How to get a chopper to behave correctly

[peanuckle_00 0]

I set a waypoint and even set it to unload but the chopper will not set down and cut off engines. I call this a bug in the game. I can't get around it. How can i get a chopper to land and cut off engines at a waypoint?

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (peanuckle_00 @ Dec. 02 2002,20:43)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I set a waypoint and even set it to unload but the chopper will not set down and cut off engines.  I call this a bug in the game.  I can't get around it.  How can i get a chopper to land and cut off engines at a waypoint?<span id='postcolor'>

I am not realy the greatest in mission editing but first you should put an invisible H on the location where you want the chopper to land. If you got keygetys editor upgrade 1.2 (obligatory) you can choose between the white H (you know the H for Helipad) or an invisible H. If you want the chopper to turn of the engines this should actually work, however if it still doesnt work then you could simply chose the option "get out" then you will definetly have the desired effect!

[Tales_From_Topographic_Oceans 0]

is this "H" under objects or empty?

will the chopper know to land on the "H" of will I have to script it to land there?

attention peanuckle_00

I have spent 6 hours+ the last few days messing with this. How may I help you?

do you have troops in the chopper?

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

âs you said before, it is a chopper-magnet. I guess you find it under empty. This H SHOULD WORK!

[USMC Sniper 0]

They will land if you place an invisible H at the LZ. However, the chopper pilots are so stupid that they randomly make sharp turns and collide with other helos! Does anyone know some ways to prevent the choppers from colliding?

[Guest]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Albert Schweizer @ Dec. 02 2002,20:49)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I am not realy the greatest in mission editing but first you should put an invisible H on the location where you want the chopper to land. If you got keygetys editor upgrade 1.2 (obligatory) you can choose between the white H (you know the H for Helipad) or an invisible H.<span id='postcolor'>

You don't need kegetys editor upgrade for that. Invisible H is part of the standard OFP objects.

[dinger 1]

dinger's helo tips, or how to minimize helo trouble:

First know that they don't do their crazy ivans at random. Uncommanded course deviations occur for one of several reasons:

1. Change in behaviour

When a helo spots enemy or takes fire, it will go from "SAFE" to "AWARE" to "COMBAT". If it's on open fire, it will try to engage. If it's on hold fire, and takes fire, it willl try to engage. Any change in behaviour brings with it a change in airspeed.

2. Change in Airspeed

These helos don't have a proper collective, and OFP's favorite way to slow down a helo (especially post-1.85) is a change in direction.

3. Collision avoidance

The helos really don't want to crash into each other, so they will commit abrupt moves to dodge. Note that collision avoidance only kicks in when helos are on the same altitude band.

Okay, as far as I know, in the post-1.85 world, all three of these changes are executed at the assigned altitude. If you have more than one helo in that altitude band, you will get "trouble".

Solutions:

A. When you're moving helos in formation, setcombatmode to "BLUE" (never fire) and setbehaviour to "CARELESS". If you want to get fancy, you can script behaviour for when they get shot at.

B. Use SetFlyInHeight to maintain vertical separation between ships. THis is how the pros do it. I use 10 m per helicopter. Now they can do crazy ivans, or go chase targets, and they probably won't hit each other.

With these two, they never worry about hitting each other.

But there's still the "landing" problem:

4. Rejected Landings.

If you use Hs, you'll probably have trouble. You can set the helo waypoints so that each will have an H that is closest, but if the conditions aren't perfect, the helo will reject the landing and pick a spot it deems more suitable. If you have more than one helo, they're both going to go for the same spot. Since collision avoidance doesn't kick in for altitude separation, the second helo will come down right on the rotors of the first.

Basically a landing is where the Helo sets its flyinheight to 2m, and descends on the terrain. If it senses that because of its drift or a slope in the terrain it will be unable to maintain 2m height, it will "reject", climb out to about 15m, and find a flat spot to land.

So you need to research your spots well. It also helps to set the speed of hte helos to "limited" well before they approach the LZ.

good luck

[Maddock 0]

Good advice, and completely correct.