Arma 3: Soldier Protection

The current state of the documentation only covers the basics of the implementation, some information might be inaccurate. Additional details will be added soon.

General

This system allows the definition of the protection level of various hit-points (head, face, neck) in a given piece of equipment (I.e. Headgear, vest). To do so, the system supports the following hit points: head, face, neck, chest, diaphragm, abdomen, pelvis, arms, hands and legs.

Each equipment item which should have a certain level of protection should have the necessary hit point configured (see examples bellow)

For the story, the old system was able to cover only one hit-point, as shown hereafter:

class ItemInfo { hitPointName = "HitBody"; armor = [0,∞]; passThrough = [0,1]; };	class ItemInfo { class HitpointsProtectionInfo { class Chest { hitpointName = "HitChest"; armor = [0,∞]; passThrough = [0,1]; }; class Diaphragm { hitpointName = "HitDiaphragm"; armor = [0,∞]; passThrough = [0,1]; }; }; };

Implementation

As described hereafter, various properties (hitpoint) need to be defined in the config to fully benefit from the soldier protection.

Unit base class

The following code is an example of a custom man base class containing every config parameters relevant to the soldier protection. Its values represents the state of the soldier protection without any equipment, each piece of gear can increase the protection level of one of these hit points, provided it is configured. This class is just here to help you understanding the relation between the configuration of a gear item and the base class.

Note: Good practice is not to edit or update the base class but create a new class which inherits from the vanilla class.

class CfgVehicles
{
	class Man;
	class CAManBase: Man
	{
		class HitPoints
		{
			class HitHead;
			class HitBody;
			class HitHands;
			class HitLegs;
		};
	};
	class TM4_CAManBase: CAManBase
	{
		class HitPoints
		{
			class HitFace
			{
				armor               = 1; // coefficient of the total armor defined below for the whole object
				material            = -1; // damage material (-1 means "unused")
				name                = "face_hub"; // selection name from hit points LOD in object
				passThrough         = 0.1; // coefficient defining how much damage will pass into total damage when this hit point is damaged
				radius              = 0.08; // size of the hit point sphere, this is how it works: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3_Damage_Description
				explosionShielding  = 0.1; // multiplier of explosive damage (parameter: explosive > 0 in ammunition type)
				minimalHit          = 0.01; // minimal damage value that can be applied, damage below this threshold is ignored
			}
			class HitNeck: HitFace
			{
				armor               = 1;
				material            = -1;
				name                = "neck";
				passThrough         = 0.1;
				radius              = 0.1;
				explosionShielding  = 0.5;
				minimalHit          = 0.01;
			}
			class HitHead: HitNeck
			{
				armor               = 1;
				material            = -1;
				name                = "head";
				passThrough         = 0.1;
				radius              = 0.2;
				explosionShielding  = 0.5;
				minimalHit          = 0.01;
				depends             = "HitFace max HitNeck"; // returns the greater of HitFace and HitNeck.
			};
			class HitPelvis
			{
				armor               = 1;
				material            = -1;
				name                = "pelvis";
				passThrough         = 0.1;
				radius              = 0.2;
				explosionShielding  = 1;
				visual              = "injury_body";
				minimalHit          = 0.01;
			};
			class HitAbdomen: HitPelvis
			{
				armor               = 1;
				material            = -1;
				name                = "spine1";
				passThrough         = 0.1;
				radius              = 0.15;
				explosionShielding  = 1;
				visual              = "injury_body";
				minimalHit          = 0.01;
			};
			class HitDiaphragm: HitAbdomen
			{
				armor               = 1;
				material            = -1;
				name                = "spine2";
				passThrough         = 0.1;
				radius              = 0.15;
				explosionShielding  = 6;
				visual              = "injury_body";
				minimalHit          = 0.01;
			}
			class HitChest: HitDiaphragm
			{
				armor               = 1;
				material            = -1;
				name                = "spine3";
				passThrough         = 0.1;
				radius              = 0.15;
				explosionShielding  = 6;
				visual              = "injury_body";
				minimalHit          = 0.01;
			};
			class HitBody: HitChest
			{
				armor               = 1000; // not supposed to take damage directly
				material            = -1;
				name                = "body";
				passThrough         = 0.1;
				radius              = 0.16;
				explosionShielding  = 6;
				visual              = "injury_body";
				minimalHit          = 0.01;
				depends             = "HitPelvis max HitAbdomen max HitDiaphragm max HitChest"; // depends work only for hit points defined in inheritance chain
			};
			class HitArms
			{
				armor               = 1;
				material            = -1;
				name                = "arms";
				passThrough         = 1;
				radius              = 0.1;
				explosionShielding  = 1;
				visual              = "injury_hands";
				minimalHit          = 0.01;
			};
			class HitHands: HitArms
			{
				armor               = 1;
				material            = -1;
				name                = "hands";
				passThrough         = 1;
				radius              = 0.1;
				explosionShielding  = 1;
				visual              = "injury_hands";
				minimalHit          = 0.01;
				depends             = "HitArms";
			};
			class HitLegs
			{
				armor               = 1;
				material            = -1;
				name                = "legs";
				passThrough         = 1;
				radius              = 0.12;
				explosionShielding  = 1;
				visual              = "injury_legs";
				minimalHit          = 0.01;
			};
		};
 
