support helicopter so useless

[Metr0Man]

fully amorered fully upgraded attack helicopter for me in any given sutation lasts about 5 seconds after it arrives before it's shot down....so why is it even a feature?

[!RJ_Truth]

Even against Sahelanthropus my support helicopter lasted longer than 5 seconds and wasn't fully upgraded. I think that may be a bit of a hyperbole. If you really need an area cleared out fast, use bombardment instead. Otherwise, the helo does pretty good holding them off in times of trouble, but I've never called him in myself. It always seems to be Miller thinking I need the help. Most situations there's no need to endanger the life of Pequod.

[Metr0Man]

Originally posted by GeekDoctor:

Even against Sahelanthropus my support helicopter lasted longer than 5 seconds and wasn't fully upgraded. I think that may be a bit of a hyperbole. If you really need an area cleared out fast, use bombardment instead. Otherwise, the helo does pretty good holding them off in times of trouble, but I've never called him in myself. It always seems to be Miller thinking I need the help. Most situations there's no need to endanger the life of Pequod.

I was attacking a large camp with soliders with shotguns machine guns and maybe 1 guy with a missle the chopper came in and during it's period of not being in motion for a couple seconds after it arrives it was over already shot down this is been the case every time i call it in to support me in raiding a camp it always takes to long to start evading attacks before it's already shot down

[Metr0Man]

The problem is there is too long a period of it being in one place once it arrives before it starts moving that it soaks up all the damage it can handle as soon as it gets there

[!RJ_Truth]

Keep up to date on your dispatch missions. All those ones that take 30-40 minutes to do, they keep down the usage of the more powerful weapons and you wouldn't have that problem. The only thing that's taken down Pequod has been Sahelanthropus.

I only let my dispatch missions slide if I want the tougher battles and it takes time to work back up to them because of how much I do the dispatch missions. I always have 2 teams going, sometimes 3 if I want to knock them out quicker and they're not tied up in the online dispatch missions that take days.

[ArtificialQT]

The only thing that kills my heli are AA guns and those light APCs with the auto-cannons. My heli will decimate everything else. Even the lock-on missiles rarely land a hit since my heli has flares.

Just to be sure, are you certain that you equipped all of the upgrades on your heli after researching them? Regular small-arms shouldn't be doing that much damage to a fully armoured up heli.

[Hammer Of Evil]

Originally posted by Hoss Delgado:

Originally posted by GeekDoctor:

Even against Sahelanthropus my support helicopter lasted longer than 5 seconds and wasn't fully upgraded. I think that may be a bit of a hyperbole. If you really need an area cleared out fast, use bombardment instead. Otherwise, the helo does pretty good holding them off in times of trouble, but I've never called him in myself. It always seems to be Miller thinking I need the help. Most situations there's no need to endanger the life of Pequod.

I was attacking a large camp with soliders with shotguns machine guns and maybe 1 guy with a missle the chopper came in and during it's period of not being in motion for a couple seconds after it arrives it was over already shot down this is been the case every time i call it in to support me in raiding a camp it always takes to long to start evading attacks before it's already shot down

while the acquire time is, for an attack helicopter, bad (agreed) if you do not destroy AA radar, and AA emplacements, as well as Missile carrying soldiers, your helicopter is going to have a bad time. I wouldn't send him in without fully researched armor and weaponry (the deployment should cost more than 150k) I find he's best equipped for fire missions with rocket pods as the AOE is more effective against vehicles and hard targets.

However, helicopters IRL are just as fragile as this, so it's quite realistic.

You also need to go into the mission menu, select helicopter, then select AIR SUPPORT. that's key.

For most immediate fire support missions I recommend artillery bombardment, using D-Walker's minigun, or having your own armored vehicle with 20mm cannon or HEAT rounds, a flying helicopter has no cover - so unless you want to spend the GMP to equip him properly, don't bother. =p

[ArtificialQT]

Originally posted by Hammer of Evil:

snip

The AA Radar doesn't actively do anything against your helicopter, it just passively prevents it from landing.

If you equip flares, only dumbfire missiles will hit. Lock-on missiles will almost always miss, unless the missile is coming from directly below the helicopter so it hits before the flares go off.

