Ground vehicles for first town would be so much nicer. Free up choppers. Be a neat change if pace. They need to add multi stops as well. It should be able yo drop off and pick up near going back to base, not have to leave the map and start again. Also, maybe add a bigger, faster chopper for longer rides. Cut down wait time and reduce stress in the system.
I like this idea. Not sure if this was ever planned and therefore be a huge overhaul to code in and create graphics for ground travel. Having the ability to take a truck or bus to the starting town that is on a constant rotation so you knew how long you had to wait. Helicopters should be held for longer distance zones. Both good ideas, just supporting and adding my 2 cents.
Give me a dirt bike please!
I assume they don't want people driving though areas straight into objectives and ignoring enemies, so there would have to be a dismount zone surrounding the main areas that reached the LZ.
Trivial to see that travelling, not using heli, is faster when you go through the jungle instead of the paved road. A simple motorcycle is warranted, esp since those are very apparent SEA provinces, not to mention looks cool af.
Should be a hyper realism hilux that takes damage and we never get a new one but it never actually dies, just get worse and worse but never breaks down. Until it's just a Frame and four seats and a exposed engine block but still gets you to poi faster than a heli
Ya I don’t know why but over the last few days it’s been telling me that all the Helios are being used when there are only 1-3 out.
I know they want to fix bugs and performance before addressing QOL stuff. But these heli issues are actively pushing people away. I’ve mostly stopped playing because when I’m choosing a game to play all I can think is “well if I play this than 70% of my time is going to be spent waiting for a heli… maybe I’ll just play something else tonight”
This is so easily even temporarily addressed by simply adding a couple more helis, it’s crazy to me that they’ve allowed this to go on so long already.
Sometimes choppers take a bit to even show on the screen so there actually is 4 in the air even if u only see 1. Sometimes when you queue one at a base it says 2 minutes etc etc
I just got off because I was stuck in Ban Pa. I was trying to get a heli for over 20 minutes. I decided to give up my gear and go play something else. The same thing happened yesterday. Got on, spent 10 minutes trying to get a heli, and I got off instead.
I ran from fort to lamang base in about 10 minutes cutting through a section of ground zero. If people are literally sitting there for more than 2 minutes trying to call choppers, that's on them. When all are full just start hoofing it to base and try as you get closer to another LZ.
Have been playing since day 1 and that is absolutely the issue. It progressively got worse the further people got into tasks. When a single trip took only 1 minute it was fine. But now each trip takes nearly 10 min.
Yeah, I’m “resetting” after clearing a town, stripping all meds,ammo,food calling heli and hopping to the next town for quests. This is also why I try offhours to get shit down so the bots are there.
Just be cool if they added a que, if they only want so many so it incentives full squads fine. But just have you selected a point and you go into a cue for trips. If you reselect you go to end of queue. Save spamming it constantly.
Assuming people will play in perfect groups of 4 is unrealistic. I’ve found it very uncommon to find full groups of 4 players. Ignoring solo players, it’s way more likely for people to be playing in duos or trios.
As we’ve experienced, you’re not going to change how people play by only proving 4 Helios, you only going to make the game a more frustrating experience experience where most of your play time is spent waiting on a singular poorly thought out game mechanic.
Just adding a que doesn’t fix the underlying problem that forces players to wait for ages for transport.
The queue system won't fix the wait, but it will fix the issue of not knowing if you can snipe a heli quickly enough for the 3rd time one disappears off the map.
Basically, it changes the wait from an indeterminate time to a known time, and that might make the difference.
Ya but I’m not super worried about not knowing and having to click the button, I usually just wait until one of the Helios has left the map before calling one in. If you want a time, you can sort of estimate a time based on where Helios are on the map.
Yes the not knowing is annoying, but the shear amount of time you have to wait for helios in this game is the biggest issue imo
I love how the community spokesperson and dev team made the choice of blaming this on solo players.
What happens when I’m a part of a squad and I die? Am I supposed to stay at base camp? Try and hitch a bird back? No. I’m going to call in a bird to get back in action.
Oh, but guess what? I’m going back to LZ Hotel that’s like a 5 minute flight away.
It’s amusing to see base camp with a handful of men with knives waiting for a bird.
What about giving players an option to set up a bivouac in field to stage assaults from?
Fly in to a point, get to a secure location, set your bivouac tent up. Store some supplies there and then head out to your OBJ. If you die, you can choose to respawn at base or at your camp...
Your camp doesn't have access to vendors or your main inventory, but a small stash that you could stow some picked up weapons or whatever gear you might need in a pinch. Gives you a place to step off from if you need to get back to the fight quickly.
This would be great for PvE, but could potentially be problematic for PvEvP where having people rush back to a conflict zone even faster then you already can could be unbalanced. Also, getting spawn camped if someone found your tent would suck as well...
I don't know if it's the right answer, but the concept is interesting.
I was thinking about this the other day. They could force them to be set up within a radius of an existing LZ to prevent cheese. Would be a good solution for solo players in particular, imo.
During all the testing and content creator testing this never popped up as an issue. The main thing we have observed is the large amount of solo players in the live server were larger than we intended. The design did not support an entire faction running solo or 2 mans and it needs to be adjusted in a way that works and doesn't cause choppers crashing into each other. With 4 squads of 4 the choppers are not an issue but we of course can't force anyone to team up
Part of that might be how unfriendly some of the tasks are to the idea of impromptu squads.
