Drop-podding is horrible. Get rid of it.

What can people guarding an AMS do against drop podders who don't render before the AMS is destroyed?

Unguarded?

Lol, my guys drop Sundies spewing NME troops all the time and destroy them. Its a kamikazee mission for sure, but 1 single guy stands a good chance, 2 even better and 3 guys have an almost 100% chance of killing the AMS even if there is a zerg spawning at it.

Our outfit has more than enough active members to simply rotate droppers around squad deploy and/or spawn beacon timers to ensure that we can have plenty of guys dropping on all and every AMS within seconds of it being located. It also happens regularly to our AMS's.

It's ridiculously over-powered, and if you don't think so yourself you're not exploiting it right.

My big problem with drop pods is when a pod lands and then the guy is invisible for a few seconds because the pods obscure them but they have run off.

Drop pods should be physical structures and you have to walk out of the doors when they open, or wait for the pod to disassemble.

If you drop pod into the midst of an enemy, they should be easier to shoot if you see them land.

I suggest these two changes:

• Drop pods appear on radar

This will allow some defensive counter-play by drivers. That way, if your vehicle get instagibbed by a drop pod, it's your fault for being unaware, instead of just being unlucky.

• After leaving your drop pod, drawing a weapon or utility immediately forces rendering.

This way, a drop podder cannot take any offensive action while being invisible (this change assumes that the invisibility is intentional).

Well i hope they don't change the maneuverability too much. It's already hard enough for me to land in a tree.

How often dose that happen? You've got to be quick on your toes sure, but putting mines and/or C4 down is not an instant process, its just hyperbole to suggest it is.

I think theres more than a bit of bravdo in this. If a 'zerg' which let say is 20 or so people around the sundy, are not reacting to the drop pods wooshing in, people jumping out of them and then relatively slowly throwing down and detonating explosives. Then maybe thats a win for the people blowing up the sundy plain and simple.

Theres no point trying to make this out as a 'lol learn to play drop pods op', I know the game mechanics, well aware of how to do it, what im doing is questioning your basic assumptions about what is and not appropriate in the game.

On the flip side, for example. Spawn beacons are fragile, obvious in their location and one of the main ways to get drop pods on the field. The enemy has a space in which to react, if they don't. They loose. If you see thouse little lights of a colour other than your own shooting up into the sky, you should be aggressively reacting to that, as its not just 'last chance spawn solution'.

So maybe, the real issue here, as it has been for a while is squad deploy as that's the one thing really you can't react against and have and continues to a small extent to be, bug-abused to ****. As well as perhaps how to react to drop pods in flight, though I suspect this may come down to a render issue.

So, Sure, tone down the turn circle of drop pods a bit. But the entire game revoles around keep as many spawn solutions up around an attack as possible, and guarding them as best you can. Altering the game mechanics such that sundies are in effect just another objective that has to be slogged to through a meat grinder, instead of the meat grinder on/off switches they currently are, makes a better game, because?

If going with the 'donut' zone for instant action, perhaps relegate the possible areas to be dependent on linked lattice bases - to avoid dropping into hostile territory if a three way fight is happening + more likely to drop near friendly forces. Might be doable with a formula based on number of links to the base to avoid having to manually set up the zones for every base - though I imagine a few here and there (particularly ones near a cliff) might need more specific zones.

As a few people have mentioned, sometimes the person using the drop pod won't render for several seconds after landing - quite common in larger fights (technical limitations and all that). Makes it all too easy to drop mines/C4 on a tank or Sunderer before the defenders can stop the attacking player since they can't even see him.

A few seconds of immobility after landing may help give time for the player to properly render. It would also discourage dropping on top of enemies (target on a roof? Land behind him and shoot him before he can turn around from hearing the drop pod sound) as it would be risky and instead encourage landing somewhere with a bit more cover/out of line of sight. People trying to actively defend their Sunderer may have a chance of doing so. Reduced mobility while dropping would work against needing to not drop directly in view of enemies, though.

But Marlorn,

Part of the biggest problem for the attacker. "On a smaller scale". Is denying the enemy a spawn. Defending say lower pops than Platoon v Platoon is to easy. You can find the AMS Easily and that's the end of the attack.

