Question about people/troop transport
- Thread starter Oneprophet
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Ah sorry i misread your original response i must be on crack or something.
Richard Bong
Space Marshal
HALO, really?
Heinlein did it best. Drop pods and automated retrieval boats, dumping a platoon from the smaller ships and a Company from the bigger ships of the fleet. Oh and they were in Marauder Suits, or what CIG is talking about with "Titan Suits."
Warhammer 40K has had their versions in the mid 80's. One squad or Dreadnaught per pod.
HALO is just rehashing the same old stuff. :)
Richard Bong
Space Marshal
Completely unrealistic, especially if you have to take into account suit breaches. No Military is going to accept that limitation on GROPOs.
I suppose battlezones without atmospheres will be ship based. Even if it became Tonk war, a track comes off and that crew is stranded with no hope of survival. I can't think of any point that would be strategic enough without an atmosphere... other than a moon whos orbit intersects an enemy base on the planet below and you want to build a mass driver to Rods from the Gods the thing to pieces but then we've got 'tali bombers, so they'd have to be pretty cheap rods...
Shadow Reaper
Space Marshal
Drop ships are for settings where the actual transport can't land on a beachhead, planet, dock with a ship, etc. In Star Citizen, almost all the ships players will have regular access to can land planetside. I'm pretty sure even the Idris can land. Not sure about the Javelin, and probably the Bengal cannot. Point is, only those players and NPCs transporting aboard ships that cannot land, need a drop ship.
That aside, some ships are far better at taking hits than others. Think of this as the difference between a Humvee and a Striker. Retaliators, and Hoplites can take a heavy hit, but the Cutty cannot. We don't know about the Redeemer and Prowler yet, but it looks like they are designed to take pounding. So just as you can transport troops in a Humvee (Cutty) they will be vulnerable to attack in ways they will not if they are in a fast, stealth or heavily armed and armored transport (three modes of evading/surviving.) Any choice of troop transport ought to look to optimize one of these three modes at the least. The Prowler is massively expensive because it optimizes two of these modes, and the stealth mode is very rare.
You're thinking about it the wrong way, a fortress/bunker that's well defended on an airless planet/moon is even harder to assault. Even if there's no value to the location in resources or defending a route to something, it would be a good location for some kind of high security lab, prison, vault, research station, or manufacturing plant. Other than space, it would be an ideal location for biological research since nothing of value would be lost if quarantine was breached and you don't have to worry things spreading too much either.
Shadow Reaper
Space Marshal
Even locations with nothing of value can become battlegrounds when the prize of a nice ship is at stake. Anyone who finds a derelict Bengal is likely going to fight to keep it.
Richard Bong
Space Marshal
Just because there is no atmosphere does not mean there are not things there worth fighting over.
The obvious being mineral resources.
You can't always put a unit down right on the target either. Sometimes you have to maneuver to a target, which is likely to take hours, especially if you are attempting to fight through a layered defense or achieve surprise.
Advance on the target, seize the target, return to the evac point and evac, is likely, even in a game, to take significantly longer than an hour and a half.
And remember none of the drop ships we have seen carry both a squad and their vehicles. Though it may be that 3 Retaliators could carry a Platoon and enough Tumbrils to carry the platoon.
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Shadow Reaper
Space Marshal
I doubt a Tally can carry a Tumbril, but my guess is a Hull C can.
Richard Bong
Space Marshal
A Retaliator Cargo Bay is longer than an Ursa Rover and the forward bay should fit one of those. (I have driven one under my Tali.) The rear bay should be too narrow for an Ursa but wide enough for a Cyclone. Of course since the Tali has to be reworked before it can be made modular and the Cyclone isn't ion game this is entirely speculation at this point. :slight_smile:
Based on the size of the bays and the stated size of the cyclones the rear cargo bay should be very close to being able to carry 2. The Front bay should also be able to carry two. From a lore standpoint, this should be possible or there is little point in the Drop Ship module for the Tali. :slight_smile:
Based on the capacity of dropships, a squad should be 6 members. A Platoon is likely to be 2 rifle squads, a heavy weapons squad, a command group (Best guess on the command group Platoon Leader, Platoon Sergeant, Corpsman, and Comms/Fire Support NCO.) and a sniper team (Sniper and Spotter). Using the Tumbril TR, and presuming the measurements are correct, that would mean 2 Tumbril TR in the rear bay of each of the two carrying troops, 3 Tumbril TR and 2 Dragon Fly in the third Retaliator.
Platoon Sergeant and Sniper team gets a bike, everyone else goes Rat Patrol style. :slight_smile:
And none of the Hull Series makes a decent dropship. :)