Three long overlooked problems with this game.

[Malorn]

Wanted to share some of the drop pod thoughts and get your feedback. This is the general direction of where we're going with it, but as always it could change so no promises.

First, no current plans to remove drop pods. They're cool and a fun experience, particularly for new players. We would like to make them less annoying and follow the general battle lines better so we can have this cool and fun mechanic that augments the battle flow instead of disrupting it.

For drop pods in general looking at making them come down faster and making them a bit less maneuverable, so the net result is that they'd feel more frentic and get you to the action a bit sooner. You'd be able to steer to nearby cover but not move all that far from the origin point.

For instant action drop pods we are looking at making it so defenders always come down near the center of the facility, while attackers always come down somewhat randomly in a doughnut-shaped ring on the outside of the facility. This ring is roughly 150m from the center and differs by facility type, so the radius would be bigger for the large outposts and facilities than a small outpost. In PS1-terms, it's sort of like having an invisible SOI for attackers and having defenders come down in the center.

The goal is that if you are a defender you don't have to worry as much about drop pods coming down in the middle of your base or the very top of a tower and bypassing your front line (unless there's a beacon/squadleader, which you can see and destroy/kill). And as an attacker you don't have to worry as much about drop pods coming down by your AMS or tanks and blowing them up. In both cases, the drop pods are your reinforcements and unlikely to be an immediate threat.

This should also be better for those dropping down as they are less likely to be immediately killed upon landing.

And for pilots, with drop-pods a bit more predictable you should have a pretty good idea of where not to fly to avoid getting hit by one.