As a person who's recently started flying ADSs (about a month now), I agree wholeheartedly on almost every point. As fragile and difficult to master as they are, they are ridiculously costly to use because at some point, someone, somehow, will usually bring at least one of your dropships down in any given match unless you stay at the flight ceiling the entire time. I believe things would be better if:

1. Costs were slashed to make ADS piloting viable as a permanent, profitable role. Given tanks' prices right now, I agree that 70k is right about where they should be, not including mods.

2. Collision damage were reduced. Love taps are literally more devastating than damage modded proto rail turrets.

3. Large railgun turrets' effectiveness were nerfed in some fashion. I believe implementing falloff on large rails is the best option, if it is made severe enough that it at least forces them out of the redline if they want to do anything useful, which not only improves our survivability, but gives bluedots and ourselves the opportunity to fight back. Also, this should drastically reduce vehicle call-in destruction.

4. I don't typically have gunners, but if these problems with passenger turrets are true, that is a pretty serious concern. Fix it.

5. For the benefit of the AV players, swarm launchers need a buff. Right now, I mostly just hover, laugh, and rain missiles on them unless there's at least 3 of them. Given our fairly low effective engagement altitude and the fact that, once fired, they continue to track you, it should just be a straight damage buff (as opposed to a range buff) to make them a legitimate threat in our own range. Forges are currently fine against ADS pilots and are effective at chasing me off.

I will, however, disagree on the destabilization. Its primary purpose seems to be to make AV players harder to hit while you're under fire, which is necessary so we simply don't walk all over them, and its secondary purpose is to throw off our control to give the AV players a better chance to make followup shots. Destablization should be left as-is for balance purposes, otherwise ADS piloting would be too easy.

In every respect beyond those listed above, I feel assault dropships are in a good place. In the hands of a skilled pilot, they can perform admirably at both anti-vehicle and anti-infantry, and can provide a number of useful services to the bluedots below.


tl;dr: Reduce prices, nerf large rails, nerf collision damage, fix passenger turrets, buff swarms and ADS piloting will be balanced for both sides.

Prices are fine. My fully proto-ed out fit only costs 500k, or about 2 games, and my ADV fit (which is just as good except against tanks) only costs 400k. You shouldn't be losing dropships more than every 2 games and even still, if prices were dramatically reduced, we'd be having the same problems we're having with tanks currently.

WPs are awarded for supporting your team. As such, killing people nets very few WP compared to logistics. Most dropship pilots usually average about 10 or so kills per match, meaning that you'll have to supplement WP another way. I usually drops some uplinks in high places, but do things that make you useful other than killing people and you should make decent WPs.

I don't usually run side turrets so I can't speak for their effectiveness or bugs.

Plenty of people have learned how to fly, it just takes a lot of patience and practice (and ISK). Resources like Judge Rhadamanthus' videos and the people at 1st Airborne are great for advice and tips. I'm usually happy to help anyone when I'm on.

Rails are broken, but it's just their range. They're meant to take out tanks, so their damage is fine (hardeners can help take a few hits and afterburners are great for dodging). The problem with rails is their range and being able to shoot from the redline. I've proposed a 350m effective range with drop off out to 450m, which would keep rails role as long range anti-vehicle but limit their effectiveness in the redline.

The knock back from infantry AV is the only thing keeping swarms (and forges to some extent) as usable AV verse dropships. I can out DPS any and every swarm launcher suit on my least tanked fitting, the only thing keeping me from killing every swarmer is having to take time to realign after I'm hit by their missiles. Same for forges to a slightly lesser degree.

It's pretty easy to avoid enemy dropships trying to ram you. You just need to keep situational awareness. They're much easier to deal with than jihad jeeps with tanks.

And by the way, missiles can stop shields from regening, I do it all the time (check the sig).

TL;DR: Price is fine, support you team for WP not just killing people, side turrets are probably bugged, put time into practicing flying and get help from other pilots, rails just need a range nerf, knock back is the only thing keeping infantry AV threatening, situational awareness will save you a lot.

In short, the only changes need relating to dropships are a reduction in range to rails and fixing side turrets. Everything else seems fine to me, I have no complaints. Dropships are probably one of the most balanced aspects of the game, currently.

I would like to add to this thread the need for the ability to pitch the Assault Dropship turret in first person, and not just in third.

Being able to aim up and down while in first person would go a long way toward making these aircraft less arduous to use.

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