I'm a big fan of Galaxies because of what they potentially offer to the game as drop- and battleships. But I never fly/gun one because a) You can only use it to pick up randoms (which takes forever) and do a single Gal drop on a base. b) Or be a spawn point for your squad, which is a hilariously ineffective number of players in most fights. And if in a public squad, most squadies won't even spawn into the Galaxy. c) Almost no one ever wants to stay in it and man the turrets. d) Their only "real" purpose right now is to relocate platoons across the map, lots of downtime included. e) Probably forgot something, list your reasons. That leaves the game with a couple (mostly elite) outfits that use Gals for efficient squad play or farming. And zergfits and public platoons who occasionally use them to move their soldiers to a new fight. So why not do this: Let everyone spawn into the Galaxy as long as - The Galaxy isn't full. So the option to spawn is only given if a seat isn't occupied. - A cool-down is placed to limit the number of spawns within a certain period of time. One way would be to have standard re-deploy timer on it that restarts once someone spawns into the Gal. The goal here is to stop abuse or mass deployment. - A spawn distance similar to the Sunderer should be applied as well. - "Squad-only" and "locked" are still possible. That way, Galaxies have a purpose again and will actually have gunners to help them out. Pilots will happily circle around a fight and let players drop off. And if one of players spawning is in the mood, he can use the Walker to deter enemy air units or the Bulldogs to attack infantry and armor during drop-off runs. If not, he'll just jump out and the next spawn will take his place. I am fully aware that Gal spawning used to be a thing in beta and eventually got scrapped, but I honestly believe that with the current (or future) re-deploy mechanics this could actually be a thing again. The way is see it, the new Galaxy spawn system would serve as a limited alternative to Sunderers that would enhance the game in many ways (think AA and quick infantry drop offs), not ruin it. Let me know what you think.
I support the idea because a transport that only holds 7 people and 5 crew is not much compared to the size of some of these battles. It would add a whole new purpose to spawing a gal
Do you know what Galaxies are able to do in this game? Last thing we need is more people being able to drop in away from harm, because Galaxies have an incredibly high flight ceiling (so high that your character can not aim high enough), are able to equip Bulldogs, and have too much health to be fought. Galaxies are not OP, but they do need attention regarding the scrubby ways in which they are used.
I know that the ones at flight ceiling are somewhat annoying to deal with but there are two reasons why I think this wouldn't be much of a problem. First, letting everyone spawn at the flight-ceiling-Gal would somewhat mimic instant action because the spawn rate would be limited compared to the Sunderer's. Therefore if you hold the base, this shouldn't be much of a problem. If you already lost all points however, an extra spawn point in the sky won't make much of a difference since players might just as well spawn at one of the 1-5 deployed Sundies. It's the in-between and small-scale battles that this mechanic might be interesting for. Secondly, whenever there's a deployed Sundy, players get out of their way to deal with it. Suicide mine/c4 attacks, setting up AV nests on hilss or spawning tanks and aircraft. But whenever a Gal is at flight ceiling, players become lazy and do nothing. All they'd have to do is spawn an ESF, Battlegal or a Liberator, or set up some AA close to the base and attack it from a different angle. Adding to my suggestion: Make the option to be a public spawn unlockable, similar to how it used to be for Sunderers. Regarding spawn distances: - Players can only spawn when there are within X00 meters of the Galaxy - Public Spawning has to be activated by "deploying". Once "deployed", Galaxies have a no-deploy zone for other Gals around them.
If the Galaxy is flying too high then the spawns shouldn't reach them, the 600m spawn cap should take in to 3d space to a degree. Maybe not a sphere but a cylinder from your death point with a flat top of 600 or less meters.
Galaxies have all the tools they need right now. At this point ES weapons would be cool, but that's as far as we need to go. We need to focus on that Valk. I mean heck make it OP and then slowly turn it down.
