New Helicopter : Gazelle
Author: Jimmy Arcade,
published 2 years ago,
[u]NEW HELICOPTER[/u]
This update adds the new SA-341 Gazelle as a flyable helicopter. It is a light scout chopper so you'll need to play cautiously and defensively while making the best of the (limited) mission support units.
It can currently carry up to 6 TOW or Hellfire missiles making it considerably less powerful than the Apache, but it is very nimble (180kts) and cheap to deploy. On a 500pt mission you should be able to take a full load of missiles, plus a full load of artillery support and still have points to spare.
However, it has no armour with only the main rotor and tail fan resistant to .50 rounds. 23mm Shilka rounds will make short work of this chopper!
The Gazelle is not as stable as the Apache so beginners may want to increase the stability for this helicopter. The flight model is not finalised and will be getting tweaked over the next few days.
The Gazelle will shortly be getting its 20mm gun pods which should make great fun strafing trucks and BMPs.
[u]OTHER UPDATES[/u]
1. Added a HUD colour changer in the Game Settings menu. You can mix your own colours using the RGB sliders.
2. 155mm artillery shells now have a bigger blast radius and can hit more targets at once. It was set far too low meaning sometimes shells wouldn't damage a vehicle even though it landed close.
3. Shrunk the "MAX WPN RANGE" indicator so it much smaller and not so intrusive when using the targeting pod to search for targets.
4. Corrected the effective range for TOWs so it now matches the wire length.
5. When starting a mission, the mission planner will always choose the best helicopter initially.
6. Locking a target via the threat display no longer makes the "RADAR LOCKED" message appear on the targeting pod when the helicopter doesn't have radar.
7. Removed the distance display from below the waypoint HUD icon to declutter the HUD. The distance is still displayed next to the waypoint name towards the top left of the HUD.
[u]INCOMING UPDATES[/u]
1. The new controller input manager will be available in the next day or two which should fix any issues with setting up bindings on controllers that are currently experiencing difficulty.
Thanks to all who gave invaluable feedback on this area of the game.