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[SP] Longbow

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Longbow

Theater of Battle: Takistan

[sP]

Takistani armor and mechanized infantry are poised to advance southward across the mountains. As the gunner of an Apache AH-64D Longbow, suppress all threats before they reach our weakly-guarded forward airbase.

Arma 2 Combined Operations required. Developed and tested using OA beta 1.63.112555 (version 3 developed in 1.63.131129 beta with corepatch). Best if played on Veteran or Expert with auto-guide AT disabled.

DOWNLOAD VERSION 3

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Development Notes:
 

Spoiler

 

Many SP missions exist in which the player serves as pilot of an attack helicopter, but there are few, if any, in which you play as gunner. The reason for this scarcity is the necessity of scripting the behavior of the AI pilot, which is time consuming. After watching horrifying, real-life videos of Apache suppression, such as this one,



I made a quick video to show some friends what an Apache attack looks like in Arma 2 CO from the gunner's perspective.



I then decided to work up a full mission.

Mission highlights:
  • New laser fire control for targeting buildings and ground points with Hellfire missiles from long range. Used for a special recon/assassination objective in the mission. Developing this new capability was laborious, and it doesn't work very well on most buildings, but it is a start. Many have bemoaned the fact that BI never added true laser-targeting capability for non-vehicular targets, and this is a small step in the right direction.
  • Added helicopter controls for stopping and re-starting the Apache when more accurate aiming by the gunner is required. This capability is based on real life situations in which the gunner tells the pilot to stop or adjust position so he can aim properly, or stop an over-zealous pilot from rushing toward targets to attack with HYDRA 70 (70mm) rockets. 
  • Civilian death counters for editor-placed and ambient civilians. Complicated code for ambient civilian death counting by Moricky (who the hell could have figured that out on their own?) :rolleyes: Remember those ROE!
  • Auto refuel/rearm/repair by AI pilot (script by Xeno modified for this mission).
  • Mission will not end when Apache is shot down. You have to make it back to base any way you can. This may be more difficult than you think.

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Version 2 - November 15, 2015

  • Many changes applied, including eventHandler for incoming missile detection on targets in towns where assassination target may be hiding. 
  • After much experimentation with the script to stop the chopper, I have not found a robust way to override the pilot and stop him from attacking once he has detected a threat.  He will come to a stop as soon as the current threat has been neutralized by him or yourself.  A trick is to stop the pilot before targets have been detected, which is usually at a safe range from which you can still effectively use your cannon.

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Version 3 - December 2, 2015

  • Added code to stop pilot from firing Hydra missiles while chopper is under "STOP" orders from gunner.
  • Changed initial position of some armored units.

 

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I'm terrible at Airship missions, but I'll give this one a try.

You usually come up with good playable stuff!

Cheers

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It's a good idea-.

Unfortunately, the AI is too dumb to be the pilot...

I bet you've placed "SAD" WP on the objectives... whereas the pilot will fly to a spotted enemy - which means that he'll fly 5000m away from the objective if he has spotted somthing else...

Good try tough.

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Yay! OMAC is back to making missions! Will try this as soon as possible.

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It's a good idea-.

Unfortunately, the AI is too dumb to be the pilot...

I bet you've placed "SAD" WP on the objectives... whereas the pilot will fly to a spotted enemy - which means that he'll fly 5000m away from the objective if he has spotted somthing else...

Good try tough.

New start/stop commands will prevent that for the most part. Check out the Development Notes and info in the mission briefing.

Careful mission design sought to minimize such frustrations and result in a mission that is fun and satisfying to play, with some good replay value and randomness.

Edited by OMAC

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Yeah, I'm having problems getting the pilot to face towards the enemy. The very first time we crest a ridge, sure, I can smear a couple of infantry in the valley below, but there's a tank and a BMP shooting me down in the meantime, and all I can do is sling cannon rounds at them because I'm sitting oblique to them. Died several times this way now, without getting a single Hellfire off.

Might be because I'm trying to use ACE concurrently - I'll give it a red hot go in vanilla.

