Manual Fire and Choppers

[donkeyhodey 10]

I'm having a little issue in helicopters which I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or it's intended...

When in manual fire in, lets say an AH64, i tab to my target but how do I lock on to it? It will tab to the target, say a BMP, but when I go to fire a hellfire, it misses by a mile and was evidently never locked in?

What am I doing wrong that I'm not "locking" on to it? Kind of frustrating!

thanks

donkey

[CarlGustaffa 4]

I think you need a gunner to obtain and keep lock. It's a two man vehicle for a reason, and in Arma I think it is required for the sake of balance.

[Ulanthorn 10]

You have to wait for your gunner or seeker to get a valid lock. You will get a lock tone. If you fire before valid lock the missiles has no guidance.

The target aquisition box is sometimes just a guess if the vehicle moves out of LOS...you need line of sight to the target...and a valid lock.

It it not as easy als tab, lock, tab, lock, ripple fire anymore...but still to easy compared to real simulations like DCS.

[donkeyhodey 10]

So i cannot fly my own cobra and obtain a lock on target like old days? i NEED a gunner now?

[Gunter Severloh 3955]

Nah, you can lock on without someone being gunner, I can.

What you can do is get in the chopper, if it has AI for a gunner boot him out, or place an empty chopper,

and then set it on manual so you can shoot, and have at it. You can lock on without AI or another player as gunner, I do it all the time.

But Playing Arma2 version of Evo blue, I use AI as a gunner, and I use manual fire, I just pick

targets from the list that appear and go from there.

try it, go into the editor, put an empty AH1 down, puts some enemy armored, or even cars down wherever,

place yourself as pilot.

The ingame, hop in the chopper, and take off, put it on manual fire, and hit tab to lock,

you will have to see the targets show up read on the radar before you can lock though.

[vasmkd 12]

i started a cit for this a while ago

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/12299

[Gunter Severloh 3955]

For what? I have you tested it?

It does work, like I said in my previous post go into the editor and put a pilot down, then an empty chopper,

put some enemy armored down and then set your chopper to manual fire and hit tab to lock when they come up read on ur radar.

its not a bug or an error, the issue is users and the lack of either knowledge of controls and how the work,

or something else conflicting.

It works for Arma2 patched, and with A2WarMod I might add I know that for sure.

[wraith_v 11]

I'm having a little issue in helicopters which I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or it's intended...

When in manual fire in, lets say an AH64, i tab to my target but how do I lock on to it? It will tab to the target, say a BMP, but when I go to fire a hellfire, it misses by a mile and was evidently never locked in?

What am I doing wrong that I'm not "locking" on to it? Kind of frustrating!

thanks

donkey

when the target is just selected (not locked on) it has a square box around it, when it its locked on there is a diamond on top of the box, just steer you chopper until the diamond appears, then fire

[mikeap 0]

You need to be facing your target. You dont need a gunner per, say. But then again, there's no need to manually fire a hellfire, anyway. Use command fire.

Once you see your target, face it, make sure you have a hellfire selected, wait for the beep, then fire.

[avengerzx 10]

This is bugged in Multiplayer.

I tried the BAF Domination OA. Using Apache AH1 and AH-64D, suprisingly AH1 Can lock with manual fire without any gunner but AH-64D Cant.

[Ulanthorn 10]

Thats no bug thats just because ArmA II units never got a upgrade to the new OA features. You can, as a further example, still use night vision with all USMC scoped rifles or launchers.

[avengerzx 10]

Only MV-22 has never got an upgrade that is what Dwarden told me. The rest of the in game models are all up to date to implement OA Features, most obviously seen which is the CounterMeasures system.

[vasmkd 12]

For what? I have you tested it?

It does work, like I said in my previous post go into the editor and put a pilot down, then an empty chopper,

put some enemy armored down and then set your chopper to manual fire and hit tab to lock when they come up read on ur radar.

its not a bug or an error, the issue is users and the lack of either knowledge of controls and how the work,

or something else conflicting.

It works for Arma2 patched, and with A2WarMod I might add I know that for sure.

Sure have tested it and others have too

You cannot lock on with manual fire if there is no AI gunner present in a pilot/gunner aircraft.

Tab puts a box around the target but if u fire ur guided missle it won't home in on target and will miss by a mile

Try the mission i posted on the CIT if u have OA and ARMA2

This issue came about with OA

I'm using ARMA2 + OA

Edited November 23, 2010 by vasmkd

[starstreams 0]

Sure have tested it and others have too

You cannot lock on with manual fire if there is no AI gunner present in a pilot/gunner aircraft.

Tab puts a box around the target but if u fire ur guided missle it won't home in on target and will miss by a mile

Try the mission i posted on the CIT if u have OA and ARMA2

This issue came about with OA

I'm using ARMA2 + OA

I've been wondering about this This sucks. The AI is too stupid and takes too long to fire, so I like to do it myself. This would be practical in a perfect world, but since the AI can't get the job done, This sucks. The ArmA way worked.

Edited January 8, 2011 by starstreams

[pooroldspike 128]

Oops I just realised my Hellfire Tutorial screenshots exceeded the forum 100kb limit so I deleted them to avoid getting in serious trouble with the mods.

No sweat, they're all posted at the Few Good Men club where there's no limit, here-

http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/showthread.php?6609-Hellfire-tutorial

Edited January 10, 2011 by PoorOldSpike

[pooroldspike 128]

-----More pics deleted for exceeding 100Kb-----

Edited January 10, 2011 by PoorOldSpike

[avengerzx 10]

Yes you have to point at the target to get a lock which is not fulfilling enough as in real life.

