[DFX2] NovaLogic Helicopters and the betrayal of muscle memory

[Baldo_the_Don]

Have you ever been flying a helicopter in a NovaLogic game and killed yourself due to Comanche 4 muscle memory? Or maybe you wanted to yaw the nose to the right and flew up into anti-aircraft fire? Or ate terrain trying to yaw to the left?

[Oscarmike247]

Really wish they had a more realistic heli flight mechanics in DF/JO. I get they were trying to make the flight controls accessible for players, but I absolutely hate flying heli's in these games. Feels more like you're driving a bumper car in the sky. Like they designed it with a target audience of toddlers.

I also understand the games don't really have a physics engine. Even so, would it be so hard to allow the player to lean the heli with the mouse as the cyclic? You could even make it so you don't lose altitude when leaning, and just make the forward/back and left/right speed a function of the amount of tilt. Even that would be 100 times better than the current controls.

Speaking of premature ejection... I'll see myself out.

[TrSniper]

Originally Posted by Oscarmike247

Really wish they had a more realistic heli flight mechanics in DF/JO. I get they were trying to make the flight controls accessible for players, but I absolutely hate flying heli's in these games. Feels more like you're driving a bumper car in the sky. Like they designed it with a target audience of toddlers.

This has been my biggest annoyance for years. I also think you've described it perfectly. The way helicopters fly, especially in bhd and beyond, which I would expect they could do much better back then, is choppy. The way they fly away is unnatural and when they take a turn it is very sharp. Take for example the movie of bhd. When the black hawks take off it is slow, nicely flowing and you see that the helicopter really needs time to get going before it can accelerate. Sometimes I still experiment with the helicopters in the game to make them take off at a slow pace or land smoothly. Unfortunately this does not work in any way.

[TrSniper]

Originally Posted by Baldo_the_Don

Have you ever been flying a helicopter in a NovaLogic game and killed yourself due to Comanche 4 muscle memory? Or maybe you wanted to yaw the nose to the right and flew up into anti-aircraft fire? Or ate terrain trying to yaw to the left?

I used to hit skyscrapers often because they where not in my point of view