PD Helicopter Tracking.

[heelsoul]

Hey.

To make this short, I have a simple suggestion, because I just experienced it first hand. I was getting chased by PD and I had Air 1 on me (ONLY AIR 1, because i lost everyone else) and the beam light was directly on me, my car was directly in the middle of it the whole time. I don't know how it works or what got changed, but its so unrealistic how PD have a full on lock on my car and I cant lose them, I drove into a tunnel and right when I drove out they were instantly right over me again, perfectly locked on with the beam light, meaning the driver doesn't have to do anything since the script does it for them.

Again its another overpowered thing that PD have and crims suffer, I suggest that this gets changed or actually have the tracking get done by a person and not a script.

[Normal]

+1

[SaltyPoiosn]

I agree, have a co pilot who has to control the spotlight manually. Leaning towards more of a skill full approach, rather than having a lock on with no effort at all. 

[ash816]

(taken from another post i made)

The helicopters are pretty busted. 

The LOCK ON feature of the new camera of the helicopter is an absolute JOKE. (see here : )

As someone who flew one regularly with SD, the talent came from having to do callouts + watch a tiny spec on your screen and fly at the same time. Now this has been trivialised, the helicopter is already overbearing, + 9/10 times it would be a buzzard anyway so if you take tyres you get shot by the buzzard too.

At minimum it should be a free look camera so the operator has some chance to make a mistake, or unblock the underground.

Not to mention the light which locks onto you and virtually blinds you / gives you epilepsy. (apparently been adjusted)

[heelsoul]

@ash816That is fucking crazy, it isnt ever fair, because it locks on through tunnels, i've never seen that before and may I add. I NEVER KNEW ABOUT THIS CHANGE! like mid chase i was super confused, i literally said "how am I always perfectly in the middle of the light, its like they have a lock on me." this explains a lot and its crazy how going through a tunnel they are still locked on. This caused me to lose a fully kitted out SMG and 12k in fines + 2h 30 in jail. Ridiculous.

[Normal]

18 minutes ago, ash816 said:

The LOCK ON feature of the new camera of the helicopter is an absolute JOKE. (see here : )

bro that is insane, it needs to be player controlled to give room for error...

[defly]

+1, this is just fucked

[nobrain]

+1

 

[EimaTrG]

+1

[Thang]

As a person who developed the helicam script I will address some incorrect assumptions. 

The usage of the camera and the spotlight requires a copilot, the pilot cannot just enable it and have it lock onto someone. The pilot simply cannot even access the camera, only the copilot can. That makes it a pure sidegrade as the department needs to have 2 people instead of 1 to fly the helicopter.  

The lock-on system breaks whenever a line of sight between the camera and the tracked vehicle is broken. It doesn't follow through terrain or anything like that. And if someone claims that it does then please send me the evidence of it, so I can try to fix it.

[heelsoul]

@Thang Well my fault, if it isnt like that, but it doesnt make a difference, because how realistic is it to have it 100% LOCKED ON, the whole time! It should be someone manually controlling it. Even further more, it only takes a second of you being in sight and it instantly locking on again. The overall camera and zooming in part of the script is cool, but making it manually controlled is the literally the only way to make it realistic.

[Salvador Rivera]

I hope u guys are joking with this? Take it out, +1 to remove this

[GoldieShort]

+1
The idea is very cool but it's way to overpowered

Edited June 17, 2024 by GoldieShort

[Ctrl]

+1, While the light and camera script is cool, there is 0 reason it should be auto lock on. That's taking all the work out of it because while a pilot cant use the camera, he can simply sit someone in the passanger seat to use the camera and that person doesn't have to do anything else, the pilot can just follow the light and give call outs. Its extremely broken and needs to be manual tracking. What software would be abord the heli's to allow for this? It just doesn't seem super realistic whatsoever and furthers the mindset that the most overpowered gang in the city is in fact PD. 

[David Coast]

I was using the helicam the other day and it is cool and to my knowledge, it's pretty realistic. However there is almost nothing crims can do to counteract this, the helicopter can be far enough in the air that gunshots just won't reach guns that crims can get their hands on. 

