Gameplay: Annihilator Heavy Airship

[Ohanka]

"Annihilator Heavy Airship"

Crew:

Commander
Navigation Officer
Engineering Officer (controls power: explained below)
Fire Direction Officer Ground (Designates Targets: explained below)
Fire Direction Officer Air (see above)
Gun Crewmen x 16

Armament:

2x Faction Specific Fighters
Air Defence Turrets x8 (2 front mounted, 2 on the left, 2 on the right, 2 at the back)
Pounder Artillery Cannons x2 (dual Liberator Cannons, one at left, one at right)
Ground Attack Mortars x4 (left, right, front, back)
SAM Turret Control x1 (top-mounted launcher)
AT Missile Turret Control x1 (bottom mounted launcher)

The Annihilator is a “flying battleship”. About 60-80 meters in length. Only one can be called in on a map. In order to for an empire to call one in it must control a “Heavy Landing Pad” which is a facility in of itself, where this massive vehicle can collect crew and launch. It would ofcourse have to cost resources numbering in the thousands. Once an Annihilator Is destroyed there is an hour long cooldown for that faction to call it in again. The idea behind these massive behemoths is to provide extreme fire support to a faction which rewards teamwork. After all, it'd need a heavily organised group of players to man this ship. Let me explain the mechanics of it.

Essentially it has a full interior. (Corridors! I love corridors ) 3 floors. The bottom floor is for loading of troops and vehicles (you can fit a tank in this things cargo hold) and accessing ground attack weaponry. The middle floor holds the Bridge and some AA turrets, as well as the engineering core, rear launch bay and Escape pod access (see later). The top floor contains the open galaxy landing pad (to give a sense of how HUGE this thing is) and Anti-aircraft weapon access. This vehicle would need a sizeable chunk of a team to properly Man. 21 for the actual ship control. As well as two for the fighters on the back. Not to mention Marine Compliment for the ship and an engineering crew to repair it, all in all it'd need about 50 men to man it.

Crew Positions:

Commander: The Commander directs the ship. Basically like a squad or platoon commander. Requires a certain command rank to use it. Only the Commander can receive messages from Ground Forces to request assistance from the Heavy Airship

Navigation Officer: The Navigation Officer flies the airship. Nothing really spectacular.

Engineering Officer: here is where things get interesting. The ship will essentially have some engineering powers which can be operated by the Engineering Officer, assuming he has certed it. These include “Shields up” this raises a shield around the Airship. Making it extremely difficult to kill and impossible to land on, but it cannot fire. “All power to the weapons” which increases the rate of fire of all guns on the ship.

Fire Direction Officers: these guys direct the fire of the ship. To co-ordinate ground attack and anti-air operations. Basically just a team-work thing. They have a 360 camera either at the top of the ship or the bottom depending if they occupy the ground fire control position or air fire control position and designate targets for the Fire crews.

Gunners: shoot the guns. Obviously.

What purpose does it serve?

A number of purposes. Mainly Ultra-heavy fire support. The armament on this thing can level an entire city, especially when directed by the Fire Officers. However it can also be used as a staging post for ground operations. Thanks to the 2 fighters on the back and the Galaxy landing pad up top, this thing can be used to staging point. One of the engineering options is “activate respawners” which completely immobilises the ship, but makes it a spawn location for troops. Which enables troops to use the galaxy to land on the ground below, while receiving fire support from the ship itself.

Now. Lets explain the rest of it. One of your questions probably is, how do resupply it? Surely it must have fixed ammunition. That is true. Like everything else in Planetside its ammunition is numbered. It cannot easily land. A couple of light assaults with ammo packs won't fill up 4 liberator cannons!. No, for the rearming and fueling (this thing has a fuel meter, explain later) I propose a customisation option for the Galaxy, A refueling aircraft, with a refueling pipe. Attaching one of these pipes to the Airship would fill it up until the Galaxy is out of “supplies” at which point it must land and fill up. There are four ports for these Galaxy refuelers to rearm the Airship.

Last Question: “But Ohanka, how do you destroy this monstrosity?” There are several ways. Despite how it may seem, the Annihilator is not invincible. It can be destroyed through sustained air attack or AA fire. However this Is a time consuming process and most likely the Airship will have destroyed you before you it. Therefore there are quicker ways to do it. Firstly, if it runs out of fuel it will plummit to the ground and explode, killing everyone onbaord. This will encourage the defending team using this Airship to setup good logistics with properly escorted refueling craft so it doesn't randomly fall out the sky. The other way is direct assault. A galaxy can drop troops onto the galaxy pad or the airpad of this ship, wherein the attacking team can land on the ship and eliminate the crew. The bridge and gun crew can be killed, but the ship cannot be manned by the attacking team, only the defending empire can control it. Instead it is often better to destroy the Core. The Core is what keeps the ship from exploding. If the core sustains heavy small arms fire it will explode. When the core explodes it gives everyone on the ship 30 seconds to evacuate. This is where the escape pods come in. There will be escape pods for 30 men on this ship (so some crewmen will never make it off alive > ) which you can use in order to escape the explosion. When the ship explodes everyone onboard will be killed, and they will count towards the kills of the attacking team who destroyed the core.

So. What do you think? A welcomed addition to planetside? Suggestions on improving this idea?