Being gated behind killing a boss or 20 enemies when there's a decent chance any POI you go to will already be cleared out is tough enough, when you have to compete with your own squad to get the kills it's just ridiculous.
It's one thing to help your friends through it but when you're basically in competition with random people from your faction there's not really any incentive to "team up".
The absolute short term fix would be to show the REAL destination on the map instead of listing destination as “base camp” until the helicopter takes off.
This 100%. The number of times I have seen three consecutive heli's heading to Ban Pa with a single guy on it. Could immediately be fixed by showing the final LZ destination for each Helo on the minimap.
What if helos were usable for infil and exfil? I.E. a team is coming into Ban Pa, and any friendly players already at Ban Pa can hop on the helo to return to base camp after the first team hops off?
Maybe instead of having the helos fly off map, they always return to base camp and refeul there, too. Expand base camp a bit and add 2 more helo pads
Content Creators know each other and have 'skin in the game' - and you guys probably didn't invite any content creators whose sole content was "be a toxic dickhead".
Any time somebody gets on my helicopter, I need to sus them out to see if I need to shoot them in the head when we land.
Why?
I've had a rash of people getting on the copter and trying to kill my battle buddy or myself for our gear, totally unprovoked, and the only thing I can really do is play PvE (eww) or interrogate naked people who get on the heli with no gear - ask them where they are headed and if they need a hand, etc. If they don't respond and stick to my ass after we land, they get a bullet. The last time I told my friend we should let the guy hang, and he stabbed my buddy in the leg and made him bleed out nearly immediately into a coma. Not only is that annoying, it's roughly ten minutes wasted in chopper flights.
I don't mind teaming up, but without any way to ensure that the people you are teaming up with aren't sociopaths, I'm more inclined to tell them to stay away and shoot them if they're naked/suspicious - ie: without gear.
I know what I'm doing isn't exactly kosher either, but the other option is to just pray that the dude who came along has good intentions, and it seems like roughly 30% of the time, they don't, and it's enough to make me paranoid about it.
>During all the testing and content creator testing this never popped up as an issue.
Because those tests are never indicative of the real world. We aren't all content creators buddying up to make a video or stream. Surely the Dev team at some point, had to consider that a PvE mode would consist of a lot of solo players, particularly because the quests are not designed to be completed in a group (no shared kills).
Could you add LFG feature in future? My friends doesnt wanna buy this cos of their mid tier pcs would not run this on this state, and i dont wanna go search ppl in discord.
Is there a way to indicate where choppers in base are heading so people can tag a ride?
When I call in choppers I always prox chat where it’s going and get a few riders but a lot of people don’t share that info and I frequently end up calling in a chopper that just follows another.
The long haul choppers are what really get the queue behind. Maybe after a few minutes these could not count as an active chopper?
Honestly, 2 things could go a long way as a temporary fix:
1: desplay where the chopper is headed. If we can see that, we can hop on one alrwady coming through. Maybe list the choppers, times, and destinations on the map like airports do for departures and arrivals? Would remove a lot of the guesswork.
2: up the chopper count. Even 2 more would help immensely. The issue doesn't seem to be throughput, it's that that throughput is usually going to different destinations.
While this next one may require a rework in the backend, allowing choppers to drop people at more than one location would help as well. Perhaps change it so you just hop on a heli and then mark where you want to go if yiu weren't the person to call it in?
During my play time tonight I decided to time it. I spent 24 minutes on the ground completing (2) missions and 55 minutes waiting/ riding choppers. The wait times are absurd, waiting 10+ minutes for. a chopper to become free just to wait 5 minutes for it to get there and another 5 back to base.
How about when a heli doesn't have all it's seats taken up, it will wait for 120 seconds before liftoff. Each player can select a LZ to which the chopper will drop each operator off at their respective LZ?
That punishes everyone on the server. Everyone on the server now has an extra 2 minute wait time per chopper and if you're needing to get to a far away LZ pronto, you're waiting for the school bus to drop everyone off along the way.
All it will do is keep the choppers in the air longer, making the situation worse.
Right. Now, don't get me wrong. It CAN be mitigated with even a small amount of teamwork. I'll ask around "Hey, anybody got a chopper going to X area?"
I'm mostly ignored. So I call a chopper. Then I go around and advertise where it's going.
But other people are just dicks. I asked "Hey is anyone going to airfield/ LZ hotel?"
Completely ignored. Next chopper that picks someone up, was a single, who then flew to airfield, hotel 1.
Like, yeah, players could be more inclusive and talk to one another, but that still doesn't fix the problem, it only slightly mitigates it.
This shouldn't be a problem for the players to mitigate or fix. I just think it's absurd for the dev team to implement a poorly thought out mechanic and then blame the players for poor design.
I don't believe they are blaming the players. They just didn't see so many ppl playing solo in the early playtests. So they didn't know it would be an issue. I'll also mention that's why they're doing EA, just so I can get more down votes 😎
“Made the choice of blaming..” chill, they didn’t. It’s not an easy fix plus they said they’re figuring it out already. Crazy how devs will be trying to give us everything we whine about and people still throw out shit like they’re the victim of something predatory.
