Thanks to C.Eagle on my Discord, the "Russian Federation" faction, now renamed "Russian Armed Forces", is working on Zeus as intended, which was brought up here on Discord and Steam. Right now things are good and okay. I need to update the configs on my Discord, but otherwise it's good so far. Tommorrow I'm looking at adding some more geometries to the weapons, which need some TLC and stuff as well, even though I put it off until now.
I guess the mini updates and the like are working, so I gave the Kiowa by default HE rocket pods, I may switch to the gun prior to release this Sunday, but I did fix the pylons and stores below the pylons, so that should work out better. Also added the pylon proxies to the Fire Geometry, so that's another mod to upload Sunday, so far:
Worked on some of the M299 models today, adding shadows and some Fire and Geometries to the models. Overall a lot of the models for the weapons (the ATACMS just exists due to it's size and stuff), but overall do have some stuff worked out for the Flanker562 Helicopter Pack. Most of the rest is complete for the other mods, so I don't need to mess with them that much as they're ready for uploading.
Managed to update the M299 racks on the Kiowa, adding more geometry LODs to it to flesh it out and give it some more oomph when used by the game and such. Overall there's not much needed to work on, I think I got most of the work done earlier this week, and now it's just cruising until Sunday and go from there at least (I say that today anyway)
Okay, now that this Sunday's updates are out, I'm teasing the idea of a "UH-80D", which is just a reconfigured UH-80 with the datalink options enabled. I don't know how necessary it really is since it already has a basic system, so maybe it just receives through the base Helicopter_H, but getting it to do more is an option I'm willing to pursue. I am waiting on the A3 massive sample release from BIS for more stuff, mainly models, as I plan to make my own version of the MXAR from the Expeditionary Forces CDLC, since TGS won't release the editable rifle, which is up to them anyway. It's such a good weapon that I just use the EF CDLC when I absolutely want to use it, like for the Pilot missions and stuff. Anyway, not much on the horizon unless there's something that needs tweaking. And how things go with me, probably something will need working on.
Looking like I'm going to spend some time working on the weapons pack this week. I added 7-round mags for the ACP2-CP and tweaked a couple of scospes, which works better with head trackers, not so close up, kinda like the stock RCO. I will probably do the "UH-80D" as that is just a config entry more or less. Everything else is just not worth working on so next Sunday:
Okay got a fix done for the AH-1Z, spparently it's a small fix and will be updated Sunday since it's just a missing texture (old A2 texture), but for Sunday now:
Also the person reported an error with the P drive, the mod was looking for it, but it's pathed correctly so I don't know what the issue is. I think there's a proxy (will look into it though, I did a cursory check) that is referenciing teh P drive, so that could be teh culprit, but i'm not sure as it would have been a more serious error.
Well, after messing with the UA-57, I managed after messing with the UA-57 I manaed to get the barrels to spin. Was having issues with Buldozer, then managed to Google a fix, and things are better now with that. Overall I'm not sure if the muzzle flash (the last issue I need to tackle) of the system, as after that is done, it'll be feature complete, though I do want to add some sensorlike stuff to it, to flesh it out and make it more of an automated look and such for the people who care about such stuff. Otherwise it works as intended so far, so that's good.
I recently saw a current Battlehawk, and looked close to the CheroHawk wings, so I simply copied and pasted the wings from that bird to the BattleHawk, giving it some more of an updated look rather than the outdated ESSS pylons and wings. It's been adjusted and more attention to detail (pylons work the same, just in different positions, etc.):
Other work that was done was adding Pylons Settings images, which needed to be done for some of the helicopters, like the Ka-125 and Ka-145. Those will be in the update this Sunday. More or less, it's not a priority, but I think the UH-92 CheroHawk needs some work on the position of the drop-down menus. I need to look at it and fix it so it represents the actual positions so it's easier to figure out what goes where.
Well thanks to HorribleGoat, I managed to get the muzzleflash working, so it's technically "Feature complete" as it's just a simple automated turret of course, now with functioning barrels and muzzleflash. I may add some more components to flesh it out, but it works, it kills. I also forgot to mention it's datalinked to friendly units, so you can see the little green box in the Sensor display. It will probably engage any infantry units that show up and show you it's engaging them when they disappear.
Thanks to C.Eagle, I managed to incoporate a tripod for the UA-57. I think it works well, and need to put a magazine of some sort, because a 1000 round mag has to be somewhere on the model
Aside from the texture, the main priority of the work is UA-57 detailing. C.Eagle hooked me up with some magazine models, and I'm wondering how I'll incorporate the bullet feed chute. Right now, I have a simple box on the tripod, but I'm sure a real ammo feed would look better, like in real-world setups. I will figure something out. Also fixed a texture error on a vest for my Flanker562 Weapons Pack. Also got a request for folding rotors. I'll have to look into the models as I think I can follow the same for the A2 AH-1Z. If I figure out how to do the rotors, I'll see what I can do, but I'm thinking issues will come up for stowing on a deck. I personally don't care much for niche gameplay like that, since you can't move the helos around as you would in real life, so it remains to be seen if it will work or not. Hatched did it with ACE, but since I don't use it at all, if it does work, make it a scroll wheel menu option. First, I have to get it to work, and I don't know if it'll do anything for the mod, as yeah...
I think we'll check this week as a "light week" for me. I was supposed to look into folding rotors and may check the Hatchet GitHub for how to do it in model.cfg... But it's like one person coming up with niche gameplay for something you can't exactly move around. Unless there's a mod to move vehicles via towbar via a script or something, putting helicopters close together with folding rotors is for just a static display, and so will think on it. I'm just not in the mood right now to work on things, had a busy week and chilling out today from it, so we'll see. So for this Sunday:
Okay nothing came up other than a request for an unmanned Blackhawk. It's "easy" and difficult, because maybe because I work solo, I can't fanagle a UAV-like helicopter that at the minimum can transport troops. I'm sure a lot of milsims are looking into it, and the helo specific mod teams haven't mentioned looking into it, but the Sikorsky annoumcement last year made some waves in a lot of circles, and I'm sure yeah, you'd like a UAV-like Blackhawk. Trouble is that I tried it back then and managed to maybe realize that FFV slots work fine with a UAV troop transport, and not a dedicated Cargo seat. I said to the requestor that I'd look into it though, maybe I missed something, or the game simply can't do it. We'll see.
Looks like the DCS stuff is wrapping up, going to start working on the UAS Black Hawk tomorrow, since I said I would sometime this week. I don't have high hopes, but I think I can fanagle SOMETHING of value out of it, maybe find out again that the game engine doesn't support human players in a "UAV" style (though the Stomper does allow a dude to enter it, so there may be hope) helicopter. Or I figure it out and update the mod this Sunday. We'll see.
Okay so far with the UAS version, it "works" and doesn't work. Yes, you can enter the cargo toop positions, the only issue I'm having (and the Gx drones didn't help if they're just cargo FFV spots) is when you take control of the heli, it shows it in the middle of the helicopter, not the defined positions for the camera (it works fine if the AI system is controlling it. I don't know if it's a game limitation but if people are good with drones and can allow it to fly on your own without taking control, then it'll probably work as such. Otherwise I don't know what else to do to make it work as I want it (it uses the Pip memory points). I may have to mess with it more though, as I don't think it's intended for helicopters to work with it like this. I can try the MQ config as I'm basing it off of the regular helicopter one, more to follow.