		armor			= 2; // keep constant among various soldiers so that the hit points armor coefficients remains on the same scale
		armorStructural		= 0.4; // divide all damage taken to total hit point, either directly or through hit point passThrough coefficient, must be adjusted for each model to achieve consistent total damage results
		explosionShielding	= 0.04; // for consistent explosive damage after adjusting = ( armorStructural / 10 )
		minTotalDamageThreshold	= 0.001; // minimalHit for total damage
		impactDamageMultiplier	= 0.5; // multiplier for falling damage
	};
};

Armored vest

The following vest config will provide protection for the neck, arms, chest, diaphragm abdomen and body.

	// Carrier Special Rig (Green)
	class V_PlateCarrierSpec_rgr: Vest_NoCamo_Base
	{
		/* other properties */	
		class ItemInfo: ItemInfo
		{	
			/* other properties */	
			class HitpointsProtectionInfo
			{
				class Neck
				{
					hitpointName	= "HitNeck"; // reference to the hit point class defined in the man base class
					armor		= 8; // addition to armor of referenced hitpoint
					passThrough	= 0.5; // multiplier of base passThrough defined in referenced hitpoint
				};
				class Arms
				{
					hitpointName	= "HitArms";
					armor		= 8;
					passThrough	= 0.5;
				};
				class Chest 
				{
					hitpointName	= "HitChest"; 
					armor		= 24; 
					passThrough	= 0.1; 
				};
				class Diaphragm
				{
					hitpointName	= "HitDiaphragm";
					armor		= 24;
					passThrough	= 0.1;
				};
				class Abdomen
				{
					hitpointName	= "HitAbdomen"; 
					armor		= 24;
					passThrough	= 0.1;
				};
				class Body
				{
					hitpointName	= "HitBody";
					passThrough	= 0.1;
				};
			};
		};
	};

Headgear

This headgear increases the protection of the Head only, for example it doesn't provide additional protection for the face, so the value from the base class (above) will be used as they are defined.

	class H_HelmetB: ItemCore
	{
		/* other properties */			
		class ItemInfo : HeadgearItem
		{
			/* other properties */	
			class HitpointsProtectionInfo
			{
				class Head
				{
					hitpointName	= "HitHead"; // reference to the hit point class defined in the man base class
					armor		= 6; // addition to armor of referenced hitpoint
					passThrough	= 0.5; // multiplier of base passThrough defined in referenced hitpoint
				};
			};
		};
	};