Kain Reaver83
DUST University
Ivy League
4
   |
Posted - 2013.03.24 03:00:00 -
[1] - Quote
As a dropship pilot myself, I've lost my fair share of expensive dropships. I've raged at times where my best dropship got taken down by militia swarm launchers, forge guns, and tanks alike. Here on the forums, I've seen a lot of great ideas for dropships and I would like to post some ideas and suggestions. I won't take credit for all of these ideas, but they should at least be presented to CCP and the community for their consideration.
Passengers and Troop Transport System
(This was not idea, but I thought it was a wonderful one and credit goes to Judge Rhadamanthus for posting it. I also felt the need to refine it a little bit.)
Upon entering a dropship as a passenger, the map is pulled up on your screen and you choose your destination. Your destination will then be displayed on the pilot's screen (as well as the other passenger's map screens) as a rally point and is color coded to that specific passenger's seating arrangement. If more than one passengers select the same destination, their color will be that of the destination they chose. Once the dropship is full, or lack thereof, the pilot then takes off and drops the passengers off at their destinations. The passengers can either deploy themselves, or the pilot can drop them off with the push of a button (I think this may be a better option seeing as the passengers wouldn't know exactly when to drop, only the pilot would. This could be achieved by the pilot pressing Square to open the bay doors, then pressing X to eject the passenger(s)). After each successful drop off, the pilot is awarded WP. The passenger(s) could potentially be awarded WP as well for issuing pilot commands, utilizing the transport system properly, and landing safely.
Passengers that spawn in a dropship equipped with a CRU should operate the same way; the spawn occurs, the map opens, they choose their destination, are dropped off, and WP awarded. Of course, the pilot should also be awarded WP for team spawns on their dropship. After all, they probably sacrificed an afterburner to be able to allow their team to spawn in a mobile CRU.
Gunners
As for gunners, once someone mans a weapon, a defend order is automatically placed on the dropship itself, thus granting a boost to WP gained, giving both the pilot and gunners a little bit of the love that they currently need. If the dropship is in a hover above ground infantry, or has landed near ground infantry, the boost should also be given to said ground infantry with every kill they make for defending the dropship while it is vulnerable. The defend order should be visible to everyone on the team, but should not override any current squad orders.
Additional Roles for Passengers
I've seen some people mention they would like to see countermeasures implemented into dropships that are deployed by the pilots. I'm inclined to agree. But perhaps a more interesting idea is to make all passengers (not gunners) link to external cameras mounted on the dropship's hull so they can monitor incoming swarm volleys. Once one is spotted, they can press a button that launches the countermeasures and alerts the pilot to take evasive maneuvers. Perhaps the countermeasure system can operate similar to the way Swarm Launchers do; the passenger spots the swarm volley, places the volley inside a reticule, locks onto it, and launches the CMs. The resulting lock on would also allow the pilot to "see" where the threat is. This could be utilized by a corner or a side of the pilot's screen flashing red while an audible klaxon is played, allowing the pilot to take immediate action to evade the swarm volley. For the passengers, each successful CM that caused the swarm volley to not damage the dropship should be awarded WP. Of course, CMs should not be 100% effective all the time. There should still be risk involved. It has also been suggested that CMs should not be infinite in capacity. I agree. However, currently there is no way to restock a dropship's ammo supplies, nor is there a limit to a gunner's ammo. CMs should be infinite until the gunners have a limited supply of ammo and until it's possible to resupply a dropship's ammo supplies. If/when resupplying dropships is implemented, then CM supplies can be limited.
For countering forge gunners, I have no idea what to implement. Perhaps the community can shed some light on this. The only things I can think of is to obviously either buff the dropship's armor and/or shields, or nerf the forge gun slightly. Maybe those operating the countermeasures can also deploy a special shield in the general direction of the forge gun's incoming trajectory to help minimize damage. Whatever works best.
Another role I can think of for passengers is to be a sort of "radar operator". This role could be utilized by finding hostile targets and "marking" them with an attack order for the gunners to take out. Each successful kill of a "marked" target awards the passenger, gunner, and pilot bonus WP. The attack order should be visible to only the dropship crew, but should not override current squad orders.
Passengers in logi suits could also take on the role of repairer. Using their repair tool, the logi bro/sis can repair the hull and/or shields of the dropship, and be awarded the normal WP for repping dropsuits. Perhaps maybe a bit more considering the size difference. They can also participate in the CM and "radar operator" ideas I mentioned above.
In the event a dropship is taken down, perhaps once the pilot ejects, all passengers and gunners are ejected at the same time, resulting in less clone losses. But maybe the responsibility to eject should continue to lie upon every individual, thus allowing the one who's responsible for the destruction of the dropship to be able to earn WP for each kill.
Continued... |
Kain Reaver83
DUST University
Ivy League
9
|
Posted - 2013.03.24 22:13:00 -
[4] - Quote
Heathen Bastard wrote:thinking about it, why not just add an extra seat to the dropship specifically for the "radar operator/ defensive" role? brings seats up to 8, and allows a full squad to operate the dropship(pilot, gunners, radar/defensive specialist) while maintaining the capability to drop in a squad of reinforcements/ assault sqauds.
this would bring a hell of a lot of new fighting into corp fights, and if 8 man squads ever get added, it's a perfect fit for a flight crew and an away team.
This is an awesome idea! I'd like to see this in action. A thought I just had was to allow the radar operator to have a 360-¦ rotatable view of the Dropship, with a HUD that displays tactical information on both aerial and ground threats. Any infantry carrying weapons that pose a direct threat to the Dropship itself, such as Forge Guns or Swarm Launchers and even tanks, will have an icon above the player chevron, indicating a possible attacker. The radar operator can tag this player or vehicle so the gunners and pilot can work together to either neutralize, or evade the threat altogether. Swarm volleys can be indicated by a different icon, possibly a red flashing reticule around the volley to help the operator detect the threat and take appropriate measures to alert the pilot to evade immediately, and/or alert the CM operators to launch the CMs.
On a side note, should CCP implement any of these ideas into DUST, aerial battles would become incredibly epic. I would love to see more aerial battles. Dropship vs. Dropship. Each vessel striving to take the other out while dodging and weaving through the map to evade both ground and aerial AA fire. Imagine the victory cheers to be had when a Dropship team works together successfully to bring down an enemy Dropship of equal capabilities. Oh the glory! |