[Suggestion] Infantry Support Tanks

Oh my God yes.

You're absolutely right that the HUSK MBTs are all exceedingly specialized vehicles, compared to even the HE MBTs. I think though that the difference between the HUSK MBT and the HE MBT will be more pronounced as SOE is improving the HE's AV abilities at the cost of AI effectiveness.

With the HUSK upgrade, MBTs though will be able to shrug off enemy infantry AT fire from the front and sides, and will also be able to withstand significantly more C4 than a MBT or Blockade Sunderer. Perhaps as many as 6 blocks of C4 to critically damage it. It can still be taken down by enemy infantry, but it will need a coordinated effort to do so.

So in the end HUSK MBTs will be really good at one thing only... but incredibly vulnerable to everything else. Sort of like the Skyguard, if the Skyguard were actually good at its job. Definitely not a role for everyone, but in certain situations can prove more valuable than anything else on the battlefield.

Now it's technically not a tank, but it is a vehicle that demands urban survivability...



Everyone's favorite C4 target... is about to get even! Naw, not really. Because this Sunderer equipped with the Basic Urban Survival Kit, or the BUSK, is actually completely unarmed. Not a single offensive weapon, other than running people over.

But a BUSK Sunderer is one of those strange creatures that is really effective when it's happy and completely helpless when it's not. First off, on the top of the vehicle there is a smaller version of an NS forcefield generator. This one is configured to project a small shield bubble around the Sunderer, reducing the damage of all infantry small arms and AT weapons that go through the shield by 75%. Why infantry small arms? Because this feature rather transforms the BUSK Sunderer into a rolling pillbox, where infantry can run alongside and take advantage of the protection of the shield bubble while returning fire on threats. However, if the Sunderer's health drops below 75%, the shield generator breaks and is not operational until the Sunderer is repaired back above 75%. Weapons that pass through the shield before exploding, such as grenades and C4, are unaffected by the shield.

Even if an infantry AT rocket were to get past the shield, the BUSK Sunderer is also equipped with slat armor. This forces warheads and placed explosives to detonate a bit prematurely, reducing all infantry AT weapons damage by 50%. However the slat armor isn't all that durable, and if the Sunderer's health drops below 50% then the slat armor "breaks" and is not useful until the Sunderer is repaired above 50%.

Lastly the Sunderer is equipped with a complete set of composite armor, which reduces all damage to the Sunderer by 25%. Like the other pieces of equipment, the composite armor breaks if the Sunderer's health falls below 25%, though it can be repaired.

While the BUSK Sunderer cannot equip weapons, rearming or repair stations, AMS or a number of other things, it still can function as a squad deploy Sunderer. A deployed BUSK Sunderer that is spawning constant reinforcements can be an incredibly tough improvised outpost to attack.

All armor and air weapons are unaffected by the BUSK Sunderer's defenses, and would essentially be the same as a stock Sunderer. But against infantry... well...

Take the NS Decimator, a "sticker value" of 1,335 direct damage, which does an extra 17% damage to a Sunderer because it is "Heavy Ordnance" ultimately doing 1,561.95 damage. It hits the shield, and is reduced to 390.4875 damage. It then hits the slat armor, and is reduced to 195.24375 damage. It hits the composite armor, and is further reduced to 146.4328125 damage. Finally it breaks through the composite armor and is reduced by another 45%, which is the Sunderer's innate resistance to all damage.

So in the end, one Decimator round is reduced to about 80.5 damage against a healthy BUSK Sunderer (about 16% of its "sticker" damage). This is what the BUSK Sunderer gets in exchange for giving up all its offensive abilities and protections against vehicles. Extreme durability against infantry AT weapons.

Naturally though as its defenses drop one by one, infantry AT weapons do more and more damage to it. So it's not always that frightening...

Except when infantry are using it as a rolling shield.



Kinda funny how in the end the acronyms for all these kits were actually pretty descriptive.
MBTs get an extra shell of armor- a husk
Lightnings get to blow clouds of annoying smoke- a musk
Sunderers get to wear what looks like the rigid skeleton of a corset- a busk

should have some way of defending itself, maybe just a sh*ty machine gun but every vehicle needs to be capable of returning fire at the target, even the flash does it.

Support. Support support support. Verviedian Approval.

In all honesty the reason why the BUSK Sunderer doesn't have a weapon is mostly because I couldn't figure out a spot to put it on. Everything is either covered in armor or the shield generator.

Essentially it's the 25th century's equivalent of this from the 16th century:



Little fancier but essentially works the same way! So the "weapons" are really the infantry that are along for the ride.

But if you can figure out a way to mount reasonable weapons to a BUSK Sunderer I'm all ears.

move the shield generator to the back and mount a light machine gun there.

This definitely needs to be made a thing. Infantry support tanks are one of those long extinct beasts of war that could really use some mad science to bring them back to life, and this seems to be exactly that science! One thing I would say though, is that the tanks should also be brought in alongside a new urban continent, a half ruined city that has plenty of trenches, bunkers and bombed out buildings for infantry to hide in and set up effective defensive positions. Against those kind of entrenchments, HUSKs, MUSKs and BUSKs would shine, pinning down the occupants or, in the case of the Vanguard, clearing out strategic choke points with a well aimed mortar round whilst the infantry pushes up behind them for the killing blow.

One bit of feedback I'd give about the Magrider HUSK, though, is that you might want to rethink the weaponry the pilot has access to. Instead of having a manually aimed plasma cutter, why not just go the whole hog and turn the front gun into another flame thrower? Sure, it makes the HUSK rider a purely close in tank, but isn't that what most of the HUSKs are at their core?

These look awesome. Hopefully the devs have checked out all your threads.

Bumpwhale.

This game would be fun with stuff lik that. But lets first have our current tanks see some love nad be deadly first.

... I simply fail to see the reason of making HUSK tanks driver-gunner segregated, other than nostalgia from PS1 which used this system for MBTs. You're suggesting that they go against the design decision of vehicle controls for this MBT variant, but leave the MBT itself untouched, which is IMHO ridiculous.

Other than that, I can see the merit of the concept.

Two reasons.

First, because of practical concerns in urban operations, it makes more sense to have a gunner who can totally concentrate on gunning and a driver who can mostly concentrate on driving. In heavy urban operations, the reaction time to shoot to or evade infantry is much shorter than in traditional long-range combat. The result is that urban tank crews need to be much more attentive... and this works best by having people concentrate on the task at hand.

Second, it's a balance issue. HUSK MBTs must have a crew of two in order to be effective. In that way a SL is faced with a more difficult choice; either have two additional infantry move with the squad or one infantry tank. You can think of it as a "population cost" associated with some units in RTS games, where weaker units take less population relative to a strong unit.

@ColonelChingles, Pretty interesting well though out idea, I also like how you make awesome models for your suggestion, though depending on the range of the weapons the HUSK MBTs might end up being a nightmare for low flying ESFs because of their vulnerability to small arms fire.

Sometimes literal fire in the case of a HUSK Magrider. Admittedly though it would be absolutely hilarious to shoot down aircraft with a flamethrower.

Intresting. Names are kinda funny MUSK HUSK and BUSk.

Do you mind if I borrow your HUSK-Prowler for my AA MBT Concept?

Go for it, not like I own the assets since it's all SOE stuff.

And here's a hi-res .png of just the tank without the text for you to play with:

I really like the idea of vehicles that are powerful, but have distinct weaknesses, and require constant support to be most effective. Although I'm sure unorganized players would complain, it would be fairly balanced.

no way, in PS2 infantry don using armor as cover, because they will be road-killed