Now that I'm pretty much done with Aftermath, I was wondering...

Is it possible to spawn in a flying chopper (the whole team spawns in a moving chopper) airbourne in a custom map?

Players dont spawn right at the start of each map they have a playerwaittime.
And people dont always spawn at the same time with some gametypes.
So that would mean that the spawn points have to move along with the chopper.
And cause some servers have set the playerwaittime diffrently it seems impossible to set the spawnpoint to move at the same time as the helicopter.
(if it's even possible to move spawn point)

If you want the players to spawn in a hoovering helicopter which doesnt move but is flying, then yes i think its possible.
But then you would need a way for your players to get down.
Which is easy but it might hurt the gameplay.

It is possible for dynamic spawnpoints such as tactical insertion based on the location of a grenade. In mp code that is. No idea about map code and I have in no way tested it in anything other than a single player test server. It can be thrown anywhere such as the freeway on Bog and 6 story buildings after 2-3 throw/death/throw. Tested that only to see if it worked and I wouldnt put it in a real environment unless I could prevent misuse.

It might have to be done for each gametype since they all have their own custom spawn functions. I only tested it in war.gsc in the onspawnplayer function. Set the origin and angles before spawning. Really its just a test hack used to see if the insertion perk works

//location and angles.
self spawn( self.InsertionMarker.origin, (0,0,0) );

self.insertionMarker is a script_model for the grenade. I've never tried it but I assume if its linked to the chopper with an offset... a particular seat for example... it should work. But if the chopper has no collision the player would fall right through it. The player could be linked but there would be no control and getting out would have to be an animation.

Anyways... just ideas you could mess around with if it would fit with your needs.

I got it figured out now. But uh, next question... how do I make a custom flying chopper? XD

It will stay on ground for about 30 seconds then take off.

So anyone know how?

You pick the tough ones.

Looking at it in terms of a standard TDM MP level for what you want to work would probably require landing zones built into the map like flight path nodes are for chopper attacks. Otherwise I cant imagine its possible to actually scan a random map and find appropriate sites that are large enough and free of obstructions.

However, if you can solve that issue the helicopter.gsc scripts show how to spawn a chopper and control it. Normally if its just to fly A to B its spawning the chopper (a vehicle not a script model), setting the start path, and then giving it goals. It will handle the flying on its own. Once it reaches the goal it will wait there until given another goal. I have no idea how that would work with landing.

Also look on the vehicle section of http://www.zeroy.com/Script/
They say SP only but many will work in MP also.

Some of the relevant commands:
spawnhelicopter
startpath
setvehgoalpos
Sethoverparams
setspeed
waittillmatch( "goal" )

The chopper and map are made, I just need to figure out how to get started now...

You can make a helicopter stop by using the SetVehGoalPos( < goalpos > < stopAtGoal > ) and setting the stopAtGoal parameter to true. If you use false, the helicopter transitions nicely between nodes, but when it runs out of targets it will not hover in one place.

I'm not sure about this, but I think you could link the players to the helicopter at the start of the map. If that is the case, then you can place the spawnpoints inside the heli and then link the players. This way, the players would move with the helicopter..
Then the helicopter should fly to the LZ and maybe hover over it, close to the ground. Next, you would unlink the players and they would jump down. Once all the players get down, the heli can fly away.

The problem is that, in MP, players can join the game at any time, so they can spawn at the heli location while it is flying.
Another problem is that you must have spawnpoints placed around the whole map in order to avoid spawncamping.