http://arma3.com/news/arma-3-helicopters-dlc-available-on-november-4th#.VFOtofldWFM Nov 4 is the release date for the new DLC that includes two entirely new helicopters along with bringing in an upgraded version of the take on helicopters flight model. I was stuck in atlanta last night when the last flight home ran out of seats so I decided to make the most of my night there. Ran down to a friend's place and tried out the new helicopter DLC on the latest dev build. Everything looks really good on it, granted it could have been that my dinner consisted solely of some good bourbon (couldn't find any gummy bears to make it a full meal) Initially it didn't seem that difficult to fly so I'm assuming that the take on model is defaulting to off since its optional. The helicopters we tried all seemed a bit better handling and more nimble than the previous ghosthawk model. I didn't try the ghosthawk to see if it really has been improved or not in the base flight model, but I'm hopeful it has been improved as well. Sadly we didn't get a chance to do too much with it before heading to bed so I could make it back to the airport and wait list the first flight out this morning.
The take on model will feel a little slippery compared to the default Arma one. It REQUIRES a joystick and throttle to work right. You actually need both, and pedals would be very helpful.
The 1.34 update is planned for release today at 1800 CET, (Noon EST, 9am PST) There are also new objects that will be coming with it
initial review with 30min of testing before I had a work meeting The take on model isn't difficult to fly with at all for me, things are more sensitive than before but feels more realistic when I think back to my couple of chance to fly helicopters in real life. I've crashed a few times for things that wouldn't have done it before so there is still some learning necessary, the low rotor rpm has caught me twice so far. Vortex ring state isn't there that I can find, but I did managed to crash in what should have been a VRS condition so it might be modeled slightly differently in order to achieve it. There are several new options between flight model, hard landing, wind effects, and over stressing the airframe that you can control independently. You don't have to try to learn everything at once, granted if you do you probably will learn it faster than doing it step by step and having to unlearn portions.
Does it feel like there would be an advantage to having more peripherals? I've been thinking about getting rudder pedals for SC and wondering if it would help Arma helicopters as well.
I fly fixed wing, helicopters fascinate me but my chances to fly them have only served to enforce the idea that you need a good bit of training for them. Its more that it "feels" better, not that it is a totally realistic simulator yet.
My experiance with take on helicopters (the full game) was that I really loved it, and thought it felt way smoother than Arma, but I didn't want to try it with a mouse and keyboard. It really feels set up for a full HOTAS rig.
Got my stick to work finally, I really like the feel of the helo's now. It doesn't feel like playing a 2d SNES game where you cant do anything wrong unless your just brain dead. Now you have to be aware of airflow over terrain, backwash, rotor wash from other rotor craft, air flow differences over land and water, etc, etc. Its not insanely indepth yet, but all of those above elements are present in some detail if not exacting. And I appreciate it greatly, because it just goes to show just how shitty I am at anything other then non-combat transporting. If there is evading, or shooting involved im not the one you want behind the stick.
We tested out a few things: Yes. Sniping from helicopters is a thing. It is difficult, but achievable. Some vehicles have specific positions to fire from (eg transport trucks = only the rear two seats). No. AT cannot be fired from cargo position s.
The pickups allow you to have at least 3 (possibly 4) shooters in the bed of the truck, makes for some fun times. I've not had a chance to fly everything yet, but have had some pleasant discoveries about helicopters from mods. The reskinned helicopters such as TacOps use the new models so its just like flying the vanilla helicopters. Not sure what mod it is from (had 40+ loaded at once) but there is a mostly functioning Mi-24 with the new model as well. Its most likely due to it being a porting of the arma2/take on hind model. The only issues I encountered was that the wheels drop below the ground after engine start and unless you do a vertical take off you will do damage to your character as the belly of the aircraft registers the collision as you scrape forwards along the ground, landings also suffer from the same issue. The really nice MH-47 isn't compatible yet, it uses the base dynamics, I ran several other obscure helicopters from the poorly modeled gazelle to a hh-60g pavehawk that all had the base model as well. Tonight I will try to go through mod by mod and test all the helicopters to see what ones are fully compatible and what ones have issues.
