[Vehicle] Tank Coaxial Machine Guns & Assorted Proposals

AV and AA weapons in the third suggestion are in the same category, so it would be impossible to, for example, have a Halberd and a Walker at the same time. If you wanted an anti-tank secondary the best AA you could get would be a Kobalt.

ESFs can tackle any target. Liberators can blow anything away. Galaxies are a threat to everything. Heavy Assault can engage everything in the game. MAX units can change their loadout at the drop of a hat. LA, Medic, and Engineer can destroy any ground vehicle with C4. Even Infiltrators can annoy vehicles with the crossbow explosive bolts. Why exactly would a tank having the same AI firepower as any given HA be the versatility straw that broke the camel's back?

A simple coaxial isn't going to do anything aside from give tank drivers an option to *not* waste cannon ammo on sporadic infantry. At the end of the day it would be just one more LMG on the field albeit in an armored frame. The effective methods of destroying a tank would remain the same, aside from the "rush directly at the front of it with explosives" method.

Besid

Besides the fact that a tank with a massive cannon needs pin point accuracy to hit the tiny target compared to the infantry who has a huge target and lots of cover. I find it easy to take out tanks with maxes or HA solo. As a person who plays all aects of planetside I can say, with out a doubt that infantry is the easiest to play, if someone is getting farmed as infantry they are either outnumbered by a large margin or they are nub.

Nothing says you have to sit close to the aforementioned terrain either - you are allowed to re-position, reorientate your vehicle to take it on the front armour, go hull down, or just move away so that you are a much smaller target. Lock-ons require them to stand stillish for a couple of seconds, and dumbfire can be mostly avoided if you see it coming and are far enough away.

If the fight isn't in your favour, go somewhere else, it applies to the infantry getting shelled with AP rounds, and it applies to the tank providing the shells. Doesn't have to be another base either, moving to another side may be enough to get them in the open for some kinetic counselling.

I like smart play to be rewarded. And heavies sitting in cover firing rockets at a tank that can't shoot them back counts as smart play to me, and should be rewarded.

Having a coax machinegun would improve tank vs infantry C4 greatly, instead of the run directly towards the tank like a zergling if not LA infantry would actually have to put thought into attacking a tank with C4 and would stop lightning-is-an-armored-transport c4 suiciders dead in their tracks.

Ether nerf C4 damage so one brick doesn't take away tons of an MBT's health or give us a coax machinegun to rip to shreads the less thoughtful/sneaky C4 attackers.

Well I don't use main cannon on infantry anymore because I just cannot be bothered lining up a tiny target poking its top torso over the crest of a hill. In fact I do what you have already suggested and try relocate or just go find another fight. Which I don't think is right, personally I think there should be tools to deal with infantry hiding behind cover. Yes, I do have a huge cannon there for that, however, due to nerfs it's basically a party popper.

It isn't the rockets that are a problem it is the falling back then waiting for them to come out in the open so I can run them over. Waiting is the worst.

Had another idea, figured I could add it here in addition to the free bump.

Empire Specific Shell Types

This is sort of an evolution of the empire specific turrets (where the hell are my quad-prowlers and railgun vanguards?) that can be applied to the existing three cannon types. This modifier could either take the place of the utility slot on the tank itself, or the utility slot of the cannon. It could work either through pressing a hotkey to apply the effect to the next shell fired, a toggle ability, or just a straight modifier that forces you to always fire this type of ammo, with no hotkey. Anyway, on the to shells/modifiers.

For the sake of simplicity, HEAT and HE will have the same effect since the effective differences between the two are minimal compared to the difference between AP and the others.

TR

P-120AP: Sensor-Fused Cluster Shells: This would work like a modern day SFW cluster bomb, except in shell form. When fired, if the shell passes above an enemy vehicle, the shell will detonate, and sub-munitions would hit any enemy vehicles in the vicinity from above. Total of six sub-munitions, which would split themselves evenly among targets, provided there is more than one within the targeting area. Total damage equal to one AP shell. Allows for hitting targets behind cover or blanketing an area with damage. Direct hits identical to current AP shell.

P-120HE/HEAT: MIRV Shells: Similar to borderlands MIRV grenades, upon hitting a surface the shell explodes, sending six dumb sub-munitions in random directions in a small radius, which detonate upon impact with another surface. Direct impact with a vehicle deals current HE/HEAT damage, with greatly reduced splash damage being replace by the sub-munitions which do no damage to vehicles. Effective for killing infantry behind vehicles, or raining sub-munitions around infantry concentrations. Total sub-munition damage equal to total inner splash damage of a HEAT or HE shell, depending on type modified.

NC

Titan-150AP: Fragmentation Penetrators: This shell does 80% of current AP shell damage, but does 334 AI damage to the crew inside the target vehicle. Allows for killing full health crews inside vehicles in three hits, obviously less if they were previously wounded. Would be particularly effective against sunderers and galaxies for obvious reasons.

Titan-150HE/HEAT: Canister Shells: Yes, I know this is a bit predictable and underwhelming, but it would essentially be a beefed up air hammer when attacking infantry, while doing 20% more damage than HEAT or HE if all pellets impact with a vehicle. AI damage levels dependent on HEAT or HE shell type.

VS

FPC: Superheated Plasma: Upon hitting an enemy vehicle, the plasma bolt superheats the vehicle and proceeds to burn into the armor for five seconds, dealing an additional 10% damage, while doing 10% less damage at the time of impact. While the burn effect is active, any infantry within one meter of the vehicle (such as engineers) take AOE damage, making in-combat repairs difficult. AOE damage roughly equivalent to a pain field around spawn rooms.

VPC/PC: Unstable Plasma: While doing only 75% initial blast damage when compared against the standard VPC and PC, a five meter diameter plasma fire appears on the ground around the impact, dealing AOE damage to anyone that enters or passes through it. The fire persists for 10 seconds and deals 250 damage each second to anyone caught in the effect. Good for area denial. Fire effect does no damage to heavily armored vehicles.

So, there's that.