Project - Vertical Lift 2035

[SonicJohnBH 18]

Come to think of it I'm sure there are more than a few people in this thread that'd be more than willing to test an early (even slightly broken/janky) private build and report errors, myself included. It could help spot some time-consuming bugs earlier on. 

Regardless, I was curious if you guys had implemented the reverse vector that the V-22 and V-280 possess. The V-22's in game right now, both Poly and CUP,  unfortunately don't have this awesome and useful feature to put the nacelles at 97.5 degrees, slightly rearward from the "helicopter" position. Testing video for the V-280 APPEARS to show this ability, and it'd be rather silly for them to not have it given that they're focusing on low-speed agility. On that same note, both the current V-22's also lack a properly strong Yaw authority in low speed, seems like the devs and modders assume the V-22 gets it's yaw entirely from control surfaces and forget about the swashplates on the rotors being able to operate as a cyclic, either that or they didn't want to model it in the physics engine. Based on what I've seen so far though it seems like you guys know your stuff, so I'm hopin this sorta thing has been taken under consideration. Keep up the great work and hope you had a happy holidays!

[D.Tac 13]

SonicJohnBH is right where do we sign up to test? I was just joking with my unit about adding weapons to the V22 and then I found this thread!

[Ex3B 266]

On 1/3/2020 at 1:48 AM, SonicJohnBH said:

Regardless, I was curious if you guys had implemented the reverse vector that the V-22 and V-280 possess. The V-22's in game right now, both Poly and CUP,  unfortunately don't have this awesome and useful feature to put the nacelles at 97.5 degrees, slightly rearward from the "helicopter" position. 

Speaking as someone that made a port of the Arma 2 f-35, I don't think that they can really do that.

The vehicle config only supports a few VTOL options. You can put a 0, 1, or 2 for VTOL status. One is no VTOl, one is STOVL, one is VTOL with default vectoring vertical (like the Xian) and one is VTOL with default vectoring horizontal.

Enabling VTOL only gives you a 90 degree vectoring range.

So maybe you could tilt the model 15 degrees, and use an pilothead aimdown setting of 15 degrees, and then you should be able to hold a hover at 75 degree vectoring with the model level, but then holding it level and increasing to 90 is the same as pitching the blackfish up 15 degrees to fly backwards.

But while the idea of rotating the model 15 degrees to allow this may seem nice, it means that you cant fly level, and would need to pitch down constantly, or set the angle of incidence negative... It just seems funky. Just pitch up to fly back... 

That said, I would love a feature to vector past 90, it would allow reversing on ship decks, which would be very useful

[yasotay 198]

As you might suspect from the lack of post this mod is not moving along.  Real life has stepped in, and the team has hit a wall.  The mod is about 80% done and is usable.  There are three versions:  UV-85 basic transport (really fast UH-60), MV-85 (Spec Ops version with nose cannon, DAGR, and Griffin (think mini-hellfire), and the AV-85 (all the AT capability of an ATK helicopter).  Here in the near future we are letting it go on Steam. 

 

It is my hope that one of the mod teams will find an interest and carry it on to completion. It really only need some of scripting policing.  A few of the outstanding issues from the developer

 

- Art pass on the internals. Cockpit and a few areas of the cabin. 

- Texturing update on a few weapons systems , Griffin mainly. 

- Removal of some scripts that were used for experimentation.

 

To this I would add

 

- Fast rope anchor points

- mini-gun tweaks

 

Thanks for all the great support and I will advise when the mod is available on Steam.

 

 

[SonicJohnBH 18]

Surprised no-one has said this yet but: WOOOOOOOOOOOT! We finally get to fly this beautiful beast! I can't wait to see how the side-launching weapon racks work, how the view from the EOTS is, how maneuverable it is in plane-mode, how a "running start" takeoff looks.
We get to find out what kinda weapons it can equip, whether it has a laser designator on the EOTS, whether the pilot or the co-pilot controls the EOTS, how stealthy it is, what it's low speed maneuvering is like.

I can't wait to show this thing to the infantry in my unit, they won't be able to make head nor tails of it.

[QuakeIV 1]

Heh, the unit i was piloting for (which lived for 18 months) died out before this was released.  I guess I'd still reinstall and play around with it if it releases.

