I was the Longbow 2 master. I could fly those helos anywhere, get them down anywhere, go fast over hills, you name it, I was on it. I never had any problem with EE:CH either.
I try to play BF1942: EOD or BF1942:DC and all that happens is that the stupid helicopter crashes a lot.
So help me out – is it just me, or are the helo physics that these mod teams have designed just utterly impossible to fly with joysticks in the same manner that I used to fly LB2 in?
I’ve been trying to play it, and the helos just fly like mush. The collective acts like mush, the helicopter doesn’t seem to exhibit the three modes of helicopter flight, and overall, the thing just flies horribly wrong.
Now, maybe I’m asking a bit much to have a semi realistic flight model in these games, but I get the feeling that there’s absolutely no flight simmers putting these things together, and they’re assuming that people will be flying these things with the damn mouse and keyboard.
Because, of course, my kung-fu is good, so its the program’s fault!
I agree that the controls are very mushy. I use a joystick and I find that the delay between me pushing and the heli reacting is pretty big. If I use subtle movements and never use the x-axis on the stick I survive a bit longer.
Well, google seems to think this is your portrait.
[edit]No, I’m not being a wiseass on purpose. I searched for longbow 2 in google to see if it would run under XP. Then I went into images.google for the hell of it and put in longbow 2 master. For some reason, I find the above pic so hilariously unfunny I had to share it with the world.[/edit]
I look at it this way: Flying is hard in BF1942, yeah. Good. 'Cause you know what? Every time I play there is at least one pilot up there just killing the hell out of everybody on the ground. It’s hard to fly, but there are people who have figured it out and they kick much ass. The last thing I want them to do is make the planes (and worse, the Desert Mod Helicopters!) easier to pilot because then, well, then the game will become a flight sim (hop in if you want to live).
Then they should make the helos easier to shoot down! They started that with DC 0.35 when they added the Stingers (aka really fast aircraft damaging only rockets). Yeah, they’ve got balance issues, but I don’t think that making the helos fly completely unrealistically is the right way to solve balance problems.
I’ve gotten pretty darn good at helos in DC. Landing is the only tricky part because the choppers like to flip over very easily. I’ve even gotten pretty good at takeoff/kill/land with just the mouse. Works ok with helos but I definitely can’t use anything but joysticks for planes.
Speaking of planes the DC ones are too fast for my taste. I love the vanilla BF planes though.
I spent some time playing with the helos yesterday and I’ve got the flying part down, but the landing is just ridiculous because as you say, they flip over like a maniac – even with no collective.
But that’s ok, because only losers land helos. I mean, why does anyone need to land when everyone can just jump out and pop the chute?
I bought a cordless joystick after trying to fly the Helicopter’s in DC with my old MS precision Pro (mouse/keyboard? forget about it!) and after several sessions on an empty server for practice its actually fun now for me. The American Apache is somewhat tricky but the Russian Hind is a joy to fly. The Harrier jump Jet requires some forethought but I can use it passably. The rest of the DC aircraft are a snap (especially the F-14).
The stick: The Logitech 2.4 freedom cordless is easily the finest general use stick I’ve ever purchased. Construction is very sturdy using stainless steel, heavy solid plastic and hard rubber components. The design is comfortable being neither too large or too small, is extremely stable and looks-wise its just flat out kicks ass. The price is a tad steep but one can pick up a refurbished model at justdeals.com for $42 including shipping.
