EricJ

For news I've been somewhat hanging out at the Project Hatchet Discord and they're talking about doing a project called HeliSim. It's a way to improve the flight models of the vanilla and 3rd party mods that have helicopters, tilt-rotors, and some other ways of doing things. For now I'm going to implement this into the Kiowa rather than the EricJ Helicopter Pack. I feel that the flight model is good enough and no real complaints, and also I want to test the waters with the Kiowa first, as I may change the mind and work on the EricJ Helicopter Pack. for additional mods it will require the Hatchet Framework and the HeliSim mod to utilize these features. if you're like me and don't have much use for ACE3 it won't require it, so that's a good thing if you look at it that way. Personally, I don't like heavy mod dependencies in the first place, and if I can keep it within a mod that just requires the base game, I'll do it, like some of my work, with the only one so far being the EricJ Weapons Pack, which requires CBA of course, but that's a very common mod and most if not all milsims have it for their use. So the Kiowa first, and if it works out pretty good and not overly complicated I can see about the other helis and so on. But that's when it comes out, whenever that will be. As for everything else again I'm at a little breathing room and now that I'm getting some help with the Kiowa, I can model the gun pod. It's coded and modeled (which isn't finished right now, but it works) more or less, with me finishing up the M3P sometime maybe tomorrow or Friday, or within that timeframe.

EricJ Helicopter Pack RC109 - Refuel probes on the MH-60 SOAR aircraft now has collision https://drive.google.com/file/d/102sqUPuYClfoJk_P7DJuLatAyyRiagXe/view?usp=sharing

Also does anybody know how to adjust the HUD symbology so it looks right? I'm working with Soulfreak on a project, and the HUD symbology is low, and not centered on the HUD as it should be. How do I adjust that?

Indeed Got a PM from dtmdragon, and he enhanced the Block III cockpit a bit. Personally I do like the coloration and how it looks closer to the real thing. It'll go in the next update, which is in two weeks again.

There's already an A-6E, but if GKABS does one I may replace it with his.

Was it from the Downloads section? I don't fly those types so I don't know if they have bomb bays working or not. And if they were working before then maybe the key went out or something, because if it was working before and not now, then maybe check the key itself.

Lol or ALT+F4... Seriously though sometimes also they automatically open when bombs are dropped. But given that we can't read your mind a clarification on what plane would help immensely combstace44

That's why I disable it, assaulting an enemy battle group never seems to work out for me anyway.

I know Wrench will tell you to use normal font. But the game works with each other game by merging content. So if you have SF2 Vietnam and SF2 Europe you only need to use one exe instead of two, and so on. Just open the game and you'll be able to use the content from the other game no problem.

EricJ Helicopter Pack RC108 - Removed M260 Rocket pods from MH-60/92 DAPs - Added a 19-round M261 rocket launcher taken from my UH-1Y mod. Currently only the M151 HE is used for the warhead. This is only available on the MH-60/92 DAPs. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-oJUt5YZb1kJ_36PASBPBcbxYR3w7sj0/view?usp=sharing

ADuke's UH-1Y Venom RC15 - Added a DAGR variant

Okay, some breathing room... I'm working on some Strike Fighters 2 stuff, mainly skin work right now slowly but surely. I have a few more to do. For the Kiowa, the next thing is the gun pod. I did get a request for the three-barreled .50, but that's not a priority as far as I understand, it wasn't exactly used that much. Even the MH-60M DAPs didn't use it that much, if at all if the website is correct. So in a few days I'll grab some photos and begin the process. I'm honestly not too excited as I doubt my own skills, but it is what it is I guess. Anyway, I don't have much planned for the EricJ Helicopter Pack. I need to do the 19-round rocket pods sometime, and thinking of stealing them from the UH-1Y as I have nothing else comparable, and it should be correct. I tell you learning the pylon system is daunting at first, but once you look at other configs and do it yourself, it gets pretty easy as you learn the steps, despite no Samples from BIS on how to do it, you just kinda look around and figure it out more or less. So that's on the horizon, as for the other mods I don't have much need to work on really. Oh if somebody knows how to update scripts for 2.18 for my Pilot XX missions, I would like somebody to fix those missions as some people enjoyed them, and me as well, so I'm keen on getting those worked on so I can upload (along with honorable mentions of course) them and get back to playing something given that I'm not in a milsim unit.

EricJ Helicopter Pack RC107 - M230 Cannon rounds reduced to 1100 rounds - M260 rocket pods work as intended, M261 ammo is correct and named correctly https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-lkGa6slRjv4JRDj_dCGkUGTxnxMT4m8/view?usp=sharing

ADuke Kiowa Warrior Alpha AC15 - Fixed rockets not working, was something I missed. - Flight model smoothed out now, should be good for use.

