Flying ships. What do they do?

[Wygos]

I know they protect cargo drop.
But sometimes they arrive on random and start shooting around. What are they shooting at ? Players?

Also recently i had one arrive directly at me. He scanned me with that red laser scanner and started shooting at me. Why ?

[Malka]

They attack you. If you roam around and you hear a dropship, it will attack you. Server depending, it will attack your base. If you are in AB (Abandoned Bunkers) and you trigger a wrong code, it will come and attack you and anyone outside while dropping a mech. If you hear it shooting at random places in a town or field, that means it found a player.

[Deathwhisper]

Hello :),

As already explained, this is one of the possible dropship encounters. Players are specifically targeted. The best thing you can do here is to jump into cover as quickly as possible when you hear the sound of the dropship. A bush, a tree, as long as you're out of your line of sight. If you manage to do that in time, you can even successfully avoid the DS.

[i00b]

Originally posted by Deathwhisper:

Hello :),

As already explained, this is one of the possible dropship encounters. Players are specifically targeted. The best thing you can do here is to jump into cover as quickly as possible when you hear the sound of the dropship. A bush, a tree, as long as you're out of your line of sight. If you manage to do that in time, you can even successfully avoid the DS.

What is the logic of having a drop ship protecting a supply drop? I read in a comment a while back that the whole purpose of the supply drop is to make supplies available to players who are not yet equipped to go into bunkers. It would make more sense for drop ships to be randomly encountered while your character is moving from POI to POI. It doesn't make any sense to have a drop ship show up to protect a supply drop; why that's just schizophrenic!

[Deathwhisper]

Originally posted by i00b:

Originally posted by Deathwhisper:

Hello :),

As already explained, this is one of the possible dropship encounters. Players are specifically targeted. The best thing you can do here is to jump into cover as quickly as possible when you hear the sound of the dropship. A bush, a tree, as long as you're out of your line of sight. If you manage to do that in time, you can even successfully avoid the DS.

What is the logic of having a drop ship protecting a supply drop? I read in a comment a while back that the whole purpose of the supply drop is to make supplies available to players who are not yet equipped to go into bunkers. It would make more sense for drop ships to be randomly encountered while your character is moving from POI to POI. It doesn't make any sense to have a drop ship show up to protect a supply drop; why that's just schizophrenic!

Because you are not in an apocalypse but in a prison. You are an object for entertainment and the "guards" here are trying to increase this factor.

If you manage to do it despite the dropship, you have achieved quite something. If you imagine the spectators cheering on you, regardless of which side you are on, it is almost like a sporting event, except that in SCUM it is guards versus prisoners.

From a lore perspective, the whole thing makes sense.

[Wygos]

Originally posted by Deathwhisper:

Hello :),

As already explained, this is one of the possible dropship encounters. Players are specifically targeted. The best thing you can do here is to jump into cover as quickly as possible when you hear the sound of the dropship. A bush, a tree, as long as you're out of your line of sight. If you manage to do that in time, you can even successfully avoid the DS.

One caught me during night i jumped in a bushed and it started scanning area with red laser scanner. Is it just decoration or if that scanner land you you (while you in a bush) ship will spot you?
I managed to evade that beam because there were lots of bushes in the area. So not sure how it works.

[Deathwhisper]

Originally posted by Wygos:

Originally posted by Deathwhisper:

Hello :),

As already explained, this is one of the possible dropship encounters. Players are specifically targeted. The best thing you can do here is to jump into cover as quickly as possible when you hear the sound of the dropship. A bush, a tree, as long as you're out of your line of sight. If you manage to do that in time, you can even successfully avoid the DS.

One caught me during night i jumped in a bushed and it started scanning area with red laser scanner. Is it just decoration or if that scanner land you you (while you in a bush) ship will spot you?
I managed to evade that beam because there were lots of bushes in the area. So not sure how it works.

