Planetary dropoff

[WreckRoot]

No, I am not talking about programming difficulty. I am talking about narrative difficulty. It has to make sense. This is why I said "magically". It's bad enough from an immersion perspective that a ship cannot auto dock without that module but can auto land and depart from a planet surface.

This game already doesn't "make sense" in so many places that, to me, it really is not a stretch at all to expect my ship to be able to depart into supercruise without a pilot after dropping me off, given that:

• it can take off and land on its own
• it can follow you, fire its turreted weapons and even use shield cell banks on its own when you jump into a SLF

I'm not concerned with that.

Just as there's no difference between jumping between two systems 10LY apart and jumping between two systems 65K LY apart, but could you imagine creating that FSD that gives a single jump to anywhere? Or to simply drop out of super cruise where ever you are targeted on the navigation panel instantly? There needs to be a meaningful narrative.

Again, the ship can already do it. I'm not asking for anything that is not "already there" in your "narrative-speaking sense".

If Apex can drop you but only in conflict zones, it's because Apex uses a drop ship. You want your ship to have the same functions of a drop ship since that's already "in the game". (...) We are forced to find landing places if we want to get out on foot. Apex will not drop you above anything but a conflict zone, else they too must land.

Wrong, wrong, and wrong.

1. It's not Apex.
2. It's not some magical "drop ship". It's a Vulture, operated by Frontline Solutions. You can buy a Vulture too, you know? Also, the idea of modules has been in the game since day 1. The Vulture (like many other ships) has a place for an SRV hangar. If you mount it on the ship, then the belly of the ship becomes the hangar capable of dropping an SRV on the surface. The FS Vulture clearly has the same spot simply occupied by a different module, one that allows for drop-offs. It is perfectly reasonable given all the game's standard mechanics to conclude that if you mount that same drop-off module onto your Vulture then you should be able to drop-off from your ship all the same. I would also argue it should also work for any ship that can mount an SRV hangar.
3. It's not just conflict zones. Scavengers can drop off onto any random terrain that happens to be next to a randomly generated POI. Clearly expecting us to be able to do the same is not a stretch either.

Other than the coolness factor that would wear off after a few times, what gameplay does it bring that's needed in non-conflict zone activities?

I have already extensively deliberated on that at least twice in this thread. Dropping off like that would be useful whenever:

1. you expect your activity at the settlement might end up firing the alarms (which would have the settlement's defenses and NPCs target your landed ship, so you would want to dismiss it anyway)
2. you're on an extermination mission and the settlement is "tipped off", i.e. immediately hostile. Right now you have to drop off a long distance away and either run for 3 minutes or approach in an SRV, which in turn disincentivises you from on-foot combat (why get out and take shots when you can kill everyone coming at you with the SRV guns?)
3. you want to get off the ship quickly and closer to the settlement, without having to bother with tresspass zone.

Personally, I very much dislike the need to evade the settlement tresspass zone and looking for a landable spot, I would enjoy it much more if I could just jump off the ship close to the settlement and recall it later.

All that said, as I also mentioned in the OP, the main reason this should be considered in not necessarily the utility, but the fact it's a low-hanging fruit. The ships can already do this. Frontline Solutions Vultures can do this. Scavenger ships can do this. There's no reason why we shouldn't as well.

 

[Fizzatron]

I think it would be best implemented as an optional module, this way it would be a feature for a purpose and those who would prefer to just land can still do so without sacrificing an optional internal slot. Would be good to be able to drop out of the ship in an SRV as well.

This isn't really a new suggestion either, it has been asked that we can take missions to take on the Frontline dropship role. To do so would also require the same thing as being suggested here. There are some other good uses for it in terms of passenger missions too, especially picking up NPC refugees or prisoners escaping, being the getaway ship etc.. Though obviously these scenarios would need an expansion of current NPC abilities and leads into more complicated implementation.

 

[Ronzer]

Have you ever tried multicrew?
No bro, additional seats in taxi would lead to rage and complains, because you would have nearly 100% for disconnect of one of the squadmates, if your route would be longer than single cruise and single drop.

That is what I think too...I asked that, rhetorically.
I think the devs are just like us and have tried a lot of the things we've suggested, over the decade, and it's just not as easy as it sounds.