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LeftSkidLow

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Posts posted by LeftSkidLow

  1. Posted · Edited by LeftSkidLow

    I agree on the ETL vibrations but I think you should re-check the lift changes when passing through ETL. I can't notice any lift change and I actually think it hasn't been implemented into the flight model yet. I have to increase collective to the stops to simulate that boost feeling when you pass ETL.

    I also agree on the pedals, especially how much left pedal I still need at 100+ knots.

    One other thing, try dumping the collective and notice the slow descent rate. I've only flown 500's a couple times but it should descend noticeably faster, though, it might feel about right for something uber high inertia like the 206. Some people are claiming the flight model feels too heavy, I don't really agree and I think they are basing that claim on the fact that need a lot of pitch to get airborne.

  5. Posted · Edited by LeftSkidLow

    Well, I finally had enough time to give this a go and I have some feedback. The following observations are based on my first hour using the community preview. For whatever it's worth, I do hold FAA helicopter pilot certificates but I only logged about 500 hours PIC when I moved on from aviation and flight instructing in 2008. Most of my time is in the Schweizer 300C/Cbi and a small amount is in the MD-500D and MD-520N.

    Now that we go that out of the way, I'll start with the things I felt need work:

    1) There appears to be an animated vibration for Effective Translational Lift around 25-35 knots as indicated on the airspeed indicator. The expected increase in lift after passing through ETL is either absent or extremely understated. Also, ETL should be effective sooner, at about 15-20 knots.

    (Note: A helicopter performing poorly due to heavy weight and hot/high conditions will barely slog through ETL and the increased lift will be much less noticeable.)

    2) There appears to be a joystick deadzone of the X and Y axis that hasn't been decreased from ArmA II. This deadzone will cause players to make too large of control movements, over compensate, and eventuallly swing around like a pendulum. It's possible this is just my hardware (Microsoft Sidewinder) but if not, I recommend shrinking the deadzone and implementing a deadzone slider control in the options.

    3) I think the helicopter's tendency to keep rolling into a banked turn has been exaggerated. This applies somewhat to the behavior in a hover also. The rotor disc is a giant gyroscope, it doesn't like moving around much. At 100 knots on the airspeed indicator, this over rolling tendency is very evident in right hand turns, while left hand turns are not very effective and feel out of trim. There may be some nose dipping going on in turns also, I'd have to spend more time to verify this.

    And some little things:

    - the torque indicator moves but isn't going high enough (you probably knew this already)

    -I don't know if that modeled pilot is supposed to be an American but you wouldn't find an American helicopter pilot caught dead wearing a scarf...ever.

    I'd also like to say that I'm very impressed with how the flight model is coming along since ArmA II. I was quite surprised to find ground effect working when I tried to land.

    On that note, my collective inputs work just fine below 50%, I'm not sure what the other users are talking about but I think they expect a helicopter to move like an airplane would at low thrust settings. Most helicopters will not leave the ground near 50% collective, you have to pull in a lot of pitch before the skids leave the ground.

  6. Posted

    I don't think changing the name would affect anything. Anyone interested in helicopters is going to pick up this game. Skeptics will wait to see what other people think about it before buying it. The gameplay is what will make or break this game. Not the name. Bohemia has a large enough reputation and fanbase to launch their product. The ultimate success or failure will depend on whether or not people enjoy the game.

    Besides, if you read the summary of the plot line on the main page, you can kind of see where the name "Take On Helicopters" comes from. It's still cheesy, but it does make sense. I think it alludes to the challenge that operating these expensive, technically difficult machines implies. Their expensive and unforgiving nature and puts them in a very gray area and the success of an operator depends on how efficiently and safely they accomplish their jobs.

    I pretty much agree. The first sales are going to be the helicopter sim fans and BIS enthusiasts, most of which probably know about the game at this point. From then on, most of the sales will likely depend on word of mouth, reviews, and maybe a steam rating. If you put the word "simulator" in the title you automatically turn off a lot of people because it screams boring and tedious. If you named it something like "world of choppers," all of us would go "WHAT THE F*$& IS THIS?!" but some call of duty turds might buy it and then be thoroughly dissatisfied. "Take On Helicopters" is fine and it leaves the option open for other genres in a "Take On" series.

  7. Posted

    I just read this on the rockpapershotgun website

    I totally agree, please don't turn the transport mission into some sort of Crazy Taxi with helicopter. IMO there's nothing more annoying than restarting 10 times the same mission because you arrived just a few seconds late.

    I don't know how will work the player progression during the campaign but please don't make "masked race" a standard.

    I'm almost 100% certain that by "tough times," they mean struggling to stay in business during an unsatisfactory economic period, not actual time in seconds and minutes. I can see how that could be a confusing phrase if you didn't learn English in the States.

  10. Posted

    I was just watching the modelling update vid and wanted to throw an idea out there for BIS. In the scene when you are looking down at the ground and pulling pitch for takeoff, it really would add to the game if there were an animation for the skids spreading. When the skids don't move at all it just makes the whole model appear rigid and weightless. "Getting light on the skids" is an important part of feeling how a helicopter will hover before takeoff. If the skids don't squat and spread it makes it look like the aircraft just pops into the air, like they do in arma2.

    Watch the skids spread:

  12. Posted

    I read the book about him because it was written by John Krakauer, who has written some good books in the past. I wasn't super impressed by the book overall but his interviews from friends and family revealed some disturbing things the Army did in regards to Pat Tillman and his family's atheism/agnosticism or whatever you want to call it. They basically refused to acknowledge he wasn't religious and they ignored the requests to waive standard Christian military traditions. Then they insulted the family by saying their persistent inquiry into his death must be because they believe he is "worm dirt" and not in heaven.

