A little competition between teams is a good thing for us end-users. Too much of it would be, well, bad. It would be great to see the big teams like BAS and DKM collaborate on a project like this, but I just can't see it happening through the dense fog of EGO's, no offense guys...
Anyway, about the bird... It's ( At the moment... ) the best aircraft available for download. And that's saying something, as I have seen some fantastic aircraft for OFP lately.
In short, my only ( perhaps undeserved ) gripes are the textures. Not so much the paint scheme, which is currently hypothetical in real life anyway. As far as I know, everything I've seen so far regading the Commanche's coloration shows the prototype(s) in typical Army OD. As this is a "stealth" aircraft, and would be considered to be a special mission/force multiplier aircraft, it may be given the carbon-based non-reflective black seen on USAF low-observable aircraft. Like I said before it's all hypothetical at the moment. One thing is for certain though, the Commanche will be expected to perform missions during daylight as well as night, so we may see something painted similar to DKM's chopper flying around the real battlefields.
Back to the textures... theres definately something missing somehow. For instance there are very few or no: seams, vents, panels, scratches, weathering, serial numbers or anything else to make it look really... real.
The only other thing I ever have a problem with DKM's mods, aside from the textures, are the sound effects. Come on now, surely other people noticed the gunfire sound effect? It sounds like some kind of MIDI-produced combination of a weed whacker on steroids and a giant bumble bee singing in D-minor! Now, I know that three-thousand rounds per minute of 20mm cannon fire should and does, BUZZ... but there are other sounds mixed with it. Like the whine of the electric motor, and the faint metallic clink of the brass moving in the system and being ejected. I suppose what I would have expected was at least a copied .WAV file of a minigun used instead, there are dozens of high definition .WAV's available online.
The loadouts are also somewhat innaccurate, as well. The Commanche is only supposed to carry five hundred rounds. The Scout variant could be loaded with one AGM-114K, a two-tube Stinger launcher, and a four-tube rocket launcher, in each bay. Or, alternatively, any combination of these, as they each would take up one hardpoint in each bay. Finally, If I'm not mistaken, the gunner sits in the front of the helo, as they do in most other combat helocopters.
One last issue, the gun on the scout Commanche can be slaved to a laser-designator, but how this is used in-game isn't really explained.
All of these GLARING ( not! ) errors aside, this is an absolutely fantastic mod and an absolute MUST HAVE addon!
BTW: Brsseb (sp) is also releasing a great looking RAH-66, with many of the same advanced features, if not many more... and BAS is also supposed to be releasing one of their own... are these the same models? I thought they were seperate mods?
Topic: RAH 66 COMANCHE IS OUT (Read 5185 times)