The UD-12 Shepherd in Battlefield 2142.
The UD-12 Shepherd VTOL is a VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) aircraft used by the European Union in the 22nd Century. It is encountered in Battlefield 2142, being a usable aircraft.
Description
The UD-12 Shepherd was developed with a single purpose, to convey military personnel into the combat arena, dropping soldiers via spherical, quick-drop escape pods. Slow moving, but direction flexible, the Shepherd draws on a marriage of multi-source jet propulsion and hover technology to travel long distances at a mid-level altitude. The UD-12 is shelled in composite, electrically charged armor lined with Nomex fiber and relies on two medium-caliber, bipod-mounted automatic machine guns to repel assailants.
The air transport is slow and has poor handling. On the plus side, it is twice as durable as the gunship and the flight system is "foolproof" - simply letting go of the controls will make it level the flight and slowly travel forwards all on its own(which is a good technique to use while other people sweep the area with cannons). It seats seven people, but only the pilot is fully protected; both the passangers controlling the cannons and the ones sitting on the sides are exposed to small arms fire and, more importantly, splash damage.
The cannons are good against infantry, and can chip away at health of other aircraft; in some cases fire from both cannons can scare even a gunship away. Another popular weapon of the air transport is the air transport itself. While ramming is officially forbidden on many servers, you can't have a Battlefield 2142 career without dying to a suicide air transport. If you're planning on surviving the process, fly higher than usual and bail out just before the target, holding the backwards key. The tactics is considered dishonorable by many players and will not make you popular, hovewer its effectiveness cannot be disputed - one air transport for one Walker is a very good trade, and air transports respawn almost instantly anyway. Assault pods are yet another potential weapon.
Air transports are usually the biggest cause of friendly fire deaths on a server. Keep in mind that they're about as maneuverable as cows, so don't take chances with lamp posts and don't try acrobatics when you have passangers. Furthermore, keep in mind that the pilot might not keep that in mind so don't be afraid to bail out when you see the aircraft fly towards certain doom; but at the same time, note that bailing out of a landing transport at a low altitude might cause you to destroy the transport with your own assault pod - when exiting the transport, either do it high enough or when it's touching the ground and not moving(or it can simply run you over).
In Titan game mode, air transports that are or were controlled by your team become spawn points. Generally, they're landed on the lower Titan platform(the Titan AA cannons cover the upper platform) and left there. Either destroy them or capture them by getting in and out again. Destroying them forces the enemy to fly all the way from their Titan again; hovewer this is usually not a problem. Capturing denies enemy the spawn point as well as an air transport, but there is a risk it simply gets recaptured again.
To land on an enemy Titan, fly on the side and slightly below the Titan - your ceiling is the Titan AA guns, but a bored player camping the Titan cannons might take potshots at you if you're flying too low - then land on the lower platform. Unless you messed up the landing by going too high, you should be completely safe from the Titan AA guns. You won't be safe from enemy assault pods, hovewer.
A different and rarely used technique is to simply go as high as possible over the enemy titan and hover there(use the minimap to adjust your position). This has several advantages: You're hard to spot in the first place, as people rarely look straight up and will assume any drop pods coming straight down are from a squad leader's Beacon; You're hard to destroy, pretty much the only thing that can do it is the gunship, as Titan AA cannons drastically lose effectiveness at range; you cannot be hit by assault pods; and if you do get attacked, you simply bail out and land on the enemy Titan, which was the goal in the first place. The downside is you'll be spending all your time in the transport doing absolutely nothing.
Finally, when in Titan mode and spawning on a flying Transport, remember that people sometimes use them to simply get somewhere - and they don't bother landing or doing the "Bail Out" radio messages. Be ready to switch to the first seat when the aircraft will suddenly start falling like a rock because the pilot reached his destination.
Specifications
Weaponry
- Two Medium Caliber Gautling Guns with EXPL Rounds.
Armour
- Electrically charged Composite
- Nomex Fiber Lining
Defences
Capacity
- One Pilot
- Two Gunners/Passengers
- Four Seated Passengers
Propulsion
- Two Multi-Source Jet Pods
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