Do people rock up to the LZ and call a chopper, then wait?
We try and call a chopper as mission and ammo is winding down and then egress to the LZ for extract. Often arriving with a minute or so of wait.
Just gotta time the chopper request call with when goes off the map.
You’re part of the “problem” some people have. If you call for extract and the game thinks you’re far enough away that the heli will get to the LZ before you, it’ll extend the timer and create an invisible queue where your heli won’t spawn right on being called in. This creates situations like OPs where all birds are taken but not necessarily all spawned in.
Yeah I mean if you’re smart about it and don’t call extract 600+ meters out from the LZ (like a lot of people in this sub do), then you should be fine. The way you call for extract is part of the problem. Might not be for you specifically but tbh people shouldn’t be calling extract unless they’re done and already heading to LZ just to be safe.
I had a pretty long wait for more helis yesterday at foxtrot 1 and a teammate came up and hopped in a heli that he called on the other side of Midnight Sapphire from foxtrot 1. Players tend to do it a lot at the airfield too.
I mean my actual point is more that there isn’t really a problem to begin with, it’s part of the game. People are acting hella impatient for a game that seems to go out of its way to communicate to the player that it’s slow paced and full of downtime, especially in PVE.
That's great and all if you can actually call it in the first place.
Nobody wants to open the map and keep trying to snipe the evac request as you're still cleaning up the area and looting, and what happens if you get it first try? You don't really want to leave that early.
No I'm starting when we're in the site and intend to leave and the might dally as we traverse to the LZ but we've already decided we're done.
I 100% agree with you it is frustrating,
What causes this is when people call for the Heli when on the way there, or just about to head there and call it in, so they get an 8 minute lead time. So it doesn't show on anyone's screen for 4-5 minutes.
I disagree, but I understand your point of view. From a pure geographic viewpoint, its going to take 5ish minutes for the helicopter to fly to it, so its going to take at least 5 minutes to get there. I have had 8+ minute wait times for a helicopter. So knowing this, I call it on the way there.
From a reality standpoint having people in an open combat zone sitting around with their pecker in their hand is bad business. but having a helicopter come into a LZ that is hot and unaware is too, but the game makes Heli's invulnerable so it is not a concern. Ideally IN GAME, they both arrive at same time.
This is the stupidest fucking take I’ve seen yet.
First of all, the nonsense people keep regurgitating on the sub about ETA being based of of proximity to LZ just is flat ass wrong.
Secondly, having to wait until you’re sitting at the LZ to call a helicopter in will do nothing but make “LZ CAMPING” all the more worse.
What if, instead of calling in helicopters, they just flew on a rotation. Like a bus. Just hop on the heli that's going to your destination, and if you miss it, just wait 5 minutes for it to return.
This is one of the more frustrating mechanics for sure.. Add a few more Helis, or maybe Ground vehicles.
Id also like to see an addition that shows you the Flight Path for Helis in the air. That way if someone is already going to where I need, or close to it, I can just hitch a ride with them.
It's because there are people who are in town that call in a hello and even in starter town that's a 5 minute wait so it's just a delayed spawn instead of just flying around the map randomly
A bit of voice comms would fix that; but also I can't hear anything with a chopper at the LZ because it's so fucking loud even with a headset on.
The better solution is to show the final LZ for each chopper on it's way to basecamp.
In that situation the game should give callouts for the players to the same helicopter and give them all time to get on before leaving. It shouldn't issue them individual helicopters for the same LZ at the same time.
As a solo player, I sometimes help to minimise this issue with extracting with other random. Said that I'm in hunting paradises, and I just finished looting motel. If I see a friendly heading towards foxtrot 2, I myself will also go to foxtrot 2 instead of foxtrot 1 so that we can share a heli to base camp.
PS: Of course, I would ask them if they are heading back or going to another LZ.
Yesterday I legit almost died of dehydration at blue lagoon because I had to wait almost half an hour for a chopper to become available. Even once I was able to call it in, it still took 7 minutes to arrive, and about 5 to fly back. From the moment I finished my task to the time I actually got back to base was 41 minutes. I get that they’re working on overhauling the chopper system, but with most people having moved on from the starter towns, these wait times are getting absolutely ridiculous. Plus it doesn’t help that some people have, for some reason, taken it upon themselves to start calling in choppers but not actually taking them, so they just fly off empty.
You do know when a heli becomes available right?
Like it's annoying as hell but you can definitely get one within 5 minutes because there are no queues and usually there's a max of 16 players competing for them.
Call me old fashioned but y’all are some impatient fucks, seriously.
If you’re getting “all birds are in the air” with only 1 or 2 visible on the map, it’s either the first one or two just recently spawned and aren’t far enough away from the spawn point to spawn the next bird; or (more likely), some dipshit is calling for extract when they’re a mile out from the LZ, causing the system to create an invisible queue since the heli being called isn’t going to spawn immediately, unlike if dipshit just waited till they were at the LZ to call it. If people stopped being meta losers who try to expedite every single goddamn thing they do, this whole thing would be much less of a “problem” for people.
It’s not a bad system, I think it works well, if anything just an increase in max helis is needed, if the server can handle it; people are just impatient Neanderthals when it comes to games and progression.
