Apr 30, 2019

Heliborne Collection - mindoug

Greetings pilots!

Good news from Heliborne hangar: it got 4 new helicopters. Two of them are Chinese attack helicopter Z-10 and Chinese attack reconnaissance Z-19 available for the Soviet-Russian side. The NATO side has received two European birds: German scout Bo 105 and Italian attack reconnaissance A129 Mangusta.

And now you also have several additional options to test them. We've added single and cooperative PvE to the biggest Heliborne maps Khost and Binomo Islands, both over 70 sq. km! Together with PvE functionality they have got exclusive PvE game mode — Counter-Insurgency. You need to defeat or contain enemy insurgency, find and destroy enemy staging grounds, protect and provide logistical support to existing positions. Apart from that, the Binomo map will receive several more thematic PvE objectives with a separate mini-patch by the end of the week.

All of that will be even more lively than before thanks to new background radio chatter which will accompany your and your team's activity.

And we also have a special treat for Spanish-speaking pilots. From now on Heliborne is fully available in Spanish language! Send all your love to our Mexican player Raul Valenzuela who's done all of that work alone.

To commemorate the update we announce a -50% discount for the base Heliborne game which will start tomorrow at 10 AM US Pacific Time / 5 PM GMT and will last for 4 days!

Heliborne 0.98 changelog:

Four new helicopters:
- German scout Bo 105,
- Italian attack reconnaissance A129 Mangusta,
- Chinese attack helicopter Z-10,
- Chinese attack reconnaissance Z-19.
Two biggest maps, each with more than 70 sq. km of operational area, that previously were PvP only now available in single and cooperative PvE — Khost and Binomo.
New PvE game mode for these maps — Counter-Insurgency. You need to defeat or contain enemy insurgency, find and destroy enemy staging grounds, protect and provide logistical support to existing positions.
Counter-Insurency game mode features 15 new objective types besides some objectives from existing PvE game modes. Also this game mode has objective sequencing mechanic. Objectives relate to each other and build up into bigger operation in certain area of the map.
New background radio chatter: your and your team's activity now will have radio chatter footprint.
Various improvements and fixes.
Spanish translation.

Team JetCat

Aug 24, 2018

Heliborne 0.97 — Sahara Desert

Heliborne Collection - mindoug

Greetings, pilots! We've been working on the update 0.97 for some time, and now we are happy to unveil our new map — North Africa, Sahara. This desert map is designed for II generation helicopter squads and is available both in PvP and PvE modes.

Operation Fznamznon map has also been improved. We've added several ships which guard carriers from enemy helicopters and basically defend your spawn point. Nguyen Hue has received new visual effect and improved PvE mode.

Heliborne 0.97 full changelog:

New map - North Africa, Sahara for 2nd generation, both PvP and PvE versions.
Additions to Fznamznon map - several ships will guard each spawn and landing ship location. Be aware, those ships are armed with heavy missiles.
Visual changes on operation Nguyen map - new rice fields, camera settings, rice field water splash effect.
Additions to PvE on operation Nguyen map - new unit locations and also experiment with boats on the water.
On both of 2nd generation maps tanks will now shoot at nearby helicopters with their main gun. Don't hover close to them.
Fixed some UI problems and improved some effects (40mm and 57mm AA gun effect)
Added "additional timer" option to PvE setup. This option will allow you to make either extend or reduce default objective timer.
Timer for rescue objectives now will be tied not only to difficulty setting, but also to size of the map. Allowing for more time to pick up soldiers.
Soldiers intended for rescuee now will be grouped closer. Soldier callback/pick up range is extended. And from now on soldiers will try not to climb up the electric poles. Fixed problem with rescuee soldiers not willing to take empty seats in some cases.
Recon soldiers requesting evacuation under fire will now mark their position with purple smoke.
Some of the PvE objectives now will specify grid coordinates of the objective.
Fixes to training map - armor values of training targets are updated. Some changes in target visual effects.
Heavy machinegun fire adjusted. Each bullet will deal less damage, but machinegun itself will fire for a longer period of time.
ATGM missiles should stop "crashing" enemy helicopters in some cases and will count as a regular kill.
Visual fixes for several helicopters.

Heliborne Flight School

Apart from that, we would like to announce Heliborne Flight School. The School will be made in a form of regular online battles, mostly PvP. Cadets will be split into 2 teams, and each of the teams will be led by one of our top players. Teams will be able to chat in a special private voice channel in our Discord.

If you would like to get advice from the most experience Heliborne players, be sure to reserve a place! Please fill in this short questionnaire. Those who want to share their experience with others are also encouraged to fill in the form.

Team JetCat

Jun 26, 2018

Heliborne 0.96.8 — New Co-op objectives

Heliborne Collection - mindoug

Greetings, pilots!

The Dragon's Awakening event has been successfully finished. You all did a great job, and it's now time for awards!

