multiple dropships on missions

[ghosta]

I just clicked through some of the UFOs and noticed that later you have to fight a crew of ~30 aliens! With just 8 men.

How about using more than one dropship on missions (1 - 3)?
I guess it would be quite easy to implement with RMA mapparts (I also would like to see every map made with RMA except some special ones) and with 2x2 units implemented there would be 1 2x2 unit and 4 soldiers (quite few in my opinion).
Additionally it would be easier to accept losses in the battlefield. Maybe its just my opinion, but I feel like restarting every mission in which I loose more than two soldiers. Then you can get the impression of those superior aliens.

What do you think about it?

[BTAxis]

Definitely not.

[Kildor]

> with 2x2 units implemented there would be 1 2x2 unit and 4 soldiers
Wrong. UGVs are independed from crew.

[Mattn]

currently there is a limitation in the code to only use 8 soldiers (and not only code - also hud layout and so on)

[Mayhem]

currently there is a limitation in the code to only use 8 soldiers (and not only code - also hud layout and so on)

Well, multiple dropships aside, thats going to need fixing for two reasons:

1)  8 men + UAV
2) The advanced dropships with larger capacity.

[Mattn]

i tend to disagree to this (design-)change - it's already quite time consuming to handle 8 soldiers.

[BTAxis]

Not really. Depending on how much time the AI takes up each round, having more soldiers will actually make missions *faster* because you spend a larger portion of time moving soldiers and killing aliens. Especially in larger maps, having more soldiers will be beneficial, even in terms of time.

Plus I don't think a single round with 8 soldiers takes that long.

[ghosta]

#1 You needn't to use all of them. Fighting with ~ 6 soldiers the others can wait inside the dropships
#2 You can change the movementspeed of your soldiers.
#3 How about queuing moving orders? Now you always have to wait until your soldier has arrived. It would be much easier to tell him a target and meanwhile you can move with another soldier. If an alien has been spotted every movement of every soldier should stop.
#4 More information next to the soldiermodel. How about a health-, movementpoints-bar beneath the model? and what I would like to see most: a little clickable icon (up to 5) next to it that tells you if he can see an alien. I spend most of the time checking my soldiers if they can shoot/see an alien.

On the other side you would have to remove the 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 hotkeys Instead it would be useful to have a next/previous hotkey.

[BTAxis]

Soldiers can't be moved simultaneously. This is a limitation in the server/client model and is unlikely to be changed.

[cid250]

Will be nice to get a bigger Dropship... 12 soldiers, and may be also a 16 soldiers version.

That will be better than landing multiple dropships.

Anybody knows the aproximate release dato for UGVs?. Will be possible to add UGVs to the Development version before 2010 year's end?, or it will come latter than that?.

[BTAxis]

About dropships and UGVs, there is some information here.

There is no ETA on the initial inclusion of UGVs.