Crewed MBT's for one week

[Ritual]

Let the idea of crewed tanks DIE please.

If you want a crewed tank, ask for a cert to make it an optional sidegrade.

The only thing that needs to be changed is MBT's should need tech plants to spawn, and lightnings should be spawned from the rest of terminals. That would be real "balance" not some anti fun nazi restriction of needing a crew to shoot your gun for you that you just spent all your resource points on.

I don't know how many years it took Planetside 1 players to get good at gunning tanks.

It was painful for so long. I wanted to slit my wrists every time I was a driver. Gunners were incompetent. Tank battles looked like Monty Python scenes. People driving around in circles around the enemy trying to hit each other. Having to stop the tank so your gunner could get a steady shot off. Having to move 3cm right or left so they could get line of sight over a stupid rock.

Its just dumb and i'm glad to see it go.

I understand the points behind crewed tanks. I was a badass tank driver and gunner in PS1. But I also know all the negatives. I would rather have non crewed tanks. If I want a crew I can still do that and we can go blow shit up, if I want to go out on my own I can do that too. No brainer design decision there.

As smedley says, trust me and STFU.

[PredatorFour]

Originally Posted by Ritual

It was painful for so long. I wanted to slit my wrists every time I was a driver. Gunners were incompetent. Tank battles looked like Monty Python scenes. People driving around in circles around the enemy trying to hit each other. Having to stop the tank so your gunner could get a steady shot off. Having to move 3cm right or left so they could get line of sight over a stupid rock.

Its just dumb and i'm glad to see it go.



As smedley says, trust me and STFU.

Im sorry you never had a decent gunner in PS, shouldve joined up with an outfit and let your friends gun. Then you wouldve learned valid tactics instead of trying to encircle your enemy whilst trying to pound them i.e. something out of Monty Python.

[EVILoHOMER]

SOE really showed their true colours this past month, I cannot believe they're rushing this broken mess out :\ It has so many issues, they said it'll release when it's done and yet it is so far off that and they wont fix them within these last 20 days or so.

I just cannot believe that they've learnt nothing, like I feel stupid after being burnt by them time and time again, why did I give them this chance? I tell you if Planetside 2 doesn't get a miracle patch... never will I touch an SOE game again.

[SpottyGekko]

The majority of PS2 players are not going to be joining an outfit and playing as a co-ordinated team. They will be solo, the same way that they play BF3 and CoD and whatever other FPS they play.

I have no problem with the idea of dedicated driver separate from dedicated main gunner, but ONLY if that is an option as opposed to the only way.

Smed has it right on this one.

[EVILoHOMER]

The problem is lightnings are useless as they should be the 1 man tanks and 2 MBTs are better than 1 because not only do you have more targets but twice the fire power and none of the passenger guns are as powerful.

Then with fast seat switching which is like a second and you're good to go... what is the point of having a gunner seat?


It's so poor, Smedley has no idea once again.... I mean why have the lightning in the game at all?

[Bravix]

Originally Posted by Fear The Amish

Oh great you have figured out how to make 2 out of the 3 MBT's crewed for 2 now tell me how you get the mag to do that.... ill be waiting for your response with baited breath.

Just make it like it was in PS1. Mag had a forward fixed gun for the driver. Wasn't anything incredible, didn't decimate the enemy, but it had its uses.

Could just nerf the VS driver gun and buff the HRB a bit. Problem solved!

[maradine]

Originally Posted by EVILoHOMER

It's so poor, Smedley has no idea once again.... I mean why have the lightning in the game at all?

Because, with AP rounds, it's an excellent high-speed tank hunter. With HE rounds, its a mini solopwnmobile at facilities fights. Add a few ranks of climb and it's practically spiderpig. It also fits through gaps you can't wedge an MBT through.

No love man, no love . . .

[Mox]

Smed loves only casual solo noobs. I think he has no idea about playing in a group.
Being part of a 3 men attack-vec crew and successfull working togeher is a wonderful experience. I think there should be at least one ground vehicle that allow such an experience as the liberator do in the air.
For solo players we already have the lightning. Not every vec has to match this kind of playstyle.
By the way: No one really needs casual solo players! They will play the game some months for free and move on afterwards.

[Figment]

Originally Posted by Fear The Amish

Oh great you have figured out how to make 2 out of the 3 MBT's crewed for 2 now tell me how you get the mag to do that.... ill be waiting for your response with baited breath.

Please note I already adressed the Magrider issue before you even posted. It's not an issue at all unless you want every empire to always have the exact same thing.

See, if they had listened to us a year ago, they'd have had a better MBT design for the Magrider already.

The main gun's damage should be reduced significantly, to about 20% of the current DPS. Lower the total hitpoints of the vehicle such that three Magriders equal two three crew tanks. That's not a new balancing concept, look at C&C Red Alert: only the Soviets had Heavy Tanks and even Mammoth Tanks, but the Allies simply had larger numbers of light and medium tanks to compensate. The VS would thus get both a maneuvring and numerical advantage, but they'd have to compensate for that by having reduced power and endurance per vehicle.


