Who doesn't smile when you get a nice para-drop just in time to shore up the line, or take that lonely outpost? Besides, the paratrooper Army-men with the little plastic 'chutes tied to their heads were the best!

So after using them for a bit, I love them. Obviously. They help tremendously when it comes to taking over an outpost alone (weather intended to be alone or not). As well as providing a quick back-up to defend against the usual counter-attack after a strong main line offensive maneuver. [I look forward to the vehicle drops]

But much like the flashbangs vs grenades at this point, it often feels better to simply select the more powerful version. Why have 4 when you could have 8? Although cheaper to purchase the smaller drop, it's obviously more cost and battle effective to save and buy the 8-drop.

So what if instead of just a slightly cheaper (yet not half price) 4-drop of regulars, it was instead changed to 4-stealth troops? Essentially the same 4-drop regulars but equipped by default, and without fail, to have the MP5 (silenced by default in this game). Helping to ensure that when you've quietly worked your way in you have the option to select the right back-up to continue your stealth mission, instead of simply having the whole thing erupt in gunfire. The ability to use stealth at ones on preference is very nice, but I think we've all had so many "missions" blown by noisy AI.
It feel that increasing the RP cost of the "Stealth Drop" to be more comparable to the 8-drop would be well worth the extra RP to ensure 4 stealth troops.

Or if you intend to make this "Special-Forces" style drop it's own call in the future simply make the 4-drop 50% price of 8-drop. That way no needless loss of RP. Honestly it's really easy to just never want the 4-drop at it's current price, just like the flashbangs are neat, but not really worth the effort. I'll usually just farm weapons from crates in the immediate area of an armory to supplement the difference in RP from the 4 to 8 if need be.

As always, love the game, and this just an idea. Not sure what your future plans are for the variety of "calls" you have in store. Thanks again guys, see you on the fields.

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Footage

Yes I agree, the 4-paras are too expensive compared to the 8-men troup. The prices aren't final anyway and will change towards the final version anyway.

Yeah, they are pretty fun. I'm curious, what kind of logic will the AI use to do paratrooper drops? I assume with the mortar strike it's basically when a large group are clumped together, aim for them, but with this they'd need to drop them off to the side, I would think.

Mabey they target land near the group?

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It only takes one

I don't think I have seen the Ai use the para- drops yet. At least not obviously. But saving them up and using them to take new points is fantastic! I try my best to run with real players on the wide flanking moves, but it's easy to have things go wrong. Even when they don't a good wave of 8-16-24+ troops dropping in will make certain that you have a new command post and at least some remaining defence.
Plus the persistant profiles in online servers makes me save them more for true co-op moves. Who doesn't enjoy watching a bunch dropin all around? It's nice to have a good "break-out" move for those heavy fights too.
They also drop on to buildings nicely, and deploy faster.

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Footage

Oh yeah, I don't think the AI uses them yet (only uses the mortar at the moment I think) but yes, it is nice to have the paradrops on hand for a quick move. Eventually I assume the AI will use them though, since otherwise it would give the player a fairly large advantage.

I doubt you'd get much better results with a squad full of MP5'ers either; an AI that "gets" stealth isn't easily pulled off. Stealth is mainly targeted for coop and lonewolves in RWR, and you'd use your squad only as a backup plan if at all.

While we're at it, is there any chance of paradrops dropping different character models? Like a couple of special models for Airborne?

*I'd like to thank CoH for this idea. And my mother,

ComJak

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ComJak's house... stay out of it

Not yet, but I think this will become possible once there's a proper way to designate a model for a character.

Almost related to the topic of specific squad drops, there will be squad setup support in 0.88. It became apparent a system like this is required when the vest - medikit -combo makes an entrance, as you definitely want to favor having squad mates with medikits if you're running around with a vest (+ that rare weapon).

It works so that bots will check their weapon set against the requirements in the candidate squad to join to, and decide from there if they are approved in the squad.

From here it isn't that far that it would be convenient to call in a squad refill drop or purchase squad mates directly that would automatically spawn just the right type of soldiers to fill the squad, or calling drops based on specific squad setups.