"...its beak can hold more than its belly-can!" In the interest of spurring discussion, I'd like to ask; what has been your experience with these single-unit T2 air lifters? I haven't used them much, as most of my land movement woes can be solved with forward teleporter bases. But i can appreciate the theoretical value of the dreaded Vanguard/Inferno drop, and on at least one occasion have used the Pelican to quickly evacuate my commander from an advancing land army. What stories do you have about the Pelican? Are there undiscovered uses thst justify it over other options right now?
The pelican as it stands is too micro intensive, it needed to be able to auto ferry like in sup com, or needs to carry more units to become a more viable option.
I still believe that it needs to be T1, and simply not able to carry large units like commanders. To fit WYSIWYG, you could simply make the commander not visually fit onto the pelican.
I'm tempted to disagree, because having an evac option for the commander that isn't an astreus has a lot of potential. But being able to cart slow-moving vehicles with obscene artillery capabilities around smacks of the dread Reaver/Shuttle combo in Starcraft, whereby excess micromanaging made the slow, cantankerous Reaver into what was effectively a super-mobile death machine.
well, as it stands, it is effectively the most useless unit in the game. In general, I think that you would be able to counter the silly strategies that were employed early on, just by scouting and being prepared for your enemy. Make the transports a little slower as well perhaps, or have a slower turn rate, idk, but it honestly, as a single-unit transport should be in T1 IMO. Also, since when do you send your comm to the front lines later in the game, and why won't an astreus suffice where a pelican wouldn't? Why don't we just also include a T2 transport that CAN carry the commander, plus maybe a few more units, once we have the capacity to do so?
Yes i have but you still have to separate the units u wanna load or the area command will load units u don't wanna transport. Also it is not repeatable. Have u seen the auto ferry command from Sup com?
Do whatever it takes to bring back the viability of pelican-assisted drops. That **** was some of the most entertaining matches we've ever seen, no idea why Uber nerfed it out of existence.
Perhaps because they were afraid it'd shift the focus of the game? They've repeatedly stated that they want to cultivate a competitive scene, and they want the focus of that scene to be big - big armies, big clashes, big picture army movements. Commander kills are high-profile, and having those high-profile moments center on high-APM transport micromanagement is against the design of the rest of the game. That's a largely baseless fear, however; by the time you can pull off such a drop, your enemy has had ample time to see it coming. A T2 air factory on top of a heavy vehicle base is a dead giveaway. I would argue that the Pelican can enable entertaining play now, by carting Commanders around for games of keep-away and facilitating rapid vehicle ambushes. But the issue does remain that they're micro-intensive.
Yeah I can see that. Ideally you want the drops to be balanced so that they are risky, and do not replace big armies as the mainstay. But say two players are roughly evenly matched in a deadlock of big armies, and one spares some apm to do a strategic drop. That is damn exciting and good dynamic gameplay.
What if we left dox patrol spam and tried to pelican a commander at T1? I'm not so sure it'd work now that dox are AA units.
Losing your commander to 2 T1 fighters.........putting a com in the pelican is a very bad idea. I dont use them at all, because well...there just not useful for anything other than dropping vangaurds into base.
Honestly I have yet to use them or see them used. I never find myself requiring this unit at all and don't see the value unless your completely restricted, such as in a Galactic War. So im not saying the unit is pointless, its just not very viable compared to the teleporter or the orbital transport(the name escapes me atm, Asterus?). Maybe we could get it moved to T1 as its been proposed already in this forum, or maybe give it a twist, some weak weak weapons, or extra armor... something to make it feel like its worth using over another form of transport. Alot of what iv read here sounds good however I still don't see myself using this unit without a major change to it, or its alternatives. I like the idea of changing it to T1, but I agree the details need to be worked out to prevent any adverse effects. In short, its pointless unless your restricted to it only. Not sure what to suggest to help alter that view point. :/ Its just not as efficient as a Tele or a Asterus(what ever the orbital transport is). Tele for mass units, and Orbital Transport for range across the system.
Well, this is embarassing. I built a Pelican in a team game last night - my allies had become surrounded and had unending waves of Boom-Bots hammering their door. I had a lake fortress going with various defenses... so I got a Pelican, went to pick up a Commander, and happily watched as it sped our last Commander away from danger. Then I unloaded it and it rubberbanded back to where it had been picked up. :|
