Vehicle roles that no vehicle currently fills

[Rothnang]

Siege Vehicle that has to anchor to fire very powerful weapons

This is somewhat filled by the Prowler, but since the Prowler is empire specific this is really a role that is left vacant for two out of three empires. The prowler also has a turret, which takes away they whole aspect of having to point the vehicle in a specific direction to anchor and project firepower toward that side.
There should be a vehicle that can deploy some kind of really powerful tank hunting cannon, a multiple rocket launcher or something like that but has to deploy facing its target area to use them.

Panzerjäger Nashorn carrying a deadly high velocity Pak43 tank killing gun.


Pak 43 88mm high velocity gun mounted on a very lightly armored Waffenträger (Weapon carrier)



Long Range Aircraft designed for hovering close to the ground

There really is no aircraft right now that works the way that something like an Apache Helicopter would, which lurks between trees or behind hills, pops up, unleashes deadly attacks at long range and then disappears again. An aircraft that packs a long range forward facing gun or a rocket launcher similar to the MANA AV would be great. The thing wouldn't be very fast compared to the other aircraft, and not at all designed to engage in aerial battles, but operate from out of cover, close to the ground.

Apache Helicopter lurking behind some trees over a lake



APC

The game really lacks vehicles that operate well alongside infantry currently. The Sunderer may be really useful, but it's much more useful being parked somewhere in relative safety than it is moving along with the troops. The APC would be something akin to a Bradley. A single driver would be able to operate the vehicle, similar to a lightning tank, so that the driver can enjoy the vehicle even when the infantry is dismounted. This vehicle should also not simply feature passenger seats, but have hatches for the passengers to fire out of.

Bradley Fighting Vehicle


Bison Armored Personnel Carrier



Huey style Aircraft

A small transport aircraft with an open back that soldiers can sit in and shoot out of. This thing should go fast, and it's armament that the pilot uses should be a smoke launcher that creates a thick ring of smoke on the ground underneath the aircraft, which is used to obscure the landing zone when it sets down to unload or pick up troops in a combat zone.

Huey Helicopter In Vietnam



Pioneering/Combat Engineer vehicle

Super heavy tank that is outfitted with tools for all sorts of tasks on the battlefield such as flipping over vehicles, repairing vehicles, clearing mines, and laying charges. This vehicle would have a bulldozer scoop in front that it can use to turn over vehicles. It would also have a crane assembly in a turret that can be used like a repair gun, or to lay explosive charges which can then be remote detonated like C4. It would be relatively slow, albeit extremely heavily armored, and nearly impenetrable in the front. It would also be completely immune to mines. Perhaps the back of the vehicle could be slanted in such a way that it also works as a ramp for other vehicles to jump off, or go over obstacles with.

A1 Abrams Grizzly Combat Engineering Vehicle


Bergepanzer Büffel with extended crane arm

[zulu]

I don't think that something like the Apache could really work in this game. People complain as it is about being killed by air units that require the attacker to be significantly closer to the action. Adding something of a "sniping" air unit that operates far away would be a deal-breaker, regardless of how it was balanced.

A smaller transport aircraft would be really cool, but it might also be accomplished by, say, an option for rumble seats or something on the sides of the ESF. But more vehicle types is always a good thing, if you ask me.

I don't know how well engineering vehicles would work given the relative rarity of mine fields (usually it's just two mines stacked on top of each other, or two mines thrown at a target) and other things they might be used for. One option, however, might be to greatly change how vehicles are destroyed and removed from the game -- perhaps you could have a sort of tank recovery vehicle that would reconstruct destroyed tanks. That would certainly require a lot of work to implement, however.

I think the Sunderer serves as a very effective APC as it is (especially when carrying blockade armor and some upgraded weapons). But it would be nice to see it given some better options in the place of the AMS. The gatecrashing shield is buggy (and probably meets is intended goal worse than the Galaxy does by just dropping a squad into a base), while the smoke screen is very niche. That leaves the radar, which is very expensive for what it does (though valuable, the Flash is better in this).

A smaller APC (carrying maybe six or seven people) that was a bit faster would be interesting, maybe.

One thing I'd like to see would be a two-seat fighter -- perhaps geared more for high-speed interception and bombing than turning and dogfighting. Maybe it could carry a laser-guided bomb, which would fill something of an artillery role (while still giving people on the ground a role in using it and countering it).

[Rothnang]

I disagree on the sniping air unit being a deal breaker. It would actually be way more vulnerable to ground troops than what you currently get with aircraft, since a low flying aircraft is an easy target for tank guns and a whole variety of ordnance that can't be pointed up. If you're driving a tank, what would you rather deal with, a Liberator flying directly above you hitting you with a tank gun, or an aircraft flying somewhere over a hill hitting you with a tank gun? I'd take the second one where I can shoot back... I mean, long range doesn't mean out of range.

