Odyssey desperately needs a dedicated dropship-class fighter.

[DemiserofD]

On the left, to scale, you have the LAAT Republic Gunship, of Star Wars fame. Capable of orbital insertions, capable of carrying 10 troops plus 2 pilots, equipped with three anti-personnel turrets and four laser cannons, it's basically the perfect device for getting troops to the battlefield.

On the right, also to scale, you have the Vulture. A ship twice as long, with thirty times the internal volume, yet inexplicably incapable of deploying any more troops than the LAAT, and which is clearly ill-designed for that purpose. It's clearly a dogfighter, not a ship meant to deploy troops to a battlefield.

What I'd love to see is for players to be deployed by LAAT-size fighters, which in turn are deployed from an orbiting support ship matching the faction that sent them. These would be extremely fast and nimble, able to get down to the CZ and drop off the troops before making a getaway, but relatively frail as well, allowing them to be destroyed in the right circumstances.

Unlike normal fighters, these have an FSD, but it's a class 1B; largely incapable of jumping to another system(outside of extremely niche scenarios), but are able to travel to the planet's surface. They would have weapons more on par with SRV cannons; mostly ineffective against other ships, but somewhat effective against humans.

If you really wanted to go cool with them, you could have a different one for each different faction! Bulky armored ones for the Feds, slow blocky ones for the Independents, and fast and sleek ones for the Imperials.

I think it would really enhance the ground experience. Thoughts?

 

[Dillon Fallon]

Federal Dropship

The Alliance Crusader would do for Alliance/Independents. You'd just need an equivalent Imperial ship. Something like a stubby winged Clipper so all could fit on a medium pad.

 

[dm06]

Thoughts?

Honestly I was not expecting vulture as a transport, it's kind of too "personal" in the approach deploying each trooper individually...
I'd rather expecting this:

 

[DemiserofD]

Federal Dropship

The Alliance Crusader would do for Alliance/Independents. You'd just need an equivalent Imperial ship. Something like a stubby winged Clipper so all could fit on a medium pad.

Unfortunately, the FDS is WAAAAY too big for the role.

It's more than twice the volume of the troopships in WW2 used to carry 2000+ troops!

 

[Northpin]

Well... Starship Troopers. The novel not the stupid movies
The Mobile Infantry gets launched from orbit in personal capsules and which are gradually discarded during various stages of descent

Sure, not exactly feasible in ED, but i still like that approach more than Vulture as dropship

 

[DemiserofD]

That's not far from what I'd like. I just think that if you're designing an entire ship for this purpose, it should also work in a fight.

That's why I think it should be weak enough to be taken down by people on foot, but equipped with weapons that let it fight back in equal measure. Give us some actual integrated air superiority! Not the current version with effortless shredding of the battlefield with missiles while the ground troops are helpless, but a situation where they can actually fight back.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Keelback?

 

[DemiserofD]

Keelback?

Unfortunately, even bigger than a Vulture. Better matched in terms of function, though.

Probably the most realistic ship of the existing lineup would be a Sidewinder.

Far better, in my opinion, would be a dedicated passenger fighter; consider that the F63 Condor is approximately the size of a Republic Starfighter, there clearly isn't a problem with ships that size. All it needs is a passenger bay strapped on below, and a tiny FSD to get it into a glide down to the planet and back up afterwards.

There's a definite window there, too, for new content. Fighters/SRVs designed for exploration and ground combat, rather than space combat. You could even have them sitting on the ground near conflict zones, available to fly by anyone on the ground!

 

[Rubbernuke]

Unfortunately, even bigger than a Vulture. Better matched in terms of function, though.

Probably the most realistic ship of the existing lineup would be a Sidewinder.

Far better, in my opinion, would be a dedicated passenger fighter; consider that the F63 Condor is approximately the size of a Republic Starfighter, there clearly isn't a problem with ships that size. All it needs is a passenger bay strapped on below, and a tiny FSD to get it into a glide down to the planet and back up afterwards.

There's a definite window there, too, for new content. Fighters/SRVs designed for exploration and ground combat, rather than space combat. You could even have them sitting on the ground near conflict zones, available to fly by anyone on the ground!

