70 kills this month, 7k WP?

I'm sorry but you can't tackle something like this without extensive time playing the game and some decent SP into vehicles/AV.

Like I said though, most of the dedicated vehicle pilots are gone or could just careless.

Wait you just said Soraya Xel was qualified O_o

70 kills this month, 7k WP?

I'm sorry but you can't tackle something like this without extensive time playing the game and some decent SP into vehicles/AV.

Like I said though, most of the dedicated vehicle pilots are gone or could just careless.

Can't play this game and CPM heavily at the same time. Also ever taken into account I may have alts? If you feel that game play = qualifications then you should hit up CPM Zatara; whom by the way constantly hits me up for help when it comes to things similar to this. So I have input on the sidearms as well :P on what roles they should play out, Zatara is better than he doubts himself to be though at it.

Secondly; I could choose to ignore and let vehicles continue to suffer, letting a more qualified CPMs such as Sorya Xel nerf them to oblivion along with not getting a look at them pushed until far as long as next year even; or I could get fed input from very qualified pilots and AV infantry to make best use of the information presented and start heading towards a more sensible direction using input to formulate very strong arguments, goals, and direction instead of mindless disdain for the whole Vehicle environment.

And don't cry to CPM Judge about this; it will be on deaf ears. CPM Cross and SMB are next best bets to follow up on as the others are busy with their own things.

Heck far as I am seeing things they're all distracted and I am the only one trying to heat up the back burner on this subject.

First and foremost -- racial vehicles and guns. Racial parity would REALLY make balancing issues easier I think.

Let's see your alts and tell me what they are specced into.

This omni soldier BS might be why you are clueless when it comes to just about everything in this game short of sketch work of things that will never be here.

I personally frown upon zatara at times for not playing, but unlike a lot of people he has the experience and tends to cap every week. He also is not afraid to challenge CCP's ideal way of thinking with realistic goals based on real input.

I noticed you brought up Judge ( AKA Mr "Oh Noes I have been nerfed, fix nao!" ). I wouldn't even waste my time with him.

If you want feedback, squad up with pilots who are fully invested in their roles. Go for a ride with them and have a talk.

Then go run AV with players who are fully specced into it.

That's the best way to get information.

I have squadded with pilots; most of them are no where near as whiney. Just depressed.

In fact, I don't believe the first part of that statement at all.

Just a bunch of questions before I help start breaking everything....

1. Vehicle Command Tree Structure

2. Vehicle Upgrades Tree Structure

3. Should there be reskinned place holders for FW vehicles (IE Golden Madrugers w/ amarr logo and Rusted Gunlogis /w repub logo) Even if this means that there is a very low chance of having unique models in the foreseeable future or unique stats even?

4. Should Militia Vehicles and Military Grade Vehicles feature similar slot layouts (as to not eat up slot real-estate) akin to standard dropsuit relationship with militia dropsuits?

5. Scout LAV's Role(s) should be?

6. Logistics LAV's where the start of the killer bee revolution, What tamer Role(s) should it have if brought back?

7. Enforcer HAVs previously did not have a strong role, What roles should it have?

8. Murader HAVs previously had a god like role, What roles should it retain if ever brought back in?

9. Logistics DS underperformed massively last time, what roles should it have to make it useful?

10. Assault Dropships are a subject of much Hyperbole, What attribute is the ADS hurting in the most right now?

11. There is thought about bringing turret variants back BUT so many of the old variants were 'useless' in the light of another so in what way or roles would you give these returning turrets to avoid similar fates.

12. Currently we have a selection of active and passive modules. Would you like to see an introduction of Modules that were off behavior of current as additional Options. An example would be an active armor repair that outperforms the passives?

13. There are currently no known technical evaluation on the possibility of more support like game play such as Deploying Equipment (ie Proximity Explosive or Nanohive), Siege Modes (your vehicle sacrifices a large amount of one stat to gain a great strength in another; Like 0 mobility for heavy tank and offensive ability) or even a repair turret or Mobile Supply Depot. Despite this are you very interested in seeing these mechanics brought into playing field to be hotfixed around and design something with? Which ones? Any new ideas of your own you think that could be done?

14. Dropship Immortality was pretty serious issue because of the lack of counters mostly. Would the community support an AA turret variant that cannot lower its turret base underneath a certain point making it difficult to deal with other threats if the Dropships where returned to similar power before 1.8D?

