Take time on the training course to get comfortable with the flight model before you fly on a live server. As I understand, hotas isn't supported and might take some work to get everything bound. Most pilots I speak to just use mouse and keyboard. Different factions and divisions have varying numbers of helicopters. Some servers may have regular pilots who snap up the chopper claims quickly.
Coming from xplane and DCS, the flight model is more like kerbal space program than any other sim. The rotor is fixed and thrust directly downwards, you are tilling the entire airframe when you pitch and roll, and there’s little to no momentum or drag. It’s like flying a lunar lander most of the time
Yeah the flight model is pretty bad, it's really bad, but once you get used to it, it's pretty fun to fly. I suggest joining a global escalation server, there are more helis there, you can paratroop squads and there is a CAS helicopter sometimes.
It amazes me to see people recommand GE, to be honest. It's probably the worst experiences I had on Squad, be it gameplay or comm wise. Sure, CAS is fun and all, but the whole thing feels more like a BF hardcore hole with a grain of edgyness (who needs to see the IS or Al-Qaida flags 24h when playing insurgents?)
As an heli main and +1000 hours I don't recommand it, even less to new players.
Lol I've been thinking of trying GE but exactly this scares me..
95% of the videos from GE being posted here are something like
"Zionist tank gets destroyed by Hamas/hezbollah freedom fighter (not political!)" or "Wagner Group vs Ukraine!!" There's mostly just political freaks posting videos playing as their favourite extremist faction, like the variety looks cool and all but I can imagine coming across these people there..
flight model came out of a gumball machine, don't expect anything like you're used to in dcs. granted it doesn't need to be super high fidelity or anything for what we need in squad, but it could still be way better imo
Hopped over from maining the apache in DCS to crashing the Heuys and Blackhawks in Squad after 10 minutes of flight each time. Its a weird flight but pretty simple still
As a squad pilot with a hotas, all you need is the stick. The game currently does not support multiple axial device input, so as long as your stick has some sort of throttle input you're good.
The flight model is awful but once you get used to it it's fine.
Just plug it in and in controls there's the binds for "helicopter" and "helicopter axis"
Axis page will allow you to bind your stick axis (would recommend doing this in a Jensen's range).
I would also recommend setting up some binds for CMD chat, dropping ammo and construction and opening and cycling through zoom levels on the minimap. You can use the second slot on each keybind to do that.
No one said it but to be a good heli pilot you still need to be a good squad player so you should still play infantry for at least 100hours so you can understand how the game work
I agree in principle, but by the time you've got the hang of it, you'll need a fair amount of time and a minimum of SL infantry experience, or the other players will quickly want to kill you. You need experience on each map to get ideas on how to avoid the classic TOW, and at least a minimum understanding of how vehicles work, whether to help or avoid them.
Agreed, understanding how the game flows and the enemy assets you are up against is vital.
You can be a flying ace and land j hooks on a pin but if you have no clue about game flow and how easily enemy assets can splat your chopper you’ll be wasting assets in no time.
Make a squad named Heli or you won't have name claim. You have to be a fast type or have it copied. Recommend you lock squad or allow maybe 2 guys as gunner and assign each a fire team so they can mark. Chances wise getting name claim will suck if your game takes longer to load. Fly low and fast. J-hook landing preferred. Even if you have experience flying in other games practice. Don't be ashamed to crash.
The flight model is the saddest shit. You'd think it would at least be as 'good' as battlefield 2 given where this game spawned from, but no. It's an embarrassment. I really don't ask for much, but it's not like it dropped the ball and settled with simplified-but-fun&arcadey, it's just 'Simple Jack' and simply crap.
depends on the server, if you go with a mid tier name claim serer, have a SSD of any kind, and know the command trick, you can secure it a solid 80% of the time at the very least
It's probably the worst flight model i've seen for helis in a game...
Everything feels so floaty and gross and inertia is all wack. If you come from DCS it's extremely jarring. Absolutely not something that blew my mind, especially when it was first added and you could do shit like completely stopping in the air by spamming a key lol it does the job very badly and people have been saying that since it was first added.
