ITS A LIGHT AIR VEHICLE.

Its the god damn lav of air vehicles.

if I sit in a lav in the middle of the road rather then kite hostile AV and present a idle easy to hit target. I will probably die. Much the same can be said of a dropships EVEN a shiny one. If you stick around long enough to present a target your going to go pop people its not a flying tank. It never will be hell it wont even come close.

Yes it needs tweaks but overall it IS working as intended. Stop trying to use it like a god damn Apache gunship its not one.
I am not insinuating that you are bad players that is not the case. But if you use something beyond its defined role dont expect positive results. Pilots you need to work on your strategy its not just about piloting skill alone you need situational awareness and most importantly you need teamwork.

If you don't get that or you don't think you should have to. Well all I can say is wait for solo attack craft. Because until then your never going to be pleased using a air support vehicle in a way it was not intended.

Also side note i do think we definitely need a serious revision for the WP system in relations to pilots. On that I am in full agreement they deserve better for the vital role they play.

Cheap weapons can quickly destroy very expensive vehicles. That's the fact of the matter in present, so I don't see why it would change in the future.

The drop ships are pretty much the helicopters of the future. A $20 million AH-64 attack helicopter can be easily dispatched by an SA-7 (cheap russian shoulder fired anti aircraft missile)that you could probably buy for a couple thousand bucks.

That's the way it should be, too. But drop ship weapons should be much more effective against infantry.

They shouldn't be very survivable, if someone whips out some AA missiles, as a DS driver you should be sh*tting your pants. Likewise you should mop up unprepared enemies.

What I think the DS needs is less survivability, in all honesty, but they also need some kind of expendable countermeasures that the swarms could bite off on if deployed in a timely manner. Like the flares and chaff we have in today's aircraft. And after you sh*t out all your expendables, you need to swing by a supply depot to reload them before you continue on in battle.