@ Jungian : Thank you very much that would be invaluable.
I won't be able to make that and even if I did I wouldn't be talking much and doing more note taking instead, but my not-so-short stint as an ex-top pilot before they changed the controls/physics.
I know there are quite a few pilots very 'passionate' about the current controls but I must warn you, Elitism is not an excuse to not change something. For example the calls for forge gun nerfs are coming despite how high of a skill barrier it is to get good with forge gunning infantry.
I miss all the player stories of being a dropship pilot
I missed dog fighting, where the best solution to take out a drop ship was another drop ship. :(
When was the last time any of you flown up with a Blaster armed dropship to engage 3-4 other air targets simultaneously and win?
I miss using my dropships beams to spot and weed out snipers, cleaning roofs, and my gunners where able to do their job marvelously because they didn't get sniped out of the position in the first second of 'stabilizing' for target.
When was the last time any of you did?
I miss having a full dropship, and making a full dropship useful. The power to quickly take a small strike team from alpha to bravo in a very quick manner dropping off that squad then my gunners providing close air support. Then once the situation is dealt with, land and pick or even have a small fight between allies of who gets to hitch a ride back onto my dropship.
When was the last time any of you help 'shape' and 'control' the battlefield?
When was the last time the hostile team actually feared any of you? To the point they did not wander far from areal cover?
and as an AV guy as well since the change in controls I can only recall two (that's right TWO) instances of a dropship giving me problems, primarily because I couldn't get to a position where I was afforded two shots against the target without getting mowed down by hostile infantry.
All this lost so a drop ship could do a 'barrel roll'.
Why did they lower the skill ceiling (the height reaction achievable) and steepen the cliff at the same time is beyond me. Dropships went from one of the easiest vehicles to operate to the hardest and with all the changes thrown in are no longer doing anything remotely to their job sake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXna2Jnu1xsDropship where functionally a weird but working hybrid of attack, scout, and transport chopper back with the old control scheme. Transport (cept the one way trip to a roof) has died off, Nobody dares uses them to scout anymore, and attack role is rarely pulled off proper as AA keeps them too far away.
Though I am willing to fault AA being too powerful with the current controls thats an extraordinarily thin line between paper and invincible with the ability to survive an engagement would result in a drop ship that just laughs off the attacks as it weaves in and out of a defense envelope under current controls which was a real possibility and continue to remain near useless.
The older dropships did not have the option of leaving the defense envelope that easily because of their slower top speeds. and even at times where forced to remain in the bubble because trying to leave certain parts of that bubble would have resulted in death from a railgun, forge gun, more swarms thus it became a living puzzle on how to tear apart with your gunners the entire battlefield to safely exit the defense bubble.
While the new controls do have their place, I feel they're more at home on a real attack vtol craft armed with forward mounted rocket pods and heavier guns. A craft you want maintained CAS to be difficult with.
I want the old stories to return.