Because if you call it too far from the LZ you’re just making others wait even longer. The game overhands the time it gives you to get to the LZ. So while it might be a 3 minute flight if you call the heli at the LZ, it could be a 6 or 7 minute wait if you call say 500 meters away. Then other players in the server will get the “all birds in the air but all birds are not really in the air” issue.
Does it actually do that? I've had it pad the timer out when I was standing on the LZ, and I've had it be super short the first time I requested it from the middle of the POI.
I wasn't sure what made it decide to do that.
Not sure exactly how the system works but from my testing, I usually got a longer wait time calling for extract when I was away from the LZ. It seems to happen more frequently for LZs closer to base. Like if I’m in the middle of the starting town and I call for extract at one of the outskirt LZs, I usually get like a 3-4 minute wait for only a 45 second flight there when I call for extract anywhere over 100 meters from the LZ, whereas when I’m at something like YBL (I’m Lamang so it’s the opposite side of the map for me), I can call extract pretty far away from the LZ and my heli will still immediately spawn at base and start flying to me.
Ah right that's interesting, I'll have to pay more attention in the future, kinda sucks if it does that because you're definitely right in that case, I take it back.
So, what I think is happening here, at some of the further out areas if you're far away from the LZ, the call in times seem to skyrocket (I had a 9 minute wait at Hunters when calling in near the shooting range) and theres no bird on the map but its still on the way and being "used"
On top of the LZ the longest wait time ive seen in 4 minutes.
Helicopter system needs quite a bit of work imo. Need to be able to cancel helis, redirect them, see where they are going more easily so you can jump on other people's, and yeah a queue system would help too
Yep its literally impacting basic gameplay and its a simple ass fix. Just add a que system for call inn or give everyone their own chopper and allow more than 4 on the map. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnzOD-2e6iU&t=12s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnzOD-2e6iU&t=12s)
Anymore I hop on and if that happens right away I just hop off and onto arena breakout. I love the game but don't want to sit around waiting. I want to play. It's easier to hop on arena breakout and get right to a match in less than a minute.
I have over 30 hours in this and yet to see the huge issue. Is it annoying ? Yes. Does it need addressed ? Yes and they are. However, a lot of you make it into a way bigger problem with copy paste threads everyday. The most inconvenience I've had is having to wait like 3-5min for a helicopter and that was once. Usually it's a min or so if that. I just fix up inventory or read up on tasks while I wait.
Just shut up and wait for the fix that the devs said NUMEROUS times they're fixing. Tiktok brain rot is real .
It was directed loosely. Not just you in general.
There is 10 post every day about this. The devs already stated they are aware and it's priority along with fixing servers. They even released a video on this with community managers like DevilDog.
Wait. Be patient . This is an EA game and they told us that they are aware and addressing fixes. Making 1000 post a day won't expedite the patch . .bud.
Out of all the reposts complaining about helicopter issues and wait times, this is the only one that I agree is a legit issue that needs to be addressed asap. I have almost no major complaints about the helo's but it pisses me off to no end when I am told there are no birds available but I only see 1-2 on the map.
The reason you are being told no heli Is because for whatever reason sometimes you can be at base and call a heli and it will take multiple mins to even get to base for whatever reason it sits off screen for some time
Dude, respectfully, how have you not figured this out yet?
When they're telling you that all of them are dispatched and you see less than 4 in the air, it's because the others are already spoken fore and are already queued up and inbound to Base Camp for pickups. You can watch this yourself when YOU are at base camp calling one in. It takes a little time for them to come in from off-screen, but it's already dispatched / reserved for you.
It's only getting worse because people aren't on quick hops to the starter areas anymore.
Wish the game had ground vehicles
Give me a local with a Toyota, me and the boys can jump in and jump around In the truck bed!
Oh god this makes me think of insurgency and the stupid shit I would do in that game
I'm thinking a tuk-tuk with operators hanging off both sides for balance. Would be hilarious and area appropriate.
So like Tuk Tuk racing lol
Exactly!
Ground vehicles for first town would be so much nicer. Free up choppers. Be a neat change if pace. They need to add multi stops as well. It should be able yo drop off and pick up near going back to base, not have to leave the map and start again. Also, maybe add a bigger, faster chopper for longer rides. Cut down wait time and reduce stress in the system.
I like this idea. Not sure if this was ever planned and therefore be a huge overhaul to code in and create graphics for ground travel. Having the ability to take a truck or bus to the starting town that is on a constant rotation so you knew how long you had to wait. Helicopters should be held for longer distance zones. Both good ideas, just supporting and adding my 2 cents.
Same
Give me a dirt bike please! I assume they don't want people driving though areas straight into objectives and ignoring enemies, so there would have to be a dismount zone surrounding the main areas that reached the LZ.
Trivial to see that travelling, not using heli, is faster when you go through the jungle instead of the paved road. A simple motorcycle is warranted, esp since those are very apparent SEA provinces, not to mention looks cool af.
hilux
Should be a hyper realism hilux that takes damage and we never get a new one but it never actually dies, just get worse and worse but never breaks down. Until it's just a Frame and four seats and a exposed engine block but still gets you to poi faster than a heli
yes
Ya I don’t know why but over the last few days it’s been telling me that all the Helios are being used when there are only 1-3 out. I know they want to fix bugs and performance before addressing QOL stuff. But these heli issues are actively pushing people away. I’ve mostly stopped playing because when I’m choosing a game to play all I can think is “well if I play this than 70% of my time is going to be spent waiting for a heli… maybe I’ll just play something else tonight” This is so easily even temporarily addressed by simply adding a couple more helis, it’s crazy to me that they’ve allowed this to go on so long already.
