Make choppers able to drop repair stations
Posted: 2010-08-15 03:53
I searched for "repair station" and "chopper repair" and I didn't come up with anything, must say I'm surprised.
Ok so, sometimes, deep into enemy territory, you can't get a repair station. Birds can fly dangerously to drop supply crates to needed soldiers, but that tracked vehicle is history. Or perhaps that shot-down bird is about to blow up.
Why? A truck might be too slow, or not have the ability to dodge checkpoints along the road. A chopper can fly in quick and fly out fast - of course there are its downsides, but the fact that it is faster could save the crew's and the vehicle's life. I've been there, where just a few seconds difference could have saved my downed chopper.
To prevent exploits (ex. Chopper gets shot down and drops repair station next to him to self-repair), perhaps we could make a "savage" chopper -- a 6-seater chopper that can drop repair stations. It would have 1 pilot, 2 gunners (machine guns on the sides) and 3 empty seats (or 2 if you have a co-pilot) to extract, for example, crewman from an APC which got blown up, and instead of calling an egg-shell to rescue them, they call in an egg-shell with guns so they have at least SOME protection against, lets say, infantry and light vehicles (supposing we are talking about a huey here in an insurgency map or Muttrah or other city maps). In US Army maps like Kashan, I think the BH should be able to drop it...
To make these dropable from a savage chopper is easy - you simply don't give them supply crates to prevent super-vesatile choppers.
If you want to make it so transport choppers can drop them (which I don't think is the best option... I find that another kind of chopper - a unrespawnable one - could be better?), just make so the left-click drops the repair station (or make it "weapon selective").
SAVAGE CHOPPER vs TRANSPORT CHOPPER
So, should we have a savage chopper or a transport chopper with repair stations?
Savage Chopper
Pros: -equiped with MGs agains light vehicles and infantry surrounding the downed vehicle.
-more valuable to the team
-more rewarding to shoot down (if you are enemy)
-prevents super-chopper for game balance
Cons: -one, three (gunners) or four (co-pilot) less soldiers in the front
-perhaps too valuable to be risked?
Transport Chopper
Pros: -widely available
-versatile (drop repair stations, drop supply crates and transports troops)
-easy to be done (just simple coding to add the repair station to its "gun rack"?)
Cons: -supper-chopper, extremely versatile and widely available could unbalance gameplay, due to the fact that it could do everything
-unprotected, is an egg-shell against even a lone rifleman
-could create exploitable situations where a chopper gets shot down, but not blown up, and repairs itself
Or perhaps just make so some hueys and trans choppers have repair stations instead of crates, with all the seats available and no guns? Just needs to be marked! (Perhaps "savage" written on its tail?)
What do you guys think? I believe it could work great in maps like Muttrah City and Operation Archer, if we cannot hoist the vehicles to safety (that's hardcoded, right?)
Also one minor suggestion, but I don't know if it is a resuggestion. Could we make so the combat engineer's wrench can repair a vehicle to the point where it isn't tracked anymore (if he ever got tracked in the first place), so he can RTB back to base but is still very vulnerable to weak explosives?
Ok so, sometimes, deep into enemy territory, you can't get a repair station. Birds can fly dangerously to drop supply crates to needed soldiers, but that tracked vehicle is history. Or perhaps that shot-down bird is about to blow up.
Why? A truck might be too slow, or not have the ability to dodge checkpoints along the road. A chopper can fly in quick and fly out fast - of course there are its downsides, but the fact that it is faster could save the crew's and the vehicle's life. I've been there, where just a few seconds difference could have saved my downed chopper.
To prevent exploits (ex. Chopper gets shot down and drops repair station next to him to self-repair), perhaps we could make a "savage" chopper -- a 6-seater chopper that can drop repair stations. It would have 1 pilot, 2 gunners (machine guns on the sides) and 3 empty seats (or 2 if you have a co-pilot) to extract, for example, crewman from an APC which got blown up, and instead of calling an egg-shell to rescue them, they call in an egg-shell with guns so they have at least SOME protection against, lets say, infantry and light vehicles (supposing we are talking about a huey here in an insurgency map or Muttrah or other city maps). In US Army maps like Kashan, I think the BH should be able to drop it...
To make these dropable from a savage chopper is easy - you simply don't give them supply crates to prevent super-vesatile choppers.
If you want to make it so transport choppers can drop them (which I don't think is the best option... I find that another kind of chopper - a unrespawnable one - could be better?), just make so the left-click drops the repair station (or make it "weapon selective").
SAVAGE CHOPPER vs TRANSPORT CHOPPER
So, should we have a savage chopper or a transport chopper with repair stations?
Savage Chopper
Pros: -equiped with MGs agains light vehicles and infantry surrounding the downed vehicle.
-more valuable to the team
-more rewarding to shoot down (if you are enemy)
-prevents super-chopper for game balance
Cons: -one, three (gunners) or four (co-pilot) less soldiers in the front
-perhaps too valuable to be risked?
Transport Chopper
Pros: -widely available
-versatile (drop repair stations, drop supply crates and transports troops)
-easy to be done (just simple coding to add the repair station to its "gun rack"?)
Cons: -supper-chopper, extremely versatile and widely available could unbalance gameplay, due to the fact that it could do everything
-unprotected, is an egg-shell against even a lone rifleman
-could create exploitable situations where a chopper gets shot down, but not blown up, and repairs itself
Or perhaps just make so some hueys and trans choppers have repair stations instead of crates, with all the seats available and no guns? Just needs to be marked! (Perhaps "savage" written on its tail?)
What do you guys think? I believe it could work great in maps like Muttrah City and Operation Archer, if we cannot hoist the vehicles to safety (that's hardcoded, right?)
Also one minor suggestion, but I don't know if it is a resuggestion. Could we make so the combat engineer's wrench can repair a vehicle to the point where it isn't tracked anymore (if he ever got tracked in the first place), so he can RTB back to base but is still very vulnerable to weak explosives?