Thanks for your patience!
Heliborne
Pre-Release Server Reboot
Thanks for your patience!
Heliborne Release Date Announcement!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUcoiklSiDY
It has been a long road, we’ve had good times, we’ve had bad times. But you guys have been always supporting us along the way. Let us express a deep gratitude to you. Without your support we wouldn’t achieve the point we are currently at. But better to do well than to say well, so every early supporter will receive a special gift from the Team JetCat.
What changes you can expect in the release version of Heliborne:
- two historical single player campaigns,
- several new helicopters,
- new camouflages,
- original soundtrack,
- updated game sounds,
- a night map,
- and more!
What will happen to Heliborne after the release? It will be getting only better! While the release is an important milestone for the Team JetCat, we are going to continue development to achieve our ultimate goal — to create the best helicopter action game on the market.
Prepare to get to the choppa! It’s only getting started!
Team JetCat
Heliborne 0.73 — Progression System (pre-release update)
Greetings Pilots! Heliborne is getting closer to the release, the Date will be announced very soon. Almost everything that we’ve promised to add during the Early Access stage has been implemented already. Just a few things will be left after the update 0.73, like a single player campaign, soundtrack and updated sounds, several new helicopters, and some other changes.
The Update 0.73 introduces a new game element, a very important one — Progression System. From now on most of the helicopters will be locked at the beginning. You’ll need to play and earn progression points to unlock helicopters and new modification.
We’ve been testing the progression system a lot to be both challenging and fun. Although you don’t have everything on a plate from the very start, you should be able to unlock something new literally after every battle. We really hope it will bring more players to battles and make you Heliborne experience more satisfying.
Please let us know what you think about it and how do you find the speed and difficulty of the progression: fast/easy, slow/difficult, or just perfect.
What about experience points (=military ranks) you have already earned, you would ask? They will be transformed into progression points! It means that those of you who’ve been playing Heliborne recently will receive a certain amount of points in exchange for military rank. You will be able to spend them right away.
Many players asked whether it is possible to play Heliborne without an internet connection. Now it is — the update 0.73 features the Offline Mode! Single player campaign, when released, will be available in Offline Mode as well.
Apart from that, we’ve introduced first 24 camouflages (more will be added on release), kill assist, new hangar music (thanks to NicerDicer!), in-lobby battle timer, bonuses for finishing battles, and more.
0.73 Changelog:
- progression system
- first 24 camouflages added to progression (more on release)
- squadron repair bonus: you will get faster repair time with squadron which does not utilize more than half of available points
- offline start - you can start the game without an internet connection
- ATGM launch warning - you will have a warning now when ATGM is launched in your direction, also there is possibility to have additional info about where is ATGM coming from, depends if it shot from forward, side or back
- top ATGM max speed is reduced a bit
- now you need soldiers and vehicles inside landing zone give 50% of capture points for top team point bar, instead of 100% given if both are present
- ATGM bug where it exploded on launch was fixed
- mortar stuck inside landing zone bug fixed
- helicopter tilt and strafe when rotating in hover changed - should make less movement
- RPG accuracy on ground targets significantly improved
- RPG accuracy on air targets reduced
- rifleman accuracy reduced
- using spotting you can now mark soldiers for friendly vehicles to shoot from bigger distances
- using spotting you can now mark soldiers for friendly door gunners to shoot from bigger distances
- squadrons now won't be destroyed when helicopter squad prices are changed, but they will be marked as an invalid squadron and you can fix them
- Mi-24P main gun and AH-1G Vulcan gun now have recoil, also Mi-24P main gun now does not have forced burst
- all guns and bullets were changed according to feedback from new damage system
- some rockets were changed according to feedback from module damage system
- tail module now takes more damage before being "critted" comparing to other models
- AA fire should be a bit more accurate and a bit more powerful according to feedback from module damage system
- some reward point values are changed for PvP and Coop
- you now will receive a significant reward for a win or defeat in PvP battles, win in Coop battles and first win of the day in any type of battle
- rank point criteria are changed, generally, ranks are now harder to obtain than before, but not very hard
- in the coop, neutral LZ's should not be suddenly captured by enemies if a player is in close vicinity to it
- added point reward for kill assist
- stealing "spot" is now impossible if you "spot" enemies which are currently are under "spot" effect from someone else - you will just prolong the spot effect, you need to "spot" enemies which are not spotted atm to get spotting reward
- lobby battle UI now shows timer till the end of a battle
- heat seeking missiles now have smaller than before (~45% smaller, but still pretty wide, locking sector)
- UI changes
- new hangar/menu melody - thanks to NicerDicer!