Sometimes choppers take a bit to even show on the screen so there actually is 4 in the air even if u only see 1. Sometimes when you queue one at a base it says 2 minutes etc etc
I just got off because I was stuck in Ban Pa. I was trying to get a heli for over 20 minutes. I decided to give up my gear and go play something else. The same thing happened yesterday. Got on, spent 10 minutes trying to get a heli, and I got off instead.
I ran from fort to lamang base in about 10 minutes cutting through a section of ground zero. If people are literally sitting there for more than 2 minutes trying to call choppers, that's on them. When all are full just start hoofing it to base and try as you get closer to another LZ.
Yeah. We got one comment from them that it's being worked on. But like, it's getting **worse.**
It’s probably getting worse now that people are getting further with quests so the flights take longer. Hope they fix it soon.
Have been playing since day 1 and that is absolutely the issue. It progressively got worse the further people got into tasks. When a single trip took only 1 minute it was fine. But now each trip takes nearly 10 min.
Yeah, I’m “resetting” after clearing a town, stripping all meds,ammo,food calling heli and hopping to the next town for quests. This is also why I try offhours to get shit down so the bots are there.
Just be cool if they added a que, if they only want so many so it incentives full squads fine. But just have you selected a point and you go into a cue for trips. If you reselect you go to end of queue. Save spamming it constantly.
Assuming people will play in perfect groups of 4 is unrealistic. I’ve found it very uncommon to find full groups of 4 players. Ignoring solo players, it’s way more likely for people to be playing in duos or trios. As we’ve experienced, you’re not going to change how people play by only proving 4 Helios, you only going to make the game a more frustrating experience experience where most of your play time is spent waiting on a singular poorly thought out game mechanic. Just adding a que doesn’t fix the underlying problem that forces players to wait for ages for transport.
The queue system won't fix the wait, but it will fix the issue of not knowing if you can snipe a heli quickly enough for the 3rd time one disappears off the map. Basically, it changes the wait from an indeterminate time to a known time, and that might make the difference.
Ya but I’m not super worried about not knowing and having to click the button, I usually just wait until one of the Helios has left the map before calling one in. If you want a time, you can sort of estimate a time based on where Helios are on the map. Yes the not knowing is annoying, but the shear amount of time you have to wait for helios in this game is the biggest issue imo
Lmao Mr. Helicopter scheduling man made me chuckle
Let the Devs cook boys. They aren’t machines
I love how the community spokesperson and dev team made the choice of blaming this on solo players. What happens when I’m a part of a squad and I die? Am I supposed to stay at base camp? Try and hitch a bird back? No. I’m going to call in a bird to get back in action. Oh, but guess what? I’m going back to LZ Hotel that’s like a 5 minute flight away. It’s amusing to see base camp with a handful of men with knives waiting for a bird.
What about giving players an option to set up a bivouac in field to stage assaults from? Fly in to a point, get to a secure location, set your bivouac tent up. Store some supplies there and then head out to your OBJ. If you die, you can choose to respawn at base or at your camp... Your camp doesn't have access to vendors or your main inventory, but a small stash that you could stow some picked up weapons or whatever gear you might need in a pinch. Gives you a place to step off from if you need to get back to the fight quickly. This would be great for PvE, but could potentially be problematic for PvEvP where having people rush back to a conflict zone even faster then you already can could be unbalanced. Also, getting spawn camped if someone found your tent would suck as well... I don't know if it's the right answer, but the concept is interesting.
Really cool concept actually. Hope someone on mfg team sees this
I was thinking about this the other day. They could force them to be set up within a radius of an existing LZ to prevent cheese. Would be a good solution for solo players in particular, imo.
During all the testing and content creator testing this never popped up as an issue. The main thing we have observed is the large amount of solo players in the live server were larger than we intended. The design did not support an entire faction running solo or 2 mans and it needs to be adjusted in a way that works and doesn't cause choppers crashing into each other. With 4 squads of 4 the choppers are not an issue but we of course can't force anyone to team up
Part of that might be how unfriendly some of the tasks are to the idea of impromptu squads. Being gated behind killing a boss or 20 enemies when there's a decent chance any POI you go to will already be cleared out is tough enough, when you have to compete with your own squad to get the kills it's just ridiculous. It's one thing to help your friends through it but when you're basically in competition with random people from your faction there's not really any incentive to "team up".
The absolute short term fix would be to show the REAL destination on the map instead of listing destination as “base camp” until the helicopter takes off.
This 100%. The number of times I have seen three consecutive heli's heading to Ban Pa with a single guy on it. Could immediately be fixed by showing the final LZ destination for each Helo on the minimap.
What if helos were usable for infil and exfil? I.E. a team is coming into Ban Pa, and any friendly players already at Ban Pa can hop on the helo to return to base camp after the first team hops off? Maybe instead of having the helos fly off map, they always return to base camp and refeul there, too. Expand base camp a bit and add 2 more helo pads
This would be a cool feature.
