The Valkyrie looks and feels like it was designed to act as a gunship and be more strictly intimate in its relation to the ground forces. I think it does this job well in terms of its mobility and utility features such as being a spawn point. My concern is that it doesn't have adequate firepower for the role. Real gunship helicopters on the 20th century had Gatling guns the passengers could operate. I suggest that two of the four side seats on the Valkyrie (one on each side) should have a HMG like the new MAX weapons coming out soon. I don't believe I'm asking for too much with this. These guns if I'm not mistaken are capable of shredding through infantry formations and very light damage to armor which seems ideal.
And yet those guns don't do much to anything more heavily armored, like a tank, yeah? The new MAX HMGs are more like hand-held Drakes (y'know, the single-barrel Basilisk). For your suggestion, I doubt it'll be made into the game, but on the off chance that it does, these side guns would be the M12 Kobalts, instead.
Just pack some engies with tank mines and let them rain mines on tanks or do hotdrops with it. That's much more effective if you know how to fly stealthy. Aiming from the rumble seats is very difficult anyway, since the pilot very often has to do a lot of dodging too, except you only go for infantry. Or just use heavies with lock-on launchers and shoot rockets from a far. Valkyries are not really meant for high firepower, they are meant for stealthy flying and surprise attacks. Use Galaxy or Liberator if you want fire power.
The Valkyrie is not a gunship. It's a dropship. A transport vehicle in a game where logistics are not needed because vehicles are cheap and can be spawned anywhere. And we still have Instant Action and Redeploy. Ps2 is designed to give anyone fast and almost unlimited access to vehicles. In this context such a fragile transport vehicle has basically no place. Moreover the Valkyrie survivability still relies on constant repair and a dedicated crew which is a huge downside.
Get 4 HA with strikers and/or chaingun in your valk and try to explain this is not a gunship already.
You don't make any sense. On the one hand you say Valkyries are just taxis to transport people, on the other hand you say they need a dedicated crew... If you'd need a crew, why would you only transport people as a taxi? And if you are just a taxi, why would you need a crew? This makes zero sense. Valkyries are both transport taxis and vehicles for a dedicated crew. It just depends on how you wanna play it. There are always people who like to have a quick taxi ride to the next base, especially after capturing a base. And also, needing a crew to be really effective is nothing special. A Galaxy also needs a lot of people to be really effective. The only reason why there is "no place for the Valkyrie" is because people are too stupid to handle it. They do not understand how to handle the vehicle or how to gun in it, because it is a bit more complicated to use than other vehicles. This doesn't mean that it is less effective though, just that it is less straight forward when it comes to valid tactics. I think the main reason why people can't handle it though is, because Valkyries are very stealthy vehicles, instead of tanks like Liberators or Galaxies. Being good at stealth requires a bit more thought than just tanking your way through.
My opinion about the popular hatred towards the Valkyrie is that the difference between uncerted, certed and fully certed Valkyrie is perhaps even greater than in all/most other vehicles, ground and air alike, and we all know that VR isn't very good for checking the vehicles out. My favourite loadout is: - Full stealth + full hover stability does WONDERS. - Flares compliment the above perfectly. Especially since we can jump out of Valkyrie without Squad Logistics. - AI gun (CAS). Sometimes swapping for Helion if I expect more vehicles. The rest of the guns is very situational, imho. - My HA pal with an Annihilator. One more would be very nice, but I'm usually playing in a team of two. Another thing is that the Valkyrie doesn't perform good on every continent. It goes pretty much as follows: - Esamir (and Indar's deserts): Pretty much your doom. Avoid at all cost. - Indar (save for the flat desert parts): You can do more than on Esamir, but I generally avoid flying there. - Amerish: Solid choice. Many obstacles you can hide behind. - Hossin: Your Disneyland. All the trees, hills and mountains will not only give you place to lose lock-ons but also to ambush and to play hide and seek. The tradeoff is that you have to be able to handle your Valkyrie REALLY good not only to fully benefit from the cover provided, but also not to crash into it. In general I very much agree with Klabauter8. You have to know how, when and where to fly your Valkyrie for it to be a good vehicle, but when you do - it'll repay you with really satisfying performance.
