[HOW TO] Operate the UAV's

[Morten]

Hello everybody. I've decided to make a guide on how to operate the UAV's.

I will be covering pretty much everything, from take-off to bombing with the UAV.

Before I start, I would like to credit Alganthe and Jason for their help creating this guide.

 

The guide will be split up in the following parts

1. Take-off
2. Waypoints 
3. Weapons on the UAV
4. Bombing 
5. Beginners tips

Each part of the guide will be indicated clearly, so it will be easy to skip one part if you'd like

 

1. Take-off

- Open up your UAV terminal. Connect to the greyhawk you wish to operate.

- Taxi the Greyhawk to the runway and put your flaps all the way down.

- Take-off! Remember to put your landing gear back up by pressing G (default) or using scrolling to do it.

 

2. Waypoints

Whenever I play as a UAV Operator, I usually make my drones loiter around the AO awaiting targets.

You will need to keep it at an altitude on 2000m to avoid being shot down by AA.

To change the settings of a waypoint, simply right-click on it. Going to "Behavior" and selecting "Never fire" will ensure that your drone doesn't shoot off GBU's on its own when spotting an enemy.

This way you can also change whether you want your drone to be loitering or just moving to your selected location. 

 

3. Weapons on the UAV

The Greyhawk is armed with 2 bombs named GBU. That means you will only be able to strike twice before having to return to the base rearming, which can be quite time consuming. Therefore be precise when dropping those bombs!

The Greyhawk is also equipped with a "laser marker", making you able to lase targets for other drones or the wipeout. 

Pro tip: If you want your laser to lock onto something, press CTRL + T while aiming at that target to make your laser stay on it. If it's a tank it will move along with the tank and if it's a Radio Tower it will be staying on that tower even though your drone is moving around.

 

4. Bombing 

When someone is laser designating a target for you (or if you're lasering it yourself from your gunner):

- Make sure to be approaching the target from the same direction they're lasing from.

- Take controls of the driver and switch to manual fire.

- Make sure you're selecting your GBU's (press F to toggle)

- Now you gotta dive down a bit while pressing R until you see a square showing on the ground.

- Wait for a "diamond / circle shaped"-figure to appear in the middle of that square, and once it does fire your GBU.

 

5. Beginners tips

- You can activate base anti-air before taking off to make sure you won't get shot down by enemy CAS.

- If it's your first time flying the drones, try sticking with "loitering" as this is what you will be using the most.

- The options for loitering will determine the range the UAV will be circulating in.

- The GBU's are laser guided bombs.

- Lasering from the Greyhawk is unreliable since it's very shaky, therefore it's recommended to use the Darter-drone and make that laser designate for you.

- Try not to drop down below 1500m when bombing to avoid getting shot.

- If you feel uncomfortable flying the Greyhawk you can try downloading a sandbox mission and practicing offline.

- When flying the greyhawk at 2000m you need to change your view distance to be able to see the ground using your camera. To do this, go to the HQ at spawn, go to the Arsenal-guy and find the "View distance"-button. Now you have to edit "on foot" to somewhere around 4000 depending on your loitering radius.

 

If your Greyhawk blows up upon connecting to it at the hangar do the following:

1. Preparing for take-off

- First thing you want to do is to open your UAV terminal confirming that the Greyhawk is in the hangar.

- Before you can connect to it, you need to take control of a ground vehicle, could be the Stomper or a quad bike.

- Carefully bump into the back of the Greyhawk so you can see it being pushed a bit.

Once that's done, you're ready to proceed with the take-off.

 

2. Take-off

- Open your UAV terminal and connect the Greyhawk you've just bumped into. Do not take control of it yet!

- Place a waypoint for you drone about 1 KM in front of the drone. To do this simply hold in SHIFT while left-clicking on the map where you want your waypoint to be at.

- Once you see any movement, take control of the driver yourself ensuring it won't crash into a wall.

- Now you can taxi to the runway, put your flaps all the way down and take-off.

If the drone doesn't start moving after 15 seconds or so but the engine is running, take control of the driver and hope it won't blow up

 

Please keep in mind that you may not go bombing as you please.

Same rules applies to you as to the buzzard, you have to be called in! 

So wait for someone to call for air assistance and then you can laser yourself or get someone to laser for you.

Of course you may loiter around the AO calling out targets for the ground infantry, but no bombing unless requested.

 

Happy bombing!

Edited September 8, 2015 by Morten

[Archon]

Nice guide, hopefully this will lead to more effective EU#1 UAV's!! I have recently noticed that the UAV's don't seem to be exploding on startup any more, you can simply connect as driver and then move them with no trouble. I may have just been really lucky, but unless anyone has had a Greyhawk explode on startup in the last month or so I'm not sure the Stomper Bump is necessary any more. Just thought I would throw that out there to see what others have experienced.

