Dropship/CAS guide
Death from Above
As a Pilot your Job isn't to just move People and Equipment from one place to another. You are also responsible for CAS (Close Air Support). By loading a gun into one of the slots of your ship you can rain bullets (or whatever you loaded) onto your fellow marines the xenonid hordes.
Pre-OP Preparations
After waking from cryosleep, Pilots and Dropship Crew Chiefs should make their way to the hangar bay and arm the ships with guns and ammunition. The source of these items is the dropship part fabricator found in the hangar's loading bay (currently only 30 mm cannons and its respective ammo types can be printed). Both the Alamo and the Normandy have four weapon attach slots, two on the fore (front of the ship) and two on the wings. To equip weapons and ammo you'll need a power loader (the savannah has one in the loading bay and one close by in requisitions, two can be found in the Almayer loading bay, with an additional one in the vehicle bay south east of the hangar). While inside the power loader simply left click on the printed item, walk over to the ship and left click on the empty slot. If you wish to drop the held item left click on the ground while it's in your hand. Loading ammo works the same way, once a weapon attach slot has a weapon in it, you may simply left click on it while holding a box of ammunition to load it up.
The dropship's crew are expected to assist in loading supplies on and off the ship, and assist in evacuating wounded or incapacitated marines, to make this easier it is advisable to ask for requisitions comms key and additional medical supplies at the start of the operation.
Piloting Basics
In order to transport marines, and to provide close air support you first need to fly the ship itself. To do this, use the dropship navigational computer, found in the centre of the cockpit. Simply select your desired action (landing at either LZ for the dropship, or going on a flyby mission for the gunship), then select launch. Once the launch cycle begins you can not undo this action, and the ship will launch after a ten second delay. Note that Dropship Crew Chiefs can not go on flyby missions, and if the ship is launched by them the ship wil take an additional 30 seconds to land. Dropship pilots should only land at the main designated LZ (chosen by the command staff at the start of the OP) unless otherwise specified by command.
How to call in a CAS strike
To make a CAS attack possible, a mark is required. This can be either done by throwing a marking flare which you can get from equipment vendors in the armory or by using a laser designator, available to most combat roles. A pilot can then select the mark and open fire on it. You will also need a JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller) key which you can buy for points to give the clear for the attack and to receive intel on the status of the Air support teams.
Executing Close Air Support Missions
Once the ships are loaded with guns and ammo and they're in in the air (either via a flyby or while flying to the LZ or the Warship) you may engage in Close Air Support. Every aspect of a CAS run is controlled by the weapons controls systems, found on the right side (starboard) of the cockpit. Once the console is open you'll see two monitors. Both have the same available windows: Equip, Target and Cams. The monitors work independently of each other so you can have two different windows open at the same time.
- Equip: the Equip window provides information on the dropships equipment, it displays what kind of guns are attached to the weapon attach slots, and displays the type and amount of ammo.
- Target: the Target window lets you fire the ships guns. The required sequence to fire is the following: First you must select a target, on the right side of the window. The available targets are the ones deisgnated by targeting lasers or marking flares, specified in the How to call in a CAS strike section above. Once you have a target you may select Strike, then Weapon. This brings up the equipped weapons. Select the weapon you want to fire then select Fire. If you did this correctly you should hear the appropriate gun firing. Weapons have a short cooldown time before being able to fire again, but there is no hard delay between firing each gun, so once a gun is fired you can simply go strike-weapon-fire with a different gun to fire another salvo.
- Cams: this is the camera window, when active the targets selected in the Target menu and its surroundings will be displayed. By using the four directional arrows in between the two windows you can slightly move the camera around. Note that this does not change where the CAS strike will land. You can however, use this option to scout the area and provide intel on the location or movements of any Xenoid present.
The current most optimal Weapons Console setup is to have the Target and Cams windows open at the same time so you always see what you're going to be shooting. The Equip window can be opened and closed quickly if you want to check on ammo in flight, but when you're on the ground the same information can be gathered by simply inspecting the guns.
Ship equipment
| Weaponry | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| GAU-21 30mm cannon
|
Ammunition | Stats | Notes |
| 30mm Multi Puropse Ammo
|
Travel time: 10 seconds
Damage: 150 Armor penetration: 10 |
One box contains 400 rounds, with each burst firing 40. The low armor penetration but higher damage makes it ideal for clearing resin structures | |
| 30mm Anti Tank Ammo
|
Travel time: 6 seconds
Damage: 90 Armor penetration: 40 |
One box contains 400 rounds with each burst firing 40. The higher amror penetration and lower travel time makes it ideal for dealing damage to large groups of xenoids | |
