Hello, Remember how the Galaxy was good for support roles? ... That's right! It didn't have a support role! It doesn't have one because it lacks the proper tools needed to make it viable in combat! I want the Galaxy to be a worthwhile investment so I need to upgrade it with some interesting tools. Tools such as... REPAIR ARM: (Backseat weapon) Repair Arms can perform mid-air repair at a fairly fast rate. While not as quick as the Engineer tool, the repair arm can heal friendly armor while on the move. AMMO DROP: (Topseat weapon) Drops either a block of vehicle ammunition for friendly units for 30 seconds or drops multiple ammunition packages for infantry use. HIGH ALTITUDE MOBILE BEACON (Utility) The Galaxy becomes an immobile beacon suitable for infantry insertion onto the battlefield. (You can spawn on the Gal and drop pod in) RECEPTION PAD Small gravity elevators can lift infantry straight into the galaxy, eliminating the need for the Galaxy to land to pick up stragglers. GALAXY WARP Short-range warp drives allow the Galaxy to instantly warp to an adjacent territory on use. VEHICLE PICKUP The Galaxy can pick up vehicles for transport with new underbelly mounting techniques. (To give y'all an idea, it's one MBT per gal (12 seats), one lightning (8 seats), two harassers (6 seats), 4 flashes (3 seats), and one sunderer (12 seats). ______________________________________ ES STUFF GALAXY LA-46 OVERSHIELD (NC) A wall of nanites surrounds the Galaxy in a flash, generating extra effective survivability for around 12 seconds/ GALAXY TR-001 HYPERDRIVE (TR) Gives incredible bursts of speed and maneuverability (V-thrust and roll) that last for 10 seconds per use. GALAXY FORTRESS CLOAK (VS) Visually distorts the Galaxy, shielding itself from the view of enemies without night-vision or thermal optics. It lasts for around 15 seconds. (It is as visible as an infiltrator is while moving and cloaked.) Whatcha think? Also this can be a general brainstorm thread for the Gal.
I'd be all for there being more uses for a Galaxy. And, I like most of your proposed tools after a cursory glance, excepting the warp. It could just be a kneejerk reaction, but I feel like warping across territories is not something that would be beneficial to gameplay. Part of the risk in taking a Galaxy is taking incoming fire while you're on approach to a target; blinking into a territory that's contested before raining down troops and firepower without having to fear getting shot down, or even just forced to abort your run, because you're entering a hazardous area is something that nothing in the game should be able to do, imho. I'll be checking back on this thread, though, so depending on what mechanics you propose, I'll keep an open mind on that. As for the faction-specific abilities, I feel like Hyperdrive should be split into two separate things. If the Scythe has the edge in agility (which according to various stuff from SOE, it does-- but I'm TR so I have no idea), while the Mosquito has better raw speed, why should a TR Galaxy have an ability that boosts both at once? I'm just kicking the idea around, mind you. Also, in the Valkyrie thread in the Roadmap, a number of folks are calling for cloaking Valk's to differentiate them from Galaxies. I'm not saying that it's something the devs have commented on in the thread, or that it's going to happen, or that they've even noticed the suggestion, but I would say that it would be better suited to the Valk rather than the Gal. Furthermore, I feel like a Galaxy cloak could be similarly problematic as the warp module, particularly as an ES ability. It would have its own slightly different problems compared to warping, but I oppose it for much the same reason. Perhaps it would be viable to shift the Hyperdrive module over to VS and come up with something else for TR? But again, there's the issue of "why should the Galaxy get a boost to both speed AND agility if the ESF only has one or the other?" rearing its head. That said, if one faction were to get both (I remain skeptical for balance reasons), I feel like perhaps it might be better suited to VS along the lines of faction-flavor, while TR might get something for a damage bonus. Lastly, I feel like a Galaxy shield for NC would go over about as well as the Vanguard shield did. Having never driven a Vanguard or actually come up against one before the round of changes to the shield, I never had a horse in that race; I can't imagine it would go over any better with the playerbase, though. Anyway, those are my two cents for the evening. I'll be following this thread as my time permits, and hope to engage in ongoing discussion on the topic. ----- As an afterthought, as much as I'm looking forward to kicking some ideas around, I doubt that much will actually come of this given the fact that the mythical Galaxy update is more than a year overdue and still remains indefinitely postponed. I'm not saying that it's not worth discussing these things, but don't get your hopes up too high.
Giving the GAL Sunderer type vehicle support (ammo/repair) was played with by the DEVs a while back. They released some screenshots of it, but I'm unsure if it ever went to Public Test. The current implementation with only Squads being able to spawn (and redeploy) into the gal is far better than making it the AMS Galaxy from Beta. So this is just fine and has added enough dynamic without being over powered. (drop an AMS on top of a Biolab... not fun). Squads can also spawn into it while it's flying to it's destination. If you havn't experienced this, join an outfit. As far as vehicle drop, If they implement PS1 logistics or some variant (refueling bases) this will become a need as Air is so powerful against ground, you'll never get the refuel vehicle to the base without some kind of airlift. --I don't believe they are implementing this type of system though. Galaxy warp... ... with the distance you are suggesting, it would probably take longer to "spin up the warp drive" than to just fly straight there with racer airframe (and afterburners?)... If you're looking for speed, it's already installed with certs. I can't really comment too much on the ES stuff. The VS cloaking GAL is OP.. it will become an infantry farmer unless they remove the guns from it completely. It is also OP because you can't use lock-ons against a cloaked target. ... All of the ES stuff would need to be reworked, but your VS idea the most.