[SonicJohnBH 18]

By the way will this initial release include the S-97 Raider WIP from that earlier video as well or is it just the Valor's?

[yasotay 198]

Folks,

 

  Here it is: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1686321576

 

  There are four versions of the "UV-85 Omaha" (V-280 in game nomenclature)  The basic UV-85 version is just the aircraft, no guns. There are two assault aircraft.  One with M134s and one with .50cal Gatlings.  The SOF version, MV-84, has M-134 x 2, 20mm nose cannon, DAGR rockets and 2 x Griffin missile (mini Hellfire).  All of these are troop capable.  Finally is the AV-85 attack version has all of the MV-85 ordnance but trades the troop compartment for ATGM capability.  

 

  As much as we would like to spend more time with the mod, we just don't have it.  Any fixes that might happen will be infrequent if we decide we have to spend time on the project.

 

  That said if anyone wants to work the mod (add fast rope, working refuel boom, seats out, etc.) I only ask that you share with everyone in the community in trying to improve the UV-85 Omaha.

 

  Hope you have as much fun with it as we have.

 

  I would highly recommend VTOL/FLAPS controls mod by Feint.  It makes all of the VTOL in Arma much easier to fly.

 

  Mods: Request you move to Mod: Complete

  

Edited May 31, 2020 by yasotay
revised comment

[Rich_R 1087]

Congrats on the release! Been a long flight getting here, thanks for all the hard work!

[deltasix 12]

Awesome work thank you Comrades!😎

[yasotay 198]

6 hours ago, Rich_R said:

Congrats on the release! Been a long flight getting here, thanks for all the hard work!

Thanks Rich. Wish we could have done more but life is like that.  Enjoying 1st Air Assaults adventures!  LOL, kinda like the way back days.

[Rich_R 1087]

53 minutes ago, yasotay said:

Thanks Rich. Wish we could have done more but life is like that.  Enjoying 1st Air Assaults adventures!  LOL, kinda like the way back days.

Glad to know you’re out there. Since you brought up the old days, I want to state publicly and for the record, you were right about the Cobra, we should’ve used it back then. I apologize for being stubborn!!! Fits in perfectly in air assault!!!!

[Ripcord1994 2]

This mod has the best tilt-rotor controls, it is so much easier to control and the autoflaps are super awesome.  Bohemia needs to incorporate them into vanilla for sure!  It would be really cool if CUP and/or USAF mod could incorporate the auto-flaps into their MV-22/CV-22s.

Edited June 7, 2020 by Ripcord1994
Spelling

[yasotay 198]

@Rich_R,  Your rational was for the right reasons.  No need to apologize since I was certainly the stubborn one.  Now with a number of Arma years under my belt, I agree with your rational at the time.  Still, Thank You.

@Ripcord 1994 - Thanks for the kind words.  MV-22/CV-22 does not have auto-flaps because the real aircraft does not currently have that option.  This tilt-rotor has lessons learned from the earlier V-22.

[Ripcord1994 2]

15 hours ago, yasotay said:

@Ripcord 1994 - Thanks for the kind words.  MV-22/CV-22 does not have auto-flaps because the real aircraft does not currently have that option.  This tilt-rotor has lessons learned from the earlier V-22.

The real world MV/CV-22 definitely have auto-flaps, along with the ability to manually select flap positions if desired.

 

[yasotay 198]

7 hours ago, Ripcord1994 said:

The real world MV/CV-22 definitely have auto-flaps, along with the ability to manually select flap positions if desired.

 

I stand corrected.  Bad gouge.

[Bukain 86]

This gonna be awesome

 

Thank you very much for the project vertical lift 

[mfederico4484 11]

Love the Mod thank You for it and Great Work! I just load in and Zoom around just for Fun.

[yasotay 198]

We are working on some fixes.  Soon there will be a fast rope option and some fixes to other issues that have been pointed out.  Again these happen as the team has time to work on it.

