Cool thing I found out with the bumblebee.

[signofzeta]

I was trying to figure out if a field ops could use his monocular to call in artillery while sitting in a bumblebee right? Tested it, game does not allow anyone to do that. The only weapons that could be selected, while sitting in a bumblebee, is knife, pistol, primary weapon, and grenade. This is true for all classes.

EXCEPT...

Covert ops. He is the ONLY ONE, who has an item or weapon, other than the 4 I mentioned above. The smoke grenade. You can toss a smoke grenade while sitting as a passenger in a bumblebee. Now maybe the bumblebee won't be looked down upon.

In the shield gen phase, carry a bunch of covert ops. Driver does not bail. Driver positions the bumblebee right atop the shield gen. 2 covert ops throw smoke directly downward. They bail. The 2 minigunner covert ops switch to the non minigun seats. They throw smoke too. They then bail. The shield gen area would be so covered with smoke, that it would be hard to find those 4 covert ops hackers.

These steps must be done quickly, and with coordination with the fellow covert ops and the driver. And by driver, I meant pilot. Also the pilot should rotate the bumblebee so that the 2nd batch of smoke grenades do not smoke up the place already smoked, rather, to try to get a cloud of smoke all around the shield gen.

If done quickly, and with coordination, the strogg won't have the time to try to shoot down the bee.

I'm writing this, because not only are people are looking down upon the bumblebee, but they are also looking down upon the seats that don't have miniguns. The cool thing about those 2 seats, is that you could use anything in your arsenal you want. This includes raining down EMP nades at deployables, Firing rockets at a tormentor while in the air, etc.

[Szakalot]

i assume u did not use that tactic in practice. a quick rush with a trojan would be similarly effective, smoke does not provide cover while hacking unless the other team consist of complete noobs that dont fire enemies they step on, bee can be taken out with a ease by a tormentor before its even near the objective, its big and visible, they only map that this 'could' prove effective would be outskirts where u got that fog for cover.
Nicely thought up but to not cost/effective.

[signofzeta]

i assume u did not use that tactic in practice. a quick rush with a trojan would be similarly effective, smoke does not provide cover while hacking unless the other team consist of complete noobs that dont fire enemies they step on, bee can be taken out with a ease by a tormentor before its even near the objective, its big and visible, they only map that this 'could' prove effective would be outskirts where u got that fog for cover.
Nicely thought up but to not cost/effective.

yeah, but aren't there any uses for those 2 seats that don't have miniguns? Not just in the shield gen stage, but the covert ops can just do a fly by smoking, or nading, or soldiers can launch rockets at tormentors while sitting inside the bumblebee.

Or maybe the bee can be used as a mobile aerial smoke emitter, with the covert ops throwing smoke from the bee. There has got to be some uses for those 2 seats.

Its true I haven't tried it, but I need coordination with teammates, and we all know that I can't pull this stunt off in pub servers.

The cool thing about ETQW is the exploration of new features. It may work, it may not. I found this feature of being able to throw smoke out of a bumblebee, but sadly, it is underused, since no one knows about it. I'm probably going to explore for more features in the game that I don't know about.

[Szakalot]

well, its better just considering the bee rather useless for transport, its decent at one man minigun killing-machine, but there are better things for transport.
U just need to accept that while it might be interested, the bee is useless as a team vehicle.
Maybe if it had at least 50% more armor...

[julz_d]

Maybe if it had at least 50% more armor...

That would Bee nice

[Singh400]

Nice idea, but you would get shot down before you could say "bee". You have to think about the pros and cons.

Con: Slow
Con: Limited Firepower
Con: Sitting duck
Pro: Able to carry 5 GDF
Con: If the Bee is destoyed you lose 5 GDF for a whole spawn wave

Not to mention if the server has red arrows on then the smoke is uselss.

[signofzeta]

Nice idea, but you would get shot down before you could say "bee". You have to think about the pros and cons.

Con: Slow
Con: Limited Firepower
Con: Sitting duck
Pro: Able to carry 5 GDF
Con: If the Bee is destoyed you lose 5 GDF for a whole spawn wave

Not to mention if the server has red arrows on then the smoke is uselss.

Maybe SD should implement a way for the other tools to be useable inside the bumblebee, like the airstrke, or the targetting tool, or the supply crate grenade.

[gunsmoke]

All I see is 4 dead covies in the back of a bumble bee from a plasma cannon or an obliterator. And that whole parachuting thing makes it kind of hard to live to hit the ground.

[Pyrazor]

Basic rule of Bumblebee flight is you don't drop in a hot area. You find a good area for your team to touch down, assess the area, and then carry out a strike.

I go for the mountains to the left. You can approach close to the top to dodge fire and let yours Covies take advantage of the height with their scopes and smokes.

[GorkerMorker]

IMO the smoke grenade should be usable from the passenger seat in the Trojan as well. Not to smoke the cabin out but to throw it outside.

