Hearing Protection & Combat Deafness

#### Disclaimer:

> Originally, simpleAttenuation was a system that was designed to be used entirely and exclusively in Arma 3 EFT scenario, however, as the scope of the project grew we decided to both release an independent version (now deprecated) and include it into the MK\_Medical system mod. This version of simpleAttenuation can be considered version 3.0 for technicality sake and will be referred in this page as Combat Deafness.
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The Hearing Protection and Combat deafness system, previously known as Simple Attenuation system is one of the many threats a player must consider when playing EFT A3. This page will clarify the way it works but not how to operate the system included in the compatible hearing protection devices. You can find a guide for the system in this link.

### Knowing your limits

The combat deafness system is always active in the mission and tries to bring in a danger factor to player who engage too often in combat for fun. Each time a player engages in combat, the system listens to gunfire and explosions in the vicinity of the player and calculates auditory damage. This is done with EVERYTHING that has been considered fired by the Arma 3 engine and contributes to the hearing loss on the long term.

Being constantly engaged is a very fast and reliable method of losing your auditory capabilities in this scenario, so if you lack the proper equipment, try not to as often as possible.

#### Auditory Damage

The damage the player takes to the auditory capabilities of the unit is dependent on multiple factors:

* Distance from fire source
* Caliber of round fired
* Weapon being fired is silenced or not
* Proximity to explosions

Taking in consideration the points mentioned previously, one can safely assume the following:

1. Being impacted by direct explosive damage will most likely deafen you instantly.
2. Shooting or being close to high power and high RPM weapons will likely deafen you in matter of seconds.
3. Using a silencer even if it makes you weapon slightly heavier and/or doesnt fit your drip is better if you or your buddies doesn't have hearing protection and will likely keep you alive for longer.
4. Using a silencer doesn't meant that your gun is totally quiet, but it will greatly reduce the noise it makes. This is also considered by the combat deafness system.
5. Smaller controlled burst are always the best choice tactic-wise.
6. Smaller calibers like 9mm or .45acp will let you engage without hearing protection for longer periods or time.
7. Shotguns can be a good choice if using the correct ammo.

#### Hearing protection

Generally speaking, every item compatible with the previous simpleAttenuation system is considered Hearing Protection equipment, however, this doesn't meant that each item type is as equally as good.

Player comfort is also a factor that can sway the decision of which type of equipment to use, for example, any passive device works for the purposes of combat deafness, however the default audio profiles used in each type might not be up to the player standards and might make the environment feel weird.

Each device compatible might provide the protection, but depending on what the player has available or want to use for his/her appearance you should take in consideration the following regarding compatible equipment that protects auditory capabilities and might not be as apparent of what can be used for the system:

* Shemags (Facewears)
* Bandanas (Facewears)
* Headsets (Facewears)
* Balaclavas (Facewears)
* Goggles w/ earpieces (Facewears)
* Helmets that cover ears (Headgear)
* Helmets w/ earpieces (Headgear)
* Caps w/ earpieces (Headgear)
* Beanies w/ earpieces (Headgear)
* Headsets (Headgear)
* Headsets (NVGs)

With this in mind, as a general advice the player should seek and obtain ***active headsets*** as soon as possible.

#### Combat Deafness

If a player stop hearing the hell on earth in the mission, one can basically guess correctly that it has gone deaf.

There is no cure for combat deafness, and it's considered a medical status so it can always be corroborated in the status window of MK\_Medical System. In such cases where the player goes deaf, the only thing it must do, is to wait until the effect passes, which is usually around the 2 or 3 minute mark after going deaf.

#### Gunshot sound attenuation

When using active headsets, the player might be able to notice that each time he/she shoots and/or has a fire source very close by, the sound lowers drastically for 1 second or less.

This is a feature of the active headset intended to help with communication on busy gunfights in where the player might have an ally and it's not permanent. If the player doesn't want this feature to take effect, it will have to turn off the active headset which at that point will still protect from auditory damage but won't be able to customize volumes.