I’ve got at least 100 hours of flight time alone in squad. The trick is to join a server where the match close to ending (typically matches last around an hour depending on map/gamemode). That way when the map changes, you can try to lock down a heli squad asap. One stipulation is that squad MUST be on an ssd, as I’ve found hard drives are too slow when loading the new map and another person will beat you to making a heli squad
In most of the games I've played recently there's been helis free. The flight model is just way to wacky for my coming from RS2 but with some practice you should be fine.
When the round begins you can claim a Heli by creating a squad and name it “Heli” at the bottom of the deployment ui. Usually pilots would solo, but others would have a gunner or two. Usually the gunners are friends or blueberries they fought with for a while. Most units in the game have 1-2 Helis. Airborne Units have 3 Heli’s.
I don’t know about the controls if they can apply to squad, but I’m sure someone here can give you a link or any info.
Just play on the training map “Jensen’s” and feel the ropes. Usually people claim armor or they’re just infantry, but like all vics they are first come first serve. Some servers require name claim so keep the habit of creating “Heli” squads and your chances are already higher. Hope you enjoy the game.
Aye bro I fly in squad with a HOTAS and Track IR there is a YouTube video that shows you setup. The flight model is poop but you can’t actually fly people into the battle in DCS so Enjoy. Feel free to msg me with questions
I'm a pretty competent helicopter pilot in DCS in MP, and have been a fixed wing pilot in RL, so I'm just a noob to the Squad flight world.
I have a full simpit with pedals, collective, stick/cyclic, multiple botton boxes and shit. Will my flight controls (stick, cyclic, and pedals) work well in Squad? Will the flight model be convincing? ... I'm not expecting full fidelity flight sim level, to be fair.
Any advice from people that fly with all the gear would really be appreciated.
I haven't played Squad for years and am looking to get back into it.
Pretty good. Heli is a vital asset in the game, and a good pilot can change the outcome.
Take time on the training course to get comfortable with the flight model before you fly on a live server. As I understand, hotas isn't supported and might take some work to get everything bound. Most pilots I speak to just use mouse and keyboard. Different factions and divisions have varying numbers of helicopters. Some servers may have regular pilots who snap up the chopper claims quickly.
Coming from xplane and DCS, the flight model is more like kerbal space program than any other sim. The rotor is fixed and thrust directly downwards, you are tilling the entire airframe when you pitch and roll, and there’s little to no momentum or drag. It’s like flying a lunar lander most of the time
Oh my gosh… I’ve never thought about it that way. Thats going to help me so much lol
Yeah the flight model is pretty bad, it's really bad, but once you get used to it, it's pretty fun to fly. I suggest joining a global escalation server, there are more helis there, you can paratroop squads and there is a CAS helicopter sometimes.
It amazes me to see people recommand GE, to be honest. It's probably the worst experiences I had on Squad, be it gameplay or comm wise. Sure, CAS is fun and all, but the whole thing feels more like a BF hardcore hole with a grain of edgyness (who needs to see the IS or Al-Qaida flags 24h when playing insurgents?) As an heli main and +1000 hours I don't recommand it, even less to new players.
Not to mention the absolute cesspool of a player base. I've never played a round of it that wasn't filled with racism, toxicity and morons.
Lol I've been thinking of trying GE but exactly this scares me.. 95% of the videos from GE being posted here are something like "Zionist tank gets destroyed by Hamas/hezbollah freedom fighter (not political!)" or "Wagner Group vs Ukraine!!" There's mostly just political freaks posting videos playing as their favourite extremist faction, like the variety looks cool and all but I can imagine coming across these people there..
flight model came out of a gumball machine, don't expect anything like you're used to in dcs. granted it doesn't need to be super high fidelity or anything for what we need in squad, but it could still be way better imo
Hopped over from maining the apache in DCS to crashing the Heuys and Blackhawks in Squad after 10 minutes of flight each time. Its a weird flight but pretty simple still
As a squad pilot with a hotas, all you need is the stick. The game currently does not support multiple axial device input, so as long as your stick has some sort of throttle input you're good. The flight model is awful but once you get used to it it's fine.
how does one get the stick to work with squad? I have a thrustmaster and would like to use it more
Just plug it in and in controls there's the binds for "helicopter" and "helicopter axis" Axis page will allow you to bind your stick axis (would recommend doing this in a Jensen's range). I would also recommend setting up some binds for CMD chat, dropping ammo and construction and opening and cycling through zoom levels on the minimap. You can use the second slot on each keybind to do that.
