Drop Troopers in Sci-Fi Warfare (Helldivers 2, ODST etc)

[Music] hello everybody and welcome back to space do I'm huana and I just like a lot of you I suspect have been playing a lot of Hell divers too it's a fantastic game with some hilarious sass but I bring it up today to talk about its drop pods and some of the others seen in sci-fi in general a large part of why I like the game is the physicality of it the attention to detail and how it demonstrates the power of air support which can be a bit of a rarity in Shooters those other games often opt instead for having the player do all the work with their bang bang shooty gun but in Hell divers the work is desperately casting the magic spell that calls in the explosions while dodging bug Claws and chainsaws and Rockets and acid spit and when these vital abilities are denied as is the case when the automatons have Jammers or anti-air up the contrasting capability is felt really really hard one of the coolest things about the game is seeing your ships visibly launching the orbital attacks and supplies that you call down you can watch the shots come down from above and can pick out whose ship is whose this is in contrast to what sometimes happens in other games where stuff often just comes in from above coming straight down from some ephemeral spot in the sky even the angle of your ship makes a tiny difference which is only really noticeable in places with rough terrain the other call ends are also visible such as the close air support that your Eagle provides where angle of attack is even more important even the on map artillery that you can find laying around has this you can watch it fire and then follow the Arc of the shot all the way till it splashes the drop pods themselves are similar but they always align themselves to the beacon and Zoop straight down which is fair enough unlike orbital cannon shots those cor ends have to be functional when they land rather than just exploding be it a turret ammo objective or Hell diver they can't just plop in at weird angles and look correct and it makes makes sense that this happens since the hell pods have thrusters for a bit of maneuverability the thing is the only reason half these call-ins are so effective is because the Super Destroyers are close by they're not really in orbit so the orbital support is a bit of a misnomer to be fair this might just be a visibility thing since if they were all the way in orbit then they'd be just a tiny little speck but that doesn't let me talk about the pros and cons of being low down the pros are the prompt fire support and resupply as well as being able to rapidly rearm and deploy close air support or extraction craft it also puts a much reduced burden on the design of the pods they just need to slow down a bit since they're basically already where they need to be they don't need a huge guidance system and really thick re-entry protection short they look like they're going through heavy re-entry but that just seems like it's for Vibes given how low down the Super Destroyers appear to fly which unfortunately can put it in range of anti-air fire the major con of this approach it is possible for ground fire to strike like other ships that you can see outside around yours at least over automaton planets so how does Hell divers stack up against other depictions of drop pods in this regard well I think it's fair to say that most sci-fi ships supposedly in orbit really aren't they might be in space but orbits are falling sideways fast enough to not hit the ground which is rarely shown I get it though people don't necessarily know that this happens or there's anti-gravity Tech to hold ships in position but even actual genuine drop pods falling all the way from orbit really don't seem practical to me first the Pod or a booster attached to it has to decelerate down to sub orbital velocity which may not be a trivial task depending on how much it wants to slow down if it's going even further than that by pulling an isv and basically coming to a complete stop that's a big old deceleration burn second there's also the matter of time which a lot of drop pod media really handwaves away for convenience falling from orbital altitude can take a lot longer ER than you might realize even if it's straight down for example Felix bam Gartner's famous jump from around 39 km up was nowhere near space but he still spent 4 minutes in freefall imagine how long it would take to fall from over 100 km or even a 300 or 400 km altitude that space stations typically orbit at as a side note this is also one of the many reasons why kinetic impact satellites or rods from God are a terrible idea what media shows for that drop times is all done for dramatic effect compare the drops in Titanfall 1 or in Halo 2 that take less than 60 seconds from way out there to the 2-minute one from just Cloud height in ODST there's very different Vibes going on here big bombastic action sequences versus a more drawn out setting of the stage either way whether a ship is in proper sideways orbit or just hovering at some unspecified altitude it's still going to be vulnerable to anti-air or anti-space weapons there's not really any way to avoid that unless you're fighting enemies that don't have the ability to reach up hundreds of kilometers into space with decent accuracy next up are there any practical differences between drop pods especially from within an atmosphere and paratroops I don't think there are really the main difference is the method of insertion parats go in on a plane and jump and fall and slow down before insertion drop pods kind of skip the first step unless it's a really close drop and depending on setting May skip the last one or at least to do it dramatically less after all part of the Ure of drop pods is the big old physics defying slam as they arrive which takes us to another downside of PODS over parachutes drop pods can be big loud things possibly doing Landing burns with rockets before the final thump they're not as subtle as a parachute or a graph Sho or whatever is silently gliding their wearer in which may be so sneaky there's no indication there was a drop at all even the big obvious aircraft that dropped them may not arouse suspicion because it could be a stealthcraft or the paratroopers glided laterally away from its flight path this disparity is made even worse by a pod Landing directly into combat as they are often shown doing the part is a huge look at me sign begging to be surrounded and immediately shot at there's a good chance its occupant also lacks decent situational awareness of the immediate surroundings of where they are due to the speed of their arrival beyond that the main risks with drop pods are those that come with real Ed drops Landing away from friendly forces away from supplies and reinforcements but with orbital drops the risk is exaggerated even further because you might be the only thing on the ground though at least other drop pods can be used to supply you with weapons and ammunition and other things a role they seem particularly well suited to in fact one thing they aren't suited to though is vehicular support which to be fair is also a significant challenge for airdrops aird droppable vehicles do exist though from glider carried M22 Loc Focus to low altitude chucking light tanks out planes to whatever this is but these are all extremely lightly armored and sometimes fairly big so making something that can fit into a drop pod format would require either a huge pod or a really specialized vehicle what sci-fi does is end up using Max for this role they're just a big people so just upsize the Pod Warhammer 40K has its Dreadnaught pods Titanfall just eats them directly albe it's at lower altitudes I think going back to Hell divers and while the sequel doesn't have them just yet it will get them drop pods are quintessentially sci-fi they take a real thing and spice it up in a way that yeah makes it impractical but also really damn cool hell divers takes these things and makes them a core part of its gameplay and lore throwing soldiers into the fire in droves as glorified Target markers for the real weapons and it's fantastic fun so get back out there soldier the oil won't retrieve itself I'm on it you can support space doc by joining our patreon where you can get our Space Fighter design reference book alternatively you can support us directly through YouTube by giving a super thanks or by becoming a channel member thanks to our supporters and thank you for [Music] [Applause] [Music] watching

Channel: Spacedock

Views: 117,305

Keywords: Spacedock, space dock, spacedock, helldivers ii, helldivers 2, helldivers, hell divers 2, hell divers, odst, unsc, halo, space marine, warhammer, 40k, drop troopers, drop troops, hellpods, drop pod, warhammer 40k, gameplay, trailer, review, scene, battle, analysis, weapons, short, hype, warfare, realistic, physics, accurate, best, worst, lore, history, breakdown, summary, retrospective, specifications, news, update, reveal, upcoming, leak, super earth, super destroyer, bugs, bots, starship troopers, invasion, expanse

Id: k0J0EavYUVE

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 05 2024