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Yes, don't play with mods of any kind. If you still have trouble, report back.

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Did try this one without any AI mods, but I have to say that the STOP and GO commands are pretty unreliable, to say the least. Managed to clear the second objective, but got shot down on the second one, presumably, by an automatic grenade launcher, at least by the sound of passing rounds. I was curious what would happen on exfil and chose that way, and the mission ended properly.

The idea of playing as a gunner is great, but I think it shines better in a slightly more benign environment.

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Thanks for playing!  Yep, I made it pretty hard to tackle.  You're facing a real enemy assault. 
 
And yes, the STOP and GO commands don't always work, as your pilot sometimes is caught up in a dangerous situation and reacts accordingly.  With some practice, you learn to know when stopping the chopper will be most effective...
 
Did you exfil on foot?  The mission should end properly in that situation, as well as if you complete all objectives normally.  If you do return on foot, as when you chopper has been disabled, you should run into some surprises...  ;)

 

Post back if you can complete all mission objectives normally.

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Hey OMAC, I retried the mission a couple of times in the mean time, but could not complete it. Exfil, however, is without contact, contrary to what "some surprises" imply....

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Where did you run into trouble?

 

The exfil won't necessarily present problems, depending on what route you take back to base.

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Do you mean handling the footmobiles and vehicles in the pass area?  If so, it should be just after an autosave, so you should be able to make it through. 

Watch out for roving AA squads!

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Yep, I mean that pass area. What makes me pull my hair out is that the pilot never keeps enough distance to allow me picking targets at range with Hellfire missiles. This suicidal idiot flies into the gauntlet of enemy fire far too often for my liking.

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^ ^ Situations like that are when you should attempt to use the STOP chopper action.  But do it at a safe distance (~400m at least) so that the pilot is less likely dive at them and use rockets.

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I played through the pass objective on Veteran, and the STOP chopper command is working properly.  If the pilot has detected a dire threat, he will attack, and there is no way to stop him in most cases.  So you must use the STOP before he detects the threat. 

 

I am making a new version of the mission, so you can wait for it if you want.

 

Edit: If you have ordered the chopper to STOP and the pilot is attacking something, the chopper will come to a complete stop once the pilot has finished his current attack and targets have been neutralized either by him or you. 

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I see, so the trick is to find that find treshold that triggers the pilot reaction. I will wait for the new version, if you are already at it.  :)

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I have the new version ready, but I have to play through it completely to test. 

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Version 2 has been released today.  See first post. 

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Just tried version 2, and I am sorry to be a killjoy - while with luck I managed to survive my gung-ho-enemy-hugging pilot, I gave up after failing the mission 8 times because my pilot keeps unleashing unguided rockets into civilian areas, despite our ROE's - this behaviour is not under my control. 

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There is no need to apologize.  It is I who am sorry that you're not having fun with the mission.  It can be very frustrating and maddening when he fires rockets which kill civilians.  But I have not had that happen too often.  A trick is to reduce the threat as much as possible before he fires.  I have made it through that first task of the mission many, many, many times, and the pilot only fires rockets about 5-10% of those times.  And even when he does, he doesn't always kill enough civvys to fail the mission.  Perhaps I will make a video showing how I get through the Kakaru part of the mission.

 

Edit:  I'm looking at the mission again now in yet another attempt to fix or mitigate the damn overzealous pilot, as I agree that he is firing rockets too often.

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Version 3 released today.  See first post.  Pilot will no longer fire rockets while under "STOP" orders.

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I just tried version 3, and your implementation works, meaning that the pilot only fired his rockets once. Just from feeling, the STOP order does appear to work LESS reliable than before, plus my pilot crashed the helo. The basc concept of the mission is great, but until a solution can be achieved that enables a complete standstill despite line-of-pilot-sight to enemy forces, I just cannot beat it, and it is no fun this way (trying to hit soldiers in buildings with the cannon only all, while being in a rapidly dashing helo). Might be interesting if ArmA3 AI could handle the pilot stop/go script. 

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