The main point of an APC would be making it single driver operational, and giving it seats you can fire from. Since the Sunderer takes 3 people to be a real force by itself it really isn't a vehicle that you can have a lot of fun with once the infantry insides dismounts. It's the same problem as with the Galaxy, people need to be in it for it to be able to fight, but you're taking people somewhere to get out.


The Pioneering vehicle does more than just clear minefields. One of its biggest functions would be the ability to deploy explosive charges with its crane, by just driving up to a location using its extremely thick front armor, plopping down a huge bomb, backing away and then blowing it up. Imagine rolling up to a heavily defended building, dropping a huge bomb in the door and then slowly driving off again. That would send people running for the hills for sure. That actually is something that these kinds of vehicles do since WW2, when the British first came up with the concept, building on the Churchill tank which proved an ineffective fighting vehicle since its turret ring was too small to mount large tank killing guns on it, but was an incredibly well armored and powerful chassis to carry around all sorts of unusual equipment, including demolition launchers, mine clearing flails, charge layers etc.

[Gatekeeper]

Well, technically the Flash now meets your APC requirements - the driver is also the gunner, and it has a passenger seat that you can fire from

More seriously, if the new buggy/light transport they've talked about has passenger seats that can be fired from (which I think it has?) that's actually not a bad light APC option, depending how durable it is, and what gun it mounts.

As for the self-propelled gun/tank destroyer role, I'd favour the creation of an alternate turret-type for the Lightning that fires a heavier round (and potentially adds a 'deployed' mode) but is fixed-forward (or has a very limited arc). That'd allow the Lightning to operate as a light, fast ambush/siege vehicle that requires very tactical use.

[CasualCat]

Could probably do the Apache with the existing Liberator if some new weapons were added.

Right now none of the gunner weapons are forward facing. Add some forward facing weapons and it could do that.

Maybe camera guided AT missiles and/or an AV variation on the ESF pods that allows some level of forward aim similar to the aiming on a flash for example.


Give the Vektor pilot free look aim again (or even controlable as an alternate weapon for the gunner) along with new weapons and you just about have it.

I'd love to say add something like the Hellfire, but we really don't need more fire/forget lock-on weapons.

I bet they could come up with some creative stuff with some careful thought.

ETA: Separately I'd like to see the Liberator also get free fall bombs that some people have asked for as well.

[bpostal]

There's no airlift vehicles, such as a lodestar. That's what I'm looking for!
That and my damn Marauder.

[HiroshiChugi]

All of these are extremely amazing roles to be filled, and should be made into actual vehicles. But, come on, do you really tink that SOE is going to take time to make these right now instead of fixing the REAL problems? OH WAIT! That's waht they're already doing! xD So yes, I see this possibly happening in the future.

[SGOniell]

Yes to artillery, bradley style apc, and light air transport. No to engineering, and No to long range aircraft. Engineering vehicle really has no usefulness atm. Also, despite what you say, the fact that you're so far away means your less vulnerable to infantry. There'd be more distance between you and them in that than if you were attacking with an ESF or Liberator.

[Falcon_br]

Bradley for me it is a sunderer with 2 m40 and armor upgrade. Maybe a perfomace engine and a shield defuser, there is plent of videos on YouTube with guys storming bases with this build and killing lots of enemies.

[Sifer2]

Many of these roles are already filled well enough. Apache by rocket pod ESF's. And we have plenty of troops transports as it is not to mention the new 4 passenger Jeep coming soon.

Artillery is the only one that could be added but seeing as Infantry ***** endlessly about being killed by vehicles you would have a lot of people who would not want it in. There was something like it in PS1 though.

[ThatGoatGuy]

They aren't gonna implement helis into this game because it aint fucking battlefield.

[Biohazard]

I would like to see a lightly armored aircraft with a ground looking radar. Maybe it could award something like an advanced spot assist.

Oh and artillery. Not necessarily the big guns, but max carried mortars that required lockdown.

[SGOniell]

Originally Posted by Biohazard

Oh and artillery. Not necessarily the big guns, but max carried mortars that required lockdown.

This right here, Mortars would be fantastic!

[Rothnang]

Originally Posted by ThatGoatGuy

They aren't gonna implement helis into this game because it aint fucking battlefield.

Not saying they should, it's about vehicle roles, not about methods of achieving lift.

[typhaon]

I thought ESFs were helicopters? That's what a friend of mine always refers to them as...

I wish SOE had done a much better job of defining roles in the air, instead of every air vehicle can be good at everything and fly like a fighter jet that defies physics.