Helicopter training?

[KuranesGrey]

I'm in total awe when I watch a good chopper pilot in this game. Nothing is as satisfying to me as flying gunner in a chopper and having my pilot hover me over flags for an easy cap. A couple of days ago I watched a guy slide an attack chopper between cranes and under the Kubra Dam, to pop up and frag everyone on the other side.

How do I learn how to fly like that?

I have a decent flight stick (Logitech Extreme 3d Pro). I've tried playing a couple of hours single player, and all I manage to do is crash over and over again. I can't land, I can't swoop, I can hardly fly level.

The only trick I've found so far is to greatly lower the sensitivity and increase the Yaw multiplier. At least then when I spaz out on the stick I don't crash so quickly. But I suspect I'm missing something... How do I learn?

[Cøyøte]

Practice, Practice, Practice.
Ive gotta say, Im probably in the exact same boat as you. I bought the same stick, for choppers in POE. Yet somehow, my roomie still pulls off barrel-rolls with keyboard and mouse,..

..Dunno that the sensitivity and YAW do anything where the joystick is concerned tho,.. It says 'Mouse sensitivity'. WOULD it alter the levels on the joystick? I haven't noticed any change in mine,... (yea, I messed with the sensitivty, not the YAW yet. Not sure exactly what its supposed to influence...)

[[Damien]]

Like he said, it's all about practice. There's no golden rule, you just have to get a feel for things than then it just all comes together.

I use a mouse and keyboard and do silly stuff like this for fun:











All that was under the boat dock on the us carrier on the demo.

Just mess about trying to do daft stuff like that, if you hit a few trees, so what? Eventually you'll get the hang of it.

The first thing to master is hovering, when you can hover perfectly, and come to a perfect hover after flying about a bit, no matter whether you're upside down, or plummeting towards a cliff, you're only a nudge on the controls away from being level again.

PS: I even got the plane in there:

[VonGimli]

Im a fairly good chopper pilot, have "hover capped" many flags. I would suggest that you create your own local game and practice with attack helicopters. Rather then trying to move much at first, just try to go up and down, get used to how much power (or throttle) it takes to get to certain elevations. When I am flying a chopper I ALWAYS have one hand on my little wheel I have on my joystick to adjust helicopter power. I am constantly adding and cutting power.
After going up and down for awhile, try moving and landing a little ways away, like at the other side of the base you are at. Just keep practicing taking off and landing. Practice using just your rudders (steer right and steer left, not rolling) to turn. I turn with just my rudders much more then I do with rolling and pulling up. When I take off, I go straight up for awhile, for about 4 seconds, and then steer until I face the direction I want to go in, then I tilt down to start moving.
One last thing... DONT TILT TO FAR. You only have to tilt a little to start moving... if you are facing straight at the ground at any time, even when attacking an enemy, you are doing the wrong thing. You will most likely die from that. Same thing with turning all the way so your nose is pointing at the sky, or turning left and right. You need to keep the two green lines on the left and right of your crosshair level. They shouldnt be diagonal, unless you are turning. Even when you come in for the attack on a tank or something, the lines should be level.
Everything else just comes with practice. You just get used to it. Just keep trying, and maybe play some unranked games and practice helicoptering with real players when you get better.

Well that post above me I didnt get a chance to see until after I posted this... and dude... thats some crazy crap :P I bet I could do it with some practice, but I gotta say, thats awesome Good job. The closest thing I have done to that is just cap a flag that was inside a factory on Dalian Plant with an attack helo. Of course, I also blasted a few soldiers while in those tight quarters as well, but oh well

[[Damien]]

Originally Posted by VonGimli

Well that post above me I didnt get a chance to see until after I posted this... and dude... thats some crazy crap :P

Thanks. It's the end result of playing too much EoD/DC and BF:V, (may it rot in hell) because that's all BF2 is really, BF:V with better graphics. It's even got the same chopper physics, that kind of 'rubber duck in a bath' feeling. It seems to sit there and wobble about, but isn't terribly precise.

Now even though it was only hacked up plane code, I found EoD 0.21's flight code to be the most rewarding. (before they gave in to the whiners and slaughtered the flight code in 0.3 to keep the 'i wanna be an ace the moment I get in the chopper' crowd happy) It took a while to learn the basics, took determiation to keep in the air, and was damn challenging to master.

RIP EoD...

Here's a couple more demo screenshots (no full version ones yet because there's enough maps to keep me occupied for now)

This would have been a better pic if I hadn't fell off when I got out of the chopper.


A couple of mates coming to join me in the shade.


Another plane/chopper pic.


We did manage to get both planes under there, but getting them both out was a pain in the ass to say the least and Jacko lost the pic

[hobjoe]

i guess i could call myself a pretty good pilot, hover caps, hell even landed on a few vehicals in BFV
the only things that work for me are:
1-using a mouse not a joystick, just because im comfortable with the mouse beacuse i use it much more than a joystick, (e.g navigating your solider through the map,)
2-only making slight adjustments when turning, a little nudge goes a long way
any way just thought id share a few opinions :P

[Mad Monk]

Mouse and keyboard for me all the way. I can't seem to fly helos well with the joystick. Also, keep in mind that you have to counteract every move you make in order to straighten out.

When I first started flyin helos in DC, I was told to imagine that the mouse is sitting on top of a ball (like a soccer ball) and the goal is to keep the mouse on top of the ball. If you go to one side, you have to counteract the motion by going to the other side until you are "equalized". With BF:V and BF2 its not as pronounced (and as a consequence they are not as maneuverable), but its still there.

[[Damien]]

Originally Posted by Mad Monk

Mouse and keyboard for me all the way. I can't seem to fly helos well with the joystick. Also, keep in mind that you have to counteract every move you make in order to straighten out.

When I first started flyin helos in DC, I was told to imagine that the mouse is sitting on top of a ball (like a soccer ball) and the goal is to keep the mouse on top of the ball. If you go to one side, you have to counteract the motion by going to the other side until you are "equalized". With BF:V and BF2 its not as pronounced (and as a consequence they are not as maneuverable), but its still there.

That's probably the best description of how you control them. In EoD 0.21, that's exactly how they handled. In EoD 0.3 they changed it to more of a rotation around the centre, rather than a balancing act, as if the point of balance was in the centre. Kind of like a barrel rolling plane. Choppers should have the point of balance at the top, like your ball analogy.

BF:V/BF2 ignored that completely and went for the 'pick up and play' feeling. When you let go of the throttle, it feels like it's sitting in an invisible bucket of water, like it drops a few feet and then just sits there with some unknown source of upthrust stopping it decending as gravity wants it to.

Maybe it will be a little better once it's patched, but I'm not holding my breath.

PS: Mouse and keyboard all the way.

[Fishfinger]

I'm total crap at it

[Dot.com Cowboy]

Guys for you chopper pilots using a joystick do you have your yaw and pitch sensitivity maxed in the control set up? I do and it seems to work well using a joystick.

I'm a pretty good pilot overall. Learned from Desert Combat.