Gameplay: Planetside 2 Helicopter

[Rinzler XV]

The Hunter:

The Hunter is a helicopter based aircraft equipped with heavy armor, a massive arsenal, and a wide array of destructive capabilities. Up to this point there has not been an aircraft that has had the ability to move from left to right with relative ease, and because of this, Liberators and ESF’s rarely stick around for big battles. They are forced to make swift and accurate flybys which can vary in effectiveness. But due to The Hunters helicopter inspired design; it will be able to move horizontally without any difficult maneuvers being made and still face the same direction. Because of this, large forces assaulting a base or an enemy platoon will more often find themselves with air support due to the fact that The Hunter will not constantly be moving forward (ESF), present a large target with low mobility (Liberators), or have little survivability vs. flak (ESF). This aircraft will have no movement when hovering, present a smaller target with better mobility, and have more health and armor to better survive flak barrages.

The Hunter will be given good movement speed while moving from side to side, will have the same velocity as a standard fighter when pointing the nose up or down, and a stock speed of about 195 KPH. Because of its low rate of travel, even the Reaver will be able to out run it, given enough time. Although this may not factor into dog fights, it does mean that it will not be able to start an engagement because the fighter will simply hit it’s after burners and get away. This will balance out the fact that The Hunter has a high armor and health rating seeing as it can only defend itself and won’t be a pilot’s first choice when wanting to engage in an air battle.

Since you will be using WASD to move from side to side, forward and backwards while still facing the same direction, all movement of your field of view will be controlled with your mouse much like a Magrider or any infantry. This being the case, holding S will not land your aircraft and you will need to use the button you have assigned to descend in order to land.

The last mobility trait that should be addressed is the question, what happens when you tilt the nose too far up or down. ESF’s do not have this problem because after a certain point the camera angle simply flips and the aircraft is inverted. But if this is tried on a helicopter, it will quickly plummet to the ground. To fix this problem, once you hit a certain angle (a little before the camera would change when you’re flying a Liberator or ESF) the helicopter will bank on its left or right then level out, facing it in the opposite direction. This will allow for a quick way to get out of trouble if needed.

All of this makes The Hunter ideal for supporting base assaults by taking out turrets and enemy armor. Defending infantry platoons by guarding them from ESF air raids or Liberator bombing runs. And softening up enemy numbers before the main force arrives.

[Rinzler XV]

Utility:

Secondary Gunner: The secondary gunner utility when equipped will allow for a second player to co-pilot the secondary weapon that is being used on The Hunter. This will allow the pilot to do two things at once and there for double its effectiveness. (Secondary Gunner cannot be used with the Hunter Killer)

Ejection System: The Ejection Seat will allow you to exit your aircraft from any height and take no damage.

Decoy Flares: The Decoy Flares will break any current lock that may be on you and will prevent any further lock for a given amount of time.

Afterburners: The Afterburners will enable the aircraft to accelerate to a higher top speed for a short amount of time.

Fire Suppression: Fire Suppression will take your aircraft out of critical damage and restore a portion of your health. (Only available if your aircraft is in critical health)

Scout Radar: The Scout Radar will detect all enemies and mark them on the map within a given vicinity of the aircraft.

Defense:

The defense slots will have the same effect on The Hunter as currently available to all aircraft.
Vehicle Stealth: Aircraft will not immediately appear on the map, and it takes longer to lock on.

Nanite Auto Repair: Aircraft will self-repair as long as no damage has been taken within a given amount of time.

Composite Armor: Aircraft takes less damage from flak.

Performance:

Racer Airframe: The Racer Airframe will improve top speed and acceleration. It will also improve afterburners if the Afterburners Utility is equipped.

Thrust Airframe: Thrust Airframe will improve your speed when ascending and descending.

Agility Airframe: The Agility Airframe will improve your top speed when moving from side to side.

[Rinzler XV]

Arsenal:

The Hunter Killer: This weapon takes the place of your primary and secondary weapon by replacing the nose gun and secondary positions with Gatling guns. Two on the nose and one for each secondary slot, for a total of four armor piercing, high fire rate deadly cannons.

This weapon will do slightly less damage to air and armored targets then the Liberator’s Tank Buster, with the addition of a small amount of splash damage to infantry. If you have ever played Call of Duty and earned some form of chopper gunner, or used the Mosquito’s M14 Banshee, you will have a sense for what bullet splash damage is. Obviously it will not be as powerful as a chopper gunner, but you have a general idea of what traits this gun will have against infantry targets.

Seeing as this weapon deals a considerable amount of damage to anything you will face during your air raids, whether it be engaging an enemy aircraft, harassing an enemy tank, assaulting a base, or softening up infantry numbers, it will have to have considerable drawbacks if it is to be balanced with the other options in your arsenal. The first nerf that was previously mentioned is the fact that this weapon takes up your primary and secondary weapon positions. This alone of course, is not enough to balance such a powerful weapon, so it will also be given a “spin up” time. You will have to first hold down the key you have assigned to fire for one and a half seconds before you may shoot any rounds. This will be a very potent balancing factor because you cannot just take shots as you see them. You will have to anticipate your targets movements and adjust accordingly. One and a half seconds may not seem like it will make much of a difference, but in any first person shooter, and especially flying, your target can be vulnerable one second and gone the next, making the weapon less flexible and balanced with other options.

