yes

I constantly see fully decked out HAV's in matches, but I've never seen LAVs or dropships other than the basic starter ones. It seems the only reason anyone ever calls in a dropship or LAV is to quickly transport themselves and their teammates from point a to point b; after that, the vehicle is considered expendable. It's no wonder no one seems to bother spending SP or isk on them.

Anyway, I was looking at the higher tier dropships and LAVs and they seemed to have really cool abilities: everything from being mobile supply points, having repair tools, and acting as mobile CRUs; yet I've never seen these in game. It seems like these would be a logi's dream to pilot. So why aren't these seeing play? Is it the fact that the pilot/driver rarely seems to do anything that earns wp, or the fact that these vehicles are so fragile but still cost so much isk at the higher tiers? Is it the fact that maybe they have really poor soloing capabilities (as opposed to HAVs)?

LAV's atm are to expensive SP wise to properly specc into since they don't do what they say they do. And Dropship pilots get no WP reward for simply flying apart from assists, also their expensive ISK and SP wise for atm like LAV's little profit.

Tanks aren't as expensive as LAV's to specc well in and they can yield massive reward for the effort.

At the OP. Yes, but even tanks are far weaker now then they once were. They are getting to the point where they no longer have the ability to be considered viable individually and especially not an asset for a team. I have seen Syura and Segaris downed in seconds. I have done it myself, by myself a few times now. (That should not be possible.)

So yeah, HAV's are becoming the same as a Snipers in the sense they are fielded to be self serving and typically require a specific weapon to be countered.

As far as other vehicles are concerned, if you are paying for a LAV. You are wasting ISK. If you are calling in a drop ship for more then the sake of getting on top of a ladder less tower or quickly getting a squad over a wall. then you are wasting your ISK.

I wish it wasn't so, but it is. This is not a call to nerf or buff AV or vehicles. If you nerf AV then mouth breathers in tanking for the win will be viable again, and no one wants that.

I suppose here is the balance. Vehicles well fit, and supported by a team and vice versa are good. Vehicles rolling by them selves steam rolling teams is bad. AV solo instapopping (6-10 seconds) well fit expensive HAV's and DS is bad. The over all current balance is garbage.




Here is what me and a few others have come up with to make vehicles viable in a more meaningful way:
- Logistics platform with Slightly more EHP then the things it is repping.

- The ability to call an RDV in to extract a vehicle.

- Actual proto vehicles, the one's we have now feel like advanced. Honestly what needs to change instead of the dust advancement. Vehicles need to be similar to EVE where T1 with bonus fills many rolls. T2 specializes the T1 hull into fewer rolls but has a significant advantage whilst filling them.

-EWAR, covert ops, vehicle cargo holds, vehicle ammunition, capacitors, hulls (in this case i suppose chassis), Specific damage type and resistance. Many things could be done that simply have been ignored.

I constantly see fully decked out HAV's in matches, but I've never seen LAVs or dropships other than the basic starter ones. It seems the only reason anyone ever calls in a dropship or LAV is to quickly transport themselves and their teammates from point a to point b; after that, the vehicle is considered expendable. It's no wonder no one seems to bother spending SP or isk on them.

Anyway, I was looking at the higher tier dropships and LAVs and they seemed to have really cool abilities: everything from being mobile supply points, having repair tools, and acting as mobile CRUs; yet I've never seen these in game. It seems like these would be a logi's dream to pilot. So why aren't these seeing play? Is it the fact that the pilot/driver rarely seems to do anything that earns wp, or the fact that these vehicles are so fragile but still cost so much isk at the higher tiers? Is it the fact that maybe they have really poor soloing capabilities (as opposed to HAVs)?

Is it the fact that the pilot/driver rarely seems to do anything that earns wp,

or the fact that these vehicles are so fragile but still cost so much isk at the higher tiers?

Is it the fact that maybe they have really poor soloing capabilities (as opposed to HAVs)?

I think people just don't know how to fit lavs at the moment. I've seen one or two in my entire time which could take more than 2 av nades.

My methana takes around 3-4 AV nades depending on the type, and can even take a hit from a railgun installation and keep going, but they still die ridiculously quickly considering how much ISK a decently fit one costs.

Logi ships have a built in MCRU so it doesn't consume a module slot, but as a consequence have reduced CPU/PG. They also seem to have slightly less base health, not to mention that you have less PG/CPU to play around with and tank your ship with. So with dropships it's as case that the standard dropships offer the most survive-ability , which accounts for why you rarely see the logi versions, despite everyone having at least 20 sitting in their assets.

I'm guessing you have a good amount of shields then and at least some armour mods.

I drive one too, but to make that thing even worth it you have to spend 150,000+isk

mine about 200k, and has just under 3000hp, but i still get 1 shoted by proto railguns