Ship Helicopters

[Delgard]

I have noticed that when I torpedo a warship, it seems that its deck is full of helo(s)s. Are these just a part of the graphics for a warship? The reason I ask is that I believe that if an enemy submarine (me) is detected or suspected to just be in the area, that those helos would be in the air and not on the deck.

I looked in the mission files and found the lines for helos and it is generally ONE. Is it that red-force ships operate so far apart that helos have to stay in the immediate area of their mother-ship?

Also, playing the increasingly difficult skill levels, does that mean that ship helos will be quicker to leave their mother-ship zone to prosecute "me" in a more aggressive way?

Does the doctrine of the red-forces believe that "me"-forces always operate in packs and that they need to stay close to their mother-ship? That just doesn't sound right.

I know I can increase the number of helos in the mission file, I just don't understand why it is not done already.

I am suspecting that the ship graphics are not reflective of actual helo activity.

I am going to move up to the next level of play. Hopefully, more ships will deploy their helos.

[Capt.Hunt]

As it is right now, the ASW helos that you actually see patrolling around formations are spawned when you load into the encounter. They don't actually take off from the ships in game, but are randomly generated in the air based on whether or not any of the ships have helos. All of the ships that can spawn helos are rendered with helos on the deck, regardless of whether they spawned helos or not.

[Delgard]

I copied the campaigns to the Override folder and then went to each mission file to increase the helo/fixed-wing availabilities. It was just an analytical call as to how much to increase. Generally, I increased each mission by one helo and if the mission was associated with Soviet territory, a fixed-wing asset. Just kind of an experiment.

The one question that I need to research or get an answer for is how will the next skill level accept the new numbers.

Del

[XenonSurf]

Remembering 1.07 and 1.08, helos on the deck do not 'exist', they are decor, also they remain in place when the ship sinks vertically or reaches the bottom, so this should be proof enough, unless I oversee something.

I have NEVER seen any helo taking-off from or landing on a ship, but this doesn't mean it doesn't happen, maybe in the background only? The 'glue' argument is just more convincing. Aren't there fixed grafical images for these 'decors'? This should be easy to find out and answer your question. [As always, I'm too late, the above is a response...]

[Delgard]

I can accept the décor answer, I just don't detect helos very much.

I adjusted the missions as I mentioned earlier and I do have to be more careful now. I played a campaign late last night and this morning.

[XenonSurf]

I can accept the décor answer, I just don't detect helos very much.

I adjusted the missions as I mentioned earlier and I do have to be more careful now. I played a campaign late last night and this morning.

But there is no mean you can detect helos, that is: with your sensors (Ok, you can use periscope and active radar/esm, but you are not playing that suicidal, are you?). Also you can hear planes or helos, but then you are in bad shape already :)
You can cheat and look around your sub from the depth, look for small white circles on the water surface , that's where they drop their dipping sonars. Or you can press F4, or you can use right mouse button to pan around your sub, you will for sure 'see' them if they exist.

What you will detect - without cheating - are the torpedos that splash in the water at some distance from you, they are dropped from planes or helos if not dropped by missiles fired from ships, so you are warned about air activity around you.

[Delgard]

I am usually in the 1984 Campaign. The mission files rarely have a fixed-wing or more than one helo. Looking at the immediate location of each mission and whether it is close to land, I added one of either. Being wartime, I think there would be increased air patrolling.

I tested it out with a Virginia and found that I need to keep a little more distance from the red task force which raises the difficulty and I assume that it will have a touch more "reality".

Instead of starting at 10k yards and being a "gunslinger", I have to start a bit farther out, fire torpedoes at max depth and range, do more sonar analysis, and get away from my launching point without alerting air and/or sea escorts. I do pay more attention to the mission screen and the weather and what my bearing is to the initial contact.

I understand the cheating techniques via the camera, but I avoid it. I found that I turn up the volume on my headphones and keep my screen on my sub more in order to listen for helos/fixed-wing aircraft at my sub's location. I can't just have my camera following my torpedoes all the time. It seems my listening is associated with where my camera is and staying with my own sub lets me hear when aircraft are overhead.

All-in-all, I am finding that I can't do other things while in a mission. It is a bit more immersive. Just finding that an extra helo or IL-38 keeps me on my toes.

:salute: