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[Japo]

Originally Posted by Fubb

I managed to deploy my troops, but my heli stil blew up when i tried to land back at home base...

Happens a lot, :cheesy: just practice till you bleed, then some more.

Oh well, i love WSO! Without it, I couldn't have mowed down those lil afghan guerillas.

I activate it first thing after taking off. The only instance when I temporarily switch it off is when there are many vehicles lined close together on a road and I strafe them with half a dozen of rockets.

[Fubb]

OMG!

I actually completed a mission!

It's a MIRACLE!!! Yay, Kazaksthan!

[Japo]

Well have you done, young jedi... I mean comrade.

[Fubb]

lol, I'm actually beating missions now

[laiocfar]

But, comrade, why did you start in Kazakstan?
In Afganistan you will be safe as long as you fly high; In Korea you are safe while flying between trees. But in Kazakstan you may move your tail like a duck!

[Rymdolov]

I love this game, but I suck so hard at it that the training missions actually play like a real game for me.

[Rymdolov]

Btw, I was lucky enough to find this game at a flee market, but I couldn't get it to work until I'd read the tips and downloaded the patch that people posted in this thread. Thanks everyone! I will return the favour by scanning and uploading the manual (if it's legal), but I must find the time first. Perhaps after the revolution...

To start, only a bit of background. Hind is russian Mil Mi-24 attack/assault helicopter, heavily used throughout the world since 70's. With some upgrades, it is still in service, including for NATO. Hind is its NATO reporting name, better to call it the "Crocodile", like real crocodile pilots always did (it really looks like one, right?). It is unique helo design combining attack and transport role, with no NATO counterpart. Crocodile was first designed as flying IFV (like the Bradleys, or BMP russian series, but flying and carrying sh*tload of weapons), but it never really fitted the transport role and was mainly used as gunship (fortunately, in the game you will get taste of every mission possible)

Please don't start flame wars "OMG WTF russia powerfull helicupters so pwns americcan helicupters". Crocodile is not really the best of best, and it always had its annoying habits like the one of cutting of its own tail with the main rotor (sh*t happens, but not in the game) or to lure anything heat-seeking to its immense heat signature (damn!). Crocodile is fast as hell - but its maneuvrability in real life is quite poor. Still, Crocodile is fenomenal helo and since it can do virtually any mission, it is sheer fun flying It's a tough chopper to fly, though... but think about it as a helo for real men, difficult, powerful and scary, not for noobs who want wires to fly helicopters for them:-) If there were Klingon pilots, they would definitely love Hinds. So let's get to flying!

First time i tried to just take off and see what happpens, i got into spinning and finally crashed into a hangar. This made me very sad, because i was dead and stuff. You can set - somewhere in preferences - the flight model difficulty to novice level and the you get everything free, no spinning nor other annoying realism. Or you can learn flying.

Use number 3-0 keys to set throttle, to take off you will need 80% or 90% power (depends on payload). Use "Z" and "X" to regulate tail rotor and counter the spinning tendencies. With some training, you can do it. Don't worry, you only need to regulate the torque in low speeds, as in higher speeds it is countered by dissymetry of lift and helicopter aerodynamic shape and such. Put up the gear ("u" key), it will let you fly faster and also it stops dragging your nose up and makes your flight more stable. In higher speeds, helo behaves just like a plane. UP to put nose up and fly higher, DOWN to lower nose down and descend, LEFT/RIGHT to turn (combine with UP to turn faster, but ). You don't need to regulate power to regulate altitude like in some other helo sims. And that's it. Easy enough, right?

Landing might be another problem for starting players. If you just turn up, your speed will decrease, but you will get incredibly high. If you want to slow down, set throttle to about 30-40% (yes, this low) and keep nose high enough just to maintain your alture all the time. Once your speed drops, set throttle to 70-80% and hover, lower to descend. Surprisingly, you need more power when hovering than when moving a little. Thats another realism - when moving, the helo glides like an airplane. It's a bit of aerodynamics of the rotor you don't want to know Just mind it and set 60% to maintain low speed and constant altitude, 70-80% to hover.

Landings are tough, it took me a long to learn, but if you train a lot (A LOT) and then some more, it's not that hard. Difficult is to land on precise spot in a narrow street - or to land fast, but it shouldn't be any problem to land at your airport. Well, train a lot, that's the biggest hint. Key is to have your nose up (the crosshair higher than horizon, like when taking off, it really is important), very low speeds (remember "Z" and "X" regulate torque), gear down and SLOW descend. Few meters above ground, you might hover on air cushion, so lower throttle another 10% to touch land.

Shooting is easy. "T" to acquire some target, space to kill it. Enter to change weapons. Targetting is kind of dumb, so press "S" to activate WSO (AI for second crew, the famous "weapon officer") and the targets will be selected automatically with some priorities. This works for minigun and Shturm or AAM missiles. To use bombs, mines and missile clusters, turn WSO off.

Another art is to avoid missiles. See the Threat warning system display in your cockpit? It works like this: 6 numbers down indicate type of threat. 1,2=??? 3=AAA, 4=SAM, 5=Incoming Radar Guided Missile, 6=Incoming Heat Seeking Missile. Points around the helo (with number of degrees) indicate direction of incoming missile. You want to keep it behind you and fool its radar guidance with chaff (threat 5) of blind heat seekers with flare (threat 6). Press "C" or "F" to (de)activate chaff/flare dispensers. The distance of incoming missile is measured in lines around the helo symbol. As the missile approaches, highlighted lines increase clockwise, and once they reach whole circle, you have just received a birthday present (KA-BOOOOOM!!!!). Start worrying about missiles when they are close, don't overuse chaff/flare (you can run out of them especially if you forget about having automatic dispenser on) and remember not to get killed.

Well, that's it, comrades. Now get some training and kill some rebel scum! (I find the Kazakhstan the best campaign, sorry Kazakhs, nothing personal...)

Sorry, DOWN key is for turning up and UP for oing down. It is reversed, but it was so intuitive that I didn't even think about that

I'm wondering if the patch comes automatically with the .zip and if not where can I get it? I mean, all the websites posted here with a "patch" are either removed or inaccessible. Thank you.