Ideal Dropship loadout.

[TehSpoderman]

What is, in your opinion, the ideal dropship loadout?

Also how would you rank the Dropship attachments from best to worst?

[Butterrobber202]

wait can someone link a guide to me, I thought those missiles were just for show

[TehSpoderman]

wait can someone link a guide to me, I thought those missiles were just for show

they were but now they can be used for CAS

wiki/Pilot_Officer#Close_Air_Support_Missions

[Terminutter]

From my tests with it, I think that you only need one GAU-30mm cannon, as it has a fair amount of ammo.
I typically then take two of the single missile pods, and one minirocket pod if possible.

No idea if it is optimal, but from asking the marines what the results were, they tend to find it satisfactory.

I just wish it was possible to see the results of my strikes - it's kind of sad the way it feels the same no matter what you fire, especially since the description of the Banshee, Keeper and such don't explain their main purposes to the POs, you have to check the wiki, or ask to know which one is suitable for what.

[Chuckachu]

There is at this moment limited amounts of stuff that can go on the ships. BUT my favorite loadout for DS1 to get: Fuel Enhancer, Sentry gun on both doors, and upper left side and spotlight on the upper left front electronics spot. DS2: Standard-Issue Rocket pod aka the single tube rockets on each wing, A single Gau and Mini-rocket on the front slots, the targeting system on any spot open and the cooling system in the engine.

I tier the big rockets, Keeper II, Banshee and Widow maker mostly for distance between their starting point and the dropship. If they ships get physically swapped or CO's start using LZ2 instead of LZ1 for the main drop I'd change it to Banshee, Keeper widow.

How I tend to fire is a single big rocket, then a single push of Gau and then a mini-rocket pod shot and wait 4-5 seconds. Usually with Caron and the other guy I can't recall his name, since he just lasered and never talked in the command channel, they would las the target area then I would hit it and they would reorient and I would hit that spot again.


Reasons for some of this. I don't want to put both spot lights on. And the sentry on the left front side as all of the DS1's landing pads to date have offloaded to the left and rear while the right side tends to be a wall of ice or just open grass. As for the reason I don't put both engines upgrades on DS1 is the Fire Mission ship if its shown to be active will be spammed and the faster you get back out there the better. But the Fuel effeciny one has no change regarding the fire mission time in flight.

[Rhicora]

My favorite dropship loadout is nothing, and instead of fucking around on the station the PO spends that time going up-down.

[Chuckachu]

My favorite dropship loadout is nothing, and instead of fucking around on the station the PO spends that time going up-down.

haha Didn't see anyone complain when it doesn't take five minutes to get up and down anymore thanks to the fuel effiency upgrade. One round when I was the only PO I souped up DS1 with both engines and it could do a up and down round trip in 5 minutes.

[Rhicora]

Special exceptions given for the cooling system and fuel enhancer, but only if they're installed long before we start to need medevacs.

[Chuckachu]

haha If the PO isn't installing all this stuff while the marines are getting geared up, chow, attachments and breifing....they are baldies. Slow slow baldies that need to read the wiki, or my list of things to put on the ships. DS2 all told has 32 seperate things you need to carry around to be fully setup and ready for rocking. I get this done just in time for the first marines to make it past the barrier. At my slowest while helping a new PO I met them coming into the hanger as I dropped off the last of the moved ammo so I could quickly reload.

In comparison the main dropship has 6. DS1 should NEVER not be ready with the current ship modules just laying on the deck for us.

[Rhicora]

DS2 all told has 32 seperate things you need to carry around to be fully setup and ready for rocking. I get this done just in time for the first marines to make it past the barrier.

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

[Chuckachu]

haha Nah. I just really love the job. Just wish they would put a link to the SL's we last clicked on during the Fire mission's helm-cam so we could see the glorious explosions.

[Sargeantmuffinman]

It's mandatory to listen to this while flying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siwpn14IE7E

[Chuckachu]

Dude if it wasn't for the lag I would have pushed harder on having the PO able to play that song within the confines of said Dropship! That way everyone could be heading to the Dangerzone.!

