interesting idea. But maybe it should just be a mod, like the mCRU

M*A*S*H

Totally MASH and I would love to see it. I personally think that it's a great idea! Allow a pilot to see where the down mercs are, land, and have them within the DS revived and getting repairs. I don't know how the downed mercs would get it in, but that's not my job!

I'm aware of what an awesome idea this is, but a lot of people go down in areas hard for dropships to get at, add in the ridiculous amounts of AV going round these days, the small maps etc, i just don't see it working very well for dropships

I kind of like a more low-tech looking solution rather than a beam. Say some kind of lift-netting that pops out and latches onto the downed soldier, then quick-lifts them to the dropship. (I'm thinking of something that looks vaguely like a Spider-Man web.) Range of maybe 50m, timing would be around 3 seconds to lift a merc.

Just a thought, what if medics could also board to improve the efficiency of healing? They would also be able to operate the side turrets. The side turrets could consist of additional lifts, so that if you have a pilot and two medics you could theoretically extract three mercs in 3 seconds, four mercs in 6 seconds. (This isn't at all OP for a team of three mercs with substantial ISK expenditure, in my opinion.) And of course, you could put guns in the side turrets as well, to fight off enemies while doing your extraction, but extraction would take longer.

Alternatively, you could make it so only the turrets could lift downed mercs. I don't know how the pilot would aim at a body, with everything else going on.

Something that would be true in the real world, and doesn't apply in the slightest to the game world. When you have wounded in the real world, you're not going to inject them with something so they can get right back up and start fighting again within 5 seconds. (At least not most of the time.) Regardless, there won't be an honor system with game-players. The moment they see you, they'll be trying to take you down.

With regards to the "balancing effect" of the turrets, that would only be true if you were using a dropship that is specifically designed to be a medical dropship. If, as someone else suggested, you were to install a module on a standard dropship, you would still have the turret slots. Regardless, I feel like there should be an opportunity for a team to operate a triage unit as opposed to it being limited to just the pilot.

I wrote this post 3 times and deleted it before I decided I'd go simple. I think a tractor beam on a dropship is a terrible idea. 3 words: Remote Repair Turret