Also, if you want to be able to quick-call-in your helicopter you can bring a throwable flare grenade that instantly calls your helicopter in for you.

[Silvia Venefiera]

funny because when i use pequod he always kills the guys i havent and lands

[All talk and no fight]

Originally posted by A.I.:

Originally posted by Hammer of Evil:

snip

The AA Radar doesn't actively do anything against your helicopter, it just passively prevents it from landing.

If you equip flares, only dumbfire missiles will hit. Lock-on missiles will almost always miss, unless the missile is coming from directly below the helicopter so it hits before the flares go off.

Also, if you want to be able to quick-call-in your helicopter you can bring a throwable flare grenade that instantly calls your helicopter in for you.

wait is that what that thing does? i dont have to jog across afghanistan just to get to the heli landing point???

[Silvia Venefiera]

Originally posted by All talk and no fight:

Originally posted by A.I.:

The AA Radar doesn't actively do anything against your helicopter, it just passively prevents it from landing.

If you equip flares, only dumbfire missiles will hit. Lock-on missiles will almost always miss, unless the missile is coming from directly below the helicopter so it hits before the flares go off.

Also, if you want to be able to quick-call-in your helicopter you can bring a throwable flare grenade that instantly calls your helicopter in for you.

wait is that what that thing does? i dont have to jog across afghanistan just to get to the heli landing point???

so you never figured that out when you destroy those and he says it will let the chopper land there?

[All talk and no fight]

Originally posted by bannedspider51:

Originally posted by All talk and no fight:

wait is that what that thing does? i dont have to jog across afghanistan just to get to the heli landing point???

so you never figured that out when you destroy those and he says it will let the chopper land there?

I've destroyed them and on the deployment screen it shows i can deploy there (but the danger level is high so i dont do that obviously) i mean can the flare grenade deploy the helicopter anywhere? if you destroy the aa radar, you can just use helicopter deployment from the idroid and deploy the helicopter to the new landing zone you opened up (from destroying the AA)
I was askign if the flare grenade lets the helicopter land in places that isnt a landing zone

[Silvia Venefiera]

Originally posted by All talk and no fight:

Originally posted by bannedspider51:

so you never figured that out when you destroy those and he says it will let the chopper land there?

I've destroyed them and on the deployment screen it shows i can deploy there (but the danger level is high so i dont do that obviously) i mean can the flare grenade deploy the helicopter anywhere? if you destroy the aa radar, you can just use helicopter deployment from the idroid and deploy the helicopter to the new landing zone you opened up (from destroying the AA)
I was askign if the flare grenade lets the helicopter land in places that isnt a landing zone

probably not it should just deploy to the nearest landing zone and sometimes deploying in danger high works if its not in the open completly

[All talk and no fight]

Originally posted by bannedspider51:

Originally posted by All talk and no fight:

I've destroyed them and on the deployment screen it shows i can deploy there (but the danger level is high so i dont do that obviously) i mean can the flare grenade deploy the helicopter anywhere? if you destroy the aa radar, you can just use helicopter deployment from the idroid and deploy the helicopter to the new landing zone you opened up (from destroying the AA)
I was askign if the flare grenade lets the helicopter land in places that isnt a landing zone

probably not it should just deploy to the nearest landing zone and sometimes deploying in danger high works if its not in the open completly

yeah, i still have no idea what the flare grenade does for helicopter support, the one for resupply works but not the other kind of flare grenade..

[Silvia Venefiera]

Originally posted by All talk and no fight:

Originally posted by bannedspider51:

probably not it should just deploy to the nearest landing zone and sometimes deploying in danger high works if its not in the open completly

yeah, i still have no idea what the flare grenade does for helicopter support, the one for resupply works but not the other kind of flare grenade..

support flare
is kind of a quick fire air support

[The Minotaur]

Originally posted by All talk and no fight:

wait is that what that thing does? i dont have to jog across afghanistan just to get to the heli landing point???

If you're not in a mission, or you just finished one and want to go to the ACC quickly, there's a "return to acc" button on the pause menu. It says you'll lose progress, but I haven't noticed much being lost, honestly. You can return right after grabbing some materials and it'll give them to you. The game checkpoints you really aggressively.