Note: This is a very long idea post. Before commenting, read all of it. The information builds on itself. If you want a TLDR, go **** yourself. It's the 21st Century, L2R you lazy bastards. After playing PS2 and various other games where vehicle HP was determined by a single pool of health, I have realized that such a system is way too simple and unrealistic. Vehicles are complex machines, simply taking damage without performance degradation makes vehicles way too easy to use. On that note I suggest having, as the title suggests, a HP system where vehicle performance and destruction are based on two factors. External HP would be considered as armor, while Internal HP would be considered vital modules. In order to destroy the vehicle, critical damage must be sustained to at least 2 essential Internal components (highlighted in red). Tanks External: Frontal Armor Side Armor Rear armor Internal: Crew compartment Ammunition Storage X2 (Primary and Secondary) (Vanguard and Prowler only) Engine (Vanguard and Prowler only) Anti Grav Generator (Magrider only) Tank treads (Vanguard and Prowler only)* Now the way External armor works is similar to how vehicle HP works now. Each piece receives individual HP and takes damage for the Internal components they cover. They also prevent damage penetration. With this HP system, vehicle weapons now have % chance of penetrating External armor and damaging Internal directly. If a shell successfully penetrates External, it will deal some damage to Internal. Provided that External has enough HP left to mitigate some damage. If External armor is drained, Internal takes full damage. For example HEAT- 110% damage to External, 10% chance to damage Internal, normal penetration damage AP- 90% damage to External, 20% chance to damage Internal, increased penetration damage HE- 80% damage External, 0% chance to damage Internal (solves the problem of HE being too versatile) The way Internal Modules take damage also differ from one another. Minor performance degradation begins at 75% HP and major degradation at 50%. 20% and below are critical levels. Crew compartment- Damage done here will damage the driver and gunner's HP (Gives a purpose to the Medic's largely useless Triage Cert) Ammunition Storage Primary- Critical damage to Primary storage will cause a detonation reducing the tank's HP by 90% and causes loss of ammunition. The Magrider is immune, because its plasma cannon stores the gas used in a less volatile form. Ammunition Storage Secondary- Critical damage to Secondary Storage will cause a detonation that reduces the tank's HP by 50% and cause the loss of all secondary ammunition. Engine- Progressive damage to the engine block reduces speed and acceleration. Critical damage will completely stop the tank. Anti Grave Generator- Applies only to Magrider. The experimental tech takes increased damage. Damage dealt will reduce strafe, acceleration, top speed and hill climbing of Magrider. Critical damage immobilizes Magrider. (Helps balance lack of Primary Storage) Treads- Damage dealt to these modules will decrease turn speed and cause interference with driving straight. Complete de tracking will cause a tank to travel in circles. Treads receive reduced damage. Now with External and Internal HP, you engineers must be wondering how repairing tanks work now. Well in concept it's pretty easy. Both External and Internal are repaired at the same, however at different rates and capacity. External armor, due to its simplicity in design, is repairable up to 100%. However, given the complexity of Internal modules, our little Nanite Repair Guns can only repair them so much. Repair Gun Certs: Level 1- 100% External repair rate, 45% Internal repair rate, 35% Internal repair total Level 2- 105% External repair rate, 50% Internal repair rate, 40% Internal repair total Level 3- 110% External repair rate, 55% Internal repair rate, 45% Internal repair total Level 4- 115% External repair rate, 60% Internal repair rate, 50% Internal repair total Level 5- 120% External repair rate, 65% Internal repair rate, 55% Internal repair total In order to get your tank back to 100% performance, it must be taken back to a base with a tank repair station. Or to a Sunderer with an Area Repair system. (which also gives purposed to another largely unused Cert) This system is designed to slow down tank gameplay and make it much more strategic. Right now all you do is pound the other tank into submission. And if you fail to do that, the other person just runs behind a tree and repairs fully with no consequences >.> There is no finesse involved. Also, it would also hopefully prevent those massive tank zergs, because of the need to hoof it back to base to fully repair.
...I agree with the armor premise- been wanting a game that tackles this fully ever since ARMA took the easy way out An internal Hp and external HP isn't too far off from realism.. Might need better armor on tanks than what we have currently What i can't agree with, is "preventing tank zergs"- because I want to be able to get going a platoon or three(i'm dead serious) or more of all tanks- to attack someone with. We need more organization at the macro level and we need to expand the macro scale of battles including vehicle battles as that is PS2's primary selling-point. Also, there's the immersion argument to be made. Also, I feel tanks currently would all need a armor buff along with this.
We don't have prone for Infantry there is no way they are going to go into an elaborate simulation style of vehicle damage. The game is kind of like Battlefield slightly arcade. Red Orchestra 2 is a good game if you like that stuff though it was pretty much dead last I checked. You could knock tracks off Tank, disable engines, all of that. And the driver had to peek out the hatch to see more than what the viewports allowed, and you could snipe him.
