Anyway, I'm going to go over the bonuses racially:
(NOTE: these bonuses are not applied at the same time, just my thoughts on them)

Amarr:
10% to vehicle precision per level (in tandem with Amarr scout)
3% to damage mod efficiency per level
2% reduction to turret head build up per level (like the assault)
2% efficiency to armor hardeners per level

see, these bonuses make sense now... but it kinda defines the fits they'll be used on. Other than precision but... that's a whole other story. It's not bad, but not too good either... in the sense that it is TOO specific. Buff or nerf one of them and the suit is useful, or useless.

Minmatar:
3% to cooldown of AB modules per level
10% reduction to armor plate speed penalty (give a reason to use GAL ADS) YES! but not to the plate... to the vehicle itself? Similar to what i said with 10% (at level 5 nevertheless) bonus to speed and acceleration.


not bad on minmatar... definite plus 1

Caldari:
3% reduction to shield recharge delay per level +1
2% reduction to active shield modules per level
2% bonus to ROF of rocket and/or rail turrets Python + Caldari suit... nuff said
4% bonus to missile splash radius per level (should give it a 3.00 meter splash if my math is right) works good as a turret VLM actually... if your math is correct :P

Gallente:
2% reduction to armor hardener cooldown per level (against giving better reps, Incubus already has powerful reps in dogfights)
5% bonus to blaster blast radius per level
3% reduction to blaster/rail heat buildup per level Incubus + Gallente suit... nuff said

i don't really feel your gallente bonuses that much either... similar with the amarr ones... good now, but if something changes... not so good.


I'm sure I'm forgetting a few of my ideas, but I just found this awesome flight song. Hope I helped.

"You were my thrills, you were my pills
You dropped a bomb on me
You turn me out, you turn me on
You turned me loose, then you turned me wrong"

definitely helped. appreciate it

Pilot bonus: 2% increase to vehicle armor/shield resistance per level

hmm.............. okay. I feel this one. Scrap the resistance VLM, have it straight in the suit bonus instead. How about shield resist for Cal/Min, armor for Ama/Gal? how would that look?

Amarr: 2% increase to efficacy of armor hardeners modules, 2% reduction to heat buildup per level
Caldari: 2% increase in shield hardener efficacy, 3% increase in missile splash radius per level
Gallente: 2% increase in armor repairer efficacy per level, 3% decrease in cooldown time per level
Minmatar: 2% increase in agility (acceleration and turn speed), 3% decrease to cooldown per level

I see that you went racially with the turrets... would that work better as a VLM? It kinda makes sense but it kinda racial or bust... which i'm kinda avoiding suit skill wise... I'm looking at it like this:

Use an Ama pilot suit... shield vehicle... python.
10% more aHP... but in a python is it really worth it? I just get 96 more aHP.... It would be better to use a Cal suit for 155.5 more sHP instead.

Good for all, best racially... or based on fit (I like to call these special fits) is what I tried to get with my bonuses.

Thanks! It's helping me make some ideas for modules

Make it official. Coward.

Perhaps you can clarify something more me. When it comes to the Damage Control VLM's what does anti-armour and anti-shield refer to? No prob

...increased resistances vs weapons designed to target shield or armour universally across both stats.
...

+10% Armour and Shield Resistance vs Missile, Projectile, and Hybrid Rail, -12% Armour and Shield Resistance vs Hybrid Blasters, Laser, and EM Missile

The Heat module would also have to take into consideration whether the Large and Small Amarr turrets employed the mechanics of the existing Laser Rifle or something more like Scrambler technology which could skew intended design slightly.

Excellent post!

Possible VLM: Stability module - crap pilots like myself have difficulty flying in and maintaining altitude and stabilizing to either shoot from the nose or to allow gunners to take aim; could also counter the gripe many pilots have of swarms doing limited direct damage but knocking them into buildings or upside-down like a pinball; no idea what % stability grant would be appropriate and this may be useful to only entry-level Charles Lindbergs so should probably be on an earlier node of the pilot skill tree and not be a prerequisite to later nodes

We already have a problem where too many skills and sp are required for tanks that virtually every bit of, even every single small turret fitting optimization 5, is required for vastly superior tank survivability. Its about 55-60mil for everything, and thats combined with 1.3mil isk tanks, that lose hard to heat sinked rails, all the bajillions of commandos, super powerful AV grenades, and officer spam with alldins and kubos.
We just need to reduce the SP and isk of tanks for christ sake, and add the pilot suits of course, but keep away from more modules.
Keep it simple-adress the problems-make it viable to run tanks all the time by keeping a correlation between effectiveness and cost. Cus right now tankings way too unbelievably expensive for being less effective that a STD AR on an infantry suit

Impulse effect, I think?

Question. How would these bonuses apply themselves?
Is it when you click to call for a vehicle and it comes delivered with the stat bonuses? Because getting into a tank and suddenly have the armour suddenly increase is weird.

No, it's not like that... Ideally yeah that would be nice... But a few problems come up, like someone with a pilot suit calls in a vehicle for a non-pilot user. Non pilot gets the pilot's benefits w/o the suit.

Sure having the eHP suddenly jump up will feel weird but... It's the trade off for "active" skill application.



And what about changing pilot suits at a depot while you have a tank out already?

Definitely possible! Once you hop out, you strip the vehicle of the pilot suit's bonuses... Just like if you hop out of a turret, you strip the turret of your turret skills.


Just some issues I want to address.

And what of the slot layout for these suits
i was thinking scout-esque... But if that has any issues then it's open for discourse!

The number of slots? above
layout for each race? above
Will you give the ability to only equip vlms(those vehicle modules) or can they also equip standard dropsuit modules like a biotic or armour plate?
Any module you'd like. It is a dropsuit after all! The only difference (similar to cloak on scout) is a role bonus towards VLM fitting.

And what about their weapons? Should pilot suits only be allowed to equip a sidearm? Or one light weapon? Would they be allowed to have a grenade? And how about equipment slots? Do they get only one? Or none at all?

that's a tough one. Some would say sidearm only, others would say sure light weapon.

Grenade.......... I want to say no. But it depends on the majority :D

Yes equipment! Just 1 though...

Edit:just thought bumping this was better than that turret qq thread. Thanks! Imma go check out the qq right now lol. Free to ask any questions/Critique whenever you'd like

I disagree with him.

The vehicle SP tree is small, non specific, and overly simplified. It was a vastly more enjoyable and expansive skill tree to work with Pre 1.7 where Shield and Armour Adaptions provided passive resistances, each tank had its own unique operations skill and marauder operation skill, and many more modules were employed with each of those modules have a skill attached to its operation.

I'd support 1 sidearm 1 equipment, anything else would be excessive, You'd be amazed at how many kills some of us could get with just a Breach Scrambler Pistol and a set of RE's. The Pilot suit should be survivable enough for you to get back to safety and call in another vehicle, not survivable enough to be useful as infantry.