Every special medal earned within the event will give you a unique thematic Chinese camouflage.

We also would like to ask how did you like the event? What did you like most of all? What should we improve next time? Help us to make every next event better than the ones before!

Heliborne 0.96.8

Great news for Co-op players: we have added several new types of Co-op objectives and improved Co-op overall. We've also made scout helicopters more valuable, but a bit shortened their markable area range.

More Co-op updates will follow soon!

Changelog:

Difficulty settings for Co-op now affect accuracy and target contact range both for AA guns and vehicles.
Health of AA guns on III and IV generation maps has been increased.
New Co-op objectives have been added: insert operation under fire, reconnaissance group evacuation from ambush, medevac, and reconnaissance operation.
Appearance logic of several objectives has been changed: less objectives deep behind enemy lines, less objectives which lead to spawn of enemies in close vicinity to player's helicopter, etc.
50-seconds enemy spawn delay has been added to "engage enemy convoy" objective.
Time limits for objectives on easy and medium difficulty levels have been slightly increased. Several new options for number of simultaneous objectives have been added.
Chance of positive event after successfully carried out objective has been slightly decreased on all difficulty levels.
Air-to-air and Manpad missiles have received guaranteed damage depending on their power. Overall, air-to-air missiles became more effective, but will not inflict more damage than before.
MANPAD's missile smoke trail is now starting higher from the ground.
Shooting accuracy and range of RPG soldiers have been slightly increased.
Also, group of RPG soldiers now communicate with each other and does not make double shot in the same target.
Fixed RPG grenade bug which incorrectly lowered its damage.
RPG grenade rules for damaging helicopters have been changed: now it inflicts guaranteed damage.
Enemy RPG and MANPADS in Co-op now have unlimited number of shots.
Targets marked by scout helicopters now have additional "request for attack" icon above them.
Markable area range for scout helicopters has been decreased from 100 to 70 meters. As a result, markable area size has been decreased around two times, but it's still enough to cover any landing zone.
Target auto-lockon for cannons has been improved. It's now being activated much more often. Hence "mark target" button for scouts has been moved from B to E by default, while manual lockon has been moved from E to B.
Improvements of Chinese localization (thanks to Danyu-Tom, Pvt.Petrenko, and Chinese players group).

Team JetCat

Jun 14, 2018

Heliborne 0.96 — Dragon's Awakening

Heliborne Collection - mindoug

Hello everyone! We have several great new for you. First of all, Heliborne has received a new map — Binomo Islands, Operation Fznamznon.
https://youtu.be/xK8MDIdn5hQ

The Map

Operation Fznamznon is IV generation hypothetical scenario with an amphibious assault on an island located in South China Sea. It introduces a lot of brand new gameplay features. 60 percent of its 69 square kilometers are occupied by an island, the other part is sea.

The map is based on Frontline game mode with several significant changes. The biggest one is that instead of ground bases players start battle on heavy aircraft carriers. Those are USS Wasp (LHD-1) on US side and heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser Novorossiysk on Soviet side. They need to support an assault on the island, providing cover to the amphibious troops on their way to the shore and after that support the Marines while they are advancing through the island.

The map’s fleet also include dock landing ships (Ivan Rogov and USS Rushmore (LSD-47)), which deploy light armored vehicles and cover them until they reach the ground, and hovercrafts (Zubr and LCAC-1), which transport ground vehicles to the island.

Currently, Operation Fznamznon is available in PvP only, but we are going to add it to Co-op later.

We are currently looking into possible scenarios to expand sea operations related gameplay in the future. Looking forward to your feedback on this map and gameplay and waiting for your suggestions on how we could make it better!

Chinese localization

Today we are also happy to greet our new Chinese pilots on-board and present official Chinese localization for Heliborne! 欢迎您！

To commemorate this significant step in the game's development we've prepared a special in-game event — Dragon's Awakening. The event will last for 10 days during which everyone will be able to unlock unique helicopter camouflages and helmet patches.

The Manuscript

To all pilots,
Heliborne HQ has received an ancient Chinese manuscript from secret sources. Our translators and decoders have been working for months until they have finally discover its content. The manuscript is based on The Art of War by Sun Tzu and reveals how to become an invincible warrior. With the help of Chinese masters we've been able to adapt this knowledge to helicopter warfare.

The Objectives

Pilots, during the next 10 days, until June 24th 23:55 GMT, you'll have several temporary achievements available. Those are Tiger, Fox, Horse, and Dragon medals. Each of them has several objectives which have to be fulfilled during one battle.

Dragon medal can be received only by those who already have Tiger, Fox, and Horse medals!

