Gunship experiments: AC-130 and other...

[[aps]gnat 28]

After getting a nice result on the B-52 tailgun, I thought I'd experiement with the "technology" a little more.

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4 x "30mm Vulcans", AI manned, side mounted and moving with the plane

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A BMP and Infantry attracting a little attention ....

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I'm using Captain Moore's C-130 as the base but the textures are in need of work (and so are my gimbals).

All works quite well except when the plan rolls too far to the left and the AI and their cannons start hitting the wing and engines. The pilot orders them to stop but after this happens a couple of times the plane takes too much damage and crashes. Theres several ways to control or remove, so no big deal.

Because of the role requirements of a gunship to stay on target, I was wondering is there was ever a Helicopter version of a heavy gunship ever used ?

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[gunfighter-6 0]

Yes, there was a chopper, the ACH-47, equipped with 40mm-grenadelauncher in the front, two 20mm guns on pylons together with FFAR-launchers and 5 .50cal-machineguns in the cargobay... it was called "guns-a-gogo" an was used in Vietnam.

[-HUNTER- 1]

but isnt in use anymore!

A working AC130 would be off teh hook! Maybee if you have perfected the technology you could talk to DKM Jaguar who's making the uber elitest C-130 model ever!

Maybee rather then stepping to the helo version please finish the airplane technology for it. Maybee also try using the original weapons like a 105mm and 40mm??

And how do you want to prevent the crashing to occur? Like a turnratio limiter? If you could like set the plane up that you can press a button and it starts a turn and starts flying circles arround a area?

It would be fully sick to have a nice working AC130 engaging ground forces in lets say some afghanistan mission!

[eestikas88 0]

make it!

http://www.airwar.ru/image/i/ah/ach47-i.jpg

[Katar 0]

Whoa very cool!

[sputnik monroe 102]

Is there not a way in the config to limit each guns max and minimum elevations? Seems like that would solve the AI shooting the wing. I don't know much about these things though.

[cell7 0]

Keep up the good work. It would be unreal if this works. This could be the start of many new add-ons coming out from the woodworks.

[JamieOFPFiles 0]

Posted some news for you at OFPFiles. That looks like a grand weapon to have, is it powerful? hehe.

[[aps]gnat 28]

Is  there not a way in the config to limit each guns max and minimum elevations?

Sure, but because OFP has no commands to change pitch or roll of an object (only position an direction) the turrets are always "level" and as such dont roll with the plane. This has little effect on the general fuctionality or visuals.

The quick-and-dirt solution is to simply remove the left wing Fire Geometry.

Quote[/b] ]This could be the start of many new add-ons coming out

Thanks cell7, seems a little late! ... hope ArmA allows better experiments.

Quote[/b] ]Posted some news for you at OFPFiles

Thanks Jamie, but to correct the news, this is a modified C-130, not a B-52. I just used the tailgun from the B-52 as the weapon basis.

[[aps]gnat 28]

<span style='font-size:17pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:Darkred'>Oh God!</span></span>

<span style='font-size:17pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:Darkred'>The Power Rush!</span></span>

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Is truely POWER.

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Modified Guaccio Germano Navy CH47 to 4 x 40mm Rotary Cannons (2 out each side) ..... and hell rain'ith down from above !  

Bugs found so far;

- Initially AI chopper pilots move slow in forward motion. It seems that although the AI manning the cannons are not part of his group, he seems to be making allowances for their proximity    to the chopper. If you lead a team of choppers and race forward the AI chopper initially delay, but then race to to join formation. This is a hard one to understand. Obvious not noticed on Aircraft because aircraft can really move slow as an option. I changed the Gun's class from M113 to Helicopter cuz I thought it might be a land speed thing, but not. A AI piloted chopper with not gunners moves at normal speed.

- Small delay (20 secs) after initiallising the addon before the "board gun" option appears. No biggy ... seen this with other addons.

Otherwise ....... this is SWEET !!!!  

Anyone know of a public domain CH47 addon ?

If so, I could publish this package.

[dvargar 0]

You could ask BAS if you could edit their chinooks.

[fubar_diver 0]

You could ask BAS if you could edit their chinooks.

damn that would be awesom, 2 miniguns raining down hells fire..... Also, could it work with a black hawk?

[kikill 0]

it would be great if you could edit blackhawks too (BIS or BAS), so they can have two miniguns mounted, one on each side of the helo.

[Rikki Tikki Tavi 0]

At the AC-130:

I know next to nothing about scripting, but shouldn't you be able to script an orbit to keep it on station?

