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.

But of course the pilots are the most constructive group of people on the forum. We don't get kills or points or ISK, so everyone who is still flying is doing it purely for fun.

No creep but...

You sir are 2/3 wrong! Yes DS pilots don't get many if not any kills while piloting, but ISK and WP...I've made buttloads. Ever since Condor Squad started running some tight plans and squads, I've lost fewer DS and managed to get something in the range of 1500 WP a match. My gunners are getting around an average of 30 kills. And no I'm not talking about guys from the corp going for a good ol pub stomp, I'm talking just the guys over at Condor Squad.

The ISK is only in good supply when the DS doesn't die. That's my mental rhyme to prevent me from going broke.

No creep but...

You sir are 2/3 wrong! Yes DS pilots don't get many if not any kills while piloting, but ISK and WP...I've made buttloads. Ever since Condor Squad started running some tight plans and squads, I've lost fewer DS and managed to get something in the range of 1500 WP a match. My gunners are getting around an average of 30 kills. And no I'm not talking about guys from the corp going for a good ol pub stomp, I'm talking just the guys over at Condor Squad.

The ISK is only in good supply when the DS doesn't die. That's my mental rhyme to prevent me from going broke.

Yes the original idea for the red green light system was for the random blues in my dropship, however even with a good squad it would come in handy. Instead of jamming up coms or having that second delay with Bluetooth and people jumping out 2 seconds after you wanted them to. You could just hit the light and then they all know. I really like the view from the inside of the dropship and how you can look around inside, if you can look around and see your squad imagine how cool it would be to just be waiting for the green light, it lights up and boom your out with the rest of your squad.

I can understand why most of you would not like to see a dropship with pilot operated weapons, and yes maybe we should wait for a gunship class. Thought if they are gonna make those missile or gun mods for the gunship anyway, then why cant the dropship equip them too? maybe we have to sacrifice our shields or maybe we can only fit the light versions on that dont really do anything anyway.

Shouper of BHD, I do like a good buffer tank, however i like to go fast so i can only really fit two Azotopic

Just to add to what the OP said:

If things like flares radars etc become more likely there could add a basic autopilot to free up our hands for shield manipulation, map views and gunning our ship (auto could fly basic orbits, straight and level flight, or figure eights).

Adding some kind of visual obscuration (smoke, fog, low lying clouds) could help with the cheaply swarm launchers taking our investments out of the sky.

This game is EVE based, technically there shouldn't be many or any dividing lines. I personally think vehicles need to have capacitors and capacitor modules so that shield boosting/armor repping can be done like it is in EVE, which to means seems to make alot more sense than what dust has.

Many great ideas in here, one of which I would like to add to:

Passengers using their own weapons could be awesome but would turn you into a super OP flying death fortress. Instead I propose that the dropship's doors only open at low altitude or when in proximity to an objective. This way troops could defend themselves as they were leaving the ship.

I have to say I love the idea of the lights inside the dropship and I fully approve of more points for being a pilot. My idea for more points works in a similar manner to healing. You would receive points based on how long you are carrying troops. With a cap obviously so people couldnt farm it.

I disagree with you about the doors opening only at low altitude, it wouldn't make a huge amount of sense and it wouldnt turn you into a "super OP flying death fortress" either we would be just as vulnerable as before but now we would have to be stationary for our passengers to get decent aim. And your idea about a cap could work but we'd probably end up with dropships deliberately hanging back to get as much wp as they could before they drop people off

I agree with the OP's idea of a light so passengers know when to dismount. Too many times have I flown over an objective or hovered the ground near and my transports didn't get the hint that this was their stop. Since I have been flying, I haven't had the bay doors option work too well for me. I only notice them open and shut when I'm about 10m off the ground. That kinda defeats the purpose for the option, but I may be using it wrong. I also support the idea of receiving points based on transport of passengers based on time int he vehicle, not to exceed more than 4 mins. The timer starts only when passengers (not including the door gunners) enter the vehicle with a timer restart with every entry (max 4) and only restarts after all four passengers exit the vehicle.

I pilot and I'm happy with piloting the Dropships (DS). I would like to see Gunships (GS) once the game drops. It would help with clearing out any LZs and protect the DS, as well as, performing Close Air Support (CAS) missions as needed. GS should be a two pilot platform, Pilot & Weapons Officer (WO), with the pilot being capable of flying and firing unguided rockets. The WO really makes this GS work with a nose mounted traversable gun and guided rockets. I understand that I'm asking for more AA on the ground with the GS request but there are always ways to balance everything, whether it is staying at a distance to take out the AA or dismounting ground troops to deal with it. On the flip side, AA will have the ability to chew through the DS and GS in no time if unchecked.



