Heroes of Flame - CAUCASUS [single/multiplayer helicopter fire-fighting sandbox]

V.20240909

"Heroes of Flame" is an endless, entirely non-violent single/multiplayer helicopter fire-fighting mission. You are tasked with extinguishing large to very large fires with your helicopter. The more fires you extinguish, the better your reputation (if you enable persistence by de-sanitizing DCS, the mission remembers your past accomplishments).


Summertime!
... and living is easy? Not if you are one of Krasnodar's "Heroes of Flame", an elite helicopter firefighter corps. This summer is particularly hot and follows on the heels of a string of hot and dry months of spring. The ground is dry, the forest has become tinder waiting for a spark. The ground in and around Krasnodar's city proper is so parched that the municipal office has released orders that disallow citizens lighting fires outside of controlled environments.

Last week, vacation season started, and people - along with tourists - stream outside to enjoy nature and recreation. If last year was any indication of things to come, there will be fires, caused by a myriad of things, most of them caused by human exuberance. The local fire brigades are prepared for smaller flare-ups. Due to the extreme heat and drought, this year the authorities have prepared well: they erected an Airtank Center that has few rivals worldwide. A veritable armada of Hinds, Hips, Hooks, Hueys and Kiowas, fitted for firefighting are stationed at Krasnodar-Pashkovsky and are staffed with the best. You are one of them, and ready to become one of the "Heroes of Flame". Jump into the cockpit, top off your retardant tanks, and lay claim to your title.


Heroes of flame supports the following helicopters with capacities:
- Huey (1200kg)
- Hip (4000kg)
- Hind (2400kg)
- Hook (9000kg)
- Kiowa (500kg)

To fight fires, you first top off your tanks with flame retardant (fr om Krasnodar refill zone, marked with white smoke) or water (from a lake/river), and then drop it into the blaze.

Topping off your tanks:
- When inside a refill zone (white smoke): go to communications - Other - Firefighting and choose "Activate Intake" to fill up your flame-retardant tanks. Filling your tanks is instantaneous.
- When hovering over open water (lake/river), and at 10m AGL or less: go to communications - Other - Firefighting and choose "Activate Intake" to fill up your flame-retardant tanks. You’ll hear your intake pumps activate, and your chief starts giving you live updates. Your pumps can acquire 100 liters (kg) of water per second, so keep this in mind while hovering. Filling up the Huey (1200l) takes 12 seconds, while topping off the Hook at that rate takes 90 seconds.

Once your tanks are topped off, your intake pumps disengage automatically

Dropping Flame Retardant / Water into fire:
Note: currently, there is no difference in efficacy between water and flame retardant (this may change in later versions)

Move towards a fire cell and prepare to drop water. You can choose between two different methods:
- MANUAL: choose Comms - Other - Firefighting and sel ect "Manual Release". This empties the contents of your tanks at 1000kg/sec until they are empty. The impact point is derived fr om your current speed and direction. While the tanks are emptied, you can hear the turbo-pumps pushing out the liquids. I recommend that you bind the F2 key for manual release using some appropriate software for greater precision.
- Altitude-triggered: Go above 300 m AGL (900 ft), and then Comms-->Other-->Firefighting and choosing "Arm Autodrop Trigger". An aural soft tone blips once per second to remind you that the altitude trigger is armed. Once your altitude gets below 100m AGL (328ft), that triggers release.
Note: Altitude-triggered release is more difficult, and intended for advanced pilots who can judge their approach.

Once release has started, it ends after the entire contents has been emptied. The drop pumps are rated at 1000kg/sec, meaning that the Huey (1200l capacity) is empty after 1.2 seconds, while the Hook (9000l) has 9 seconds of water/retardant, and can therefore cover larger areas.

After you successfully drop water/flame retardant into a cell, the amount of fuel left in that cell is reduced. Once all fuel in the cell is consumed, that fire cell dies out, and can't re-ignite. Dropping water around a burning cell can prevent the fire from spreading in that direction. If you succeed in extinguishing all fire cells in a blaze, all pilots that have successfully contributed to fighting that fire are awarded an number of points based on the size of the conflagration.

The points accumulate any you can always query your status from Mountaintop. Initially, your Rank is "Probie", and that rank increases with the number and size of fires that you help to put out.

Refueling
Keep in mind that in order to carry more flame retardant, your helicopter is only fueled to 50%. Keep an eye on your fuel gauge, and when you return to the airfield to refuel, do not top off your gas tanks. Fill them to 50% to avoid falling out of the sky.

Since it's summer, and people are in a festive mood, there will never be a point wh ere no fires require your attention.

NOTES:
- “Heroes” supports persistence of features if your DCS installation is de-sanitized
- “Heroes” uses 'stopGap' for eye candy. On multiplayer, the server (only server) must run the 'stopGapGUI' script to fix a DCS synchronization bug. For stopGap, please see here: https://forum.dcs.world/topic/326213-stopgaps-script-to-fill-empty-player-slots-with-planes/