Gal Drops and my thoughts

[cashfoyogash]

Im sure my thoughts on galaxy drops will upset the masses... My main thought... I dont think everyone should come equipped with retro boosters in their armor or whatever it is that makes it so EVERYONE can drop out of a galaxy. I think this should be one of the things researched in the skill tree. Basically if you want to jump out of a galaxy while its flying your a paratrooper. Im not saying not everyone can fly in a galaxy it is just the other people without the skill have to get out when the galaxy is so close to the ground, much like air assault in the military. not saying it has to be directly on the ground as it may have to fly into hot LZs and may take too much damage to have to land but not every soldier should be able to be at the flight ceiling and jump out. I know people are going to be like "your dumb" but i just feel if everyone is going to jump out of a galaxy then there is no need for ground transports. Everyone is a paratrooper in PS1 and no one is mechanized infantry.

[Azren]

It's kinda the other way around - if anything, the gal pilot should need some skill training to allow his passangers to drop all at onces (maybe give him an extra button that does just that, after he learned the skill)

[LordReaver]

Things like that will limit the usage of them. Something most people don't want I would think.

A hot-key for the pilot to kick passengers/gunners would be great.

[Goku]

Personally I prefer allowing everyone to be able to jump out of a galaxy how the current mechanic is in PS. Smed mentioned he wants Galaxy pilots to actually be skillful at driving these, so perhaps Azren's suggestion could even make into the game. The only two problems I see is new players and hot zone area drops. A lot of the outfits that take in new players heavily depend on Galaxies as transport to get people to their target. I see new players being alienated from doing this if this rank is further down the skill tree, lets say BR10. Next is actually having to rope down from a Galaxy in a hot zone. Between the Galaxy stopping and say it takes a couple seconds to repel down I just see the Galaxy getting blown to pieces. Have you seen how quickly a Galaxy blows over a base with sufficient AA or even a GG?

@ Lord

Remember you used to be able to kick everyone out at one time with the Galaxy in PS? I think SOE changed that due to the abuse some pilots were doing. Between dumping a whole squad in the water or even dropping people on purpose over a battle zone only to get killed I think was the reason for that. I found the feature quite useful for kicking everyone out at the right time when I drove the Galaxy, especially the new players. Nothing worse then having everyone scattered of the base due to pressing the button early or late.

[etheral]

well, we know that jump jets are confirmed for PS2. How about using those for gal drops?

The pilot drops the ramp and the troopers walk out. If you get the timing on your jump jets wrong you turn into a red stain on the landscape . This might also mean that we'd have some control over direction while we drop.

Of course, this depends on how exclusive jump jets are.

Thoughts?

[Miir]

Interesting... I could see something like this adding some new challenges to the game. As long as everyone could jump out at lower levels. Higher level HALO type drops could require more skill points or specialization.

I thought rather than doing the air cushion/anti-grav thing like in the current Planetside they could allow us to manually control the decent via some sort of ONE TIME use jump jet. So you could get to the ground faster if you wanted to free fall longer. But you would have to manage the speed to prevent damage.

Jumping at high levels could put your character into a dive in 1st person so you could control the direction you are falling. See 2:45 in this video (from Crysis)

Then near the ground you hit the jump jets and land.

[cashfoyogash]

Originally Posted by Miir

Interesting... I could see something like this adding some new challenges to the game. As long as everyone could jump out at lower levels. Higher level HALO type drops could require more skill points or specialization.

Yeah i didnt mean ground as just being the earth I meant any structure being the ground. HALO drops are what I was referring to when I said it would take a skill to be able to drop from that high.

@ Goku

If you ever seen "We Were Soldiers" the choppers were in a secured hot zone but still taking fire, the choppers were never touching the ground and basically didnt stop and the soldiers were out in seconds and the chopper was off again. I know in PS1 Gals pop like balloons with AA but that would also be part of the tactic, securing an LZ and not making it right in the middle of an enemy army. You may lose a gal or two but thats war. Also we have no idea how effective the AA will be in this game. Plus the soldiers in what im proposing would still drop out just as fast it just couldnt be incredibly high off the ground.

