Since all classes will be starting out with auxiliary shields +50, wouldn't that put all infantry not using another util out of 1 shot range which drastically reduces the soldier suppression of AI tanks?
It would personal choice tbh, having the new aux shield would lock you out of things like mines and c4 which I see being used extensively against vehicles and infantry alike. People who want to blow **** up (pardon the expression) will most definitely not have this new shield on effectively negating your argument
Right so every single new player in the game and anyone that doesn't bother with the util slot is completely safe from the HE one cept from a direct hit which at that point you might as well use AP. That totally negates the point I'm trying to make.
You're not giving us much to go on. Am I to understand your peeve is about infantry not dying right away from the splash?
AI tanks are designed to suppress infantry, however the main turret was already weak to Flak, buildings that have no angles to shoot into, uphill, AV tanks and when it comes down to it, HE's benefit was the 2 meter kill circle with a 10 meter damage circle, now with this aux shield, putting infantry just 50 Hp away from death and the long 3.5 second reload time is plenty for infantry to get into cover, heal and continue whatever they were doing. The point is that the only situation that you can expect a death in the 2 meter kill circle is for the mans to not be using aux shield, flak,and being a heavy with overshield, with two options being WIDELY used and an entire class negating the one shot, HE is going to be the most worthless weapon to ever equip to a tank, even the topguns are going to be better which is poor balance wise.
You're grading HE weapons solely based on their ability to instantly kill...and giving HE weapons' stats a look I gather the flavor is not in one hit killing infantry as you outline but rather the effectiveness within the radius, because if you compare it to an AP shell, APs need to hit the target spot on or they miss the kill entirely. I don't know if I'm reading the stats right or what...
When you tank the greatest threat to you are C4 faries, libs, other tanks spec'd out for AV and harassers for the same thing. When you delve into the AI side of tanking, you are far more vulnerable to everything armor, makes sense, what doesn't make sense is that the trade off of HE is not balanced by its killing potential against infantry. You hit near a guy, he dies because it's an HE shell that's supposed to kill infantry efficiently, thing is that is generally not happening. One of the most common if not most used suit slot is flak, bringing down the kill circles damage to a 500 over 2 meters and far less if away from it, which means tanks at worst case scenario cannot kill in the first shot and waste a second round to do it along with 3.5 seconds of reload time. A passive "don't have to cert it or buy it" way to bypass the 1 shell kill is almost like bypassing the 1 shot of a sniper rifle. Even if you hit, he lives, walks away and heals, you literally can't do anything about it and he can't do anything to you either til he gets a long range weapon as well. Point is, HE was already bad, I like that new players are getting this as a passive but now HE is going to be further down the list of useful weapons.
Ok example: Flak armor 1, 10% resistance 1000 damage - 10% resistance and you get 100 hp left Auxiliary shields +50 hp 1050 hp - 1000 damage = 50 hp This basically gives everyone flak armor 1, that little bit of armor screws HE tanks because of the reload time is 3.5 seconds to get into cover, behind a hill or etc and heal up. Its the same reason few people use the duster except the libs have better options, tanks don't.
that example also shows how little of an issue it is , since it takes very little certs to not get 1 shot via HE which every class can get , once again this will change very little since people will have better and different options for either slot and i don't see it being used by light assaults over c4 or infils/engies over prox mines or c4. hush now , shhhh.
And the intent maybe to remove another one shot death probability for newcomers? Because right now, as thebigbortishbort said, no experienced player will use it over things like medkits or C4, so it will mostly be used by newcomers to evade dying all the time. The same kind of guy that would take the full 3.5 seconds to find how and where to get cover. It just give them a chance, which was the point. Honestly, just go ap with your tank anyway, that's all. HE is for farmers.
Ahh, the prowler HE will now be the only useful anti infantry weapon in game now. That's pretty ehhhh.... Broken... But alas supposedly everybody won't be using this from what they say though I'd make a wager mostly everybodies gonna be using this because it's default. You really only see 1-3 small outfits full of kd stroker tryhards that use medkits on Connery so I'm not seeing enough people use medkits at all to say it won't be a big deal to VS/NC HE users. I suppose they could buff the HE max damage to 1050.
