5 replies to this topic

[Arctcwolf]

Instead of "bases" on some maps, it seems it would make sense to have dropships instead.

Dropships require protection. basic medium lasers, ac2's, SRM's, and AMS make sense initially, with the ability for future mods to allow weapon upgrades, armor upgrades, sensor upgrades, command upgrades, additional space for more mechs deployed, and the ability to drop multiple ships onto a planet in larger scale battles in the long term.

I also think dropships should provide access to repair/refit bays for mechs on planet to rearm and partially repair/patch armor. also should allow repurchase of artillery or aerospace strikes.

A dropship should be able to be either destroyed(easier) or captured(harder). Destroying a dropship should cause a team to be unable to win an engagement. They can cause a draw if they destroy all enemy mechs, but with no way of getting off planet, the match turns into a draw. Capturing a dropship via destroying all weapon hardpoints as well as taking time to capture it should grant the team and/or player typical cbill/xp bonuses, but also allow for salvage to be implemented, to be picked up if the team wins the match.

Being such an important structure would force companies to play a more strategic game, determining tactics used by the company, dividing forces, or playing with a different philosophy.

[Stingray Productions]

this idea has already been brought and discussed various times. Nothing wrong with bringing it up again though....as I myself have already supported this idea. However, sometime late december or early january PGI is rolling out the base defense turrets that can be used to defend a base, and with this addition i think they may forego sight on having a defending dropship. I'm sure once more of community warfare is implemented, that we'll see your proposal come around.

[Arctcwolf]

PGI has already brought it up, and said that small lasers and machine guns will be the primary armament. Great for picking apart light mechs but honestly...not much of a defense vs anything at range or in medium weight class.

I'm not saying to implement dropships soon, but I do see it on their dossier of things to add later. When added, it should come as a major change to strategy, especially in the assault/defend senarios in the future.

[9erRed]

Greetings all,

As has been stated this discussion has been done before.

But just in case your not familiar with the "Lore" or canon on just how large and what Drop Ship's have for normal defences. Remember they use these for orbital defence and defending against 60 to 90 Ton Aero Space Fighters.

And a normal Drop Ship doesn't just land anywhere, it requires special areas with hardened surfaces and servicing equipment. As well as huge clearances for a departure takeoff, in the area of about 1Km for safety.

Here's just a part of some info on "Standard" drop Ships:

Lets start by first identifying what a commonly used DropShip would be, the example I'll use is the largest used "Canon" chassis that all Great Houses and the Clan have many of. The Union DropShip.
After the Exodus the Clans did upgrade the Union class to the Union-C to hold 15 Mech's.

While this is a standard deployment element it carries many different defensive systems. All of which a Mech lance or even a Company sized unit would still not choose to attack. Some weapons may even be sub-capital sized systems and completely destroy a Mech with a single hit. (Read; 200 or more damage per hit.)

Lets list some standard weapons carried by these vessels.

Normal cargo Union Class:
12 mech's
2 Aero Fighters

Armament:
3 x PPCs
6 x AC/5s
6 x LRM-20s
12 x Medium Lasers
5 x Large Lasers

Or
Armament:
12 Large Laser
18 Medium Laser

These are just some of the arrays that the normal Union DropShip carries, and not anything you would want to assault. Even the Aerodyne designs (flight like standard air vehicles.) have superior defensive systems.
Example the Leopard [4 Mech's, 2 ASF) alone has:
2 x PPCs
3 x LRM-20s
7 x Medium Lasers
5 x Large Lasers
And would be like running into an Assault heavy lance with lots more armour.

As you can see this would be much more difficult than "Capturing" a base fortification and would normally require 2 or more Companies assaulting to damage the DropShip enough to allow capturing it. Which would probably render it non-usable and defeat the purpose of capturing it.

- As you can see, this class of vessel is not something to be trifled with, and could just as easily destroy and decimate a full company before it's hull armour would start to show heavy damage. Now, as just in game art work it would look nice and have a functional purpose for the "Defenders" to protect. (but this would cost a lot of development time for very little return.)

9erRed

Edited by 9erRed, 24 November 2013 - 09:24 PM.

[Arctcwolf]

9erRed...

I agree with you, and am glad someone else acknowledges canon. I would agree that most dropships that are of a faction have access to full weapon loadouts that you suggest. Most times players by themselves or in a basic lance would never want to mess with a dropship due to maximum defensive capability.

Thing is, if we make dropships purchaseable and upgradable, no 2 dropships will be the same, and not every combat situation will allow for the "recommended" landing area u described. I would change my tactics based on the weapons loadout of the dropship itself.

An example...I have a light mech with ECM active, covering our lance from missile targeting, we could target the ship directly and pop up n fire over a ridge, or hide behind hills and launch LRM's, or call in artillery strikes to soften it up, use Long range weapons if it is mainly short range equipped, many different senarios, only adding to the strategic aspect of the game itself. The added thing is most dropships have weapon arrays that can be targeted like hitboxes. hit a gauss equipped array with a few ER PPC blasts and u lose the entire array...

Another aspect u bring up is the ability for Orbital bombardment...last I checked they can also be modified to be used in planetary bombardment...allowing perhaps cheaper aerospace or artillery strikes on opposing forces...

Will it be at all easy to take a dropship down, of course not...it never should be easy, so if it were ever to be done...the rewards should match the challenge...perhaps tagging the players involved with a special title...massive cbill and XP rewards...perhaps quality salvage as mentioned earlier.

[Urdasein]

Anything that will prevent lights from using lame cap tactics will be fine.