Take On Helicopters – Hinds Page 4

By SimHQ on August 23, 2012 in _air14, hide

Recommendations

To Modders:

Decrease the maneuverability of the 9M114, Massively decrease maneuverability / off-boresight and attempt to reactivate semi-active-laser code for the IGNWE (and possibly adding the Mokopa).

Tweak the flight model’s high-speed handling to better model the maneuvering effects and transitional lift of the stub wings.

Change infantry configs so that they use small arms against aircraft (and tanks so that they use their main-guns).

Add burst modes and dispersion to cannons.

Add dispersion and burst modes to rockets (either by modeling them as guns OWP style, or by using scripts ACE style).

Add increased recoil effects (e.g. shaking) for the Gsh-30K (this one might be a challenge for scripters).

Reduce the daylight (normal vision) brightness of missile/rocket engine flares and explosions.

Dim the brightness of the Hind’s gunsight in order to make the fact that it is just a texture (as opposed to an actual reflector gunsight) is less glaring.

Lots of opportunities to create mixed loadouts (rockets and bombs) add more varied weapons loads (PKT door guns, KMGU, FAB-100, ZAB incendiary bombs, 9M114 missiles on the middle hardpoints, 9M114F, S-24, GUV-8700 30mm grenade launcher, as well as the, GUV mini gun variant and the window mounted PKT — although these last two may be a bit harder to get working).

For Mission Makers:

Add counter insurgency-ops, medivacs, escort missions and insertions.

A mercenary campaign is a particularly interesting possibility that is essentially left out of the official package.

Conclusion

Take On Helicopters – Hinds could really do with more varied modeling of the Mi-24’s weapon systems, improved modeling of the aerodynamic effects of the Mi-24’s stub wings, and above all, more mission variety. However, this doesn’t keep it from being a wonderful improvement that fills the gap between the Take On Helicopters and the Arma series.

In addition, the requirement to buy Take On Helicopters as well brings the entry price to $65. A stand-alone Mi-24 sim which was sold for $30-40 (and could be merged with Take On Helicopters) would probably be much more accessible to the military sim market.

Should you purchase? Consider the scenarios below:

“I would like an engaging civil helicopter sim with some military features in the same vein as the original Search and Rescue!”Recommendation: Buy Take On Helicopters.

“I would like to expand the military component of Take on Helicopters, I love how the Hind looks and I’d like to encourage the developers!” Recommendation: Buy Take On Helicopters – Hinds.

“I would like an Mi-24 sim however, I’m not picky: I want varied missions and I don’t care about graphics or enemies which are easy to shoot down! Alternatively, I want an Mi-24 sim which models rocket dispersion and salvoes and has slightly newer graphics, but has less mission variety, and still has non-aggressive enemies!” Recommendation: Buy Digital Integration’sHind, or alternatively, Enemy Engaged: Comanche-Hokum (and update it with the latest 3rd party patches). Both were just re-released by Good Old Games after years of it being hard to track down (and both are much cheaper options). Unfortunately, you’ll be missing Take on Helicopters.

“I would like the ultimate Mi-24 sim!” Recommendation: This is not your hour of glory. You have yet to wait for deliverance. If you have enough money, several decommissioned Hinds are available for apparently sale (at a little under a million dollars, they typically cost just 10,000 times the price of TOH Hinds).

On the whole though, I can say that Take On Helicopters – Hinds is a very pleasurable outgrowth and quite competent considering that it is a modification to a civilian flight simulator, that itself is a development of a first person shooter.

We should be very glad of the opportunity it presents to the community.

Good

The Hind (3 variants, many paint-schemes).
A very polished and flexible mission editor.
Terrain engine is quite good (derived from a FPS), but has been modified with excellent height maps and increased visual distances.
Collidable trees (not destructible like in Arma 2 — but a significant improvement over DCS).
Delicate flight model, with a sense of being surrounded by a volume of air (only beat for feel by DCS: Black Shark).
Relatively accessible to new players (although it still take time to configure).
Addition of SACLOS and other engine features (wind, improved dials).
Highly modifiable.
Great potential.

Could Be Better

High entry price for the amount of content (for those who don’t already own Take On Helicopters).
Flight control system is a bit overly sensitive to joystick settings (a problem shared with X-Plane). Aircraft handling shouldn’t change significantly due to changes in controller sensitivity.
Flight model doesn’t seem to model the crucial aerodynamic effects of the Mi-24’s unusually large and downward angled wings (or, more generally, the coupling of motion between flight axis).
Lack of dispersion on cannons and rockets. Ballistic and recoil models for larger weapons remain generations behind assault rifle ballistics within the engine.
The human gunner could do with commands for ordering the AI pilot to enter a hover or to retreat.
Lack of a story campaign or training missions. More importantly, a lack of insertions, and mission variety. It really is somewhat mystifying that such mission types were completely left out.
Limited weapon variety and no side-gunners.

Reviewer’s System Specs