STW suite connection
STW/Choppers is made by STW (ScienceTechWorks, sciencetechworks@gmail.com). It is a self-contained server population system: no other STW mod is required for its core behavior. It uses helicopter prefabs and faction keys that are actually available in the loaded scenario, including the built-in US and USSR groups and, by default, the RHS USAF and AFRF groups when their content is present.
Generated helicopters are protected from the STW Garbage System when that system is installed, so the suite’s cleanup feature does not discard this mod’s live helicopter population. Captain Sprocket’s servers can therefore use both systems together without treating generated helicopters as disposable clutter.
What STW/Choppers adds
After a configurable delay on the authoritative server, STW/Choppers scans the loaded world and distributes parked helicopters up to the configured cap for each faction. It favours existing helipads first, then recognised military and airfield locations, then suitable open terrain. It checks dry ground, slope, rotor clearance, roads, settlement proximity, and spacing from other generated helicopters.
World-aware placement
Existing helipads are preferred. The scanner also recognises map-defined military bases, suitable military/airfield clusters, and static map markers labelled “Military Site”, “Military Base”, “Military Compound”, or “Garrison”. Open-terrain fallback pads can be created when enabled.
Configurable helicopter pool
Each placement draws a valid prefab from the built-in catalog. Group multipliers control the relative chance of US, USSR, RHS USAF, and RHS AFRF model groups; a multiplier of zero excludes that group.
Useful live support
Optional custom helipad map markers help players find the generated locations. Optional fuel support checks empty, undestroyed registered helicopters and refills those below the chosen threshold.
Spawned helicopters begin at the configured fuel percentage, are visible and active, and are unlocked. Faction affiliation is optional; by default the selected faction key is recorded but not applied to the vehicle.
Helicopter content and optional source mods
The built-in catalog names these helicopter families: UH-1H, MH-60 DAP, AH-1S, AH-64D, AH-6M, Mi-8MT, Mi-28, Ka-52, and Mi-24. The project’s development dependency list identifies the content sources below. These entries are useful for a server mod list, but they are not hard runtime dependencies of the released STW/Choppers project: its normal project file only declares the STW Garbage System. The spawner checks whether each prefab is valid and silently excludes unavailable variants.
| Helicopter entries in the catalog | Source mod (Workshop ID) |
|---|---|
| UH-1H; Mi-8MT | RHS - Status Quo (595F2BF2F44836FB), with RHS - Content Pack 01 (1337C0DE5DABBEEF) and RHS - Content Pack 02 (BADC0DEDABBEDA5E) listed alongside it. |
| MH-60 DAP / UH-60 variants | Sikorsky H60 Project (60ED3CC6E7E40221) |
| AH-1S | WCS_AH-1S (64CB39E57377C861) |
| AH-6M | WCS_AH-6M (6273146ADFE8241D) |
| AH-64D | WCS_AH-64D (6303360DA719E832) |
| Mi-24 | WCS_Mi-24V (628933A0D3A0D700) |
| Mi-28 | Mi-28 (609E138FE9005877) |
| Ka-52 | WCS_KA-52 (64CB35D07BAEE60F) |
The WCS aircraft listed here depend on the wider WCS ecosystem. The development list explicitly includes WCS_Armaments (629B2BA37EFFD577) and WCS_Core (64610AFB74AA9842); individual Workshop pages may list additional dependencies. Install each aircraft through the Workshop so its own required dependencies are resolved, rather than adding only a partial selection by hand.
0, or simply leave it enabled and let the valid-prefab check skip it. A server that wants the full catalog should include the aircraft source mods above and their Workshop dependencies.For players
There is no player menu or client-side setup. Join a server that runs STW/Choppers and use the helicopters you find with the normal Arma Reforger vehicle controls.
- When the administrator enables markers, open the map and zoom to the configured threshold to see the helipad icon.
- Markers may be exact or deliberately offset from the helicopter’s position. With
FACTION_ONLYvisibility, a marker appears only to players whose local controlled entity belongs to the matching faction. - Fuel support never refills a helicopter while players are inside it. An empty helicopter below the threshold may be refilled to a random level within the administrator’s configured range during its next check.
For Game Masters and scenario authors
STW/Choppers automatically starts on the server for each loaded world. It does not add a Game Master placement tool, menu, or per-helicopter editable configuration. Game Masters interact with the generated vehicles using normal live-world tools; population, markers, fuel support, respawn, and persistence remain server settings.
Scenario authors can make a location an especially strong candidate by placing a recognised helipad, using a normal map-defined military-base descriptor, or adding a static marker whose custom text includes one of the military-site labels above. The scanner also infers military and airfield areas from relevant prefab names, but explicit map markers/descriptors are the clearer authoring signal.
Server setup
- Install and enable STW/Choppers on the server, then start the intended scenario/map once.
- The mod creates
$profile:STW/Choppers/and writes two readable JSON configuration files with validated defaults. - Stop the server, back up and edit the files, then restart. Startup validates values and writes the validated configuration back to disk.
Safe editing routine
- Stop the server cleanly. Do not edit generated JSON while the server is running.
- Copy the individual file you will change somewhere safe.
- Make small changes, retaining valid JSON quotes, commas, braces, and arrays.
- Restart and check the server log; values outside their allowed range are corrected and saved back.
- If needed, stop the server and restore the backup before trying another change.
