This update brings the public branch up to the same version as the current Sector System Beta and is mainly focused on adding automated door gunners to the game...
1. All Lynx variants can be equipped with M-60, M134 & M2 door gunners
2. All Gazelle variants can now be equipped with M-60 & M134 door gunners on right side only.
3. All Hind variants can now be equipped with M-60 (placeholder for PKB 7.62mm) and M2 (placeholder in for Kord 12.7mm) door gunners
All door gunners are fully automated and will engage targets at will. They will prioritise high threats such as MANPADS. The M2 .50 cal guns can, and will, engage and destroy BTRs and even BMPs.
Other Updates
1. Infantry now carry MANPADS with a range of around 1km and they have 2 missiles. Missiles are reloaded when they reboard their vehicle. There is a 25% chance infantry teams will have a MANPAD. MANPAD carrying infantry are modelled so you can spot them and kill them ːsteamhappyː
2. Infantry can now engage other infantry and this can happen on the Infantry BETA mission where you are searching a village for IEDs. Take time to clear the village before deploying your troops.
3. Infantry can now engage helicopters with small arms fire and you'll hear the bullets "pinging" off your helicopter. Small arms fire can only damage unarmoured components so helicopters such as the Hind are pretty much immune to it. However, something like the Gazelle can be brought down by small arms.
Accuracy of small arms is based on speed and distance so the faster you fly and the further away you are the less likely you are to be hit.
You can control the volume of small arms impact sound effects from the Audio Settings menu.
4. Updated some of the A.I. code which controls helicopter landing to be more accurate and prevent any hopping around when trying to land.
5. Ground Effect calculations have now been updated to reflect real world physics and is based upon the diameter of a helicopters main rotors. The calculation is roughly as follows...
25% more lift when less than rotor radius from the ground
falling off to 10% more lift at around rotor diameter from the ground
falling off to 0% more lift when above 1.5 x rotor diameter from the ground
6. Added a new control in the "MFD Controls" section to toggle the virtual MFDs on and off. If you use the "Auto Hide Virtual MFDs in Cockpit View" then this option will override the toggle option when switching views.
7. Hover Hold will now preserve the altitude mode correctly and also cycle altitude modes the same as Alt Hold.
8. Added "Out of Range" cross mark to the HUD to let you know when a target is outside the effective range of the selected weapon.
9. Increased the damage multiplier upto 10x for those who like to be shot down by a single 7.62mm round
10. Added a small frag damage zone to the 20mm AP-T round to make it a little better against infantry.
11. Fixed a major bug in the rotor disc lift calculations which was causing some strange oscillation. Thanks to Sgt Habu for spotting it and reporting it together with a video to show what was happening.
12. Corrected a mislabelled hardpoint for the AH-56D Cheyenne
13. Added the targeting pod range data to the HUD. It is displayed to the right of the targeting pod gimbal indicator at the bottom of the HUD which is where it is displayed on an Apache HUD.
The range is displayed in Km or Miles depending on you preferences.
14. Wingmen will no longer continuously repeat that they are out of targets.
15. You now score 5pts for killing an infantry team. All members of the infantry team must be dead for it to count and whoever kills the last soldier will be credited with the kill.
16. Increased the size of the targeting pod indicator on the HUD
17. Adjusted the Angle of Attack drag force for the Lynx as it was far too low. This means the Lynx should now "brake" correctly and lose airspeed faster.
18. Adjusted the Angle of Attack lift force for the Gazelle which was incorrect. This should make altitude control in the Gazelle easier when slowing down.
19. Optimised the turret code so that it uses no resources when not actively engaging a target. This effects every turret in the game e.g. Shilka, tanks, APCs etc
20. Fixed a terrain tile in Libya that wasn't showing trees at far distances.
21. Adjusted the atmosphere and sun levels in Libya to be less blown out
22. Fixed a bug with the looping audio system so the Shilka should now play its audio correctly when shooting.
23. Fixed a bug that was causing all turrets to be way too accurate!
24. TOW missile flight characteristics have been updated to make it a little more reliable and prevent it from sometimes overshooting its target.
TOW missiles (including HOT) will now fly a more direct path to their target with less "lofting".
Care still needs to be taken when using these missiles especially when firing at close range as they are not very agile and take time to course correct. The best practise is to always make sure your target is centred in the targeting circle and that you are flying steady and stable before launching.
25. Fixed a bug in the Sidearm which was causing some errors when it was operating outside of the player bubble.
26. A.I. aircraft will no longer come back to life and start moving and engaging targets when they are outside the player's bubble.
27. AGM-122 Sidearm will now fly straight ahead when launched and it has no current target. Before, the missile would sort of follow the direction of your helicopter so if you pitched down after launch the missile would also pitch down causing the missile to crash into the ground.
28. Fixed the Mi-24 Hind's excessive speed when being piloted by your wingman.
29. Adjusted the attack profile for both the Hellfire and Spiral missiles so they are more consistant in hitting targets.
30. Moved the targeting camera on the AH-56A slightly lower so that the default forward view no longer gets washed out by the heat of the main fuselage when in IR mode.
Thanks to all those that helped out with the beta. ːsteamhappyː