MH-6J Little Bird (downloadable)

[Drakkhen]

Hi,

  the version keeps evolving but it's time to get more feedback about it.

http://perso.club-internet.fr/drakkhen/download/Lb.zip

Thanx for comments.

[HotShot]

I was woundering if i could post your addon on my site
http://www.geocities.com/hotshot2842002/
   OR
http://www.freewebs.com/ofp:hotspot/index.htm

I know its in the Beta stage but its brilliant! And doesn't look or play like a Beta addon normally does. ;D

[Chomps]

I will tell you this, if you were to release it right now as complete, it would do great, but if you want to keep working on it, that is even better, because there is always room for improvement.

Your chopper is great!

I landed on the tall building in Petrovice in a couple of seconds because it handles so well.  It provides a nice new balance for a helicopter in the game, it is too small and nimble to be an easy target for AA missiles, but a little bit of ground fire can take out the pilot.  Just imagine the mission possibilities.  Not to mention how much fun it would be to ferry your teammates to rooftops in cities in multiplayer.

I would recommend working on the textures, as of now it is better than some of BIS's stuff, but you may as well make it perfect.  The inside of the cockpit is almost perfect, you can leave it as it is.  Where the arms holding the seating planks meet the body of the chopper, some kind of transition of texture would be nice.  The bottom of the chopper has a wierd pattern, but I am not sure if you can do much about that.

The problem with having a door that is actually in the model and another door which is just in the texture is that attention is drawn to the door that is "drawn in" on the texture.  For that, I would suggest either making the outline of the door super-sharp or making some kind of similar outline to the frame of the first door.  Well, I do not know, I am sure you will come up with whatever is best.

[Sporeflower]

download link is busted! help!

[Drakkhen]

Seems the c-i server had some problem today but it works... try again.

[Sporeflower]

all in all, an awsome addon.  it would be hard to make it any better.  but me and my infinite criticism have found some things that all though are not necessery, would be nice if changed:
1).  the pilot and 'gunner's feet stick out of the side of the front window.
2).  the gages in the cockpit could be made a little more visible.
3).  the mechanical wine in the rotor sound.  its not too noticable but it get a tad irritating after a while.
4).  the fuel capacity could be made just a bit more.

i know what your thinking.

but all in all i loved it.  the handling is perfect.  great center of gravity on small buildings.  i just have 1 question/comment: is there an AH-6J in teh works anywhere? ;D  if not, there should be    have a nice day! and thanks for the addon. i still cant believe its a beta. so good!

[Drakkhen]

Eh eh  

i know what your thinking.

I don't think so. In fact... I prefer not ;D

'bout the feet, I thought about a solution (turning the pilot and co-pilot to make the feet in the instruments systems) but it's not nice for inside view. The best will be to take advantage of the new animation tools coming (but it's not for next week ).

The gauges are the size they have to be to keep realistic... about panels, what I still have to work is the groups of switches on the block between seats and overhead.

'Bout sounds, some better sounds will come very soon. Beside, if someone knows how to make "internal" sounds different from "external"... it would be great.

Didn't test fuel and don't have a convertion table for volume/OFPvalue.

About the AH-6x, I already told it won't be a priority to me. I find american forces are already well equipped.

Ah another thing... I suppressed all I supposed to be related to gunner scope instruments in the cpp and the p3d but the gunner soldier still can switch to scope view. Is there la line I would have forgotten or is it a "necessary" instrument in a chopper?

Thanx for advises, keep giving me these kind of clues.

Bye

[Ferret Fangs]

You know, I was wondering on such a small unarmed chopper, what is the purpose of a gunner/copilot? The aircraft's range isn't really long enough to make pilot fatigue an issue, the pilot is capable of reading the instruments and navagating the helo during flight, it isn't inflight refueling capable, and is small enough, and has enough visibility to allow the pilot to land it nearly anywhere without needing a second set of eyes... and, if a second set of eyes were needed, how about another four sets of eyes mounted in the plank-seated operators heads?
Why couldn't a fifth operator ride in the copilots seat and perhaps serve as a team leader for the other operators while they are deployed, and/or mission commander, assisting the pilot while inflight with navigation/takeoff/landing during the insertion/extraction operation?
As a team leader, I'm concerned with having enough men to get the mission completed. Having that extra man might make the difference in whether I'm coming home to give Mrs. Snake-eater some hot lovin, or having my steaming entrails served to pigs while I'm skinned alive, impaled, and slowly beheaded with a hunting knife.
How's that for grabbing ya by the short an' curlies?!? :joystick:

[Duff]

in real life, i imagine it's for crew survivability. 4-5 guy payload + 1 (and only) shot and dying pilot = 6 dead guys. no co-pilot to take over controls. that's my guess for having 2 guys. game engine doesn't support such "take overs" so for in-game stuff, no reason for second guy. you would have to make sure that the 5th guy/cargo spot would always load in the seat and the first 4 would always hit the benches.

[Drakkhen]

Hi Duff...

   You're perfectly right. I thought about that doing the chopper but I face a problem (if anyone can help):

  Putting the 5th "cargo" in the co-pilot seat mean having him playing the cargo animation (looking like sitting on a stool and kneading his gun barrel) :-\. I kept the gunner pos to allow using the seat and having a good looking animation. If I could get rid of this animation problem, it would be great.

  I tried calling the good animation in a script, but I have to keep the script active as long as the chopper exists otherwise, when the guy jumps out and come back in, it takes the stool sitting animation. The second problem with having one script running per chopper is it takes CPU time (not noticeable on my editing comp but annoying on the other) and the third problem is that once animation has started, my man seems "stuck" in his seat (no way to make him get out).

  Let me know if you all prefer the script included with the chopper... I'll just have to retype it  ;D

  p.s. Still working on a MBT...

  Ciao

[HotShot]

Personally i would pre-fere if you didn't include the script, if what you're saying about lagging is true, cause i've only got 500mhz so OFP laggs if you have more then a few units in anyway, without a script running.Althoug i'm sure that you will cause most people have got up to date computers.

[Duff]

IMHO it's fine as is

[Ferret Fangs]

I agree with Duff, it's fine as is. I would simply do away with the gunners position and leave it empty.
You know, I could live with the man-as-cargo animation...
Aw crap! It's Mr. Hunting Knife... here comes the impalement... sure wish I had that fifth guy to cap these murdering bastards before they skin me alive... oh well.
Ha! At least they got that useless copilot bastard first!

[Drakkhen]

Hi,

  I once saw a shot showing six lightly equipped men on the benches of a LittleBird. That's why I hesitated adding two more cargo positions and why, on each bench, the two guys are this far from each other.

  About the gunner position:
It's not because there is one you HAVE TO use it. Simply make your guys climb in cargo if you don't want it used  .
I would have prefered letting it as 5th cargo but like I said sooner, it's more an animation problem :-\.

  I'll make more tests with 5th cargo instead of co-pilot. I have to finish something else first   soon to come...
(the ones who've seen my page will understand)

[HotShot]

And does anyone know when Delta Force: Blackhawk Down is coming out on the Xbox?

http://www.novalogic.com/games/DFBHD/