[Karmac]

Minirocket pods suck dick, put on two GAUs and two Rocket Pods just because it looks cooler, bonus points if the GAUs are on the wings, fashion baby.

[kooarbiter]

drop ships need a speaker system to play the songs from the pool of admin songs so you can play the afore mentioned danger zone while flying

[Renomaki]

honestly, if I knew what the difference between the Gatling guns and rocketpods were, I'd probably have a preference of sorts. Then again, I never did get to be a PO during all this (and doubt I ever will, what with it being the new 'spec' that everyone fights for), but I do wish I could try it.

Although, in my times as an SL using it, I don't get how the targeting laser helps, since most of the time your shots don't land on xenos to begin with. If anything, making the shot more inaccurate is probably for the better, because then it is harder for xenos to know just WHERE your bombs are going to land. Surely it isn't that vital to have a targeting laser on the ship.... Right?

[Mr.Smooooth]

Alright Mates. You want to ruin some alien bastards day? You came to the right place. CAS done right can be a deciding factor for a marine victory. Here's how I'd rate each weapon after some Ahelps for explanation and testing.

GAU 30mm "Rattler" Gatling Cannon - This right here is your bread and butter. Covers a wide area in armor penetrating, exploding, death. Aliens caught in this will take a lot of damage real fast, not only sending them scattering, but any alien unlucky enough to get downed in this hail of death is as good as dead. Ammunition for it is pleuntiful, and you should be making great use of this during your fire missions. Optimally, put two of these on a decicated CAS dropship.
Mini-Rocket Pod - Hot garbage, the trash tier of dropship weapons. Basically drops a handful of grenades on a target location. Absolutely worthless as almost any alien can tank it with little worry. Mount one of these on an empty weapons hard-point on your transport dropship if you want to give it extremely limited CAS potential, otherwise, don't bother with it at all.
Sentry Deployment System - Basically deploys a mounted automatic sentry to protect the dropship while it's stitting on the ground. You only get 3, so put all three of them on your transport dropship. Preferaby two in the under wing hardpoints to serve as door-guns, and one up front on whichever side is best for the current map. Keeps Young Runner (420) from yakety saxing onto your dropship as easy while you're parked.
Standard Rocket Pod - This one's performance is highly dependant on what rocket/missile you're packing, though the wiki directly contradicts what I've been told by staff in game. For the sake of this guide, I'll be going off what I've observed/been told, rather then the wiki.
---AGM-227 'Banshee'---
The Wiki and I agree about the Banshee. You do not want to have one of these dropped on you. High Explosive, this bomb's got a hell of a blast radius, and you do NOT want to be inside it. Covers a large area in explosive death, what's not to love? Like all rockets for this pod, four of them start stored on the Almayer.
---GBU-67 'Keeper II'---
The Keeper II rocket was explained to me in game by staff as being the incendiary rocket, while the Wiki lists it as armor piercing. While I'm not sure if an update changed it, operating on the assumption that it is still an incendiary rocket, this weapon will RUIN a xeno's day. Resepctable blast radius, coupled with lighting anything remotely close to the detonation on fire, I want to marry one of these. If I could, I'd fire these all day, every day. Sadly, there's only 4 available, use them wisely.
---AIM-224 'Widowmaker'---
Another one the Wiki and I are at odds over. While the Wiki claims this one is the incindeary rocket(If so, simply take everything I said about the Keeper and apply it to this one instead.), In my experince, this one should be your Air to Air missle. Armor Piercing. Small blast radius, big damage inside it, with a twist. When a Rasputin is hijacked and on it's way to the Almayer, the second Rasputin can target it for a fire mission if it has these loaded. According to staff, the Widowmaker can actually shoot down stolen shuttles. Use this info wisely.

