DUST Search - A desperate message to CCP, from a veteran dropship pilot.

Remm Duchax wrote:

Serimos Haeraven wrote:

Alright, before anyone reading this thinks "Oh great yet another pointless dropship topic", I have been flying Dropships since the Dust beta was released, and have been around on the forums to see all of the content discussed in other dropship topics since there have been many, but the main issue that i have been concerned about from the very start of the game, one that still exists (which i can't quite believe since i thought it would have been addressed by now), and that's the issue with actually making money and enjoying the game, while still being a full-time drop ship pilot, and the threat that buffing an assault forge-gun's range can pose. Don't get me wrong, i have no issue with regular forge guns, they are a reasonable addition to counteract a dropship, however things are far too unbalanced in a multitude of areas, First off the fire-rate for those forge guns combined with the damage they do is just unbelievable, how CCP could think vehicles would even be useful while putting a weapon that's so powerful in the game i have no idea, especially at this stage where they should be learning the vices and virtues of how infantry and vehicles work together, these negatives are making pilots suffer not only on the battlefield, but ISK wise as well.

As a pilot i earn no incentive for flying an Eryx, other than it has a little higher shields that can still be taken out in about 4 hits with the an assault forge gun (My shields on my Eryx are at 4,260), At the end of every single match i get around 70K in ISK (Even without losing a single dropship) Unless i get kills, which is impossible with an Eryx. Each loss of 1 drop ship results in around 670K to get a new one, and they are still fragile as hell compared to those forge guns. It's simply impossible to make a profit while being a pilot on Dust, and this is making many people bitter and disgusted with the fact that even when flying extremely well, and supporting the team (I fly very high in my eryx and let people spawn inside of it and bail out over enemy bases) we still get absolutely no points compared to the run-n-gunners on the ground that get paid around 200k each match for using weapons that usually cost around 2k per.

If you want to be a pilot right now in Dust, you basically have to accept the fact that when all is said and done in the costs of skilling to earn Logi and Assault ships, you will be completely broke after the forge guns dismantle the ship like it were nothing, even though it took so many SP points and ISK to get to fly that DS. CCP even claimed they would fix the issue with pilots getting no points for when their team mates spawn inside of the Dropship, making it reasonable to fly an Eryx since you could actually then make a profit, but even after this update, this issue has not been resolved, instead they just changed the color of the Eryx. I send this to you CCP as a plead to please pay attention to how screwed over pilots are getting here. There is no room for profit, and it's ruining a mechanism that could be essential for creating a truly immersive expereince in Dust as a whole.

May I point to the fact that you're not obliged to use expensive vehicles in pub matches? Those expensive vehicles are meant for decent squadplay and soon to be Planetary Conquest where it isn't important if you get tons of ISK, but just that you win.
If you want to make a profit go shoot stuff in the starter fits. That'll give you the best ISK/hour ratio.


