Volyboom, legacy considerations and ground attack shenanigans

[Hellakitty]

Ground attacks would naturally push ship build variety too; see A-10 Warthog for irl example.

I made an armoured DBX with a multicannon along the centreline and dumbfires on the side pods. Even bought a paintpack so I could colour it like an attack chopper.

Then I realised there's nowhere to use it, and it's been yet another hangar queen for the last year.

 

[Hellakitty]

I loved the way the skimmers popped when they got hit. The graphics and sounds effect were great. Like you I chuckle every time I remember it.

And the way Celeste says 'incoming mission critical message' in that sultry filthy French accent of hers over and over again. Reminds me of my first girlfriend, although those weren't the words she used to say over and over again.

 

[Red Anders]

The money exploit aside, I too would like to see this come back.
I remember doing missile strafe runs way back before they nerfed it the first time. Not challenging, but still a lot of fun.

Exactly this. What is the 'fix' they've gone for, just making skimmers and other ground targets impossible to target and damage from a ship again? If so, that's the lamest way I can possibly imagine doing it - ground attack gameplay is great fun and like you, I still miss it from back when it was originally in the game. Surely to God it's not beyond the dev team to come up with a way of keeping the entertainment whilst removing the ability to make ludicrous amounts of credits from it if that's what bothers them so much?

Edit: I've seen the thread now, removed pending review and stuff. Mkay, I sincerely hope they can actually fix the issue without removing the gameplay. Fingers crossed.

 

[Andovar]

Exactly this. What is the 'fix' they've gone for, just making skimmers and other ground targets impossible to target and damage from a ship again? If so, that's the lamest way I can possibly imagine doing it - ground attack gameplay is great fun and like you, I still miss it from back when it was originally in the game. Surely to God it's not beyond the dev team to come up with a way of keeping the entertainment whilst removing the ability to make ludicrous amounts of credits from it if that's what bothers them so much?

From what I remember, the first nerf wasn't at all about money, it was that they didn't like the fact that you could so easily complete these skimmer-kill missions. It wasn't the 'intended gameplay', and looked at as a bit of a loophole (same thing when people were playing bumber-cars with the skimmers).

It was designed as ground/SRV content, so by golly, that's how you must do it!!

I fully understand the monetary nerfs, but never really understood some of these other changes. Especially when it seems like quite a few players were enjoying this for reasons besides money.

Again, I'd be totally fine with them adding more security and base defenses, but don't remove these things making cheap changes like simply reducing splash damage or making the skimmers essentially floating mines.

C'mon FD, bring air assaults back! Just make them challenging. (and appropriate/reasonable pay) ...pretty please?

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Exactly this. What is the 'fix' they've gone for, just making skimmers and other ground targets impossible to target and damage from a ship again? If so, that's the lamest way I can possibly imagine doing it - ground attack gameplay is great fun and like you, I still miss it from back when it was originally in the game. Surely to God it's not beyond the dev team to come up with a way of keeping the entertainment whilst removing the ability to make ludicrous amounts of credits from it if that's what bothers them so much?

Edit: I've seen the thread now, removed pending review and stuff. Mkay, I sincerely hope they can actually fix the issue without removing the gameplay. Fingers crossed.

Same.

 

[BDelacroix]

Air/Space superiority is a thing for a reason.

 

[zombieapocalypse]

Said the same thing on another thread yesterday...

FDev need to get hold of a copy of "G-Police", play it for a couple of weeks to get an idea of what it's all about, and then put it all into surface missions in ED.

Basically, the entire thing only involves a handful of simple mechanics:-
1) Follow waypoints.
2) Follow a mission-critical asset.
3) Scan things.
4) Destroy enemies.
5) Protect friendlies.

Surely it can't be that hard to implement similar things in ED?

Course, a solid first step would be to have some NPCs just randomly trundling around in SRVs, eh?

G-Police. There's a blast from the past! I'd almost completely forgotten about it, despite playing it loads and loving it back in the day. And yeah, that could make for some fun surface gameplay.

 

[ocflyer]

Isn't it amazing how the skimmers blow up but the buildings are indestructible. The paint on the buildings isn't scorched.

Ok, so the payments were getting silly but FD, circling those bases raining firey death rain on hapless skimmers was so much bloody fun, I'm still giggling the day after. Please do not remove the ability to whack skimmers with splash damage, in fact you should expand it. We could have massive fortresses to blitz from above, then land and pick through the remains in the Scarab.

 

[Pville_Piper]

SRV on a hillside, painting the targets in a well-defended ground complex for a.....

Big ship launching guided missiles while dodging AA plasma repeaters and SAM attacks while....

Fighter cover takes on the ships that keep jumping in to attack the wing while....

Support ship works away firing off hull repair limpets and ammo synth limpets.

There. A wing mission.

I'm in... I mean, "Roger Bravo leader, dumbfires armed, am commencing attack run now".