The balance issue with multi-gunned vehicles

[Arkanakaz]

I think that the problem in PlanetSide 1, was that because some of the ground vehicles were so similar to each only the weapon and the armour statistics that separated them – making balancing them impossible. So using the Deliverer and the tank I’ll try to show what I mean (the statistics are made up):

Option 1 (PlanetSide Now):

Deliverer
Armour: 25
Damage Per Second for each gun 25

Tank
Armour 50
Damage Per Second for each gun 50

This is how it is at the moment in PlanetSide 1, with the tank getting far more armour although it has less people in it as well as more firepower, for a gunner looking for a gunning spot there is no point in getting in the deliverer. This follows the pattern in the current game that the more gunning positions there are on a vehicle the less fire power each one provides – making the tanks the best option for a soldier looking for a vehicle to gun if they want the best possible weapon.

Option 2:

Deliverer
Armour: 75
Damage Per Second for each gun 50

Tank
Armour 50
Damage Per Second for each gun 50

Good thing about this is that the armour equally reflects the number of people in the vehicle (two man tank 25x2=50 and three man Deliverer 25x3=75) and each gunner is giving the same damage output regardless of which vehicle he picks. Problem is why not just pick the deliverer and go around with just one gunner, while making the most of the extra armour?

Option 3:

Deliverer
Armour: 75
Damage Per Second for each gun 50

Tank
Armour 75
Damage Per Second for each gun 50

This solves the problem with option 2, but means that although the deliverer has equal armour, with three people in rather than two; it has less per person than the tank making it pointless to have three in the Deliverer, as it would be better to find another tank for the 3ed soldier – seeing as in this situation any vehicle with two people would provide more armour per person than one with three within.

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What happened in PlanetSide 1 was that there seemed to be an effort during the balancing stage to make it so that all vehicles had the same armour and damage output when they were fully manned. I don’t think this made any sense as; to look it from the perspective of the empire, four tanks each manned by two people are far superior to one vehicle with eight people in, because four tanks are providing much more armour and firepower to the battlefield than one larger vehicle such as a Sunderer variant.

So the solution I think, is to make vehicles with different numbers of people dramatically different from each other in ways that are more subjective than fire power and armour. Or, perhaps more realistically, to make it so the larger vehicles have different guns, meaning that each person who gets in the vehicle adds something new, for example one direct fire gun, one than can arc over walls, another that does anti-air and so on. This way larger vehicles could become more versatile with the more people who get into them, without having the issue of a large vehicle being used like a tank - with just one gunner.

Thoughts..?