WingNuts and Bolts

# Enemy Helo

This section details the enemy helicoptor creator

The Helicoptors are for the most part, just like enemy craft, except they behave a bit differently. They can stop on a time and turn in air. They cannot perform a loop or roll manuever. And they have a big spinning blade.

Your standard Enemy Helicoptor window.

Before we detail the diffrent sections, take notice of the lower left of this screen. You'll notice several buttons.

This is the viewing area of the Enemy Helo section. This area should look famaliar, it is featured in most sections of the editor. However, the enemy helo's section has several buttons and controls at the bottom.

Zoom - This lets you zoom into the ship. You can zoom in 2, 3 and 4 times the image.

Normal - This is the standard top down view of the helicoptor. It is flying straight ahead.

Bank - This is the helicoptor playing the banking animation. You can find more information about this in the banking section of player ships under Graphics.

Pitch - This is the helicoptor playing the pitch animation. You can find more information about this in the pitch section of enemy helo ships under Graphics.

? - This is the helicoptor playing the ? animation. We are not sure what to call this maneuver. Think of it as combining pitch and bank, without flipping over. It's a useful maneuver, but we don't know the name of it.

Collision - This displays the collision circles for the helicoptor. This will be detailed in another section.

Shield - This displays the heliocoptor with the shield effect.

Weapon - This displays the helicoptor firing it's primary weapon.

Impact - Each time you press this button, the helicoptor will be "hit" by a weapon and play it's impact sequence.

Explode - When you press this button, the helicoptor will explode.

AI - This lets a simple computer AI fly the helicoptor. Due to no planes to join formations with or enemies to fight it is very simple.

# A Note about making changes.

At the top of the screen to the right of the "New" "Delete" "Rename" and "Duplicate" buttons there is a smaller button named "Save". When you make a change in the enemy craft screen it is not instant. You need to press the "Save" button before your changes will draw in the view area.

# Graphics

Helicopter image - This is the base image for the helicopter. This image does not include blades. The blades are added later.

Banking images - This is the animation for the banking effect. This image can animate and proabably should. This is just like enemy craft banking images but it is a helicopter.

Pitching images - This is the animation for the pitching effect. This image can animate and probably should. This is just like enemy craft pitching images but it is a helicopter.

Main blade image - This is the main image to be used for the primary rotating blade. This should be a still image, the engine will animate it.

Other blade image - The helicopter can have a 2nd blade image (such as the Chinok in WingNuts 2).

Has a weapon - This lets you assign the primary weapon for the helicopter. Choose from the pulldown list.

Aiming method - This lets you choose between three aiming methods:

- Fixed relative to orientation of enemy helicopter - This kind of shot will be fired infront of the helicopter. This is much like your own player shots.
- Towards current position of player helicopter - This lets the enemy fire at your plane directly. They can even fire backwards!
- Towards future position of player helicopter - This method lets them anticipate where you are going to be, this is the most accurate shot.

Has a bomb weapon - This gives the helicopter a bomb weapon.

Has a bomb weapon - This lets you choose a bomb weapon to assign to an enemy.

Fraction of time spent bombing player's carrier during game - This lets you tell the game how much of the enemies time should be spent bombing the carrier during normal gameplay.

Fraction of time spent bombing once player battles bosses - This lets you tell the game how much of the enemies time should be spent bombing the carrier during boss battles.

Fraction of time spent bombimg one player escorts carrier - This lets you tell the game how much of the enemies time should be spent bombing the carrier during the escort phase.

Has impact explosion - This is the explosion that will be played when the enemy helicopter receives damage.

Has death explosion - This is the explosion that will be played when the enemy helicopter is destroyed.

Has particle trail - This option lets you assign a particle trail to be drawn when the enemy helicopter is damaged. You choose a particle from the list.

Particle rate - This is the rate in particles per second that the trail will be drawn.

Primary offsets - These are the X and Y cordinates of the particle trail.

Secondary - These are the X and Y cordinates of a 2nd trail.

Teritary - These are the X and Y cordinates of the 3rd trail.

Has engine glow - This lets you assign a glowing image to the enemy helicopter. Select an image from the list.

Glow offsets - This lets you assign the X and Y cordinates of the engine glow.

Glow color - These values let you change the color of the image. Values of 1 will have 100% of the color, 0 will have 0% of the color.

Aircraft manufacturer - This string lets you assign the Aircraft manufacturer, this is used in the mission breifing screen.

Aircraft model - This string lets you assign the aircraft model. This is used in the mission breifing screen.

Year - This string lets you fill in the year for the helicopter. This is used in the mission breifing screen.

# Properties

Your standard Enemy Helicoptor Properties window.

The Properties screen lets you assign different settings for the enemy helicopter, such as collisions and flight velocity.