There's also a single crew serviced weapon hardpoint at the back of the shuttle, currently, it can only mount one item.
Machinegun Deployment System - Basically a crew operated m6D Smartgun, mounted as a turret. Fucks up anything trying to board the back door. Put it on your transport dropship. No IFF, so don't try shooting through friendlies.

Next up, Electronic attach points. Spotlights illuminate the LZ, while targeting systems improve weapon accuracy. You get two spotlights and one targegt system. Each dropship can mount only two electronic systems. Give the spotlights to the transport and your targeting to the gunship.

Finally, we have engine upgrades. The Cooling system lets the dropship launch again sooner after landing, while the Fuel Enhancer makes you go from point A to point B faster. The Enhancer does nothing to help fire missions, so always put it on your transport. The Cooling System is great for either, the meta seems to also put it on the transport, but if you have SL's alive and marking targets, and arguement can be made to put it on your gunship for more firemissions faster.


So, Let's sum it up real fast. Your first dropship is the transport, and should have all 3 Sentry Deployment Systems, the Crew Served Smartgun, The Fuel Enhancer and both Spotlights. Your second dropship is your gunship, and should have both Rattler autocannons and Standard Rocket Tubes. Throw the mini-launchers out the airlock, or put one on the transport's empty weapon hardpoint if you're feeling generous. The Engine Cooler can go on either, depending on your priority.

[WinterClould]

So, Let's sum it up real fast. Your first dropship is the transport, and should have all 3 Sentry Deployment Systems, the Crew Served Smartgun, The Fuel Enhancer and both Spotlights. Your second dropship is your gunship, and should have both Rattler autocannons and Standard Rocket Tubes. Throw the mini-launchers out the airlock, or put one on the transport's empty weapon hardpoint if you're feeling generous. The Engine Cooler can go on either, depending on your priority.

That's perfect. I'd load up every dropship like these if I PO'd often anymore.

[Karmac]

Okay here's the completely up to date version of the missiles, we couldn't get devs on the phone so Rahlzel let a couple of us wiki-nerds on the test server to finally get this sorted.

Banshees are the Napalm rocket, they deal a moderate amount of brute and burn damage on hit and have a huge blast radius that leaves behind a bunch of fire tiles.

Widowmakers are the HE rocket, they deal a buncha brute damage and have a blast radius slightly smaller than the Banshee, got a solid stun time on that one too I'll bet.

Keepers are the AP rocket, high brute, high armor piercing capability, very low blast radius, should you ever land a hit with one of these you'll most likely be seeing alien giblets.

[HR171]

For CAS, 1 GAU gun, 1 mini rocket pod, and then fill the rest with normal rocket pods, this gives you a wide choice of weapons so you can adapt to different situations. having 2 rattlers is excessive and takes up a slot you could use for something like A BIG ROCKET

[WinterClould]

For CAS, 1 GAU gun, 1 mini rocket pod, and then fill the rest with normal rocket pods, this gives you a wide choice of weapons so you can adapt to different situations. having 2 rattlers is excessive and takes up a slot you could use for something like A BIG ROCKET

Plus if you take two 30mm's that means DS-1 wont have anything to use if it gets lucky and someone marks something while its in transport flight

[HR171]

I really hate it when people put the GAU on Alamo because it doesn't get used, and if you are doing that then you aren't focusing on transport(your most important job). And marines won't be happy with you if they die because instead of evading them DS1 was pretending that it was Normandy

Do your job well and nothing else

[WinterClould]

I really hate it when people put the GAU on Alamo because it doesn't get used, and if you are doing that then you aren't focusing on transport(your most important job). And marines won't be happy with you if they die because instead of evading them DS1 was pretending that it was Normandy

Do your job well and nothing else

50% of PO's tend to be trash at whats really the easiest job in the game, so maybe they dont need the GAU on their Alamo so they can just focus on pressing the two buttons they need to get the bird moving. But for me, being one of the not shit PO's, I like to have a GAU so I can shoot stuff as I do my normal flight trips I was already going to do anyway.