How do you like the new Liberator?

[millo]

I think this is where the "washtub" came from, by the way



Could see the new lib as a gunship with that design and size, by the way. As someone already said, the whole thing screams "Hind".

[Aractain]

Good point about the apache, but somehow it dosn't seem... fat.

I did a (bad) version with more angular surfaces on the trolly.

[FIREk]

Originally Posted by Aractain

Good point about the apache, but somehow it dosn't seem... fat.

I did a (bad) version with more angular surfaces on the trolly.

Could you try flattening the "hump" and making the top canopy lower, and more sloped?

[Talek Krell]

Originally Posted by millo

Could see the new lib as a gunship with that design and size, by the way. As someone already said, the whole thing screams "Hind".

I could too, actually. The fat bits look relatively sensible if the thing is intended to spend most of it's time hovering, so as part of a gunship (or a light air transport) setup I wouldn't mind it at all. I wouldn't dare risk hoping that the Lib got such cool gear though.

[Malorn]

It would be interesting if the Lib was more like a Bomber-Gunship hybrid. It would certainly fit the look of it.

Looks as though there is a weapon point on the nose of the gun. Could be a turret for air-to-ground support. The bombardier would have the nose turret for support when there weren't targets lined up to bomb.

I would expect the lib to have different variants and upgrades also. Some possibilities for Liberator varients with that design.

Bomb-Bay Options:
- Cargo: Troop transport - replace the bomb-bay weapon entirely with a cargo hold for a small number of infantry and maybe a MAX. This would fill the role of "light air transport" that myself and others had discussed. Sort of like the Star Wars troop transport that it resembles.
- Bombs: Cluster for Anti-infantry
- Bombs: Anti-Tank Mines (instant-minefield)
- Bombs: Tank-busters, drops fewer than the cluster but does tons of damage to armor and hits them on the top where armor is weaker.
- Bombs: EMP (disables vehicles and implants, blows up mines, disorients infantry)
- Empire-Specific Air-to-Ground Anti-tank weapon.

Empire-Specific Weapon options
- Striker Barrage: Lock-on. Imagine a set of missile dropping out of the bottom and then firing towards a target which the bombardier locked-onto. Not an instant-lock, more like the Stinger from BF3 - the gunner must maintain the lock for several seconds before it is ready to fire. TR-specific.
- Heavy Phoenix: A single missile drops down and becomes Camera-guided. Less DPS than the striker but does tons of damage. As above, only camera-guided. NC-specific.
- Heavy Lancer: A pair of constant-beam lasers deployed down from the bomb-bay. Does more damage the longer it is on target (like the Warp-Ray from StarCraft 2). Bombadier has to hold it on-target.

(All of these have the common theme that the gunner must hold or maintain the target in order to hit them/ do heavy damage).

Front-Turret Options
- AI cannon, fires explosive rounds that has significant AoE effect so near-misses still do damage. Can suppress groups of infantry by bombarding the area with grenades (like the gunship cannon in the battlefield games).
- AV cannon, fires heavy armor-penetrating rounds, no AoE so it is less effective against infantry but does more damage to vehicles (like the original liberator nose gun)
- EMP cannon, fires little EMP bursts to disable vehicles, disorient infantry, or clear minefields.
- Plasma cannon, fires plasma discharges at a slow RoF but the plasma burns the area for a bit making it unsafe for infantry and vehicles alike. Low initial damage, used for suppression and area-denial. (think the Radiator only a lot more damage)


Tailgun options:
- machinegun (base 'free' weapon)
- machinegun + lock-on missile (upgrade for more air-to-air defense)
- flak gun (super upgrade)

I always felt that Planetside was missing a true gunship and mixing the Lib with a gunship and performing both bomber and air-to-ground VTOL support like a classic gunship would fill the role.

Pros:
- gives the bombardier something to do *all the time* not just when bombs are lined up since they have control over the forward gun.
- nosegun is far more effective on a front turret
- fills the role of bomber, gunship, and light air transport in a single vehicle
- lots of configuration options for this gunship
- upgrades give tailgun real value and effective AA defense.

Cons:
- pilot no longer has a nosegun, though it is possible the pilot could be given something else. I don't see a pilot gun as necessary on this vehicle. I would like to see the pilot given countermeasures against lock-on-weaponry.

[Talek Krell]

Changing it wouldn't be much of a modification but it doesn't look like that attachment on the nose can rotate to the sides, which suggests to me that they intend for the pilot to have a nosegun.

Originally Posted by Malorn

- Heavy Lancer: A pair of constant-beam lasers deployed down from the bomb-bay. Does more damage the longer it is on target (like the Warp-Ray from StarCraft 2). Bombadier has to hold it on-target.

Oh god yes.

[Malorn]

I can see the front turret pivoting left/right, if you view it as having a mounting oint from the top and/or bottom. It spins left/right and then the guns in the turret have the up/down tracking.

Sort of like this:

[Talek Krell]

Hm. I had thought it was a fixed drum (like a barrel on it's side). Looking at that picture though it may be a turret after all, and the back edge looks rounded that way due to the angle. Could use some more viewpoints on this thing...

[BorisBlade]

Not a fan of it at all, looks like one of those helicopters they use for heavy lifting, not at all like a bomber, its waaaay too vertical. I do like Sirisans version, it actually looks like a bomber.

[dm Akolyte]

The wings are angled to far down. They should stick out more directly to the side.

[millo]

The chin pod looks a lot like a FLIR to me... Probably it's modular and can be swapped on the fly with a 30mm chaingun/rocket pod/racoon launcher according to your spec.

Love malorn ideas, but i'd prefer a dedicated gunship and a strafe bomber being separate vehicles... Old liberator was perfect as it was in concept, in my opinion, it just needed the tailgun and the bombing bay being operated by the same person (and that just because it was a pain in the ass finding a tailgunner, when my usual buddies wasn't online i made it my personal mission to tailgun for everyone i could just out of empathy )

[Missundaztood]

The TR look USA, the NC Russian, the VS f*** knows!

[Captain B]

The NC... RUSSIAN??? Son you done gone and lost yo' damn mind!

[Raymac]

I'm really a big fan of the tall design of this thing. I think if you start to streamline it more, it will lose that unique profile and feel too...generic. I mean we have an older shot of the Reaver, and you don't want the Lib to look too much like the Reaver. I really really like these vehicles being distinct even from a distance. Maybe it's just the Star Wars fan in me, but giving it whispers of the LAAT from Clone Wars is really badass IMHO.