My suggestion, is to add a block on beacons on outposts that yield 48+ Enemy's detected. This giving smaller groups the ability to still be mobile. And keep themselves within the fight as defenders or attackers. And buff Sundys resistance for mines/C4 and nades. Along with Stealth, So it doesn't show on the Minimap.

As currently. I can look at the map. See the Red Sundy going to Park behind a rock. Waypoint it. Ask a outfit mate to squad deploy on me as an Engineer with x2 Mines and sticky nade and aim for the way point. That took 20 seconds and the attack was over. GG all round.

You only have to look at towers for a prime example. To take a tower that is defended you have to out pop and overwhelm the enemy back into the spawn room. Doing so with lesser numbers is next to impossible. As finding an AMS is a simple task, And destroying them is a 1 man job. Which as i said before, put's the attacker at huge disadvantage.

And as Jolly T Said. And the only reason we don't pull sundys to any fight is they are easily destroyed and become a focus point on the map.

He should have probably said pulled A SUNDY. Really it's platoon leader 101, to insist that there's not only one sundy, but a constant stream from the nearest base and no less than a couple deployed at all times when on the attack.

A lot of the problem with drop pods versus Sundies would be solved with a bit more disorientation once the dropper hits the ground. Either a hard restriction on swapping to c4 or mine for 10 or 20 seconds, or something more "realistic" like an blurr or EMP effect. That would allow plenty of time for a defense for teams that bother to try. (most honestly don't). It would certainty be better than further restrictions of tactical options such as a smaller drop radius (THE LAST THING THIS GAME NEEDS IS LESS TACTICAL OPTIONS).

This.

I'm sorry, but all of you arguing to "pull more sundies" or "protect the AMS" are delusional. Deploying on spawn beacons and squad deploy is absolutely disposable. Enough Hail Mary drop pods gets down any AMS no matter how well protected. You simply cannot get every single NME down. And every decent outfit can send every one of its members down in a drop pod every 1 minute if needs be, so "pulling more Sundies" becomes un-economical.

It's over-powered.

I think you guys are going in the wrong direction,

There's a lot of awesome tactics that are coming out of the way drop beacons/pods are used. IMO if you guys believe pods are OP and are plannign a nerf than might I suggest slowing down the speed of the pods and making them easier to shoot down from the ground / air instead of nerfing the timings and maneuverability?

Please add a 10 second C4/tank mine lock after someone lands, I don't mind people coming down in a drop pod but what I find completely game breaking is when an unrendered LA flies over me and drops C4 on me before I can get away.

Oh and please get rid of the Drop Pod Glitching and sometimes killing a MBT when it lands ontop of it please. THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN!

For a long time I've felt that squad deploy via droppod doesn't belong in the game. Drop pods are special and should ONLY be available when a beacon is placed. For everything else: spawn tubes.

The free squad deploy allowed for lots of exploits including when a SL flies over a target and the whole squad drops in. Beacons are balanced because they require you to move to the position, they are destructable, and they have a cooldown. Thanks so much for planning the listed changes!

P.S. With the other proposed changes I think its fine if the drop pods maintain their current maneuverability.

As has been mentioned: AMS's are too vulnerable, but also like every vehicle in the game: too available. Ideally they should go back to being a unique vehicle, that maybe offers more than just a spawn point but a variety of additional modules for defense, offense & command.

I agree with the squad beacon's going on timer when switching SL's - this makes sense. However, squad beacon's that have been placed should remain placed.

Squad Beacon's need to be tougher - they themselves should take some kind of explosive (be it 1 C4 or rocket) to be destroyed. They should also be larger (say half the size of a deploy able turret).

Ultimately, the squad needs to be its own object in game, like a temporary player. It should have its own experience gain (that relates to Command XP, and gained from strategic progress) that allows access to temporary abilities (for example, orbital strike) that are unlocked through cert prerequisites, and the squads point acquisition.

Solid.

I don't like this one. Instant Action frequently drops people in really awkward locations, and this change won't do much to help that. I'd much rather see Instant Action be centered above the spawn room for defenders, and beside the most active AMS for attackers (defenders too if they have one more active than the spawn room), so that you're always dropping into a sensible location.

Solid.