  13. Posted

    RKSL,

    I'm not sure if you are implying NOTAR exhaust systems are any different than those on conventional tailrotor helicopters. In the case of 500's, the only difference on the exhuast from a MD500E and MD520N is that they directed the exhaust off to the side on the 520 so it doesn't melt the composite tailboom, it provides no measurable anti-torque. Even though it's directed sideways, it still makes a huge mess on the tailboom with soot. I've cleaned that shit off of 520 tailbooms more times than I can count and I could see it becoming a problem if not cleaned regularly. If it shot straight back, it would be even more of a sooty disaster.

    The main disadvantages of NOTAR are poor hot and high performance, the pedals feel "mushy" with a slightly sluggish response, and the vertical stabilizers increase the weather-vaining tendancy in high crosswinds and low airspeeds. Although their is a distinct whine from the tailboom fan, NOTAR is incredibly quieter than tail rotors. If you were standing on the ground and a 520 was inbound at 100+ knots and under 100ft, you wouldn't notice until it was a couple hundred meters away at best.

  15. Posted

    Anyone able to identify this machine? A tail, broken in half against a brick wall. ;)

    After staring and staring it took me a while to realize that we are looking at the leading edge of a vertical stabilizer not the trailing edge. In that case I think it looks like part of an H-60 variant vertical stabilizer. If it crashed and the tail rotor hit something, it would have torn the gearbox to shit and most of the top part of the stab would be a mess.

  19. Posted

    I started playing BIS games before OFP was released in the states. I've never given 2 shits about any of the campaigns nor have any of my friends who play. The furthest into a campaign I've played is the original OFP demo mission.

    Most people today are buying shooting/war games for the multiplayer experience ie. BF1942, BF2, BFV, BFBC2, DoD, COD and all it's shitclones, blablabla. I think BIS are just still learning how they want to structure the online experience for ArmA for dynamic long lasting missions. It wasn't that long ago they were only shipping their games with static coop missions. It's been mostly up to the mission makers in the past to keep the online community alive until recently with the BIS Warefare maps.

    You have to remember also, while domination gets old very fast, it's a lot better than the original evolution missions and the original evolution missions were a huge jump from linear coop missions. For those of you that never played OFP, we used to not even be able to join in a game progress. We've come pretty far with the online play since OFP, I think insurgency is the next best thing, especially when you have some OPFOR nonAI players. If project reality is successful in ArmA, I think they will bring along the much needed structure and interfaces to appeal to more players.

  20. Posted

    I've worked a Christmas tree season in Oregon refueling 500's, some of the guys are really good and at least one person crashes every year. It's all about doing it as fast as they can. I've seen guys do it a lot faster than that jetranger video.

    Here is what it looks like from the pilot's perspective, and hopefully what it would look like ingame.

  21. Posted · Edited by LeftSkidLow

    Seems like it would be super easy to just build a counting mechanism into the magazines that detects the height of the spring in the mag. Then make a simple plug into the top of the magazine that reads input from the mag when its loaded in. You could have like 3 dim LED's only visible to the shooter located near the front sight to indicate the ammo situation. Ie. green=full, orange=15, yellow = 10, red = 5, flashing red = 1 (reload). That way you never take your eyes off what you are shooting at, you could see the colors through your peripheral. Also having the data read from the mag would immediately tell you if you put a half empty mag in. I think it could all be done with very small/cheap electronics that hardly use any power. Someone has to have done this already.

    Wouldn't work with NVG's though, I guess you could have IR LED's start to blink when you're low.

  23. Posted

    I'm not really a huge fan of the hardcore switch flipping on PC games/sims, I'm much more concerned about a realistic flight model and ease of access for the average player to get in the air and start practicing and having fun. I know there is a niche of players that would get a hard on from being able to tie the blades down and remove pitot tube covers, but I don't think it's a smart move if the game is to be financially successful.

    Nightstalker, try the Dreamfoil 206 III for X-plane, its pretty similar to the dodosim but I think it's a little better flight model because of x-plane.

    By the way, is that your 300 in the picture? I don't fly anymore but most of my time was in C's and CBi's.

  24. Posted

    I'm pretty excited about Take on, there is a lot more you can do with helicopters in the civilian world than military, much of it requires more skill and can be just as dangerous.

    Long lining, firefighting, crop dusting, medical, law enforcement, cattle mustering, construction, search and rescue, logging, power line maintenance, flight instruction, news gathering, etc.

    No other sims have been able to do this because their game engine isn't detailed enough on the ground. All of this could be done in ArmA2 right now with mods.

    Couldn't get embedding to work but imagine doing this stuff ingame with a more challenging/realistic flight model... I think it would be fun:

  25. Posted

    IRL the bell has all of the instruments for IFR. And gyroscopes don't lag.

    I wasn't implying any kind of lag in the gyroscope. I am talking about if you take your eyes off the tip path plane in a real autorotation to stare at your airspeed you will get behind the aircraft mentally and botch the auto. I've had tons of student pilots consistently make this mistake and the worse ones are the flight simmers that are too stubborn to listen because staring at the gauges worked for them in MSFS.

    The only thing I look for inside the cockpit in an auto is that the needles split if it's simulated, or that the engine actually failed if it's real, which thankfully I haven't had to see the later one. I MIGHT glance very quickly at the RRPM in a turn if it doesn't sound right. You have to be able to auto by the seat of your pants and control RRPM with your ears so you can focus your attention on your landing spot.

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