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I Am Hooked on Apache


Fuggzy

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This is just the absolute coolest solo play dynamic I've experienced in online flight sims. The George AI is fantastic, sure there's a few bugs with it here in early release, but I am overjoyed with what it does now.  I love cold starting her, super easy.  Boresight the guys, and get flying.  On the way I hot dog it through breaks in the trees, flying as low as necessary to give the natives the sh*ts.  Pull up on BP, slowwwwwww down, get almost settled, then like magic pop a 2, I'm CPG, George hovers.  I proceed to rain Hell fire and destruction, peeking over cover with H/B.  Once the targets are sufficiently smoking, pop a 1 and I'm hotdoggin' back NOE. 

I love the F-16 but holy smokes this Apache is just adorable, and I need an online friend.  LFG apache clan

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System: Core i9 10980XE @ 4.00GHz -- MB: X299 UD4 Pro -- 32GB RAM -- RTX4070ti -- 1TB Intel NVMe x2 -- Win10 pro

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8 hours ago, Fuggzy said:

This is just the absolute coolest solo play dynamic I've experienced in online flight sims. The George AI is fantastic, sure there's a few bugs with it here in early release, but I am overjoyed with what it does now.  I love cold starting her, super easy.  Boresight the guys, and get flying.  On the way I hot dog it through breaks in the trees, flying as low as necessary to give the natives the sh*ts.  Pull up on BP, slowwwwwww down, get almost settled, then like magic pop a 2, I'm CPG, George hovers.  I proceed to rain Hell fire and destruction, peeking over cover with H/B.  Once the targets are sufficiently smoking, pop a 1 and I'm hotdoggin' back NOE. 

I love the F-16 but holy smokes this Apache is just adorable, and I need an online friend.  LFG apache clan

I'm also really digging it. I am just learning take offs and landing and even those are a blast and challenging , to me. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

!0 days with Apache, an Update:

I love the way the chopper flies, it seems very realistic with different loading weights, altitude density, etc.  I'm crashing less now as my list of "don't do that again" grows.  George, as much as I praised him initially, is a psychopath that likes killing our own tanks as CPG and is a terrible pilot.  "Like, I know I simultaneously told you to stop, climb, and change heading -- but goddamit George you knew we had 16 hellfires, 80% gas, and it's 116 degrees here in Someblahmadad today.  We didn't need to die like this."   He's new, nervous, doesn't say much, sucks at his job, and makes guys feel awkward in the barracks, but he's trainable and I'm looking forward to more and better from him.  

In SP I'm deadly now. I fly fast and aggressive and low AF ingress as pilot, and when I figure out where to peep n shoot from, I get her stabilized and switch to CPG.  H+B into firing position...

(Microsoft Xbox controller is THE TITS for CPG btw)

Slide a little left, George

Slide a little more left, George.  More.  More.  More... quit coming back so much you retard.  Ok, there I can see em.   Hold here, George.

George, stop drifting, you're drifting ever so slowly right. Slide one more time left long time....   ok laser on, SHOOT 5 4 3 2 1 SHOOT 5 4 3 2 1 SHOOT 5 4 3 2 1 

Dead thing, dead thing, dead thing. Yep, they designed this weapon for Army users lol.

OK Egress.  I stop to consider where all my controls are set before hitting 1, because I can't even count the number of times that THIS transition is when I spiral into the mountainside like a drunk cougar because my collective was flat or something was unprepared.

Fly back to base as dangerously low and fast as possible, sometimes do a barrel roll accidentally and scream like a little girl, and always try to hotdog the landing.  I'm up to about 60% success on the combined phase.    

 

MP?  I did it exactly once so far with some super cool dudes on Rotorheads server, and THIS is what I want to do.  Flying human crew in Apache is just the effin most greatest thing I've done in my decades of flight simming. It is where I'm headed after I'm sick of all the SP missions.  Why not immediately?  I like flying most, and need to practice enough to never crash from idiocy... it is such a bummer for anyone to be CPG and your pilot crashes by pure error. 

TL;DR I want to get gud at Apache and play Army with guys online soon.  So so fun

 

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System: Core i9 10980XE @ 4.00GHz -- MB: X299 UD4 Pro -- 32GB RAM -- RTX4070ti -- 1TB Intel NVMe x2 -- Win10 pro

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Flying from the back and using VoiceAttack to give commands to George as CP/G I have a great time, so much fun to have him fire off a couple of Hellfires and then as we get closer let him use some rockets as I WAS up the gun for my own fun all in one pass and keeping my hands on the controls the whole time. I've waited a long time to finally have a true attack helicopter and now we have the Apache and Hind, good times.

