Repeating an exact chopper landing possible ?

[Smoked 0]

Hello all...............

Ive been working on a mission revision (Coop12 Waterfall) for the last week and finally seek some advice.

Is it possible.......To (.A.) land a chopper in the exact same spot / direction (.B.) over and over (.C.) even with different LZ conditions such as enemy present / not present ?  

Ive been trying to get (1) of many to land precisely so I can further the developing senario - But as soon as I get it to land the way I desire and save (which is apparently only by chance), it throws a different manuever into the mix.

I need something concrete for a (1) chopper landing pattern that I can build upon.  The 'chance' landing is in no way dependable in terms of a foundation for proceeding onward.

Also, is there a way to make a waypoint act as a checkpoint, allowing a plotted course without the pausing at each and every waypoint ?

Thanks for the help in advance - It is appreciated !

Smoked

[Metal Heart 0]

Hello. To have helicopter land on a specific spot, place an invisible H there (empty-object-inv H). To have it loop, use a cycle WP as the last WP near the first WP of the cycle.

To move the LZ, you could:

1. Place triggers that detect enemies and also mark the possible LZs. Name them tlz1,tlz2,tlz3...

2. Select a landing pos with a script, run from the onActivation line of the WP before the landing WP:

1 exec "selectLZ.sqs"

<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">;set these 4 variables to match the names in your mission:

;landing WP is the 4th one of the chopper in this example (initial pos is 0, first visible wp is 1)

_helo=choppa1

_landWP=4

_lzt = [tlz1,tlz2,tlz3]

_invh = lzh

?!local _helo: exit

_nlz=count _lzt

_i=0; _bestLZ=0; _nmy=1000

;select the landing pos with least enemies

#loop

_c=count list(_lzt select _i)

?_c<_nmy: _nmy=_c; _bestLZ=_i

_i=_i+1

?_i<_nlz: goto "loop"

_pos = getPos (_lzt select _bestLZ)

[group _helo, _landWP] setWPPos _pos

_invh setPos _pos

exit

(save this script into mission directory as selectLZ.sqs)

Note that I didn't try if it works and that I'm not sure what you're trying to do exactly.

[Smoked 0]

Thanks for the response, Metal Heart !

On my way back to this thread to check for replies I noticed something I hadnt yesterday - This is the OFP board and I am inquiring of an ArmA importance (DOH).

Regardless, the scripting and such is the same, generally speaking, including this application - So Ill just keep it where it is.

What am I trying to do ?  Nothing complicated really.  

Senario:  Chopper pre-loaded with infantry, flying to LZ immediately outside enemy held city.  

Goal:  Land 'heli1' on precise LZ point, facing same direction each touchdown, on the same blade of grass each time.

Reasoning:  'heli2' approaching at the same time, LZ point precision being less important, on the left of and touching down with 'heli1'.  Upon touchdown, 'heli2' will receive incoming enemy artillery and be lost, cargo included.

Problem is, 'heli1' sometimes passes the LZ altogether and turns round to land, taking its time re-aligning for touchdown.......and at other times lands as intended - Straight in with little or no pause at LZ final waypoint.  

I can only imagine this is due to another factor - The supporting Cobras flying the transport to the LZ.  Sometimes they immediately 'kill' the initial target before 'heli1' gets in proximity, in which case it lands as intended.  But other times the Cobra support delays the engaging of the initial target, allowing 'heli1' to indentify the contact and then act accordingly, which throws off the smooth "Hot LZ" approach.

Ive been circle jerking 'heli1' for this last week, each evening.  As soon as I have the desired approach, some condition changes and everything else follows.  

To sum it up - I am needing a trigger or script which will put 'heli1' on a zip line so it doesnt change the approach due to changing conditions.

Thannks again for the response.

Smoked

[Metal Heart 0]

Hmm. I haven't really fiddled around with AI choppers in ArmA yet.

Maybe you could set heli1 in careless mode so it won't mind the enemy? Only completely AI-proof solution would probably be a setPos, setVelocity & setDir script to force the chopper on target unnaturally.

[Smoked 0]

Fortunately, the board is back up........

Ive been messing around with it still and it has developed even further now.  I have one extraction (heli2) and one insertion (heli1) flying in staggered at 15 height, burning the lights at the next to last waypoint, landing (careless), then going dark again (combat) as they move to next waypoint which leads them out.

Everything is mostly a solid constant, although not what I was striving for.  I read in another forum (Hey, this one was down - Whats a guy to do) of a script that drops a chopper out of the sky to a hoover of 3 off the ground, starts a script loop checking height and load, and spits out troops at 1 second intervals, then takes off again.

That was what I was hoping for......Couldnt coax a response outa the guy though     Maybe he's just not as active on the boards - Who knows.

Everything is subject to change - I cant spend this much time on a single task alone - Id actually like to play the mission someday.  

The only remaining issue I have now is the birds have decided to come in straight and then land at a 45 or better degree direction from the flight path  Im not sure what the changing factor here is - Any ideas ?

Your response is appreciated, Metal Heart - Thanks for the insight !

Smoked

[mr.peanut 1]

Try Mando Air on the OFPEC OFP BetaBoard here and check out mandoheliroute.sqs: No range limit for helicopter moves, landing just where you want, no need of helipads anymore.