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nightsta1ker

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Posts posted by nightsta1ker

  3. Posted

    -Ziggy-;1965831']You can take your super special suggestions to the community issue tracker for specific problems.

    http://dev-heaven.net/projects/toh-cit

    Perhaps you should keep your super special opinion to yourself and let the man talk. He obviously has some real experience in aircraft and so in my estimation his opinion DOES stand out. There are no rules stating that we cannot start our own forum thread if we wish, and sifting through all the nonsense on the feedback thread trying to find decent feedback IS very tiresome.

  6. Posted

    I can't help but find it ironic that your profile name is 160th SOAR, yet your profile pic is of an MV-22. :oops: But I forgive you.

    Thanks for supporting my topic, after watching the development coming along, I am quite certain that there will be an in depth tutorial for the game, though I doubt it will be anywhere along the same lines as what I suggested.

  8. Posted

    Hueyman, I feel your pain and return it with a renewed sense of frustration, but we are going to have to just take what we can get here. And SamB is right, within a few months there will be tons of realistic add ons available from the mod community. As long as the base program allows for realistic simulation, the rest will fall into place.

  10. Posted

    You may have a point, but I don't think the name will change, and as I originally posted, I don't think it would change anything. Those of us that are arguing with you are using target markets as examples because it's a target market game. The vast majority of gamers out there could care less about helicopters. If this were not true there would be alot more helicopter games out there.

    Look at DIS Blackshark. Arguably the best combat helicopter game ever created. How many people do you think have that in their house, and after that, how many people play it regularly? It was designed for a target audience, and it sold to a target audience.

    And besides all that, maybe I am not your average consumer, but I have bought some pretty crappy games because they had a cool cover and a snappy title ("Whirlwind over Vietnam" comes to mind) so I am always a bit leery about new games in my interest area and do a little research on them before I buy. Personally, the title means about as much to me as the cellophane wrapping that the product comes in.

  11. 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.

  13. Posted

    Test pilots always wear parachutes while a helicopter prototype is being tested.

    They also do alot of their tests at altitudes significantly higher than a normal helicopter flight would be executed. And they only carry those parachutes for situations where there has been a catastrophic failure of the rotor system, in which case they wouldn't have to worry about it shredding them as soon as they are out the door. Test piloting is extremely dangerous and there are not many men and women out there that are qualified and willing to do it. It requires putting the helicopter in situations it was not designed to handle, to see how it will handle outside of normal parameters. Their job is basically to try and think of every possible stupid thing that could be done with that aircraft by a less experienced and talented pilot, and then do it to the Nth degree to see if it is survivable. There are a lot of dead and crippled test pilots out there. The parachute is an extra safety measure, though I have never heard of any situation where a helicopter test pilot has used it, let alone whether or not they were successful in using it.

    So, yes, there are helicopter pilots that wear parachutes sometimes. But they almost never, or never, get used.

  14. Posted

    The difficulty slider should handle things like that. I vote, make it as real as possible. You have x number of seconds to respond to loss of power by a: lowering the collective, b: getting the cyclic back or c: both a and b or you will d: watch your rotors fold up and fall out of the sky like a rock. On the easy setting, maybe the game lowers the collective for you, or maybe you just kind of flutter to the ground like a leaf. Heck, I don't care how they want to simulate it on 'easy mode'. I only care that this game has the potential to be as real as possible.

    As far as parachute for the pilot.... Well I HAVE done airborne drops out the back of a Chinook and I have seen it done out of a Blackhawk to. But as a PILOT, flying around at 500 ft. most of the time, if my engine quits, I have a better chance of surviving if I tried to autorotate it to a safe landing than if I made the effort to unbuckle my seatbelt, get out the door and not get hit by spinning rotorblades, and finally open my chute with enough altitude left for it to function properly.... I think my odds are better at winning the lottery than surviving that.

  16. Posted · Edited by nightsta1ker

    • Clouds are now volumetric and will come in many more variants than we've seen in BI titles before.
    • These aren't just eye candy, though; flying in clouds will cause turbulence, which we're in the process of implementing and tweaking.
    • Wind is also overhauled, and also has a direct impact on the flight model, which you'll notice, for example, when landing into the wind.

    Really fascinating stuff! And very exciting too.

    Just my two cents from the hardcore realism side of the house: It would be very nice to see some realistic behavior in windy environments as this has a very significant effect on helicopter behavior. Wind is essentially airspeed. The helicopter knows nothing of ground speed, only how fast the rotor system is moving through relative wind. This wind generates more lift because it is forcing more air through the rotor disk, so the helicopter will want to float, less power will be required to hover. Another effect is on the tail rotor. Wind can have significant negative effects on tail rotor behavior. As the tail rotor is already doing a very difficult job, working through the downwash of the main rotors, and trying to handle all that torque, the addition of a quartering crosswind from the left front(on counterclockwise turning rotorsystems) can push the vortices from the main rotor into the tailrotor and foul up the air flowing through it, causing a loss of tailrotor effectiveness or LTE. Also, a left hovering pedal turn requires more power because the tailrotor is pushing harder against the torque forces, and when the helicopter is pedal turned to the left into a crosswind from the left, the tail rotor may reach it's limit if the wind is strong enough, and even with full pedal deflection, the pilot may not be able to continue the turn. When the tail is forced into the wind the helicopter will want to weathervane and whip around. A quick adjustment of pedals must be used to counter this. Adversely, in a right hand pedal turn, if the helicopter whips around, the lack of effectiveness of the left pedal (as outlined above) used to catch this weathervane to the right may cause the helicopter to spin uncontrollably to the right, another form of LTE.

