Greetings pilots! Update 0.61 is now live. This is a big one weighing in at about 500 MB. Apart from what you will read in patch notes, we've prepared the ground for upcoming updates with even more significant changes. So, what do we have in 0.61, you would ask? A lot. First of all, we have improved helicopter flight models and have adjusted them to behave more realistically. Overall, the helicopters have become more unique and different from one another. Another feature that you’ve all been waiting for is the modular damage system. Helicopters now have five critical modules which have various effects on the flight model when destroyed. For example, when the tail boom is critically damaged, the helicopter will spin out of control temporarily. Gradual damage to a module will not have any effect on performance, only critical damage.
We've also added a tactical map to the TAB menu. This map is much more detailed than mini-map and provides an assortment of information about soldiers, ground vehicles, helicopters (with corresponding player names), and topography. We hope it will give you more opportunities to cooperate with your team.
Want more? Check the full patch notes:

Modular damage system



• Helicopters now have a modular structure for 5 critical modules: main rotor, engine, tail boom, fuel, and hydraulics. Some helicopters have duplicate modules (e.g. 2 engines or 2 fuel tanks). A helicopter is destroyed when it loses one of the modules or its structural integrity is compromised.
• When a module receives critical damage, it stops functioning properly and alters helicopter performance in a manner unique to the damaged module.
• A list of the aircraft modules and their statuses are now indicated on a damage panel under the mini-map.
• Maximum helicopter repair time (when repaired at base) has been decreased to 30 seconds. This is far less than the repair time after death, which makes returning to base more worthwhile than before.

  Flight model

  
  
• Helicopter flight models have been improved.
• Ground effect has been implemented into the flight model. Ground effect in the game is the tendency to gain altitude faster when your helicopter is close to the ground (up to helicopter's blade diameter), upon exiting ground effect, you lose this boost in ascension speed.
• Pitching the nose down in conjunction with losing altitude will now cause notable increase in speed.
• Pitching the nose up when flying at decent horizontal speed will now significantly increase altitude but decrease speed.
• There have been changes in the flight characteristics of all helicopters. The cruising speed of all helicopters has been slightly decreased to bring it closer to real values while max speed has been increased. Heavy helicopters are now less agile while light helicopters are more agile. Overall, helicopters are more unique and different than before.

  Other changes

  
  
• Helicopter collision logic has been improved. There will now be fewer fatal collisions, but more collisions will damage the helicopter over time.
• The landing collision logic has been improved. Landing should be both simpler and easier, but you will now receive damage from rough landings.
• The squad-building mechanic has been improved. Now every squad has a fixed generation and receives a maximum number of points for its particular generation.
• Helicopter loadout mechanics have been improved. Flares (if possible) and door gunners type (if there are several) can now be selected independently from loadout modifications. The UI has changed correspondingly.
• The maximum squad cost for Generation III has been increased from 400 to 480 points.
• Costs for all helicopters have been corrected.
• Mi-2: first and second armament options have been swapped.
• There is now a tactical map in the TAB menu.
• There have been changes to mini-map GUI.
• The radio menu no longer blocks controls.
• Soldiers now stop in front of fatal obstructions.
• Helicopter class and loadout modification parameters have been added to the GUI.
• Helicopter spawn orientation (South-North direction) has been fixed and now depends on the team's position on the map.
• Heat-seeking missiles have received a wider lock-on radius.
• Heat-seeking missiles now lock-on faster to hovering targets.
• The accuracy of stationary AA guns has been decreased.
• MANPADs won't launch a missile on short distance when the missile will most likely overshoot helicopter.
• The after-death falling algorithm (after-explosion trajectory) has been changed.
• Ground vehicles will now always aim for the center of mass of enemy vehicles.
• There have been minor visual changes to various helicopters (prior to introduction of customization).
• There have been various minor changes to game maps (a result of working on historical campaigns).
• There have been several important bug fixes (doubled points for spotting, wrong penalty for specific cases of friendly fire, etc.).
• Thanks to Valery Oldpilot and Daelock, as well as other pilots who give us advice about flight model and point out mistakes.
• Thanks to David "Wildcard" for his module damage voice lines.
• Thanks to KapukiCram, Erkeo, Adoramus, and Meinpanda for testing new module damage system.

Team JetCat