Helicopter Gunship DEX News

This update adds the following...

1. Mi-24P is now flyable. Main differences is that is has a fixed 30mm twin barrelled canon on the right side and also the ability to carry AT-6C missiles.

2. AT-6C missiles have been added which have a 7km range giving the Mi-24P the ability to hit targets from outside their engagement range.

3. Fixed the Hind bouncing around when initially deployed.

4. Some minor mesh optimisations

This update adds the following....

1. S-8 80mm rockets are now available for the Hind. These come in the B-8V20A 20 round launchers and are available with either S-8KO High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT) or S-8OFP1 High Explosive Fragmentation (HE) warheads.

The S-8OFP1 HE warhead is excellent against soft and lightly armoured targets and has a very large splash damage zone. However, it has no armour piercing and is therefore less effective against tanks.

The S-8KO HEAT warhead is designed to be used against tanks. It has a much smaller blast radius but does have significant armour piercing capabilities.

2. AT-6A Spiral missile is now available for the Hind. This is a much improved missile over the AT-2B with a maximum range of 5km and an extremely high velocity. These missiles can be carried on either the wing tip or outer hardpoints allowing a maximum of 8 to be carried.

3. Fixed a slight misalignment of the Hind landing gear

4. Adjusted smoke trails for most missiles/rockets to reflect low smoke engines.

This update adds the following....

1. Bay doors will no longer get stuck in opened or closed positions on the Hind.

2. Opening the bay doors should trigger cargo load/unload correctly

3. AI Wingmen will now raise the Hind's gear when they get above 40kts

4. AI Wingmen will now lower the Hind's gear when landing

5. Some optimisations for the S-5 rocket launcher

6. LOD levels for the Hind have been added

7. Hind no longer displays RADAR on the damage display

8. Terrain grass is now disabled when in the weapon loading screen so grass etc will no longer clip through the virtual menus.

9. Improved engine smoke and fire effects for all helicopters.

This update adds the 1st REDFOR helicopter to the game - the mighty Mi-24D!



Currently this helicopter is seen by the game as a BLUFOR helicopter so it will appear at the bottom of the usual helicopter selection list.

The Hind is very much an assault helicopter. It's big, fast and heavily armoured. It can easily withstand 23mm rounds and it'll take more than one Strela to down this beast! However, pilots remain a weak point and it's best not to fly head first into a Shilka fire.

The downside is that it lacks long range precision missiles for picking off AAA/SAM threats at a distance which means you'll be getting up close and personal with either rockets (all 128 of them!), AT-2 missiles or the rapid firing (but low powered) YakB cannon. Fortunately the Hind carries a lot of flares and chaff so make sure you use them when engaging air defence units.

The Hind is also capable of carrying troops and cargo.

Flight model is as you'd expect, the Hind is heavy so takes a while to get up to full speed and, with landing gear retracted, you'll be seeing 180kts even when fully loaded. It is also a well balanced helicopter and quite easy to fly, you just have to learn to maintain speed when turning.

The Hind isn't fully complete yet. It still needs some of its IR textures adding in and some suitable sound effects for the landing gear sequence and there are some other minor bits and pieces which I need to fix such as the Damage System showing it has a Radar but you should be able to complete mission with it without to many issues.

Next week I'll be adding in the AT-6 Spiral/Shturm which will give the Hind some long range punch as well as the S-8 80mm rockets which will give some extra punch against MBTs. I should also be able to drop in the "P" version of the Hind with the side mounted canons and the "VP" version which has twin canons in the turret.

It will then be back to missions where I want to start working on more complex missions such as escorting convoys, attacking enemy convoys, providing CAS to units attacking targets etc. This will require ground forces to actually move which should be a very interesting addition to the game.

I will also be looking at the air defence saturation and making this a configurable option. Getting this balanced is important for these lower tiered helicopters that lack the stand off capabilities of the Apache/Viper.

As always - feedback welcome ːsteamhappyː