I think so, I have been very successful in hiding from every DS so far, the laser scans the last known position and looks to see if it makes contact, if you don't move and wait patiently the DS will eventually move away. So I think it serves the purpose of visualization. On the other hand, it can also serve as a "startle", the laser acts as if it has you, but as I said, if it doesn't make contact the DS will move on at some point. What I used to look around was to hold down ALT so that the body didn't move a millimeter.

Other times I hid behind/under trees and the DS just flew on without ever making visual contact, which meant that the encounters were very brief. In these cases the search laser wasn't even active because there was no initial visual contact.

[i00b]

Originally posted by Deathwhisper:

Originally posted by i00b:

What is the logic of having a drop ship protecting a supply drop? ...

Because you are not in an apocalypse but in a prison. You are an object for entertainment and the "guards" here are trying to increase this factor.

If you manage to do it despite the dropship, you have achieved quite something. If you imagine the spectators cheering on you, regardless of which side you are on, it is almost like a sporting event, except that in SCUM it is guards versus prisoners.

From a lore perspective, the whole thing makes sense.

That doesn't make sense either. The drop ship(s) and the mechs they drop cannot be taken out before the supply drop explodes. No convict, especially ones that are poorly armed, would be that foolish or desperate enough to try getting to that particular supply drop, especially since the majority of other supply drops do not have accompanying drop ships. It is far easier and wiser to simply avoid the very few supply drops where drop ships are present and focus instead on the many other supply drops where drop ships are NOT present.

Cheers,

Ian

[Deathwhisper]

Originally posted by i00b:

Originally posted by Deathwhisper:

Because you are not in an apocalypse but in a prison. You are an object for entertainment and the "guards" here are trying to increase this factor.

If you manage to do it despite the dropship, you have achieved quite something. If you imagine the spectators cheering on you, regardless of which side you are on, it is almost like a sporting event, except that in SCUM it is guards versus prisoners.

From a lore perspective, the whole thing makes sense.

That doesn't make sense either. The drop ship(s) and the mechs they drop cannot be taken out before the supply drop explodes. No convict, especially ones that are poorly armed, would be that foolish or desperate enough to try getting to that particular supply drop, especially since the majority of other supply drops do not have accompanying drop ships. It is far easier and wiser to simply avoid the very few supply drops where drop ships are present and focus instead on the many other supply drops where drop ships are NOT present.

Cheers,

Ian

Yes and no, that's a decision you have to make yourself. Is it worth the risk? Probably not, could it be fun? Probably. Sometimes you look for challenges, that's one of the options. If you can't do that or don't like it, you can just do exactly that and go to cargo drops which aren't so heavily guarded.^^

[i00b]

Originally posted by Deathwhisper:

Originally posted by i00b:

That doesn't make sense either....

...could it be fun? Probably. Sometimes you look for challenges...

Chuckle. That does not make sense either because it is completely counter to the fundamental premise and narrative that Scum is a hard core survival game. I won't say any more. Thanks for this exchange.

Cheers,

Ian

[zacho233]

Oh man I cannot understand how anyone doesn't love the Dropships! When they were first introduced it was super cool to have your base totally destroyed! Not only that but their follow distance is as far as you can imagine. Imagine arriving at a cargo drop, and there are no puppets. LEAVE. It's not worth the repairs or possible death for the "fun challenge". These suckers hand out damage and gear destruction like a bad habit.

They drop zero loot.

They take massive amounts of damage to chase off.

And heck yeah, getting to tell your friends about that fun is totally worth the risk of hoping to get a katana, or a weapon, or perhaps needed items, and worth being trolled! Skynet is super balanced and adds a challenge to something that already takes resources and effort to attempt getting a loot from.

If they see you in your vehicle they will follow you faster than a Rager and do not stop, so either jump out, get in a bush, and wait, or enjoy their mechanics! That box of bolts, some meds and rubber gloves just cost you a vehicle.

I for one really enjoy being trolled by them. Makes for added flavor for sure! They look and sound awesome absolutely, but do yourself a favor, unless you are a top squad, rich, have mountains of gear already, just pass.