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1: NC

2: NC and TR

3: NC, TR and Vanu

[beorn080]

I really doubt the rumble seats in the Valkyrie are going to be useful for much beyond repair. We don't see many rumble seat Flashes or Harassers.

Some people will probably find it useful, but almost certainly not enough to cause a plague worthy of the nerf bat.

Flash and harasser seats are both limited by the lack of positioning on them. Plus, they both face backwards, which means when driving towards an enemy, the rumble seat can't do anything.

The reason I see the Lasher being an issue on the rumble seats of the Valk? From personal use over the past few days, it EXPONENTIALLY gets better when you can fire down on your target from above. The issue is of course cone of fire, and when your cone is aimed basically flat across, it hits a wide area. If you can aim downwards into a doorway, nothing is getting out of that door. If you have two kitted Heavies on a flyer, you can rain down death anywhere. Find a sundy surrounded by engies and semi idlers? Disco party. An emplacement of snipers that's keeping the zerg locked down? Disco party. Cover is the counter to the lasher, but from the air cover is far more limited.

[Jim Groovester]

But the people on the ground can shoot the Lasher heavies off. And the Lasher doesn't have that good DPS, especially without direct hits, so the people on the ground will have opportunity to shoot back.

[beorn080]

But the people on the ground can shoot the Lasher heavies off. And the Lasher doesn't have that good DPS, especially without direct hits, so the people on the ground will have opportunity to shoot back.

Against good folk, yes. However, I've stood in a closed tower for maybe five minutes at a time against a foot zerg that kept clustering on a hillside across from the tower. Got a good 10 kills out of it too. The tendency I've seen when using the lasher tends to be Oh no a red indicator on my hud, run and hide, even if its minimal damage. It's why chasing away low skill ESF's is so easy. Oh crap I took a hit better boost out of this area and repair. Oh, it was just a sliver, lets go OH CRAP ANOTHER HIT RUN.

[Sonlirain]

But the people on the ground can shoot the Lasher heavies off. And the Lasher doesn't have that good DPS, especially without direct hits, so the people on the ground will have opportunity to shoot back.

Against good folk, yes. However, I've stood in a closed tower for maybe five minutes at a time against a foot zerg that kept clustering on a hillside across from the tower. Got a good 10 kills out of it too. The tendency I've seen when using the lasher tends to be Oh no a red indicator on my hud, run and hide, even if its minimal damage. It's why chasing away low skill ESF's is so easy. Oh crap I took a hit better boost out of this area and repair. Oh, it was just a sliver, lets go OH CRAP ANOTHER HIT RUN.

That's because AA is pretty damn overpowered and unless you react instantly you are dead end even with that you are often dead anyways because you flew into a 100 meter death zone generated by an attentive skyguard.

[sambojin]

Do ammo packs on the ground replenish ammo for those in the rumble seats if you land on one? Could make for a nice little mini-airbase for continuous hit and run attacks.

Jump out, drop ammo pack, repair Valk, while your heavies get their disco lazors recharged. You could have a Valk base anywhere you can land as an engy. And two HAs and an engy make for a nice little strike force/AT team even if you stay on foot. With a Medic gunner perhaps?

Even if the heavies have to get out to restock, its not really a huge problem. Supa-flying tank to the rescue!

[DJ]

Or you could try to get an ammo pack stuck in the rumble seat. Heck, I managed to keep one on the hood of my lightning until it got blown up, and I got the occasional resupply xp when driving near friendly infantry.

[Jim Groovester]

They do indeed resupply people in rumble seats.

I've tried throwing the ammo pack inside the Valkyrie. It doesn't stick. Considering you currently have to tip nearly completely vertical or horizontal just to maneuver around, I don't think it ever could.

[sambojin]

Since a fair few people seem to be talking about the Valk:squad ratio, here's a fun little thing to try when it goes live.

Have 3 valks with engies as pilots, 6 heavies, gunners optional. No difference so far.

But now, find an area, throw down a mana turret (AI, not AT) with an ammo pack beside it. Get the other two engies to do the same, a hundred or so metres apart, in a nice little line. Then all jump in the valks and go marauding.

The upside? You've got a self-made resupply strip that you don't actually have to land at. Just swoop along the line of mana turrets (that should stand out due to shielding) and get pinged by all three ammo packs in succession, one after another. Spacing will have to be worked out, but you and your friends will all have their heavies nicely stocked, and you'll never have to set foot on the ground again. Ever. Unless you take damage of course.

Mana turret airstrips should look quite pretty at night I think. Perpetual aerial disco is go!

edit: Can you jump from a rumble seat to the pilot's seat? Or is it whoever pulled the Valk is the only possible pilot? I know you can go from pilot to gunner and back, but I'm not sure about rumble seat swaps. Because if you can, swap your engy to gunner, a HA to pilot, then the engy to rumble. Then repair on the fly. It would make having the gunner's seat open an advantage for seat shuffling. Never walk again. Ever.

edit 2: Also, are aerial shotguns any good as an anti-ESF/Valk weapon? Sort of like flak weapons for a Valk, just not. At least you won't miss entirely, and constant hit-pings do a fair bit to drive off air vehicles. A LMG/launcher combo is better, but even as an air-to-ground AI technique, aerial shotgunner might be fun.

[Duuvian]

Pellet shotgun spread, travel speed and damage dropoff make them bad at damaging distant aircraft. Up close they can do some damage though. As you said it would not be too hard to land some pellets at long range though. Shotguns pellets look cool flying through the air too.

Rumble seats on the Harasser and flash are instant switch with the driver or gunner, so I'd guess it's the same on the Valkyrie. I'd rather they couldn't switch out and that repairs were disabled entirely from the rumble seat so you would see less empty or engy only rumble seats for the harasser but it's not that important I guess. Harassers feel like they are in a nice place now.

Also I was wrong about the new Canister. It seems pretty good, though I haven't gunned one yet. I was on my TR and VS characters while I was fiddling with useroptions and I was insta-killed a few times by it. I've also seen a lot of Vanguards while I was on NC that had canister on top, but I thought that was due them trying it out.

[Aseaheru]

LMGs make grand emergency AA pieces. Even with the starter LMGs (not just the godsaw) you can get some major damage on fighters...

[Sonlirain]

LMGs make grand emergency AA pieces. Even with the starter LMGs (not just the godsaw) you can get some major damage on fighters...

True. You need areound 170 LMG bullets (at least for TR MCG) to down a ESF so unless you are running extended mags you simply can't down a ESF in one clip... of course 2 heavies surely can but it required an utterly retarded or laggin/disconnected ESF pilot.

[Rex_Nex]

Yep. Still, just throwing some rounds into a ESF taking actual AA fire (or one that's smoking) can net you occasional kills. Sometimes I try to pester people away with them, but half the time it's some BR98 360 noscope ESF flier who has no issues finding and nuking me in a matter of moments... so yeah, I try not to shoot ESFs unless they are occupied.

[DJ]

Organized squads take down ESFs with small arms fire pretty fast.

[Aseaheru]

And then theres the times when they decide to go after you, in the middle of nowhere, with noone else arround... And when they cant shoot for shit.

[Sonlirain]

And then theres the times when they decide to go after you, in the middle of nowhere, with noone else arround... And when they cant shoot for shit.

They have rockets for that... and usually can get out if they get too low.