Sustainable damage - This is the minimum and maximum allowed damage values.

Collision damage - This is how much damage this enemy helicopter will cause when it runs into you. Enemy craft cannot take collision damage, but they can dish it out.

Flight velocity - These are the minimum and maximum values for the speed of the enemy helicopter. These values are measured in pixel per second.

Maximum yaw rate - This is the yaw, or turn rate of the enemy helicopter. This is measured in degrees per second.

Yaw rate acceleration - This is the rate that the helicopter will accelerate when making a turn, this value is is in degrees per second squared, it is exponential.

Base score for destruction - This is how many points you get for destroying this helicopter.

Level score multiplier - These are extra points added to the base score depending on what level you are on.

Colission detection circles - The following check boxes define the collison of the helicopter. If the helicopter has no circles, then it cannot be hit and will fly through objects. It's best to keep the circles constrained to the helicopter. To make a collision circle, click the check box next to it. You can have 16 different circles. To see the circle, you'll need to click "Collison" on the bottom left of the window. You can position the circle with the following commands:

- Use the Arrow Keys to move a circle up and down, left and right.
- Use the + (plus) and - (minus) keys to increase or decrease the size of the cirlce.
- Hold down shift while using the arrow keys to move the circle 10 pixels at a time.
- Hold down shift while using the + (plus) and - (minus) keys to increase or decrease the size of the circle 10 pixels at a time.

Collision circles can overlap, and should. To adjust a circlue, use the "Edit Circle" option at the bottom right of the window. Each numbered button corrosponds to that collision circle.

# Behavior

Your standard Enemy Helicoptor Behavior window.

The Behavior section lets you define the different behaviors of the Enemy Helicopters.

Player awareness distance - This value, measured in pixels, determines how far away you can be from an Enemy Heloicopter before it is aware of you.

Maximum bank angle - Because a helicopter can't flip over upside down (well not easily or on purpose in our case) this value lets you determine the maximum angle it will bank.

Maximum pitch angle - This value lets you determine the maximum value the helicopter will pitch.

Invisible on radar - This option makes the Helicopter invisible on the player's radar.

Invisible to carrier - This option makes the carrier ignore the helicopter and it will not fire at it.

Has main rotor - This option defines the main rotor blade for this helicopter. The graphic for this blade is assigned in the graphics section of Enemy Helos.

Rotor x offset - This is how many pixels the main rotor is on the x axis.

Rotor y offset - This is how many pixels the main rotor is on the y axis.

Rotor z offset - This is how many pixels the main rotor is on the z axis. The Z axis is depth, in this case it is pixel height from the main helicopter body.

Rotor spin rate - This is how many degrees per second the rotor spins. Note this is degrees per second, not revolutions per second. A value of 360 means the blade has made a full circle in 1 second.

Has other rotor - This lets you assign a 2nd rotor to a helicopter. This is defined in the graphics section of the Enemy Helo.

Rotor x offset - This is how many pixels the main rotor is on the x axis.

Rotor y offset - This is how many pixels the main rotor is on the y axis.

Rotor z offset - This is how many pixels the main rotor is on the z axis. The Z axis is depth, in this case it is pixel height from the main helicopter body.

Rotor spin rate - This is how many degrees per second the rotor spins. Note this is degrees per second, not revolutions per second. A value of 360 means the blade has made a full circle in 1 second.

Can follow player - This option gives the helicopter the AI to follow the player.

Can ignore player - This option gives the helicopter the AI to ignore the player.

Can attack player - This option gives the helicopter the AI to attack the player.

Can evade player - This option gives the helicopter the AI to evade the player.

Can evade with hovering - This option gives the helicopter the ability to evade the player while hovering in place.

Can evade with sliding turn - This option gives the helicopter the ability to slide from side to side to evade the player.

Can evade with reverse - This option gives the helicopter the ability to evade the player by moving in reverse.

Can evade iwth quickturn - This option gives the helicopter the ability to evade the player by turning in place quickly.

BLOCK FOR EVASIVE MANUVERS

Minimum rest time between special maneuvers - This value determines how long the Helicopter must wait between manuvers.

Time taken to decelerate after destruction - This value determines how long it will take the heliocopter to fall to the ground after being destroyed.

Has looped engine sound - This option lets you assign a looping sound for the engine.

Has damage received sound - This option lets you assign a sound to be played when the craft takes damage.

Has explosion sound - This option lets you assign a sound to be played when the craft is destroyed.

Has roll maneuver sound - This option lets you assign a sound to be played when the craft performs the roll maneuver.

Has loop maneuver sound - This option lets you assign a sound to be played when the craft perform the loop maneuver.

Has falling sound - This is a sound to be played when the plane falls to the ground after being shot down.