PMC Campaign Mission 9

[DillonAero 10]

I was quite enjoying this campaign until I arrived at this #9 Aviation mission, where I encountered this problem:

While providing air support in the chopper as pilot, I cannot even clear the first town, because my AI gunner can't hit for crap (had him on engage at will), nor can I switch to him to take over the gunnery. Flew over town several times, even hovering still in one place so gunner has better shot, but still useless, all the while small arms fire chipping away the chopper little by little. I am a terrible pilot, so trying to aim the unguided rockets results in miss at best, crash at worst (besides, the loading screen tip says to save rockets for bigger threats, I'm assuming vehicles will appear in later towns). I'm actually better off dismounting and taking them out on foot, but the mission won't let me. The poet guy was bitching about how he had to be the pilot, and it reflected my own sentiments exactly. So has anyone completed this mission? What might I be doing wrong, or how did you overcome this issue of AI gunner not able to hit?

[connos 10]

Put him on danger, engage at will, scan horizon. Fly so he can see the targets from the side.

[Wolfrug 0]

He's a fine shot, at least on my computer. Probably some script-assisted trickery going on in the background, since usually the AI isn't half as perceptive. Anyway, just hover sideways and let him rip loose - as long as you're fairly stable in flight he'll have a very good hit percentage.

...yeah, um...it kinda gets harder. So buckle up :p

Regards,

Wolfrug

[moricky 210]

Probably some script-assisted trickery going on in the background

Nope. He's just that good ;)

[turin turambar 0]

I just did circles around the town, with my left side (the gunner pos) oriented to the town center. I didn't use any orders, he just fired again and again by itself.

[Speedle 10]

I've noticed that gunner's accuracy drops greatly when you fly faster than 100/110 kph, so I kept myself below this speed, constantly circling anti-clockwise (counter-clockwise for you american ;-p) over the target area. Never fly below 80/90 kph because you'll became a sitting duck for ground fire.

After a few circles, there should be just one or two enemies alive: you have to spot where they are and fly towards them, so that your gunner can see and engage them.

[Richey79 10]

You have to get fairly close to the hostiles, and be flying fairly slowly, steadily and with Ry facing the threat (natch!). Of course, this isn't really a good way to stay alive, so any dangerous vehicles or AA equipped troops you should take out with your rockets. Regenerating health a-la COD helps immensely here (at least on medium difficulty), and damage to the chopper is mostly scripted unless you really allow it to get shot up. For me, this was a good design decision, and meant there was much less frustration and much more fun in this mission than there potentially could have been.

Oh, and you don't have to set your gunner to any level of 'awareness': I just left him as he was and his aim was true.

[moricky 210]

Regenerating health a-la COD helps immensely here (at least on medium difficulty), and damage to the chopper is mostly scripted unless you really allow it to get shot up.

There's no health regeneration. There's no scripted damage. This is ARMA 2 ;)

[DillonAero 10]

Well, I made it through last night finally thanks to you guys' tips! Tried circling the town at first with left side facing them, but didn't work well, since after a long time lots of enemy infantry still left, then I lost patience and started flying carelessly, therefore crashed.

Tried a tighter circle next time and that worked better, but also means I'm more liable to get hit (seems like as long as my components stay green, my "health" recharges, but if it turns yellow or red, it stays that way). Its a bit of balance between right distance (as tight of a spectre gunship pattern as can be done safely), altitude (50-100, too low easy to get hit), and speed (60-100, too slow get hit), and even then patience is a factor as I just have to be prepared to circle indefinitely until damn AI get his hits. I use map quickly to locate enemy position, the only way I know without me crashing chopper. Its especially difficult on next to last town with some scripted crippleness thrown in. I'm relieved, however, that there was really only one part

3 APCs

where I needed to use the rockets, cuz most times when I aim those damn things I tend to plunge to my death. Glad I passed this one and can fight on the ground again. There's a reason why I still not dare touch my EW campaign :D.

[Speedle 10]

[...]. This is ARMA 2 ;)

Yeah, don't forget it...

;)

[...] There's a reason why I still not dare touch my EW campaign :D.

Well, flying in EW will be easier, trust me ;p

[biggerdave 56]

The AI's better with a grenade launcher than I'll ever be... if they figure out how to use the M79 or M203, we're f*cked! :butbut:

Provide a stable platform, don't travel too fast (or too slow), and circle the town counter-clockwise, that worked fine for me.

Well, until some git blew up my fan-tail...

[L3TUC3 32]

My m32 gunner refused to fire at all. I cheated out of this mission because I dislike flying (with anything that does not have hellfires).

[NeMeSiS 11]

There's no health regeneration. There's no scripted damage. This is ARMA 2 ;)

So thats why my tailrotor died every time after killing the last guy in the second to last town?

It was really annoying since i hovered at a very slow speed because my gunner took 10+ minutes to actually hit him, and when he finally did i was unable to pick up enough speed before crashing. Happened twice, first time i thought my tailroter dying was my fault for hovering so low and slow.

The third time i tried it i just kept passing by at a decent speed with my gunner most of the time not even trying to aim at the badguys, but after 20 minutes or so i/he got them all while flying at a decent speed.

So yeah... Didnt really like this mission. :p

[matt_gold 10]

ok, I am on the same mission.

Is there anywhere to re-arm my chopper? I keep running out of door granades and there's just a few baddies left. Do I have any alternative other than starting again and trying to conserve ammo?

[McGregor_CiA 19]

I know that this thread has been dead for some time. But I have the same problem as L3TUC3, my gunner never fires a shot and I only have 14 rockets. What to do?

[JSj 12]

First of all, you're not using any mods, are you? If so, disable them. Never use any mods with official missions/campaigns. I had no problem with the AI not firing, make sure that he CAN fire, that means, he has to see the enemy, and don't fly at top speed, as that may make it hard for the AI to acquire and fire on the bad guys. Fly low and slow, and make sure you are pointing the door gunner towards the targets.

[McGregor_CiA 19]

I do have some mods installed. Blastcore, JSRS and some islands. I will try to disable them and fly as you said. Thanks for the tip :)

[nettrucker 142]

I do have some mods installed. Blastcore, JSRS and some islands. I will try to disable them and fly as you said. Thanks for the tip :)

Blastcore JSRS and Islands have no influence on the gunner not engaging the target. As long as you're not using any AI behaviour mods everything should be fine. Did you reveal the target to your gunner? Once you did that . . . command the gunner to open fire or engage at will. If that doesn't help than there's something broken ingame.

cheers

Edited June 8, 2012 by nettrucker

[JSj 12]

That might very well be the case here, but you can't really be absolutely sure without extensive testing. I've heard about and encountered several instances where mods were causing problems in unrelated areas which they seemingly should not have affected at all. Sometimes it's the combination of two or more mods that causes a conflict that has totally unexpacted effects. So it's always safest to play the official missions without any mods at all. And if you do play with mods and encounter problems, your first action should always be to disable all of them and see if the problem goes away or not.