Let me know what you think, as I know you will.

Raz, thank you for your thoughts and ideas. i hope that CCP blam can take the time to tell us if he will consider implementing the Light system. The bay doors dont open on our command (yet) they only open when you near the ground.
Having the points based on passenger time might actually hinder what dropship pilots are meant to do, they might try and just fly around with people to farm WP. Im still with Irish Syn's idea, if they implement the light system then you could get say +25 when people jump out when you turn the light to green.

Gunships would be a very good feature, you might be interested in this concept art. Fighter? Gunship? i dunno but it looks fun!
Im sure that CCP has had alot of concept and ideas for the other ariel vehicles, a gunship would be right at home in this universe. I think the Gunship should be pretty deadly to vehicles and the chin mounted auto cannon would be deadly against infantry, however it should be relatively frail compared to its dropship counterpart, cant take much sustained fire, but can dish it out 2x as much.

Jack, you can also get WP from crushing enemies with your dropship, i actually got a double kill by doing this, and was awarded alot more that game then i usually get flying around in skirmish

[FEEDBACK] Thoughts from a humble underpaid pilot - making the dropship more fun to fly.
Update: collision models are being improved and new features for the dropship are being planned.

Sheilds dont make you go slower. I only fly the glorious caldari dropships, try putting an afterburner on your ship and behold the glory of speed tanking!

Read this, decided to skill up and give it a try.

Got in drop ship. Had fun with first use of booster. Uncontrollably flew into magically appearing vehicle dropper and exploded on second use.

Not trying that again.

Just adding a humble point as far as OPness is concerned.

Don't forget how much these things cost! Maybe they can be a made a little bit more powerful on the basis that you have to spend a lot of ISK to even outfit a BASIC dropship! Maybe a 'get what you pay for' kind of thing?

The cost is even more an issue when they die to things that shouldn't even happen.

Like RDVs

RDV's are re-tarded puppy's they can be annoying but you can't hate them, plus in terms of pilot skill they're about equal

I'm referring to when I'm flying and one basically spawns inside of me or in such a way that there's no escaping it's death-path

I think that with gunships having a real possibility of coming to the game, that drop ships should be just that. No offensive weapons. Defensive only (this includes support functions - like being a logi but in ship form)

Here is why :

The most fun I have as a pilot is dropping out of nowhere and picking up a few players who were backed into a corner by a more powerful team and pulling them to safety and dropping them in a position to flank and re-balance the engagement they were in. Or dropping a medic onto a heavy firefight or when I spent one match dropping a shotgun scout onto snipers.

I found the air support I can provide as a gun platform to be less effective than if those same gunners had boots on the ground.

A drop ships main function is troop transport. The function we serve is to take troops to locations where they are needed. Troops are needed in areas of contention, and these are almost always hot zones.

If our primary function is moving troops to hot zones we should be specced to do that well. However currently the ease at which a starter AV kit that can be insta-switched to for no cost, and then back to normal fit at a depot; makes us too easy to destroy. How can we fly to into hot zones if we are so vulnerable?

The issue is if we are tanked up to the point where delivering to hot zones is practical, then we become overly powerful fighting platforms too. There needs to be a balance.

My solution is to remove all offensive weapons and buff tank considerably. BUT. if we are too strong we can hover up high with mobile CRU. This would be op. So I also would like to see mobile CRUs in ships gone too. We can carry a logi who can drop and place spawns. This seems a fairer balance. PLUS landing is a skill and it is fun (point of the game imo) to pilot and fly troops to locations rather than being a moble CRU. This will seperate the good pilot from the bad, and make one teams pilots a better asset than the others. It brings skill to the pilot role in this game.

A few last points (keeping it at a readable length)

1. We do need to have vunerablities, but it should be hard to destroy us. Lack of weapons is a balance to this.

2. Our tank could be based on the door mechanics. Closed - no one can drop and tank is doubled. Open and tank is halved but troops can deploy (or even shoot)

3. Tank us really high but use denial as the balance mechanic. When taking Swarm or forge fire doors could be locked and no form of deployment is possible. So we are not destroyed as much as rendered ineffective until our location is softened or we choose better drop locations.

I have more fleshed out versions of these ideas but to avoid TLDR, i have just put out the overview to see what people think.

above :

If they are too cheap, when game goes live and cash is more available then people will treat them as disposable, so there will be no need for pilots. Want to get high? (altitude people.... altitude) get one and go up. died and want back to a ny spot on the map. Spawn in a free ride, jump out high up. Tank bothering you. Spawn a DS and ram it.

High cost in ISK and SP makes pilots and drop ships assets. Assets allow teams to mix up tactics and have advantages or turm the tide of a battle. With drop ships being expensive and restricting them even more than now to only those with a lot of SP in them you create dynamic element to a battle.