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I still have quite a lot to learn but am slowly getting there. Finally got started on the guns training mission ( my last training mission to do) and was able to do the CP/G thing and interact with George AI for the first time. Even successfully taking out some insurgent trucks with my guns which felt great. I hope to see more training missions in the future. As I fly in VR I find this the best way for me to learn.

Not quite yet ready to place the order for a Virpil Collective but that day may eventually come. I still have a lot to learn but feeling better about it as each day comes along. Being a long ago big fan of Janes Longbow both I and II I am determined to make this one work for me. And loving it as I go.

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Don B

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I'm hooked as well...  each evening after work, I manage to sneak in a cold start and a mission.  love stalking around at tree line level, and picking off the baddies.  On Saturday afternoons, I give this bird a real nice workout too... 

DCS really put together a great mod here.  (With OpenXR, etc, this really brings out the DCS VR capabilities.  But there's another thread for that).

Nice post OP, totally agree!

-Jav

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4 hours ago, dburne said:

I still have quite a lot to learn but am slowly getting there. Finally got started on the guns training mission ( my last training mission to do) and was able to do the CP/G thing and interact with George AI for the first time. Even successfully taking out some insurgent trucks with my guns which felt great. I hope to see more training missions in the future. As I fly in VR I find this the best way for me to learn.

Not quite yet ready to place the order for a Virpil Collective but that day may eventually come. I still have a lot to learn but feeling better about it as each day comes along. Being a long ago big fan of Janes Longbow both I and II I am determined to make this one work for me. And loving it as I go.

More training missions will be great, but for now I watched the AH-64 series on YouTube from Casmo and Wags with my phone and followed along with every step in the sim as if it's a tutorial. Works just as well except I had to train in 2D -- like you mentioned it doesn't work out well in VR 😉   

Monkie mentioned VoiceAttack.  I know what I'm setting up next...  

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System: Core i9 10980XE @ 4.00GHz -- MB: X299 UD4 Pro -- 32GB RAM -- RTX4070ti -- 1TB Intel NVMe x2 -- Win10 pro

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Enjoying the Apache too. What 'spoils' it a little for me though is the possibility (quite often) of doing a disconcerting/unexpected snap roll (feels like capsizing in a boat) whenever you 'make a mistake' in your flying to cause that. Is this how it is in the real helo or just WIP? I know I need to go easy on the roll so I have even used a 30 curve and 80 Y saturation on my standard on-tabletop warthog hotas. It's better but it occasionally happens. Panic use of the force trim/reset probably contributes to it too. I guess I have to keep to small movements on the cyclic/collective. IRL, do attack helos perform rolls at times for specific reasons? Thanks

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  • ED Team
23 minutes ago, GrEaSeLiTeNiN said:

What 'spoils' it a little for me though is the possibility (quite often) of doing a disconcerting/unexpected snap roll (feels like capsizing in a boat) whenever you 'make a mistake' in your flying to cause that. Is this how it is in the real helo or just WIP?

No, it's not how it is in the real helo.  But Early Access is a marathon, not a sprint.  I'm personally expecting a lot more tuning to the FMC/SCAS.

The AH-64 is a paradox of sorts.  In the right hands, the handling can range anywhere between rock stable to aggressively agile, but that is based on a complicated logic set within the Flight Management Computer that interacts with the crew member controls to produce a very intuitive control response.  It's not an easy task by any measure, and I don't envy the dev team at all.


Edited by Raptor9
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Afterburners are for wussies...hang around the battlefield and dodge tracers like a man.
DCS Rotor-Head

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For several long sessions in a row, I did nothing but start hot, IHAADS off, and hover around.   Sliding sideways around hangars practicing tank-peeping, and basically giving myself little mini-assignments of "go there quickly, hover steady" -- "now do it better than that".  I did about a hundred transitions to forward flight and back to hover.  A magic moment came when I realized it's as if I'm dancing the chopper, putting her anywhere I want to with much less effort, and smoother.  I'm a fixed-wing snob at heart that believes choppers are an affront to God and nature, but flying the Apache is becoming really fun.  I am having a ball with this, thank you ED for the great module.  

 

System: Core i9 10980XE @ 4.00GHz -- MB: X299 UD4 Pro -- 32GB RAM -- RTX4070ti -- 1TB Intel NVMe x2 -- Win10 pro

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