3) To keep things balanced, we will also reduce the turn radius of a swarm missile, so it can't bend around 90 degree corners. This will allow skilled pilots to deftly avoid missiles by taking cover behind buildings and terrain.

PS. As I have mostly used Wiyrkomi SL with Minmatar Commando, I seem to notice slower lock-on on CBR-7 SL when using it. Which is weird because I thought that my LVL 5 skill should account for the lock on regardless of the meta level of SL used.

Hello again,

we are proposing the following changes to reduce the high efficiency of the ADS and promote Normal Dropship viability as well.

In short, the ADS can function as a fast attack vehicle, with rapid redeployment and the NDS can function as a slower troop transport, able to withstand heavier fire while laying down supportive fire with missiles and blasters.

Currently the ADS is able to outrun swarms using afterburners, and return to the same spot within a few moments, fully repaired and fighting capable. We want to give swarms a better fighting chance against them, so proposing the following small changes.

1) A change so that Swarms actually outrun normal ADS speed, right now the speeds are equal, so the ADS just needs to boost away and the swarm will never catch it.

Swarm speed from 50m/s to 60m/s

2) Another change in that vein, is to increase Swarm accelaration from 10 m/s^2 to 12m/s^2, again to catch up with the ADS Afterburner.

3) To keep things balanced, we will also reduce the turn radius of a swarm missile, so it can't bend around 90 degree corners. This will allow skilled pilots to deftly avoid missiles by taking cover behind buildings and terrain.

4) We will not be changing the lock on timer nor the lock on range at this stage, and see how it goes.

5) We are also increasing the cooldown of Afterburners and Fuel injectors, so that Vehicles that choose to boost out of harms way can either wait out the cooldown period and fly to another engagement on the map, or return back to the prior enagement before it's fully restored and then at a higher risk to itself.

6) To keep things balanced, we are also proposing an increase to the duration of Afterburners and Fuel Injectors.

7) Finally, a healthy buff to NDS eHP, somewhere close to a full proto swarm dmg (1000 eHP) and an improvement to Small Blasters dmg output detailed here, including a PG/CPU reduction to them.

Let's really try to keep this constructive

Hello again,

we are proposing the following changes to reduce the high efficiency of the ADS and promote Normal Dropship viability as well.

In short, the ADS can function as a fast attack vehicle, with rapid redeployment and the NDS can function as a slower troop transport, able to withstand heavier fire while laying down supportive fire with missiles and blasters.

Currently the ADS is able to outrun swarms using afterburners, and return to the same spot within a few moments, fully repaired and fighting capable. We want to give swarms a better fighting chance against them, so proposing the following small changes.

1) A change so that Swarms actually outrun normal ADS speed, right now the speeds are equal, so the ADS just needs to boost away and the swarm will never catch it.

Swarm speed from 50m/s to 60m/s

2) Another change in that vein, is to increase Swarm accelaration from 10 m/s^2 to 12m/s^2, again to catch up with the ADS Afterburner.

3) To keep things balanced, we will also reduce the turn radius of a swarm missile, so it can't bend around 90 degree corners. This will allow skilled pilots to deftly avoid missiles by taking cover behind buildings and terrain.

4) We will not be changing the lock on timer nor the lock on range at this stage, and see how it goes.

5) We are also increasing the cooldown of Afterburners and Fuel injectors, so that Vehicles that choose to boost out of harms way can either wait out the cooldown period and fly to another engagement on the map, or return back to the prior enagement before it's fully restored and then at a higher risk to itself.

6) To keep things balanced, we are also proposing an increase to the duration of Afterburners and Fuel Injectors.

7) Finally, a healthy buff to NDS eHP, somewhere close to a full proto swarm dmg (1000 eHP) and an improvement to Small Blasters dmg output detailed here, including a PG/CPU reduction to them.

