I've been compiling a running list of suggestions in the back of my head for months now and decided now is a nice enough time to actually present those suggestions. A few things I'd like to see in game. I should point out on the front that I primarily drive a lightning tank and go after other vehicles. Also I've been playing for 10 months (though I played a lot of PS1 eons ago) with over 700 hours thus far. Post CAI has been very difficult for this tank driver (to the point I didn't sub when CAI was released [which was the time I was going to originally sub]). It seems, to me, staff keep trying to whittle away on vehicle combat while boosting infantry abilities. However, some of us play this game primarily for the vehicle combat! That said, my suggestions: ---------------------------- Lightning tanks base speed should be increased slightly while MBTs base speed should be decreased slightly OR Lightning tanks base speed should stay the same while MBTs base speed should be decreased moderately Either way, Heavy tanks should not be able to match the speed of a light tank named 'lightning' that was designed for run and gun type quick offensives. If you want to cert into the speed upgrades then go ahead, but even with them a fully certed lightning should outrun a fully certed MBT in a drag race. Heavy (mbt) tanks have increased firepower and armor (as they indeed should for their role) but they should have the limitation of lowered speed as a result of their aforementioned advantages. ------------------ Alter tank ammo damage. In an overwhelming majority of battles there is no reason to load anything but HESH right now. I started out with AP pre-CAI (and auraxed) and still could kill infantry with proper aim, but now I've gotten so lazy because I don't even have to get right on them, just close enough to splash them. Meanwhile AP doesn't really hit for anything better if in one on one battle with another vehicle compared to HESH. I haven't bothered to even buy HEAT rounds because HESH has such nice stats. If I had my druthers I'd remove the C75 altogether, set HEAT as stock ammo, boost AP round vehicle damage with very low splash, keep HESH splash high but with reduced vehicle damage. That way you have to make a decision -- are you going after armor (AP), infantry (HESH), or middle of the road support between the two (HEAT). ------------------ Both lightnings and MBTs should have seats on the back to carry infantry from one hot spot to another (at their own peril). I've seen soooo many battles where people need a ride and I could have given one as a lightning driver had I extra seats on the back. This would help improve mobility for squads.. esp in more intense fights where infantry just need to be dropped off to a certain point and an ANT or Sunderer would not really want to venture. Should not be able to fire guns though while sitting on the back of the tank. I could see some squads loading up heavys with missile launchers for cheesy combat action otherwise. At the very least, reduce gun usage to first slotted device and no second or third (rocket launcher, C4, tank mines, repair gun, etc). ------------------- Vehicle and base item kills should be based on percentage of damage done not who lands the final round. Too often I see people just sitting around in other vehicles waiting for someone else to do the dirty work of whittling down a base item or vehicle, before timing their single effort to be the final killing shot. That's cheap and dirty. If you want the kill, do the most damage. ------------------- Vehicle kills should be listed on the respawn review screen. I mostly like to hunt vehicles, if players want to sit in them while they blow that is their prerogative, but I'm out to shred steel and would like to see a count on this screen of the damage I've done including assists. ------------------- Have the ability to export a textfile kill list with location, timestamp, kill type (what type of infantry, vehicle), assist or not, headshot (if against infantry), and a grand total at the bottom. Option to export available on the respawn review screen and/or automatically generate with configurable kill types (say I want it to gen a list when I kill 5 or more vehicles and/or 8 or more players) so I don't get too overwhelmed with files. ------------------- The ability to see where friends are on the map and/or via the friends list. I want to play with a buddy on my friends list, I should be able to easily find them. Especially the new guys so I can watch after them. Right now I just have a list of friends.. I can stop in the heat of battle and ask them where they are (and make them too stop in the heat of battle to respond) or the game could just tell me on the friends list ('Indar - blahblah Amp Station' as example) or have some visual notation on the map. ------------------- Better review of death event. Sometimes I die and it was so sudden I don't even know what happened. Or the respawn review screen doesn't even load, just takes me to the map to pick a respawn location). Or that screen does load but it is ambiguous to who and/or what killed me. ------------------- Stop calling my misadventures Suicides. Suicide is a direct action with the goal to take ones own life. I'm not doing that when I run out of Jetpack fuel trying to C4 the sunderer below me. Or when I accidentally fly off a cliff or flip my lightning. ------------------- If I press Insert key to instant join a squad, it should NEVER join to a squad on a different map!! I've had seriously frustrating moments in game where I spent a lot of time in queue to join a map, instant auto squad, and instant deploy from the warpgate to be moved off that map (and have to rejoin the queue) due to the insta-joined squad being on a different map. If there are no open squads, it should automatically create one. ------------------- White list chat or at least PMs. I want to see some people but not the bitter folks. I don't want to block all PMs for this reason. --------------------- More awareness of C4 while in vehicles. I've destroyed so many vehicles (mostly sunderers and tanks) with C4 as a sneaky, flanking Light Assault. But I think for those vehicles with players in them, they should have a means to detect the C4 after one stick is throw near them. Either a visual alert or an audible alert. This would still allow the infantry player to destroy vehicles, but give vehicle drivers a slightly better window to avoid being vaporized. Maybe this could be rolled into an Implant. Maybe tank driver implant would be nice..
HESH just needs it's damage against vehicles nerfed, plus maybe it's projectile drop increased. Give a reason to use HEAT at all, since AP is the dedicated tank-hunter build.
At least on TR Lightning, AP is much much too weak post CAI. And it seems to compete with C75 in its purpose. There are too many players in the tank ammo game vying to do the same thing.. I think if they removed one (C75) they could balance the remaining A LOT better than it is today. Either way we don't need to nerf HESH unless AP gets a boost. Otherwise it will be in a worse state than it is currently.
AP is far superior for vehicle combat compared to HESH, especially on the move and against Harassers. Higher damage, very little drop, and better velocity. HEAT and the Viper out-DPS both of those, and are decent against infantry. Perfect for Sundy hunting. I think tank canons might be the most balanced thing in the game.
That clearly isn't the case, since everyone and their mother uses HESH, unless they're running a dedicated Tank Hunter.
There you go. HESH isn't the be all end all. Add to the list anti-Harasser AP tanks. Or HEAT or Viper if you goal is sunderer hunting. When HESH was first released it was broken, I'll give you that, but things are pretty well dialed in right now.
Post-CAI, HESH is so well balanced to be the all-in-one that I extremely rarely carry anything else. The ONLY time I use another round is when I need to destroy a guarded sunderer deployed near a base. Then I might rarely use a C75 burst or two followed by me jumping out and c4 finishing it. Otherwise I use HESH. Even on most of those sunderer kills I use HESH because you get splash and sunderers have people spawning around them (which helps when they are shooting at you). But there is so much here beyond tank round balancing... how about not auto joining squads on a different map? or insta-combat onto another map? Or auto spawning me on the other side of a map? Or the tank speed adjustments? Or tank infantry seats? or the other many things I have suggested here? Certainly not everyone is going to agree with all of them.. but they are worth consideration at the least.
I just said everybody uses HESH unless they're using AP. In my experience, HEAT is very rarely used, and the Viper is only ever used by people who haven't put certs into the Lightning. Heck, barely anybody uses stock on MBTs, because HESH and AP are so much better at what they do.
Then those guys are missing out. The Viper and HEAT on the Lightning deal considerably more raw dps than the HESH or AP on any tank. The Viper deals a little less than the HEAT, which is a little backwards, but both are great options if you're Sundy hunting or using your speed and Stealth to flank and wreck MBTs.
