DropShips

Imo speed unload, like unload all units at the same time as opposed to one by one.

 

That dropship is pulling a command center i bet...

 

I don't think giving the dropship any direct offensive capabilities would be good for balance. I think a speed upgrade would be fine.

My own suggestion is to have the dropship slowly repair onboard units. I don't think it should be for both bionic AND mechanic, but rather just one or the other. I think auto repair for mechanical units would be more valuable all things considered.

 

I dont think wraiths will return for starcraft 2 and the viking already has the transform ability so cloaking could go to the dropships

 

REMY that is a really interesting idea, the ability to heal/repair units while inside the dropship
It makes sense

I too think it would be better for mechanical units such as seige tanks and vikings because you already have the medic to heal the marines and reapers. In SC1 the SCVs could repair things like goliaths and seige tanks. Great idea!


Ackbar... no as far as we know the wraith has been replaced by banshee or cobra or sumthing

 

the cobra is like the vulture and the banshee is for ground attack i was saying the cloak ability from wraiths which arent in sc2 could be for dropships

 

ohhh ok i see, yeah a cloaked drop ship would be very interesting

speaking of cloaking, every team needs a mobile detector

the protoss have observers, the zerg have overlords, what will the terrans have?? its possible that the science vessel has been removed, maybe the dropship can be a detector. That sounds reasonable

 

that would make it less unique, as 2 races would have a troop transport/detector.
we have yet to see an aerial caster for terran, so i would assume that the would be the detectors.

 

It has been said that Banshee has cloaking, hasn't it? I'm pretty sure this was the case.

And about my dropship auto repair idea, I'm pretty sure SCVs will still be able to repair mechanical units and buildings in SC2. It is even quite possible for SCVs to have autocast repair. But either way, that's good back in your base or on the battlefield, you really don't have time or transport space to carry around SCVs to repair your drop units.

If dropships could slowly repair mechanical units onboard, it would allow a Terran player to stay more mobile and get more mileage out of drop strats. You could drop tanks or cobras and do some damage, then quickly load them back up to harass/assault another part of the base or a different expo. Since your damaged units will be slowly repaired, it will grant them overall better logevity, and in turn you'll be make a few more runs from the same batch of drop units as long as you micro them well.

I think this will also be good for gameplay as it would emphasize the importance of taking out dropships, even more so than before. A defending player would be faced with the decision of whether to focus on taking out the dropship as first priority or deal with the cobras running amuck. Better skilled players would also be rewarded by being able to overcome the situation with good micro.

 

wow. you've put a lot of thought in this. that auto repair looks better and better.

and with the autocasting repair for SCVs, i really hope that the incorporate it, since it was so useful in WC3.

 

Very interesting idea, Remy. If they do implement that feature, I would hope the Dropship would be the weakest of the three transport units health wise. And the Banshee has picked up the cloaking feature from the Wraith. Stealth bombers, anyone?

 

BOMBS! No air unit, Terran or Protoss is a bomber, I like the idea... maybe it can have to build the bombs like a reaver or carrier did

good idea kehmdaddy owerup:

 

umm... the banshee is a bomber. a cloak-able bomber.

 

Haha yeah that was kind of what I was getting at too burkid, but come to think of it, that is an interesting idea. Maybe allow it to be able to build and hold one or two bombs at a time like the Reaver. Not too powerful though, maybe similar to a Reaver's scarab damage. It would make them very useful at taking out specific structures or flying over and taking out a bunch of weaker units, especially workers. Since they can cloak, it would probably be most fair if the bombs were pretty expensive and they could only hold one at a time.

 

hmm... i thought it was a sort of missile volley to the ground.

 

I think it should be able to hold more than 1 bomb at a time, look at the reaver!!

I was thinking maybe it can have two modes, stealth and bombing. In stealth mode, it is invisible, but cannot bomb. In bombing mode, it is visible but can drop its payload. I also thought maybe you can have it drop one bomb at a time, but as an ability it can drop 3 in quick succession to take out a heavily armored target quickly.

Just an idea

 

or maybe, it has cloak mode and visible mode, in cloak mode its invisible and can attack, and in visible mode it can be seen and attack. like every other unit that can cloak

 

I still think speed boost or faster unloading would be better. But if they do healing I think it would be better to have it be infantry only. The dropship is primarily a infanty transport and having an onboard medic makes more sense.

 

Actually tank drop would be right there at the top of the list of Terran drop strats. I would have to disagree that the dropship is primarily an infantry transport, not sure where you got that from.

Another reason why repair for mechanical instead of healing for infantry is that you would have medics with you anyway. Medics automatically heal your infantry so a healing dropship wouldn't be much needed. Infantry units also have very small HP pools compared to mechanical units, it is important that the healing happens during the fighting instead of after because how easy it is for infantry units to be killed off because of low max HP. Basically, the healing has to be for mechanical units to be meaningful if it's even there at all.

About speed boost, I feel that the dropship could us a very small increase in movement speed, right from the start without researching upgrades. But you can only boost speed of unit transports only so much to a certain point, basically not that much. Because gameplay wise, other air units have to be able to hunt them down without too much difficulty. For gameplay balance, unit transports can not be allowed to be able to outrun combat air units. Drop success, by design, comes from evading your opponent's recon efforts and surprising them, not from out-speeding anything.

 

I have a great idea that would make the dropship survive longer in the battlefield, they should have side windows. Whenever a marine, ghost, or reapers board a dropship, they can shoot at enemies through the window. Armor units cannot shoot out of the side windows.