Well, a new game in the Battlefield series and once again it's time for my tutorial thread.

I'm just cutting and pasting my helicopter flying tutorial from BFV forum as it is completely relevant, with parts annotated to befit the changes in handling of the machines in-game.



Rules

1. Registered members are free to submit a tutorial concerning any aspect of Battlefield 2.

2. Submissions must be of a reasonable standard of English.

3. The forum moderator and myself (shagura) retains the right to change and/ or edit your submission for any reason.

4. Any submissions must be original work, unless full credit is given to the original author and their permission has been obtained.

5. No two subjects may be covered, look before posting. If you wish to add something to a tutorial already covered, PM either the author or the moderator. The exception is if you split the tutorial into beginner, advanced styles like my Heli tutorial.

6. Have fun learning!!


List of Contents

Tutorial 1 = Basic Helicopter Flying

Tutorial 2 = Advanced Helicopter Skills




Tutorial 1: my Helicopter tutorial.


Basic Helicopter flying in Battlefield 2

I fly helicopters in real life, so I sure can teach you the game version.

A couple of things to start with before doing this:

- Set your control options to maximum sensitivity for easier controlling.

- Make sure your framerate is above 30 FPS. You can check this by pressing the tilde key (~)to enter the console. Then type "renderer.drawfps 1" without the quotes. On the top left you will see your frames per second displayed. To reverse this repeat the above but change the 1 to a 0.
The reason you need a good framerate is purely for smoothness of controls. If you only get 10 FPS, for example, the controls would be very choppy and jerky. Controlling the heli will be much harder.

- If you can't achieve the above, try this guide

You need to know some basic stuff before you actually touch the real thing, like how the helicopter works and flys. So.....

Basics

The main rotors create lift by having the air flow faster on one side of the blade than the other, thus creating an aircushion (or LIFT) underneath them. The tailrotor creates the same effect but horizontally so you can use it to turn (or YAW) left or right.

Takeoff

By lifting the collective (or POWER)which is the throttle in-game, the aircraft will start to lift up. Use a tiny bit of YAW to correct the tendency for the nose to turn. You correct it by using the pedals to turn the opposite way of the force. Once in the air, settle it into a gentle hover by using small control movements and then......

Flight control

.....push forwards on the cyclic control (the joystick or arrow buttons). This tilts the main rotorblades and then the nose dips. You will need to add more lift (POWER) to stay in the air and if you combine the two gently you have transitioned to forward flight. That is the simple part. Obviously by using the main blades to tilt left or right you will angle the heli so, that it will start moving that way. However the secondary effect of that is that the heli will lose altitude. So you must apply more power in a turn.

Ascent and descent

Relatively simple, you ascend (or CLIMB) by raising the collective (or POWER). Don't think this is a plane and raise the nose, this only serves to bleed off speed and therefore handling ability.(the helicopter handles easier at speed.)You may also find yourself eventually flying backwards uncontrollably. So nose parrallel to the horizon and power up is climb. The descent is one of two:
1. Keep the heli parrallel to the horizon and lower the collective gently, thus losing altitude slowly.
2. Or, point the nose down to the ground and lose half your power. When you pull up you then have 50% of power to play with. This is called a fast rate descent.

Throttle control

From the above you can understand that there is always a need to have some power handy. Therefore when you are flying straight, it should never be at full power, but rather just under. About 85% in this game. This leaves you with enough spare power to make a quick turn in the event of anything unusual, or just a sharp turn.

Landing

So now you can takeoff into a hover, move forwards into flight and even execute some turns without losing height. Obviously this is the part where most n00bs get stuck and just dump the aircraft, wasting valuable resources for their team. The best thing (although not always!) to do in game, is to return to base (RTU) to refuel, rearm, repair and maybe even offer guys and gals a lift. So to do that you need to land. This can be done very crudely as long as you land on the matting that is the heli pad. Because it starts repairing you about 3 feet from the ground, as long as you can manoeuvre the heli to that place, you will just be able to drop it onto the pad, wait a couple of seconds and then takeoff fully bombed again. However, in some places where the landing is very tight, for example the american boat with helipad (BF:V example, not BF2!), you will need to know how to properly land it.
I even have trouble on the boat, but it can be done, even under fire.
Basically it's a takeoff in reverse. So you come in straight to the pad and before the pad dissapears under your nose, you pull the cyclic control right back, slowing you down and then push forwards until your in about what looks like a very crude hover. From here you stabilise yourself into a good hover, and gently start lowering the collective (power) until your about 20 feet up. Then you figure out exactly where your landing pad is, use the pedal controls to turn to it, all the while staying in a hover. Using gentle touchs you use the controls in opposites, so if you need to move slowly forward: push forward and then pull back again to the original poistion. This ensures that you don't just dip your nose into the nearest bush. Do this until your just in front of the pad. Now lower the power to 40% roughly and you should gently lose altitude. Do this until you are about to touch the ground, just before touchdown apply a touch of power to soften the landing and voila. You've just achieved something that many veteran players can't do!!

