-Make stock vehicles cost about 50% of what they are now -Add a price increase for every vehicle and weapon enhancement equipped The idea here is to allow new players to pull vehicles more often and get more practice in as they'll likely be dying a lot, while more experienced players can spend more to perform better, and they'll probably be able to better appreciate and utilize the extra modules on top of it. Ideally, it should be balanced so a vehicle that's fully kitted out will cost 20% more than the current price of vehicles now, while a vehicle with no enhancements to the frame or weapons would cost 50% less. A stock MBT would cost 225, or roughly 4 minutes and 30 seconds. (3 minutes for members) A fully upgraded MBT would cost 540, 10 minutes and 30 seconds. (7 minutes for members) The above numbers are not fixed and can be changed at any time, they're in place for the sake of example.
50% would mean you could literally spam the things if you had any skill... Like it's not as if the Stock vehicles are utter **** & useless. As they are not. Let alone that with skill, a stock vehicle is still incredibly dangerous.
I don't like the idea, since stock vehicles could be effective as well. For example people diss MBTs with Basilisks, but that's a huge mistake, since Bas is nice allrounder effective against infantry, tanks and aircrafts. Stock Lib could cause some trouble as well, since Shredder is quite effective antitank weapon. Exception is ESF, you can't do much with default nosegun alone.
* Gets Prowler with lock down maxed out nothing else and go on a rampage* Seriously though while I can see where you're coming from not only are you punishing vehicle players for spending cert on them but you're encouraging people to not put items on it as they are not going to be that significantly different. Instead connect your idea with something like the lines off: 1) Vehicle duration - Any vehicle destroyed with in 3 min of spawning gives you fraction of the nanites back (also helps people trying to spam from a sieged base for example) 2) BR Level - Up to BR 25 you get a discount but the problem is this does not help newbies learning vehicles later 3) Kills with a vehicle - Until you achieve bronze with either equipped weapon you get a 50% discount; once you achieve silver you only have a 25% discount and until gold 10% discount. The problem is people will pick a bad weapon and use it as a cheap transport vehicle instead but I can live with that or you can limit the vehicles it applies to (i.e. no Galaxy/Lib/Sunderer etc.
What if the stock vehicles had a free but weaker weapon variant? Like a HEAT and Adv HEAT turret, one would cost 0, the other would cost 100 nanites, and would be unlocked in pairs and share certs. Functionally they would be identical but the free ones would not hurt as much. I like playing MAX but don't like the insane price of 450, so I'd be willing to take 33% weaker weapons to use MAX more often and practice using it. I don't think it would be punishing if its priced fairly. Going by BR is a thought, but people learn at different rates and not necessarily according to rank. Also, going by medals will in a way discourage people from using a weapon and that should never be a consideration someone needs to make.
It's hard to put a fair cost on different upgrades. Like an upgraded vanguard shield has a much higher battle value than auto repair on a lightning.
Half of a vehicle, is the health \ armor, and doesn't prevent at all, someone with skill from simply spamming it. Vehicles are force-multipliers, they aren't meant to be incredibly cheap to use. 33% weaker weapons, on the higher-health, higher armor infantry unit that dual wields weaponry. They are advanced combat suits, you aren't meant to cheaply become a mini walking tank. I have several battle ranks. A new character? Oh well, Gonna enjoy having cheaper tools that still kill only slightly less. Means you can literally be more reckless - Which isn't helpful to new players. They learn aggressive reckless plays first not deliberate planned action, as they aren't seeing the cost it'll cost later. 1# 3 minutes, and you could be engaging & killing at range with tanks much cheaper. Also means spotting Land-mines at terminals mean less, given they are placed at the pad for a point. Infil takes terminal, spawn cheaper MBT gets destroyed, keeps doing it. #2 explains by itself why it's a poor idea, as it certainly doesn't address the cost of failure, in risk vs reward. A 50% discount. 50% of a MBT, 50% of a ESF, Liberator... Your issue is related to transports? I'd be more worried about how the proper pricing system only comes into play near aux' of a weapon. Like might as well limit it to a flash, but even then 50% cheaper to replace... and you could road-kill till you got bored.
