Balance Revisions Part 2 (goes with first thread)

[Aen]

Main Battle Tanks
These were always intended to have characteristics specific to their Empire. The Terran Republic vehicles are supposed to be "highest rate of fire", the New Conglomerate items are "armor and big hits", and the Vanu Sovereignty are "light...but FAST".

The end result of the changes (listed below) creates the following characteristics:

TR Prowler has the highest damage output, but the slowest maximum speed and only average armor.
NC Vanguard has the highest armor, average maximum speed, and average damage output (the 150mm shots are still the most power individually, but the Prowler does more damage over time).
VS Magrider has the highest speed and maneuverability, but the least damage and armor.
Tank versus tank analyses were made and the "time to kill" (for one tank to kill another tank of a differing empire) is approximately the same, regardless of Empire. (For instance, The Magrider takes slightly longer to kill other tanks, but it's direct-line attacks typically are much more useful in tank-to-tank battles and this makes up for that lack.)

Overall, the main battle tank top speeds and accelerations were slowed down significantly. This does two things: a) it makes the tanks "feel" more like tanks because they seem to have more momentum, and b) it reduces the ease with which the tanks can mow over infantry targets (they take more time to ramp up to speed now and infantry can move around them more easily). This slower movement rate also reduces lag between server updates, which means you'll see the tanks moving more accurately now as well.

This decrease in maneuverability was partially compensated for by dramatically increasing the amount of armor these tanks have. (In otherwords, they're easier to hit now, so they can take the damage more easily.)

The following changes were made:

TR Prowler

Increased main gun rate of fire slightly
Increased tracking speed of the machinegun
Increased the damage of the 12mm machine gun bullets (all vehicles using those bullets gain this increase, as well)
Decreased the tank's max speed
Increased the acceleration time to hit top speeds (making it feel more like a tank and less like a buggy)
Increased the vertical pivot of both guns.
Increased its armor significantly.
NC Vanguard

Increase the Vanguard's armor to be the most heavily armored human-tech battle tank in the game
Decrease the tank's max speed
Increase the acceleration time to hit top speeds (making it feel more like a tank and less like a buggy)
Increased the damage of the 20mm machine gun bullets (all vehicles using those bullets gain this increase, as well)
Increase elevation of cannons to 45 degrees so that its machineguns are more useful against air targets
VS Magrider

Increase the acceleration time to hit top speeds (making it feel more like a tank and less like a buggy)
Increase the time it takes to reach top strafing speed also
Increase main cannon damage to armored targets
Increase main cannon damage to air targets
Armored Buggies

When the balances on the main battle tanks shifted, then the buggy balances needed to shift accordingly. This was predominantly done by adjusting armor and some of the weaponry characteristics. The speed aspects of the various buggies were unchanged.

After the changes below were made, the relative characteristics of these buggies are as follows:

TR Marauder: Highest damage output, average armor and slowest speed
NC Enforcer: Most armor, average damage output, and average speed
VS Tresher: Greatest speed, weakest armor, average damage output.
TR Marauder

The GroundPounder mortar projectiles now have a decreased explosive radius. (design reduction)
The individual mortar shots do less damage to soldiers, armor, and air now. (damage reduction)
Increase ROF of mortar to almost three times as fast. (compensates for above changes and makes it more interesting to use as a weapon)
Increased the turret tracking speed for the machinegun.
Increased the armor on this buggy (slightly).
Decreased the top speed slightly and increased the acceleration time to max speed (making it feel like an armored buggy when compared to the Harasser). (design reduction)
NC Enforcer

Increased the armor
Decreased the top speed and reduced acceleration time (design reduction)
VS Thresher

Increased the damage done at the edge of the explosions on the main cannon. (This means that all explosions will do generally more damage to all targets in the explosion as the damage doesn't "taper off" as quickly from the center to the edge of the explosion.)
Explosion radius increased slightly (on main gun shots)
Increased main gun clip size to 100 (from 25).
Improved handling and turning radius.

[Hamma]

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