B0nes

Actually, I find that vegetation often prevents me from getting a good hull down position. If you pop your turret just over the crest of a hill all you can see are Red arrows (assuming no jammers) and tall grass. The bots can see you though. I usually try to pick a spot with no vegetation when I'm trying to get hull down.

The 120mm is the biggest direct fire weapon mounted on a vehicle. It takes a bit of skill to use especially trying to hit moving targets at range (as opposed to the Ion, ATGM, Artillery and rapid fire cannon). Too many times I hit an AFV with 120mm AP or HEAT to no visible effect. Today I hit a Paladin 3 or 4 times with HEAT and it still killed me. Arguably the Ion and ATGM are better at long range. The 76mm better at medium (because of it's rapid ROF) and the 20mm superior close up. At least the Thor can absorb more damage allowing you more time to finish off opponents. At the moment I feel that there is no good reason to use the Apollo KC-H (I've never seen anyone use any of the other Apollo variants). The wheeled and hover AFV's are faster. The Paladin is tougher. Therefore the Apollo should have a gun that can reliably take out opponents to make it a viable platform. The reason you'll still see me in an Apollo KC-H is because it feels very rewarding getting a long range hit on a moving target. Or taking out a Thor from the front because you managed to hit that sweet spot on the track. That's when I enjoy the game the most. Given that other weapons are much easier to use (IMHO) I feel strongly that good gunnery should be rewarded with a weapon that can reliably kill what it hits. Anyone agree/disagree?

Hey! Just what you see pal!

Yep. Agree with you about the 120mm. I was in a close range duel with a Paladin ATGM (bot controlled). I got the first shot in. No visible result. While waiting for the 120 to reload he takes me out. I dropped twice more with the same result. Each time I was aiming for the battery or low centre of mass. So I lost 3 Apollo 120's trying to take out that Paladin. 4th time I dropped someone else had put it out of my misery! Someone is going to say that I should engage at range using the Apollo 120mm. At range AP's lose their power due to air resistance. Trying to hit a speeding Paladin at a distance with a HEAT round requires a bit of luck/fancy gunnery. BJ, try the Thor Ion. It takes out deployables with a couple of hits. The gunnery view can be zoomed in 4x. I've taken out several Thor 120mm's defending an objective. Takes a little while though. It is a bit boring to use however.

Used the Ion Thor a fair bit tonight. Defo the most effective platform I've used. Really racked up the kills. In one game me and Crimson were double-teaming with Ions on targets. They didn't last long. We racked up 37 kills between us (a lot were deployables). At long range they are invulnerable to all accept ATGM's. They can't be intercepted by AAD. Disadvantage: If someone fast gets close to you then you're in trouble. Also a bit boring and easy to use. I probably annoyed the hell out of people camping on a hill and sniping away. I got a bit disillusioned with the Apollo 120. I was pumping rounds at close range into Paladins and they were soaking them up and dishing it out to me. An AP round at close range should gut them.

I was thinking more along the lines of making the foliage easier to look through - especially from an infantry point of view. I've had very little success using infantry against vehicles. Successful tactics seem to involve flying in and landing right next to a stationary AFV before firing at point blank range. Hiding in concealed terrain in order to spring an ambush almost never works because they can't see a thing without standing up.

Any one have this issue? You're advancing towards the crest of a hill to get a good hull down position relative to enemy AFV's on the other side. As your turret pops over the crest you see the opponent Red Triangles but the vehicles themsleves are obscured by vegetation so you can't tell what they are, their facing etc. They can see you no problem and shoot away. You can either shoot blind, retreat or move forward until your LOS is unobstructed and you're no longer hull down (This is exacerbated if you are in an Apollo as the Turret is at the rear of the vehicle so you have to expose more of the vulnerable hull). Also: When infantry are prone hiding in the grass they have an almost completely obstructed first person view because of the vegetation. It makes it very hard to ambush the oblivious AFV trundling past without standing up. (btw: It'd be great if infantry could kneel) I don't want to disable vegetation in the graphics options. On a positive note may I say how impressed I am with the speed and quality of the game updates. Big thank you to Clay and the team. Purchasing this game was certainly money well spent!