Author	Thread Statistics \| Show CCP posts - 1 post(s)
ALM1GHTY B44L R00 Subdreddit Test Alliance Please Ignore 5	Posted - 2013.05.11 08:42:00 - [1] - Quote Delta 749 wrote: What do all those EVE players say, dont fly what you cant afford to lose right? Besides with the ceiling as high as it is you can fly up out of range easily and hide your shiny toy in the sky I swear to god everyone that pilots a vehicle in this game is near constantly calling for infantry to rendered useless against them Anti vehicle stuff exists, deal with it, and you dont see real world pilots going "Waaaah, RPGS designed in the 70s are still a threat to us, tell the enemy commander he needs to nerf his soldiers weapons so we cant be shot down" We're simply asking to be at least as survivable as a MLT level dropsuit. Right now a dropship crumbles to a decent forgegun faster than an assault suit drops to an AR. Why does it make sense for vehicles to be weaker than dropsuits?
ALM1GHTY B44L R00 Subdreddit Test Alliance Please Ignore 9	Posted - 2013.05.12 00:54:00 - [2] - Quote Remm Duchax wrote: Serimos Haeraven wrote: Alright, before anyone reading this thinks "Oh great yet another pointless dropship topic", I have been flying Dropships since the Dust beta was released, and have been around on the forums to see all of the content discussed in other dropship topics since there have been many, but the main issue that i have been concerned about from the very start of the game, one that still exists (which i can't quite believe since i thought it would have been addressed by now), and that's the issue with actually making money and enjoying the game, while still being a full-time drop ship pilot, and the threat that buffing an assault forge-gun's range can pose. Don't get me wrong, i have no issue with regular forge guns, they are a reasonable addition to counteract a dropship, however things are far too unbalanced in a multitude of areas, First off the fire-rate for those forge guns combined with the damage they do is just unbelievable, how CCP could think vehicles would even be useful while putting a weapon that's so powerful in the game i have no idea, especially at this stage where they should be learning the vices and virtues of how infantry and vehicles work together, these negatives are making pilots suffer not only on the battlefield, but ISK wise as well. As a pilot i earn no incentive for flying an Eryx, other than it has a little higher shields that can still be taken out in about 4 hits with the an assault forge gun (My shields on my Eryx are at 4,260), At the end of every single match i get around 70K in ISK (Even without losing a single dropship) Unless i get kills, which is impossible with an Eryx. Each loss of 1 drop ship results in around 670K to get a new one, and they are still fragile as hell compared to those forge guns. It's simply impossible to make a profit while being a pilot on Dust, and this is making many people bitter and disgusted with the fact that even when flying extremely well, and supporting the team (I fly very high in my eryx and let people spawn inside of it and bail out over enemy bases) we still get absolutely no points compared to the run-n-gunners on the ground that get paid around 200k each match for using weapons that usually cost around 2k per. If you want to be a pilot right now in Dust, you basically have to accept the fact that when all is said and done in the costs of skilling to earn Logi and Assault ships, you will be completely broke after the forge guns dismantle the ship like it were nothing, even though it took so many SP points and ISK to get to fly that DS. CCP even claimed they would fix the issue with pilots getting no points for when their team mates spawn inside of the Dropship, making it reasonable to fly an Eryx since you could actually then make a profit, but even after this update, this issue has not been resolved, instead they just changed the color of the Eryx. I send this to you CCP as a plead to please pay attention to how screwed over pilots are getting here. There is no room for profit, and it's ruining a mechanism that could be essential for creating a truly immersive expereince in Dust as a whole. May I point to the fact that you're not obliged to use expensive vehicles in pub matches? Those expensive vehicles are meant for decent squadplay and soon to be Planetary Conquest where it isn't important if you get tons of ISK, but just that you win. If you want to make a profit go shoot stuff in the starter fits. That'll give you the best ISK/hour ratio. This is a great argument if your goal is to simply have NO dropship pilots. It's an extremely SP intensive skill set, and to go down that path you really have to commit to it. Why even bother if the majority of the time you can't actually play the role you spent all of your SP on? I mean, your argument makes sense for things like protosuits, because there are cheap, almost as effective versions of that gear. If you're an assault player, you can just throw on a basic medium frame suit, and basically play the same sort of game you actually enjoy playing, earning yourself more SP and ISK to put back into the role you play. For dropships, there are no viable "cheap" alternatives. If you want to be a dropship pilot, you have to run around in full militia infantry gear playing what basically amounts to a completely different experience from that which you enjoy. It's just not really any fun, and certainly doesn't feel rewarding. It's just a grind where you have to do something OTHER than what you like in order to occasionally do what you DO like.
ALM1GHTY B44L R00 Subdreddit Test Alliance Please Ignore 23	Posted - 2013.05.13 05:45:00 - [3] - Quote gbghg wrote: Forge guns can be used against infantry, it's s OHK weapon on them, but then you have to be pretty good to hit infantry with them. Their high damage negates light shield boosters by an incredible extent. And the sp required to get a good vehicle fit far outweighs how much is needed to max out forge gun skills. Oh and their much cheaper than dropships too, by a huge factor. Just some facts to take into account whe talking about forge guns and dropships. Arguably more important yet, is that the gameplay between the two isn't particularly enjoyable or engaging. As a dropship pilot it rarely feels as if you're going down because you were outplayed, you generally feel somewhat helpless and ineffectual. On the other side, forge gun feels so powerful it's boring to use. You just wait for the pilot to slow down and try to actually do something and then you blindside them out of the sky.