Having discovered that CH is underway it's kinda revived my interest in the genre.

Simple question: Is it worth my while to buy myself a copy of Longbow 2 to play around with in order to familiarise myself with the controls etc?

Will there be any correlation between LB2 and CH that'll make it worth my while figuring out how LB2 works that'll help me get a handle on CH (when it's finally released) or is LB2 totally obsolete?

I'm getting my fix flying around in the Alphasim AH64 in FSX at the moment but I'll give LB2 a try if it'll prove more helpful when trying to figure out CH.

If you want a great combat helo sim in the mean time why don't you try Black Shark? It's as good as it gets for realism and will set your mind up very nicely for combat tactics and flight controls.

It might be hard to get LB2 to work since it was coded for 1996 hardware. The manual is a rich source of information, the symbology in the helmet mounted sight is similar. We took Longbow 2 as our baseline and built on that. General feel of the game will be similar.

If you're into FSX you might want to head over to the forums at Hovercontrol dot com and find HTR Helicopter Total Realism, it's a freeware 3rd party helicopter flight model that runs in the background. There's an Apache profile that should work with the Alphasim AH64.

well LB2 works well with newer systems there is even a Win 7 fix for The ol' girl..

but if you want to get familiar with the Apache I would look into EECH!!

I've played LB2, DCS: Black Shark, EECH, and Alphasim's AH-64 for FSX, and it's my opinion that DCS:BS replicates helicopter behavior best (albeit there is a slight difference in yaw control principles since the Ka-50 has a co-axial rotor system; and as Flexman said, they're using HTR, which was made for FSX originally). However, I agree that LB2 would provide the best primer for CH since, as the dev team stated, that's what they're using as a baseline.

I don't know if it works on modern systems, but I would suggest checking out DI HIND. For me it was a big source of inspiration for the Herat map. Learning how to fight in the environment in DI HIND should carry over to Combat Helo.

Cheers

That's great news. Can I ask if the complexity will be at a similar level to LB2, or if its more like Black Shark, will there be some kind of 'LB2 mode' too? - this is the level I would personally prefer.

thanks
joe

You'll be able to take off and fly around without much difficulty early on. There are quick keys that perform several actions at once to cut down on pilot workload. The Apache has a lot of automation but there's plenty of toys in the cockpit you can play with when you decide you want to learn a bit more about the aircraft. Fly how you want.

Complexity is somewhere between the two.

Thanks for the replies folks. I've been away for a few days and just got home.

I found an old copy of LB2 on eBay so it was waiting for me when I got home and I've had a quick play on it.
It's not exactly dazzling by modern standards but, as has been said, I'm really more interested in figuring out how the toys all work rather than simply flying about so the manual is probably as important to me as the game itself.
The Alphasim AH64 in FSX is nice for getting an idea of how the AH64 flies but cos FSX doesn't like you blowing stuff up most of the clever bits are inoperative.

Incidentally, I had a play with Apache: AA on an xbox while I was away and it was just plain baffling. Nobody had left the manual for that lying around though so I really had no idea what I was doing. It all seemed very kinda clunky and wobbly though.
Here's hoping that CH will supply a more fluid and robust experience.

I do own a copy of DCS:BS but, frankly, I haven't played it that much.
I spent about 2 hours watching tutorial videos then just gave up, flew a couple of circuits around the airfield and have never really played it since.

Perhaps there's a lesson there for CH?
Maybe it's wise to start off with a couple of simple missions (ferry a helo', follow a ground convoy, investigate a crash site etc) to draw the player in then gradually introduce the more complex systems over a period of several missions to avoid scaring off people like me?

Course, I'm hoping that tinkering with LB2 will help minimise this phobia.

Stealthbomber - head over to the Jane's Longbow Series forums here if you would like any questions answered on either LB2 the game or aspects of the real Longbow that puzzle you in LB2. Us there will be glad to help.

Thanks for the reply - sounds promising.

I bought Black Shark but without a dynamic campaign it got shelved very fast.I have never really enjoyed any combat sim unless it had a campaign like EECH,Longbow,TAW,or Falcon 4.0 series.I think your best bet in the meantime is LB2(if you can run it) or EECH.

Heck ya, fly the blades off LB2 until Combat Helo is in our hands. Use it as a training tool to know the systems. Then graduate on to CHelo.
Sure, shes old and the graphics are 2 generations back. But Im pretty much a die hard LB2 fan...

Been flying it, mostly online, since its release. Been one of the few that helped others get it going online for years on this forum under the LB2 area along with others.
Still runs great on my Vista 32 bit Quad2Core and WinXP Quad2Core HP gaming systems, Apple Mac Book Pro 17" laptop in Vista mode, and several other systems I have laying around.
It takes almost nothing now to get it running on newer systems because of the glide wrapper that gives it the ability to be played on almost any resolution.

What keeps it on my system is its:
- multiplayer stability
- multiplayer cockpit (gunner pilot sharing same ownship)
- campaign and mission modes
- sharing targets
- multiple helos you can fly or ride in

and quite frankly, until we get another shared helo combat sim; its still unique. DCS-KA50 is far more complex and probably accurate; but who likes Soviet helos in their theatre?
And there is no sharing of cockpits. DCS is great, but until they come out with a LongBow with the right maps and features; its already gathering dust. Rather fly A10c.

So this is where Combat Helo has its chance to shine, and I couldnt think of a better person to carry the LB2 torch to the next generation than Flexman.

thats exacly where i use it for. But the only problem with LB2 i have is that it crashes when i completed a mission and want to end it. Also for some reason the 2-d cockpit panels are screwed up but i use the 3-d cockpit to compensate.