Yeah, I was at a loss too until I Googled it last night. .rar files are WinRAR compressed format files similar to Winzip files. Download 7-zip for free and you can use it to extract the files from the .rar container to the Dropteam\data folder. Hope this helps.

Yeah, infantry is very good when used in conjunction with vehicles. You were putting them to good use today BB.

It was a damn close run thing (to paraphrase Wellington). It was Hamburger Hill at the end there. :cool: I think the attacker seems to have the advantage in those types of scenarios. Bots don't defend too well. Almost every one of those I've played the attackers have won. As for defender tactics: Dig in using the Cutter. Get those Thors hull down. Put AA Turrets all over the map so that the attacker can only come from one direction. Funnel him with mine fields and harass with Ground Turrets and ATGM's as they approach. Attacker: Use Mortars and Arty to soften up. Stop the bots from going in ones and twos. Drop an EMP and smoke and send them in all at once. Sounds good in theory anyway...

A superb idea. Cover these umbrellas in tinfoil (or aluminum foil as you might say) and they could be used to deflect ion beams straight back at the shooter!

Request: Is it possible to have less CTF missions on the Delta_Pavonis server? I generally use this server as it has the best ping for me. About 7 out of every 10 missions are CTF which isn't ideal when it's mostly bots you're up against. Unrelated question: Why is the Thor's turret so large compared with say the Apollo's? It doesn't carry any more ammo...

What about creating them offline so they're ready to go for network play?

What do you make of this idea? I was thinking that Dropteam reminds me a bit of Steel Beasts (Tank Sim) and a game you've probably never heard of called Parkan: Iron Strategy. Parkan was a cross between an FPS, Sim and RTS. Basically you captured enemy installations with a variety of robots (Small, Medium, Large and Tracked, Wheeled, Flying or Walking) You could give your bots orders or take control of them directly. One of the coolest features was that you designed your own Bots from a huge variety of parts. There were multiple chassis and turret types and all sorts of weapon types each with their own particular advantages. Could this design-your-own feature work in Dropteam? Example: You want to change the armour configuration on the basic Thor. You can opt to stay with the default. Or, at the expense of overall armour protection, add some Reactive armour that'll protect you somewhat from ATGM's. Or maybe Reflective armour to defeat Ion beams. Or reduce the armour and ammo loadout for a gain in some speed. You'd probably want to limit the modifications that could be made so that the different units didn't lose their distinctiveness. There's no point having a Thor that's got the same characteristics as an Apollo. This feature could add an extra layer of strategy to the game. Will the other team use reactive armour to nullify my ATGM units? Are those defending Thors the slower Ultra-Heavy Armour variants?

Thanks Yurch. I guess the bots were hitting the "sweet spot" on my Thor. Or do the bots just aim at centre of mass? Looking fwd to playing a game with all you guys at some stage. Being in Dublin means I've got timezone problems. It's usually just me an' the bots.

My first post: I'm in a Thor head to head with another bot controlled Thor. I get the first shot in (AP at close range) and I aim at the lower front hull (where the frontal armour is weakest). We trade blows and my Thor blows up first. This has happened to me a few times and I was wondering what am I doing wrong? :confused: I notice when I fire at the lower hull there is a small explosion on the ground in front of the Thor as though my shot has bounced back and in to the dirt. I know you're thinking I got the range wrong and the gun isn't sufficiently elevated. But since this has happened a few times... Any thoughts? BTW, great game. It's like Steel Beasts but more accessible. Would like to see more players on the 1.02 servers. I notice the demo server is very popular. Another question while I think of it: I play on the Delta_Pavonis server as it has the best ping for me (120 to 140). Why are most of the games CTF?