Journeyman

In OFP it was momentum alone that carried you onto land! In that video the boat was being powered along by its engines! Â

If Universel is correct then this is not a minor complaint! You maybe happy with using the keyboard but many of us are not and it will impact greatly on how we play and enjoy (or not) the game!

Are you using a mouse or keyboard? You see I have a trackball mouse and I find it is the most precise and simplest way to control vehicles, as it is analogue and not digital. OFP had a perfect setup of steering and view change using the mouse with trucks and cars as Universel said. If this has changed I won't be happy because I hate controlling vehicles with a keyboard and I’m b*gered if I am going to have half a dozen different controllers on my desk just to control all the different vehicles in ArmA! Â

So cars and trucks can no longer be driven with the mouse as in OFP? Â Â Â WTF is going on here? OFP was a great all-round simulator with easy to control cars, trucks, tanks, boats and choppers all with the mouse and this was one of the best thing about it from an ease of use point of view! So why so many changes to this effective (perfect) setup? We have choppers that now behave unrealistically, boats which drive on land and now vehicles with poor mouse control! Please tell me this is not true!

... LOL ... Â Â This is ridiculous! How comes that OFP had boats that ground to a halt when striking land and yet in ArmA we have magic carpet boats? I love the video it is hilarious, nice music too! Â Â ... But BIS please sort it! PS. Can that boat go uphill too? Â

Sure I mean Lovely! .... A rubber Ural! Damn these Russian military vehicle designers come up with something new every time! Â Absolutely brilliant! Â LOL .... I bet that surprised you! Â Â

I've heard a few times already that BIS is planning on implementing VTOL for the Harrier in an update/patch. I'm hoping that they will improve the flight model for choppers too in said patch! Some word from BIS here wouldn't go a miss ATM! Â

Placebo wrote this morning .... in another thread that was locked just before this one got locked! Â

I live on the south coast and believe me it has not been very subtropical today!  …. Maybe in a few decades though with all this global warming! Â

Your Wrong, You might not belive me but the [uK] as you can see in this picture the palm trees growning naturally in the uk. Palm Trees Uk. Then you get places like the lake district, very mountainess. Lake District We get a mixture of everything, cant remever the town name in the Uk which gets light blue tropical water.. and then lots of forrests Forests Those are Himalayan Palms and are not the same as Coconut Palms etc. They are planted here in the UK for ornament as they will survive our winters. Totally different tree. Not only that but where you do get a climate that tries to support both subtropical trees and temperate ones you will get a constant mixture for a wide area, rather than just coconuts and bananas in one area and then just pine forests in another just across the border! BTW I live in the UK and I would hardly consider it subtropical here! Â

Eastern Med., Caribbean? With pine forests like this? Personally I don't think you will find anywhere in the world where subtropical and temperate climates are this close together! This is a fictitious island in every sense! Â

The purpose of the videos is not to show how well FSX or any third party product depicts any of the choppers in terms of visual accuracy, but instead to show how FSX handles the flight dynamics of the different choppers. I agree that the 'visual' accuracy of the Apache and probably the presidential Seeking is hardly worth shouting about, but remember that FSX is above all else a 'flight simulator' where the most important aspect of the sim is in flight handling and aerodynamic behaviour! So please no more "OMG look at the crappy detail on that model!" ArmA will knock the socks off of most sims with regards to aircraft detail and accuracy for sure, but from what I've heard and seen so far it is way behind on the actual 'flight' model and realistic handling and behaviour! Â

I’ve made another video showing the Presidential Seaking helicopter making hard manoeuvres in FSX! I wanted to see if I could get the President to eject his breakfast before his next engagement!  ...Well actually it is just really to show how FSX flight dynamics handles heavy choppers and the Seaking being somewhat similar in size and weight to the MI-17 so would be very similar in flight too.  This Seaking is another highly detailed model from First Class Simulations!  The important thing though is its mass and weight distribution and how it responds to control inputs, in this case large control inputs! If ArmA modelled flying big choppers like this it would be a dream! FSX Seaking Manoeuvres  .. (Right click and Save target as)

... And any other tenders for BIS positions should be posted here please! BIS has forgotten how to acquire business deals and find useful staff, so they will be surfing these forums frantically now for new ideas and inspirations from within the community! Â Â They are also looking for better tips on spelling for their adverts! Â

Yep, I'm looking forward to the 505 release in 2007! Meanwhile I am happy to follow all the beta testing in the forums! Â

