currently this weapon seams to be an outright upgrade over the vektor, so here are some changes that i think would fix that, along with some balance adjustments. any numbers listed are suggestions and would obviously be subject to change due to testing and balance. so please don't get hung up on the numbers and focus on the general idea. reduce the rate of fire from 600 RPM to 120 RPM a shot every half second (don't worry a damage increase per shot is coming next in the list). this would generally keep the weapon effective against ground vehicles but fast moving ESF would be very hard to hit making them more of a threat, and making the vektor the go to weapon for AA (the vektor might need some buffing against aircraft) Basic Idea: vastly reduced rate of fire increase the damage per shot to about 4x (maybe level it out some and increase the damage out past 300 meters 5x ) it's current amount to offset the lowered ROF. this is overall a slight nerf to DPS, because in my opinion having the forward machinegun outgun a dedicated anti armor artillery belly gun (like the dalton) is stupid. Basic Idea: vastly increased damage per shot to offset fire rate reduction finally reduce the clip to 15 shots from 30. this would actually increase the amount of damage per clip a lot to balance out the increased difficulty in landing shots caused by the lower rate of fire, and the increased risk posed by aircraft. Basic Idea: moderately reduced clip, but still much more damage per clip with previous changes
uhhh The last thing any person wants is another weapon that does instagibs them, Tankbusters really almost inst kill ESFs this would be like 2 shot dead. And NO ONE likes that. If you are trying to make the Vektor viable, bff the Vektor do not just make changes to TB. i rather see the lib TB lose more of its anti air capabilities especially vs ESF.
The Tankbuster is in a good spot, having been nerfed already after all. Both the Vektor and the Spur can excel where the Tankbuster would simply be horrendous. Case in point? Try actually shooting down an ESF with a Tankbuster. Hint: The Vektor Muzzle Velocity is 750m/s, while the Tank Buster's is 300m/s. You will only reliably shoot down ESFs if you (a) are at point blank, (b) the said ESF is standing still and (c) the said ESF is unaware of you so that he won't react in time. Which of course means that you can also belly-ram him reliably at that point.
And yet no decent Lib crew out there runs anything but TB. That's because if you're far away enough from something to shoot it with something like the Vektor, you'd be better off just going belly up and letting your Dalton/Shredder have a crack at it. I've debated this a dozen times, but what they need to do is remove the Tank Buster's magazine upgrade cert line so it stays at the default 30 rounds. The 44 round "magazines" simply contain way too much damage potential between reloads. Only then will you see people reaching for the Vektor, or at least maybe.
Its not the TB OP, its the Vektor and Spur working bad. Vektor is accurate and gives a lot of long range damage (after the last update), BUT this is useless on a vehicle, that can't aim properly on longer ranges. Spur can aim, but damage is way too low to bother. The point is, if we imagine a situation of TB being nerfed to the ground, Libs will just stop using their front guns at all. If they really want to make them useful, it should be a Spur with Vektor's damage.
Don't touch my Tank Buster. Considering the nosegun is modeled after the A10, you tell that to the most successful close air support aircraft ever built. Besides, it gives the pilot something fun to use. If you are getting blown up by tank busters while flying an ESF.... You are doing it so very very wrong. The lib either got the drop on you, or you tried to go head on... In which case you probably deserve it. Nerfs like this bug me. Especially when stats show the tank buster isn't over performing.
wow everyone latched onto the ESF thing. first i don't pilot ESF. my stats are linked in my signature, i am pretty sure my time in a scythe is less than 1% of my total play time. second lowering the rate of fire will make consistently hitting aircraft much harder third with ALL of the parts of my idea working together the DPS of the gun goes DOWN. fourth a gun that can rip a healthy MBT apart in 3.3 seconds is BS not balance fifth why do i regularly see liberators dogfighting and murdering ESF with the tank buster on a regular basis, if it is so useless? sixth yes the A10 is one of the most effective anti armor aircraft ever, which means we either A.) tone it down so it doesn't murder everything or B.) up armor all of the tanks to abrams levels. if you like realism then we should add undetectable IR missiles that can blow out your engines in a single shot, tank rounds should always rip any aircraft in two, my decimator should leave a lib (in the best case scenario) burning, and 3-4 flak hits should be enough to start damaging control surfaces, computers, jamming weapons, or just simply killing the pilot through the cockpit glass making flying much harder. this is not a military simulator, if you want that go play arma or any number of other military simulators out there, i know of at least one that is dedicated specifically to the A10 warthog. THIS is a strategy based MMOFPS, so balance and fun vastly outweigh realism. planetside 2 is not anywhere even remotely close to real, this is all assuming that all of the high technology is fully accepted at face value.
Things i dont want to have touched in my Lib. Tankbuster, Dalton, Shredder, HIgh-G. This stuff should stay the way it is until this game is dead. I dont know how it would play out against other air, but i doubt it will do any good. They should leave the Tankbuster untouched and redesign the Spur and the Vektor to make them useful. The TB is a sluggish weapon for A2A but it´s by far the most effective since the other two are just way to slow unloading to be of any use in a A2A fight.
i agree with beefing up the other A2A guns, but the tank buster is too powerful. yes the shots are somewhat slow but with 10 shots fired per second at very high damage, who cares? just spray shots all around the ESF and enough of them are likely to catch him to end his day. just for reference the tank buster shots fly at 300m/s where skyguard shots fly at 400m/s from a tank that is incapable of chasing targets through the air to get close range shots, in short stop whining the TB is still BS for A2A. against ESF the TB deals around 1500 damage per second. with 3000 max health that means you need 2 seconds of sustained fire to end an ESF completely, my skyguard can't even dish out that kind of DPS on fighters. so who gives a crap what you like or what you think is fun the TB is OP. so if you want to keep it as is then give me a skyguard cannon that can end you in 9 seconds (more than 3 times as long as it takes a TB to kill me). currently it takes at least 15.5 seconds (one full clip then a 3 second reload and another 3 to 4 seconds of sustained fire from the second clip, if i work really hard and rank up my reload time fully i can get this down to an even 15 seconds) assuming the liberator is within 100 meters and every shot is a direct hit (NOT a flack explosion). <- this almost never happens.
The TB is only as good as it is because of its high burst damage potential. Trading that for better sustained would be a loss since aiming the front of the lib on target means either being stationary or charging straight at it, both of which are very bad ideas in most cases due to the nature of the vehicle. If you want to nerf the burst damage, then adding sustained will not be enough of a buff to compensate.
It seems to me most people have NEVER used the vektor, give it a try, sit 600 meters away from a fight and snipe people. Its quite fun and works wonders, its also funny when your gunners complain. Tank Buster is balanced, you can't even use it past 50 meters. Imagine the air hammer on the lib.
