Helicopter Gunship DEX News

This update adds the following...

1. Door gunners are now a bit more responsive & their engagement zone has been slightly tweaked to take into account their gimbal limits and I've corrected the gimbal limts for the left and right side.

2. Lynx door gunners now have a wider gimbal limit allowing them to engage targets roughly 10 degrees off the nose of the helicopter. They can't engage backwards very far due to the stores mountings.

3. Door gunners now correctly aim at individual soldiers rather than just shooting into the middile of the group. Soldiers still seem to be a little too resiliant to gunfire and I may have to adjust their health pool.

4. Fixed a bug that would cause the gunners to sometimes stop shooting but the audio would continue to play.

5. Optimised the turret code so that it uses no resources when not actively engaging a target. This effects every turret in the game e.g. Shilka, tanks, APCs etc

6. Adjusted the 7.62mm round to be less effective against armoured vehicles.

7. AH.7 Lynx can now carry door gunners.

8. All Gazelle helicopters can now carry a single M-60 door gunner on their right hand side.

9. M-60 fire rate adjusted to real world rates (about 10 rounds per second)

10. M-60 now has correct audio sample and it now works in 3D space correctly.

11. Door gunners no longer show up when cycling through your weapon list.

12. Adjusted the atmosphere and sun levels in Libya to be less blown out

13. Fixed a terrain tile in Libya that wasn't showing trees at far distances.

This update adds the following...

1. Fixed the Combat Lynx's load out screen so the wingman menu doen't overlap your menu.

2. Door gunners now snap to their correct position when attached to a wingman's helicopter

3. Door gunners now fire in bursts

4. Door gunners should now be able to track and engage targets a little better when the helicopter is moving.

5. New sound effect for the M-60 gun

6. M-60 now has a wider spread

7. M-60 is now better at engaging infantry units but still needs some work.

8. Optimised some of the turret script code

9. Fixed a bug with the looping audio system so the Shilka should now play its audio correctly when shooting.

10. Fixed a bug that was causing all turrets to be way too accurate!

This update adds the following...

1. TOW missile flight characteristics have been updated to make it a little more reliable and prevent it from sometimes overshooting its target.

TOW missiles (including HOT) will now fly a more direct path to their target with less "lofting".

Care still needs to be taken when using these missiles especially when firing at close range as they are not very agile and take time to course correct. The best practise is to always make sure your target is centred in the targeting circle and that you are flying steady and stable before launching.

2. Fixed a bug in the Sidearm which was causing some errors when it was operating outside of the player bubble.

3. The Combat Lynx 3 now has selectable M-60 door gunners. This is a 1st pass at getting them to work and as such they do have difficulty tracking a target when moving and sometimes get fixated on targets they cannot hit.

Gunners will target infantry, utility, APCs, IFVs, AAA and SAMs

If you load door gunners then you probably won't be able to load troops at the moment. I will fix that shortly.

The turret system the gunners use is the same as the Shilka and other turreted vehicles and so isn't really optimised for very mobile platforms. Best usage is to fly slow and steady and let the gunners get a good bead on their target. Sometimes they will still refuse to fire though and this is something I will be looking at over the next day or two.

A quick preview of the new M134 Minigun model...











...and here is a screen shot of the Combat Lynx 3 with M60 door gunners. The guns are not functional yet but I have intergrated them with the weapon loadout screens. I will be adding a soldier model once I've got all the rotational points fixed and working. I will be beefing up the gun mount as it looks a little spindly at the moment, but you get the idea.

Here's some preview renders of the M134 turret/door gunner for the Chinook. Hat's off to Manu, the designer, who also went ahead and included an ammo box and shell casings tunnel which I hadn't even thought of ːsteamhappyː

They also produced a rear mount although I don't think the M134 was ever mounted in the rear (happy to be corrected). In HG:DEX an M134 tail gunner will be an option though because "why not!"

Both the M60 and M134 will also be available on the Lynx and Gazelle as door gunners (at the expense of interior cargo) as well as on the Hind temporarily till I get a suitable alternative gun made. ːsteamsunnyː

This will also allow me to build and prototype the turret system without having to produce the Chinook first. I will probably take a look at the door gunners in the next few days to give the game some meaningful content while I continue to work on the new Sector System.

The other thing I will be exploring is how you will control the gunners and my current favourite option is to have the gunners only active when the doors of the helicopter are open. Closing the doors of the helicopter will move the gunners inside preventing them from firing. This has two benefits...

1. You don't need any extra controls
2. Moving the gunners inside the helicopter will protect them from taking damage as they will be fully modelled components that can be killed

Feedback on that system is very welcome. Alternatively you could have specific gunners on/off controls but I feel this is just adding complexity for no real gain.

Anyway, on to the images...