Last but not least a couple of unwritten rules for helicopter flying in Battlefield Vietnam.

1. Never just hop in and fly away. Look around and make sure no one wants a lift. Every one is much more potent with a co-pilot to fire the weaponry.

2.If you haven't mastered the above lessons, keep the f£ck away until you have, there is nearly always someone that will be able to manipulate the chopper to benefit the team. Learn offline, not online.

3.Press 'q' to bring up the interactive map, that way you won't kill that chopper in front if it has a buddy in it. You will even see concentrations of your infantry to pick up or assist.[not applicable for BF2, ensure view distance is at 100% instead in video options]

4.Use the speed of the helicopter to your advantage, don't sit their terrorising one position. Rather, get about low and fast and terrorise as many as possible as fast as possible. The main advantage of helicopters is their ability to be in many places in a short timespan. If your just going to hover there until you get taken out, why not take a tank instead, huh?

5. If you hadn't noticed, all the above involve one thing (well two if your gonna be a smart ass and say a helicopter!): TEAMWORK. The main thing in this game is not your points, or your killcount. It's the win. Thats only achievable by using all your teams assets in the most efficient way. If you step up to one of the teams best assets, the helicopter, you are expected to use it for the greater gain of the team. I'm fed up seeing people mucking about on the horizon, when they could pick me and my sniper buddy up and transport us half way across the battlefield in a tenth of the time. Still benefiting the team, just not directly. Not always in the midst of the action, but still remembered in the after action report!!

Obviously the above has taken me some time to write, so I hope it's helpful to those who need it. If you have any suggestions or opinions, tell me and I'll add it with full credit to yourself.

It is my intention to write an advanced tutorial covering strafing runs, lateral flight, hovering at height, pirouettes and any other manouevre anyone might want explained. If this tutorial has helped you, please let me know. That way I know whether or not to write a follow up.






Tutorial 3: My Advanced Helicopter Skills Tutorial


Shagura's Advanced Helicopter Tutorial.


I've decided to write the second tutorial...here it is:

Right then, we all want to have some fun now we have learnt to fly so how about a bit of stunting to start us off?

Barrol Rolls: when flying forward push the cyclic hard right or left and flip over sideways. You need to push the opposite way just before you get to the top to keep your from going over again or coming out of it upside down. Start the manouevre about 20 degrees nose above the horizon.

Inside Loop: when flying forward pull the cyclic back hard. You'll nose up and over eventually and will lose a lot of altitude quickly. Make sure you are very high before attempting this, lose half your power at the top of the loop so you flick over quicker without too much of a height loss.

Outside Loop: when flying forward push the cyclic forward hard. You'll nose down and over eventually and will lose a lot of altitude quickly. Make sure you are extremely high before attempting this.

Back Flip: do a complete back flip starting from a hover. To do this, pull back on the cyclic, give it some collective and flip upside down. Drop collective and push forward on the cyclic to even out and then pull cyclic up to get your lost alitude back. If you are quick enough you won't lose much. If you are not quick enough you'll be copying an ostrich with your head in the sand!

[The above are now much more difficult to pull off and probably best to be undertaken on a stunt server, unless you like being scolded by the pals.Thanks EA for ruining the physics.]

Killing circles.

I'm talking about a circle where you point your nose down and circle around a target.

A Pirouette is pointing the nose up and turning around in one spot. Make sure you have some speed when you attempt this as the manouevre will bleed speed off and you will begin to lose altitude otherwise.

