1. RDV's will always get in the way like that one time a merc got caught by a RDV and got carried away deep into the red zone. They are still better than how they were several builds ago.

2. They handle like real-world helicopters. Treat them as such.

3. Tank up your dropship better. I have seen dedicated dropship pilots tank up their dropsuit so much that even my swarm launcher fitted with 2x complex damage mods can barely scratch their shields.

4. CCP will fix this one day. Don't worry.

5. CCP will one day introduce a system that prevents blueberries from stealing your ship... until you leave it unattended for too long.

6. Map will get bigger over time. Just wait.

7. Forge Gun. Sounds like you got hit by my brother Arnold Sphinx whole wields an advanced or proto variant.

2. They handle like real-world helicopters. Treat them as such.

Actually they're vector thrust aircraft. They can seem superficially similar to helicopters, but they are not helicopters. Another poster did a really good write-up of dropship physics here.

As far as the actual landing gear issue, I can't empathize. I've never had a problem landing my viper. As long as I hit bottom first on flat terrain, I land safely no matter how hard I hit. I've literally slammed into the ground as hard as I can just to see what would happen. Maybe OP is just not a very good pilot?

I always laugh maniacally when I see someone bringing in a dropship. I just can't understand why anyone would bother. Most will die with 2 shots from my ADV swarm launcher or at least crash and burn (giving me no WP might I add!) and you get pretty much zero WP for flying a dropship.

WP issues aside though, dropships really aren't that useful at the moment. The maps are small enough that an LAV will get you anywhere just as fast and maybe crush a few red dots on the way. They are intended for infantry delivery and extraction but there is absolutely no incentive to do this.

So please enlighten me because I am still confused - other than the coolness of flying one, why do you bother using a dropship?

A well-fit dropship can actually have a decent amount of eHP. I have some 2700 eHP on my Viper, as well as an afterburner to keep me out of the way of AV. I can't off the top of my head think of a time that I've lost one to AV, although admittedly I only call in a dropship when I'm bored and want to fool around and see what cool maneuvers I can pull off. Extreme low altitude flight, rapid emergency landings, etc. So most of the enemy team probably doesn't even notice me.

Because, like you said, there's not much benefit to dropships right now. Anyone who can get a lot of kills with dropship guns can get more kills with an AR and it doesn't take 2-3 people and 200k isk. Speaking of which, you're spending too much on your dropship if they're worth 1,000,000 isk, OP.

By any chance are you flying Gallente dropships? I've actually heard complaints of their landing gear before, so that might also be the problem you're having.

Then there is the matter of collision damage. Some bright fellow decided to coat the ship in explosive paint so that if you rubbed a lamp post it would go off and destroy your ship. Yeah...
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Oh god the comparison to a real life helicopter argument again.

Seriously guys, speaking as someone who used to do Air Rescue - a helicopter is about the most finicky thing in the world you'll ever be in.. It can survive all sorts of abuse in all the right areas but if just one blade on the tail rotor nicks a light post you can kiss your ass goodbye.

Hell, bouncing on the ground from landing too hard can wreak all sorts of havoc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4crX3MgNcU

And then you have to think - these poor bastards don't have parachutes or inertia dampeners, so once something bad DOES happen the only thing you can honestly do is hope the Pilot is a miracle worker.

I've heard some people claim they can get forge guns up to 4800 damage per shot. I haven't tested this, but taking their word for it that'd put a Myron into burning damage with one shot. 'Course that's probably also spending 2 or 3 hundred k on a loadout with proto forge guns and complex damage mods.

As long as I have an afterburner I'm not super concerned about anything other than a one-shot. I can turn an afterburner on and GTFO in under a second.

I've always hovered stable and gently descended to the ground (even waiting till landing gear deployed).

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wait, dropshitps have landing gear?

Lmfao, blaming the Forge Gun on the Dropships low survivability.

ITS A TRANSPORT SHIP

You think a Blackhawk suddenly sprouts some sort of countermeasure against a tank's canister charge? Hell no, it just falls apart and everyone inside (provided they were lucky enough to survive the giant ball bearings) just falls to their death.

Forge Gun weaponry is straight skill and it's a specialist weapon. That guy had to invest SP into Heavy's and Forge Guns in order to use a half-decent one that's capable of doing that sort of destruction, just like you had to invest SP into your half-decent Dropship.

I can't wait to see all the rage against the Plasma Cannon when scouts are running around skill-shotting the dropships to death.

Sorry I stopped reading when you tried to import IRL logic into a video game. Video games are fantasy. And MMOs generally make balance decisions based on what is fair not what emulates reality. I mean we're talking about a game set in space with warpgates, clones and, "transferring consciousness" at the moment of death. Which from a scientific perspective is honestly about the stupidest sci-fi excuse to justify respawning in a game.

It's not balanced if as pointed out in this thread some guy on the ground can easily 1shot the most expensive loadout dropship from across the map with no warning or recourse. Dropships don't need to be tanks, but forge guns don't need to be death-star lasers either.

If we're going to make Dust 514 based on reality and current military technology then how about the moment your character dies. It's dead, loses everything and you start over. Oh wait, its a game. That would be no fun, and to be fun games have to be balanced.

Go back and read my post instead of being an uneducated imbecile. The Dropship can be killed by a Railgun and Blaster just as easily as it could be killed by a Forge Gunner; in fact, the Forge Gunner is a lot more susceptible to return fire if your side gunners are worth a damn; which I can only imagine you're basing your experience of pub games.

The problem isn't Forge Guns, it's the Dropships. They'll explode just by touching something that looks at it funny and being as the Forge Gun takes some skill to use (just like it takes you some skill to fly the dropship) the only variable taken into account was that you were making the Dropship an easy target.

The Golden Rule of New Eden: Always always ALWAYS stay in motion.

Also, read into the Eve Online lore on clone tech - just makes you look bad when you spout of some ignorant **** like that.