare parts, spotter kit, thermal blanket and briefing table are gone from the arsenals and the Game Master list. Saved games that still hold them keep working.
- The H30T and S1 can no longer be taken off the M350; they stay on the drone.

Gear
- DJI Goggles 3 sit 2 cm closer to the head, so they no longer float off bulkier modded helmets.

Arsenal and Game Master
- Drone arsenal now also has smoke and illumination mortar rounds.
- Arsenal names are just the drone's name ("Matrice 350 RTK", not "transport case").
- The Hilux is placeable in Game Master. New, cleaner Game Master pictures for every pack item.

2.0.4

2.0.4

Fixes
- DJI Goggles 3 now show on players' heads on dedicated servers (before, nobody saw them on a server; only in a hosted game). Still hidden in your own first-person view so they never block your sight.
- The operations module now sits flush on the truck (it floated about 8 cm above the frame) and 25 cm closer to the cab.

Truck look
- New side marking on the module: a side-profile drone with a gimbal camera and "UAS" under it, in black, on both sides. The D-11 callsign is black too. The left-side marking sits clear of the camo net.

Game Master
- 29 more pack items can be placed: the drone arsenal cases (base, US, USSR, FIA), drone cases, batteries, BS65 station, RC Plus, observer tablet, FPV Remote 3, goggles, camera and spotlight modules, maintenance kit, spare parts, spotter kit, AES module, weather station, briefing table, launch mat, field generator, packed blanket and packed interceptor.
- Every pack item has a real picture in the Game Master browser (no more PLACEHOLDER cards; the truck shows with its module).
- Search now finds the pack's items by name (for example "jammer", "Matrice", "arsenal", "battery").

Truck and arsenal
- The truck's module carries supplies: up to 7500. Load and unload them at the rear doors like a base-game supply truck; drone arsenals within reach use them.
- Drone arsenals (cases and the truck's shelves) now offer the Vampire's mortar round: 81 mm for US, 82 mm for USSR and FIA.
- The module's inside light now works on the truck battery: on whenever the rear doors are open or the truck is deployed, no engine or generator needed, and brighter.

Drones
- Vampire camera zoom raised from 2x to 50x to identify targets.

2.0.3

2.0.3 - hotfix

- Fixed: picking up the DJI Goggles 3 on a dedicated server kicked you from the game (REPLICATION / SYSTEM_FAILURE), and you were kicked again on every rejoin while the goggles were saved in your inventory. The goggles prefab now has a fixed ID, so the server and every client agree on it. Smoke rounds for the drop rack got the same fix.
- Fixed: an Avata 2 (or any pack drone) taken out of an inventory or arsenal and set on the ground would not lift off. The motors spun but the drone stayed down. It now flies normally after being dropped.

Server owners: restart the server so it downloads 2.0.3. Players who were stuck with goggles in their saved inventory can join again after that.

2.0.2

2.0.2

FIXED
- Servers: the pack switched off saving (persistence) on servers that use it, such as Conflict. Saving works again.
- Game Master: the pack's content now shows up in the GM's entity browser: the four drones, the M923A1 operator truck, the interceptor, the jammer rifle, thermal blankets, and the GM tools (jammer area, vehicle and backpack jammers, GPS denial zones, hunter drone, direction finder posts, jamming zone sign, drone noise and battery-cap settings). Find them on the All tab or with the Vehicle / System / Object filters.
- Invisible GM settings (jammer area, GPS denial, noise, battery caps) can now be selected, moved and deleted after placing.
- Internal test scripts no longer load in the game at all (they caused the 2.0.0 start-up error).

2.0.1

2.0.1 HOTFIX

FIXED
- The game could not start with the pack loaded ("Can't compile Game script module"). Two internal test scripts referenced editor-only code. Servers and players on 2.0.0 should update.

REMOVED
- Humvee (M998) kit.
- Operator chest rigs and role tabs.

2.0.0

ADDED
- Matrice 4T with a hard case and batteries, flown with the RC Plus.
- Avata 2 FPV drone with the FPV Remote 3 and DJI Goggles 3.
- Vampire heavy dropper (4 mortar rounds) with its own case and battery.
- M923A1 operator truck: deploy, awnings, mast, generator, lights, desk screens, roof pad, link boost.
- M998 with a light kit.
- Launch pads, TB65 charger, arsenal cases for US, USSR and FIA.
- Role chest rigs (ISR, FPV, Dropper, Indoor), observer tablet for every drone, spotter kit, weather station, maintenance kit, spare parts, AES encryption module.
- Counter-drone: jammer rifle, jammer backpack, jammer vehicle, interceptor drone and case, direction finder, thermal blanket.
- Game Master tools: jammer areas, GPS denial, hunter drones, zone markers.
- Frequency hop, burst transmit and quiet mode.
- Own controls category "Drone Ops Pack", with Xbox and PlayStation layouts.

CHANGED
- One shared HUD for all DJI drones.
- The six-bay dropper moved from the M350 to the Vampire.
- M350 transport case 4 kg -> 9 kg; BS65 station 4 kg -> 8 kg.

NERFED
- M350 link range 20 km -> 15 km.
- M350 flight time 65 min -> about 42 min.
- M350 no longer carries the dropper (use the Vampire).

FIXED
- Servers crashing on start after the Realistic Combat Drones 2.3.8 update. Fully compatible with RCD 2.3.8.
- Shot-down drones now always leave their wreck (RCD 2.3.8 changed how wrecks spawn).
- Goggles and arsenal racks now sync correctly to other players.
- Thermal blanket showing white instead of black.
- Charger surface material.

1.0.2

1.0.2 - Controls and PlayStation update

CONTROLS
- Every M350 control can now be changed in Settings > Controls > "DJI Matrice 350", for keyboard, mouse and controller.
- New "Sticks" section in that menu: fly forward, back, left, right, climb, descend and turn, all rebindable.
- "Camera look" rows replace the old mouse-only rows and work on controller too.

PLAYSTATION / CONTROLLER
- Full PlayStation layout. Sticks fly DJI Mode 2: left stick climbs, descends and turns, right stick flies.
- Hold L1 + right stick to aim the camera smoothly; the drone holds position while you aim.
- Square camera, R3 motors, Triangle / Cross zoom, Circle sensor mode, R1 spotlight, D-pad gimbal, Create or touchpad map, R2 arm, L2 release. Hold L1 for the second layer.
- PlayStation pads need "PlayStation Configuration Support" turned on in Steam > Settings > Controller.
- Controller buttons shared with Realistic Combat Drones (switch drone, night sight, warhead) no longer fire while you fly the M350.

FIXES
- Sensor cycle: after night vision, normal view now comes back correctly instead of staying stuck or washed out, in daylight and at night.
- One controller zoom press no longer zooms twice.

1.0.1

1.0.1: description formatting fix. No gameplay changes.

1.0.0