Heliborne

[spelk]

Is this a "World of Tanks" for helicopters? Or something else?

[ComradeP]

As Jingles says in his video, it isn't. I'm not sure that's entirely true, as the design philosophy seems similar: detailed representations of military equipment with highly simplified single person handling.

From what it looks like, it's an area control game mixed with objectives popping up that are often tied to those areas.

Unlike WoT, there's no permadeath during a round. The system seems to be more similar to games like the Battlefield series where there's a respawn time for destroyed equipment. You take 3 helicopters with you into a battle, ideally (necessarily?) of the three types in the game: recon, air assault and attack and can switch back at base or when your helicopter is destroyed (or potentially at other times as well, that isn't entirely clear from the video). The role of recon helicopters seems limited in the sense that they spot men obscured by the treetops but are otherwise not really suitable for the meat and potatoes part of the gameplay: capturing areas and/or preventing the enemy team from doing the same.

It looks like a good game, though I'm somewhat worried about the Soviet air assault helicopters in particular being overpowered as the Soviets had a tendency to attach rocket pods to just about any helicopter and NATO often had just door gunners or some limited missile armament. I didn't check the list of included helicopters in detail yet, it's quite possible this is not an issue if they picked the right variants. With simplified handling, the 1980's> NATO edge in electronics and guidance systems would also not be easy to represent, but maybe it's abstracted into better ratings. Soviet designs often having good flight characteristics might also stand out too much this way.

Another concern would be the presence of manpads in matches with helicopters from the pre-SAM era, as that doesn't seem entirely fair.

[Nefaro]

Am I gonna need to move my rudder pedals upstairs?

Where we're going.. we don't need rudder pedals.

Works just fine with mouse & keyboard.  Which is a Pro, when I don't want to deck myself in all my peripheral plastic, metal, & wires, nor set them up for the specific game.

[Nefaro]

It is a little bit like WoT/WT, in that it has unlock trees.  But there is almost no grind to them.  They're more for getting acquainted, in a short time, before moving up to bigger & faster stuff.  Saw mention that people unlocked everything in the game within 12 hours of play time.

Buy it for $20, and you own everything.  No need for micro-transactions or 'premium' time.

Winning matches are primarily about air assault.  Some helos can carry troops.  You can load up different types; Troops, Mortars, MANPADS, and RPG/AT.  Drop them off inside cleared bases to capture them.  Drop the MANPADS and Rocket troops off anywhere to ambush enemy helos or armored groups moving toward your caps.  Because, after a certain amount of time, in one of the major game modes, an armored column will form at long-held bases and move down the road toward a nearby enemy base.

The three helo types, as ComradeP mentioned, are Scout, Assault, and Attack.   Scouts can spot enemy ground units from much further away (which is VERY helpful against infantry, mark them with 'B' key for team to see) and can call in fire missions from Mortars previously dropped on the map by your team.  They're also often lightly armed & universally pretty agile.  Assault helos are the main troop carriers, of course, and many can carry a fair bit of rockets and multi-arc gunners.  Attack helos are what you'd expect - more heavily armed and armored for blasting stuff.  Some of the highest tier Attack helos also have a loadout option with AA missiles.

There are four tiers of helicopters.  Many of the helos are rated in between two tiers, such as II-III or III-IV.  You make a squadron, or 'deck' as some might call it, of up to three helos playable at a certain tier.  There is an overall point limit, depending on that tier, which limits the total you spend on not only helo types, but also different loadouts, troop types, flares, etc for each.  If you get destroyed, the type you were flying goes on a repair cooldown for a couple minutes, but you can switch to one of the other two you brought.

There are four maps, and one variant, that I know about.  One map for each tier.  Vietnam, Afghanistan (Soviet era), different Afghanistan (US?), and Kosovo.  There is also a nighttime Kosovo variant available. 

There is no matchmaker (currently?) so people just select the game type & details they want started and go.  People can drop in & out.  So the multi-player is a more traditional one.  There is Co-Op and PvP game types available.   IIRC, each match has an 8v8 limit at the moment.

It has a pretty easy control scheme, although fast NOE flying will still be challenging.  Especially on maps with steep hills & mountains.  At higher tiers, where MANPADS may be a regular threat, you probably don't want to be flying very high, either.  By default, flight is controlled by WASD for accel/decel (nose forward and back also works for that, of course) and side strafing.  Space & Shift gains and loses altitude (collective) respectively.  Pretty sure it has the option to use joystick/HOTAS, but if I wanted to pull all that out, I'd be doing DCS.

The weapon loadouts are listed on the top-left of the screen, when in-game.  They also have their remaining amounts and, most importantly for us noobs, the keyboard # which selects your active weapon listed.  Pay attention to that and it'll tell you what key to push for what you want to use at any one moment.

Heliborne is pretty arcade-y, but it plays quick and has little grind.  You'll get lots of shooting, and the base capture/air assault facet looks like it adds an interesting side to the meta; closer to a large MOBA than WoT-style victory conditions. 

I've only dipped my toe in thus far.  Still getting the hang of it & reading up on details.

[Tuna]

Steam only?

[Nefaro]

Steam only?

Seems so.

Been a steady pattern of that.

[Toonces]

I'm mildly interested in this.  Not impulse buy interested, but if I find a $20 in my pocket sometime I might have to get this.

[Nefaro]

I'm mildly interested in this.  Not impulse buy interested, but if I find a $20 in my pocket sometime I might have to get this.

It may be something light & multi for me, when I don't want to bust out all the flight sim hardware and rearrange my desk to suit it all.   Or swillin' the liquor and avoiding *intent stare* states.

We'll see. 

[Tuna]

Easy to hook up with friends in MP? Sorry, away at Amherst this weekend. Parents weekend for my youngest who is a freshman. 

[Nefaro]

Easy to hook up with friends in MP? Sorry, away at Amherst this weekend. Parents weekend for my youngest who is a freshman.

It has a server list.  Each listed match also indicates player names of who's in them. 

So you have to scroll through the list and look.  Although it has PvP/Co-op/Tier server filters.


I'm not sure what all they plan on adding.  I'd almost like to see some automated matchmaking for PvP, but they're drop in/out matches.  You can join or leave whenever you want.  So more like regular games.  Doesn't really need matchmaking, I suppose.

I've not played PvP yet, only Co-op.  The game was obviously made for PvP, but I'm still working on handling the helicopters.  Primarily coming in quickly & sitting it down on a cap zone pad, in order to drop troops & get back in the air.  Want my keyboard handling skills ingrained in muscle memory before going PvP.  Especially later on when there will be SAMs & such to avoid via weaving, and flying fast & dangerously low to block their line of sight.

Was a bit unsure of what to think, the first few matches, but I started getting accustomed to the controls & enjoying it for what it is.  Light multi-player action.  Although I'll have to move on from co-op mode soon.  Definitely made for PvP.  You don't get the full deal without it since the co-op enemy side doesn't have Helo bots, so it plays more like 'pop goes the weasel' with generic ground attacks popping up, which you must go squash/recapture within a time limit to earn more score.

[Nefaro]

Whew.. the PvP needs some kind of balancing limitations for people joining in the middle of the match.

Was running Soviet side in a match.  People kept joining US side, ended up being 1v4 or 2v4 most of the time.   

Guess that's the drawback to having completely open drop in/out.   They should limit each side to +1.   It's not like your XP earnings can't be spent on unlocking ANY side.