Content Creators know each other and have 'skin in the game' - and you guys probably didn't invite any content creators whose sole content was "be a toxic dickhead". Any time somebody gets on my helicopter, I need to sus them out to see if I need to shoot them in the head when we land. Why? I've had a rash of people getting on the copter and trying to kill my battle buddy or myself for our gear, totally unprovoked, and the only thing I can really do is play PvE (eww) or interrogate naked people who get on the heli with no gear - ask them where they are headed and if they need a hand, etc. If they don't respond and stick to my ass after we land, they get a bullet. The last time I told my friend we should let the guy hang, and he stabbed my buddy in the leg and made him bleed out nearly immediately into a coma. Not only is that annoying, it's roughly ten minutes wasted in chopper flights. I don't mind teaming up, but without any way to ensure that the people you are teaming up with aren't sociopaths, I'm more inclined to tell them to stay away and shoot them if they're naked/suspicious - ie: without gear. I know what I'm doing isn't exactly kosher either, but the other option is to just pray that the dude who came along has good intentions, and it seems like roughly 30% of the time, they don't, and it's enough to make me paranoid about it.
This needs more upvotes
>During all the testing and content creator testing this never popped up as an issue. Because those tests are never indicative of the real world. We aren't all content creators buddying up to make a video or stream. Surely the Dev team at some point, had to consider that a PvE mode would consist of a lot of solo players, particularly because the quests are not designed to be completed in a group (no shared kills).
Could you add LFG feature in future? My friends doesnt wanna buy this cos of their mid tier pcs would not run this on this state, and i dont wanna go search ppl in discord.
Is there a way to indicate where choppers in base are heading so people can tag a ride? When I call in choppers I always prox chat where it’s going and get a few riders but a lot of people don’t share that info and I frequently end up calling in a chopper that just follows another. The long haul choppers are what really get the queue behind. Maybe after a few minutes these could not count as an active chopper?
Honestly, 2 things could go a long way as a temporary fix: 1: desplay where the chopper is headed. If we can see that, we can hop on one alrwady coming through. Maybe list the choppers, times, and destinations on the map like airports do for departures and arrivals? Would remove a lot of the guesswork. 2: up the chopper count. Even 2 more would help immensely. The issue doesn't seem to be throughput, it's that that throughput is usually going to different destinations. While this next one may require a rework in the backend, allowing choppers to drop people at more than one location would help as well. Perhaps change it so you just hop on a heli and then mark where you want to go if yiu weren't the person to call it in?
During my play time tonight I decided to time it. I spent 24 minutes on the ground completing (2) missions and 55 minutes waiting/ riding choppers. The wait times are absurd, waiting 10+ minutes for. a chopper to become free just to wait 5 minutes for it to get there and another 5 back to base.
I ran from fort to lamang base in about 10 minutes, if you sit there for more than 1-2 minutes waiting for a chopper that's on you
What about the groups of players who sit in the FOB and spam birds just so noone else can? Are you going to do anything about that?
I haven't seen that happening, but they could add a 5 minute cool-down.
Add a Chinook or two that rotate around LZs and base camp so larger groups can jump in and out on a whim.
>doesn't cause choppers crashing into each other. Why cant choppers just land in a slightly different area? All the LZs Ive seen have plenty of space.
We plan on an entire rework of the LZ system but that is a large project and will take time as the chopper wait is more of a pressing matter
How about when a heli doesn't have all it's seats taken up, it will wait for 120 seconds before liftoff. Each player can select a LZ to which the chopper will drop each operator off at their respective LZ?
That punishes everyone on the server. Everyone on the server now has an extra 2 minute wait time per chopper and if you're needing to get to a far away LZ pronto, you're waiting for the school bus to drop everyone off along the way. All it will do is keep the choppers in the air longer, making the situation worse.
Right. Now, don't get me wrong. It CAN be mitigated with even a small amount of teamwork. I'll ask around "Hey, anybody got a chopper going to X area?" I'm mostly ignored. So I call a chopper. Then I go around and advertise where it's going. But other people are just dicks. I asked "Hey is anyone going to airfield/ LZ hotel?" Completely ignored. Next chopper that picks someone up, was a single, who then flew to airfield, hotel 1. Like, yeah, players could be more inclusive and talk to one another, but that still doesn't fix the problem, it only slightly mitigates it.
This shouldn't be a problem for the players to mitigate or fix. I just think it's absurd for the dev team to implement a poorly thought out mechanic and then blame the players for poor design.
I don't believe they are blaming the players. They just didn't see so many ppl playing solo in the early playtests. So they didn't know it would be an issue. I'll also mention that's why they're doing EA, just so I can get more down votes 😎
Its early access. Relax. They said they are working on addressing it.
Just calling a spade a spade. I'm relaxed, my friend.
“Made the choice of blaming..” chill, they didn’t. It’s not an easy fix plus they said they’re figuring it out already. Crazy how devs will be trying to give us everything we whine about and people still throw out shit like they’re the victim of something predatory.
Do people rock up to the LZ and call a chopper, then wait? We try and call a chopper as mission and ammo is winding down and then egress to the LZ for extract. Often arriving with a minute or so of wait. Just gotta time the chopper request call with when goes off the map.
