Looking at the AD rules and musing on the fact that in Season X ITS there is in effect no Drop Zone (as per previous discussions on coordination of drops), had a question. AD Combat Jump says this: And Landing Assistance says this: So, if there is no Drop Zone, and I don't think that a smoke template counts as a closed scenery element, can I land my AD troops in smoke? B/c that seems really really good for my YuanYuans.
I think the idea of Landing Assistance rule was that the Drop Zone is reduced to the base of the AD trooper. Namely, the Drop Zone still needs to be out of contact from any Obstructed Visibility Zones (how about using this term in N4?). If you look closer, you will see that rules restrict you from placing the DZ template in contact with Low or Zero Vis Zone, but say nothing about Poor Vis Zone. I think this find is an obvious badly worded rule that needs to be clarified. O, @HellLois we call upon ye to judge us and seal our fate!
I agree this may be the intent, but as per the Combat Drop section I linked above, the drop zone exists as the template. Without placing the template, there is no drop zone based on my reading of the above. I concur we'll need a ruling here - the fix you propose (modify landing assistance to define the drop zone as the base of the dropping unit) seems fine for this. No idea if there are other effects to consider, though.