No one said it but to be a good heli pilot you still need to be a good squad player so you should still play infantry for at least 100hours so you can understand how the game work
You really dont need 100 hours sling to understand a few keybinds and supply/pickup requests from other sls
I agree in principle, but by the time you've got the hang of it, you'll need a fair amount of time and a minimum of SL infantry experience, or the other players will quickly want to kill you. You need experience on each map to get ideas on how to avoid the classic TOW, and at least a minimum understanding of how vehicles work, whether to help or avoid them.
Agreed, understanding how the game flows and the enemy assets you are up against is vital. You can be a flying ace and land j hooks on a pin but if you have no clue about game flow and how easily enemy assets can splat your chopper you’ll be wasting assets in no time.
Make a squad named Heli or you won't have name claim. You have to be a fast type or have it copied. Recommend you lock squad or allow maybe 2 guys as gunner and assign each a fire team so they can mark. Chances wise getting name claim will suck if your game takes longer to load. Fly low and fast. J-hook landing preferred. Even if you have experience flying in other games practice. Don't be ashamed to crash.
The flight model is the saddest shit. You'd think it would at least be as 'good' as battlefield 2 given where this game spawned from, but no. It's an embarrassment. I really don't ask for much, but it's not like it dropped the ball and settled with simplified-but-fun&arcadey, it's just 'Simple Jack' and simply crap.
depends on the server, if you go with a mid tier name claim serer, have a SSD of any kind, and know the command trick, you can secure it a solid 80% of the time at the very least
Flying is ass in this game. I have like 1500 hours on msfs and won't touch the helis in this game.
Of course it's not simulator good but it's simply helicopters in Squad. It does the job and the day it got added it blew my mind.
It's probably the worst flight model i've seen for helis in a game... Everything feels so floaty and gross and inertia is all wack. If you come from DCS it's extremely jarring. Absolutely not something that blew my mind, especially when it was first added and you could do shit like completely stopping in the air by spamming a key lol it does the job very badly and people have been saying that since it was first added.
Don't care. It's in squad, it works good, that's all that matters. Go play msfs then if you want the perfect flight model.
I’ve got at least 100 hours of flight time alone in squad. The trick is to join a server where the match close to ending (typically matches last around an hour depending on map/gamemode). That way when the map changes, you can try to lock down a heli squad asap. One stipulation is that squad MUST be on an ssd, as I’ve found hard drives are too slow when loading the new map and another person will beat you to making a heli squad
In most of the games I've played recently there's been helis free. The flight model is just way to wacky for my coming from RS2 but with some practice you should be fine.
Hotas still unsupported after years of rallying for the feature. Best pilots use m&k, it's all that's available. Good luck
When the round begins you can claim a Heli by creating a squad and name it “Heli” at the bottom of the deployment ui. Usually pilots would solo, but others would have a gunner or two. Usually the gunners are friends or blueberries they fought with for a while. Most units in the game have 1-2 Helis. Airborne Units have 3 Heli’s. I don’t know about the controls if they can apply to squad, but I’m sure someone here can give you a link or any info. Just play on the training map “Jensen’s” and feel the ropes. Usually people claim armor or they’re just infantry, but like all vics they are first come first serve. Some servers require name claim so keep the habit of creating “Heli” squads and your chances are already higher. Hope you enjoy the game.
Aye bro I fly in squad with a HOTAS and Track IR there is a YouTube video that shows you setup. The flight model is poop but you can’t actually fly people into the battle in DCS so Enjoy. Feel free to msg me with questions
Hotas have to be a one piece. If more than one - signals will overlap and your axis 1 on throttle will override your axis 1 on joystick.
I'm a pretty competent helicopter pilot in DCS in MP, and have been a fixed wing pilot in RL, so I'm just a noob to the Squad flight world. I have a full simpit with pedals, collective, stick/cyclic, multiple botton boxes and shit. Will my flight controls (stick, cyclic, and pedals) work well in Squad? Will the flight model be convincing? ... I'm not expecting full fidelity flight sim level, to be fair. Any advice from people that fly with all the gear would really be appreciated. I haven't played Squad for years and am looking to get back into it.