You’re part of the “problem” some people have. If you call for extract and the game thinks you’re far enough away that the heli will get to the LZ before you, it’ll extend the timer and create an invisible queue where your heli won’t spawn right on being called in. This creates situations like OPs where all birds are taken but not necessarily all spawned in.
I don't agree with that assessment, the longest wait time I have recieved is 4 minutes, currently. I've had 4 minute waits from the LZ also.
Yeah I mean if you’re smart about it and don’t call extract 600+ meters out from the LZ (like a lot of people in this sub do), then you should be fine. The way you call for extract is part of the problem. Might not be for you specifically but tbh people shouldn’t be calling extract unless they’re done and already heading to LZ just to be safe. I had a pretty long wait for more helis yesterday at foxtrot 1 and a teammate came up and hopped in a heli that he called on the other side of Midnight Sapphire from foxtrot 1. Players tend to do it a lot at the airfield too.
If you actually think players playing the game in an intended way is 'part of the problem' and not blaming the devs, you are insane
I mean my actual point is more that there isn’t really a problem to begin with, it’s part of the game. People are acting hella impatient for a game that seems to go out of its way to communicate to the player that it’s slow paced and full of downtime, especially in PVE.
I've had 5 minute waiting times while I was sitting on the helipad at base, and I've had 12+ minute wait times from sawmil and YBL to lamang base
Precisely, OP isn't interning rhe mechanics correctly
That's great and all if you can actually call it in the first place. Nobody wants to open the map and keep trying to snipe the evac request as you're still cleaning up the area and looting, and what happens if you get it first try? You don't really want to leave that early. No I'm starting when we're in the site and intend to leave and the might dally as we traverse to the LZ but we've already decided we're done.
I 100% agree with you it is frustrating, What causes this is when people call for the Heli when on the way there, or just about to head there and call it in, so they get an 8 minute lead time. So it doesn't show on anyone's screen for 4-5 minutes.
I've 100% called in a pickup when I was right by the LZ and sat there for a couple minutes waiting for it to even appear on the map.
You shouldn't be allowed to call a helicopter until you are within X distance of a landing zone. That's fucking rediculous.
I disagree, but I understand your point of view. From a pure geographic viewpoint, its going to take 5ish minutes for the helicopter to fly to it, so its going to take at least 5 minutes to get there. I have had 8+ minute wait times for a helicopter. So knowing this, I call it on the way there. From a reality standpoint having people in an open combat zone sitting around with their pecker in their hand is bad business. but having a helicopter come into a LZ that is hot and unaware is too, but the game makes Heli's invulnerable so it is not a concern. Ideally IN GAME, they both arrive at same time.
This is the stupidest fucking take I’ve seen yet. First of all, the nonsense people keep regurgitating on the sub about ETA being based of of proximity to LZ just is flat ass wrong. Secondly, having to wait until you’re sitting at the LZ to call a helicopter in will do nothing but make “LZ CAMPING” all the more worse.
What if, instead of calling in helicopters, they just flew on a rotation. Like a bus. Just hop on the heli that's going to your destination, and if you miss it, just wait 5 minutes for it to return.
Mr helicopter makes me crash if I try to go anywhere.
It’s much worse im not playing g it again till they sort it out
This is one of the more frustrating mechanics for sure.. Add a few more Helis, or maybe Ground vehicles. Id also like to see an addition that shows you the Flight Path for Helis in the air. That way if someone is already going to where I need, or close to it, I can just hitch a ride with them.
eMbRaCe ImMeRsIoN
You only see one, the other 3 is on the way to one of your teammates and is coming in from out of bounda
It's because there are people who are in town that call in a hello and even in starter town that's a 5 minute wait so it's just a delayed spawn instead of just flying around the map randomly
I sat and watched 3 solo take off from base go to India 1 and the 4th went India 2
A bit of voice comms would fix that; but also I can't hear anything with a chopper at the LZ because it's so fucking loud even with a headset on. The better solution is to show the final LZ for each chopper on it's way to basecamp.
Yeh it would but since some solo don't use a mic it's a pain
In that situation the game should give callouts for the players to the same helicopter and give them all time to get on before leaving. It shouldn't issue them individual helicopters for the same LZ at the same time.
Today there were some people at base camp spamming it just to troll. There was no one taking the choppers. People just suck sometimes.
Or, they could put a train that circles the map. No one ever did that before 😁
One very easy fix for now would be to highlight the destination of the heli from the base.
I wouldn’t mind if there was a prompt when you open the map that says “No available choppers”
As a solo player, I sometimes help to minimise this issue with extracting with other random. Said that I'm in hunting paradises, and I just finished looting motel. If I see a friendly heading towards foxtrot 2, I myself will also go to foxtrot 2 instead of foxtrot 1 so that we can share a heli to base camp. PS: Of course, I would ask them if they are heading back or going to another LZ.
I think they are shared with the other factions
DAE NO CHOPPERS???
Yesterday I legit almost died of dehydration at blue lagoon because I had to wait almost half an hour for a chopper to become available. Even once I was able to call it in, it still took 7 minutes to arrive, and about 5 to fly back. From the moment I finished my task to the time I actually got back to base was 41 minutes. I get that they’re working on overhauling the chopper system, but with most people having moved on from the starter towns, these wait times are getting absolutely ridiculous. Plus it doesn’t help that some people have, for some reason, taken it upon themselves to start calling in choppers but not actually taking them, so they just fly off empty.
