Big Choppa

Heads up: this mod breaks the game's pacing. Big Walk is built around getting places slowly, together, on foot. A helicopter skips all of that. It can take you places you're not meant to reach yet, and flying past the walk can seriously shorten how long the game stays fun. If you haven't finished Big Walk, consider saving the choppa for later.

This mod started as an experiment to see what AI can do: every line of code, art and text was generated by Claude.

A goofy, playground-style toy helicopter for Big Walk, flown with collective, pedals and cyclic.

It has three seats, the pilot plus a two-person bench, and everyone in the lobby sees the same choppas.

Everyone in the lobby needs the mod, including the host.

Each side of the choppa has three pockets that take anything a backpack takes. Hold an item, look at a pocket and place it like you would in a backpack. Grab it again to take it out.

Pocketed items count as held: if you quit with something in a pocket, you'll find it in the lost & found next time.

Controls

Key	Action
F8	Call in a choppa: it flies in and lands near you (replaces your old one if it's empty)
G	Get in / get out. Takes the pilot seat if it's free, otherwise a passenger seat
W / S	Collective up / down. Springs back to hover when released, or to idle on the ground
A / D	Pedals: turn left / right
Mouse	Cyclic: forward = nose down, back = nose up, left / right = roll
Left Alt (hold)	Look around instead of flying with the mouse
V	Chase / cockpit camera
F9	Flip the choppa back upright
F10	Toggle the HUD

Flying tips

• Hold W until the rotor lifts you off, then let go. The collective settles at hover.
• Push the mouse forward to tip the nose down and fly forward. Pull back to slow down.
• The choppa doesn't level itself. Whatever angle you leave it at, it keeps. Roll and pitch back yourself.
• Want it easier? Set AutoLevel to 0.3 in the config.

Config

Every key and tuning value is in BepInEx/config/com.andrew1431.bigchoppa.cfg. With r2modman or Gale you can edit it from the mod manager's config editor. The file appears after you've launched the game once with the mod.

Highlights:

• Controls: MouseSensitivity, FreelookMouseSensitivity, InvertPitch, InvertRoll, every key
• Flight: AutoLevel, ControlResponse, YawRate, MaxLiftG, drag values
• Lights: HeadlightIntensity, HeadlightRange, HeadlightAngle, CabinGlow
• Audio: Volume, MaxHearingDistance

Multiplayer

The pilot's game simulates the choppa and everyone else sees a smoothed copy and hears the same sounds. If the pilot leaves the lobby, the host takes the choppa over.

If the host doesn't have the mod, you may be kicked when you join. Set Networking.Enabled = false to keep choppas to yourself.

Pilot's Logbook (anonymous flight stats)

The choppa keeps a tiny logbook and sends it to me, the author, purely because I'm curious how people fly it. It's sent through PostHog, an analytics service. It's anonymous and there's nothing personal in it.

What gets logged:

• You spawned a choppa
• You got in, and whether as the pilot or a passenger
• A flight ended (logged by the pilot), with:
  • how long it lasted
  • how far it went
  • the highest it got
  • its top speed
  • its speed at the very end
  • how many people were aboard at the end, and the most aboard at once
  • how many items were in the choppa pockets at the end
  • how many barrel rolls and loops you pulled off
  • how many seconds you spent upside down
  • how much of the flight was in cockpit view versus chase view
  • how it ended: landed, bailed (pilot hopped out mid-air) or ended abruptly
• A choppa's flight ended abruptly (logged by whichever game was flying it, even with nobody at the controls): how fast it was going, how many people were aboard, whether anyone was piloting, and how many items were in its pockets
• Something was put into or taken out of a choppa pocket, and what the item was (the game's own name for it). Logged by the host, so each one counts once per lobby
• A passenger's ride ended: how long it lasted and how it ended (got out, jumped out or ended abruptly)
• Someone jumped out mid-air: pilot or passenger, how high it was, and how fast it was going
• Someone used the flip-upright key, and whether they were inside the choppa or outside it

Each entry also carries the mod version and a random ID made up on your PC, so one person's flights can be told apart from another's.

What does NOT get logged: your name, Steam ID, other players' names, chat, your location, your PC specs, or anything outside the choppa. The service is set to discard IP addresses.

Turning it off: set Enabled = false under [Pilot Logbook] in the config:

• r2modman / Gale: Config editor → com.andrew1431.bigchoppa → Pilot Logbook → Enabled → false → Save.
• Manual install: open BepInEx/config/com.andrew1431.bigchoppa.cfg and change Enabled = true under [Pilot Logbook] to Enabled = false.

With it off, nothing is sent at all.

The card at the top of this page shows everyone's totals added together, refreshed about every 10 minutes.

Source and bug reports

https://github.com/Andrew1431/big-choppa