I'd like to get this off my chest, as I've seen people defend this-or-that with excuses about maximum crew and such-n-such. As a current standard infantryman who played AV in E3 and HAVs on the tail of Chromosome, I like to feel that I am somewhat unbiased if a bit outdated, but feel free to sling mud and power up your plasma torches. I'm only here to educate and illuminate.

People say that certain vehicles deserve a certain amount of power because of their relative amount of stored manpower. Not too many use this particular gem, but I've seen it enough to formulate the counterarguments and get tired of the question in general, so here we go. I will assume that none of the people in a vehicle have vehicle skills, they just found a thing in a ditch or hacked it. You'll see why later on.

A LAV has a maximum capacity of three. All three players that man the LAV can be individually targeted with small arms fire and can also be destroyed by AV capable weapons aimed at the chassis. The Pilot of the LAV has control of the Navigational Systems and Activate Module Systems while the Targeting and Firing Systems are under the control of the Gunner. The Passenger has no active roll, and cannot even turn their head from side to side. This gives a count of two significant manning players due to their separation of roles and one passenger due to his lack of contribution and utilization of the LAV as a means of transit.

A Dropship has a maximum capacity of seven. All can be targeted by small weapons fire with the sole exception of the pilot, but all have a small window of time allowed to bail from the craft if it suffers catastrophic damage. Of those seven, four are pure Passengers, partially safe behind retractable blast shields. The Pilot mans the craft, having the same control over the Navigation and Active Modules as the LAV, while the Gunners, of which there are two, have the same Targeting and Firing control as the LAV. However, most Dropships can only truly cater to one of their gunner's Line of SIght, leaving the other to starve, as flying directly over an enemy force so that it surrounds the Dropship is somewhat suicidal. Certain Dropships, the Assault variants, have the Gunner role also added into the Pilot role. This gives a count of two to three significant manning players, taking into account the gunning effectiveness issue. The other four are, understandably, using the Dropship as a means to be dropped off.

The HAV has a maximum capacity of three. None can be targeted individually by small weapons fire, only going down in the HAV itself does. Furthermore, the HAV is the only vehicle with variable seating numbers, ranging from three to one. The Pilot has access to all major functions, Navigation and Active Modules like the other vehicles but also Targeting and Firing Systems. The other seats, if they are installed at all, are gunners at best, passengers at most times. HAV pilots rarely cater to the needs of their gunners, and most have removed the guns as the option is now available to them. This makes the significant manning player count one, with two Passengers if the seats are even installed.

So them's the facts, hope I educated someone today. And as for the HAV thing, I want you to be totally honest with me HAV pilots of the world. How many of you ever gave a damn about your gunners, and how many immediately removed the gunner seats the moment 1.7 came around?