Valkyrie MAY be a 6 Seater With Your Help

Yes, I think the Valkyrie should have a total of 6 seats.

Otherwise it'll be like the Harasser: a "Transport" that doesn't actually have any transport capacity worth mentioning, so people only pull it for the gun.

Despite the fact that this could potentially allow it to drop a horrifying number of mines from the rumble seats. >_>

For 4 people, a gal is better than the current Valk in a transport mission and better in a gunship mission and better for a hybrid role mission. The same goes for 2 Liberators. So, yeah, it needs something of its own. As far as just balancing it as-is, I suppose they could just make it really, really cheap and be the flash of the skies.

Regarding all the "tank mine carpet-bombing OMG the spolsions!" comments:
By the same reasoning, a galaxy already potentially holds SIXTY (60) tank mines and you spawn right back into it resupplied and moving on to the next objective. I really don't see how having 2 more internal seats in the Valk would be, "OP."

It's easier to convince people to carpet-bomb for you when the process doesn't involve suicide though.

Yes to 6 seats AND a better propulsion system. Looking at the ground to go straight forward is silly (as the vertical thrust PLUS the forward thrust gives the best speed at the moment).

If it's faster than a Gal, but holds less people and has less weapon mounts, then it leans to being a fast insertion/elevator for infantry. At least the harasser's gun can spin a full 360 degrees. In it's current form, the Valk is guaranteed to kill the rumble seat passengers if there is ANY AA guns bearing on it which leaves the pilot and the gunner (OH BOY, two people to insert into a base! That'll turn the tide of battle for sure!)

Play with better people? Being in a Valk rumble seat is asking for a death screen anyway.

1 pilot, 1 gunner, 2 rumble, 2 passenger.

Still to OP, cloak sean up to a Galaxy, C4. Same for ground. Only thing were it makes limited sense is the Flash

to be frank, I'm more concerned about the safety of the rumble seat passenger than having more passengers on the valk.

I agree with you in specialization, but I think the Valk (4 or 6 seat) isn't specialized enough. In other words it's not really a pure transport because it mounts pretty heavy weaponry (heavy ATGMs or rocketpods), but it's not a gunship because it can seat a number of passengers.

The Huey which you mentioned could be a transport and a gunship... but not both at the same time. The model in that picture, the UH-1D, could carry 8-10 soldiers plus two pilots and two door gunners. But weaponry was understandably weak, limited to 7.62 GPMGs (essentially Kobalts in PS2). The picture that you linked doesn't even show those door guns at all, and most likely these transport Hueys were totally unarmed.

The gunship variant, the UH-1C, was quite different. Much more heavily armed, with more GPMGs or even rocketpods. But at the same time much more limited to passenger count.



You can see the same thing today with modern helicopters. The UH-60 Blackhawk comes in the standard transport variant with 7.62 GPMGs (again, PS2 Kobalts) or at most .50 HMGs (pretty much a Basilisk):



Whereas the "combat" version of the Blackhawk, the MH-60L DAP/AH-60, can carry ATGMs, rocketpods, or autocannon but gives up its passenger capability to do so:



So you see in most cases there is significant specialization in air vehicles. Transports are weakly armed with weapons meant for self-defense, whereas gunships have rocketpods and ATGMs but can't carry many passengers if any at all.

The only exception to this rule was the Russian Mi-24 Hind, which was meant to be a transport and an attack helicopter.



But it's a weird and very unusual combination which doesn't seem to have been very popular. Sort of like Israel's MBT that can also transport troops. Mostly because it can't transport as well as a dedicated transport and if your gunship gets shot down with a squad of infantry aboard...

So what does this mean for PS2? Well, in my opinion the Valk should be specialized into a transport or a gunship... but not both at the same time. In other words, it's fine that there should be a 6-seater option, but at the cost of a lack of any heavy weapons. If the Valk wants to carry rocketpods or ATGMs, then passenger seating should be limited to no more than 2 (if any at all).

The main problem with a "hybrid" design is that in PS2 transports tend to be incredibly heavily armored (the Sunderer and Galaxy are far too heavily armored with far too much HP for what's essentially an MRAP and a C-130). But making an incredibly heavily armored gunship would be a very bad idea balance-wise. Thus dividing the Valk into two distinct roles, that of a transport or a gunship, would prevent the introduction of heavily OP aircraft.

Because yea... at least on PTS the Valk works pretty decently as a tank hunter... which surely isn't the role of a transport craft.

Enough with bombers, we have ESFs and Liberators, and Galaxy with bulldogs.

As was Starship Troopers.

Not nearly as good as 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Yes, oh god yes, a drop ship like craft that isn't as **** all huge as the gal is exactly what this game needs. I would cert the **** out of that.

Yeah, 4 people on rumble seats would make more sense. Additionally, I think that 2 of those rumble seats should have on option to use a side-mounted Kobalt or Basilisk. Cool as firing from the rumble seat may be, I have a hard time picturing anyone actually hitting something from the rumble seat.
With just two seats Valk seems hardly useful.
But with 4, Valk can drop 4 passengers onto a roof then veer off and provide fire support.

I sort of regret they made Ejection system baseline even for stock galaxies, and squad spawning system basically removed the need to land Galaxies EVER, apart from repairs, and that only if you don't have NAR, and I miss the epic feeling of landing right into battle (imagine how cool would that look, "We Were Soldiers" or "Starship Troopers" anyone?). Though I can sympathize, as it's hard to land the slow, heavy and huge airbus under fire.

Valk will ideally fill that role, as it's small, maneuverable and has to land to actually drop the troops. 4 seats seem optimal, because that will mean 2 Valkyries per squad - 4 people in the air and 8 people on the ground, as opposed to 6 people in the air and 6 people on the ground for 3 Valkyries.

I'm thinking that a 6 seater, which people seem to want because it can deploy 4 instead of 2 players, is designed to remain in the air after insertion. It is great for precise insertions, and rapid retrieval of troops. To get all 4 people on the ground, the Valkyrie will have to land, and if it has the ability to then cloak, it could be viable.

That said, it may need a few more unique abilities to truly give it a niche. (Read below for what I think could be useful ability)

I mostly agree with Vindicore, but I don't know how good an 'active' ECM ability would be, because the 'Ghoul' Valkyrie pilot has no way of knowing whether friendlies are being locked-on. And even if he did, how would he know who to prioritize? Why not make it a passive ability instead? In other words, make it so that aircraft who fly in the proximity of friendly Valkyries take longer to lock on to?

Additionally, when the Valkyrie is deployed, not only can it cloak itself, it also creates a 'bubble' within which squad-mates do not show up on the mini-map as easily. Either you could have a bubble that completely hides squad-mates from appearing on the mini-map, or, alternatively, a periodic pulse that erases them from the mini-map.

I think the second mechanic would be much more balanced, and encourage the "invisible" squad members to engage a couple of seconds before the pulse, thereby shortening the time they appear on the mini-map.

its mire like Little Bird:

For me, the only way to make the valk viable as a transport would be to get rid of ejection seats on gals and redeploying across the map.

The book was better; as they all are!

No invisibility, just a straight up 6 man transport. Lets cut the funny business out of the equation. Its not a Flash and harassers cant cloak. No deploy necessary to let troops out, a simple transport is plenty enough. No spawning in it like Gals and Sunderers either.