Make helicopters better at engaging troops...

[AndrewB]

1. I've noticed that helos with guns (apache, hind, etc.) tend to engage infantry like this: upon spotting the target, the helo will turn around and fly full speed directly at the target, not firing until it is within 200m, causing the shots to go wildly above the target. The end result is that, even when using explosive ammunition, the helicopter takes 5-10 passes to kill a single man.

This seems to be related to the speed of the helicopter when firing, as once I set a hold waypoint for a Hind and it toasted me from about 500m with its 12.7 gun while it was still hovering.

Is it possible to change helicopters' behavior so that they will reduce speed/halt when engaging a target?

2. I'd like to get helos to attack infantry with rockets. Doesn't this have to do with the "cost=x" in the ammo setting? I'd like to see the helos expend their rockets and then switch to guns.

3. It seems to me that helos can't spot infantry from as far away as tanks and APCs can. I'd like to have helos spot and engage infantry from as far away as 1000m (if they are dumb enough to be moving out in the open ).

These issues came to my attention when creating a little mission where the player has to sneak or fight past soldiers patrolling the forests/hills or helos and a few foot patrols patrolling the large open areas and mountains.

As it is, the helos are almost no threat at all! You can walk around in plain sight and they won't see you (way out in the open, standing up) unless they just happen to fly closer than about 150m or you shoot at them. Then, when they do see you, they repeatedly do the "Mr. Magoo run" and can't hit you.

I've played around with setting irtarget=1 in the Man class, but then the problem is that helos can see you no matter where you are, and can shoot you from too far away (and with ATGMs, heh). Isn't there a way to limit the distance from which an IR target can be identified (or even seen)? Sort of give the men a smaller ir signiture so that they won't be noticed until whatever's looking for them gets closer.

[AndrewB]

Ok, I pretty much solved my own problem.

For the Hind, I added irScanToEyeFactor=5; increased sensitivity to 100, increased both the max range for the gun to 1000m, and increased the long-range probability to 0.9.

I sort of bludgeoned the settings with the high numbers- I don't really know which settings are responsible for the desired effects- so I'll just have to eliminate the non-essential adjustments and post the relevant one(s) later.

The Hind will now see you if you are within about a 45* arc of its nose and you are within about 750m or so. I've gotten very used to the ~, 7, 6 key combination in game since the change. ;D

The helos shoot from much farther away if they are stopped or moving slowly (in a turn at a waypoint, etc.). I think this is because of the nose-down attitude that the helos assume when they accelerate forward sharply- which is what they always do the moment they see a target. I think if I increase the elevation of the gun, it will solve this issue completely.

Now for getting the helos to target infantry with rockets...