u/ZdrytchX

Played for a couple hours today, I rarely touch the game these days. I last played more seriously back when potato dibbles was getting polished or something. My experience is as follows:

• Bots are much easier to find (probably high population server bias), thanks to a bug that just makes them stand still and yell. Beats having them just auto-run away the moment you get within visible range as they did previously.

• I still cannot find a fucking chicken. I was surrounded by maybe 4 today.

• The devs somehow managed to make optimisation substantially WORSE. It usually sits around 75fps in mid jungle but every environmental transition dips it down to 1-3fps on an Rx 7800XT w/ 64GB RAM? Really? WTF (I previously got a range between 120-200fps+ and laggy moments rarely dipped below 70 fps)

• New dinosaurs: Maia, T-rex, Trike and probably some other stuff I didn't bother to remember

• UI overhaul is a little obnoxious. I can't hover over my own nutrients, I have to open chatbox to check it. It's also just generally far less aesthetically pleasing than the old legacy style UI

• I still cannot find any mention whatsoever on how to play any dinosaur. Third party tutorials should NOT be the standard for learning fundamental functions and is a signal of incompetent software design but I guess they can hide under "Early Access" title for that matter. Sure more complicated mechanics can be left to tutorials and guides, but lets say I'm playing a dinosaur I don't know the name of. Right click just has no animation. On another, it makes their head bob.

• I don't think fog is supposed to cling to rocks

• New map layouts. I like some of it, didn't like others, but new buildings are nice although some stuff are a little broken, rocks with like one pixel per 20x20m square and placeholder textures on concrete assets. Having to find an updated online map is a mild inconvenience

• Game no longer requests full access to my system! \o/ I can't remember if that's because I manually permanently denied it permission or if that's the devs actually fixed something

• Dynamic lighting exposure is still dim as hell during sunrise/set transitions and is brighter at night. I was hoping that would've been sorted by now

• Screenspace reflection vignetting suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

• rip pteranodon, flies slower than I could run IRL. Even a standard triangle fold paper plane glides faster. But if they'd fly a lot faster sky rats would get too annoying for balancing I guess.

• I still hate the FOV in this game. Give me wider FOVs!

• Seems like /r/TheIsle poofed? Something about bot hijack? Is this (/r/The_Isle) the new defactor main subreddit now?

In any case I'm not sure if I'll hang around, maybe in a couple of months I'll come back to this game

I often hear that the AIO5 is very sturdy but nobody talks about the amp rating limit or any other problems you might encounter in its lifetime. Most things I hear about it are mostly only from loyal HDZ customers that probably have a lot of money to afford everything HDZ has to offer and likely flew one for less than an hour's total, so there's hardly any criticism on it. As a critical person myself, despite how much of a marvel of engineering it is, all I can see from it is that the AIO5 frankly looks like it will be a headache with little problems (e.g. SPI receiver, VTX/ELRS antennas all need to be bent away and more vulnerable to potential damage to reduce RF interference etc.) and if something breaks that's instantly -$100USD down the drain plus another month of waiting for shipment. But in return, you save some ~6 grams of weight from having a seperated VTX/FC board.

The HDZ AIO5 is officially rated 5A continuous, up to 6A per motor.
My 25000KV motors draw about 7.2A each at full throttle and that's including 30% bat sag compensation, so it could very well be needing in excess of 8 amps unimpeded. Logically thinking, this means I'd overstress the mosfets, but at the same time nobody I've talked to has had issues with it and there are also 14+A ESCs out there that have blown up while running 7A motors.

The AIO5 is already an expensive board as is for a tiny whoop, and its vtx is known to eat a lot of power, so do you think it's only viable with strict throttle limiting?
Does the low amp rating also mean the motors run a lot less efficient?
How much flight time can I expect for a 75mm? (I currently get about 6:30 minutes hover time with my current setup with GF 1614s)

For those who already bought an AIO5, do you think it was a worthy purchase? Or would you rather just stay on analog for tiny whoops?

A lot of FPV pilots whinge about how shit the laws are in USA but honestly I think they are one of the most free-er countries to fly FPV, JB's "Flowstate" documentary details some of the protests that massively helped grant you these exemptions and rights, so be thankful that your politicians even listened. If only the rest of the world listened.

Feel free to correct me or add details if I'm wrong anywhere.

