CW AQ-1 Camo colors

Colonizing Worlds - AQ-1 (Attack Quadcopter) in camouflage colors

Vid of ships capability:
https://www.reddit.com/r/simplerockets/s/MODbHMQWLi

Defence force armed quadcopter. The ship has a programmable autopilot; player can enter the altitude/speed/heading for the autopilot to follow. Autopilot also has terrain/obstacle avaidance capabilities. Player can send the ship to land at a selected target, or tell the ship to land anywhere; the ship will scan terrain for a suitable spot, place a target icon, then fly and land there. Player can select/alter a manual landing site anywhere on the surface.

Ship is armed with self targeting gatling laser and optics. 2 air to air self guiding missiles, and 8 air to ground self guiding missiles. Manual landing targeting can be used to select a manual position for the canon and missiles to target, in addition to traditional object targeting. Missiles have a range equal to your max physics range.

The ship can be flown like a helo (by tilting it with roll/pitch/yaw) or with translation controls; for extremely accurate control over the ship.

It has plasma thrusters and turbo fans. So it’s usable in atmospheres and no atmospheres. You can fly it on any planet/moon.

Action Groups:

-AG1 - level assist
-AG2 - hover assist
-AG3 - engines
-AG4 - doors
-AG5 - landing gear
-AG6 - lights
-AG7 - cabin lights
-AG8 - travel to a selected target
-AG9 - autopilot (will ask for alt/heading/speed) input
-AG10 - tell ship to land (it will scan terrain for a site/place a target/and proceed to it)
-AG11 - manually set landing/weapon target or manually move an existing targeting
-AG12 - laser canon on/off
-AG13 - target tracking on/off for laser canon/optics
-AG14 - fire 1 air to ground missile (requires a target)
-AG15 - fire 1 air to air missile (requires a target)

Controls:

Roll/pitch/yaw - helo style controls, tilt to move (have level assist turned off)
Translate up - move forward/reverse (have auto level on for translation flight)
Translate right - move left/right
Translate right on left side (aka EVA turn) - turn ship left/right
Slider 1 - collective up/down
Slider 2 - move landing/weapon target north/south
Slider 3 - move landing/weapon target east/west
Slider 4 - camera/FLIR zoom

Stages:
Stage 1 - jettison AG missile mounts
Stage 2 - jettison AA missiles
Note: missiles are high yeild so jettison from a high altitude, empty mounts are safe to jettison.

Operation Tips:
Autopilot will default any altitude below 100 m to its 100 m minimum. There are no other limitations on it, you can tell it to fly dangerously. A guideline example for inputs is: in the mountains around the village, min safe altitude 500 m at a max speed of 100 m/s. Faster speeds are safer at higher altitudes.

The obstacle/terrain avoidance is pretty good. It got me across the entire mountain range at 500 m Alt @ 100 m/s, without crashing. However is not as extensive as the autonomous ships.

For flying the translation controls are far superior to using the helo (tilt) style of control.

When manually changing landing co-ordinates there will be feedback on the terrain at the spot of the target. It will tell player if good or dangerous. NOTE this feedback is only useful within a set distance from the ship. The game only loads surface terrain contours in a specific radius. This is not a problem; just be aware when selecting a landing target at far distances the feedback will always say the landing site is hazardous. When you get close enough to load terrain contours then you can manually adjust the landing site if it needs to be moved.

How to use the manual landing site: turn on AG 11, if a target is selected you can move it with slider 2/3. If no target is selected one will drop below the ship. Then use slider 2/3 to move it to where you want the ship to land. Targets can be altered on the fly, you can refine the landing while the ship is in the process of landing. If you are setting a new target don’t forget to turn on the travel to target AG so the ship will proceed to it for landing.

Also note you can not see the landing target icon in map view (there is no way to achieve this without modding the game). You will have to be in ship view to see the target. You can zoom way out to move it around the planet at great distances.

Also note that when using the “land” AG the ship will search for a landing site. It will not try to land anywhere the surface is below sealevel as it assumes this is below liquid. If you want to land on liquid or an a planet where the landing site is below sealevel you will need to use the “manual target” AG.

Weapon Tips:
When no target is selected or target tracking is off the laser canon will fire forwards from its default position.

All missiles require a target/manual target to fire and are self guided. Air to ground missiles fly right to the target. Air to air missile predict the flight path of the target and fly to its predicted possition. They are very accurate but not infallible. Missiles can be fired at up to a 90 degree target offset however pointing the ship at the target is best. For air to air missiles the best firing possition is to point the quadcopter slightly ahead of the targets flight path.

Missiles are programmed to be unguided in low/no atmospheres such as cylero and moons as the lack of an atmosphere will not allow them to alter their course. They still require a target to fire; however if you want to force them to fire, place a manual target, the location wont matter as they will be unguided.

When using the missiles unguided be sufe to select your target and then turn on target tracking (the AG missile mounts will alter their angle making targeting easier, and manualy point the ship at the target. Missiles have a substantially shorter range when unguided 1 km range or less is optimal.

Alternatively when unguided you can have autolevel off and and set the autopilot to “lock target” as with any rocket to help aim the missiles in low/no atmosphere.