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Press release:
Attention, pilots! The morning is clear and beautiful, but beware – the enemy is waiting for you out there. Your helicopters are waiting for you like sleeping beasts. You know what to do. When the day is over and the smoke clears, we will be the ones standing there chanting victory! We are Heliborne, we rule the sky!

Have you ever wanted to live the true thrill of air combat and recreate the most intense and epic battles of recent history? Heliborne is your game – and it’s got a whole new set of features for you, pilot! JetCat Games is proud to announce one of the largest gameplay updates for Heliborne since the game was released on Early Access. “We’ve put a lot of work in to this update”, said Rayne from JetCat Games. “The goal was to make a lot of changes to gameplay based on our communities feedback and we are very hopeful that everyone enjoys the changes, new mechanics and new features”.

But… what is Heliborne? Heliborne is a tactical helicopter combat arcade where you fly with helicopters from the 60’s forward in to the year 2000, across a wide range of maps and in a wide range. Specially conceived for multiplayer game, players will be able to take part in a dynamic battlefield, where they support the movement of ground forces that fortify position and create supply-lines. The main gameplay goal is to land and deploy ground troops – and in some game modes defend the position until reinforcements arrive.

The new features and changes affect many different areas of the game, from the visuals to infantry troops and artillery, antiaircraft and ground vehicles. Heliborne will receive its new update this weekend, and JetCat Games will mark the ocassion with a livestream to explain all the changes and additions – and give Heliborne pilots a chance to bring down the game creators! Livestream will start at 12 pm EST / 6 pm CET in JetCat Twitch Channel.

Here’s a comprehensive list of what this update brings to Heliborne:

1. Changes in all AA and ground vehicles

– Significant increase in the accuracy of all Anti-Aircraft (AA) types. It will predict you movement and shoot at where you will be, not where you are right now – it will be much more deadly when fully accurate, beware!
– AA now takes some time till it reaches 100% accuracy, so when you stay in the AA line of sight its accuracy will increase
– Morale added to all AA – if they are hit, they shoot less frequently and less accurately, but restore morale with time
– Size/altitude detection check added to AA – the smaller your helicopter is and the lower you fly – the harder it will be for AA to spot you
– Ground vehicles now are more resistant to low-caliber gun fire and explosion damage from range (for example 7.62 caliber will not penetrate front armor of most vehicles and sometimes side armor too, rockets will still damage vehicle the same on direct hit, but will make less to none damage if exploded 15 or more meters away from vehicle)

2. Mortar troops

– All soldier-carrying helicopters can take mortar troops on board and deploy them wherever they want
– All recon helicopters now have “artillery control” which enables them to designate targets for friendly mortar troops

3. Visual changes

– Helicopters now have type sign (triangle for recon, square for transport, rhombus/diamond for attack)
– Bullet ricochet visual effect
– New bullet visual effects (when hitting armor with higher caliber, etc)

4. Others

– Now after you land you can point where your next special-soldier (rpg, manpad, mortar team) will go to, so you can effectively put them quickly in cover
– Changes in rules and distances for how different helicopters spot targets
– Recon helicopters will be able to spot targets from far away for other helicopters
– Radio messages: You can send radio-messages via shortcuts (F2-F8 by default) and through radio menu (` + 1-7)

ABOUT HELIBORNE
Heliborne was succesfully released in Steam Early Access on February 15th, selling more than 10,000 units in its first weeks. Heliborne features the best rotary wing aviation and combat experience: fight against 34 different, historically accurate fighters with Pilots from all around the world, deploy your troops and help them defend their positions and conquer different maps from historical conflicts!

KEY FEATURES:
Engage in an exciting and fast-paced combat experience with a simul-lite / arcade hybrid flight model. With easy-to-learn controls and more than 70 different aspects of flight per helicopter, there’s a place in the crew for all kind of players!
Fly with 34 helicopters, each with a different flight experience and multiple weapons.
Scout, attack or deploy troops with three classes of helicopter with different roles in combat.
Discover the history and evolution of rotary wing aviation from 1950 to 2000 with our historical helicopter models.
Face AI controlled ground units such as tanks and anty air-craft artillery.
Fight in online battles in an increasing number of maps and game modes. Currently 4 historical battles and 2 game modes, but there are many more coming!

ABOUT JETCAT GAMES
Diana Leer, Raman Ulasau and Ilja Toldayev from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine founded JetCat Games back in 2015 in Vilnius. Heliborne is the first project of the studio; it started actually as a free-time project, but soon they realised its true potential and it started to grow into a full game. Thus JetCat Games was founded to start working full-time on Heliborne; the studio became the first one in Lithuania to receive investment from a local risk fund, and one of the first companies in what would soon become the hub in the whole region for game development. Heliborne was launched in Steam Early Access in February 15th, and in its first month it became a huge success, selling more than 10,000 copies and gathering a strong and enthusiastic community. Now JetCat Games is fully commited to its ultimate goal: to make Heliborne the best helicopter combat arcade game ever created.