[Amentes]

That has been my experience as well Archon, that particular bug seems to be over and done with.

[Morten]

Thanks for your feedback!

I have been doing this for a while, not taking any chances for it to blow up. It may have been fixed completely without me noticing, I've only been told that the UAV in the northern hangar doesn't blow up like it used to. 

I will be putting this to a test the next couple of days and if it turns out they don't explode, I'll have my guide changed 

[Morten]

I've tested your claims the last couple of days and I haven't blown up once. 

Therefore I've edited the guide so it should now be up to date

In case the bug occurs again I've made a spoiler with the old take-off procedure to fix that.

[TheScar]

there´s a few things i´d lik to add when it comes to UAV Op - basically you only got two priorities :

 

CAS support (Radiotower,MBT,inf Strongholds)

and

Overwatch / High Reconnaissance

 

and therefor on both of those dutys COMMUNICATION is key.

Either when being called for LD´d targets,tell your crew on ground what is happening and the time schedule its happening.

Nothing is more anti-morale than sittting on pos and forever waiting for nothing to happen.

 

When a AO is close to finish,get your Greyhawks to service and back in the air BEFORE a new Area of Operation opens,cause most def the first guys near/into AO will praise heaven when a UAV Op is rdy to take the job.

 

 

 

 

 

[Archon]

Glad to hear the bug is fixed Just another point, when flying at 2000m to be able to see much on the ground using the camera the on server view distance needs to be changed to 4000+ depending on the radius of the loiter, and I believe the setting which affects greyhawk view distance is the 'On Foot' setting. A lot of people complain that they can't see anything through the camera so they fly lower and get shot down and it is usually because they haven't adjusted the view distance at spawn.

[Morten]

I appreciate all of your feedback!

 

there´s a few things i´d lik to add when it comes to UAV Op - basically you only got two priorities :

 

CAS support (Radiotower,MBT,inf Strongholds)

and

Overwatch / High Reconnaissance

 

and therefor on both of those dutys COMMUNICATION is key.

Either when being called for LD´d targets,tell your crew on ground what is happening and the time schedule its happening.

Nothing is more anti-morale than sittting on pos and forever waiting for nothing to happen.

 

When a AO is close to finish,get your Greyhawks to service and back in the air BEFORE a new Area of Operation opens,cause most def the first guys near/into AO will praise heaven when a UAV Op is rdy to take the job.

Honestly I didn't plan on making this a huge guide with all of these procedures as I figured people on the forums would know these stuff.

But later today I will update the guide including a "Bombing scenario" where I will be going through everything you need to do when bombing. This scenario will be including your points, thanks.

 

Glad to hear the bug is fixed Just another point, when flying at 2000m to be able to see much on the ground using the camera the on server view distance needs to be changed to 4000+ depending on the radius of the loiter, and I believe the setting which affects greyhawk view distance is the 'On Foot' setting. A lot of people complain that they can't see anything through the camera so they fly lower and get shot down and it is usually because they haven't adjusted the view distance at spawn.

Will be adding this to the "beginner-tips"-section later today as well. Thanks!

[Primordial]

Helped me alot today so thank you very much for these tips (Mainly the "R" key for lock on...thought it was T...woops!). Is there anyway to help reduce camera shake when in the UAV? I'm trying to get a pinpoint accuracy so I can CTRL+T on vehicles but trying to get the cursor over the vehicles is a pain due to the shaking.

[Jason.]

Helped me alot today so thank you very much for these tips (Mainly the "R" key for lock on...thought it was T...woops!). Is there anyway to help reduce camera shake when in the UAV? I'm trying to get a pinpoint accuracy so I can CTRL+T on vehicles but trying to get the cursor over the vehicles is a pain due to the shaking.

 

As far as I know there is no way to avoid the camera shake if the UAV is moving. To get the most accurate lase you should use the Darter and have it autohover, once it's not moving the camera will be 100% accurate.

[Primordial]

As far as I know there is no way to avoid the camera shake if the UAV is moving. To get the most accurate lase you should use the Darter and have it autohover, once it's not moving the camera will be 100% accurate.

Yeah I realised its recommended to use a second source for the laze. Been using either a greyhawk to do a straight flyby or the darter. Darter seems to be the best option...except when it comes to speed, I wouldnt exactly use the darter to charge into battle.

[Amentes]

Wrangling the Greyhawk camera at 2000 meters is an artform. Keep working at it

[Cebi]

Shake at 2000m is managable if your loiter radius is 1500m. Smaller radius = more shaky camera. I often use one grayhawk to lase and other is engaging. Darter is super slow to change AO and is sometimes wery stuborn if you dont switch off autonomus behaviour.

