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Skihids
Tritan-Industries
Legacy Rising
970
   |
Posted - 2013.02.06 14:11:00 -
[1] - Quote
A well fit Myron tops out at about 5k eHp if your armor and shield skills are at level 5, but that doesn't mean that much with advanced forge guns roaming the battlefield. Go have a look at the FG video montage someone posted to get an appreciation as to how fast someone skilled into FG's can put three rounds into your ship. It's about five seconds from the time the first round lands to the time the third one removes the last bit of your armor.
I'm convinced that someone at CCP decided to set up a forge gun shooting gallery with dropships playing the part of the tin ducks. The flight ceiling is there to keep the targets from wandering out of range and the general lack of cover allows clear fire for the paying customers. The real genius is that CCP gets pilots buy the targets and then doesn't even pay them to fly them around!
I find that as a General Aviation pilot one of the most rewarding aspects of flight is the ability to get up high and see the world from a new perspective. I felt that same thrill back in Precursor when I flew my first dropship up to its limits and was able to survey the whole map, not just the tiny portion we were currently limited to. Now mercs on foot can climb higher than I can in a rocket powered ship. It's like I'm a teenager driving a car with parental controls: you can only fly so high, and you can't play the radio too loud! It doesn't make any sense in the physical world and it doesn't make any sense in the game world.
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...
There's a video dev blog where the vehicle designer was "Impressed at the way players were utilizing dropships for various tasks". He should have said that he was "Amused at all the effort pilots were putting into dropships in a vain attempt to make them useful". |
Skihids
Tritan-Industries
Legacy Rising
970
|
Posted - 2013.02.06 16:54:00 -
[2] - Quote
The flight ceiling used to be higher than the tallest buildings. My training thread spoke about landing practice on the towers in Line Harvest.
I believe CCP lowered it to prevent snipers from using dropships to camp those roofs. That was back before the invention of ladders when the only way to get on a roof was to fly there. |
Skihids
Tritan-Industries
Legacy Rising
970
|
Posted - 2013.02.06 18:47:00 -
[3] - Quote
Alan-Ibn-Xuan Al-Alasabe wrote: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 believe you seriously overestimate your chances of escape.
With an AB module you have one less high slot for defense putting you well into two shot kill range (assuming a Myron here), and if you also equip a CRU you are sliding into one hit territory.
It's a matter of reaction time:
The action starts from the point you take your first hit.
First you have to recognize the damage. Your shield indicator drops, but the ship doesn't rock violently so it could take a fraction of a second to realize the danger if you were concentrating on another task. Remember that you aren't going to panic with every hit indicator or you will be constantly running from AR's and sniper rifles.
Second, you have to bring up the thumb wheel.
Third, you have to select the AB module with the joystick.
Fourth, you have to release the thumb wheel.
Fifth, you have to apply the throttle and point your nose in some direction.
You have almost two seconds to get all that done.
Maybe you could do that if you were prepped and waiting for the event. Probably not if you were otherwise occupied.
It just gets worse if you start filling slots with ECM modules, scanners, remote reps, or any number of other toys CCP dreams up for a dropship to field. Each one of those severely compromises survivability.
Why?
Because Forge Guns were balanced against Heavy Attack Vehicles, not Medium Transports. |
Skihids
Tritan-Industries
Legacy Rising
970
|
Posted - 2013.02.06 19:08:00 -
[4] - Quote
Jump Up wrote:. Nguruthos IX wrote: I've always hovered stable and gently descended to the ground (even waiting till landing gear deployed). wait, dropshitps have landing gear?
It auto deploys when the doors open (Caldari ships) when you get a few feet from the ground.
It retracts when you lift off. |
Skihids
Tritan-Industries
Legacy Rising
970
|
Posted - 2013.02.07 06:07:00 -
[5] - Quote
If you ask CCP BLAM it's a transport, a remote rep, a scanner, and many other things.
Regardless, it's also toast because all of those roles require slowing down at some point and that allows the FG to pop it like a ripe watermelon with a shotgun.
I really don't see a solution when the FG is balanced against a HAV with its high HP and large turret. The DS has neither of those so it can't stand up to the abuse or fight back. It can't take cover as easily either. |
Skihids
Tritan-Industries
Legacy Rising
970
|
Posted - 2013.02.07 14:47:00 -
[6] - Quote
To balance FG's against both the HAV and DS you have to give the DS an equal amount of advantage as the HAV, but it doesn't have to be n identical advantage.
I'm thinking along the lines of evasion rather than tanking. A well fit top tier ship shouldn't be downed with a single shot, but it doesn't have to be able to tank four or five hits either.
Possible solutions:
Cloaking - you can't hit what you don't know is there.
Visual Displacement - not full cloaking, but rather a technology that messes with where you perceive an object to be. It would mess with the FG's aim and be more effective at range. The visual warp field of the promised "smoke grenade" might be a basis for it.
Remove the flight ceiling and give us a scalable mini map - so we can hover precisely over an objective at altitude and drop troops for an assault.
AB - we already have this for the travel portion of the flight
Flares/Chaff - this is for the SL, but the same idea. It's more useful on a DS than a tank because you have to be moving to avoid the splash.
ECM module to alert on fired SL missiles and charging FGs - paint them on the map and we have a chance to evade.
What are your ideas? |
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