I don't see the need to force the squad leader to be the one to run to all the beacon locations. Putting down a beacon, while useful, doesn't fit my idea of leadership. That said, I don't like beacons as a squad item at all, and would rather see them as a public item (organisation and communication alone gives squads a large advantage over public players, making a powerful tool like the beacon exclusive to squads on top of that is a huge punishment to players who don't run in squads). Public beacons would also make for really good Instant Action locations.

I have no problem with 1-3 and I feel like they are changes that need to be made. However, I have a slight problem with #4. I feel like beacons are very easy to find and destroy in this game, assuming they are not in spawn or in a tree/texture.

I want to preface this reply by saying I firmly believe in a balance between offense and defense at the infantry level where the defenders have a very small advantage. I believe with the new wave of base designs and spawn beacon mechanics, this will put the defenders at too much of an advantage outside of biolabs.

I am not sure the exact number of minutes a beacon is on c/d with maxed spawn beacon, but I know it is less than 5 mins and definitely more than 2.5 minutes. In conjunction with #1, you will find yourself as attackers having to place beacons in very vulnerable spots to reach past walls or even drop on the walls. I feel this would put attackers at a massive disadvantage when fighting at walled bases (read: on esamir). Having a beacon only available once every ~2-3 minutes in an ideal situation (IE SL is in the correct position right when his beacon is off c/d) could completely cripple or stall an attack against even numbers, not allowing the attackers to break-through and maintain said break-through of natural/defensive barriers. Keep this in mind as the defenders can drop from a spawn beacon inside their spawn. The defenders can also squad deploy on their squad leader's dead body if he died within range of the attacker's sunderer. This can be repeated since each member is always on a different c/d cycle with regard to squad deploy. This ability to headshot the attacker's spawns or forward spawns leads to more vulnerable foot zergs from a safe sunderer in the very far back, but can still be taken out if the SL ninjas close enough and dies.

I feel a more appropriate solution to this is to not allow squad members to deploy on dead squad leaders. This along with #1 will drastically reduce the number of sunderers prematurely destroyed by deploying on dead squad leaders who got close enough to the enemy sunderer. In my experience, if you prematurely end the fight with a squad deploy drop pod, the squad leader gets killed very quickly as he gets within the current drop pod mechanics range. This new "rule" will also reward the defensive side by wiping out the squad and preventing them from squad deploying back on their leader's dead body. The leader in question can also toss lead for someone to drop another beacon, but obviously in a more vulnerable spot. If the SL is dead, which is usually the case when this happens, this will require more coordination to put the beacon in a "safer" spot or create more danger for the new squad leader to put it in a "safer" spot.

On top of all of this, if you form a squad with one other person, do you have to wait the beacon c/d once the squad is formed?

Lastly, I dont think pods should be able to do damage to aircraft or vehicles. In turn, I dont think you should be able to kill drop pods with anything.

I know this is a long read, sorry!

I am so sick of being drop podded while im flying a liberator. Adeptus Astartes are the only ones that should have drop pods anyways, what were you guys thinking?

Getting rid of drop will also force more usefulness out of troop transportation, if ding dongs want to get on top of the air towers, let them land by Galaxy.

And if you still think its necessary to have drop pods, then they need to have thrusters that fire before landing to slow down velocity, otherwise whoever landed in the should never be able to survive the impact, and it would not destroy vehicles and people could spot them. People landing in drop pods should not be able to fall, land, exit, and kill people before they even render!!!

This is yet an other indication of SOE's utter cluelessness in designing this game. Why are there drop pods in the first place? I mean they were useful in PS1 where moving from place to place was more complicated, but in PS2 we don't have such problem. The drop pods are not used for their original purpose, but to destroy stuff. It's an "unfair" weapon.

If you need to have the drop pods in the game then make them like PS1 pods. a) Set up a universal counter, which triggers the launch of the pods in 10 minute intervals. b) No steering. Instead you will have to pick the target from the map. c) No dropping to facilities influence area. You might want to add similar area around Sunderers as well.

I'm really looking forward to these changes. Hopefully it will make bases feel like bases again rather than TDM areas where opponents just keep raining down from above.

One additional change I would like to see is to make enemy drop pods have a different sound.

In PS1, we could select a location (outside of any Sphere Of Influence), and would land there - ish. There was some random deviation, and the pod wasn't steer-able.

Plus, we had to wait for the pod to land and open before we got control of our character. This is the change I'd most like to see happen.