Rolling turns are good for aiming at a ground target while in motion because they quickly turn into circling around your target. If when you are flying you see a target on the ground ahead of you, choose a side to circle around them on.

Remember, you don't want to approach people head on, because they will either see you and leg it or shoot first giving them the upperhand in the fight.
Remember: Offence is the best form of Defence.
As you pass over them yaw hard to the side you determined so the tail swings around. If you pass the target on its left, apply right yaw so your tail comes around and your nose is pointing left towards your target.
When the tail comes around you will tilt over to your right but will still be moving forward.
If you keep yaw up you will begin to circle because as you tilt over to the right the rotors are leaning over and pulling you forward at the same time the tailrotor is pulling the tail around.
If you push forward on the cyclic a bit to aim downwards you will begin circling the target in what I call a killing circle.
It is a very tricky thing to master correctly, so make sure (as with all of these actually) that you practice offline first until you master it.

Pirouette is like the killing circle but with your nose pointed up, instead of down.
We use this manouevre to execute very slow speed high energy turns.
Another words turn around fast cos you just flew over an enemy and you want to kill him!
Pull back on the cyclic to point your nose up and slow down to a near hover, this needs to be done extremely fast to the extent where when you pull pack if your at full speed, you should lose all the power and just pull back until your angled 45 degrees nose up.
When the speed have dropped to a near hover apply full rudder and drop the nose until slightly above the horizon.
With your nose where it is the tail will come around underneath you instead of around you, making your turning radius a lot smaller.
When you've come all the way around, push forward on the cyclic to point your nose back down at the target, let the aircraft settle for a second and blat away at the enemy in the hover or if you want you can scream back to them and go into the killing circle!

Well thats all I've got time for, for now. Again, people, post if you want more and I will write more.
I'll just leave you with some tips as before. This time however, they are more advanced tips:

- Medical help: The medic who pilots can heal people while they transport them. Have your injured players meet you at a point on the battlefield and then fly them around until you have healed them, finally, drop them off back in the thick of it while you hide somewhere to the edge of the battle out of sight but just waiting for the next call for a medic!

- Sniper Platform: Carry a sniper with you in the back of transport helicopter with the increased height they'll have a better viewpoint to snipe from, you'll also get passenger kill points. Best done when your team has air superiority as otherwise your a sitting duck for jets!

-Rescues: You can fly anywhere on the map so make sure if people call for pick up that you respond. You took the responsibilty of using the only chopper on the map? Well then bloody move your arse because people are relying on you to get them into battle. Pickup a gunner or drop them off somewhere useful. Don't let them die when they need healing, don't let them stand at the main base three minutes walk away from the nearest battlefield, remember your responsibilities soldier!

Last note is really that you should notice the above tactics are not for gloryhunters.
If you are a Rambo or a gloryhunter, go f3cking elsewhere. The guys in the heli's are generally not the gold medal holders (unless they are an attack helicopter pilot).
They need to be "for the team" not themselves.

If BFV scored assists then in most games I would rate very high, because I scream around the battlefield injuring enemy, dropping off troops, healing troops, whatever is needed at the time. (update on this: I'm nearly always in the top 5 of a game so far as BF2 scores kill assists, w00t!)

This allows for easier kills for infantry (because I wounded their foe), quicker responses to flag attacks (because I dropped them off there), less respawn time wasted and thus more killing time(because they kept coming to me to get healed), so you see a heli pilot in BF2 really is the busybody of the team and although you may not get 40 odd points in a game, all the team will love you if you do it right and the enemy will fear the wocca, wocca sound of yet another incoming Blackhawk raining soldiers and death from above.................


UPDATE FOR BF2: the above remains all true in real life and BFV, however it seems the developers have taken the physics of flight down a touch to stop Air vehicles dominating the battlefield so much. It has now become very difficult to do pirouettes, killing circles and other high energy manouevres in favour of just being able to strafe run and harass in widfe circles your enemy. This I believe is a very good thing as BF:V has a lot of top-notch wankers who think that as they can pawn in an attack heli they are demi-gods. Hopefully BF2 places them on the ground a lot more and I also hope they keep their username, as I have an awesome memory for usernames of wankers and I'm going to so hurt them in a 1-on-1 knife battle, lol.

I realise that the above isn't 100%, but I'll endeavour to fix it up when my real job lets me keep two feet on the ground for some time!

