Radar, or a data link allowing you to see enemy contacts encountered by your whole team and not just your squad. countermeasure, increased power/Cpu, ability to use more complex aircraft, module or the ability to ovrload systems. increased module effectiveness ect

Radar, or a data link allowing you to see enemy contacts encountered by your whole team and not just your squad. countermeasure, increased power/Cpu, ability to use more complex aircraft, module or the ability to ovrload systems. increased module effectiveness ect

I don't think a Pilot suit will even be possible if it adds any bonus at all... Unless Vehicles are completely neutered to the point of uselessness first, which no one really wants, probably.
If however you were prevented from calling or even acting as the primary operator of a Vehicle unless in a Pilot suit, and that suit had, at best, passive non-skill based bonuses such as a wider POV, incoming fire and proximity warnings? That would be do-able, and quite possibly better balanced than what we have now.

Capacitors, if i understand how they work, would maybe also help vehicles to need to fulfil roles other than meat grinder.

I don't think you understand. Pilot suits would simply add yet another skill tree that pilots would have to climb in order to fly effectively. We already have Vehicle Upgrades, Turrets, and Vehicle Command. We need a pilot suit tree like we need another hole in our heads and our wallets.

Some people already had SP in Pilotsuits after Uprising 1.5 I think. So I guess they will come sooner or later.

I never understood all this talk of a "pilot" suit, considering the layout of DS cockpits.

I have 17 mil SP in Dropsuit Upgrades tree and its not done yet, plus my suits and weapons. We all have our SP sinks. I understand how much you put into vehicles as I've put 5 mil into them and have a long way to go.

Pilots should demand their suits to set them even farther apart from the infantry. Your suit should make you even better than some scrub running militia gear.

i really believe that you shouldn't be able to drive or pilot any vehicle without locking yourself into it. would keep blue berry rdvs from smashing vehicle, and it would stop tank spams and to some extent red line rails.

Sounds like all the non pilots are in favor of another SP sink for pilots.

I suppose we could do the same with infantry and require a special AV suit separate from the rest of the suit skill tree to properly use AV.

l would love a way to separate dedicated pilots from militia users, but you can do that with the existing skill trees.

There are issues with putting skills into the suit rather than the vehicle itself. The first is you have to decide if the bonus is tied to the skill level or to the actual suit itself. That makes a difference because having to risk a prototype suit on top of the vehicle inflates the ISK cost dramatically. If it's a bonus you can run the basic and get the full skill benefit. In that case it's an SP sink but not a huge ISK sink.

Then you have to figure out what differences there are between different racial suits and how many suits you are going to have to skill up. If you fly both the Python and the Incubus do you need to skill two suits to prototype?

Well, given CCP's precedent with the Logi skill change and equipment nerfs, I'm sure vehicles will be dialed back if pilots suits are given a bonus to vehicle aspects. My ideas:

Suit Bonus: 2% increase to all resistances per level

Gallente: 2-3% increase to armor repair amount per level
Caldari: 5% increase to shield extender amount per level
Minmatar: 3-5% increase to vehicle agility (not speed) per level
Amarr: 2-3% increase to base armor and armor plates per level

I like this, and I'm pretty sure you are right. If Pilot suits became a thing, then they would probably look like this to an extent.
I still don't like the idea of hard number-bonuses though, I would much rather that a "unique" suit was actually unique in what it offered, but it's probably unavoidable.

My idea:
Automatic pilot suit bonus: Augmented senses. The pilot plugs directly into the vehicle's Ai and sensor systems net, granting the following bonuses: 3rd person perspective and missile/proxy warning (even if not limiting operation to pilot-suited mercs only, I would still force them into a 1st person view and cut them off from any early warning system the vehicle had unless they wore the suit)
Per level bonus: Would have to be racial, and probably non-vehicle class specific. If it's an Amarr suit, it needs to apply to all Amarr vehicles or the system would be too clunky.

Perhaps:
Gallente: Repping rate bonus?
Caldari: Recharge rate bonus?
Minmatar: Booster increase bonus?
Amarr: Capacitor charge extension? (see what i did there?)

(Edit: To gain the bonus, a module of that type would need to be installed first, after which:)
I would set these bonuses to a rate equal to 1/5 of the relevant module, so that at proto level you would essentially gain a free module of that type. But then I would also make the fitting of ALL modules slightly more expensive.
The suit itself I would give racial stats, but no slots other than a sidearm and one equipment. At the very most, I would simply make it a frontline fitting.
It should exist to give a pilot a slight edge, not make vehicles broken, or turn them into nothing more than expensive EHP buffers without it....

The way I see it, vehicles are in a pretty good place. I wouldn't want to buff them, nor really nerf them too much. Those innate damage resistances can probably go though, given the lowered damage capabilities of their squishier opponents.
(As a matter of fact, I think damage resistances in general are a really bad idea.)

Sigh. In the end this is probably all just pointless hot air. It would be far easier for CCP to simply remove the Pilot Suit entry than to hammer room for it in three whole skill trees plus vehicle game mechanics. I had an enormous amount of fun writing it though, so win?