United States:

• FPV legal outdoors, with a spotter

• You're allowed to fly near people provided its rotors are ducted and the impact force is less than 15 joules/11 imperial magical units and doesn't have a known defect.

• RemoteID not required <250g

• Additionally, police/military now employ wifi-band triangulation to locate your drone should you fly. A tiny whoop might be too small for them to detect reliably, but take caution when corrupt police are involved

• I don't have proof on this, but iirc its a federal crime if someone shoots down your drone

• Raceband 1-8, up to 1000mW with part 107, without a special radio license

In short, tiny whoops can do whatever they want as long as they don't over-extend their priveleges and have someone to play spotter, which is probably the most broken rule, even by our beloved famous bible god
^("Stop winking. Why are you winking?")

Australia:

• Only two drone categories exist relevant for most recreational FPV pilots. Sub250g and 250g-2kg for those without special training/exemptions/license type ratings.

• You can't fly within 30m of uninvolved people (fucking lmao, a property isnt even 15m long) and this distance extends infinitely upwards, so you can't fly for example, fly 100feet up and shine a torch vertically on them. ^(on the contrary, iirc you're allowed to start up a potentially decapitating full scale aircraft at shorter distances of 8m from people, 15m from a building and actively taxi within 15m of people - Keep in mind foreign object debris aka rocks picked up from the propwash of these aircraft can have substantially more energy than a tiny whoop)

• FPV Legal is indoors, provided it's physically impossible for it to get outside unasissted.

• Because sliding doors can be opened by a whoop and by strangers repetitively walking in/out, a shopping centre is the same as being outdoors. That being said, I've seen CASA endorsed race clubs stream indoor whoop races and it's not like they ever got reprimanded for having open doors all summer.

• FPV is legal outdoors with very specific circumstances only:

  • You're part of a model aircraft club, fly on specific days, on a specific time, with specific frequency, specific output, specific location at a very specific time. Important: FPV pilot is NOT technically pilot in command, since they do not have VLOS on the aircraft. The spotter is PIC and must know how to fly the quad and disarm it at any time.
  • Or you apply for an exemption. The exemption can cost a couple thousand dollars and is location specific with an RePL + ReOC (basically a part 107 + business certification), require a risk assessment and has a limited duration. If you apply for each ~2 minute pack, the cost of flying a tiny whoop becomes substantially more expensive than flying an actual jet per flying hour. There's a few contradictions with some of the online guides I've read (or I'm misinterpreting), like saying that it apparently costs nothing for recreational flight and don't need an ARN, but the form requires you to have an ARN and provides billing details. Additionally, you need to do a job risk assessment for each application ^(kind of like "probability of me hitting a bird: 1 in 100. Probability of me killing bird: 1 in 10000)

• Raceband 3/4/5/6 only, 25mW at an MAAA location, otherwise radio broadcast strength rules are messy and varies with frequency, whether you're indoors or outdoors, supports frequency hopping etc.

• Registration required for anything involving potential money gains (RePL/ReOC work)

• CASA doesn't differentiate close range FPV BVLOS from remotely operated box terminals 300km away from the remote pilot, that also then has radio link to the quad. They do however, differentiate for extended VLOS which applies when multiple people can control the same quad that can each, at certain times during the flight maintain VLOS, such as when flying over a hill that you can't get on top of or if it flies out of visible range from one into the visibility range of the next, so basically where two people have to fly the same quad seperately with line of sight.

• Privacy revisions in 2024-2025 basically now means anyone can sue you for even pointing a camera their way, even without evidence of damage

• All data collected must be de-identified of everyone, and/or consent obtained from everyone involved to appear in the footage. Footage should be deleted ASAP when not required anymore, even for recreational pilots. I haven't looked up what "require" refers to yet.

• Before 2026, the military/police were not allowed to use drone jamming devices. They're now authorised to do so.

• RemoteID still on the table for future requirement but not required currently.