Team JetCat
Squad Names Generator — Add your own!
We have a solution. What if we had a big list of awesome squad names and the game would randomly choose one of them for your new squad? Sounds good? But we’ll need your help.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Add your version of a squad name to this Google Form.
If there is a story behind it, feel free to tell us.
You can add as many names as you want, don’t limit your creativity.
There is just one rule: NO OFFENSIVE NAMES!
Make squadron names great again!
Team JetCat
Heliborne 0.61 — Modular damage system and updated Flight model
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQecnSSMsTk
A lot. First of all, we have improved helicopter flight models and have adjusted them to behave more realistically. Overall, the helicopters have become more unique and different from one another.
Another feature that you’ve all been waiting for is the modular damage system. Helicopters now have five critical modules which have various effects on the flight model when destroyed. For example, when the tail boom is critically damaged, the helicopter will spin out of control temporarily. Gradual damage to a module will not have any effect on performance, only critical damage.
We've also added a tactical map to the TAB menu. This map is much more detailed than mini-map and provides an assortment of information about soldiers, ground vehicles, helicopters (with corresponding player names), and topography. We hope it will give you more opportunities to cooperate with your team.
Want more? Check the full patch notes:
- Helicopters now have a modular structure for 5 critical modules: main rotor, engine, tail boom, fuel, and hydraulics. Some helicopters have duplicate modules (e.g. 2 engines or 2 fuel tanks). A helicopter is destroyed when it loses one of the modules or its structural integrity is compromised.
- When a module receives critical damage, it stops functioning properly and alters helicopter performance in a manner unique to the damaged module.
- A list of the aircraft modules and their statuses are now indicated on a damage panel under the mini-map.
- Maximum helicopter repair time (when repaired at base) has been decreased to 30 seconds. This is far less than the repair time after death, which makes returning to base more worthwhile than before.
Flight model
- Helicopter flight models have been improved.
- Ground effect has been implemented into the flight model. Ground effect in the game is the tendency to gain altitude faster when your helicopter is close to the ground (up to helicopter's blade diameter), upon exiting ground effect, you lose this boost in ascension speed.
- Pitching the nose down in conjunction with losing altitude will now cause notable increase in speed.
- Pitching the nose up when flying at decent horizontal speed will now significantly increase altitude but decrease speed.
- There have been changes in the flight characteristics of all helicopters. The cruising speed of all helicopters has been slightly decreased to bring it closer to real values while max speed has been increased. Heavy helicopters are now less agile while light helicopters are more agile. Overall, helicopters are more unique and different than before.
Other changes
- Helicopter collision logic has been improved. There will now be fewer fatal collisions, but more collisions will damage the helicopter over time.
- The landing collision logic has been improved. Landing should be both simpler and easier, but you will now receive damage from rough landings.
- The squad-building mechanic has been improved. Now every squad has a fixed generation and receives a maximum number of points for its particular generation.
- Helicopter loadout mechanics have been improved. Flares (if possible) and door gunners type (if there are several) can now be selected independently from loadout modifications. The UI has changed correspondingly.
- The maximum squad cost for Generation III has been increased from 400 to 480 points.
- Costs for all helicopters have been corrected.
- Mi-2: first and second armament options have been swapped.
- There is now a tactical map in the TAB menu.
- There have been changes to mini-map GUI.
- The radio menu no longer blocks controls.
- Soldiers now stop in front of fatal obstructions.
- Helicopter class and loadout modification parameters have been added to the GUI.
