L63_HeliAI

L63 Heli AI 0.0.71 TERRAIN MASKING FLIGHT - NOW THE DEFAULT (formerly "the weave") - Transport legs of 2 km or more are planned through the terrain that hides them and flown low along that route, 15 m over the ground at 35 m/s. Legs where masking gains nothing are flown straight, as before. - LZ and rope-point approaches mask too, with the last 600 m straight so the escorts' overwatch break and the LZ judgement happen on a straight final. The trip home masks as well. - Flown on every test since the Everon tree card with no tree, wire or spire contact. The per-flight field is still called Weave Mode in the editor; set it Off (0) for the old straight transit, or Plan only (1) to log and draw the plan without flying it. ESCORT TRAIL ON MASKING LEGS - NEW, AND ON BY DEFAULT - On a masking leg the two escorts leave their abeam stations and fly nose-to-tail with the transport: the port gunship leads about 105 m ahead on the transport's own route, the starboard gunship follows about 105 m behind on the transport's actual track. - They form about 10-15 s into the leg and stay in trail through the bends, the leader banking into each turn ~3 s before the transport. A straight leg between two masking legs keeps them in trail. - They fan back out to their abeam stations 800 m before a waypoint whose next leg is straight, or break to their overwatch orbits 400 m before an LZ or rope point as today. Any engagement, evasion or overwatch ends the trail at once; they re-form only from a settled abeam station. - Measured on the test route: the leader held the route within 9 m (95th percentile), the follower held the track within 3 m, never closer than 73 m to the transport. - Per-flight fields: Escort Trail (Off / Plan only / Fly, default Fly) and Trail Interval S (default 3 s). - Not yet flight-tested: an escort engagement while in trail (reviewed, built, unflown). Please report anything odd around a threat. FLIGHT PROFILE - Smooth vertical profile on route legs: prompt descent after a crest, one smooth nose-up and collective on a climb, the descent always braked so it can be stopped over the ground, a tree top or a wire. - The leading escort flies the same vertical law while in trail. - Known: a slight pitch pumping on long climbs remains; it is being read from the height trace. OBSTACLES - Height floors probe down with a 1 m sphere instead of a line: the game's spruce has only a thin trunk collider and no crown, and a line ray read a 30 m spruce as 13 m. The one tree strike of the previous build was exactly that. - Power lines and tall structures (church spires, towers, masts, pylons) are held 10 m clear on every route leg, including the landing glide, and now also along the arc of a turn, so a spire on a curved approach is seen early. - Rocks, debris, vehicles, characters and airborne aircraft can no longer be mistaken for tall structures (a build in between climbed toward its own escorts; fixed before release). - Escorts keep at least 15 m over the ground under their station (was 12), and stay at least 60 m from the transport while breaking to their overwatch orbits. AIR SUPPORT WHEEL - The squad command wheel's Air Support entries now use the map's own NATO symbols in the dispatcher's faction colour: Rotary Wing at the top level, Rotary Wing + Airborne for Transport, Rotary Wing + Sniper for Strike. - Orders use black generic icons: thumb up to launch, thumb down to abort, a pointing hand for Go / Next Stop, the digits 1-8 for Go To, a circling arrow for Re-Attack. FIXES - Trip home planned to the real home pad instead of the world origin on the first route. - Escort abeam stations no longer swing with an evading transport's nose (they follow its velocity, turning at most 10 deg/s). - Escort station heights: 5 m (port) and 10 m (starboard) over the transport in transit. FOR MISSION MAKERS - New or changed per-flight fields in the dispatcher: Weave Mode (default Fly), Weave Draw (debug), Escort Trail (default Fly), Escort Trail S (3), V Prof Trace S (debug height trace, off). - Defaults now on for every flight that never set them: terrain masking flight and the escort trail. Rows that set Weave Mode Off keep the old straight transit and no trail forms. - Log tags for reading a flight: [weave] the masking plan, [ptrail] the escort trail, [vprof] the height trace, [wire] power lines and structures, [contact] any physics contact, [transit] clearance per leg.