Let's really try to keep this constructive

Is is possible for normal dropships to have built in CRUS? One's that don't need to activate at a specific altitude? As it is currently, few people fly NDS because they need to take away troops from the ground to do so and an Ads can do just as well why have it's own gun. If NDS had a CRU that was activated no matter the height, it could be it's own bunker at objectives, allowing mercs to fire on the guns and spawn in if there are no uplinks. he increased Hp would encourage AV to try and take it down, in which case a pilot could just get in and fly away.

In the context of Planetary Conquest however, I only use NDS when flying to enemy home point or crash landing someplace because of the added troop capacity.

Loving the other adjustments however, my Commando MK.o feels so sad no being able to kill things sometimes

Swarms?

Oh you mean the only weapon in the game that takes zero skill to land hits with?

The one that all the scrubs skill into because they cant learn the art of the forge gun?

Press R1, get a cookie, rinse, repeat?


I hate ADSs as much as the next guy, but swarms are the answer here?

loldust

Swarms are only AV option against dropships for light and medium frames as it is.

Swarms are only AV option against dropships for light and medium frames as it is. And as it is, they are lacking against every vehicle except LAVs. Well, fitted Methanas and Sagas can escape swarms easily enough too.

Press R1, get lit up by infantry and that's it.

Wait, you mean us medium frames cant counter everything else other players can throw at us?

We need blues with diverse suits/roles to do that?

Well, I for one demand a respec right meow!

Some people enjoy chess, others checkers. I'm guessing your the latter

Swarms?

Oh you mean the only weapon in the game that takes zero skill to land hits with?

The one that all the scrubs skill into because they cant learn the art of the forge gun?

Press R1, get a cookie, rinse, repeat?


I hate ADSs as much as the next guy, but swarms are the answer here?

loldust

I'm fine with Swarm changes. They need to be able to catch up to the extremely agile ADS in their current format.

Afterburner stuff :

A duration bonus doesn't particularly help here. You mentioned it yourself, the ADS with an Afterburner can get out of dodge extremely quickly and that fact isn't going to change regardless of whether or not the Afterburner has a duration of 10 seconds or 20 seconds. They'll be far removed from Swarm range in the first 5 in most cases and they'll need to slow down in order to effectively take on infantry in a different location.

Fuel Injector :

I'm not sure what the motivation for changing this module is. The reasoning for the Afterburner stuff is clear, the ADS is an extremely mobile weapons platform that becomes even more so when afterburners are added to the mix. The cooldown for the Afterburner is such that one never really has to worry about "wasting" its use because, with a 10 second cooldown, you're almost always ready to boost again at a moment's notice. The fuel injector though? Its cooldown is already triple that of the Afterburners at 30 seconds and, unlike the Afterburners, one isn't avoiding guided AV with the fuel injectors activated, they can still be targeted and hit fairly easily. And again, I feel like a duration bonus isn't all that helpful for the situations in which one will actually activate these modules. More likely you'll find that people will turn them on, get away from whomever is firing on them, and then immediately turn them off to start the cooldown timer again.

Afterburner/Fuel Injector Tiers :

The same issue I brought up in my Vehicle Scanner thread is present with the Afterburner and Fuel Injector modules. Namely that there's still very little incentive in going out and using the higher tiered variants of these modules due to a combination of prohibitive fitting costs and a lack of substantial gain for what they pay in having a weaker fit or a more expensive vehicle. I hope that this is addressed in future hotfixes.

Some ideas for addressing this off the top of my head include ...
Fuel Injectors or Afterburners giving a noticeably more substantial boosting effect across tiers ... that's all I got.

NDS eHP :

No complaints from me. They needed something.

Actually, that might work, increased boost speed rather than increased duration.

It really shows you haven't touched the no-skill swarms then.
They are in the game, they are a counter to dropships, or at least should be. Hope we'll get them working in the Delta update.

As for you, continue your merry forging, it's not away from me. I'm sure there's a forge vs. ds thread somewhere where you can contribute.

Also, any word on buffing CPU/PG on the STD DSs? The hp buff is fine but it's still hard to fit them with decent turrets and a viable tank.

Also, will the +1000 hp be to the vehicle's specific tank or spread to both shield and armor?