[signofzeta]

IMO the smoke grenade should be usable from the passenger seat in the Trojan as well. Not to smoke the cabin out but to throw it outside.

Cool, I should try that. Are you sure? The last time I checked, when you are sitting as a passenger in a trojan, none of the weapons or tools are selected, and you just sit there with hands on the lap.

[Backdraft]

Cool, I should try that. Are you sure? The last time I checked, when you are sitting as a passenger in a trojan, none of the weapons or tools are selected, and you just sit there with hands on the lap.

No, he's saying they should be like that. Come to think of it, I'd like to see some smoke grenade launchers attached to medium/heavy GDF vehicles, as a counter for letting Strogg attach shields to their vehicles.

[nick_ss]

Nice find, I may give this smoke nade thing a try out.

[signofzeta]

No, he's saying they should be like that. Come to think of it, I'd like to see some smoke grenade launchers attached to medium/heavy GDF vehicles, as a counter for letting Strogg attach shields to their vehicles.

Gives me an idea. A smoke cover for the bumblebee itself lol. Then it really looks like a cloud. Strogg players can detect it and shoot it down, but AVTs cannot shoot it down. Usually the bumblebee sucks in a way that it is slow, and the AVTs always shoot it down and the passengers end up bailing even further away from the correct location, if the AVTs are placed correctly, but with this idea, of having smoke covering the bee itself, then it should be that AVTs cannot lock on. I don't know if it would be balanced, but at least it gives the bumblebee a specific function, rather than being the deathbed of 5 GDF players.

Oh yeah, as an option, if SD wants to do it, Huskies should leave a trail of smoke, that does not last very long, when a button is pressed, while the husky moves forward, so it gives GDF about 1 second of cover.

I'll put this in the suggestions section of the forum. Just continue to talk about what is useful with the non minigun seats of the bumblebee.

[Singh400]

Maybe SD should implement a way for the other tools to be useable inside the bumblebee, like the airstrke, or the targetting tool, or the supply crate grenade.Again nice idea, but:

Airstrike from Bee: Would go horrible wrong, as the Bee could change direction any time, and change your relatively postition on the map. Hence you might end up throwing a wonky airstrike and killing your team.

Targeting from Bee: Need to be somewhat stationary while targeting.

Supply Crate Beacon from Bee: Can never see this being used, ever.

[signofzeta]

Again nice idea, but:

Airstrike from Bee: Would go horrible wrong, as the Bee could change direction any time, and change your relatively postition on the map. Hence you might end up throwing a wonky airstrike and killing your team.

Targeting from Bee: Need to be somewhat stationary while targeting.

Supply Crate Beacon from Bee: Can never see this being used, ever.

Those were just examples, never said they were going to work.

[SuperHappyCow]

Nice idea, but you would get shot down before you could say "bee". You have to think about the pros and cons.

Con: Slow
Con: Limited Firepower
Con: Sitting duck
Pro: Able to carry 5 GDF
Con: If the Bee is destoyed you lose 5 GDF for a whole spawn wave

Not to mention if the server has red arrows on then the smoke is uselss.

That's like 3 spawn waves, dude.

[Rapier]

You can use the rocket launcher in the Bee when you are in the empty seat. Its pretty good imo. The only thing I would want is an autopilot you could activate which lets the Bee hover in position because once you leave the pilots seat the Bee will drop in 10 seconds which sucks.

[dommafia]

A lot of you haven't seen a good bee pilot. Jamd, for example, is a nightmare on the bee for the other team.

[Rapier]

A lot of you haven't seen a bee pilot. Jamd, for example, is a nightmare on the bee for the other team.


/fixed

No offence but hardly anyone flies it and those that do use it solely for transport.

I like the Bee but the turning speed is a bit slow :)

[dommafia]

/fixed

No offence but hardly anyone flies it and those that do use it solely for transport.

I like the Bee but the turning speed is a bit slow :)

You reinforce my point.

[Szakalot]

You reinforce my point.

a decent obliterator that knows who to hide can take a bee with ease. AVT is a barrier very hard to get past (especially with a hidden constructor with second engineer unlock), any decent tormentor can take out a bee with ease, u can drive a hog beneath it where its miniguns wont hurt u and take it out as well. If a desecrator knows how to aim with the main gun a bee dont stand a chance.
Sure, a good pilot can own a newbie cyclops, but a guy that spent x hours in a tank and a guy that spent x hours in the bee... the result for me is obvious.
Bee can be quite useful as an ambush vehicle though, i flew it into shield generators and took out infantry defence very quickly many times. But i would be twice as effective in the Anansi.
Bee is slow and vulnerable, it can take out infantry, provided there are no heavy vehicles or obliterators nearby.

[Kalbuth]

Too few terrain set-up to take full advantage of bee's transport capacity. There's always a better option available, bare perhaps Island, on which you can simply question the whole "go around them" tactic anyway.
On a map with big hills and circumvoluted ground routes, then the bee could show its potential.