I understand that it's realistic and makes sense but I do also believe it encourages Less RP and more gunfights/ambushes. Since crims cannot evade from this most of the time it makes more sense to them just to set up somewhere and shoot at LEOs.

I'm pretty sure in the very clip that is being used we were being led into an ambush.

A good way to make this more fair while also respecting the work put into developing this would be to remove the Lock On.

[Quietthecutie]

1 hour ago, Thang said:

The usage of the camera and the spotlight requires a copilot, the pilot cannot just enable it and have it lock onto someone. The pilot simply cannot even access the camera, only the copilot can. That makes it a pure sidegrade as the department needs to have 2 people instead of 1 to fly the helicopter.  

If your only argument for it being a "side-grade" is that it requires a second person to man the camera, you must be joking.

The ammount of tactical advantage old air1 gave you was already insanely strong but i understood its need for RP purposes, and losing old air1 could be exciting when you pulled it off.

But now new air1 has complete autoaim, and a nice big light shining down on the evader so even the most blind ground unit can track them.

Not only this, but all the skill of a good pilot able to keep the pursuit and give comms has also been lost.

And all of this, for the cost of one extra man in the cockpit. Lets be generous and say thats one less STX in the by this time 6 unit to one crim ground pursuit. And in return for that one rather inconsequential unit (because to be fair if you pull a heroic move and lose 5 units the 6th probably wont be the difference maker.) You get all of these advantages.

 

Sure dosent sound like a "side-grade" to me.

[Bala]

3 hours ago, heelsoul said:

Hey.

To make this short, I have a simple suggestion, because I just experienced it first hand. I was getting chased by PD and I had Air 1 on me (ONLY AIR 1, because i lost everyone else) and the beam light was directly on me, my car was directly in the middle of it the whole time. I don't know how it works or what got changed, but its so unrealistic how PD have a full on lock on my car and I cant lose them, I drove into a tunnel and right when I drove out they were instantly right over me again, perfectly locked on with the beam light, meaning the driver doesn't have to do anything since the script does it for them.

Again its another overpowered thing that PD have and crims suffer, I suggest that this gets changed or actually have the tracking get done by a person and not a script.

This sort of goes into the usual forum territory of assumption, so I'll try and explain it to you without giving the game completely away.

The "lock" is dependent on maintaining a line of sight, if the line of sight is broken, then the lock is broken. Going through a tunnel breaks the lock. If you had for example, gone into the tunnel and u-turned, the camera would not have relocked itself.

But I bet you exited the other side, at which point, it can be re-locked.

If this was the Paragon situation, there is a pilot and a co-pilot. One person operates the aircraft and one operates the camera/spotlight. Just because you didn't lose the helicopter doesn't mean it cannot be done. 

Bare in mind also, spotlight or camera aside, most of the pilots in SD and PD have put hours and hours into practicing pursuit flying. In short, it's not the script doing it for us. We're just good.

And honestly, this was tested by the server owner prior to being implemented and they actually queried whether or not it was supposed to break so easy. Could it just be that you didn't take enough evasive action?

Edited June 17, 2024 by Bala

[Eliza]

I don’t believe the helicopter’s camera is that overpowered, I’ve lost AIR-1 several times since the implementation of the camera. As others have mentioned, the camera needs a co-pilot to operate, and is a lot harder than would be assumed to quickly get a co-pilot during a high speed pursuit, given that the majority of cars driven by criminals can outspeed and out maneuver the standard police vehicles.

My only real complaint is AIR-1 flying so high to the point of not seeing or hearing it.

 

Almost all police helicopters IRL are equipped with cameras:

 

Edited June 17, 2024 by DontSniffSugar

[heelsoul]

@Bala @DontSniffSugar Cool now that I know that it doesn't lock through tunnels its fine. My evading skills aren't really in question, since I lost all of the ground units like 2-3x and yet a big spot light is over my head always perfectly centerred, if I were to swerve left or right at some point, I should go into a dark spot, which could make me get away, but having a lock on the vehicle is like having aimbot. It literally doesn't go out of sync for even a second. Just because the "co pilot" is using it doesnt make it any better. In all of those examples Sugar provided the car isnt PERFECTLY centered and there could be human errors made. (I believe they are all manually controlled.) Thats the whole problem. Its not about the fact that its unrealistic for having a camera, its unrealistic that there is a script lock, it should be manually controlled. As I said I think its cool as shit that PD and SD have this, but it should have some realism and shouldn't be on a SCRIPT AUTO LOCK.