Kinda why the Magriders in PS1 had 3500 hitpoints oppposed to the 4000 of the Prowler, the 4500 of the Vanguard and the 3000 hitpoints of the Deliverer variants and a very weak front mounted gun that was primarily aimed at fighting infantry. It's not an issue at all unless you demand every unit regardless of manpower inside is equal one on one, instead of balancing by manpower. Think out of the box will you?



On the longer term they can do the following:

They created a floating and therefore strafing tank destroyer. Deal with it as such. Ideally they should either simply scrap the frontal gun in favour of a turret design with weaker hull due to the increased dodging capacity, or they should make a new MBT in due time (not during beta) and TD models for the other empires. When they'd opt to make it a true Tank Destroyer, remove the HE and HEAT cannons from this tank, weaken its sides and rear more and lower its hitpoints closer to the Lightning.


Another alternative is to simply treat both the Prowler and Vanguard as two crew vehicles and have the gunner switch guns, as the Vanguard in PS1 had. In that case, you can simply half the AVERAGE damage of both Magrider guns combined (for instance go from 100% (100% + 100%) to 50% (25%-75% or 33%-67%) with the lower damage being dealt by the driver of the Magrider so that it heavily relies on at least one gunner.



If you're too stuck on the status quo that you're incapable of looking at the design and specifications of the vehicle as a whole (the sum of the parts is the actual design), then that's your problem.

[Figment]

Originally Posted by Ritual

Let the idea of crewed tanks DIE please.

If you want a crewed tank, ask for a cert to make it an optional sidegrade.

The only thing that needs to be changed is MBT's should need tech plants to spawn, and lightnings should be spawned from the rest of terminals. That would be real "balance" not some anti fun nazi restriction of needing a crew to shoot your gun for you that you just spent all your resource points on.

I don't know how many years it took Planetside 1 players to get good at gunning tanks.

It was painful for so long. I wanted to slit my wrists every time I was a driver. Gunners were incompetent. Tank battles looked like Monty Python scenes. People driving around in circles around the enemy trying to hit each other. Having to stop the tank so your gunner could get a steady shot off. Having to move 3cm right or left so they could get line of sight over a stupid rock.

Its just dumb and i'm glad to see it go.

I understand the points behind crewed tanks. I was a badass tank driver and gunner in PS1. But I also know all the negatives. I would rather have non crewed tanks. If I want a crew I can still do that and we can go blow shit up, if I want to go out on my own I can do that too. No brainer design decision there.

As smedley says, trust me and STFU.

Maybe MBTs just aren't for you. Maybe you should learn to communicate or first train a gunner or work with people on a regular basis and otherwise simply use the damn Lightning? And for your information nobody made you spend your certs on those tanks. Nobody told you in advance those certs were being spend on YOUR power, you spend them on the Empire's power too! If you're too bloody egocentric to think of it in that way, then maybe you should not drive team vehicles eh?

Let's see what would happen if tech plants were required for MBTs... Oh wait, you haven't thought about what a difference of 30 tanks would mean in a fight.

It's also clear you have no idea what the impact of manpower differences is when given the choice between getting three tanks (3x 1 crew), two tanks (2 crew + 1 crew) or one (3 crew). I'll tell you though: the one tank would always be the worst choice and would never be used with a full crew complement unless the players inside are dumb, were too lazy to fall back and get their own vehicle or for some odd reason (probably due to losing or facing superior numbers) had no own access to a vehicle.

[Zerikin Loukbel]

I greatly prefer the current tanks. I don't want to just drive one around all day while someone else shoots.

[RodenyC]

Originally Posted by Zerikin Loukbel

I greatly prefer the current tanks. I don't want to just drive one around all day while someone else shoots.

There is the lighting.

[PredatorFour]

I would happily cert everything into my tank and let my gunner get the kills so we can work as a TEAM.

[Dagron]

Originally Posted by RodenyC

There is the lighting.

Originally Posted by PredatorFour

I would happily cert everything into my tank and let my gunner get the kills so we can work as a TEAM.

^This.
Lightnings should be the choice if you prefer not to depend on someone else to drive/shoot, but there should be a way for those of us who want to play as a team to do so. Would it be harder to use? Sure, but once you learned to coordinate your actions it should be more effective than someone who dreams of being a one man army.
Lone wolfing shouldn't necessarily be discouraged, but team work should be actively encouraged.

[Zerikin Loukbel]

I like working with or as a gunner, just not the exclusion of having no weapon of my own. Maybe give the driver access to the secondary weapon in that config and let the gunner control the turret? That would also give the driver superior visibility since the secondary weapons traverse much faster.