- Helicopter spawn orientation (South-North direction) has been fixed and now depends on the team's position on the map.
- Heat-seeking missiles have received a wider lock-on radius.
- Heat-seeking missiles now lock-on faster to hovering targets.
- The accuracy of stationary AA guns has been decreased.
- MANPADs won't launch a missile on short distance when the missile will most likely overshoot helicopter.
- The after-death falling algorithm (after-explosion trajectory) has been changed.
- Ground vehicles will now always aim for the center of mass of enemy vehicles.
- There have been minor visual changes to various helicopters (prior to introduction of customization).
- There have been various minor changes to game maps (a result of working on historical campaigns).
- There have been several important bug fixes (doubled points for spotting, wrong penalty for specific cases of friendly fire, etc.).
- Thanks to Valery Oldpilot and Daelock, as well as other pilots who give us advice about flight model and point out mistakes.
- Thanks to David "Wildcard" for his module damage voice lines.
- Thanks to KapukiCram, Erkeo, Adoramus, and Meinpanda for testing new module damage system.
Modular damage system
P.S. If your game suddenly switched to Russian and you can't switch it back, here is the solution.
Team JetCat
Good Morning, Vietnam: give your voice to Heliborne
We could have tried to record everything by ourselves. But since Heliborne has an awesome community of talented people around it, we decided to address to you, pilots. Meet the "Good Morning, Vietnam!" event!
WHAT WE NEED
One part of the upcoming single-player is a Vietnam historical campaign with roughly 300 radio messages. We need to voice-over them and are looking for people willing to do it.
HOW CAN YOU HELP
If you want to give your voice to a Heliborne character:
- record following test messages (you can do that with any tools you have, including your smartphones):
— Papa Bear, this is Alpha-2, requesting reinforcements and resupply, how copy?
— Papa Bear, this is Foxtrot-3, we are under attack. Lots of tanks. Bridge is being overrun, I repeat, bridge is overrun. Heavy casualties. We are holding position south of the bridge. Do you copy?
— This is Badger. We got hit, left wing is on fire! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! - send the audio to good.morning.vietnam@jetcatgames.com not later than August, 15;
- in your email please specify how many radio messages you would like to record (just several/one-two dozens/as many as needed).
After August, 15th we will send lines for a voice-over with instructions to selected participants.
REWARDS
Although we hope that for most of participants this opportunity itself will be satisfying enough, we will give following rewards to every Heliborne voice actor:
- one copy of Heliborne,
- special cosmetic item,
- mention in titles,
- access to closed tests.
Looking forward to your test recordings!
Team JetCat
Operation Insignia Trophy
Greetings, Pilots!
Many of you liked previous Double Drop Rate Weekend so much, that we decided to make another event like this, but better. So here we are, starting the Operation Insignia Trophy. What are the rules, you would ask?
We added a collection of 3 patches with real helicopter insignias. Those of you who collect all of them can get one of two rare helmets.
HOW TO COLLECT:
First of all, we DOUBLED drop rate again for the weekend. It means that you will earn twice more Steam Items than usual. Drop chance of collectibles is 33% (67% — other Steam Items).
The weekend will be divided into 3 periods, corresponding to each of the three collectibles. One period — one collectible item available:
- Afghan Three-headed Dragon Insignia:
from now on until Saturday 12:00GMT
- Chinook Guns-A-Go-Go Insignia:
Saturday 12:00GMT until Sunday 12:00GMT
- Afghan Dragon of Spades Insignia:
Sunday 12:00GMT until Monday 12:00GMT
Collectible items are non-marketable and non-tradable until the end of the event.
HOW TO GET A RARE HELMET:
- When you are done with the whole collection, fill in this Google Form not later than WEDNESDAY 12:00GMT.
- Wait for your reward!
EXTRA OPTION: You missed one of the patches, but still want to get a helmet? Make a repost of the event announcement in Facebook and include the link into the Google Form.
