Originally posted by Unknown Target
Yea, I can see it now...a whole platoon of marines dropping into the atmosphere, dressed in spacesuits, and burning up 
Seriously, I really don't think there's a viable reason as to why the GTVA might want to put a crapload of people out in space on a garaunteed suicide mission (on purpose, I mean 
).
Why would that be a suicide mission? Fighters have enough problems with hitting targets of their size, such small soldiers armed with missles should have excellent surviveability, at least when compared to their durability. And they would certainly distract enemy pilots from the real threats: fighters, because if they do not pay attention to Zero-G soldiers, they are going to be ripped to pieces with missles. And as I said, they would be *still* better off than Marines, who can't help their mothership in *any* way when it is attacked.
Besides, that's why transports go into atmosphere first.
And in case of asteroid bases, you do not have that problem.
Originally posted by mikhael
Was that really necessary?
Sorry, I was a little pissed off. No offence was intended for anyone concerned, other than Arabs that blow themselfes up, of course.
Consider this "Al-Quaeda in SPAAAACE!!" then.
Originally posted by Flipside
My concerns are that a laser shot is about three times bigger than a human. You'd ram more than you shot, you'd need loads of them to be effective, which would reduce the number of other ships available.
Since most capital ships have several thousand crew, you'd need at least around 150-200 Marines to secure an area aboard and start operations, and this is whilst the ship is being pounded by cannon and beams. It's a nice idea for space combat, but I don't think it would work in FS2 
It might be useful as a one off, where you have to get aboard a vessel to plant a bomb or tracking device, but you'd have to do it like a stealth mission, where you had to stay away from the escorts, but it seems like an awful lot of effort just for a single specialised mission.
I am not so sure about the ramming. They aren't your wingmen, after all.
And, again, they are not *designed* to be fighter killers. They are used as additional missle platforms and as a distraction to support their own fighters. With good agility and small size, you'd need a limited number of soldiers for that, and for ground combat work, well... you need troop transports for that anyway, and with Zero-G soldiers, you will have advantage when figthing inside asteroid bases and in boarding actions.
Actually, you would need very few Zero-G Troopers to secure the ship, as only anti-tank and anti-fighter weapons carried by Marines on-board the ship could really hurt them. There is just too much armor for shrapnels and conventional firearms. Think "Shivan boarding action" for effects.
They might be also useful as deep-space S&R teams, for example a team that goes to check a wrecked Orion destroyer for survivors, like GTD Legion from OTT ship pack. Docking bays are too damaged for transports, so Zero-G units are deployed in the big hole in the side of the ship.
And I plan to make a mission showing them off when I make the model and get it into Freespace. It would be, basically, a boarding action against a disabled GTD Orion with soldiers deployed from enemy destroyer's fighter bay, with player protecting the Orion. That should show me just how well the Zero-G Troopers fare when put against fighters.
