All of those ideas are AMAZING!

I rather like piloting Dropships, but they really are cost prohbitive at the moment... i definately agree with what you have about the being able to jet people out of the ship at low Alt., and the jump lights are a great idea that i cant help but want.

yes the AA flares are coming, but the idea of knowing if someone has signal would be a great thing, that way you can GTFO of the way fast as possible.

and giving the pilots a controlled way of fighting back is a great idea too, would make it so much more effective in fights in the air too, when you see an enemy Drop ship and want to chase him away a little.

and as for the maps.... man we are only in beta, i KNOW for a fact we've got much bigger maps and modes coming... like maybe a mode where an air drop from a Drop ship is the only easy way to make chaos >:D

I'd like to add something slightly unrelated, yet totally relevant. Have the possibility of inertia dampeners for high altitude drops, like from the MCC. It could be a special shock Dropsuit so you'd have to spec in it, but I think it'd make for some interesting game mechanics.

Not sure what you mean, we can already use inertia dampeners from high altitude drops. Heck, they don't even need to be that high - I can use inertia dampener when jumping off the ladder I just climbed up. This is another issue with dropships is people don't realize this. I was playing with a friend and told him to jump out and capture the base and he responded, "But won't I die?" And he's used the dampener before too when jumping out of the MCC, he just forgot it was always there. This needs to be made more clear.

Say what?

Madd greazy, i do agree that the dropships should have higher hp or some more low slots to fit some armor repair ( if your using caldari) I agree that we arent getting what we pay for and that saddens me :(

The reason they go out of control when you hit 0 HP is purely for epicness. Tanks will also explode when their armor hits 0 after being on fire. Its simply to make that epic shot of the dropship dying in glorious flames! Though if your dropship does catch fire and your not in a position to land that second, then your dropship is gone. Do you think maybe a fire suppression system in a low slot would help? Ive been considering the possibilities of some kind of modual that would put out fires so we might have a chance to land and repair. But what do you think?

I do agree that it would be nice if people inside the dropship could repair it, however would that possibly make the dropship too OP? imagine a team of 4 people repairing and no one can shoot it down? I think that if people can shoot out it should be balanced, no forge gun sniping platform. Only when the drop doors are open and the passengers are vulnerable should you be able to shoot out, simply to defend yourself getting on and off the battlefield.

I take pride in the fact that my fellow pilots are one of the most constructive groups on the forum.

I've been wondering about the doors. How can anyone drop out of the ship with them closed?

Wouldn't it make more sense to have to open them for a mid-air drop? If so, then the doors opening would be a pretty strong signal that the pilot wants you to jump. Marking the area between the ground redzone and ship redzone in yellow would let passengers know when not to jump. The only downside I can see is that it would trap passengers if the pilot never opened the doors which could be bad if it were going down in flames.

Allowing passengers to shoot would be balanced as opening the doors also makes them vulnerable to attack. If I'm running empty it might even be beneficial to run with the doors open so a FG shot has a possibility of flying through an open bay.

1.) A red and green light that would be inside the dropship next to the seats at the forward section of the ship and one or two at the aft section. The light would be on red normally, however when the pilot pushes say 'X' the light switches to green and a noise is made to signal the troops inside to GTFO! (i cant tell you how annoying it is when im trying to do my job and teammates wont get out when i want them to) this would really REALLY help dropship pilots communicate with the smurfs in the dropship that they would normally not be able to tell GTFO (Also for passangers that would look really cool!!!)

2.) I hear that it is already planned, but i would like to put it down anyway. FLARES! if anyone can run a starter swarm launcher kit then why cant i have atleast some way to defend my 428,000 isk investment? Please, i feel so helpless when i Afterburn away from swarms and feel like a badass only to have them 180 and slam into me regardless! (and maybe a noise when im getting locked?)

3.) For those who want a more....aggressive dropship. Some kind of missle pods that the pilot controls and not the gunners. make it highslot 4 missles and a long cooldowntime? sacrificing that tank for offensive capabilities?

4.) Its odd that dropships have to be deployed by other dropships. I read in the uprising article that the guristas deployed dropships form a freighter in orbit to extract people. so why cant i start in my dropship when i call it in? Balancing? i have lost a few dropships to those horrible...horrible heavy lifter dropships. Thats the worst way to lose your dropship. crashed before you could even fly :(

5.) JUST as an idea. Very costly to fit cloak gen for the dropship? would make getting around those pesky anti air turrets alot more efficient. However i wouldnt want to have my cloak run out infront of a turret, cause i has no shield tank! but thats balancing for you!

6.) really the last thing that i would say could really help the dropship is a large map with lots of players that will want to catch a ride instead of walking. im sure that your already working on said maps. It just really needs to be said, big maps so we underpaid flyboys can really take to the sky's!

"6.) Some larger maps would be nice but then if you needed squad transports for larger maps then you would need some kind of LAV that could carry like 8 guys." -Valkyness

Hey, since there is LAV and HAV, I say add MAV; infact, a APC (Armored personal carrier) for carrying units in large maps. Geared for Armour or shields than offence. (I guess for big maps, and if they added a new game type or something to make it useful)

Well ... they announced MTACS in last years FanFest ... and CCP Blam! hinted at Mechs in the future during one of the vehicle Dev Blogs.