    Just some stuff to think about. :D

  19. Posted

    I beg to differ

    Just look at Liberty City in GTA IV (or any other city in the GTA serie). Clearly inspired by a real city that you can recognise almost instantly but they are not 100% accurate. Some changes were made to fit the game/gameplay requirements.

    Hence why they called it Liberty City.

    Look, we're all entitled to an opinion, and I am not saying yours is wrong. It IS a game after all. My opinion, as a real helicopter pilot that flies in the Seattle area, is that they wouldn't need to change it much in order to make fun and immersive. Now, considering most helicopters operate from airports (ease of maintenance, proper facilities etc.) I don't feel like they would need to create a fictional heliport as the players home base (they could put a fictional hanger at an airport or something, that would be more realistic) but if they do because that is what works for gameplay, thats fine. Why ADD fictional hospitals when there are real ones in the area that serve the purpose? I'm just saying, all the pieces are already there. They don't need to create new ones to make the game work.

  20. Posted

    Just be glad you are getting something loosely based on your home city :)

    Having said that, you would think they would get the air-ports right if there are 4 large ones. Maybe not same layout, but same location and size, etc.

    I'm tipping they might have to change a few things, and add some other stuff in for the sake of gaming value - eg. more hospitals to land at, etc.

    They wouldn't have to take many liberties. There are plenty of things to do in the Seattle area. You have Boeing field just south of downtown. Then SEATAC about 5 miles south west of that. Harbor View Hospital heliport overhangs I5 which runs through the downtown area. There are a ton of helicopters at Renton at the south end of lake union, a stones throw from downtown on the other side of the eastern ridgeline. I constantly see helicopters zipping around all over the place. Everything from flight training to law enforcement/EMS to news gathering and more. It's a busy place for helicopters.

  22. Posted · Edited by nightsta1ker

    [*] We're hard at work on this right now. We can confirm that - if you have a co-pilot - he'll be there and animated, such as pointing in the direction of your task or flicking a switch; however, even the co-pilot will not likely have moving flight controls. As for the player, integrating 6-DOF and mapping animations to the players range of movements provides some challenges, which we're certainly still evaluating.

    [*] What we can say is that when you interact with the collective, pedals, or cyclic, these models respond visually to your inputs. In pre-flight, you can even see the angle of the blades change as you alter the collective.

    [*] Besides animation complexities, another reason to not show the pilot's body is blocking view of critical instruments for the player. We're still evaluating this feature, so we wouldn't like to rule anything out at this stage of development.

    ]

    Ok. I have an issue with parts of this statement. I want to make sure that I completely understand what you are saying though before I go off throwing a fit.

    My understanding of this is: You will have a copilot at times, and he can move and point and flick switches, but he won't have moving flight controls? However, the pilot WILL have moving flight controls. I don't understand how this would be difficult to render. Dual controls in aircraft are linked. Generally, one set is the master which is linked to the actual aircraft controls and the other set is linked to the master via cables and or push pull tubes and bellcranks. When you move one, you move the other. It's physically impossible to move one set of controls without the other set moving, unless of course there is a break in the control link somewhere, in which case you have a BIG problem. I will be very annoyed if I have one set of controls that moves in game while the other set remains stationary. That would detract ALOT of realism. Also, I have been kind of hoping that you guys would offer shared cockpit for mulitplayer purposes. If you were to implement something like this, you would need to have dual sets of moving controls.

    If I had a copilot who did not fly the ship, I would not mind. He doesn't need to have hands on moving the controls. He can sit there and keep his hands in his lap and feet on the floor as far as I am concerned. If he is animated to point and flip a few switches, that's cool too. But PLEASE, for realisms sake, tell me that his controls will move as mine do, even if he is not touching them!

    ---------- Post added at 05:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:05 PM ----------

    Also, I have a question about blade angle change and tip-path-plane change.

    In a helicopter, when you move the cyclic OR collective, you get pitch changes. Not just the collective. Now, the collective changes the pitch of BOTH blades the same amount simultaneously (or collectively, thats why it's called a collective). The cyclic changes the pitch of of the blades at a certain point in its cycle (thats why its called a cyclic). To break it down even further, the cyclic and collective are linked to the swashplate, which has a stationary half and a rotating half. The linkages that the pilots move are attached to the stationary half. They change the angle of the swashplate (imaging holding a dish and tilting it an an agle) this also changes the angle of the rotating portion which is attached to pitch change links that are attached to the rotor blade hubs. The swashplate can tilt any which way, and it can also slide up and down the mast. When the pilot pulls or lowers collective, the swashplate moves up and down, changing pitch of both blades at the same time. When the pilot moves the cyclic it tilts the swashplate in a direction. As the pilot uses both, the swashplate is going up and down and tilting this way and that as the pilot moves the controls. The effect is that the blades react to this as they spin around. Imagine your spinning blades as a dish. As the pilot pushes foreward on the cyclic, the swashplate tilts, which changes the pitch of the blades in their rotation and the end effect is that the blade disk (your dish) tilts foreward. This changes the vector of air being drawn into the rotorsystem and the helicopter begins to move foreward. Another thing the blades do is cone (angle up from the root to the tips as weight or upward force is applied to the system). When the helicopter is sitting stationary on the ground, centrifugal force is pulling the blade tips straight out. When you apply pitch, the weight of the helicopter versus the lift that is being produced by the blades will cause them to cone, or tilt upward from the root.

    My point to all this is: The pilot can visibly see the blade disk move as he pitches the cyclic. In fact, it's part of the pre takeoff check. You must move your cyclic gently around a bit and make sure that the blade disk tilts in the proper directions. Will this and blade coning be simulated?

  23. Posted

    I don't expect every building to be totally accurately placed or anything like that. But if the map is as big as they say it is, there are some major airports that are right there. If those are not present, well... taking that much liberty with the scenery would kind of make it pointless to try and replicate it.

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