[HOW TO] Use the uavs: basic and in-depth guide

[alganthe]

Hi everyone, my name is alganthe and i'm probably the one who played the most with uavs on I&A.

I'm here today to help you, scrubs, to use the uavs efficiently.

 

It's pretty simple but you need to know it, i'll cut the guide in 4 parts.

1: connecting and taking off

2: standard bombing

3: in depth use

4 troubleshooting

 

1: connecting and taking off

 

 The thing you need to know about uavs on I&A is that they spawn WITHOUT CREWS INSIDE THEM

so even if the vehicle is present, IT'S EMPTY.

 

to place a crew inside a freshly spawned uav / ugv and take off  you need to :

• Get to the pc area at base on your left when you respawn.
• Press the cycle crew button (pc on the left) and then KILL YOURSELF it's important, it prevent some bugs (only you as uav operator can see the option, you need to do it yourself everytime a uav respawn)
• connect to the desired uav and then REALLY IMPORTANT take control of the TURRET (gunner).
• wait 5 seconds so the engine start to run.
• release control of the uav, wait 3s and take control of the UAV (driver).
• taxi to the runways, put your flaps down and take off

 

simple eh ?

 

2: standard bombing

 

you have 2 ways to bomb, locking on a laser painted target, or divebombing

on this guide I'll cover only the first one.

 

To bomb you need to:

 

• Have someone lasing with a laser designator the attachement doesn't work.
• that person need to keep the lase steady
• come in a direction where the target and the laser is visible (no obstacle in front)

thoses are what you need to be able to release your gbus, here is how I bomb:

 

• I climb high enough to not get shot by AAA (over 1 000m)
• I come from the right direction previously given by the person who is lasing
• I switch to manual fire
• I then press R when i'm seeing red dots on my radar and that I know i'm approaching the target
• I then fly over and wait till the diamond / circle appear (depends on how you drop it)
• then I release my gbu

 

3 in depth

 

there is some things you need to know about the uavs

it's possible to lock the turret on a direction by pressing CTRL+T

it's also possible to lock on a target by pressing CTRL+T on it (useful for lasing moving targets from the sky)

 

the best way to lase something yourself is to :

• Placing a loiter waypoint by pressing shift+right click then waypoint type then loiter.
• change the altitude to 2 000m.
• when the uav is in poistion switch to the gunner seat.
• lock the target with CTRL+T and lase it.

 

4 troubleshooting

 

• I don't have any uav : wait for them to respawn (place a darter at the hangars to see if they're here)
• I see my uavs but I can't connect to them : cycle the uav crew / respawn
• my uav just exploded : it might happen if you don't follow this guide or if you teamkilled (sometimes they do it because they want to)
• my uav is not following my waypoints : It happens when the server is running for a long time, wait 5 minutes if the uav keep ignoring waypoints the server needs a restart
• I can't see when i'm around 1500 1600m why ? : don't forget to increase the view distance in the scroll wheel option (settings) AND in your video options.

 

 

short version for lazy readers and the mission

 

how to use uavs:

1.Get to the pc area at base (look left after you respawned)

2.Press the cycle crew button (pc on the left) and then kill yourself (do it everytime you loose a uav to prevent explosions)

3.connect to the  uav and then  take control of the TURRET (gunner).

4.wait 5 seconds so the engine start.

5.release control of the uav, wait 3s and take control of the UAV (driver).

when a uav is empty repeat the previous steps

 

by alganthe

[JuX]

In my opinion UAVs shouldn't be used for unguided dive bombing.

 

 

You forgot to mention few important things about the UAV's, the scrubs don't seem to know about.

 

A. Stationing inside a vehicle negates weather effects (fog) while operating UAV's.

 

B. Increase view distance from ingame setting to 2000<, which in turn increases maximum rendering range

within video settings. Allowing players to provide detailed reconnaissance from safe 2000m altitude with turret view.

[MDCCLXXVI]

Nice guide!