TL;DR: You're fucked if a karen wants to hunt you down because FPV is technically illegal. Yes this means that pretty much 100% of all non-race club FPV flights on youtube are consequently illegal if you can't see another person with the pilot if they applied for exemption (requesting one makes the exemption public, consequently if its your back yard you are DDOS'ing yourself) and if not, it's illegal anyway. This includes big youtubers such as U--F------ and N---FPV but thankfully CASA doesn't usually hunt people down until someone complains, but this can change anytime especially with the ongoing AI surveillence that is encroaching the country

Even DJI camera drone pilots are technically not safe in many places, because 30m is still a stupidly large distance a 60m diameter circle is larger than about half of all city parks in australia not to mention larger than an olympic swimming pool. And you can't fly over natural reserves without paying like $200 for a permit, and about half of all parks are contradictorily classified as reserves even if its just a pile of rocks or a bit of lawn in the centre of a neighbourhood roundabout

UK:

• Unlike US/AU, Drones must remain 50m horizontally away from people, extended to infinity upwards, unless it is a sub-250g. 50m is massive, most fields aren't big enough for you to fly your drone legally if there's traffic on one side and a used walkpath on the other side

• The 50m rule increases if you fly over 50m from the ground, at a diagonal angle (at 100m you need to fly 100m away horizontally from people). ^(I actually like this rule's logic although it sucks for long range cruisers up in the mountains)

• 150m (?!?) to distance the quad from residential buildings, recreational areas (wtf? I'm guessing they mean like playgrounds) and industrial areas. So basically, you can't fly anywhere but an open field (fucking RIP)

• Exemptions exist for the 50m rule spacing from people and the 150m from buildings thankfully - Sub-250g, UK0, UK1 or C0 class allow you to fly over people, but it shouldnt be too crowded.

• More exemptions exist for UK2/C2 (<4kg) categories but require a certificate of competency to push the 50m spacing requirement down

• Need a license to transmit more than 25mW, restricted to raceband 3/4/5/6

• Because tiny whoops carry a camera, it must be registered with an OperatorID

• RemoteID required 250g and above starting 2026 (already active)

• RemoteID required 100g and above if it has a camera starting 2028

• Starting 2028, everything is required to be registered even sub-250

TL;DR: Only fly at open fields that are stupidly massive like an oval, and you can only fly at like the centre of it if its not in one of the lighter catgories. You have until 2028 to exert your freedoms, after that you must register with the government

EU nations:

• Basically same-ish as UK except maximum people spacing requirement is only 30m like the rest of the world

Canada:

• Basically same-ish as USA

Japan:

• More strict than Australia

• Registraiton required 100g and above

• RemoteID required 100g and above

• Permit required to fly 100g or above in dense populated areas which is like 4000 people per square km. Basically, entire Tokyo is one big ass no-fly zone for dji

• FPV requires permit

• Almost all parks have banned drones regardless of weight class

• You can't fly over private property without permission (contrast this to other countries where transitting is allowed)

In short, drones aren't welcome here, tiny whoop or not, they want you to gtfo

---

I think these laws are more about giving people the tools to fuck you over with if you piss them off rather than being enforceble directly. Like in my state of australia, you can't run faster than 12kph on a footpath, probably to prevent fast cyclists on footpaths without forcing children on their tiny tricycles to the road. But at the same time, it's not like I've seen anyone get arrested for running on a footpath, you can even do it in front of police officers and they won't care.

I have a diversity ELRS receiver, came with one antenna only, bought replacement whip, doesn't fit well and while trying to undo an installation I ripped out the good T antenna, leaving me with the crappy whip that doesn't fit well. Now I gotta find replacements but can't find any online unless I'm being dumb.

Only option locally are a pack of 5 MHF3 whip antennas thare are way too short for me to get any good placement and the shop's like 40km away, or I buy an entirely new receiver for ~5-10x the price

Recently got RCinpower 25000KV and first day flying them out I've already lost 3 propellers.

I've never had such an issue with gemfan 1614s on the betafpv 0802 2026. I switched motors because the betafpv flux rings keep detatching from the bell, but they aren't selling GF 1614s near me, so I got the HQprop 40mm because its the only 1mm shaft low(ish) pitched ~40mm propeller that is sold locally and while I bought like 24 props from betafpv, it'll take a month to come, and RCinpower 0802s only come in 1mm smooth shafts.

Also for anyone wondering, the RCinpower 25000KV + HQprop 40mm triblade combo is about 16-22% less efficient and about 10-15% slower than betafpv 0802 (2026) 22000kv (freestyle) + GF1614 triblade but they spin up faster and don't stall as easily (can go down to less than 2000 dynamic idle and its fine, betafpv 0802 struggles with even 3500 dynamic idle). Both brand new can be heard up to about 30 metres away in a hover and about 80m at full throttle, but my old damaged props and betafpv motors with flux ring misalignment problems can be heard up to about 180-220m away. Definitely not a stealth whooper!