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I'm trying to make helicopter unit where it can land in a hex not just a airfield. now i have just copied the transport plane and changed it to a helicopter but it only is able to transport troops to and from an airfield. What i want is to be able to transport troops into hill, field or plain hex as well so does anyone know how this can be done.

Wouldn't it be some sort of truck type SFT then ?

ORIGINAL: lion_of_judah

I'm trying to make helicopter unit where it can land in a hex not just a airfield. now i have just copied the transport plane and changed it to a helicopter but it only is able to transport troops to and from an airfield. What i want is to be able to transport troops into hill, field or plain hex as well so does anyone know how this can be done.

Lion,

How do you want to model it?

There are a couple of approaches to take. If you want to make it an Air Based SFT. Then what you need to do is give the SFT's you want to heli-transport Paradrop capability. That's how the ATG engine handles AirLift/Paradrop.... Units that have "Paradrop" capability can be Air Transported to any terrain type that is marked as Paradrop-able in the terrain portion of the editor. Ones that don't have Paradrop capability can only be Air Ttansported to Location Types that have airfield capacity.

Alternatively, a better way to go might be to make helicopters a Land Based SFT that have transport capacity, like a half-track. In that case you'd want to define a seperate movement type for it and assign the appropiate AP costs for terrain. It would function just like a half-track (and could have it's own combat capacity as well) except for movement costs/penalties. You could even allow it to move over open bodies of water. Although one word of caution there...if you attack with a land based SFT from a water hex...that SFT is automaticaly destroyed at the end of the combat regardless of the results (it's a quirk of the AT engine).

If you want to see examples of the above methods in action. Take a look at my old Space Opera scenerio for AT. The "Gunships" in it function just like a land based SFT helicopter would...and the Landers or Assualt Landers Function just like an Air Based SFT helicopter would. Take a look at any of the other land based SFT's for example Militia or Rangers and you'll see that I had to give the Paradrop capability so that the Landers could drop them in other sorts of terrain besides those that have airfields.

Hope this helps out. Good Luck!

GrumpyMel

Thanks, your first suggestion i have tried already and while that does a decent job, it wasn't what i wanted. Now the second suggestion, is one which I'm actually thinking of doing and this idea is a good one and will work on it and let you know how it works. Thanks

If you use the land based option would it not be stopped by enemy units or zones of control?

If done some basic modding for helicopters in my bombur + mod mod. could anyone explain how the halftrack protection factors work?

id like to use them for my IFV and armoured helicopters.

ggm

ORIGINAL: LazyBoy

If you use the land based option would it not be stopped by enemy units or zones of control?

I have not thought about that, this is something to ponder over and test out....

ORIGINAL: ggm

If done some basic modding for helicopters in my bombur + mod mod. could anyone explain how the halftrack protection factors work?

id like to use them for my IFV and armoured helicopters.

ggm

I'm all ears, how can one do this and not be stopped by ZOC's?

I have been thinking about this and if you don't want the helicopter to stay in the landing hex you can change the para-drop field for each terrain type that you want to be able to land in and then use an air unit for the helicopter.
If you want to have the helicopter remain in the hex then something like the leader moving script from Lancers leaders mod, may be able to do it.

The helicopters for now are going too be able to function like transport planes but later will make them able to drop troops off and stay in the same hex as units later on. Ivory Coast scenario if all goes well will be uploaded within the next two weeks, it is all done now except event programming and this will come in an updated version ( no time frame).