MW Mod Development Update Thread - WIC: Modern Warfare Mod for World in Conflict

We've recently released MW Mod 3.2, which is surely kicking ass and taking names with lot of downloads
In this post, we'll detail out the plans for future development to MW Mod.

Codename "Mojave" (Early 2011)

Before the development of Flexible Interceptor (FLINT) in 2011, we were getting pretty satisfied with the missile warfare in WiC, even though it kind of felt like 2D tabletop chess games with animated invisible projectiles landing out of nowhere. At that time, we were envisioning new massive upgrades to MW Mod after we complete the release of 2.0 version, that would intensely focus on land warfare, such as realistic artillery combat and overhauls to infantry and armor units.

This new envisioned version of MW Mod to be released after 2.0 was codenamed "Mojave", and its key features included Joint Targeting and Designation System (JTDS) that would allow infantry unit to guide ordinances in while they're en route to target positions. Part of the JTDS system was total rewrite of artillery units to allow them to be controlled by infantry players.

Part of all this new excitement over new features was fueled by the newly completed Patriot Weapons Control Computer (WCC) version 3.0 for US Heavy SAM units during early 2011. The new WCC 3.0 for controlling SAMs introduced preemptive multitasking to MW Mod, that allowed the program to handle simultaneous in-game tasks without crashing or locking up the game. Previously in the earlier versions of the mod, Heavy SAMs were notorious for constantly freezing up and crashing the game often, because they heavily relied on time-shared 'co-operative multitasking' that was simpler and sloppy to code.

As usual with many of our coding and development efforts, the vision for Mojave soon became a victim to "featuritis" or "feature creep", where new ideas were sprawling up faster than our ability to learn and write the actual code. Part of the new features in the growing list of featuritis was the addition of semi-active laser homing (SALH) to JTDS design. However, lacking a full featured missile simulator (at that time, FLINT was only a concept prototype, and was completely useless to do anything real), SALH was doomed to fail, although the idea was pretty neat.

By June 2011, Mojave was abandoned in favor of developing FLINT as the new engine for WiC modding going forward.

2012 and MW Mod 4.0 Development - Codename "Raptor"

With the completion of FLINT, MW Mod 3.0 (codenamed Phoenix) was released in summer of 2012. Unlike the previous coding work done for the mod (i.e. PredictorFCS, etc), FLINT was entirely designed from ground up with preemptive multitasking, taking advantage of WiC's built-in memory management and object API interface to ensure game stability while simultaneously processing multiple tasks at once. Thanks to preemptive multitasking support in FLINT, MW Mod 3.x has become the most stable release in the entire MW Mod history.

With the perfection of FLINT in MW Mod 3.0, we can finally return to our original vision of Mojave in massively upgrading land warfare units. Because of workload involved and given the limited timeframe, we'll be taking a more lighter approach, making incremental releases in the interim (i.e. 3.x version releases) that contain incremental feature introductions. Once all major features are completed, MW Mod will then move into version 4.0, codenamed "Raptor."

Preliminary Development Schedule and Release Plans (Subject to Change as usual)

MW Mod 3.0 (Phoenix) - already released - FLINT 2.0; upgrade Heavy SAMs to use FLINT, numerous upgrades to old code.

MW Mod 3.1 (Kepler) - already released - Improvements to Russian air power, etc.

MW Mod 3.2 (Kodiak) - already released - Phalanx C-RAM, advanced flight modeling for FLINT SAMs, preemptive multitasking support for Patriot missile launch vehicles.

Upcoming 3.x (Kilter) - Under Development - Overhaul and reconfiguration of infantry units into simpler fire-team squad based arrangement; various balancing changes for multiplayer enhancement. Russian Forward Air Controller (FAC) to be replaced with infantry, rather than vehicle; Mi-28 maneuverability to be improved, etc. Clear separation of units by Armed Services -- US Infantry role becomes exclusively US Marine Corps section; while Armor and Support roles are US Army, etc.

Upcoming 3.x (Kihei) - Under Development - Upgrades to Joint Targeting & Designation System (JTDS) to support laser guided bombs. FLINT extension code for gravity bomb aerodynamic simulation.

Side Project 3.x (Kickback) - Backburner/Under Dev - Side project for demonstration in support of Missile Defense Advocacy; utilization of World in Conflict game engine to demonstrate Aegis Sea-based Terminal in computer video games.

Upcoming 4.0 (Raptor) - Under Development - Wide scope integration of all 3.x features added. Introduction of JFSN (Joint Fire Support Network) to remote-control artillery units by infantry player. Introduction of new units such as M142 HIMARS, BMP-3/BMP-T, LAV-AD and new Pantsir S1 model to be completed by 4.0 release (some of these new units may be introduced during the above 3.x release cycles in incremental releases).

Edited by: blahdy

And to remember my original TBM idea that helped the IADS/FLINT systems to start....

I also Remember the fun mod times
Good work in al this time

>new Pantsir S1 model

Like this?
Chassis "Voshina-1" (russian "Вощина-1"):

Or this?
MZKT-7930 (russian МЗКТ-7930):

Or this one?
GM-352M1E (russian ГМ-352М1Е), chassis from 2K22 "Tunguska":

And finally, a small idea.
Pantsir operates as part of AA-battery:
3-6 units - Pantsirs
1 unit - C2-vehicle
1-3 units - ammunition and loading vehicle on KamAZ-6560 chassis, (1 vehicle for 2 Pantsirs, with 24 missiles and ammo for AAA)

Not sure yet but we'll be sure to give it some great looks!

If you have no plans on Tunguska and if you are considering Pantsir as a part of the land forces, it would be nice to put it on track. Otherwise, yes, it is necessary to leave it on the wheels (as part of AA for covering heavy S-300).

By the way, one of the reasons why the Pantsir-S1 is not in the Ground Forces - in the tracked version it is not simply replacement for Tunguska, it competes with SA-15. The Ground Forces didn't want to change supplemented each other SA-15 and SA-19.
Some more photos, if you're interested:

new radar complex 55Ж6М "Небо-М" (55Zh6M "Sky-M"), 4 vehicles - RLM-M (meter range), RLM-D (decimeter range), RLM-S (centimeter range) and C2-vehicle

another photos of loading vehicle for Pantsir-S1:

What features/benefits does SA-19 offer over a tracked version of Pantsir? I'm curious, because Pantsir is all around much better system, with fully automated missile guidance functions, etc -- putting Pantsir on tracked vehicle seems to be good replacement for Tunguska... but why not?

Something neeeds fixing now, even if this is Alpha.
Wargame-ee.com

As about Tunguska - it is cheaper to change the existing vehicles, and panzir need new (tracked) chassis to use, it is not the same as Tunguska. And panzir in general is a bit expensive for having 12 of those in a det. MRBr.

blahdy, it's features is that they are in sufficient quantity
Quite expensive to replace two AA-systems with new one.
Also, recently I saw information that Pantsir have some problems with tracking targets (and short "parameter", I don't know how this term will be translated in english; briefly - target, flying directly to SAM, has heading parameter 0; if its heading goes "aside", it is the length of the perpendicular from the SAM to the horizontal projection of the target's heading). But right now Ministry of Defence published a report of the successful interception of cruise missiles fired from aboard of the Tu-95MS.
IMHO - Pantsir yet "moist", but most likely the problem in the software, not the "hardware". It is a future of russian SHORAD

KBP Instrument Design Bureau (Konstruktorskoe Buro Priborostroeniya) reported in a press release about officially approve Pantsir-S on November, 16.
589th air defense missile regiment of the 4th Air Force and Air Defense Command of the Eastern Military District received six vehicles (for already obtained S-400)