[Optio]

For me UAV operator slot is a lot about micromanaging and multitasking with all the drones. I was trying to rewrite this guide for myself and make it some sort of TODO checklist. I will also write some of my own findings.
 
After you log in, there are some nesessery steps you have to take:

• Set you view distance
• Recycle UAV crew
  (at laptop next to base AA) if you have issues with taking control over UAV's. I don't know if it's helpful. Never used it
• Check what you're dealing with:
  – How many drones do you have access to in the moment? Where are those?
  – Do Grayhawks have bombs and Darters fuel?
  – What's going on? How "old" is the main AO? Is radio tower down? Are there any guys at side obj.?
   

When you're ready to begin, it's time to choose priorities:

• Are Grayhawks airborne and ready?
  If you have no GBU's under your wings, it's time to go RTB and rearm.
   
• Do you have Darters in place?
  If you don't you can:
  – put one down at base
  – hop on heli and set it up there in the field
   

My other general findings/tips about UAV's:

• When you release UAV (driver) control, it will stay at an altitude you left it on until you change it's waypoint in the terminal (or take manual control, obviously). This is GREAT. You can loirier at any altitude (so don't leave your UAV too close to the ground – waypoint will be overwritten!).
• Safe altitude for Grayhawk:
  • 1500 with no ground AA in the area
  • 2000 with no AA jet
  • 2500-3000 all-green zone (I'm not sure! test it for yourself) 
• Getting altitude with Grayhawks: autopilot (setting waypoint) is sloooow (it will prioritize altitude over speed). Fast way is:
  • accelerate to > 250km/h
  • pitch up 15deg
  • don't turn around (it will slow you down)
  • don't be obsessed with altitude readings (ground-level altitude will jump up and down)
• Landing autopilot is useful (it's slow, but you can do other things in the meantime). Just remember not to keep UAV on the airstrip for too long. (sorry Luetin. I will do my best for this not happening again)
• On one of the salt lakes there is a secondary airstrip where you can land and rearm.
• Once engine stopped for rearming, point Grayhawk's gunner at attatchment points under wings. You will see if GBU's are ready from terminal.
• Safe altitude for Darters: 300m. My advice is to keep direct distance at > 500m out.
• Never set waypoint altitude for Darters. They will spin around and go nowhere.
• You can't repair nor refuel Darters (just send another one). I can be wrong, but wasn't working for me. 
• If you are taking fire don't stop maneuvering!

 
 
Let's destroy something! Bombing:

• RT (Radio Tower) is priority
  • It's easy to find. (Sticks out a mile if you are in the air.)
  • It's stationary!
  • You should use your waypoint map marker (shift-click), so you can acquire correct laser target.
  • Lock (Ctrl-T) directly on tower, not at it's base (foundations).
  • At some angles Darters will create two laser targets (one at tower, another just behind. It happened to me just once)
• It's almost impossible to destroy moving targets on you own.
  • If you lock, the moment you switch seats/drones laser mark will go stationary.
  • You can ask for help, but a lot of people don't have batteries.
  • Even if someone have batteries, they will probably loose sight of moving armor before you drop bomb.
  • Without factoring in approach time and acquiring lock (> 20s for good pilot). if you drop bomb vertically:
    1000m → ~14s; 2000m → ~20s; 3000m → ~25s; 5000m → ~32s; 10000m → ~45s *
    * time = sqrt(2 * altitude / gravity^2), gravity in arma = 9,80665m/s^2, air resistance is not calculated, as far is I know. You will have even less time if you pitch down (since you have to take into account initial vertical part of speed vector).
  • It's very hard, but not impossible (I guess) to drop bomb, and then switch back to lasing moving target with darter, but: approach, switching back and forth - it takes time. Armor drives fast.
• Never drop bombs when when pitching up. Target will look like locked, but it's not. Pitch down just a bit - drop - pitch up.
• You can sometimes see if bomb is locked the moment you dropped it (GBU should orient itself slightly towards target).
   
• Approach
  Let's say you are bombing RT. You have it marked on map and designated. Your Grayhawk is @ >2000m, loitering with radius of 1500m. It will always move clockwise. I share my most reliable way to approach in attatchment. (Please remove additional one. Something is wrong with forum on my side.)

[Cebi]

Good job on writing down some more indepth UAV tips (guide?).

 

• It's almost impossible to destroy moving targets on you own.

 

I beg to difer. You can lock with ctrl+T (default) on moving armor and the lock will stay on target even when you maneuver and target is moving around. I had destroyed/disabled quite a few MBTs which were on the move. It is immensly more efective then JTAC on ground leading moving target.

