Mattressi

I never knew that - I always assumed helicopters hovered to shoot (too many movies have taught me wrong, lol). I wonder what height/speed they do their passes at (maybe it varies depending on the target and the Hind's weapons)? Yeah, I've played around with head positioning a bit more and it's really starting to annoy me that the sight isn't truly holographic. At least the point of aim will always be the centre of your screen - it's not at ll realistic, but it makes it easier to know where you're going to hit.

Oh, I didn't consider that the systems might not be modelled properly. I don't know very much about Hinds, so I don't know how the aiming is meant to work. However, the fixed gun, obviously, should be modelled relatively accurately in regards to aiming, since there can't really be a complex aiming system for a fixed gun. As for the rest of the weapons, maybe you're right that they have a different way of aiming IRL. If the current aiming/instruments aren't accurate, I hope they're patched to be more accurate in the future. Actually, I did notice that my point of impact seemed to change based on where I was looking (with the fixed gun even) - that is, if I moved my head up, down or sideways (rather than freelooking), my point of aim would shift away from the Hind's sight and the rounds would impact at the centre of my screen instead. I noticed that in one Hind with the fixed cannon, that I started in the Hind with the centre of my screen far away from the holo sight (down and to the left), which meant that I needed to carefully move my head into alignment with the sight, so that it worked. I hope this can be fixed in the future. I'm having difficulty using the Hind as a plane as well; though perhaps less difficulty than trying to hover and shoot with it. I can hover-shoot with the AH-6 perfectly fine, but I think the Hind just has it's cannon aimed up too high. Maybe the fixed gun can be moved down IRL? That would be really nice to see in-game, if that's realistic. I think that getting pedals would also help my aiming a lot - as it is, I frequently try to line up a shot, need to use the pedals to help and then aim way past my mark because the keys don't work so well.

If you downloaded it on Steam, right click on Take on Helicopters in your Steam game list, click 'properties', then the 'local files' tab and then click 'verify integrity of game cache'. It will take a while as Steam checks to make sure that everything was downloaded correctly. Any files that have issues will be redownloaded. That should fix it. If it doesn't, try deleting that file entirely and redownloading through Steam. If you've got the game from a different online store, maybe try patching it first and if that doesn't work, uninstall then redownload and reinstall.

So, does this mean that the current CBA versions are not up to date for ToH? That would explain the error messages I get (same as Dieselhead said; "script ca\Data\ParticleEffects\SCRIPTS\init.sqf not found") when I play with CBA loaded. Haha, yeah, I know how you feel. I've seen and started so many threads on this board where there is only the original post and no response from anyone. Some people like hon0 post quite a bit and are very helpful, but there aren't many at all. I'm not sure why. I'm guessing few people still play ToH? Either way, it's still weird that I barely ever see devs/reps post in the ToH section, other than to post up a new beta patch. I guess if it's a choice between them working on the game or talking on the forums, I'd prefer the former - but I still wouldn't mind seeing some more activity on here. Maybe everyone's over at the Arma 3 section?

This looks great! Before I install it though, I was wondering if I can use the latest beta patches with this 1.06 RC? Edit: Nevermind, I just read on the wiki that you can run this with the Beta patches, but it takes a little configuring.

Both will work fine. I'm looking at getting a HOTAS setup too. Pedals are a must for flying helicopters on Expert difficulty in Take on Helicopters (well, I've seen some crazy people fly Expert with mouse and keyboard, but it certainly is unrealistically difficult). The T-Flight Hotas has a twist action (you twist/rotate the stick on the spot) which can be used instead of pedals, if you want, but I'd rather pedals, since a twist action isn't realistic and leads to accidental movement in other directions. You can disable the twist action on the T-Flight Hotas using a switch, from what I've read. I don't own pedals (I've only used them at a friends'), so I can't comment more about how they're configured.

Awesome, that's great news. Thanks for the reply :)

I'm looking at other HOTAS setups, not just the Warthog. I also play FSX and I'm looking into DCS Blackshark 2, as well. Do you mean that ToH is "impossible" to fly correctly if you don't set up the collective correctly? Or are you saying that it's impossible to set it up correctly? I just want to make sure that I can set up the collective so that with the HOTAS throttle at 0%, the collective is at 0%; HOTAS throttle at 50%, the in game collective is at 50%, etc. Is this possible? From the image in your post, it looks like it is (assuming I've understood "analogue" correctly). Sorry for being dense.

