SH-1000 "Piranha" Scout Helicopter Version 2

[Ace08]

Name: SH-1000 "Piranha" Scout Helicopter [V2]

Version: 2

Compatibility: UT2004

Description: The SH-1000 Scout Helicopter codenamed "Piranha", is a one-seat small helicopter that used to functions as ground support
for the military of Earth until its retirement. Although its career may be over in the battlefield,
it got a chance to shine once again when Liandri inducted it for use in the tournament. Although
although the helicopter is ancient in terms of Liandri aircraft technology, it somehow managed to impressed those whom
witnessed its capabilities. Its main means of flight include a 3-bladed rotor to give it lift, as well as a tail
rotor for stabilization. It also uses two large turbojet engines for added forward thrust as well as tight quick turns.
The helicopter has two main weapons including: a rotating minigun used to mow down enemies, and a laser-guided
missile that go wherever the pilot aim its crosshair.

Fixes/Changes:
*Fixed the lag build-up issue with the minigun.
*Decreased the minigun bullet damage by almost half.
*Increased minigun bullet's momentum force.
*Increased minigun spread--decreasing accuracy--to balance over-powered firing.
*Helicopter is more stable when shot at--doesn't jerk around as much.
*Modified some othe the textures' sizes to decrease ".utx file" size.
*AI bots only use guided missile on ground vehicles, except for Mantas.
*Modified the coded for the minigun's muzzle flash--also added smoke effect.

Screenshots:




Credits:

• SoundDogs for Helicopter Sounds
• SoundBible for Minigun Sounds
• Unfortunately, for noe I can't find where I got the missile launch sound.

Download:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/h2...coutHeliV2.zip

Known Bug/Issue:

• Death explosion may not appear.

[Parkis G]

Cool, I will have to check it out.

[Baryonyx]

Yep, me too.

[Turbo K]

Wow, a new vehicle! I'll check this out as as soon as possible.

[Ace08]

Sorry for the late reply, but have any of you guys tried it yet? Im curious to see how it went for you all.

[meowcat]

Hi Ace08, first, nice copter! It definitely feels like a highly effective vehicle (very deadly!). Its very good that you included static mesh bits for the helicopter explosion effects (its one of those nice "polish" things). In my brief test the bots seemed to use it effectively. The only negative is that it might be a tad overpowered (that minigun simply slaughters pawns on foot, one player could almost completely suppress an entire team with the copter). I love the missile explosion effect and minigun bullet hit effect!

A few technical recommendations:
1. Recommend rigidizing the turret and helicopter meshes.
2. Although the detail is great, I don't think that the jet engines, turret, and copter blades really each need their own 1024x1024 texture (overkill I think), a 256x256 or 512x512 should be fine since those portions of the copter will never really take up that much screen pixel space from the typical distances that human players will see the copter from. There was one more texture that needs to be compressed too.
3. The team color overlays can usually be a lot smaller resolution too (unless the color bleed is too bad).

[Ace08]

Hi Ace08, first, nice copter! It definitely feels like a highly effective vehicle (very deadly!). Its very good that you included static mesh bits for the helicopter explosion effects (its one of those nice "polish" things). In my brief test the bots seemed to use it effectively. The only negative is that it might be a tad overpowered (that minigun simply slaughters pawns on foot, one player could almost completely suppress an entire team with the copter). I love the missile explosion effect and minigun bullet hit effect!

A few technical recommendations:
1. Recommend rigidizing the turret and helicopter meshes.
2. Although the detail is great, I don't think that the jet engines, turret, and copter blades really each need their own 1024x1024 texture (overkill I think), a 256x256 or 512x512 should be fine since those portions of the copter will never really take up that much screen pixel space from the typical distances that human players will see the copter from. There was one more texture that needs to be compressed too.
3. The team color overlays can usually be a lot smaller resolution too (unless the color bleed is too bad).

Well sir, I took your word for it, and made some changes that's I think will improve overall. Go try it out yourself, I just uploaded an updated version.

[meowcat]

Hi Ace08,
I tried it out, and I dig it! The minigun is still super deadly, but is certainly fun (and boy does it appear to kick around other vehicles!). I love the laser guided missile, and also get a kick out of its explosion smoke effect! If you release another version, rigidizing the mesh would be nice as one last optimization, and thank you for using smaller tex sizes for the smaller parts (one more skin needs compressing to dxt5 though...), it really helps keep those of us with older comps running the game smoothly. Overall I really like the texture work as it really matches/fits into the existing UT2004 vehicle set.

This is a gem of a little vehicle for the game, good job! I can only hope UT4 gets this kind of continuing support and fun stuff in a few years.