Incentives towards 2+ players in vehicles

[Arashmickey]

Hey folks, what incentives would you suggest to get more people manning a single vehicle? TB's critique brought this on, and I'm curious what ideas people can come up with.

Would you prefer a separate main gunner? Something similar? Longer spawn times and more expensive single-pilot vehicles? Bonuses per additional occupant?

Personally, in addition to tweaks on existing vehicles, I would love to see one or two types of more spaceous, non-transport vehicles, that are more expensive and rare, and also require more people to operate effectively. I just hope putting in new vehicles like that is feasible. Maybe in the long term?

That's it from me - fire away

EDIT: Apologies for not reading the rules for this sub-forum. Bad habit I'll make a bit more effort to flesh out some ideas here.

I think the best effect might be achieved through conferring bonuses to the vehicle whenever more than 1 player is operating the vehicle. It could allow for more flexibility in balance and functionality, plus it would mitigate the risk of losing multiple occupants if the vehicle is destroyed. If a third or fourth slot were added to MBTs, like Alture suggested below, the bonuses could stack up to make them significantly more powerful.

I can't think of a good reason to make one-man vehicles more rare or expensive, even though I mentioned it as a possibility earlier. I do think one-man vehicles should be less fearsome than the next tier of vehicle. Currently, I often see MBT's manned by a single person, especially when massed in great numbers. Conferring additional bonuses with additional passengers could help out in broadening the power gap a little.

Certs could be another way to provide incentives towards filling up vehicle slots, by allowing a player to gain larger bonuses on their vehicle per additional operator, and possibly make them more customizable.

This leads me to the next subject: how customizable - and therefore complex - should these additional bonuses be? Should there be different certs for different kind of buffs? I think that would be awesome and immediately useful. Should the class of operator influence the type of bonus conferred? That would require more teamwork - something I would love to see more incentives towards - but the subtleties there would more often be lost on new players, or go unexploited in the heat of battle. Still, could be interesting.

I'd prefer all repairs to vehicles remain necessarily performed from the outside, rather than by occupants. I rather enjoy the risks of outside-engies much the same way I enjoy the combat medic gameplay. If a player were to be able to repair vehicles from the inside , I would definitely want to see a trade-off. Maybe the vehicle that allows it is a particularly uncommon sight on the battlefield, or it requires the vehicle to be fully manned, or a dedicated slot, or making the mechanic incapable of operating any weapons so long as he is repairing.

Alright, hopefully that explores some of the possibilities more thoroughly. Surely I can't have exhausted them, so pleez add 'em you got 'em.

[Alture]

Well Id like to see a return to PS1 style tanks with 3 man MBT's. I also whole heartedly support the outfit air cruiser idea a few posts down. Also more multi-man vehicles like a vehicle inbetween the Lightning and the MBT's. Maybe even give the MBT's a fourth slot. A tertiary light gun position that also counts as an inboard mechanic that can only be filled by an engy. I also believe a pilot/driver class should be in the game.

[Ravenclaw]

I have to totally agree here tbh, lighting is the ONE MAN tank, the main battle tanks however should be 3 or 4 man with much greater Armour, and to compensate and longer cooldown/resorces

MBT should have dedicated driver, 1 Cannon gunner, and 1 secondary gunner.

MBT should be fearsome force, but difficult to aquire.

This would also help reduce the number of team kills from friendly tanks, currenly driver looks through the eyes of the cannon, this gives him very limited vision, meaning he frequently kill friendlys in a fight just because he can't see them.

Dedicated Drivers however will have there eyes on there surrounding more, will have more time and effort to focus on manuvering

[Arashmickey]

I like the idea of dedicated drivers, especially if it encourages more slot-switching, which I think is a legitimate strategy that could lead to some awesome shenanigans. At the same time, if there's a workaround that still allows a heavy and expensive tank to retain some utility when someone is solo for whatever reason, I'd kinda like that too.

I can't decide my preference here.... I think if I had to choose, I would go for a dedicated driver. We have the 1mans and let them fill their roles. If that means there's way far too few tanks on the field, nerf the 1mans and make 'em a bit more common. That won't do much for the friendly collision problem, but I think reduced damage has done a lot in that regard already, so it's not the big problem it used to be for me.

I'm wondering, what would the benefits of playing a pilot/driver class be? How would that class work? I'm guessing buffs, right? I think that's okay, but I'd like to see it balanced against teamwork considerations.