 

One note I'd like to make:

 

The 'Cycle UAV Crew' actoin is only visible to UAV Operator, so don't ask someone else to perform that service if you are deployed in the field. You must do it.

 

alganthe, If you would like, write up a nice clear little guide (100 words) and submit to danne for inclusion in next hosted version. IIRC there is a UAV tab in the map diary, that you can point players to. The tips there are quite dated and never received proper formatting and not as clear as they could be.  Was written when still learning about the problem  For build I am working on, have deleted the contents of that UAV tab so it needs filling again, and if you would like to prepare and also put that 'alganthe' has written the guide.

 

 

One question I have, why do you have to kill yourself after you cycle in new UAV crews?

 

I am trying to streamline the process as much as possible.

 

Have fixed the issue of UAVs spawning dead, but will leave that Cycle UAV Crew button in until it is no longer used.

 

Have also addressed (too soon to pronounce it fixed) the issue of UAVs blowing up when connected-to. 

 

Just want to be aware of any issues originating from the UAV Operator rather than the UAV itself.

 

 

edit: the decision to limit the Cycle UAV Crews action to UAV Operator only was to prevent trolling of the button. I suppose a UAV operator can still troll himself with it though And as you say, UAVs tend to troll the operator quite enough.  

[alganthe]

Hi guys I'll answer your questions one by one:

 

jux:

 

A. Stationing inside a vehicle negates weather effects (fog) while operating UAV's.

 

that's not intended by BI that's why it's not included same for the divebombing, I say it's possible but I give no advice on it.

 

 

B. Increase view distance from ingame setting to 2000<, which in turn increases maximum rendering range

within video settings. Allowing players to provide detailed reconnaissance from safe 2000m altitude with turret view.

 

I though that was common knowledge, i'm going to add it

 

MDCCLXXVI:

 

i'll change the cycle crew part a bit, but the fact that you need to kill yourself is to prevent the uav to explode upon connection, that was my deduction from some testing after the cycle crew got introduced

 

the thing is that the higher the server uptime is the higher the chance of exploding upon connection is, and after around 10 hour uptime the crew inside just go nuts.

i'll try to squeeze a tutorial under 100 words

[razgriz33]

Nice guide algante

[Sir Dildor]

Know that despite following every procedure to perfection, the UAVs will still disobey commands if the 'gunner' senses an enemy vehicle on the map close to it. Selecting 'never fire' option will not do anything and the UAV will make suicidal bombing runs without dropping the bombs.

 

That is Bohemia's fault and I don't expect they are going to fix that.

[alganthe]

never got that problem dildor it might be a mod or ai configuration on your side, because on I&A I never got that problem

[alganthe]

Updated for 2.78 since there's a new pc position.

[Amentes]

2.81 UAV procedure:

 

1) Ensure the landing gear isn't clipping the ground:

 

Take Stomper

Drive up behind the Greyhawk you wanna fly

Bump it a little bit

 

2) Start-up:

 

Open UAV Terminal

Select the bumped Greyhawk

Place Waypoint 1km+ away from Greyhawk

Take GUNNER position

Observe engine startup

 

3a) Engine start-up:

 

Await UAV movement

Take control of Driver immediately once it moves on its own

If it parks itself into a wall, use your Stomper to push it

 

3b) Engine fails to start after a minute of waiting:

 

Take control of Driver

Best of luck!

 

4) Take-off

 

Flaps down full

Taxi to runway

Apply speed until it lifts off on its own

[Archon]

I think that updating the in-game FAQ with Amentes' method would help a lot because people are still trying to use the old and now ineffective method that is still there. This leads to either UAV's exploding repeatedly and being wasted or one of us having to explain to each new Operator the revised method. I don't know how difficult changing that would be so maybe this is an unreasonable request but I thought I would just throw it out there.

[ArunTheTrooper]

Yep, I've never had an issue getting the UAVS in the air since using Amentes' procedure. Just be careful when you bump the back of the UAVS cus even the faintest of boops can launch it sideways into the wall lol