Heroes of Flame -- Helicopter Fire-Fighting sandbox [single/multiplayer]

[cfrag]

HEROES OF FLAME - CAUCASUS
========================

V.20240909

Download: here (ED User Files)

"Heroes of Flame" is an endless, entirely non-violent single/multiplayer helicopter fire-fighting mission. You are tasked with extinguishing large to very large fires with your helicopter. The more fires you extinguish, the better your reputation (if you enable persistence by de-sanitizing DCS, the mission remembers your past accomplishments).

stupid null, ED, please fix your editor

Summertime...!
... and living is easy? Not if you are one of Krasnodar's "Heroes of Flame", an elite helicopter firefighter corps. This summer is particularly hot and follows on the heels of a string of hot and dry months of spring. The ground is dry, the forest has become tinder waiting for a spark. The ground in and around Krasnodar's city proper is so parched that the municipal office has released orders that disallow citizens lighting fires outside of controlled environments.

Last week, vacation season started, and people - along with tourists - stream outside to enjoy nature and recreation. If last year was any indication of things to come, there will be fires, caused by a myriad of things, most of them caused by human exuberance. The local fire brigades are prepared for smaller flare-ups. Due to the extreme heat and drought, this year the authorities have prepared well: they erected an Airtank Center that has few rivals worldwide. A veritable armada of Hinds, Hips, Hooks, Hueys and Kiowas, fitted for firefighting are stationed at Krasnodar-Pashkovsky and are staffed with the best. You are one of them, and ready to become one of the "Heroes of Flame". Jump into the cockpit, top off your retardant tanks, and lay claim to your title.

Heroes of flame supports the following helicopters / carry capacities:

• Huey (1200kg)
• Hip (4000kg)
• Hind (2400kg)
• Hook (9000kg)
• Kiowa (500kg)

To fight fires, you first top off your tanks with flame retardant (from Krasnodar refill zone, marked with white smoke) or water (from a lake/river), and then drop it into the blaze.

Topping off your tanks:

• When inside a refill zone (white smoke): go to communications - Other - Firefighting and choose "Activate Intake" to fill up your flame-retardant tanks. Filling your tanks is instantaneous.
• When hovering over open water (lake/river), and at 10m AGL or less: go to communications - Other - Firefighting and choose "Activate Intake" to fill up your flame-retardant tanks. You’ll hear your intake pumps activate, and your chief starts giving you live updates. Your pumps can acquire 100 liters (kg) of water per second, so keep this in mind while hovering. Filling up the Huey (1200l) takes 12 seconds, while topping off the Hook at that rate takes 90 seconds.

Once your tanks are topped off, your intake pumps disengage automatically

Dropping Flame Retardant / Water into fire:

Note: currently, there is no difference in efficacy between water and flame retardant (this may change in later versions)

Move towards a fire cell and prepare to drop water. You can choose between two different methods:

• MANUAL: choose Comms - Other - Firefighting and select "Manual Release". This empties the contents of your tanks at 1000kg/sec until they are empty. The impact point is derived from your current speed and direction. While the tanks are emptied, you can hear the turbo-pumps pushing out the liquids. I recommend that you bind the F2 key for manual release using some appropriate software for greater precision.
• ALT-triggered: Go above 300 m AGL (900 ft), and then Comms-->Other-->Firefighting and choosing "Arm Autodrop Trigger". An aural soft tone blips once per second to remind you that the altitude trigger is armed. Once your altitude gets below 100m AGL (328ft), that triggers release.

Note: Altitude-triggered release is more difficult, and intended for advanced pilots who can judge their approach.

Once release has started, it ends after the entire contents has been emptied. The drop pumps are rated at 1000kg/sec, meaning that the Huey (1200l capacity) is empty after 1.2 seconds, while the Hook (9000l) has 9 seconds of water/retardant, and can therefore cover larger areas.

After you successfully drop water/flame retardant into a cell, the amount of fuel left in that cell is reduced. Once all fuel in the cell is consumed, that fire cell dies out, and can't re-ignite. Dropping water around a burning cell can prevent the fire from spreading in that direction. If you succeed in extinguishing all fire cells in a blaze, all pilots that have successfully contributed to fighting that fire are awarded an number of points based on the size of the conflagration.

The points accumulate any you can always query your status from Mountaintop. Initially, your Rank is "Probie", and that rank increases with the number and size of fires that you help to put out.

Note: Refueling
Keep in mind that in order to carry more flame retardant, your helicopter is only fueled to 50%. Keep an eye on your fuel gauge, and when you return to the airfield to refuel, do not top off your gas tanks. Fill them to 50% to avoid falling out of the sky.

Since it's summer, and people are in a festive mood, there will never be a point where no fires require your attention.

OTHER NOTES:

• “Heroes” supports persistence of features if your DCS installation is de-sanitized
• “Heroes” uses 'stopGap' for eye candy. On multiplayer, the server (only server) must run the 'stopGapGUI' script to fix a DCS synchronization bug. For stopGap, please see here: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/326213-stopgaps-script-to-fill-empty-player-slots-with-planes/
• Created with DML

Edited September 10, 2024 by cfrag

[TFS]

This is amazing!

[Hotdognz]

Hi CFrag, we tried this yesterday as we are a big fan of your missions on our servers, I didn't see the white smoke but a fellow player did, any ideas at all to look for.

Also feed back was to maybe look at incorporating this into you rescue missions as like a duel type scenario

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, Hotdognz said:

I didn't see the white smoke but a fellow player did

That's a common DCS bug with smoke that is not synched correctly for clients. It usually resolves itself after 5 minutes at latest.

1 hour ago, Hotdognz said:

maybe look at incorporating this into you rescue missions

That would be the idea, as soon as I have enough feedback from this mission

 

[HungryCoyote]

Another great mission by cfrag. I tried adding a Hercules but got error.  

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, HungryCoyote said:

I tried adding a Hercules but got error.

Disappointing indeed. It looks like that's a Hercules bug, though (DML scripts in my missions always identify themselves). Let's hope that the Herc will make the transition to a 'real' DCS product soon, I've pre-warmed my credit card already  

 

[HungryCoyote]

I tried the Ka-50 just to see and the same error.

[cfrag]

1 hour ago, HungryCoyote said:

I tried the Ka-50 just to see and the same error.

Well, I think it's still the Herc mod. Methinks it would be best if you removed it.

[HungryCoyote]

I must have had a typo. Works fine with my beloved Hercules.

[cfrag]

Do you have any indication which script throws the error? Malformed number is a strange one, usually a typo. If you run it as a DOSCRIPT instead of DO SCRTIPT FILE, we can often see the first line of the script and that often tells us what script is misbehaving.

 

[HungryCoyote]

It is working now but I believe it was the airtank script as that was the only thing I edited.

[cfrag]

18 hours ago, HungryCoyote said:

I believe it was the airtank script as that was the only thing I edited.

Huh. Thank you for clearing that up. I believe you could have led with that, along the lines 'I effed around with some scripts, added the Herc, and then I got an error, perhaps where I screwed with the script...".

I don't mind people effing the scripts - I rather expect you to .  I do mind when you send me on a wild goose chase because you do not disclose important details like changing scripts  

 

Edited October 21, 2024 by cfrag

[HungryCoyote]

My apologies. In my ignorance, I thought it was understood when I said I added a Herc. Next time I will be sure to include more info. Again, very sorry for wasting your time.