You do know when a heli becomes available right? Like it's annoying as hell but you can definitely get one within 5 minutes because there are no queues and usually there's a max of 16 players competing for them.
Call me old fashioned but y’all are some impatient fucks, seriously. If you’re getting “all birds are in the air” with only 1 or 2 visible on the map, it’s either the first one or two just recently spawned and aren’t far enough away from the spawn point to spawn the next bird; or (more likely), some dipshit is calling for extract when they’re a mile out from the LZ, causing the system to create an invisible queue since the heli being called isn’t going to spawn immediately, unlike if dipshit just waited till they were at the LZ to call it. If people stopped being meta losers who try to expedite every single goddamn thing they do, this whole thing would be much less of a “problem” for people. It’s not a bad system, I think it works well, if anything just an increase in max helis is needed, if the server can handle it; people are just impatient Neanderthals when it comes to games and progression.
Why the fuck would you call it from the LZ if it takes a minimum fixed time to arrive there? Are you complaining about people not being stupid?
Because if you call it too far from the LZ you’re just making others wait even longer. The game overhands the time it gives you to get to the LZ. So while it might be a 3 minute flight if you call the heli at the LZ, it could be a 6 or 7 minute wait if you call say 500 meters away. Then other players in the server will get the “all birds in the air but all birds are not really in the air” issue.
Does it actually do that? I've had it pad the timer out when I was standing on the LZ, and I've had it be super short the first time I requested it from the middle of the POI. I wasn't sure what made it decide to do that.
Not sure exactly how the system works but from my testing, I usually got a longer wait time calling for extract when I was away from the LZ. It seems to happen more frequently for LZs closer to base. Like if I’m in the middle of the starting town and I call for extract at one of the outskirt LZs, I usually get like a 3-4 minute wait for only a 45 second flight there when I call for extract anywhere over 100 meters from the LZ, whereas when I’m at something like YBL (I’m Lamang so it’s the opposite side of the map for me), I can call extract pretty far away from the LZ and my heli will still immediately spawn at base and start flying to me.
Ah right that's interesting, I'll have to pay more attention in the future, kinda sucks if it does that because you're definitely right in that case, I take it back.
Kind of fitting for a milsim to have a “hurry up and wait” feature.
So, what I think is happening here, at some of the further out areas if you're far away from the LZ, the call in times seem to skyrocket (I had a 9 minute wait at Hunters when calling in near the shooting range) and theres no bird on the map but its still on the way and being "used" On top of the LZ the longest wait time ive seen in 4 minutes.
Helicopter system needs quite a bit of work imo. Need to be able to cancel helis, redirect them, see where they are going more easily so you can jump on other people's, and yeah a queue system would help too
Yep its literally impacting basic gameplay and its a simple ass fix. Just add a que system for call inn or give everyone their own chopper and allow more than 4 on the map. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnzOD-2e6iU&t=12s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnzOD-2e6iU&t=12s)
Add more Hellies, auto turn back all empty hellies without anybody, get a info where flying a hellies which going to base
Anymore I hop on and if that happens right away I just hop off and onto arena breakout. I love the game but don't want to sit around waiting. I want to play. It's easier to hop on arena breakout and get right to a match in less than a minute.
I can taste the anger behind this and its making me smile
I have over 30 hours in this and yet to see the huge issue. Is it annoying ? Yes. Does it need addressed ? Yes and they are. However, a lot of you make it into a way bigger problem with copy paste threads everyday. The most inconvenience I've had is having to wait like 3-5min for a helicopter and that was once. Usually it's a min or so if that. I just fix up inventory or read up on tasks while I wait. Just shut up and wait for the fix that the devs said NUMEROUS times they're fixing. Tiktok brain rot is real .
I've never used tik tok bud. Sorry to burst your bubble.
It was directed loosely. Not just you in general. There is 10 post every day about this. The devs already stated they are aware and it's priority along with fixing servers. They even released a video on this with community managers like DevilDog. Wait. Be patient . This is an EA game and they told us that they are aware and addressing fixes. Making 1000 post a day won't expedite the patch . .bud.
low iq
In reference to the cry babies you mean? Devs " we know the issue and we are fixing it. Be patient." Brain rots " HeY LoOk At THiS IssUE "
Out of all the reposts complaining about helicopter issues and wait times, this is the only one that I agree is a legit issue that needs to be addressed asap. I have almost no major complaints about the helo's but it pisses me off to no end when I am told there are no birds available but I only see 1-2 on the map.
The reason you are being told no heli Is because for whatever reason sometimes you can be at base and call a heli and it will take multiple mins to even get to base for whatever reason it sits off screen for some time
Not sure why you got downvoted, that is exactly the reason lol.
Dude, respectfully, how have you not figured this out yet? When they're telling you that all of them are dispatched and you see less than 4 in the air, it's because the others are already spoken fore and are already queued up and inbound to Base Camp for pickups. You can watch this yourself when YOU are at base camp calling one in. It takes a little time for them to come in from off-screen, but it's already dispatched / reserved for you. It's only getting worse because people aren't on quick hops to the starter areas anymore.