I have a retail copy of TOH and bought Hinds from GetGames (it was a Steam key), who clearly said that the copy of Hinds I was buying from them would work with retail TOH. However, when I try to activate it, it says "please first activate the original product". I've installed, fully patched and played TOH, running it through Steam (not activated on Steam, just added to Steam) and Hinds won't install. Does anyone know how to fix this? Is it possible to get this working?

Wow, I wasn't expecting this, but I contacted GetGames, let them know the situation and since I already own the retail game, they gave me a Steam key for ToH for free. I've never seen such amazing service!

I'm almost certain that RO2 does this too. It doesn't seem particularly unique to me. Most games that have bullet drop either simply make you aim higher (that is, you can't adjust the point of aim) or allow you to alter the point of aim of the weapon, which can make the weapon shoot 'high' at close range when zeroed far out. I can't think of any game that allows you to adjust weapon zero, without distant zeroes causing you to shoot high at close range. If that was the case, you could just play the whole game zeroed at the maximum range to shoot dead on target.

In career mode I've equipped my light with FLIR and the LCD screen. However, I can't at all work out how to use it. I've definitely got PiP enabled and I've tried going into the copilots seat and looking around and pressing num 0. The same goes for the camera. Also, how do you use other helicopters in free flight (in career mode)? I'd like to try out the medium with the searchlight to see if I can get it to work, but there's no option to select it - I always start in the light. Finally, in freeflight I crashed my light. Even after repairing the ~$3000 of damage, whenever I start free flight or a mission in it, the main rotor blows apart and the blades go flying everywhere, then the screen goes dark and says the helicopter is too damaged. I then have the options "End" and "Restart". I've repaired it many times now (both by identifying the problems and by paying for the maintenance). I've tried flying non-light missions after repairing it, but as soon as I get back from the mission I see the rotor blades explode out of the hangar where the light is, and sure enough, it is destroyed again. There's no way to revert to a previous contract where it was working, either ("revert" is grayed out). From what I can tell, career mode still needs a huge heap of fixes. I'd really like to be able to actually make use of the things I've bought in career mode (in their own missions), as I've said before, but even if that will never be possible, it'd be nice to at least be able to make use of them in free flight. As it is, I simply can't see the point to career mode/heliport once the story missions are finished. I really hope I get a response to this from someone at Bohemia - few of my other posts have, which is making me worried that ToH has already been abandoned.

I know this is an old post, but I really want to clarify the meaning. Does this mean that if I buy a HOTAS setup (i.e. stick with a throttle) and use the throttle as the collective, when I put the throttle to full it will mean that my ingame collective will simply quickly increase, rather than increase to full (and likewise, for example, when I put the throttle to "0", the ingame collective will now remain at whatever value it is currently on, rather than going to zero)? I'm really hoping I've misunderstood the meaning of this post, because if what I said is correct, then that's just bloody ridiculous. I'm going to buy a HOTAS setup very soon and was looking forward to using it with ToH, but if it works the way I've said above, I think I'll just uninstall ToH out of frustration and disappointment.

I'm not sure I understand. Would they really just give me a TOH Steam key, even though I only bought Hinds?

Damn, I wish that GetGames had mentioned that, though it seems that they didn't know either. I submitted a support ticket through Steam, but I'm wondering if they'll ever get back to me on it. Maybe I should just ask GetGames for a refund? It just kinda sucks since I bought it while i was on sale, so getting the money back would only half fund me getting the non-Steam version :(

I've fully finished the campaign and all the side missions available (3 government missions and 5 civil). Now, I've bought a medium air ambulance, expecting that it would open up more side missions for me. It seems I'm wrong. I fully upgraded it with every exterior upgrade and I still don't have any extra side missions. None of the available side mission require an air ambulance, nor upgrades such as FLIR or the search light. Even worse, when I play one of the side missions, the helicopter model isn't even an air ambulance model! Only when it's in the garage is it an air ambulance model, seemingly changing it's model to suit whatever mission I'm playing. I didn't even keep the air ambulance paint scheme until I purchased the paint scheme for it! So, has something gone horribly wrong, or is there absolutely no reason to buy the medium air ambulance, medium luxury, heavy luxury, training helicopter and upgrades such as search lights, FLIR and the tactical benches on the light? I assumed that more side missions would be made available as you progressed, since it seems completely pointless to even bother putting additional helicopter (air ambulance, etc) and upgrades in when they can't even be used. If they're put in just as models to be used in other missions, why have us able to buy them in the campaign? It just really seems like helicopter-specific side missions should be opened up once these new helicopters/upgrades are purchased.