 

EDIT: Just re-read Sugars message, it is crazy to assume that crim cars are faster then PD. Any PD Jug or Shinobi would've got me. It is mostly the problem that cops stack in their buffalos and jugs, so it makes them lose really hard, which more so isnt a crim issue. If they want to make it SOOOOO OP for cops to easily get criminals, then what even is the incentive of crims doing ANYTHING WITH PD? You shoot, you lose ; you run, you now also lose.

Edited June 17, 2024 by heelsoul

[Normal]

14 minutes ago, DontSniffSugar said:

Almost all police helicopters IRL are equipped with cameras:

irl tho they dont aimbot a car... thats the only issue i see with them

in the videos you provided you can see a person is manning said camera and the car(s) manage to get out of the dead center of the camera many many times

 

Edited June 17, 2024 by Normal

[Why]

100% agree with original poster. Air-1 was enough before the update. 

[EimaTrG]

15 minutes ago, DontSniffSugar said:

I don’t believe the helicopter’s camera is that overpowered, I’ve lost AIR-1 several times since the implementation of the camera. As others have mentioned, the camera needs a co-pilot to operate, and is a lot harder than would be assumed to quickly get a co-pilot during a high speed pursuit, given that the majority of cars driven by criminals can outspeed and out maneuver the standard police vehicles.

My only real complaint is AIR-1 flying so high to the point of not seeing or hearing it.

 

Almost all police helicopters IRL are equipped with cameras:

 

Your whole point is that it is hard for them to find a co-pilot but the thing is that they sit on top of Maze Bank Tower waiting for a chase to happen (2 people) and it just doesn't make a difference.

[risk]

Quote

And honestly, this was tested by the server owner prior to being implemented and they actually queried whether or not it was supposed to break so easy. Could it just be that you didn't take enough evasive action?

I don't typically comment on these Crim vs LEO discussions as I often see both sides and they turn ugly rather quickly but I think dismissing concerns regarding a new scripted feature as a skill issue is a large part of the problem. There are many things about PD/SD functionality that are kept secret - which is a discussion in and of itself not needed here - and you of all people understand how this community works. 

Transparency regarding concerns can nip gossip in the bud and prevent over exaggeration. Both sides of the coin need to be more open to addressing concerns without just tossing them aside. 

As far as the helicopter cam is concerned, I have no issues with the spotlight as long as it remains synced and the tracking is what it is. 

I'll echo DontSniffSugar's sentiment my only concerns are with how high the helicopter can fly now, out of render distance and essentially an invisible spy. Even that may be an exaggeration because of the aforementioned lack of transparency. Perhaps some clarity can be provided. 

[Normal]

6 minutes ago, risk said:

As far as the helicopter cam is concerned, I have no issues with the spotlight as long as it remains synced and the tracking is what it is. 

the only issue i see with it is the literal aimbot, the copilot simply needs to lock on then their only job is to zoom in and out, the addition of a spot light and camera are amazing dont get me wrong, i like it, i just think, like real life, human input is a needed thing, it gives room for human error during air-1 use meaning the copilot has to remain attentive the whole time moving the spotlight and camera themself 

 

irl you can outrun the heli and its not aimbotting the car the whole time. Crims pay alot of money for cars to do this stuff and now its almost impossible to simply outrun air-1 anymore

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9eLpH513po

 

Edited June 17, 2024 by Normal

[ash816]

"go into tunnels" - half of the tunnels are blocked off (alta street apartments and the one under chili) , all this does it attack those who want to race on the roads and give your co pilot nothing requiring talent to do.

Surely it would be more fun for the co pilot to actually have to do something than watch a light aimbot on a car? (irrespective of whether they have it in real-life)