My understanding of the CCP vision, from EVE and fests is that of a reaching and dynamic conflict. If vehicles are just another thing you can carry (one with a 15 second delay), like grenades or a sidearm then the game becomes a halo style shooter. The game can and should be more than that.

I agree with all of this and I also have another solution: maybe players get a militia dropship every 24 hours (?) depending on two things:
- Player has at least specced into some dropship skill.
- Player has no more than say, 5 dropships available to use.

You think that the turrets aren't worth anything because you haven't skilled into them properly. CCP Blam (Second hand report) stated that the pilot and gunner skills stack, which yeilds a 70% damage bonus for the perfectly skilled pair. You have to be a steady pilot and your gunner must have player skill, but those turrets aren't useless. It will improve dramatically if and when CCP fixes the twitchy DS3 aiming so hat a tiny adjustment doesn't fling your aim past the target.

Dropships don't have to become turretless flying tanks to do their job. Flying something like that requires zero skill and wouldn't interest the majority of those pilots now flying. We do it for the challenge, and what you propose would just turn the dropship into a mom taxi. Add the return of free ships and you would complete the destruction of piloting as a distinct battlefield role. The ship would become just another piece of equipment for the assault soldier.

There is another way.

Restore the nimble handling characteristics of the Precursor build and give pilots ways to avoid rather than tank damage. Active defenses against swarm missies (Chaff/flares) and radar painting of charging forge guns would be a great start. That would place the survivability of the dropship in the hands of the pilot instead of armor plate, which would increase the demand for skilled pilots.

You think that the turrets aren't worth anything because you haven't skilled into them properly. CCP Blam (Second hand report) stated that the pilot and gunner skills stack, which yeilds a 70% damage bonus for the perfectly skilled pair. You have to be a steady pilot and your gunner must have player skill, but those turrets aren't useless. It will improve dramatically if and when CCP fixes the twitchy DS3 aiming so hat a tiny adjustment doesn't fling your aim past the target.

Dropships don't have to become turretless flying tanks to do their job. Flying something like that requires zero skill and wouldn't interest the majority of those pilots now flying. We do it for the challenge, and what you propose would just turn the dropship into a mom taxi. Add the return of free ships and you would complete the destruction of piloting as a distinct battlefield role. The ship would become just another piece of equipment for the assault soldier.

There is another way.

Restore the nimble handling characteristics of the Precursor build and give pilots ways to avoid rather than tank damage. Active defenses against swarm missies (Chaff/flares) and radar painting of charging forge guns would be a great start. That would place the survivability of the dropship in the hands of the pilot instead of armor plate, which would increase the demand for skilled pilots.

You think that the turrets aren't worth anything because you haven't skilled into them properly. CCP Blam (Second hand report) stated that the pilot and gunner skills stack, which yeilds a 70% damage bonus for the perfectly skilled pair. You have to be a steady pilot and your gunner must have player skill, but those turrets aren't useless. It will improve dramatically if and when CCP fixes the twitchy DS3 aiming so hat a tiny adjustment doesn't fling your aim past the target.

Dropships don't have to become turretless flying tanks to do their job. Flying something like that requires zero skill and wouldn't interest the majority of those pilots now flying. We do it for the challenge, and what you propose would just turn the dropship into a mom taxi. Add the return of free ships and you would complete the destruction of piloting as a distinct battlefield role. The ship would become just another piece of equipment for the assault soldier.

There is another way.

Restore the nimble handling characteristics of the Precursor build and give pilots ways to avoid rather than tank damage. Active defenses against swarm missies (Chaff/flares) and radar painting of charging forge guns would be a great start. That would place the survivability of the dropship in the hands of the pilot instead of armor plate, which would increase the demand for skilled pilots.

Just to add in my little grunt of frustration: I landed my dropship to pick up some troops based far away from any objectives. An RDV dropped down and tried to release an LAV but instead got stuck on top of me. As I tried to fly away some dude on a railgun hit me once, but he second time was just too much :(

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.

Read this, decided to skill up and give it a try.

Got in drop ship. Had fun with first use of booster. Uncontrollably flew into magically appearing vehicle dropper and exploded on second use.

Not trying that again.

I love the idea of WP for rearming/repping mercs. Excellent idea! My only point to add here is that if this were implemented then people could not shoot out of the dropship simply to prevent WP farming. This would also need a cooldown akin to triage as there would be nothing to stop people hopping out the DS, firing all their bullets then hopping back in.

The real anti-farming mechanism is that the merc has to have damaged the enemy within a certain amount of time from when you are resupplying or repairing them. That completely eliminates redzone point farming. A DS that close to the fight deserves every point it earns.