Gunship Lift/Take off

[Eskandaer]

Maybe a bug; maybe not.

Not a great pilot, but I have learned a reasonable amount about the UH-1H and flying it in this campaign.

I get to missions 7 and 8.  Gunship.  Tracking on the dialogue in 7 about how to take off due to being overloaded along with the lore behind that mechanic. 

Where things depart from what I would expect:

1) Sometimes -- the first try on m7 and sometimes a retry on a m7/m8, the ship lifts fairly reasonably like flying the slicks, just slightly heavier, without me having to do anything special.  Just ease up the collective, don't have to red line, gain a few ft immediately and ease into some lateral motion for a fairly gradual but normal lift.

2) Other times, usually after a retry (since I can get gun happy until a tree embraces me as its best friend), the ship maneuvers like a sack of wet <profanity> when I attempt to lift.  I get the 'barely light on the skids' even with red-lining, try to follow the procedure outlined in the m7 dialogue, and usually get nowhere.  When I do get lift, it's almost like a script just stopped running that was keeping me down and suddenly I'm up with relative ease.  At first, I told myself this only happened because I finally figured out the wind component (does 'into the wind' mean fly upwind/windward or downwind/leeward?? -- flashback of some hilarious jumper errors with the MC-6 on this ambiguity of language); but on a retry, sometimes I have luck with the opposite direction or completely different angles -- again, it feels like a switch flicked off and suddenly I'm up.

If it weren't such a drastically different experience between suddenly hard and suddenly not hard on different tries, I wouldn't be considering the possibility of a bug; but as I'm getting such radically different experiences, I thought it might be worth a mention.

Is there an 'artificial' script or other mechanism in the mission file that is supposed to reduce the power/lift of the gunship engines?  If so, it might be applying its effects inconsistently.

Technical:

VR - Usually with Oculus Quest 2, using openxr and oculus software during this encounter.
Decent PC specs (rtx 3090/amd 5900x) , but this map really churns fps in VR down heavily -- I probably average 45 fps, but with the different motion smoothing techniques used by either openVR or steamVR.

 

[Reflected]

Hi,

Thanks for the report. The weaker engine is simulated by adding an invisible cargo weight to the player's ship at mission start, so it's not a script, nor a switch. If you feel a sudden lift, that's translational lift, but the way it's implemented in the Huey is not mission related I'm afraid. Perhaps it's too sudden, I don't know, I've never flown a real helo.

Check out this video for more info:
 

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Reflected

[Mistermann]

3 hours ago, Reflected said:

The weaker engine is simulated by adding an invisible cargo weight to the player's ship at mission start, so it's not a script, nor a switch.

Thanks for sharing this!  I wondered how you accomplished the "weaker engine".  

[Eskandaer]

I'll be more deliberate about documenting what I'm experiencing to see if it has validity.  It might be that I'm executing the lift exactly right when things feel easy -- but I'm just a bit doubtful of that.  From a technical perspective, I'm guessing you're not seeing a possibility of that cargo weight modification somehow not initializing on a mission load when there might be performance issues -- you would know better than me, just noting that it feels like that sometimes.

[Reflected]

I initiate a dozen or so seconds after mission start to make sure it doesn’t conflict with anything. Mext time you experience it please record a track so I can check and send it to ED if there is indeed a bug. Thanks!

[Eskandaer]

With more time/experience, I'm getting more consistent results -- for now, I'm chalking up what I experienced to accidental luck, but yes, if I do get a super unnaturally easy lift off the bat, I'll save the track. 

That said, I still haven't figured out the wind element terribly well;  I just have been trying different vectors until I start going up.  For clarity:  what heading should we fly toward based on the kneeboard degree listed?  Ie.  if the kneeboard says the wind is 45 degrees; does that mean fly toward a 45 degree heading or opposite of that (225 degree)?  And forgive my ignorance -- does that mean the wind is blowing from the 45 degree angle or in the direction of the 45 degree heading?

Again, 'into the wind' always gets me; downwind or upwind both can lay claim to that depending on language understanding. I've assumed upwind but just making sure.  Thanks.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Eskandaer

[Reflected]

If the briefing says wind is 45 degrees, then it's coming from 045, so you need to fly toward a 45 degree heading. That way you already have some airspeed even as you're stationary on the ground.