Are AP Cannons underpowered?

[SGTAce]

They should boost it, ie. AP ignores armor.


Boost AP -> Less High Explosive tanks -> more real tank fights.

[Falcon_br]

Ap is currentely doing more damage them the standard one heat.
If it start ignoring damage reduction, it will be better to the front, the same to the side and less effective from behind.
It is working the way it is now, 15% more damage makes a difference when you are toe to toe with an enemy tank. It is very good to be able to one shot kill from behind with it, what is impossible with heat.

[Baneblade]

Are you saying the VR instance is giving us bad info?

[Rothnang]

Originally Posted by Falcon_br

It is very good to be able to one shot kill from behind with it, what is impossible with heat.

No AP cannon can one shot another tank from behind.

[Silent Thunder]

Originally Posted by Rothnang

No AP cannon can one shot another tank from behind.

IIRC, and I havent tested this in a while, don't both kill in 2 hits to the direct rear? The AP does a bit more damage and more overdamage on the killshot, but since this is PS2 and not DnD, overdamage really doesn't matter.

[Rothnang]

That's correct, every tank including lightning takes 2 shots to the rear from any cannon or rocket launcher, though a lightning will catch fire after the first hit.

[Silent Thunder]

Hmm that gives me kind of a fun idea. Imagine if a tank at critical damage kiled teh driver inside, but the vehicle was ok, and able to be stolen by the other team if they can fix it in time. Hmm, maybe I've just been playing too much Men of War recently.

[Rothnang]

I don't really see that being a good thing because it creates conflicting objectives for your own faction. You'll end up in competition with people who have weapons that destroy vehicles and other players trying to take it over rather than working together with them to just destroy the thing.

[Falcon_br]

Yeah, I was wrong, now way you can one hit kill from behind, but still using that calculator, hitting a target with ap will make most of them to die in one less hit, and in an even battle this will give the necessary advantage.

[Rothnang]

In a straight up tank battle the AP cannon will give you the advantage no matter what, but this game isn't about dueling people, you're just a tiny piece of crap in a giant shitstorm.

[ColdCheese]

It's so tough deciding wether to go all in on AP Lightning rounds and snipe tanks or settle for HEAT and keep some infantry repellent on hand.

[Rothnang]

There is no real need for AP lightnings on the battlefield unless you are good enough to use it as an AA gun.

The reality is, heavy armor in this game is a joke. It's just not like you need specially outfitted vehicles to take down tanks.

[Ruffdog]

Just been on the range because I wanted to see for myself:

"On fire" means it dies by the last round but takes <10 seconds






I, like Baneblade, wanted the tank-killer loadout and went AP. I've been certing ammo pool and reload speed like a mug it seems. Yes its underpowered compared to HEAT, unless you fight Vannies all day which you probably don't NC?

The caveat is in a real tank battle, the extra velocity for AP is helpful when you have to connect with 2 rounds.

However I will still be dumping it for HEAT faster than you can say "holy shit that's hot shrapnel!"

[Rothnang]

Prowler AP isn't all bad because the anchor mode makes it overpowered as all shit against air. The projectile velocity becomes so absurdly huge that you can easily snipe ESFs out of the sky and make Liberators curse at the devs for not understanding that higher projectile speed doesn't just affect how you hit tanks.

Even on the other tanks the higher speed and flatter trajectory is useful, but not even close to as useful as being able to smash infantry on an almost-hit.

[ColdCheese]

Sounds like AP Prolwer with Halbred is only worth it, lightnings eith HEAT are no brainers. Good thread, saved me some AP tears if I would have gone with them for the lightning and later regretted it after certing it out.