The ship that fits that (from what we have) is either the Adder or Hauler really. Obviously they are larger than what you envisage but have the layout for drops.

 

[LeoBartlet]

Keelback?

Challenger.

 

[DemiserofD]

The ship that fits that (from what we have) is either the Adder or Hauler really. Obviously they are larger than what you envisage but have the layout for drops.

Unfortunately, while it's better, it's still nowhere near what I'd call 'good'. At that point, it's hardly worth bothering to change anything at all.

 

[Stabby_Dave]

One of the problems, I think, Is that all of the ships in ED are soooo big. Even a courier - which is pretty much named for purpose - is over 40m in length. That's huge.

To have any comparison with real life troop carriers, you'd have to make them smaller by a factor of about 5.

 

[Rubbernuke]

One of the problems, I think, Is that all of the ships in ED are soooo big. Even a courier - which is pretty much named for purpose - is over 40m in length. That's huge.

To have any comparison with real life troop carriers, you'd have to make them smaller by a factor of about 5.

Something like a Mil 24 gunship is about 18m in length, which is the same as a Sidewinder (but the latter is much wider).

Back to the OP- unless gameplay that requires nimble ships is added I don't see the utility though. I'd love to see radars that sweep but have blind spots created by terrain (like deep canyons) that would make being nippy possible- but eve then ships we have now could do that.

 

[Northpin]

One of the problems, I think, Is that all of the ships in ED are soooo big. Even a courier - which is pretty much named for purpose - is over 40m in length. That's huge.

To have any comparison with real life troop carriers, you'd have to make them smaller by a factor of about 5.

Yeap.
An Eagle is as big as a Boeing 737 or Airbus 320.

A Chinook (dual rotor military helicopter transport) has a 16m length fuselage and it can carry 30+ troops

An Eagle has 31m length, Vulture - 43m, Adder -31m, Hauler - 28m.
Sidewinder is 15m long, but 21m wide - still big, but most probably should have been the dropship for EDO.

 

[DemiserofD]

Something like a Mil 24 gunship is about 18m in length, which is the same as a Sidewinder (but the latter is much wider).

Back to the OP- unless gameplay that requires nimble ships is added I don't see the utility though. I'd love to see radars that sweep but have blind spots created by terrain (like deep canyons) that would make being nippy possible- but eve then ships we have now could do that.

Gameplay involving nimbleness does somewhat exist already; on-foot combat. An srv, for example, is quite powerful in on foot combat, but unless it is able to evade fire, and stay in cover, it will quickly go down.

These ships could fill the same Niche; not only as a Troop Carrier, but also as Airborne fire support. And then, you could have standard Fighters flying around, attacking them, and other Fighters, fighting the first Fighters.

 

[Rubbernuke]

I mean, could you forget the dropship and reuse the escape pods and go Quake 2? So you assemble in the orbiting megaship / fleet carrier, go to the pod and press drop and pop you appear at the CZ at a designated drop spot?

 

[DemiserofD]

I mean, could you forget the dropship and reuse the escape pods and go Quake 2? So you assemble in the orbiting megaship / fleet carrier, go to the pod and press drop and pop you appear at the CZ at a designated drop spot?

You could, but that would remove the potential for a lot of interesting gameplay.

That's one of the main problems I have with using a vulture as the drop-off ship; it basically fills the same role as a drop pod, but in an unrealistic manner. It feels vaguely akin to using a tank to drop off six soldiers, and then driving the tank back without firing a shot. Not only is it not designed for the role, it's also not doing the one thing it actually is good at.

I want to replace the tank with a Humvee, with a small machine gun on top. Designed to do both the primary role as well as support on the side.

 

[Rubbernuke]

In that case, you could repurpose the Goliath drones perhaps?

 

[DemiserofD]

In that case, you could repurpose the Goliath drones perhaps?

That's an amazing idea!

Take a Goliath and slap on a troop pod underneath. Players can control the missiles or plasma repeaters. It's perfect!

 

[ubermick]

The fact that the Dropship isn't one of the ones that got the four seats is bizarre to me.

IT'S A DROPSHIP FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!!