I've made a video of the Apache flight behaviour in FSX! .... FSX is the latest of Micro$ofts flight sims and has arguably the most accurate of flight dynamics for aircraft and choppers. The Apache is an addon by First Class Simulations and is a good solid product. I always fly on max realism in Flight Simulator and this video is just me making lots of big movements on the cyclic stick and rudder controls. Notice how the Apache responds at its own pace no matter how hard and quickly I move the stick! FSX Apache Manoeuvres  .. (Right click and Save target as) Of course I know that FSX is a dedicated flight simulator and I don't expect ArmA to come this close to reality, but it does serve as a useful comparison for those who already have ArmA! Â

Just because you don't know of any women soldiers, or more to the point, women who enjoy shooting games, doesn't mean that there aren't any! My wife happens to enjoy FPS games and is keener to play them than me half the time! I also happen to know of a few other women that are into PC soldier sims! If you played any of the R3 series you will know that there are female playable characters in them too complete with female voices etc.! And what about Lara Croft? In short a balance would be good and I personally would like to see some women modelled into ArmA both as civvies and as soldiers! I was a bit disappointed to see the current line-up of civvies in ArmA! I hope BIS will change this as time goes on! The world is not populated entirely by rough looking beach boys on vacation! Â

Agreed. So it would be wonderful if there were veteran mode in which people need joystics to control chopper properly in ArmA. *Still we need caded mode because none of all us have joystics. Disagree entirely! Like I said before I can fly choppers in FS 2004 and FSX on full realism with either keyboard/mouse/ game pad or joystick and I flew choppers in OFP most of the time with my mouse! A self-centering joystick is the easiest way to fly but any controller will work it just takes familiarity with which ever you are using. The controller isn't the issue here instead it is the way ArmA is modelling (or not) real heli flight dynamics!

@Gimpster can you not test your joystick function in the game controllers dialogue box? Click properties and you will see if it is malfunctioning or not by the movement of the cursor. As for needing a joystick to fly helis in a game this is cobblers MrTea! It is possible to use a keyboard and it is certainly very easy with a mouse esp. a trackball mouse like I have got! I can fly helis (in max realism) in FS 2004/FSX with any input device! It is just easier and more intuitive with a joystick! I used to fly helis in OFP with my trackball mouse all the time; it saved my grabbing my joystick each time I jumped into a chopper! Thanks for the inside info on how chopper flight dynamics are modelled in OFP RockofSL! This kinda makes sense now that I know this, as there was some peculiar heli flight behaviour occasionally in OFP! Â

Yeah, I haven’t played OFP in a while but I can't remember choppers pulling up sharply when flying forwards at speed and then pulling back on the cyclic stick! This is what should happen IRL and is modelled quite well in FS 2004 & FSX! Also speed induced roll was not modelled in OFP where as you gain speed the rotors offer more lift on one side and less lift on the other forcing a correction on the cyclic stick. This effect also limits forward speed, as rotor stall would be the eventuality. In OFP choppers had a slightly ridiculous forward speed in general with no ill effect on the rotors. Modelling this sort of thing though is not what I would expect of a general military sim such as ArmA, but limiting forward speed would be a move forwards as I've already heard someone say that they can fly choppers at 300mph in ArmA already! Please BIS kill this sort of behaviour if nothing else! Â

I agree OFP heli flight model was not perfect as you say no side slipping, no increased collective when pulling back etc., but it was a fairly good compromise between real and gameplay and there was a noticeable feel of mass and inertia when turning especially the heavy ones like the MI-17. I will be happy if BIS keep these dynamics even happier if they make them more realistic! I'll be sad though if they make the heli dynamics anything less than in OFP for whatever reason! Â

IceBreakr if you can continue this topic here I have a few questions like; do the different choppers behave differently i.e. Heavier choppers having a slower response to turning etc.? I don't want to hijack this thread any longer! Â

Gimpster have you been flying in ArmA yet or are you basing your views on videos etc.? I would like to know because you sound like someone who understands heli dynamics like myself but I am not in the possession of ArmA to test this! I'm confused now because there are those that have already flown choppers in ArmA like IceBreakr and think that ArmA choppers behave more realistically than in OFP! Then there is the various chopper flying videos floating around making the new mechanics look pretty crap! Â

Yes it did! Correct! Agreed! I think a demo is called for before any further judgement, although I don't see how something can be different in a video than in the game! That MI-17 video frightened me! It didn't look like just a view angle shift but I could be wrong. Â I think we digress! Â