Comrades in Arms Discussion Board

INSTALLATION

Download ACRE from here or using PwS/Arma3Sync.

There are two plugins for TS in @acre2/plugins:

1. acre2_win32.dll is for 32 bit Windows systems, or the 32 bit Teamspeak client.
   
2. acre2_win64.dll is for 64 bit Windows systems, and very likely the one you need.
   

One of these goes into the plugins folder of your teamspeak installation. If you don't know where that is, open an explorer window and enter
%AppData%\TS3Client\plugins


In Teamspeak, make sure to

• DISABLE tfar plugin
  
• ENABLE acre2 plugin
  

The ACRE2 plugin will display an information message when it first launches.

SET UP

The following is a proposed way to set up your keys for ACRE. Note that this is not a mandatory requirement, just a recommendation on how to set things up.

Since we are using ACE and ACRE is neatly integrated, you don't need some of the keys mapped.
For best results:

• Unmap the "Default Radio Key" mapping.
  
• Map your short-range radio key to "Alt Radio 1 Key", your long range to "ALT Radio 2 key"
  
• Map your "Volume" key to something that you usually use for TFAR voice mode.
  
• Delete all the other mappings
  

In game now, you can use the short range key for the first radio (Usually AN/PRC-148 rifleman radio) and the long range key for the second radio (Normal soliders get an AN/PRC-152, the team leader either an AN/PRC-117F rack or an AN/PRC-152 if he doesn't have enough backpack room).

INGAME USAGE

The CiA server will give you two radios, since ACRE currently does not support dual watch radios (alternate channels). One of these Radios is the AN/PRC-343 PRR (known as H4855 in Brtitain) which is the short range/squad radio. It should usually be mapped to the ALT Radio 1 key.

Local talking is, as usual, done via the TeamSpeak PTT key. You can press the volume key (CTRL-SHIFT-TAB if you did map it to the same key as me) and roll the mouse wheel to increase the range (up to some 150 meters).

The second one depends on the circumstances. For non-team leaders, you get an extra AN/PRC-152. The extra radio should be bound to ALT Radio 2, and is set to channel 16 (the command channel). Normally, you don't transmit on that channel as a grunt.


The team leader will get a long range radio based on "circumstances". If there is no backpack, the server will add one with a AN/PRC-177F. If there is a backpack, the server will add the same radio if and only if it fits in the backpack. If it doesn't then the leader will also get an AN/PRC-152 since that one has a pretty decent range.

In both cases, at the very beginning of a mission (or after a team switch to a hitherto unused AI) there will be a delay of a few seconds (where usually TFAR would say something like "getting radio ID from server") until radios are set up correctly (there is a hint in the corner that will disappear once the init is done). In that phase, you WILL have radios but the channels are not set up, so avoid doing radio checks until the hint has disappeared.

The self-interaction menu should list a "Radios" sub-item, where you can set some stuff like earpiece etc. By default, the long range radio is set to be right ear only. The menu can also be used to open the GUI of the radios.

The AN/PRC-343 looks like this:
 

Right clicking one of the knobs (volume or channel) will decrease, left clicking will increase the setting. Usually, though, you should not need to do anything (unless you switch to a different squad).
The handle on the side can be detached to change the channel block, however, it is more than unlikely that you will ever use this.

THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR

There are several factors that need to be taken into account when it comes to ACRE. The simulation is much more accurate than TFAR, so

• Land mass (hills, mountains) and buildings will lower the range of radios. That means that getting to high ground will be an advantage.
  
• Going prone will make the antenna not line up ideally with the sending direction, also causing a slight decrease in radio quality.
  
• AI can hear you speak! That means it is a good idea to whisper or use hand signals of ACE.
  
• Since the radios are half-duplex (as their real life counterparts), you can only send or receive at the same time but not both. That will mean you are hogging the channel, so keep your transmissions short.
  
• Radio traffic on close proximity frequencies can cause interference.
  

It is advisable to use a radio protocol for long range, i.e. over and out procedure words, since interference and loss of radio transmission quality can have impacts.

** RESERVED POST **