 

For further details see

where i learned how to do it.

[Carmont]

This thread is great for those that are not 100% sure on how to operate the UAV's. It is immensely frustrating logging to play as a UAV Op, to find the slot taken by someone that isn't utilizing the UAV's other than the Darter.

 

+1

[Jason.]

 

• It's almost impossible to destroy moving targets on you own.

 

 

I beg to difer. You can lock with ctrl+T (default) on moving armor and the lock will stay on target even when you maneuver and target is moving around. I had destroyed/disabled quite a few MBTs which were on the move. It is immensly more efective then JTAC on ground leading moving target.

 

For further details see

where i learned how to do it.

 

I agree with Cebi here, hitting moving targets isn't so hard. 

 

How to hit a moving vehicle with a GBU:

Obviously you will need an armed Greyhawk, but also a Darter, preferably able to look down onto the vehicle.

1. Lock onto the vehicle with the Darter and turn on the laser.

2. Switch to the Greyhawk, lock onto the target, and release the bomb. Make sure you release a good distance away from the target (2k altitude should be fine).

3. QUICKLY switch back to the darter.

4. (This is where is gets tricky) Go into the gunner seat and release the lock on the vehicle so you now have control of the camera.

5. Keep the lase on the vehicle but try to predict the vehicles movements, aim the laser where you think the vehicle is going.

6. If you do it right (it takes some practice) you should get a direct hit on the vehicle, or at least hit close enough to disable it.

 

This may look tricky, but with some practice you can do it easily and you'll take out vehicles far more reliably than just locking on with a laser.

[Optio]

I beg to difer. You can lock with ctrl+T (default) on moving armor and the lock will stay on target even when you maneuver and target is moving around.

 

Thx. Everyting behaves different on the server. You may be right about laising from the same drone, but not when I was trying this from darter.

I will try this out again for sure.

[Cebi]

@Cz3h: Can confirm that lasing moving target with darter and engaging said target from other vehicle works on AH servers ( as it is my prefered way). What you can find unintuitive is that you will obtain "hard" lock on moving target by aiming slightly up and right from targets percieved centre of mass.

[Jason.]

@Cz3h: Can confirm that lasing moving target with darter and engaging said target from other vehicle works on AH servers ( as it is my prefered way). 

 

I wouldn't have wrote that mini-guide if it didn't work

So yes, you can lase with a Darter, and lock onto that with a Greyhawk (including moving targets).

 

you will obtain "hard" lock on moving target by aiming slightly up and right from targets percieved centre of mass.

 

If I'm understanding you correctly, you're referring to the position of the laser when locked onto a target.

There are two ways of getting around this.

If you have the Darter looking down onto the target vehicle, when you lock on the laser will be on the center of mass, and will stay there even if the target moves.

2nd way is simply to lase the target manually from the Darter (which I explained above).

[LexMonster]

All the good advise and you still forgot something basic!

 

You can use [TAB] (Standard) to open the drone camera while not controling it. A lot of people do not know this. But do not get your hopes up. The view distance on the PiP is really low.

[Eddie]

I love playing as the UAV operator, however its weird that Ahoy server (taking about modded server 3) don't use the UAV for marking targets on the map for information and only give out information on the radio. In a sense it kind of defeats the purpose of intelligence when its only shared between squad leaders and not all the players in the server.

 

I usually play in 77th JSOC servers and I like their format especially marking targets with time attach to them in the map and their patrol area, to prepare the players for the upcoming battle. I know its a support role, but its so fun to coordinate with friendly ground units and notifying them of the dangers ahead and giving squad leaders a plan of action to tackle the objective.

 

 

[Ryko]

We've had UAVs on the server for about four days now, give it time.

[Kullmann]

Hi guys,

 

I am new into the topic of UAV operation. Everything works fine so far but if it comes to landing i pretty much fuck up all UAV's. So basically atm I am crashing them on the airstrip to let them respawn :-)

 

Can anybody here help me out and can give me an instruction on what to do to land a Greyhawk safely?

 

Thanks and see you on EU#4!

[Chutnut]

11 minutes ago, Kullmann said:

Hi guys,

 

I am new into the topic of UAV operation. Everything works fine so far but if it comes to landing i pretty much fuck up all UAV's. So basically atm I am crashing them on the airstrip to let them respawn :-)

 

Can anybody here help me out and can give me an instruction on what to do to land a Greyhawk safely?

 

Thanks and see you on EU#4!

 

Now im no expert, But make sure your flaps are at full and stay at around 90 speed.

 

Tbh someone more experienced will reply to this I assume.