15. Several Quality of Life Features do not have any technical evaluations yet, are you willing to support such features such as: Dropship Drop Camera for passengers, Fixing the Small Turret Facing Bug, Allowing LAV passengers to shoot their weapons, Lock On Warning, Entry and Delay of Exit of a vehicle up to 3 seconds.

16. What kind of new modules are you willing to see?

Finally your links!
Gimmie!

I will be starting a comprehensive google document soon over the results that measures various aspects.

10. Assault Dropships are a subject of much Hyperbole, What attribute is the ADS hurting in the most right now?
Survivability
Offensive Capability
Skewed Windows of Engagement
Transport Ability

I am quite tired at the moment so I will only be responding to #10 right now with the rest tomorrow.

I am only speaking in terms of pythons as I only fly pythons and will only fly pythons.


The Assault dropship is suffering in survivability currently which is also effecting its transport ability. Transporting infantry to an area is fine, you can keep up a decent speed and altitude and get boots on the ground where they need to be, even if there is an av presence which just means you cant stick around and provide fire support. If a swarm launcher engages you, regardless of tier, you have to run, this makes extraction impossible. So a good 50% of the transport role, the role dropships are designed for, is covered with the other half being impossible.
With balance in mind, straight buffing the assault dropships tank is only going to bring back 1.8 dropships and the cycle of nerfing and buffing that nobody wants. Something will have to give, and since the offensive capability of dropships is still really good id say some ground could give there.
ideally I would like to see something like this,

Increase splash radius of small missile turrets

Decrease splash damage of small missile turrets

Increase direct damage of small missile turrets

Increase base tank of the assault dropship

increase ROF skill to 5% per level (optional, could be talked about further after results of the first four)

increasing the splash radius and decreasing the splash damage creates turrets that suppress enemies, wound them, and force them on the defensive. This creates a decent LZ, even if the LZ is hot and prevents shock troops from coming under fire as soon as they hit the ground. The slightly increased ROF is so a dropship can blanket an area, possible killing one or two enemies with the splash while clearing an area for the ground team. The enemies are weakened and are hiding, prime for an assault.
Tho gunners do want to kill things, I mean that's pretty much their only job and source of WP, so upping the direct damage of the small missile rewards accurate gunners for placing their shots well and being skillful, any gunner will tell you its pretty damn hard to get direct shots consistently from a moving dropship. This also keeps small missiles useful against vehicles.

Important
The best thing you could do for a pilots quality of life is to add an early warning system for swarm launchers. The optimizations in 1.9 for swarm rendering helped, a good half of the time I can see swarms before they hit me. A third of the time I can trace them back to their source. (roughly) I get myself into bad fights because I don't know all the information, and swarms pop up (or don't) when its too late for me to do anything about it, sometimes when they are right in front of my ship.

funnily enough there is a prime example in this Dust 514 2011 trailer, at 0:24 you can hear the early warning system of the dropship. (this also happens to be the video that made me want to be a dropship pilot before dust came out)

The concept is pretty simple, when a swarm is acquiring a lock long beeps sound for the pilot signifying someone, somewhere is acquiring a lock on the ship. When the swarms are fired the beeps change to a rapid set of beeps signifying swarms are inbound. I don't need an indicator telling me where the swarmer is, I don't need to know how many or even how far they are away from me, I just need to know that I am in a fight so I can act and strategize accordingly. I need that 5 seconds before the swarm hits so I can know how to react, otherwise I'm just guessing.
This would be such an enormous help to pilots without even changing any stats to v/av. I seriously just cannot stress how much of a quality of life improvement this would be!

Just a bunch of questions before I help start breaking everything....

1. Vehicle Command Tree Structure

Should it
a. Mimic the Drop Suits where it is Racial From Top to Bottom?
b. Retain the Same as Current (racial at top end only)

I wouldn't mind this too much, just as long as the operation is only level 1.

2. Vehicle Upgrades Tree Structure

Should it

a. mimic the Drop Suit tree more with bonuses on par with the infantry progression
b. Retain Current form and bonused the unbounded skills (all 6.1 million sp of it)

Yes, it absolutely should be restored to how it was during Chrome.

3. Should there be reskinned place holders for FW vehicles (IE Golden Madrugers w/ amarr logo and Rusted Gunlogis /w repub logo) Even if this means that there is a very low chance of having unique models in the foreseeable future or unique stats even?