@ Everyone

I dont see what im proposing being implemented in PS2 as everyone (even me) loves gal drops. I just think ground transports would get more use if not everyone could drop from a gal high up in the air.

[Captain1nsaneo]

Passenger seats ---> Locked

You can still mass kick from gals. Individual kick works too, once used it to play Trivial Pursuit. The people who answered wrong got kicked out into lava.

I see where you're coming from with the idea of high altitude drops. For a workable implementation you might have something like the Libs have with their bombs. Instead of needing to be flat though you could have high limits for how high you can drop at. In the skill tree you could get abilities that would allow the gal pilot to drop people from higher altitudes. This allows for incremental drops from higher and higher as more time is put into the skill tree. You might even put a limit on how LOW the gal can have people bail from too. In the skill tree you could work to being able to drop lower and higher.

[Goku]

Originally Posted by cashfoyogash

@ Goku

If you ever seen "We Were Soldiers" the choppers were in a secured hot zone but still taking fire, the choppers were never touching the ground and basically didnt stop and the soldiers were out in seconds and the chopper was off again. I know in PS1 Gals pop like balloons with AA but that would also be part of the tactic, securing an LZ and not making it right in the middle of an enemy army. You may lose a gal or two but thats war. Also we have no idea how effective the AA will be in this game. Plus the soldiers in what im proposing would still drop out just as fast it just couldnt be incredibly high off the ground.

Never seen the movie. Though I misinterpreted what you said. I thought you wanted a Galaxy to have to hover over the drop location while the soldiers without the drop ability had to repel down ropes. I don't see anything wrong with an ability in order to have to drop from high altitude. Dropping low or high has it pro and cons after all. Dropping high lets you avoid AA, though when the troops land a OS/enemy maybe waiting for them. If a Galaxy can still at least get above most bases to allow for a drop to get them in more quickly I think that is doable.

[cashfoyogash]

no not stay there and hover, but i am talking about only being able to drop no more than like three people lengths off the ground.

[Logit]

Originally Posted by cashfoyogash

Im sure my thoughts on galaxy drops will upset the masses... My main thought... I dont think everyone should come equipped with retro boosters in their armor or whatever it is that makes it so EVERYONE can drop out of a galaxy. I think this should be one of the things researched in the skill tree. Basically if you want to jump out of a galaxy while its flying your a paratrooper. Im not saying not everyone can fly in a galaxy it is just the other people without the skill have to get out when the galaxy is so close to the ground, much like air assault in the military. not saying it has to be directly on the ground as it may have to fly into hot LZs and may take too much damage to have to land but not every soldier should be able to be at the flight ceiling and jump out. I know people are going to be like "your dumb" but i just feel if everyone is going to jump out of a galaxy then there is no need for ground transports. Everyone is a paratrooper in PS1 and no one is mechanized infantry.

So what does everyone do on day 1? Fall to their death?

[cashfoyogash]

no it just wouldnt allow you to jump out of them. like the ps1 message saying "cannot dismount while flying"

[Goku]

Hmm. So about 18 feet? I think that is far too low in my opinion as it would limit the galaxy's use to newer players. Smedley said the Galaxy will play a larger part in the game so barring new players from that is a bad idea.

Tell me if I wrong here. Is your 18 feet strictly off of ground level? If so I could see this working if Galaxies could still at least drop troops 18 feet above their intended target regardless of its height from ground level. Take for instance the tower in the trailer is easily taller then 18 feet. If the Galaxy can still drop troops on the top while being within 18 feet of it that is doable. Though I just wonder how hard that would be to code considering ground elevation changes on top of facility/tower ones. That is still nowhere near the flight limit and the players aren't dropping hundreds of feet.

[cashfoyogash]

Yea it is off any structure. You must of skimmed over my earlier post when i said, "I meant ground being any structure not the earth."

Like I said i dont see this happening, I would just like to see ground transports used more often as well. I highly doubt anything like what i suggest will happen, mainly because i like gal drops as well. They are fast and effective.

[Goku]

If so yes I can agree to that then. This doesn't limit operations by outfits too much and allows new players to do the, Outfits that want to specialize in Galaxy drops will make them that much more effective at it.