AH-1Z armament discussion in the context of current game-play

[dronevandalism]

Kajman loadout currently 100% of default :

Main:

   1x Cannon Caseless 30mm
   8x Skalpel ATGM [Default]
   2x Skyfire Rocket Pods [Default]  (pretty sure this equates to 38 dumbfire rockets)

AH-1Z loadout currently:

1 × 20 mm M197 gatling cannon (750 rounds)

Default loadout is:

38 × Hydra 70 rockets in 2 × LAU-61C/A rocket pods
8 × AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missiles
2 × AIM-9L Sidewinder air-to-air missiles

The issue I have is the only attack helicopter really worth buying (since they are all basically the same price) is the Kajman.  Everything else is either nerfed or not even in the ballpark.   Almost all the other servers my group has tried has suffered from the same thing.  Either buy a Blackfoot or buy a Kajman since both of those use the active radar and can pickup ground and air targets.  

What I am proposing is resetting the AH-1Z loadout to be much more competitive here.  

OR nerfing the Kajman to be proportionate to the rest of the helicopters.

If the dev team decides to go with changing the AH-1Z loadout then there are a couple different paths here that can be taken.  

Option 1:  A direct 100% default loadout for the AH.  Missiles, rockets, sidewinders, cannons, the whole shabang.  Also add to this a price increase as it should cost the same or a small percent more than the kajman due to the AH having 2 sidewinder AIR to AIR missiles.  (The rest of the loadout is almost 100% the Kajman, we are forgoing physical attributes here of the helicopters for the sake of the immediate argument.)  

Option 2:  Keep the current price of the AH and add the rocket pods and the hellfires.  That will bring the AH directly in line with the Kajman if we're only comparing armaments.  

Option 3: Nerfing the Kajman.  Stripping the missiles and allocating only it's chaingun for use while KEEPING the price.  Active radar is powerful and being able to see ground and air targets is massive.  But having a helicopter that is both the most heavily armed AND the most durable being able to sustain 2 missile strikes before crashing is over powered.

Option 4: Keep the Kajman as is 100%.  Raise the cost to the same as a jet, 550k.  If the Kajman can do 100% of the roles a CAS Jet can do but all while it's hovering OR doing 400m/s why is the Kajman 1:3 the price of a jet?  IMO the Kajman should cost more than the Jets currently as the Kajman can land anywhere.  You need a runway to land all but one of the Jets.  Extremely inconvenient.

Now honestly we need to have a discussion about the physical attributes of 99.9999% of the helicopters in Arma 3 VS Kajman.

The discussion goes something like, every militarized server you go on everyone flying an attack helicopter is flying either a blackfoot for RECON or a Kajman for assault.  Every server.

There are a couple different reasons for this:

Reason 1:  The Kajman can take 2 missile strikes before crash landing or being completely inoperable.  One missile will take out one rotor.  The helicopter is still extremely dangerous even with one rotor at speed because it's nearly 100% functional even then.  Every other helicopter in the game will only take 1 missile strike before having to crash land.  (I believe this fact alone is warrant enough for the Kajman to be more expensive than other helicopters even with the same weapon carrying capacity, for example if the AH was buffed to have it's full loadout including the sidewinder air to air missiles)

Reason 2: It  has more weapon systems in the helicopter than any other helicopter in the game.  Rivaling only JETS for the amount of weapons available.

Comparing the AH directly to the Kajman at the moment is no-contest.  The kajman wins everytime simply due to the amount of weapons the Kajman can bring to the field.

Kajman is faster, more agile, more durable, and more heavily armed.  

My question is why is the AH restricted heavily in weapons when a helicopter like the Kajman is allowed to fly around and for 1:3 the price of a Jet?  And toe to toe the kajman would give a jet a run for his money or be superior a lot of times due to the arma 3 map sizes.  Having CUP vehicles mod on the server doesn't make a lot of sense when the only helicopter anyone should ever really buy is a Kajman anyway.  Until the AH is buffed having the CUP vehicles mod is a waste of resources.

TLDR

    The AH-1Z should be looked at for resetting it's armament and price bringing it inline more with the Kajman.  I believe the full loadout of the AH with a price increase would bring it to the field as a great competitor to the Kajman and even the playing field a bit.  

    The AH is slower, less durable.  BUT has 2 sidewinder air to air missiles.  The Kajman can fly around 400m/s?  The AH on a good day can do 300m/s.  This would break up the monotony of the air battles and spread the field out a bit.  Having to choose if being slower is worth having 2 air to air missiles or not?  If these changes were made I would be satisfied.

Loadout information taken from these wiki pages:
http:// armedassault.wikia. com/wiki/AH-1Z
http:// armedassault.wikia. com/wiki/Mi-48_Kajman

[Admin]

Before I could consider changing the armament for the AH I'd have to find the coding and understand how to change it. If you have any insight on that, then it can be an option. Otherwise, I'm leaning towards increasing the price on the Kajman. Valid points though and I thank you for the input.

-SaintADW
Server Owner