Even if DayZ were to become the financial flagship of BIS, I can't see them developing it as the flagship. That is, I don't see them making their next generation engines based on the needs of a zombie survival game (though, perhaps they'll add some features for it, like melee weapons). As a military sim engine, it is very flexible; able to be a civilian helicopter simulator, for example. An engine built for a zombie game likely would make it inflexible. You can make a zombie mod out of a military-based engine, but it'd be very time-consuming to make a milsim or flight sim out of a zombie engine. I do hope that DayZ doesn't change their focus away from Arma. The good majority of people that I know who bought Arma CO for DayZ, said that they got bored of DayZ relatively quickly and thought they'd try Arma - only to discover that they love it. Maybe it isn't representative of everyone who bought Arma CO for DayZ, but I still think it would be a mistake to neglect Arma. Arma can be so many things, while a zombie game cannot easily.

Fly around in every different helicopter, then do every helicopter-based mission. Then I might consider playing the rest of the game :D

Have you made sure to roll the throttle to idle and fully lower the collective? I usually only seem to descend that fast if I've left the collective up. The way I think you're meant to autorotate is - start with an airspeed of 60+ knots and decent altitude; fully lower the collective and roll throttle to idle (might be "closed", but idle seems to work ok for me); then manage your airspeed so that it's between 50 and 100 (?) mph (I think, I learnt with metric) and your rate of decent is optimally - 16 feet/s. If your cyclic doesn't respond enough to allow you to do this, is it possible that you've damaged your helicopter quite a bit? I can't see why else it wouldn't work. Anyway, once you get close to the ground, flare to slow down and raise the collective smoothly as needed to reduce rate of descent. Just don't use the collective too much - it's rotating on stored energy (from air passing through the rotor blades on your descent), which will quickly bleed off once the collective is raised, meaning that if you don't time it right, you will fall again (but this time, probably too close to the ground to start autorotating). That's the basic process for a light, and it's what I used for the medium in that mission, though IRL the speeds and descent rates will be different from helicopter to helicopter. If you already knew all that and it still isn't working, post back here and I'll see if I can think of something. Also, what difficulty are you playing on?

Ok, that sounds good then. Thanks for the reply :)

I'm saving up my money in career mode, but I'm wondering if I should spend it on upgrades. My main question is: will I miss out on certain side missions if I buy certain upgrades late in the game? By this, I mean; will I, for example, miss out on some/most of the search and rescue missions if I don't get the winch early on? Or will all these missions still be available to me late in the game, as soon as I buy the winch? Edit: I just got the first government mission and completed it. I can now see that there are other missions available which require a winch, etc. Is this how I get all side missions - they show up as I complete the story, rather than when I buy upgrades?

I sure hope that isn't the case. The GetGames site previously said it worked for both Steam and retail TOH, now it doesn't mention specifically retail, but also nowhere does it say that you need the Steamworks version of TOH - just that you need TOH installed. Hell, it even links you to the compatibility patch (1.05) and says you need to download and install that too (Steam automatically does this, so clearly they think it should work with the retail game). If it's true that I won't be able to get it to work, I'll get a refund from GetGames. If that's the case, which version do I need to buy in order for it to work? Is the only way to buy a version which will work with the retail copy, to buy it through the BI store?

I think the reason DCS can do that is because their game is locked down with quite harsh DRM, so giving people access to a torrent file doesn't allow them to just play it for free. TOH, on the other hand, doesn't have intrusive enough DRM to do that, so I don't think they would offer such an option. Steam can be slow here in Australia, but it will eventually download. Once it's downloaded, I'd recommend making a Steam backup, so that if you ever need to install it again, you don't need to redownload it.

I'd like to see this, but I'd only use it if the cocking/pumping button was able to be separate from the fire button. I think if the fire button was the same as the cocking/pumping button, I might develop bad habits that transfer to other weapons. If it was a different button, I think it should be fine.

Don't forget targeting. It always confuses me when I'm trying to zoom in (or hold my breath) and suddenly I've highlighted a target that I never saw. I tried unbinding targeting from RMB, but it didn't do anything - it still would identify a target with RMB and the key I assigned to targeting wouldn't. Perhaps I got the name of the function wrong?