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

gbghg wrote:

Ludvig Enraga wrote:

I saw this thread before. Another guy complains that it's unfair that his shiny toy can be wiped out in 4-5 hits from a single hit weapon with a long refire delay, demand to lead a highly mobile target, having limited ammo, small clip, having to give up a primary anti-infantry weapon and all of that is against a highly mobile target that can make it to the other side of the map in the time it takes the FG to fire 2-3 times back to back. It's not fair and unbalanced? REALLY?

I would agree that dropships currently lack a role. No one takes them seriously as a personnel transport vehicle cuz they are not just that good at it. Their fire capacity is garbage too and if it were any better they would be OP against infantry. I do believe that dropship mechanics need to be redesigned and they have to have some interesting objectives given to them. I disagree that we need to Nerf FG to make DS pilots feel safe and cozy and thus encourage their lazyness.

Here's some numbers, everyone likes numbers, helps back up a point.

Light clarity ward shield booster
Heals 127hp per pulse
Has 5 pulses
Pulses have a 1 second interval.

In other words it heals 635hp over 5 seconds, or about a quarter of the health of what a average shield dropship should have.

Having timed it it takes about 2 seconds after being selected to activate.

Now then, to the enemy.

Lets go with an standard and an assault forge gun

First the standard(adv variant to keep things fair)
It does 1452 damage per shot
Has a charge up time of 3.5 seconds
Has a clip size of four

Straightaway you'll see that 1 shot of a forge gun will take away over half the health of our bare average shield tank dropship, and had done just under 3 times the damage that a shield repper can repair. With its clip size and charge up time it can deal a total of 5808 damage in 14 seconds.

In other words 2 shots will be enough to kill our average tanked dropship.

Now for the assault forge gun (which starts at the advanced variant)
It has a direct damage of 1524.6hp
Has a charge up time of 2.5 seconds
And has a clip size of four

Notice how this thing has both a higher base damage and charge up time? Absolutely wonderful don't you think?
In 5 seconds it has done 3049.2 damage
In ten seconds it had done 6098.4 damage

So the assault forge gun can in the same time span that the best light shield repper on the market can run do over 6 times the damage it can heal. Not to mention that by the time the module actually activates the second shot will be less than half a second away from hitting you.

Now admittedly these numbers don't take resistance into account but I'm not 100% sure on how they work, so we'll do without.

It also doesn't take into account forge gun skills or damage mods. Forge gun skills can reduce the charge up time by 25% and can increase the damage per shot by 15%.

Things are massively in favor of the forge gunner.