[dab11999]

Bee is a gunship, you fly low down a street or canyon or tight spot. One thing about manuvering the Bee around is that can change directions very quickly including backwards. You can dodge grenades but not a missle lock on. Works great for landing in place you need blocked off.

[NIDCLXVI]

I have helped turn the tide multiple times with the "Bee". The minigun has exceptional range and accuracy (the front mounted one), this allows for some excellent anti infantry power. The speed issue is easily solved combine "boost" with "W" and tilt forward so you get the combined velocity of boost/gravity/thrust. You get speeds faster than sprinting and it keeps you low to the ground too! then slam on the air brakes and mow them down with a rain of metal!!!

It is worth it just for the gun, now if you get soldiers in it with missile launchers you end up with a flying fortress, also decoys drop down, so the missile/strocket goes down, so combine Flares with "w" for maximum avoidance results!

Hover around the back of a spawn wait 2 seconds after spawn wave and take out a whole spawn wave in 3-5 seconds before they know what hit them! Worse case scenario is 2-1 kill ratio and a few severeley damaged strogg and a bit less order on the strogg team as they recover!

[sion47]

Well if you throw enough smoke grenades on the objective, that area will lag like hell for ppl with lower end rigs.. 5 fps makes killing the covops hard :D

[BARBEERIAN]

Some people underestimate the Bee's survivability vs. AVT's and RL's. Any Tormentor pilot can tear it apart assuming he dumbfires. The Bumblebee can spam flares almost continuously (even more so with the flare upgrade). You can fly over an AVT spamming flares and as long as you don't get right up close to it won't be able to hit you. Not to mention you can just sit out of range and disable an AVT with the minigun before it ever fires at you. Flarespam works great against single RL's at medium range or further, and if you get lucky on the timing it can sometimes cope with 2 RL's (once you have the flare upgrade). Dessy and Cyclops aren't that big of a deal assuming you're smart enough to either stay out of range of their plasma, or use the terrain to shield you from them.

[tenio]

the bee is great,

it is extremely useful if you know how to use it

I have used it countless times on hacking objs

you land the bee right next to the obj, it blows up the mines, you get out and hack


On canyon, I (medic) was piloting from the base, I went to the forward spawn, picked up 2 snipers, we then went to the obj.

they smoked, we got it up to 90% before we all died.

we got the obj before the next spawn



On slip gate, you can ALWAYS make it to the gate before getting shot down, you have plenty of decoys and can avoid the AVT's for 5 seconds, giving you enough time to land/ jump out

[ArR0tTa]

fly the bumblebee low

[Sniper47]

Hmm,I can't imagine that in maps like canyon/valley where Cyclops's plasma cannons are whoring entire area.Not to mention in Canyon Bumblebee is too far from the hack obj.Another thing,there is always Tourmentor airborne.The bee is great to travel soldiers to obj.(canyon,slipgate),works great in map Island(getting carrier to last obj.). Or covering from air with miniguns,like in map Ark(minig laser obj.)

[signofzeta]

Oh yeah, I remember the thread about the "bomber plane". The Bumblebee IS the bomber plane. Just sit in the no minigun seat, and just look down and throw grenades. Make sure the bumblebee height is low enough though. Great for clearing out mines.

[BioSnark]

On slip gate, you can ALWAYS make it to the gate before getting shot down, you have plenty of decoys and can avoid the AVT's for 5 seconds, giving you enough time to land/ jump out

Or you can try not getting shot down. Slip Gate has a whole lot of cover for a low flying bee and it's a hell of a lot of fun watching stroggies running for cover around the slip gate. The bee rocks on that map and many tormentor pilots (when they bother to get it) ignore the bee when there's an Anansi in the air.

The gatlings are, however, worthless against the tormentor. (and they even ignore me when I'm mowing away at them! Humiliating!)

[noobie pwner]

I suggest this to ppl who have headsets so they can quickly coordinate win to do this, win to throw smoke, win to jump out etc.

[whiteaden]

what most of you guys forget (I think so at least) is that if you add 4 guys + pilot to the Bee.. you're down 5 men on the ground.. which might mean trouble for the ground troops to get to the objective to provide cover, or bug the Strogg enough to pay attention to them instead of the large crate of free kills up in the air..
and don't forget that a good railgunner shoots out the passengers with eaze.. :O (or hyperblaster)

[b0rok]

bee vs infantry = win
bee vs strogg vehicles = lose

[whiteaden]

bee vs infantry = win
bee vs strogg vehicles = lose

Bee VS hog = win :D shoot of 2 tires and it's damned :)

[Sniper47]

bee vs hyperblaster = lose
bee vs tourmentor = lose
bee with good pilot = win
bee vs others = hmm win?

[isopren]

Incoming bumblebee = free XP for Strogg