Configuration folder and files
Administrator configuration is stored under $profile:STW/Choppers/. Both files are generated automatically on first server start:
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
STWChoppersConfig.json | Main population, faction, placement, marker, persistence, wreck, and respawn settings. |
STWChoppersFuelSupportConfig.json | Optional unattended-helicopter fuel support. |
STWChoppersConfig.json
| Setting | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
factionHelicopterCaps | US: 4; USSR: 4 | Per-faction maximum parked helicopter requests. Each entry has factionKey and maximumParkedHelicopters; negative caps become zero. |
helicopterModelGroupMultipliers | US, USSR, RHS_USAF, RHS_AFRF: 1.0 | Relative model-group selection weights. Zero disables a group; negative values become zero. |
generationDelaySeconds | 10 | Delay before the landing-site scan begins. Negative values become zero. |
assignSpawnedHelicopterFaction | false | When true, applies the selected faction key to spawned helicopters. |
initialFuelPercentage | 1.0 | Starting fuel fraction, clamped from 0 to 1. |
minimumHelicopterSeparation | 120 m | Minimum spacing between accepted generated helicopter positions. |
maximumTerrainSlopeDegrees | 5° | Maximum sampled slope for placement; clamped to 1–20°. |
terrainSampleDistance, minimumWaterClearance, additionalRotorClearance, settlementAvoidanceRadius | 12 m, 40 m, 6 m, 100 m | Placement safety checks for terrain sampling, water, rotor footprint, and settlements. |
siteSearchRadius, preferredSiteSearchRadius | 110 m, 180 m | Search radius at ordinary and preferred sites. The ordinary radius has a 20 m minimum; preferred cannot be smaller. |
preferredSiteProbability | 0.75 | How often preferred military/airfield sites are interleaved with open terrain, clamped from 0 to 1. |
minimumOpenTerrainDistanceFromAirfields | 650 m | Removes generic open-terrain candidates too near detected airfields. |
minimumPreferredSiteSeparation | 400 m | Minimum spacing among accepted preferred military/airfield candidates. |
maximumPlacementAttemptsPerArea, preferredMaximumPlacementAttemptsPerArea | 20, 80 | Placement attempts per ordinary/preferred area. At least one; preferred cannot be lower than ordinary. |
allowGeneratedFallbackHelipads, maximumGeneratedFallbackHelipads, generatedHelipadProbability, generatedHelipadPrefab | true, 999, 0.50, empty | Optional pads at open-terrain placements. Leave the prefab empty to use a valid known helipad prefab; probability is 0–1. |
showHelicopterMarkers, helicopterMarkerVisibility | true, ALL | Creates helipad markers where the scenario has a marker manager. Visibility is ALL, FACTION_ONLY, or NONE. |
usePreciseHelicopterMarkerPositions, maximumHelicopterMarkerOffset, markerZoomThreshold | true, 250 m, 1.5 | Exact markers or a random offset up to the stated distance, plus the map zoom threshold for display. |
persistenceEnabled, persistenceIntervalMinutes | true, 15 | Enables snapshots and controls periodic save frequency. An interval below one becomes 15 minutes. |
removeDestroyedHelicopterWrecks | true | Allows a destroyed tracked helicopter to be removed by the garbage system rather than retaining its protection. |
respawnDestroyedHelicopters, selectNewHelicopterModelOnRespawn | false, false | Optional destroyed-helicopter replacement at its original position; optionally select a new valid model on return. |
destroyedHelicopterRespawnDelaySeconds, destroyedHelicopterRespawnPlayerExclusionRadius, destroyedHelicopterRespawnRetrySeconds | 1800 s, 250 m, 300 s | Respawn timing and player-safety check. If a player is near the original point, the mod waits the retry time. |
STWChoppersFuelSupportConfig.json
Defaults are enabled=true, checkIntervalMinutes=20, refuelThreshold=0.35, refillMinimum=0.45, and refillMaximum=0.80. At each interval, the mod considers registered, empty, undestroyed helicopters. If fuel is at or below the threshold, it refills them to a random fraction between the minimum and maximum. All fraction settings are clamped to 0–1; the maximum cannot fall below the minimum.
Persistence
Persistence is enabled by default and is server-owned. Saves live in $profile:STW/Persistence/, separate from configuration. The exact filename is STW_Choppers_<Scenario>_<Map>.json. Scenario and map names are sanitized for a safe filename, so each scenario/map combination has its own population snapshot.
What is saved
Each tracked helicopter record stores its prefab, faction key, current saved position, original spawn position and yaw, marker position, destroyed state, and any generated landing-pad prefab, position, and yaw. A snapshot is written after fresh generation and at the configured interval. Current fuel is not retained: restored helicopters use initialFuelPercentage.
How restoration and destruction work
On the next start of the same scenario/map, a non-empty valid save is restored instead of generating a fresh population. Surviving helicopters return from their saved prefab, faction, position, and yaw; stored generated pads are recreated; markers and fuel support are registered again. Destroyed records remain absent unless destroyed-helicopter respawn is enabled. With respawn enabled, a replacement waits the configured delay, will not appear while a player is within the exclusion radius of the original spawn point, and then returns at that original point. The ordinary destroyed-state check runs once per second, so use realistic populations and delays.
Reset one scenario/map safely
- Stop the server cleanly.
- Open
$profile:STW/Persistence/and identify only the matchingSTW_Choppers_<Scenario>_<Map>.jsonfile. - Back up that single file, then move or delete it.
- Start the server. With no save for that scenario/map, STW/Choppers performs fresh generation and writes a new snapshot after it finishes.
$profile:STW/ folder unless you intentionally want to reset data for other STW mods too.Captain Sprocket community
Captain Sprocket
Arma Reforger server: STW Reforger
Community: https://discord.gg/T2AZp6GGMJ
More STW manuals: STW Online Manuals