You mentioned "Player as Pilot" so didn't you realised you have a AI Gunner onboard??

We are talking about the issue that you can't lock without a gunner in the seat which simply means you are flying the Apache alone. This issue is going according to OA and CO users.

So now re-reproduce those again by setting:

Player: BLUFOR > US > Pilot

Apache: Empty > Air > AH-64D (None or In Formation doesn't matter)

-Get in the chopper alone and hover to any altitude above 50m

-Do the same thing again as above point your Chopper at the targets and get a Lock (TAB)

Expected Result:

AGM-114 Hellfire gets a lock and hits the target

Actual Result:

you will notice there isn't a circle around (No confirmed lock).

This issue was absent from 1.54 patch and present after 1.55 till 1.57.77064 now

Edited January 8, 2011 by avengerzx

[pooroldspike 128]

The 'Manual fire' thing has got me beat, I just tried taking the Apache up again in Arrowhead as pilot (without a gunner) and selected 'manual fire'; I got square acquisition boxes on the BRDM's but the Hellfires just flew dead straight into nowhere without a lockon even though the chopper was pointing at them at about 60 metres altitude.

Nothing I tried could get the lockon circle to appear.

I play box (ie unmodded) Arrowhead patched to 1.57 on 'Regular' difficulty, maybe other people use mods and different versions and get different results because we're all singing from different song sheets, I dunno.

---------- Post added at 02:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:01 PM ----------

PS:- I just tried the AH-1Z as pilot in box Arma2 1.08 without a gunner, selected manual fire and bingo, the Hellfires locked on with just the acquisition square and homed in on the targets with no sign of a lockon circle!

This is all getting too much for me, I shall have to go lie down (sniffle)

[avengerzx 10]

So the main issue is to revert the Single Operator Manual Fire capability in ARMA 2 for the AH-64D

Also tested it with ACE, GL4 and some other famous community mods, all didn't work.

Has no issue with mods, just the patch had it removed.

[starstreams 0]

You mentioned "Player as Pilot" so didn't you realized you have a AI Gunner onboard?? We are talking about the issue that you can't lock without a gunner in the seat which simply means you are flying the Apache alone.

Before we get too off topic again, what Avengerzx said in the quote above? "That is" the point. Who ever decided to change this made a bad decision. I've been flying these since OFP, and was always good at it, even while moving and alone.

Does the new way make scene? Now all the sudden you add a pilot to the aircraft and you can lock, but you can't with out him now? So just because some dude is sitting in the front of the chopper You're now able to lock even though your guy is doing nothing? This sucks.

I played a game of Be warfare (ARMA) the other night with some people and went up in a AH1 myself and saved my team's tail while flying into a hot zone at 200+ with hellfire. Those things lock you know. You can fly and fire them in the real world. Why should this game be any different? So you have some guy in the front now, who isn't even flying the chomper for you, and now all the sudden you can lock, but you can't without him? Make sense?

Yes, that's great, lets make the game less fun.

To make a point in regards to the illustrations. keep mind that no chopper is going to auto hover while firing on a Tunguska, or Shilka. They'd be a dead target. You could if there was one or two and you are fast on the Tab key. Auto hover works well if you wanted to let the AI take out some infantry on the ground with the gatling gun while you keep the chopper still, but not against the tanks mentioned above. You have to take them Tunguskas out quick, or your're dead.

Edited January 9, 2011 by starstreams

[pooroldspike 128]

Aargh i've just realised this thread is about Manual fire, so my sensational 'Hellfire Tutorial' doesn't belong here, can the mods delete it please, thanks.

EDIT:- On second thoughts I deleted it myself because the screenshots violated the 100kb limit anyway (sigh)

People can visit it here instead-

http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/showthread.php?6609-Hellfire-tutorial

Edited January 10, 2011 by PoorOldSpike

[mosh 0]

PM a mod if you need to, PoorOldSpike, and they'll take care of it. It was a nice tutorial, but yes manual fire has changed.

As far as manual fire goes, I liked it the way it was before, as I am usually in the editor playing by myself...

But if this is the was it's going to be I'll adapt. If it's a bug I'd like to see it fixed, but I think it was intentional. I could see why it was changed though, to promote teamwork and all that... so I'm certainly not bitching.

[petek 62]

I agree that it seems a step backward. Vanilla arma 2 I was able to mark a target (including buildings and non OPFOR) for the gunner and they'd engage (or mark it in manual fire mode) with guided missile or cannon. Guess I'll wait and hope it's fixed. The whole "tabbing" between targets just seems wrong....

[Dark SudoNix 1]

ok, everyone here is talking about not being able to lock onto a target while flying the helo alone... Isn't the game called a sim? And I'm pretty sure (again, i know, this is sarcasm) the Apache is a "Crew served" platform...

1 You have the pilot. His sole purpose behind the controls of the helo is to fly. Have 110% attention going towards flying the aircraft and avoiding trees, powerlines, buildings, etc...

2 You have the Navigator/Gunner. His absolute sole purpose is to make sure the pilot is in the right heading, and aquire and attack targets.

3 BIS made an overall combat simulator. With that being said, having a copilot/navigator is needed to simulate an apache crew. Dont get all bent outta shape about it.

On another note, my biggest concern is that when I go to zero the gun while in "manual gunner mode", it does nothing. I hit zero+ to try and zero the gun out to 1200 (max zero) and i still have to actually raise the gun up above target. the zero does not work at all....