low level heli landing

[Banacek]

just a question...

I've been working on this mission where I have two little birds flying low approaching a LZ. after days of tinkering I managed to get them to land while flying 4 meters off the deck. BUT, for some reason after saving and reloading, they stopped landing low, rather approaching the LZ then climbing high and landing slow. when it was working it looked really good. quick approach, quick land, then quick low departure...

I've tried the same tactic in an open area devoid of any items/buildings/trees/etc. the heli's still come in low, then climb high and float down too slow.

has anyone tried a similar idea and have it work consistantly?

[Noon416]

In a cutscene I made a while ago (under v1.46), I ended up using "FlyInHeight" in gradual increments down to 0 with a number of waypoints to work around that 'popup' problem.

Horribly inefficient way of doing it, but it is consistant and worked well for the cutscene.

IE:
Waypoint (setflyheight):

(5)-------------(4)--------(3)----(2)---(1)-(0)-(2)---(3)-------(4)-----------------(5)

So the heli doesn't "land" as such, as more fly to 0 height and off again.
Note, if you use this method, you'll need to pause the helo at the 0 waypoint while you use a trigger-based dismount for your squad.

I know, I know. Old Man Noon needs to "get with it" but I'm bored at work and I need to get my editing back in motion... ;D

No doubt someone will suggest something better, but this should suffice in the interim.

[Banacek]

thanks, I see where you are going with it. I simply had the choppers coming in at a fixed height. anyhow, I'll try and post my mission as is and folks can see what I've done and suggest from there.

[Noon416]

Was playing with this last night, and remembered that you can get the helo to "flare" without gaining height before contact by making it slow down.

Make each waypoint speed as follows...
5 Full
4 Full
3 Normal
2 Normal
1 Limited
0 Limited
2 Full
3 Full
4 Full
5 Full

This makes the helo flare (not the bad type of flare) before touchdown, which reduces the risk of it tipping onto its side if the terrain is angled.