This being the case, you will be given the choice to replace any sights you may want to equip, with a pre fire spin up. When equipped, instead of pressing right click to use your infrared to pick off infantry, the barrels will spin up so that the instant you fire, rounds will leave the chamber. This will allow skilled pilots who know they are about to take a shot to prepare for it without warning there target where the shots will be fired. This is a further nerf seeing as you cannot use a sight without any draw backs (all sights are available on this weapon).

The final balance imposed is a high rate of fire coupled with a low magazine size. It will have a starting capacity of 30 rounds and a rather high reserve of ammunition to compensate. Three upgrades will be available, so that a final capacity will total 45 rounds, along with a fire rate of 550 rpm. This means that unupgraded, this weapon will have about three seconds of sustained fire, and will do slightly less damage then the Tank Buster, but will be about as accurate as an ESF’s stock weapon.

[Rinzler XV]

Primary Weapons:

HE Cannon: The HE Cannon will function much like the Liberator’s Zepher, only with a smaller default mag size. It will start with four rounds and have three upgrades for a final magazine size of 7 rounds. These rounds are high explosive with a large blast radius and do a great deal of damage to infantry targets at the cost of damage to armored targets. The HE cannon will have a moderate ammo reserve, and will be used as an anti-infantry primary weapon.

The Sledge Hammer: A modified version of the NC’s Air Hammer with an upgraded affective range and a much tighter spread along with a focus on high damage to armor. This weapon will mimic the Air Hammer in most regards except for range, bullet spread, and damage verses armored targets.

Faction specific rotary: A low mag size and high rate of fire weapon with considerable bullet drop vs. air targets. This weapon is designed to excel in dog fights, but be relatively weak towards armor and infantry.

Faction specific ESF weapon: These weapons very in traits but all revolve around being affective against infantry at the cost of damage to armored targets.

Secondary Weapons:

The Spear Head: The Spear Head is a secondary weapon option with a four round burst, armor piercing, laser guided rocket pod designed to decimate armored targets. When launched, four rockets, much like the NC’s Phoenix with a faster travel time, will be guided to their target via the redicles on the users HUD. If the Secondary Gunner ability is equipped the missiles will be camera guided by your co-pilot. These rockets are meant to do massive damage to turrets and enemy tanks but have a low slash radius making it difficult to hit infantry. This weapon will have a four round magazine and 32 round default ammo reserve.

Extended Afterburners: This secondary will extend the time you can use your after burners and can only be equip able if the Afterburners utility is being used.

Faction specific rocket pods: A versatile secondary choice for ESF pilots capable of taking out slow moving air targets, enemy infantry, and armored targets with relative ease.

Faction specific lock on missile: An air-to-air lock on rocket capable of taking out half a targets health if a hit is landed.

Due to the addition of these new weapons combined with the old arsenal, you can outfit yourself to be a dedicated role V.S. armor (Sledge Hammer and Spear Head), air (faction lock on rockets and faction rotary), and infantry (HE Cannon and faction rocket pods), or a hybrid to make an all-around threat in the air.

So those are just some of my thoughts about an idea I had. The biggest thing I would like to see implemented, aside from the helicopter of course, is The Hunter Killer. I have done my best to try and balance it with the other weapon options without making it completely useless. But if you believe it should be nurfed even more, I was thinking of making it take up a utility, or performance slot. I would rather leave it were it is right now, but if any of you think it’s to over powered let me know along with any suggestions you may have. Thanks for your time.

[Anchorshag]

The issues I see with this are that aircraft currently have no choice but to do quick flybys because of how potent AA fire can be.
If you introduce an air vehicle does not have the ability to move itself away from AA fire it will quickly go down. The Hunter could strafe often but that won't save it from grounders, bursters, etc.
Then you're back to the flybys.

I've always wanted a small air-transport vehicle. The Galaxy is a bit overkill for a squad of 4 or 5 and taking a sunderer from one end of the map to the other is very dull. I hope for something similar to your suggestion but with it's primary role being a transport.

[DviddLeff]

So what is this, a flying tank that makes regular tanks obsolete?

What are the draw backs?

Why would I pick a tank, ESF or Lib over this?

[Dougnifico]

See, there seems to be too much flexibility in your design. The arsenal is too massive and would hinder the use of other vehicles.

I understand people wanting a stable hover vehicle. If you could balance it properly then I see no reason not to. The Liberator is a longer range gunship that has more standoff capability. The ESF's are usually used in the role of a modern helo. This vehicle would fall between the two rolls and basically be a heavy ESF. We have a tread on the main page for a JSF that could fill a similar roll. If you intoduced this vehicle it would need to be slow but agile, resistant to AA, and weak to A2A. It would probably have slightly less armor than the Lib and lack afterburners or speed to escape assault (a glass cannon basically).

If it could be worked out, I'm always casting my vote for new content.

Sidenote; NS sucks and ES is the way to go. Make the factions mean something. Also, no top mounted rotary blades. VTOL only (fan or rocket doesn't matter). This is a sci-fi world. lol

[Memeotis]

While the ESF is still in game, there is no room/point to having a gunship unfortunately. The ESF doubles as a jet and helicopter and performs better than both. Also, because the ESF is so versatile, that AA has been made super-strong to counter it, meaning it would make even less sense to have a helicopter because it would get torn to shreds by AA.

[Lucidius]

Agreeing with Memeotis. P. much covers most of my issues with this on top of how flexible this design is.