After much research, there are results!! First up, and I think most importantly, every helicopter mod I can find still works in arma. If you are using the normal (traditional) flight model everything should behave basically the same as before. For the advanced flight model option, its an option, you don't have to use it and you can use what ever sub options you feel comfortable with if you like. Normal Flight Model: I've had issues with two mods, I have an old version of us helicopters that causes the UH1H to sit on its nose and the UH1Y on its tail, I also have a mod that includes a Gazelle. The Gazelle model was never finished or done correctly, your character stands inside of it with his legs going out the bottom of the helicopter. Also it doesn't have a free look mode among other problems. Basically you wouldn't be using either of these mods to worry about compatibility with the current build of ARMA 3. Advanced Flight Model: As far as Mod compatibility, if a mod uses a stock helicopter and repaints it, the chances are extremely high that it will work correctly with the new advanced flight model. There are a few that rename and paint helicopters where I found that the speed/altitude/damage indication system wouldn't show up properly in the upper left. Safe to say that these were rather obscure mods that we have never used before so don't worry too much. Besides you can always use the stock painted helicopters to get around this. For new helicopter models that aren't part of ARMA to start with, the sad news is that while it is possible to get the functionality of the new flight model to work with them, I have only found two helicopters that incorporate it. If the helicopter isn't compatible with the advanced flight model it simply defaults to the normal one. For example, if you takeoff and fly a Ghosthawk with the advanced model then land it and jump into a Blackhawk, the Blackhawk will use the Normal flight model no matter what you select. If you jump back into the Ghosthawk then you will go right back to the advanced flight model. ARMSCor has their newly modeled and released A109 fully integrated with the ability to make use of the advanced model from what I can tell. They have 4 models of the A109 done, two totally slick birds (A109 & A109e), a SAR variant (A109-LUH), and a light attack version (A109-LAH). There are two additional ones named HKP15 and HKP15n that are swedish designations for two of the above helicopters (believe them to be the A109 & A109e respectively) I have also found a Mi-24 associated with the South Zagoria Army mod, I think the base helicopter models come from the RDS mod that is required for SZ but I might be wrong on that. There are three models that work (mostly) Mi-24v (Hind E), Mi-24vp (Hind E), & Mi-24p (Hind F). Each of these models has several sub versions for different armies (small changes such as IR suppressors on the exhaust stacks exist between each army), there are also different load out versions, some are all rocket, some have anti tank missiles others even have bombs. All of them do suffer from the landing gear immediately going through the ground as soon as someone gets in to the pilot's seat. This isn't too bad except that you have to land and take off vertically with no fore/aft/lateral motion to prevent hurting yourself. I have managed to hurt myself after repeated landings so it might be best to to hovering insertions if you are carrying troops in it. That said, you have three different Mi-24's to play with in the advanced flight model with only minimal issues. Finally there is the FZA AH-64D Apache Longbow mod. This mod is a very realistic simulation of the Longbow including startup procedures, multiple display options, and what is around a 50% interactive cockpit (buttons/levers/switches). There is only one flight model for the mod, it has always behaved similar to the new advanced model with the auto trim turned on from what I can tell. Its a niche mod that I really like for its depth but most probably wouldn't use it.
last week several of my friends finally bought one of the bf4 dlc packs so we could all play operation metro together again. It had been one of our all time favorite maps to play on as a squad so it's great to do it again, sadly all but two of us didn't have it so those guys had to shell out even more money to get it. Right afterwards thus video came out and really captured what I was feeling in the difference between EA and bohemian in how they treat their customers. Arma might not be for everyone but it sure beats everything else out there.
I had to buy the Heli DLC after I had succesfully broke into a base killed everybody in it and had this chopper parked there in desperate need to be liberated and i couldnt fly it without the DLC ... I manged to load it up and fly out of there before the original owners made it back to their base Was kind of funny, i wish i had frapsed it ...
