I've been flying the Valkyrie for most of the last two days. I've used the Valkyrie in a variety of ways and I've been putting a lot of thought into its strengths/weaknesses, problems, and solutions to those problems. I'll try to be concise. ------------------------------------------ There are two general ways I've found to use a Valkyrie: 1.) As a mobile spawn beacon, either doing precision drops for a squad or using LAs/Engineers as living bombs. 2.) As a direct combat vehicle, using HAs/Engineers in the rumble seats for additional firepower and in-flight repairs. The Valkyrie is viable at both but has many problems that prevent it from realizing its potential. ------------------------------------------ Here are the general issues: - Passengers in the rumble seats are extremely vulnerable to explosive damage from rockets and AA, even when using Flak Armor. - It is extremely difficult for passengers to be accurate in the rumble seats while moving. Lock-ons also tend to fail even when flying in a straight line. - The Valkyrie dies far too easily from most sources of damage. The main problem is flak, but weapons like the Basilisk/Walker and small arms also shred the Valkyrie. - The Valkyrie's secondary gun isn't stabilized, making the gunner wildly inaccurate and disoriented. - The gunner has almost no indication of which direction the Valkyrie is facing. "HA in front!" "Which way is the front?!" Most of my gunners have had this issue. - The Valkyrie wants to keep moving forward even when you're trying to hover. When paired with the limited firing angle of the gunner weapon it is often difficult/impossible for the pilot to maintain a gunner's LOS on ground targets. ------------------------------------------ These next set of issues are a specific to the guns of the Valkyrie: The guns in general are unreliable at their intended roles, but beyond that they also share a common design flaw. As a transport vehicle, and as a vehicle as fragile as the Valkyrie, you want to get in and get out quickly. The weapons don't have synergy with this. The weapons require you to hover in place for extended periods of time. The only one that doesn't share this flaw is the Pelter, but it has its own issues. Wyvern: It is fairly accurate and reliable against aircraft. Fixing other issues I've already mentioned should improve this weapon's performance in the process. Hellion: It is workable against other aircraft and ground vehicles at close range. However, its design doesn't work with a vehicle that needs to get in/out quickly. It has a long spin-up time and large magazine. It should have a quick spin-up time and small magazine. CAS: This weapon is fairly ineffective at its role (anti-infantry) and is also designed in such a way that it requires you to hover in place for extended periods of time. It needs a rework to make it viable for use while moving, and also needs significant buffs in terms of accuracy and damage output. VLG: This weapon lacks the speed to hit aircraft and lacks the damage to effectively kill infantry. It specializes you into the role of anti-vehicle and it forces you to hover over your target for extended periods of time. There are many directions this weapon can be taken which are debatable. Pelter: This is the only weapon that has good synergy with a transport vehicle like the Valkyrie. It lets you dump a solid amount of anti-vehicle damage out quickly and then has a long reload. The problem with this weapon is the lack of anti-infantry ability. It can't even be used as an improvised anti-infantry weapon. If it had such ability, then it could work as a general purpose A2G support weapon and be competitive with the VLG/CAS. ------------------------------------------ Conclusion: The Valkyrie isn't a hopeless case that needs radical changes. Rather, it is an unfinished and buggy mess that needs refining but has the potential to be viable at both transport and combat given the right fixes. Instead of focusing on how to fundamentally rework the flight model or add a gimmick (shield/cloak/etc), we should focus on fixing the immediate problems with the Valkyrie and move on from there.