ADuke Kiowa Warrior Alpha AC14 - Added M255A1, M261, and M229 warheads for the M260 rocket pod, selectable in the Pylon Settings menu

ADuke Kiowa Warrior Alpha AC13 - Control sticks now animate - Pylons are adjusted, looks more realistic

Sounds interesting, I just hope it comes out due to the effort of the people making this.

One the Kiowa Warrior front, Quiggs from the ADF Re-Cut mod has decided that when I help him out, he'll help me with the Kiowa, as they have an interest in the helo as well. I don't know too much right now about it in ADF service, but some work will be done, and we're just getting the preliminaries sorted out so we can begin work. So with ADuke working on the AO map, and so on, we can get to the point of making the Kiowa happen, and get the thing "finished". Also I would eventually recolor the aircraft, for the current scheme and the one used while it was in US Army service. Right now there's not much to be said, so once things get moving forward I can give you a status update on that. Right now I'm doing some Strike Fighters 2 skins that needed to be done for a project, so I'll take a break from Arma 3 right now, and see if I can't get those done for that stuff. But there isn't much planned for the helis right now, kinda at a point where I can take a break, though I may do 19-round rocket launchers for the MH-60/92 DAPs. I want to get some missions worked on as allen.l.huber gave me permission to fix the "Pilot XX" missions because they are so fun to do, so any mission makers who want to look and fix the missions since the 2.18 patch broke them, I'm listening and looking for that kind of help, at least a scripter who can fix the scripts (which I think is the issue) given the new patch. Anyway not much else being worked on, and curious to see if any issues have come up with the new ACE3 release. I hear it's annoying to say the least with communities, so if there's an ACE3 issue with my helos, please let me know and I can try and fix them for the new version.

EricJ Helicopter Pack RC106 - Requires game version 2.18 - After some thought (I know I said I wouldn't touch it), but the practicality of having open doors outweighed the player need to have working doors. Since the doors don't work, I felt it was better to leave them open and allow the players to hang out, rather than 50% of the players not being able to fire. So the MH-60L will be in an open-door configuration. If however, the doors are working for some reason, I may revisit the closed/open door system. - Updated the Hellfires with the new ACE3 Missile Guidance Framework from the latest update to the mod. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-bHXElRiuhWHZCoqJU-vFRy40QB2GqZC/view?usp=sharing

Aduke Kiowa Warrior Alpha AC11 - Added the new ACE3 Missile Guidance Framework for the Hellfires AH-1Z RC17 - Updated the Hellfires with the new ACE3 Missile Guidance Framework, should be right.

With the breaking of some of my missions in 2.18 I'll have to look at them and see what to fix. For the other mods, nothing seems outright affected so that's a good thing. Maybe the Samples will be updated and I'll have to add more stuff as it did mention some things added to the vanilla helis, so when that comes out I'll check it out and go from there, or catch snippets of conversations (or one of you will chime in) to make the changes to make the helis I do have compliant, or add the new feature to my stuff. I thought about doing the pylon system with the UH-1Y, but the way the game handles the system with what the configuration of the helicopter it's not going to happen. I think somebody requested a DAGR version, and I may do that as a variant alongside the DARs, but it can't be done, not without some issues that I don't want to go through again. Anyway I know I said in the last update notes for the EricJ Helicopter Pack that I wasn't going to touch the MH-60L, but then I realized that the new MH-60M stuff was transferred to the L, and so I made them open doors. The reason I had operable doors before was to allow some sort of "cover" (with fiberglass doors), and the open doors allowing the FFV positions to work, so there's some flexibility to options for players in those slots. With the patch that borked the doors so they only opened halfway, it didn't make sense to keep those versions around anymore, hence the change of opinion and so on of reducing models available and so on, and less workload on me in a sense, since I don't have to update things all of the time, and makes it easier on me. Right now the next update the game will require game version 2.18 and the L change. Unless you all have requests and the like of course.

EricJ Helicopter Pack RC105 - Removed the closed door MH-60/92s and replaced them with the Open Door versions. The aircraft will still be named (Insertion), but the doors will be open, per standard operating procedures with the 160th SOAR. The MH-60L will not be affected for the foreseeable future. - Thanks to Reticent Echo from the MELB project, I managed to config some more ammunition types for the M260 rocket launcher. The M255A1 Flechette is modeled, as well as The M229 Warhead, and the M261 MPSM munition. All are available for use with the M260 rocket pod. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=667709746 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-WuAatB6IZtehOC7LRFvOOTHmqA7MLdw/view?usp=sharing