Is the Gazelle Worth Buying?

That’s the good bit! No thrill if it can’t spill! :wink:

Hey man, you are just really passionate about the Gazelle, I don’t think you sound very hateful or resentful about it!

I just love the Gazelle and how easy it is to fly and how fun it is to stalk tanks with it, just popping behind a building and finding your next route up forward, or sharing a cockpit online. It’s just such a wonderful experience !

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I enjoy flying the Gazelle so much I have flown this particular mission an unreasonable amount of times

https://youtu.be/4Q6SrYT2uBw

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The truth is that I want to love it the way I love the Dreamfoil 407 or the Belsimtek Mi-8. As a visual model the Gazelle is without compare. But in the current form, well, what more can I say? Here’s another thing to try (at least in DCS 2.1). Lift into a hover. Note the lack of roll. So far so good. Settle back down. Go full left stick and hit the force trim. Do it again. Note that the animated cyclic has repositioned 4 - 5 inches to the left (it’s new “center”). Now lift into a hover. Again note the lack of roll. In fact, nothing has changed. Settle back down and repeat to the right. If your results are different than mine then that might explain everything on my end.

The good news is that the team is working hard on it with the goal of finishing before the end of the year. I think (or hope) that they are aware of most of this stuff.

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This thread made me curious, so I took out the Gazelle for a spin. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, it feels a lot better than I remembered from the last time.

This was actually my second flight after a half-year long break:

Forgive me the bumpy landing at the end, but I keep underestimating the small amount of ground effect the Gazelle generates :slight_smile:

After this I did a 1 hour flight from St. Lo to Jersey. I think I am starting to get the control scheme behind this helicopter. In the past I have been using my G940 with FFB forces turned down, which provided for great control in the hover. But it also meant that I could not let go of the stick. Now with the T-50 I have a setup which is butter smooth to control, yet it stays in the center on its own. And I now realized that you can let go of the stick and the helicopter will automatically assume a cruise attitude, which can then be adjusted by trimming. This is pretty sweet actually. Letting go of the stick is not something which I have previously associated with flying helicopters.

What this module desperately needs though is a competent AI gunner for solo-play. Auto-hover and switching seats might work at the target range, but for treetop anti-tank flying I want to remain at the cyclic at all times.

Helicopter + VR + long stick = awesome :slight_smile:

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And before anyone gets too excited, here is the reason why you don’t have to seriously bother with the Gazelle in DCS other than to fool around a little:

DCS SA-342M Gazelle: Dead
DCS BO-105 PAH1A1: Dead

Let’s get back to playing with aircraft.

Watching your vid, I dont blame this on the Gazelle. The AI has omni-directional super vision and SA that is off the charts. It sees through trees and buildings and can engage on a snap shot, faster than you can.

I’ve died from Sagger shots just as I barely breech cover. I’m assuming youre in 1.5.7

Normandy/2.1 has solidified the trees and buildings, but the ground vehicles are so difficult to differentiate from the clutter now, it’s pointless. The trees should be cooler and the vehicle heat sig should stand out, but this is not the case.

In fact this test was done in Normandy. I now realized that the tank turning its turret apparently in foresight was because it spotted my Gazelle through the tree’s trunks, below the leaves (the white you can see below the trees in the video is not the background sky but my rotor downwash). Still it doesn’t change the primary problem with the AI, that the tank spotted me instantly as a LOS was established.

As such an AI makes the primary combat application of the Gazelle or the Bo-105 obsolete, these helicopters become pointless.

How did Steel Beasts do it? I remember stalking tanks from a flanking position with TOW carriers, taking counter-fire only after having exposed myself with my own fire.

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Truly an AI issue. You’ve made some great observations and points as to what needs attention.

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MBot, I can’t remember, but is there an AI “experience” level in the mission builder? (I know you know the mission builder from front to back, so since you haven’t mentioned it, there probably isn’t.) An “ace” unit would have godlike SA, while a “novice” unit would have a much larger acquisition time, smaller range, etc…

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Yes there is. Goes from “average” up to “excellent” level.

Ah, the Eagle Dynamics skill-scale: Average-Good-High-Excellent, where average is the lowest :slight_smile: With regards to ground units, I always keep them on Average, which is actually very good already.

If I had a say, I would have scaled the AI: Poor (Untrained), Average (Trained), High (Veteran), Excellent (Elite). Sometimes you want to do missions where the enemy is supposed to be incompetent.

Do we know if this works correctly or if there is no difference between Average and Excellent? Stop me if I’m rehashing a long discussion that y’all have all gone down before.

It generally effects their accuracy, reload rate, and the time required to recognize and react to a hostile.

I’ve also noticed with Russian MBTs it seems to determine whether or not they use tube launched ATGMs.

Based on the number ATGM’s that have hit me in the face in your missions, I know which setting you are not using…

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LOL. #truth

An ATGM hitting your helicopter is just foolishness leaving the body.

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Actually they also shoot ATGM on Average :slight_smile:

LIke I said, seems. As part of the highly scientific process I call “Throwing AI At Each Other”TM, my experience has been Russian MBTs armor seems less likely to use barrel launched ATGMs. I doubt this is an actually setting in their AI FSM, and more likely they’re not detecting enemy ground units until they’re already close enough to use traditional shells.

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Looks like they made a bunch of fixes to the Gazelle this week. I’ll try and hop in this afternoon and see if things have improved!

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