 

[yasotay 198]

A quick update.  We seem to have the ability to do fast rope included, however it requires Ace and CBA.  We think there is a bug in the VTOL aircraft in ARMA for some reason that is causing the inability to get out of the aircraft in some situations, but we are still investigating the issue and it is on the top of the list to resolve.  Not sure when the next update is going to happen because the people who have a clue (i.e. scripters) have decided that summer is a good time to take vacation. *shrug*   

[Bukain 86]

I can't get rid of all two DARGs, only one of them is shown in the attribute.

I just want to change them with unguided rockets but couldn't do it because of this. Can you help me basotay?

[yasotay 198]

13 hours ago, Bukain said:

I can't get rid of all two DARGs, only one of them is shown in the attribute.

I just want to change them with unguided rockets but couldn't do it because of this. Can you help me basotay?

We are aware of the problem and are actively working to fix that problem as well. The team has done some work over the last few days to work through some of the issues on our "to do" list. Work continues as time permits. For the latest update:
- This update provides better compatibility for valor with ACE mod
- Adds ACE fastroping compatibility to all transport versions of valor (currently only supports human pilot/pax for fastroping)
- Will include other ACE compatibility-related updates in the future

[yasotay 198]

Continuing to tweak as we can.  We have fixed the issue with weapon load outs. We have implemented an ACE add on (optional) for those who want to use fast ropes in game.  We have policed up some missing pieces here and there and have completely redone the Griffin missile.

[martinezfg11 334]

[SonicJohnBH 18]

So I followed this mod for a long while, talked some with you guys. I've flown the Omaha on about a dozen proper ops now, and I gotta say that I've just entirely fallen in love with it. Our whole unit has really. 

Couple of notes for you guys after having EXTENSIVELY flown and tested all variants.

 

1. Reinserts are much faster, and it spins-up/takes off SUPER fast. My infantry guys LOVE this for reinserts especially.
2. It can land in surprisingly tight spaces, it's strong Yaw authority helps with this.
3. It is an ISR BEAST, I've gotten into the habit of slewing my targeting pod to the area where I'm landing to check for threats (and landing smoke) and I've had multiple occasions where the Infantry have asked for me to do an recon pass using the thermals and 360 degree Infrared and it has spotted many an enemy vehicle/squad, this is an especially unique skill for an insert helo to have.
4. It is so agile that (in the right hands) it can stand a chance against enemy fast-movers. With careful vectoring you can turn as-tight or tighter than some jets (when controlled by AI mind you) and I've managed quite a few takedowns (including two cannon kills) in the MAV-85.
5. It can do a very flat deceleration/landing approach, I had one op with enemy Tigris AA and I was able to go full speed the entire flight-path but still stay low-enough (even when bleeding speed) to have hill-cover from the radar. If you're an Omaha pilot PLEASE try some low-level flying, it is worth it.
 
Some bugs/critique.

1. Sometimes when touched down on the ground it will fluctuate between 0 and 100 thrust all on it's own, leading to a "bouncing" effect. I think I've seen this on other VTOL's in ArmA so it might just be an inherent problem.
2. As others have mentioned this bird needs some flares/chaff as an option, the DIRCM is GODLY against infrareds but it doesn't have much defense against radar-guided stuff it seems like. 
3. The MAV-85 seems to have a problem where the pilot's seat cannot target ANYTHING randomly. I've fixed this by, of all things, going into the co-pilots seat, taking control, locking onto something, and heading back into the pilot's seat, and then it works fine. This doesn't always work, and doesn't seem to occur on the AV-85 so I don't know what's goin on there.
4. When the auto-flaps change position it sets the vector back 15 degrees, not sure if this is intentional or not.
5. The turret camera/stability is...less than ideal. I acknowledge that this is a common issue with gunner's seats in ArmA but I figured it was worth pointing out.
6. Either fixed gunpods options or the option to have the turret slewed dead forward/controlled by the pilot would be amazing.
7. As previously mentioned people get stuck in the doorgun seats.
8. Some of the weapons pylons from other mods clip really badly but I guess there isn't much you can do about this apart from maybe making the AV-85's trapeze arms "swing" further out.

 

Overall it is just...amazing that something like this has been done so amazingly by such a small team, almost entirely from scratch. My troops love it, I adore it, and I can't wait to see whatever you guys pump out next, don't worry about it taking a while because the Ohama has proven that your work is definitely worth the wait.

 

Best Wishes from the 434th!

-SonicJohn