[UPDATES]

[JUNE 28th 2005]
1.Posted thread.
2.Updated most reference links in thread to relevant BF2 ones.
3.Updated most references to BFV with BF2 equivelant ones.
[JUNE 29th 2005]
1.Updated all BFV references completely, awaiting answer on 'q' button equivelant.
2.Posted info on BF2 flight handling and differences.

[AUGUST 19th 2006]
1.Finally had time to scrape all the spelling mistakes out.
2.Updated some new content that I've since found changed with patches, etc.

This message was edited by shagura on Aug 18 2006.

These are great guys.
I'm usless at flying heli's since I don't have a joystick but reading through this and then practising in the game will definetally allow me to benifit the team online .
And then I'll maybe get a joystick so I can become even better!

Hope it helps you, you can pickup a joystick for as little as US $20 or GBP £10 if you look hard. Just make sure you get one that twists for the yaw/side to side movement.

I saw one for GBP17 that looked good and had a few controles that would help.

Thats a good price, I recommend Saitek as cheap and good, I personally have a microsoft sidewinder 2 force feedback, but I'm big into flying simulators so it was worth the 90 quid like.

i found to make a heli easy to fly you can invert the mouse in the controls screen. thus making it similar to BFV

What happens when you "invert mouse"?
Can you controle the direction using the mouse instead of a keyboard or joystick?

quote cinosanap

What happens when you "invert mouse"?
Can you controle the direction using the mouse instead of a keyboard or joystick?

You can do that anyway

Inverting the mouse means that moving the mouse up will make the cursor go down and moving the mouse down will make the server go up

Anyway, I finally learned how to properly land and fly a chopper
Now for the airplane...
Does anyone have a bombing tut and/or a landing tut for airplanes?

Oh yeh, I should have known that as it's on game controles all the time.
IMO it is easier to fly planes than helicopters as I keep tilting them too far.

PS: I don't actually spend all my time on here as most of you probably think.

Hitman, I won't write a full tutorial on landing planes, but here is a quick one:

1. A plane takes damage while on the ground at high speed.

2. A hard landing where the vertical speed is high damages the aircraft.

3. Put these two together and we understand that you must go slow and not come in to steeply to avoid hitting the ground and bouncing or crashing...so:

- Start offline by taking off and just familiarising yourself with the controls and making the aircraft go where you want to.

- Now pick a point and try and fly exactly over it.

-Oh, all this I do by pressing F9 when inside the cockpit. This gives you a larger viewing area.

- Now once you manage to fly over things that you want to, try picking a spot to bomb....and try it. Immediately press F11 (rearview) and view where the bombs land. Press F9 twice to get back to normal view and go around. This time aim off shorter or longer depending where you hit.

-It's all pure practice as there isn't a target view or bomb view to aim for.

-Now find the airfield to land at and line up and over fly it while reducing power to 3/4.

- Do a shallow turn to the left or right and go around 180 degrees so the runway is on the left or right of you parallel.

- Now once you can't see the runway next to you anymore, wait 5 seconds and start another 180 degree turn towards the runway and while you do this reduce power to 1/2 while putting the nose into a shallow descent.

- Now you should have roughly 5 seconds to line up with the runway and get down to about 10 metres above the runway by the time you cross the threshold. (edge of runway.)

- Pull all power off and gently let yourself come down onto the rear wheels of the aircraft.

- This should work and on some maps you can land short or even land into a hangar and reverse out..

- some maps have short runways where you must come in steep, leave these until you've mastered landing on easy runways like the oman maps MEC airbase, which is very long.

- Hope this helps, mate.

Once again some nice stuff shagura. I'm a little rusty on flying the chopper, feeling a bit different coming from the ones in BF: Vietnam so I'm reading up on your tutorial, keep em coming.

will do mate and thx. I'm the same though, it's damn a lot more harder to do pirouetand stuff, we are being forced to straferun instead, which is good as it stops the damn base rapers in Hueys, huh? Bit busy this week, but more tutorials will follow.

Feel free to submit guys and gals.

Thanks shag
I'll give it a try

okay, any specific requests post here too and we'll see what we can rustle up.

Is there any way to controle the aircraft carriers like in 1942, if so can you post a quick tut on that?