How are you guys controlling the chopper?

[BHack]

I've been messing with the gunship mission in the full version and, while I can complete the mission just fine, I'm not happy with the level of control I have over the helo.

The problem is trying to fly the thing completely with the keyboard. It's nice in that I can use the mouse to just look around and get a better view of the action but trying to manage complete flight with the keyboard is very unwieldy.

Has anyone found a way to adjust the mouse sensitivity for just aircraft controls?

It almost looks like you are going to have to have a Joystick and a Track IR to be a seriously good pilot. A joystick for control and a Track IR to for visibility reasons.

[Evil Koala]

I use a mouse, keyboard and TrackIR. My mouse sensetivity settings are on the second tick mark from the left.

[Shiner]

I can't pilot a bf2 chopper with the mouse... so no questoni about it for me I use the trusty joystick and the HAT button for viewing.

[tHa_KhAn]

I thought the helo's handles well, but I've not tried an attack helo.

[BHack]

The attack helo is much harder to fly than the blackhawk. Also setting up rocket runs is extremely difficult. The main reason is because you can't rotate the helo at speed like you can in BF2. So if your target is left or right of your aimpoint, you can't adjust like that. You have to adjust like you are flying a jet, and the keyboard is just too responsive for fine adjustments like that.

[tHa_KhAn]

That's good to know. That's a more realistic flight model. Have you tried remapping? I guess I really won't know until I get the full version.

[jepzilla]

I use a joystick for the cyclic and a throttle for the collective. Rocket runs are kind of tricky, but you don't need absolute precision... just spray the area.

[Rick_the_new_guy]

Team Demo, keyboard, transport.

I line the chopper up, move in and lower altidue.

Then i press the hover button. (this makes it flar up almost at 90 degress)
This also allos a huge deaceleration in speed.

After it slows down, i take hover off.
This allows me to make small changes in pitch.

Al and myself recommend this because trying to get the chopper to slow down is really hard. Going into hover mode will get the job done.

[Wimpinator]

I have been flying with the joystick almost exclusively. I guess I'm a bit of a purist so I have avoided doing the "Auto-Hover" flare. It is tough to flare and maintain the correct glide path and velocity but I am getting better. Not good but better

[Rick_the_new_guy]

Hey, we will need to practice soom transport insersions. Al and mayself were doing a lot of practice earlier today.

We found that a person can jump out at 37 meters and get their parachute out and by ok when the hit the ground. I just make believe they are fast roping.
Note: just land on the ground, not a building.

Also, jumping out of a chopper at 11 meters will only injure you a little bit.

[Evil Koala]

Post whoring so I can post links.

[Evil Koala]

Here's some vids of the Armed Tactics squad practicing fast insertions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMzdWsfwt8A
I'm the pilot in this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT6j-2aBoVw

[Coridon]

Originally Posted by Evil Koala

I'm the pilot in this one.

Yeah, Mr. FancyPants? Well, I'm the pilot in this one...



Not bad for my first time, methinks.

I'm sure most of the dents and scratches will buff right out...

P.S. Nice videos, Koala.

[Rick_the_new_guy]

Here is some footage on flying a Chopper.

!Warning, this may be a single player mission spoiler!

I do not know about the square icons that come up on the screen.
Seems arcade like. If it works that way in real life, look out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQBHp54G9iM

[Dslyecxi]

Al and myself recommend this because trying to get the chopper to slow down is really hard. Going into hover mode will get the job done.

I would strongly recommend against using auto-hover to slow yourself down. When you get into high-intensity combat (ie what WGL will have in coop, or in adversarial play), flaring up like that will get you shot down like you wouldn't believe.

We found that a person can jump out at 37 meters and get their parachute out and by ok when the hit the ground. I just make believe they are fast roping.

I wouldn't get in the habit of doing this if you plan to play stuff like WGL in the future. One of the pleasant changes for WGL in OFP is that you cannot bail out of a helo and deploy a parachute. It's a very "gamey" thing in ArmA/OFP and I wish they would have removed it.

Also, jumping out of a chopper at 11 meters will only injure you a little bit.

I haven't tested it in ArmA yet, but in OFP you could drop someone off at 5m of altitude and below 30kph of speed and the person would not be injured at all. I would imagine ArmA is similar in this regard.

Granted, if you plan to play vanilla ArmA and not the realism mods, ignore my first two suggestions. If you do plan to play WGL eventually, heed them, and don't get in the habit of relying on things that will end up getting you killed in it.