Second Cerberus
Villore Sec Ops
Gallente Federation
38
   |
Posted - 2012.08.05 15:20:00 -
[1] - Quote
I'm sad to say this, but I can't justify running the Eryx dropship anymore. It costs more than the Myron, and as a shield ship, it's a given that if you try to stay on station or have to duke it out with another ship or HAV you may need to pullback periodically for armor repairs. That's not a significant issue, but with the onboard CRU I haven't played a day in the last two weeks where at least one ship wasn't stolen while out making repairs. If you fly ships a lot and this hasn't been your experience, that's awesome but it does happen. I play Biomass a lot, where it seems to happen the most. Due to the long line of sight I run dropships less on Plateau so it's not as much of an issue on that map. I landed today with three passengers on board and a fourth spawned while on the ground. Although the ship was engulfed in flames, no one hopped out to repair so after about 10-15 seconds I left the ship to do it myself. Had no more than exited the ship when I heard/saw the ship engine noises and knew someone had moved to the pilot seat. I finished repairs and boarded the ship to be taken on a brief tour of the hills of Biomass as we crashed into each one. I exited when we stumbled outside the Red Zone, but watched the ship with at least 1-2 passengers spin out into the Red Zone and die. This isn't another thread to complain there needs to a fix for "vehicle theft", I'm just putting out there that the CRU isn't worth the types of players that seem to spawn on it. For some reason, it seems I have more luck with players that actively work to board a ship, instead of those that just spawn onto one. Unfortunately, this is bad for your team as you have one less tactical spawn point that can deliver people directly to objectives. Another disadvantage is that without the CRU, it may take me several minutes during the match to land and find willing players to man the turrets. If the opposing team uses the CRU their pilots are usually smart enough to pounce if they find another ships turrets are not manned.
So to recap, I'm not trying to kick off a whine thread on vehicle theft. However if you are a regular turret gunner perhaps we can post on easier ways to link up on the field if the ship doesn't have a CRU. Without most people on comms its not that easy. For example, if I'm running the Myron and not manned, I will loiter near the default spawn and hover near new spawns to see if they want a ride or watch for friendlies with small arms that are shooting me to get my attention. Without friendly fire this is actually a good way to let me know you want a ride. Also, it you prefer to ride please equip a repair tool. Thanks for reading and remember this is only my opinion, so if you disagree that's fine by me. |
Second Cerberus
Villore Sec Ops
Gallente Federation
38
|
Posted - 2012.08.05 16:09:00 -
[2] - Quote
HowDidThatTaste wrote:Drop Ships are useless in this build anyway. Everyone wants to use them as a gun ship, but they are easy to pick off with a forge gun. Drop ship pilots just fly around and try to line up their gunners for a rare kill every few minutes. When if those same 3 people were on the ground they would do more damage and actually take and hold objectives.
Now I do see a drop ship pilot try to do these things but if there is no group communication they become pointless and take up valuable resources on the ground. The same could almost be said for tank drivers. Except they do have player hop out more frequently and actually take the objective, though it is not the majority.
I understand a pilot doesn't want to loose his investment so he doesn't get out so he becomes irrelevant in the match as well.
I get it though tanks and drop ships are fun but the battle needs to be won at the objectives with all forces on task.
I agree that on maps like Plateau a dropship is more vulnerable to AV fire and less useful in securing/defending the objectives. I think there is some use at the beginning of the match to get to the back CRU's to attempt to give your team a forward spawn, or for snipers to get to the tops of towers. I don't usually use ships on skirmish and/or plateau since I find myself a big magnet for forge gunners as you say or every swarm launcher on the map. I actually spend most of my time in an AV fit on Plateau to hold down enemy tanks and will hitch a ride on friendly tanks when possible since tanks seem to attract tanks. I agree that vehicles with no tactical sense are a waste on Skirmish so I bail out whenever I see good coverage to take objectives. If it's pretty hot I stay in the tank as I don't last long against AR's with a Swarm Launcher.
However, I stated I mostly run ships on Biomass with ambush so it simply comes down to how many kills each team gets. I really doubt that any gunners with high level pilots come away from the match with bad K/D ratios. Not that I obsess about K/D (mine is less than 1.0) but in ambush that's the point. Also, forge gunners are a problem, but top-level Myron/Eryx has at least 3K shield and 1K armor with 25-45% damage reduction. The dropship has decent staying power but it's not invincible against concentrated AV, which I think we agree it shouldn't be. The reason I developed AV is that even as a ship pilot I've been on the receiving end of a dropship "missile shower" and experienced that the dropship can be a deadly area denial weapon that restricts enemy movement. |