UPDATE [Aug 5]:
We've added a slight drop chance of other collectibles during the period of a "main" one. E.g. if you missed the first insignia, you'll still be able to get it until the end of the Operation.Team JetCat wishes you a good luck, pilots!
Double Drop Rate Weekend
While those updates are getting ready we prepared a special event. For the whole weekend until July 23rd we will:
1) DOUBLE drop rate of cosmetic items (after finished battle),
2) ADD 8 new helmets and 14 patches to the rotation (exclusively for the weekend!).
Come and get some!
Team JetCat
Patch 0.52.1
Heliborne 2017: Recap post, if you did not read it
Changes:
- Fixed several bugs related to the objective and Victory screens in coop play. (thanks for your reports)
- Fixed a bug with camera turning upside down in some cases. (thanks for your reports)
- Several small changes in certain enemy positions in Nguyen and Badahshan single/coop missions.
- The Door gunner description in the armament section now shows the weapon they are using.
- Door gunners will now identify and aim at AA positions from a farther distance away from the target. This targeting and engagement distance is farther than the normal targeting and engagement distance for soldiers.
- Manpad soldiers no longer have a ~1.5 second period of ignoring flares after acquiring a target.
- 5 favorite awards now can be shown in profile (previously it was up to 4)
- Password-protected coop games now award points and cosmetic items.
- Added ground frag messages in password-protected games.
- Showing HUD picture in first person view is now an option you can enable in Settings - General
- New settings for camera tilt in third person view in Settings - General
- [updated, 12 Jul] Changes to first person camera behaviour - you should not see part of the helicopter model while in first person/zoom view anymore
- [updated, 12 Jul] You will not get spotting award when you destroy yourself targets you just spotted
Heliborne 2017: Recap (and Version 0.52)
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE LATEST UPDATES
Singleplayer/Cooperative mode
Several sandbox-missions with procedurally generated tasks. This mode is available for 1–4 players (max number of players will be increased) on Operation “Nguyen Hue”, Kosovo, The Gulf of Tonkin, and Badakhshan Province game scenarios (the list will be expanded).
Rank & Awards System
We’ve implemented to Heliborne private players profiles and rank & awards system. Every effective action in battle lead to progression within rank ladder. Combat merits are awarded with medals and ribbons. Selected awards may be put to the profile, its public part is visible to other players.
This is the first big step towards progression system and rating system with leaderboards.
Cosmetic items
Helmets and patches. They are shown in player profiles and act as avatars. Helmets and patches can randomly drop after the battle, or for participating at in-game events.
Firing range map
Highly and precisely detailed map of real military aviation polygon — 344th Tactical Deployment Center in Torzhok. It was modelled according to satellite data, photos and videos.
You can start practice flight straight from the hangar or squadrons menu. Hangar is a part of polygon map, so the flight would start almost immediately and from the same location.
Training mission is in the development, and would take place on the same map. We would continue improving the map, adding more training possibilities and even special game mode.
Apart from that we added:
PLANS FOR RELEASE
Part of them will be implemented within Early Access, the other part — in release version of the game.
Historical campaigns
Release version of the game will include two singleplayer historical campaigns: Easter Offensive in Vietnam (1972) and Operation Magistral in Afghanistan (1987–1988). They will feature some unique in-game mechanics we’ve prepared especially for them.
Career with tech tree
Heliborne is going to get progression system with tech tree, divided by different helicopter producers. Players would need to unlock new helicopters using Experience Points earned in battles. Main goal is to gradually introduce player to the game and its mechanics and to motivate players to give different helicopters a try. But do not worry — progression will be pretty fast and definitely not grind F2P style shaped.
ATTENTION! When progression system is introduced, players will be rewarded with certain amount of Experience Points. This amount depends on a rank: the higher you have, the more points you will receive.
Further improvements of Singleplayer/Cooperative mode
We actively work to improve the sandbox mode. As it advances, new types of objectives (e.g. medevac missions), new types of enemies, ability to choose intensity of a battle, and even sandbox-campaigns will be implemented.
Moreover, singleplayer missions will be playable in Offline Mode, without network connection!