| Team Apache
By Neil "Enzo" Mouneimne |
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The spotting system still has a couple flaws that need to be worked out. While how well you can spot targets will depend on the vagaries of the skills and well-being of your gunner, you can end up in unfortunate situations where even legally blind gunners should be able to spot targets but can't. In target rich environments, sometimes the gunner will rapidly switch between targets and/or ignore targeting orders. In another case, an enemy Hind spent nearly a minute lobbing one missile after another before the gunner spotted him - making it a little too hard to keep on top of things sometimes. It is worth adding that you do have the option to enable a "cheater radar" display that will show you where enemy units are, although actually getting a fix on them still is done with the given spotting system.
Aiming is also very unique. With most games, the moment you select a target, your weapons are instantly trained and ready like a science-fiction laser. Aiming in Team Apache is much more human and believable. When using the chain gun, once a target is spotted, the gunner will turn his head to aim at the target, and the gunsight cue will indicate the gun tracking around until it lines up with the target. The actual aim point will dance around as the gunner constantly adjusts his aim, so there is a certain degree of timing and manuevering involved to get the most accurate shot possible. Missiles use a somewhat similar method. Once Hellfires are selected and a promising target is found, a few seconds of stable flight are necessary to get an accurate enough fix for the gunner to activate the laser. Holding an accurate lock will still depend on how smoothly you fly and the condition of your gunner. Stinger shots are of course fire-and-forget, but they still require a moment for the seeker head to get a fix. Rockets are - surprisingly enough - employed just like they are in conventional helicopter sims, but be warned that actually hitting and destroying targets with them is a real challenge. Don't bother to adjust your sound card Sounds are nicely oriented but have a few quirks. On one hand, the basic sounds are well done and stereo panning is nicely implemented. This way, you can quickly localize where gunfire is coming from and actually use your stereo or headphones like another set of sensors. On the other hand, incorrect sounds, sound popping, and some of the worst voice acting this side of a Godzilla movie tend to offset the positive aspects. With regards to incorrect sounds, the two worst offenders are the rotor and ground fire sounds. The Apache uses a four-bladed rotor that generates a kind of buzzing sound (similar to an eggbeater in a bowl of batter). It's much more subtle sound than the one that Team Apache uses - the obnoxious "whup-whup-whup" sound that is so specific to the two-bladed rotors of the Vietnam-era Huey helicopters - an inaccuracy that really kills suspension of disbelief for experienced sim players. Ground fire uses a heavy machine gun sound for all ground fire, regardless of whether the source is small-arms fire or a 23mm AAA cannon. Popping and crackling is all over the sound effects in the game, particularly the voices. The options menu warns that playing the game at 800x600 resolution can cause such problems unless you are using a high-performance video card, but even with a Pure3D2 on board, the distortion was prevalent at all resolutions. We have heard from Neil Soane (Associate Producer for Team Apache) that a patch is in the works to correct this and hopefully will be ready by the end of the month.
Ed. Note: This in from QSound Tech: Team Apache uses QSound QMixer 3D audio mixing technology. It has come to our attention that there is a very minor problem that affects
the performance of the sound system throughout. Team Apache normally stores the qmixer.dll file in the \Windows\System directory. Create a text file called qmixer.ini in the same directory containing only the following two lines:
The crew voices themselves range from pretty decent to downright horrible depending on which crewmembers go flying on the mission. Not only does the game do some terrible matching between the voices and the crew photos, but over half the guys on your team have either nasal voices, bad accent stereotypes, lousy voice acting, or all of the above - and then there's Elvis. Furthermore, much of the writing for their dialogue is more appropriate for a "B" movie than it is for the elite of Army aviation.
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The world's most user-friendly Apache Avionics will quickly strike most sim players as being rather odd. Team Apache seems to really gloss over avionics - just giving it the "Hollywood" nod. The basics are all there, but outside of your basic display, the other instruments are in unwieldy views and (with the exception of the RWR and caution lights) aren't particularly useful. Even the "heads down" view is totally impractical to use in any mode other than software rendering because there is a long lag between the time that you request it and when it pops up. This is strong encouragement to stick with the IHADSS display. There aren't any special features for targeting, turning on and off the laser, turning on and off the jammer, or so on. 90% of the targeting is handled totally automatically by your gunner. All you have to do is fly into weapons constraints, give him time to line up the shot, then pull the trigger. The Hollywood influence is quite substantial. When a SAM launcher is tracking or launching a missile, a cyberpunk version of "Bitching Betty" gives you a rather cheesy warning. Missiles seem to track you just fine regardless of how low you fly, but punch out a single chaff or flare, and the missile will suddenly zing off in some other random direction for a couple seconds until the effect wears off. Enemy helicopters have almost no AI to speak of - they just sit and wait for you to show up, where they'll engage you with their AA weapons until shot down. They're little more than obstacles to knock down on your way to the primary target. In fact, most enemy units are conveniently placed in your path, so that if you fly much off the prescribed route, you can evade most of the opposition. Also strange is that the Stinger AA missiles are rendered on the Apache as Sidewinders, and like Sidewinders, you can only carry two, instead of the proper four.
A tour de forces The physics and flight model are pretty good in general. While the flight model feels very authentic overall, there are a few subtleties about it that are just a bit awkward. For example, it is possible to hover so absolutely perfectly that it seems like your helicopter is sitting on a rock rather than hanging from a quartet of violently spinning wings or bobbing on a cushion of air. The first version of Janes Longbow flight model had the reputation of making the helicopter want to climb like crazy when trying to stop. TA seems to go to the opposite extreme. It's extremely difficult to whip it into a steep climb using the cyclic (joystick). Regardless of how fast you're going, pulling back hard results in only a moderate climb and fast deceleration. Likewise, your altitude control is completely at the whim of the throttle - you'll go shooting up or down extremely fast based on it's setting. There are a few other oddities that are more difficult to describe accurately. However, once you get used to those quirks, the other 90% of the flight model is very well done. Not only does it represent rotor torque, inertia, and other flight aspects well, but it's also remarkably accessible for less-experienced sim pilots. Team Apache does a very admirable job of implementing force feedback. Few things are more ridiculous than when a company claims that making the stick buzz when you pull the trigger is force feedback. Hardly. True force feedback is when the kinds of force and resistance one encounters actually gives useful information about what the craft is doing. Team Apache does this very well. For starters, the feedback simulates the "blast effect" when large nearby explosions smack into your helo and toss it around. The expected kick from firing weapons and being hit is also there. However, the real feedback is where the stick simulates the "load" on the rotors. At low speed/low collective, you can mush the stick around fairly easily without much response. Once you take off, though - you can feel the resistance on the stick as you make manuevers that alternatively load and unload the rotor disc. It gives a greater feel for what the flight model is doing beyond the limits of graphic displays and sound effects. You can even feel twitching in the controls as you push the limits of the Apache's speed envelope. Nicely done! Go to Part III
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permission of the publisher.
Last updated July 12th, 1998 |
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