I got to thinking about troop icons last night. As usual, the thinking was started as a result of something that didn't go quite my way
Currently, there are no icons for ground-to-ground contacts.
Ground-to-air contacts have regular icons just like air-to-air.
Air-to-ground contacts have a greatly reduced icon range (d1.5).
If I kick out troops from my M3, why do they all hold "Shoot Me!" signs over their heads? For example (from the defensive side), when I am defending a field with an M16, if I happen to miss the M3 sneaking on the field, I can still screw up his drop because I can see him drop his troops. Therefore, I can easily spray and pray from d1.0 or greater and kill of enough of the troops to mess up the take. And if I am dropping my troops from my M3, and have been lucky enough to sneak next to the map room, suddenly anyone on the field can tell that a drop is in progress.
Since the addition of ground vehicles, I don't think there is any reason to have the troop icons. The only reason I can think of having them in the first place was as an aid in defending your base when all we had to defend it with was planes (easier to strafe). With a properly defended base (at least one M16), I don't think we need icons on troops anymore.
Now for justification for my thoughts.
A) Currently, ground-to-ground icons are not available. I'd like to see ground troops treated like ground vehicles. No icons over troops to enemy vehicles when the troops are on the ground. If you are in an M16 and close enough to see the M3 on your field, you are close enough to see the little guys marching along. When dropping troops from a C47, the icons disappear when the troops hit the ground.
B) Possibly make troop icons work like vehicle icons when talking air-to-ground. Troop icons on the ground only show up at d1.5 (this may already work like this; I don't strafe troops). Possibly have troops in chutes have an icon range of D1.5 (just like ground vehicles).
C) Possibly remove troop icons altogether. It's easy to tell when a C47 has dropped troops, I don't need an icon to see the chutes (either from the ground or the air). Removing icons altogether means no icons on troops ground-to-ground, air-to-air, or air-to-ground. (Or at least treat the chutes like other planes, where icons disappear under 500ft.)
I know something like this is low on the priority list. Hopefully some sort of change would be fairly simple to implement and have little impact on the more important stuff. I think that removing icons from troops in any or all of the above "suggestions" would make base defense a little harder than it is now (that does not mean that it is easy now) and make ground defense vehicles even more important. People can be oblivious to a drop until those darn troops are released.
And it may make base capture a little easier
I'm not sure of the range of the troops, but without icons, it seems that I would be able to drop my troops from the edge of the field rather than right next to the map room, and they could try to dash across the field without holding their "Shoot Me" signs up. Again, makes base defense with ground vehicles more important.
Just some thoughts.
Fury