Author	Thread Statistics \| Show CCP posts - 1 post(s)
Ludvig Enraga KILL-EM-QUICK RISE of LEGION 188	Posted - 2013.05.13 00:27:00 - [1] - Quote I agree that there should be higher isk reward to drop ship pilots but I disagree with how this guy whines that FG is OP against a dropship because it takes !!!FOUR hits from FG to bring DS down. Seriously? This is OP to you that a vulnerable heavy with no way to defend against infantry because he has an AV weapon for primary and is too slow to run away has to land 4 direct hits into a HIGHLY mobile target like DS (mind you - leading every shot) practically in a row to avoid DS shields rebuffing. And to do all that he has to cough up high SP cost of spcializing into FG. I am just speechless at what some ppl would call OP. This comes from a guy that does no AV at all - so I don't have a bone to pick in this fight.
Ludvig Enraga KILL-EM-QUICK RISE of LEGION 200	Posted - 2013.05.25 20:31:00 - [2] - Quote I saw this thread before. Another guy complains that it's unfair that his shiny toy can be wiped out in 4-5 hits from a single hit weapon with a long refire delay, demand to lead a highly mobile target, having limited ammo, small clip, having to give up a primary anti-infantry weapon and all of that is against a highly mobile target that can make it to the other side of the map in the time it takes the FG to fire 2-3 times back to back. It's not fair and unbalanced? REALLY? I would agree that dropships currently lack a role. No one takes them seriously as a personnel transport vehicle cuz they are not just that good at it. Their fire capacity is garbage too and if it were any better they would be OP against infantry. I do believe that dropship mechanics need to be redesigned and they have to have some interesting objectives given to them. I disagree that we need to Nerf FG to make DS pilots feel safe and cozy and thus encourage their lazyness.
Ludvig Enraga KILL-EM-QUICK RISE of LEGION 202	Posted - 2013.05.26 07:39:00 - [3] - Quote gbghg wrote: Ludvig Enraga wrote: I saw this thread before. Another guy complains that it's unfair that his shiny toy can be wiped out in 4-5 hits from a single hit weapon with a long refire delay, demand to lead a highly mobile target, having limited ammo, small clip, having to give up a primary anti-infantry weapon and all of that is against a highly mobile target that can make it to the other side of the map in the time it takes the FG to fire 2-3 times back to back. It's not fair and unbalanced? REALLY? I would agree that dropships currently lack a role. No one takes them seriously as a personnel transport vehicle cuz they are not just that good at it. Their fire capacity is garbage too and if it were any better they would be OP against infantry. I do believe that dropship mechanics need to be redesigned and they have to have some interesting objectives given to them. I disagree that we need to Nerf FG to make DS pilots feel safe and cozy and thus encourage their lazyness. Here's some numbers, everyone likes numbers, helps back up a point. Light clarity ward shield booster Heals 127hp per pulse Has 5 pulses Pulses have a 1 second interval. In other words it heals 635hp over 5 seconds, or about a quarter of the health of what a average shield dropship should have. Having timed it it takes about 2 seconds after being selected to activate. Now then, to the enemy. Lets go with an standard and an assault forge gun First the standard(adv variant to keep things fair) It does 1452 damage per shot Has a charge up time of 3.5 seconds Has a clip size of four Straightaway you'll see that 1 shot of a forge gun will take away over half the health of our bare average shield tank dropship, and had done just under 3 times the damage that a shield repper can repair. With its clip size and charge up time it can deal a total of 5808 damage in 14 seconds. In other words 2 shots will be enough to kill our average tanked dropship. Now for the assault forge gun (which starts at the advanced variant) It has a direct damage of 1524.6hp Has a charge up time of 2.5 seconds And has a clip size of four Notice how this thing has both a higher base damage and charge up time? Absolutely wonderful don't you think? In 5 seconds it has done 3049.2 damage In ten seconds it had done 6098.4 damage So the assault forge gun can in the same time span that the best light shield repper on the market can run do over 6 times the damage it can heal. Not to mention that by the time the module actually activates the second shot will be less than half a second away from hitting you. Now admittedly these numbers don't take resistance into account but I'm not 100% sure on how they work, so we'll do without. It also doesn't take into account forge gun skills or damage mods. Forge gun skills can reduce the charge up time by 25% and can increase the damage per shot by 15%. Things are massively in favor of the forge gunner. OP said that his DS has 4260 hp shield, not sure about how much extra armor that thing has, probably 800 at least or so. Looks like it will take assault FG about 10 seconds of continuous fire on the drop ship to bring it down. I am not gonna comment here whether assault FG is OP relative to the base version - this belongs in the FG thread. What you guys seem to agree is that AFG poses more threat to you than any other weapon. If we run you calculation and apply it to the ship OP has described, we will see about 10 sec of continued fire are required to bring the ship down. So that's 10 sec of perfectly aimed lead and placed shots in an FPS game on a very mobile target. I don't fly DS but in my mind this is not OP at all. I saw a bunch of ppl accusing me of not knowing what I am talking about because I don't fly DS. True, I don't fly DS. But I did used to play a little with FG in chromosome. What I was used to seeing is a DS circling around the map over my head OVER and OVER and OVER again after having already been hit by a couple of bolts from my FG without any attempt to run for cover and let shields rep up, so basically until eventually the DS shot down, which was inevitable because of the dumb tactics DS pilots typically use of flying in circles and hoping that the bad FGunner would not hit them again like he did last time the DS flew over. From where I sit it seems that what all of you guys want is a penalty free game style where you can continue thoughlessly flying in circles around the map without any countermeasure by the infantry.