1. Tiger medal
In one battle, complete 2 of 3 objectives:
- Destroy 25 ground vehicles
- Shot down 5 helicopters
- Destroy 10 AA positions

2. Fox medal
In one battle, complete 2 of 3 objectives:
- Scout 35 targets
- 15 spotted targets destroyed by your teammates
- Destroy 20 special soldiers

3. Horse medal
In one battle, complete 2 of 3 objectives:
- Capture 5 Landing Zones
- Show down 2 helicopters with MANPADs
- 10 targets destroyed by your mortars

4. Dragon medal
After Tiger, Fox, and Horse medals are received:
- Destroy 30 ground targets with door gunners
- Get ATGM-sniper 1st class ribbon (destroy 8 enemy vehicles with 8 ATGMs in a row)

The Awards

Every medal will unlock a unique helicopter camouflage after the event is finished.

Good luck, pilots!

Heliborne 0.96 changelog:

New map has been added — Binomo Islands, Operation Fznamznon (available in PvP only, will be added to Co-op later).
Operation Fznamznon map features updated Frontline mode: additional LZ which trigger deployment of vehicles have been added. Those LZs help to push forward on the map much faster, and without them being captured it is impossible to follow some of the routes.
New UI showing progression during special events.
4 new medals available during Dragon's Awakening event.
Hit sounds for helicopters have been improved: they now depend on caliber of a gun (thanks to ChokDK).
Other sounds have been added: reconnaissance failure, picking up cargo (thanks to ChokDK).
Some bugs have been fixed (cargo, choosing of a helicopter), opacity slider for night maps has been added, team chat has been added as default, cargo has been added to the training map.
5 missing helmet patches have been added to Deluxe Camouflage Pack.
Chinese Camouflage Pack has been added.

We've also prepared some new features which we did not include into this update. They will be added within following days.

Heliborne 0.96.1 changelog:

Armoring on vehicles has been unified on all maps. Overall, some vehicles became a little bit more armored, without significant changes.
Adjusted weapons of light vehicles on 3/4 generation maps. Vehicles will shoot for longer time, but each round will be less lethal.
Bonus to spotting range in ATGM mode, far turret zoom and artillery aim now is given only to scout helicopters.
Fixed UI for "8 ATGM kill-streak condition". Condition itself is reworked and should work without problems.
Fixed UI for several medals.
Added secondary cargo spawn location on new map.
Fixed turrets of LSD-47 on new map.
Fixed various bugs in achievements, game results, visual effects.

Team JetCat

May 14, 2018

Heliborne 0.95 — Pre-Battle Lobbies

Heliborne Collection - mindoug

Greetings, pilots!

We have very good news: a long-awaited lobby system has finally been added to Heliborne!

Now you can create a lobby to gather more players before starting a battle. You can both wait until other players join or invite your Steam and Discord friends.

You had a great battle with an unknown pilot and would like to play together in future? We made it much easier to socialize with others: now each battle ends with a post-battle lobby where you'll be able to talk to other pilots and send them friend invitations.

Take a look at the full patch notes to learn more details about the Update 0.95:

This update adds "lobbies" or "pre-game rooms". How they work - now when you creating a multiplayer game (be it Coop or PvP) - you can choose an option to Gather Players and create pre-game room. People will be able to join that pregame room and a battle will be started when you (host) will decide to do so. We hope to utilize this new feature a lot more in upcoming PvE overhaul and additional PvP gameplay modes.
While in a pre-game room you will have access to pre-game chat, where you can talk with other players.
Also while you are in a pre-game room, you will be able to send join invites through Steam and Discord to your friends.
We've integrated Steam Rich Presence - you will be able to send invites to both in-game and off-game friends. And you will be able to join games of your friends from the Steam interface (Join game buttons in friend list and profile list). This depends on privacy settings of your Steam profile.
We also integrated Discord Rich Presence - you will be able to invite your friends to both pre-game and on-going matches. Also, information about details of what you are playing will be displayed in your Discord profile. This integration also depends on your Discord privacy settings.
Steam friend list menu is added to the game. Through it, you can message your Steam friends, find their current battle or invite them to a pre-game room you are currently in.
Now after all multiplayer games participant list will be displayed in a post-game menu. You will be able to check other player's in-game profile (helmet, rank, and medals) and send them friend invites.
Also, a post-game chat will be displayed after all multiplayer games.
Planet Plyuk map is now hidden from both PvP and PvE. We'll do something with it in future, meanwhile, a new game map is in its finishing stages and should arrive to the game soon.
Meanwhile, we've added Kosovo Night map to the list of Coop-playable maps.
Achievement for mortar support (Love-tube) was fixed.
Maximum team difference rules where changed. For teams of size 3 or less maximum team difference is now 1, for size of 4 and more — 2, like before.
Password protection menu changed — now it is one password for the battle itself, not per-team.
Coop settings menu changed — it looks differently and now allows for more option combinations.
Increased rocket, missile, and personnel reload speed. Rocket refill speed now different for small caliber and large caliber rockets.

Oh, and we are going to show you something special very soon, so stay tuned!

Team JetCat