Take on Hinds : Gunner not firing vs other helos

[jedra 11]

I was playing one of the challenges today and one sequence required me to destroy another helicopter. No matter what I tried I could not get the gunner to fire on the other helicopter. Things I tried;

1. Hitting TAB (the helo would not become targetted).

2. Ordering the gunner to fire at will from the action menu.

3. Specifically telling the gunner to target 'that' chopper.

4. Ordering the gunner to cease fire/fire.

I could see his icon, and he was not dead. I can not be certain he did not bail and replace himself with a crash-test dummy, but I don't think that was the case.

The only thing I could do was switch to manual fire and shoot at the other helo myself.

In the previous sequence we had to take down some tanks, and the TAB targetting worked fine with the gunner firing once I had positioned the helicopter properly. OK, he missed every time and used up all the ammo trying to take out one tank, but at least he was firing!

Also, while I have your attention....

When you are the pilot, how do you know which weapons are currently selected either when the gunner is in control or when you are in manual control? I don't fly much in Arma, but I am sure that the current weapons selected are on the screen? I play ToH in expert mode, so although I maybe would not expect to see the current weapon on the 'HUD', I would expect to find it in the instrument panel somewhere? Maybe I am just not looking properly?

[armored_sheep 56]

What weapon you selected? (F key) Hind usualy fights with other helicopters using cannon, but the P version has no turret mount for cannon, so gunner cannot aim.

[jedra 11]

I cycled through all the weapons (although I could not see an indication of which weapons I had selected, so this means I pressed 'F' tried all the things in my first post, pressed 'F' again etc...). Maybe that mission (it was the random mission I selected) just happened to give me a chopper that the gunner could not use. I'll try again and see if it is any different.

I am exclusively an infantryman in Arma, so all this fancy fly-boy stuff is a little hard to get used to at the moment ;-)

[armored_sheep 56]

You should see the selected weapon in the top-right corner.

[jedra 11]

I can only see weapon hint in the top right if I turn on Full HUD Info, which then gives me all the dials from trainee and beginner mode. This is for both gunner and pilot. I don't really need the dials (and they get in the way a bit). Actually you don't get the dials as gunner unless you 'take controls'.

It would be nice to see weapon selection on/off as a separate difficulty option in this case.

Edited March 16, 2012 by Jedra
note about dials

[armored_sheep 56]

Another thing that limits the gunner from firing is range of the gun turret. YakB turret can aim only +/- 20 deg verticaly and +/- 60 deg horizontaly. Superhind has limits +15/-60 vertical, +/- 120 horizontal.

[jedra 11]

Thanks Armored_Sheep,

Having played quite a lot more now I realise that the chopper I was flying was point and shoot. I have got the hang of pointing my gunner in the right direction now! My knowledge of the Hind is shamefully lacking and I hadn't realise they were fixed guns originally on that particular Hind! And now I have made an addon to show me the current weapon in expert mode (shameless self promotion!), I am even more happy!

[armored_sheep 56]

Of course the version with GSh 30mm cannons ("P") has no turret that gunner can use for aiming.