[eestikas88 0]

now only thing what is missing is a flying VW beetle (old one)

tuned up with neon lights and stuff,with a funny horn,with some crazy stickers,with a water spray and..................

this

would be awesome and powerful

and with these

[Apollo 0]

What about one of these!

I know it's WW theme ,but it could be so nice.Afaik twin mg revolving turrets on top ,below and back.2 twin Mg's on side ,and one in the nose to.And then there is also the bombload.

Actually specification sais 13 Mg's.

http://www.aviation-history.com/boeing/b17.html

Would be cool to fight of a wing of those with fighters and interceptor's.

[4 IN 1 0]

acturaly they could use as much MGs or even a 20mm AAA as they want (and how much the plane could carry, some carrys >12 M2s and a mix of all kinds of weapons)

kind of crazy in morden day standard

[Apollo 0]

Well we have nice WW2 addons as it is ,but bombers are also lacking in that timeframe ,just as they were in the modern time. (but recent work has filled that part)

We got infantry WW2 ,tanks ,fighters ,artillery and even some ships from US ,Germany and Russia ,only the heavy bombers are somewhat laking there to for completion. Maybe do one for each side ,i think the Germans had the HE111 as bomber in WW ,i forgot the Russian heavy bomber but tat one is a hughe sucker.

I know it's lots to ask ,and you probably have current projects , 'im not saying you have to do these ,i'm just saying this technoligy if we wish finaly makes this sort of addons possible in Ofp ,and now any addon maker can make one of these "not yet done" beauty's.

HE111

I think there already are addons for the Brittish Lancaster and Halifax somewhere available.And those should have multiple Mg's on board to ,so maybe you can test a bit with those..

Oh ,and btw. Great work.  

[Big Dawg KS 6]

You have to realize that this technique is still very limited, and still, the biggest problem is pitch and roll. The pitch of the guns will allways remain at 0, you can't change them, same goes for roll, so this causes problems on aircraft which are constantly changing pitch and roll. This and many other issues that occur when you setpos static MGs onto vehicles prevent this from being anything more than a few "bubble" shaped turrets on large, straight flying vehicles. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure your WWII planes could be made like this, but you probably won't be happy with the results. You best wait till ArmA...

[Greg147 0]

Sure would be good to have some WW2 bomber. There are some models being made for Lancasters and B17s that I know of. They were on the WW2EC forum, but the age-cut off deleted the topics  

Actually specification sais 13 Mg's.

I count 13

2 in tail gun

2 in dorsol turret

2 in ball turret

1 on each waist

1 in the nose

2 on the turret under the nose (I think that its a B17E version. The B17F has 11 or 12 guns)

1 each side of the nose.

EDIT: I did make a goodish bomber effect once before. I used a script to keep a C-130 in the same place in mid air, and put it at about 2000m. Then placed MGs facing out the side and back doors.

Copied and pasted 5 or 6 of them, and attacked them with Me109s.

Really hard to destroy them. Problem was they just stayed in mid air when destroyed. Also, I didn't have the right model to make it a proper bomber  

[Daniel 0]

Bloody good work Gnat! Brilliant! Gonna try that B52 out now, keep up the good concepting!

[franze 196]

You have to realize that this technique... *snip*

I think for most people, it would work plenty fine. All that really matters is that the bombers serve some form of aerial objective (ie, escort or destroy) or serve as a support platform to be called in from the ground (like the B-52s are now.)

[crassus 0]

At the AC-130:

I know next to nothing about scripting, but shouldn't you be able to script an orbit to keep it on station?

Just to echo Rikki Tikki's suggestion, would an "enhanced" orbit script work?

I see this as an AI-only add-on. The player would click on the map designating the target area, and the gunship would orbit that area, following a lot of "...goto <x,y,>..." orders. Perhaps using one or more Game Logics setPos at specific points to describe a circle and at specific time intervals to enable and maintain the appropriate bank to the left.

[Panda-PL- 0]

You could use this technique to add working MGs to OFP tanks' turrets. Would be nice. (acctually I was planning to do that but I have some other things to do first, and I'm not sure if I can anyway).

[Big Dawg KS 6]

@ Sep. 27 2005,14:29)]You could use this technique to add working MGs to OFP tanks' turrets. Would be nice. (acctually I was planning to do that but I have some other things to do first, and I'm not sure if I can anyway).

That probably wouldn't work too well either, you would still have to deal with pitch and roll, and I am not sure but I bet it would still get messed up going over bridges.