We are in the middle of testing PR:F now and things are shaping up really well
As such, I thought I would share a few new things with you guys
First up is the Westland Gazelle AH1 Light Transport / Reconnaissance Helicopter. The Gazelle was used in Falklands war by the British forces as mainly a reconnaissance and medevac helicopter. Nine Gazelles from 3 Cdo Bde Air Sqn RM were in action at the start of the Falklands war. 6 more joined from 656 Sqn when 5 Inf Bde landed. In total, three Gazelles were shot down during the operation out of a total of 15, two from small arms ground fire and one due to a friendly fire incident, being shot down by a Sea Dart AA missile from HMS Cardiff. While a few where armed with machine guns and rocket pods, they where never fired during the war as after the first two where shot down from small arms fire, the commanders wanted to keep them back from the front lines due to how fragile they where.
Unfortunately you will only be seeing this chopper on the AAS 128 (Large) and AAS 16 (Infantry - Night) layers of the main Falklands map, but will be seen more commonly with any luck on GP_MineralWouter Goose Green map
Credits:
Model: OPK2 Mod - Badscull
Texture: GP_MineralWouter
Coding: [R-DEV]J.F.Leusch69 & [R-DEV]Rhino
Next up with have another British whirlybird for you, although recently shown a little in an Interview I had with a couple of weeks ago, it was only hidden inside a screenshot with a bunch of other aircraft. As such its time to give the Westland Wessex HU.5 I proper showcase for you guys
The Westland Wessex is a license built version of the Sikorsky S-58 "Choctaw", H-34 Helicopter which is used by the US forces in PR:V. The Wessex however has some significant differences from the H-34, mainly the engine which in the old H-34, was a single Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 American radial piston engine producing 1,525 Horsepower, where the Wessex was fitted with two Rolls-Royce Gnome single spool turboshaft engines producing a combined ~2,700 Horsepower. In order to fit these engines in the Wessex has a very distinctive nose, that pops out from the orignal nose.
Around fifty-five Westland Wessex HU.5s where sent off to the Falklands War in the South Atlantic in 1982, though a few of these, sent as replacements, did not arrive until after the end of hostilities. Their prime role was the landing and moving forward, of Rapier missile systems, fuel, artillery and ammunition.
While nothing visually has changed yet on the H-34, it has also had an update with the Wessex, mainly with getting a band new set of LODs and col meshes, as well as a bunch of other smaller tweaks and optimizations.
Credits:
Model: [R-DEV]Rhino & EOD2 mod - BadScull
Textures: [R-DEV]Spush
Coding: [R-DEV]Rhino & dkleader
Moving on from helicopters, for now, we have a small update for the jets
The Harrier GR3 has been able to throw away thous tiny rocket pods it had been borrowing from the A-1H in the Open Beta testing build from a few months back and has finally received its correct rocket pods. These are Royal Navy 50mm (2") rocket pods with each rocket pod containing 36 50mm rockets, giving a Harrier GR3 that's equipped with two of these a total of 72 rockets to blast at the enemy!
Ingame this weapon shouldn't be underestimated, although we know that its quite unusual to be killed by rockets from attack helicopters in PR, or the A-10 or Frogfoot which are the only jets that have them in PR, this is because that attack helicopters can't use them in the same way jets can and the A-10/Frogfoot pilots normally don't use theirs due to having so many other weapons at their disposal. In PR:F however, especially due to the lack of armoured vehicles, rockets are a significant threat to ground targets as they can be "spammed" over a large area from great distance, easily causing lots of damage to troops on the ground and surrounding assets. However with having to fly direct at the target in order to fire the missiles on target, AA have a very good opportunity to easily take the aircraft out as its on its approach run
Credits:
Model: [R-DEV]Rhino
Texture: [R-DEV]Rhino
Coding: [R-DEV]Rhino
Carrying on with the jet theme, next up is the Matra R.530 Anti-Air Missile. This is a French made missile used on the Mirage IIIEA and as you can possibly tell from its size, is more powerful than most AA missiles out there but it also has a slightly longer range than the AIM-9L used by the Sea Harrier. Please note the textures are not quite final yet but K_Rivers who has recently just got promoted to [R-CON] is working hard on finishing them!
Model: [R-DEV]Rhino
Texture: [R-CON]K_Rivers
Coding: [R-DEV]Rhino
Sticking with the missiles we've got another one for you, the AM-39 Exocet Anti-Ship Missile! This missile was the biggest threat to the Royal Navy during the Falklands war and while it did less overall damage than dumb bombs to the Task Force, it became duley noted as an effective weapon the Royal Navy had little defence against.
This missile can only be used against the Atlantic Conveyor (cargo-ship) ingame which Chinooks spawn on and when its destroyed, the Chinook spawn for the Brits is wiped out, much like how it was in real life.
Although in the Falklands war this missile was fitted to the Super Etendard, since we currently don't have one its fitted to the Mirage IIIEA since the Mirage III can be equipped with the Exocet AS missile, but wasn't during the war.
Please note the textures are not quite final yet but nater is working hard on finishing them!
Credits:
Model: [R-DEV]Rhino
Texture: nater
Coding: [R-DEV]Rhino
Now we've got something for anyone who hate jets, the MIM-23 Hawk Heavy Anit-Air SAM System. More powerful AA weapons have always been placed around areas of importance since the first world war so its really about time we got something in PR to help protect our main bases and other areas of importance more against air attack.
While the MIM-23 Hawk SAM wasn't used by either Britain or Argentina, let alone during the Falklands War, its a place holder for the Tigercat SAM used by the Argentinians during the Falklands war and what lucky.BOY is working on currently which will hopefully replace the MIM-23 in a later release. Its also a place holder for the Rapier SAM system used by the British in the Falklands war to protect San Carlos from air attack.
Credits:
Model: USI Mod - Silence14
Texture: USI Mod - Pete Monster & Slayer Dark Cross
Coding: USI Mod & [R-DEV]Rhino
There are a few new feature we are going to try out in PR:F and one of these new features is having the wheels on helicopters rotate in the same way the wheels on a jet do. Before wheels on helicopters didn't turn when in the contact with the ground, instead they just stayed stationary, like the brakes where constantly applied. By having the wheels rotate, helicopters with wheels will not only be able to taxi on the ground, but will be able to perform rolling landings, be able to control there aircraft on the ground more when landing and in some cases, should prevent the helicopter from flipping over as the wheels will turn to compensate, instead of the entire chopper moving.
Here is a quick Proof of Concept (POC) video I did on it with the H-34 to show the rest of the team this concept, although the taxi engine (like what jets have) wasn't in, in this video and now has been applied. So far the feedback I've had from the testers that have tried it is all positive and if this works out in PR:F then it may be rolled out across all the helicopters with wheels in PR v1.0 and should give a nice distinct difference between helicopters with skids and wheels, which is other than looks
Currently only the Wessex and the Chinook CH1 in PR:F (only wheeled choppers in it) have this new code applied to them, all choppers with skids remain as they where.
Moving onto a slightly related subject of wheels, while working on the above code I noticed there looked like there was a possible way of getting rid of the "magic brake" that the jets have when players jump out of them at the end of the runway, and the jet stops in ~5ms even if it was travelling at high speeds still, which players where doing to save their jets on poor landings, rather than taking off and circling round again for another attempt. This code has only been applied to the Miarge IIIEA, IAI Dagger and A-4C in PR:F but if this works out it may be applied to all the jets in PR for v1.0, but we will be looking for your feedback on this once PR:F has been released with this change in.
That's all for today guys! I hope you like what we have shown you today and keep your eyes peeled for any further developments
