Hotdropping

[Baneblade]

In PS1 hotdropping was a big deal. In the beginning, hotdropping from a Galaxy was common, but by the advent of Surgile (in part due to) pilot hotdroppers were standard fare. The question remains, how should it work in PS2?

Obviously there has to be some sort of descent control system, but do we want it to work like in PS1?

Hotdropping from a Galaxy could work a number of ways, HALO style, Paratrooper style, or even Huey Style (Vietnam).

The HALO style was what a lot of Gal hotdrops went for in PS1, flying at max altitude and vector dropping over a base, sometimes hover dropping.

Paratrooper style was a little more specialized, but largely more effective due to less warning: Galaxy would fly 'under the radar' until target zone, and then afterburn at over the drop zone. Required attention and planning to pull off effectively.

Huey style was mostly used to move troops in a secure drop zone. The Gal pilot would pick up a load at an AMS and then hover directly over the roof to drop onto it. Common for tower battles involving a protracted engagement.

Pilot hotdropping became something of a division in the community of PS1. On one side you had the elite One Man Army types who worked alone, in groups, or in conjunction with 'distracting units' as, I think it was anyway, Dreamer once put it. on the other side, you had the traditional small unit tactics proponents who saw pilot hotdropping surgiles as a bane on PS1.

Now PS2 could still go either way on this, there hasn't been much dev discussion on it.

I personally want pilot bailing limited to a damage threshold, as I liked to say for PS1:

Pilots shouldn't be allowed to bail until the bailing mechanism has a chance to fail.

Basically referring to pilot bailing having a chance to fail when a certain amount of damage is taken.