Nah, it would still be the Madrugar/Gunnlogi hulls.

4. Should Militia Vehicles and Military Grade Vehicles feature similar slot layouts (as to not eat up slot real-estate) akin to standard dropsuit relationship with militia dropsuits?

No opinion

5. Scout LAV's Role(s) should be?

Useless, especially faster speed, because the LAV physics are still terrible. They have difficulty going up a slight incline. If they'll be reintroduced, they should have much, much better torque, barely slowing down while going up a 30-¦ incline.

6. Logistics LAV's where the start of the killer bee revolution, What tamer Role(s) should it have if brought back?
(Mix and Match or even add)

Bonus to active scanners, definitely range. A little added precision, 125m range instead of 80m. Passive armor and shield gain to vehicles, 30m proximity (because active mods required you to be far too close).

7. Enforcer HAVs previously did not have a strong role, What roles should it have?
8. Murader HAVs previously had a god like role, What roles should it retain if ever brought back in?

Going by the name, the roles should be reversed. Marauder bonus to offense, Enforcer bonus to defense. Marauder could get increased turret damage, better heat buildup for railguns and/or blasters, increased max range, whatever. Enforcer could get higher base HP, or resistances, whatever. I'd shell out for another respec for these.

9. Logistics DS underperformed massively last time, what roles should it have to make it useful?

Same principles as the Logi LAV, adding ammo replenishment, and shield/armor gain for infantry. Shouldn't be old Core Focused 178 HP/s, but should be better than Six Kin Triage. Some innate resistance to AV so it's not squishy. Also built-in mCRU that doesn't use a slot, and doesn't eat CPU/PG. Because it's a game.

10. Assault Dropships are a subject of much Hyperbole, What attribute is the ADS hurting in the most right now?
11. There is thought about bringing turret variants back BUT so many of the old variants were 'useless' in the light of another so in what way or roles would you give these returning turrets to avoid similar fates.

Faster firing, lesser damage turret variants for the ADS. I'd much rather have the higher rate of fire while sacrificing half the damage output. Should work for all 3 turrets, but obviously the bonus wouldn't work while mismatching hulls and turrets. Essentially the same with large turrets - longer range for railgun and missile while doing more than half their current damage. They're larger turrets, shouldn't follow exactly the same as small turrets.

12. Currently we have a selection of active and passive modules. Would you like to see an introduction of Modules that were off behavior of current as additional Options. An example would be an active armor repair that outperforms the passives?

Bring back everything that was taken away. Could sacrifice the passive armor resistance mods to have the passive reps do the same thing. They would essentially be redundant.

13. There are currently no known technical evaluation on the possibility of more support like game play such as Deploying Equipment (ie Proximity Explosive or Nanohive), Siege Modes (your vehicle sacrifices a large amount of one stat to gain a great strength in another; Like 0 mobility for heavy tank and offensive ability) or even a repair turret or Mobile Supply Depot. Despite this are you very interested in seeing these mechanics brought into playing field to be hotfixed around and design something with? Which ones? Any new ideas of your own you think that could be done?

The book 'Ender's Game' is required reading at military officer schools. In it, there's a line, "there is no combat without movement. There cannot be a 100% movement penalty for increased turret damage. If that were the case, nobody would use it at all. Could be a 75% reduction in movement speed, only a 25%-30% reduction in turn speed. Max 10% reduction to turret rotation speed. Too much and it becomes useless.

14. Dropship Immortality was pretty serious issue because of the lack of counters mostly. Would the community support an AA turret variant that cannot lower its turret base underneath a certain point making it difficult to deal with other threats if the Dropships where returned to similar power before 1.8D?

That really doesn't matter, because currently in order to hit something directly below you, you have to nose dive towards whatever it is. The ADS is kinda useless in that fashion.

15. You mean to tell me the bugged side turrets is working as intended? If you don't notice your HP, you'll kill yourself out of it. Should've been fixed a while ago.

instead of placeholder models why not just use the models ccp already has? they were shown along with the racial suits at fanfest 2013 so i can't imagine they should be too far away from being a valid ingame model by now.
cant be too hard to allow them to follow same fitting patterns as the suits we have too but we just run the risk of the minmatar HAV being ridiculously OP with the current state of Anti-Shield based AV. an HAV with dual tank but with the speed that matari stuff generally has will make it a nightmare.