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I'm playing tutorial 2 and I have a question re helicopters. It seems that if I check LOS for a helicopter it does not receive any benefit from being airborne. I would expect that because it flies above ground/trees etc that its LOS would be increased?

Also I was hoping to be able to check helicopter LOS using shift-click in various hexes to determine a good route for scouting. From what I can see when you shift-click to check LOS in a hex it always assumes that the unit is at ground level?

Thanks

Helicopters do observe (perform LOS) from a different height than ground units, depending on their orders.

A helicopter is at height 0 (above ground level) when Resupplying.

A helicopter is at nap-of-earth (NOE) height when in Screen, Hold, Hunt or Move Deliberate, which is 15m/50ft AGL.

A helicopter is at higher altitude when Moving Hasty or Assaulting, which is 100m / 300ft AGL.

For reference, all elevation steps are 50m (150ft) high in Southern Storm. Unless the helicopter is Moving Hasty or Assaulting, they are not high enough to look over one elevation step.

The line-of-sight check is in 3D and accounts for objects on the ground (trees, houses) also extending upwards, so having a helicopter hovering doesn't guarantee it sees across houses, especially when far away (shallow angle).