Agree on all general points, especially the gunner things. It is very annoying to hit anything if the Valk is moving even the slightest bit, simply because the gun bumps around like crazy on every move. And the Valk never stops moving even if you try... so yeah. We're not a Lib crew, but we fly around in Libs or Gals every now and then and hitting stuff in a Valk feels like a chore compared to them. I'd also like to add that the spawn feature must be integrated into the valk as a fixed thing. Spawning a Valk without defeats the purpose of spawning a Valk at all, and it blocking a utility slot means you're running without flares or radar, which drastically limits your CAS capability. If you want to keep a squad centered utility in there make it something that halves splash damage on people on the rumble seats. Flak kills passengers way, way, way too fast, and you can't hide inside. Maybe shield that upon activation blocks all splash (but not direct damage) on passengers for 10 seconds or so, so you can activate it when some AA opens fire and bring your guys to safety. On the guns, I do think they all need a buff. All of them. Wyvern should be the baseline for the weapons, since it is currently the best one of the lot. Hellion. I said it before, a gun with such a short effective range does not work on an aircraft. On a bad day a slight hiccup of the server would cause you to ram whatever aircraft you're trying to fight off, and against ground targets you'll lose to anything that can shoot back no matter what it is. Short range + windup time+ frail aircraft = dead aircraft. Either screw the vulcan approach and make it a chin mounted slightly stronger MCG (I'd love that, we already have enough AV on the Valk), or keep it an AV weapon but significantly buff its RPM before and after the windup. CAS is too weak in the splash department. Or to slow in terms of RPM. Take your pick. VLG is okay. Once again the problem is the health of the Valk, making it a bad idea to sit around and lob the slow missiles at enemies. Make them a little faster Pelters I don't like. Too little ammo, burst is good for a Valk weapon but still too meh to be a good hit and run weapon (granted, I certed reload instead of 2 extra rockets), bad at AI... Maybe it is better with the extra rockets, but in its current state I would not mount it again on my Valk.
The problem I have with it, I just don't see with its current state a defined role. Passenger carrying, well use the Gal and you have a lot more firepower and resistance. Attack craft, well again fire lets it down compared with a ESF. Bomber, well no, naturally. I just don't see why anyone would really use it to great effect. Im sure some will but its a shame they have brought something out that the mass market really have no need for. Its not that its just bad, its just there are very few if at all, any advantages to use this craft.
I've had success using it as a mobile spawn beacon in ways that make it better than a Galaxy. Primarily because it is smaller/faster and doesn't attract as much attention. It is a lot easier to sneak over a Sunderer/MBT and drop an Engie/LA than it is with a Galaxy. Likewise, I can hug the ground as I approach a larger fight and avoid AA until I'm right next to where I want to drop unlike a Galaxy which is getting hit the whole time. It is going to need a ton of work to be truly viable, but I think there's a role it fills and that it's fun to use.
Have you tried using the armor attachment for it? I've also found that it makes a fairly good recon craft, for ground support. Though I have seen quite a few drawbacks, for one its fairly flimsy and the passengers are just quite unprotected, though HA can use their shields but anyone else could get hurt by flak and what not. Many people ask for more speed but honestly I think this might be unwise given that it is difficult for passengers to aim and shoot, and adding more speed would lower its maneuverability. I think a good solution for this would be to put a buffer shield in for the valk which would make the craft survivable and protect the passengers until the shield is knocked out, though the concept of a hit and run vehicle does seem sound, the valk is more of a air to ground support craft. Which should put up more of an emphasis on anti-infantry combat then anti-vehicle. The weapons on the Valk need to be more effective against infantry, as it will be dealing with them the most, personally the Pelter should have more emphasis on anti-infantry role, much like the rocket pods on an ESF. The CAS should be something in between of a Pelter and a Wyvern or maybe a form of flak cannon. Hellion is a weapon that is effective but clunky as its spool up time is sluggish though personally i think it should lose its Anti-vehicle function and be given a splash damage of a sort, much like the old shredder for the liberator. The VLG could just be used as a type of lock on rocket, it should be the only weapon to trade off anti-infanty capability for anti-vehicle function.
Imho the Valkyrie's problem is it lacks resistance to flak and firearms: I'm often on fire a few seconds after I took off. Then performance upgrades should grant a slightly bigger effect like even more stability and more speed.
Agree on all points. I'd also like to see them make the squad spawn option default and just give us an ejection seat. Before the valk was on live I could see myself use all the different utility slots for different situations. Fire suppression, flares, scout radar, ejection seat. They'd all have their purpose in different situations. Now it's just a no-brainer to get squad logistics, a valkyrie without it is pointless unless you're picking everyone up at the warpgate and you're using it as a drop&ditch vehicle.
Needs an armor buff across the line along with gun stabilization as well as doors that close and open. Doors open. You get to shoot and throw stuff. But can be shot by flak. Door closed. You dont get to shoot and throw stuff. But can be shot by flak.
