Kallas Hallytyr
Skullbreakers
949
   |
Posted - 2014.11.13 06:31:00 -
[1] - Quote
It's been mentioned in various threads while being utterly ignored by Swarm users (and AV users in general): a single AV player prevents an ADS (or NDS) from performing their primary duties, simply by firing twice.
DS Roles
DSs are transports with firepower to suppress/kill infantry in a landing zone (whether deployment/extraction); ADSs have greater firepower to facilitate a safer zone, but trade off being less able to transport troops.
Transportationo
With the current AV, it is impossible to perform extraction, precision insertion (excepting very skilled pilots who can perform high-speed drops with any kind of reliability) and suppression fire once a single AV player has engaged you. NDSs have enough tank to drop off some people (though the knock back effects are incredibly detrimental to deployment) but not nearly enough to resist enemy fire long enough to drop down, get troops aboard and get out again, even with high SP, PRO-grade modules and high skill, yet this is a role that they are specifically called out for doing. ADSs are in exactly the same boat, but with more dakka/less tanky.
A single Swarmer, who engages the dropship in at most 2 seconds, causes enough impulse effect to make landing/low hovering impractical (and potentially lethal: not only costing ISK, clones and effort, but also stranding any still there) and given the high rate of damage being applied, it is impractical in the extreme to do anything but flee when engaged by any amount of AV.
The only real method the dropship excels at is the high speed pass, or generally just insertion, since that can be down with very little delay: you can muster a way from the enemy and then drop in from on high or at great speed.
Ground Attack
The other role given to DSs, by Rattati's own statements, is the strafing run. We are to swoop down, fire off shots to suppress/kill enemies and then continue onwards to evade enemy fire. Why is this laughable in the current state of play?
Rate of fired on both ADSs and NDSs is entirely unsuitable for this purpose: railguns will tag a vehicle maybe twice, which is not enough to causing a lasting impression; blasters do pathetic amounts of damage to infantry, even when on a platform stable enough for sustained application, that spreading that damage across an even larger area is the worst possible use of ammunition; missiles, whilst the best for it, simply don't get the coverage required to send infantry running for cover lest they be destroyed.
In essence, the dropship is forced to either slow down to get requisite coverage (ie, such that the turrets can saturate an area heavily enough to kill/suppress) and thus make themselves incredibly open to AV fire, or maintain the speed we are intended to keep but have an entirely irrelevant impact on the area...and still risk exposure to AV fire (FGs can still tags you on the way in/out, Swarms can lock/release during a mid-speed run)
Why Does This Matter?
Really, the issue is that a single AV player is rewarded for driving away a vehicle rather than just killing it: this is important to ensure that AV is a sustainable and reasonable role for someone to perform. What is unreasonable is the ease with which AV can suppress a vehicle, especially ones as exposed to the elements as the DS.
Second, the completely dominant presence of Swarm Launchers renders any form of dropship moot: with a rapid lock-on, automatic tracking and the ability to fit suits that sacrifice little in the way of antipersonnel effectiveness (yes, you Commandos) it is incredibly difficult for a dropship to perform its duties in any way vaguely resembling useful.
Effectively, the question is: why bother running a DS at all? Unless you're travelling to a spot unreachable by infantry/HAVs, the answer is that you shouldn't. The 1-3 players that are being used to man the dropship would be far better utilised on the ground fighting rather than in a dropship, running helter skelter from the first Swarmer to pop their heads up and otherwise forced out of the fight.
TL; DR, or what am I on about?
Essentially, infantry-based AV is far too effective at preventing the dropship (both NDS and ADS) from performing its prescribed roles, whilst simultaneously being handsomely rewarded (vehicle damage WP.) This is not about the ADS not being killy enough, or tanky enough. This is about the dropship group as a whole having little capacity to actually do what it is meant to do when even the most rudimentary of AV is brought to bear.
What Do I Think Should Be Done?
In a nutshell: way too much.
A lot of the issues about this are rooted in the design of the game itself:
- low player count makes every player not on the ground sorely missed
- small maps make the transport ability of the dropship generally unnecessary, excepting the otherwise inaccessible locations, because extremely rapid transit is often simply not required
- uplinks remove the necessity of rapid transport from a muster point, the main exception being specifically staged movements (which tend to be uncommon)
Honestly, I don't know what to suggest that can be achieved in DUST's current state that wouldn't overly hurt the gameplay, unless we talk about changing some of the fundamental aspects. I guess the purpose of this thread is to try and highlight to some of the vocal AV and/or anti-vehicle players what pilots are grumbling about.
Alt of Halla Murr. Sentinel.
|