High flying choppers

[ragchan]

I personally think the tatic of flying the chopper high is stupid. In real life a pilot wouldnt have the luxury do to enemy AA and enemy fast movers. When I hear people say, "I'll fly low when choppers are more realistic". It makes me angry because they don't understand the ineffectiveness of choppers in a conventional war.

The Helicopter's Grim Future in Modern Combat

The fact is, the battlefield is dangerous. Especially for choppers and even more so in desert environments. Just think about it, these extremely advanced choppers are being shot down now, by small arms and rpg fire from insurgents.

I suggest gameplay changes for the choppers, I don't like the way they're being used now and it doesn't really promote teamwork. I think the choppers should use the only advantage they got, ground cover. Maybe make the AA range longer to flush the choppers out of their perch high in the sky.

I think the choppers should be used more like CAS jets, were theres a target that needs to be hit, chopper comes in quick, hits it, drops flares and leaves. This would promote alot of teamwork in my opinion. The chopper would rely alot on intel from troops on ground.

Let's face it, in a conventional war, the use of attack choppers is being questioned. And im not sure of its just me, but I dont like the way theyre being used right now in PR.

[arjan]

Agree.

[Darkpowder]

The high flying "floater" or "hover and pick off armour" actions of choppers in kashan and other maps is primarily because.
1 - there is no recon performed by low value assets before the armour rolls in
2 - the armour rolls in without decent AAA cover
3 - when AAA cover is available it doesn't watch its defined sector to watch - lucky if it is watching the sky most of the time.
4 - The choppers fly high to avoid non AAA ground fire, as they are currently doing in for example afghanistan where there is little to no guided or highly effective AAA.

no well deployed or guided, or coordinated AAA with no radar = sounds like the average PR game.

5 - Radar will greatly improve matters if they are permanent fixtures around airbases, personally if the radar "unit" is active it could light up any airborne asset (no problem with this) or within an appropriately scaled distance.

Good players -DO- play the attack heli's properly - i.e. bond/spaz, they retreat to pre-arranged safe areas, pop up and kill on direction from ground and command.

[[R-CON]Alex6714]

Until the hardcodedness of players are undone, and chopper given their equal power to match that of the ground forces I will prefer flying high.

I will fly my chopper however I think it is going to last the longest. As you say, low is going to get you hot up by ground fire.

I can get a manpad and basically guarantee a kill, but it does require teamwork on the ground.

AA needs to work with tanks and infantry as much as a chopper does.

Right now it is like darkpowder says. AA lonewolfs, armour leaves with no AA cover...

But the main thing here is the stabilization, which isn´t possible as far as I know (not in a way that would properly work).

In PR you need to hover absolutely still to fire, you can´t fire whilst moving or at least only at the right angle. So you become 10 times more vunerable than you should. If the choppers had stabilization then flying low would work well.

In the end I can´t decide, but I really hope that choppers are somewhat useful on public servers.

[ragchan]

It i understand what you guys are saying but it is possible to engage while moving. I have done it in game on tg server. We would patrol paths to find targets, spot them leave then come back down and hit with hellfire while going full speed. Or do same with other peoples spots.

Even with AA cover, its still very hard to hit choppers as it is now. Although many Pr pilots would disagree, I think AA is very underpowered. Yesterday a mig was trying to kill me, i was in a bradely. I watched as my missles exploded near or complelety missed. At some points I was hitting him with my main gun, but my missles were useless.

And what you said Alex "until choppers are given equal power to ground forces" That just doesn't work. If they were equal the choppers wouldn't even be able to take off before getting shot down. And im sorry to say, but if you read article I posted, you would see that flying low is simulating what it would be like for a chopper in rl as it currently stands in PR.

[M_Striker]

Originally Posted by ragchan

It i understand what you guys are saying but it is possible to engage while moving. I have done it in game on tg server. We would patrol paths to find targets, spot them leave then come back down and hit with hellfire while going full speed. Or do same with other peoples spots.

Even with AA cover, its still very hard to hit choppers as it is now. Although many Pr pilots would disagree, I think AA is very underpowered. Yesterday a mig was trying to kill me, i was in a bradely. I watched as my missles exploded near or complelety missed. At some points I was hitting him with my main gun, but my missles were useless.

And what you said Alex "until choppers are given equal power to ground forces" That just doesn't work. If they were equal the choppers wouldn't even be able to take off before getting shot down. And im sorry to say, but if you read article I posted, you would see that flying low is simulating what it would be like for a chopper in rl as it currently stands in PR.

Ur just unlucky :P ... I'm still having a hard time understanding what you're getting at here. You just want the AA to be stronger? IMO, I think they are plenty strong as it is. I get shot down so many times in choppers whether it's from AA, jets, or other choppers. (NOT to say I suck at flying :P :P :P) It's also extremely easy to hit choppers with the AA guns...

Edit: In defense against your example, I will provide one of my own. The other day I was in a frogfoot, and I sweep down and reduce an AA vehicle to it's "Smoking" stage. As i regain altitude i check my six and i see the AA swivel around and fire one missile at me.. one.. I drop 1 or 2 flares, but he blew me up. I believe AA is good how it is if not overpowered...

[[R-CON]Alex6714]

I have no problem with the AA at all, my missiles hit the majority of the time.

I know you hate flying high, but I hate bunny hoppping and prone diving...

In real life, that chopper takes out the tank from out of the tanks "range" or even knows its there, and all that basically without infantry support. Of course, the AA would likely get the chopper, but the tank would have no chance. However in PR at the moment, the tank has a greater chance due to the accurate gun, lack of movement and easy aiming.

It i understand what you guys are saying but it is possible to engage while moving. I have done it in game on tg server. We would patrol paths to find targets, spot them leave then come back down and hit with hellfire while going full speed. Or do same with other peoples spots.

Here is a question. Try hitting that tank at a 45º angle or more at full speed? No, you have to be flying at the tank....

[Hotrod525]

Real Attack Helicopter have alot of support, UAV,SatDataLink,Radar,FLIR,Coordinated troops on grounds.. all of that dosent exist in P.R. Keep this in mind please.

An APACHE gunship can attack any target 7 miles away,impossible to set that scale on P.R., so people fly high.And even then, we can only fly high on Kashan Desert... on all other map the maximum you can go its like 200, more than that and you only see fog.

[Sir.Saul]

On another thread simular to this. (Think it was about the Apache longbow system - or radar dome if you like) R-DEV Cas said something about in the next patch you would use the attack chopper in another way, not sure something likewise.
Anyway wait for the patch then see what has changed

Argh god I can't wait for the patch, why are they stalling?

[Mora]

Check my guide under my sig.