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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.