[Suggestion] New ability for the Vanny

It seems that no matter what, people will either hate/loathe the shield no matter what. Be it the people who actually use the vanguard or not.

One creative thought I had is that once activated, it will heal for the dmg taken in the last x seconds over a short period.

So, post your ideas below that can be used as a replacement for the ability slot. Right now, I'm more interested in the ideas you come up with, not necessarily saying "It will do 8.5 blah blah blah for 4.333 seconds." You get the idea.

Ablation armor (not sure of this is the right name): Electrify your armor, any enemy unit in close proximity will get zapped. Great for damaging enemy vehicles, dealing with CQC infantry and blowing up explosives prematurely to reduce damage gained.

EMP blast. Does an EMP effect. Normal effect on infantry, but also locks up enemy abilities and reduces their speed and maneuverability.

Reverse gear. Passive ability, allows the Vanguard to go as fast forwards as backwards. Possibly just a passive engine power increase, allowing the Vanguard to push enemy vehicles and deal a lot of damage when ramming.

Railgun shot. For a period of time, your shots will go through at least one enemy target, allowing you to damage two targets in a row. Great for finishing off enemy tanks that seek cover behind friendlies or to take down enemy repair crews.

Just make current PTS version of the shield ability toggleable and it will be fine.

That sounds perfectly fine.

Also sounds good. But not even an ability, just movement in general. Vanguard is generally defined with extra HP and a one trick pony, vanguards that go into a fight have to rely on the shield to live because they don't have power in mobility, that or almost always get the first shot. Going in the opposite direction just as fast as going forwards would be a fine addition to the vanguard, it doesn't encroach on disengaging enemies and it let's the vanguard disengage from clear loss scenarios. Not to mention fits its theme of defense punishing aggression towards tanks that constantly try to gain ground.

EDIT: Ablative armor.
Also the other suggestions are just kinda meh. Both electric reactions would have to also hurt teammates and are both infantry oriented skills, not only would they probably never see play but they would also never be powerful enough to use over universal skills like FS. Rail shot would possibly be alright if it wasn't that you would destroy sunderers in garages without line of sight. Having no way to counter damage seems pretty unfair, granted I think rep tanking is ********, if anything I'd just like a passive increase to velocity on the vanguards guns. Or just all tank guns in general.

Isn't that Shield literally not all that effective when not at full health? Actual question.
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Scattershot Munitions; Effects based on Primary weapon type. Lasts for a single shot before cooldown
* But can be toggled off if no shot is fired. (Cooldown is longer than reload speed)
* Only affects Primary, does not affect Secondary.

- AP
Shell explodes into smaller landmines, that magnetically stick to nearby vehicles at the impact zone.
This reduces the shell's original direct damage, and slight velocity loss - These are anti-vehicle mines, that are significantly less damaging than Tank mines.
* Said mines can also be disarmed, and take 3-5 seconds before detonation after being stuck
(Forgot to say that, hence edit)

- HE
Shell explodes on proximity to infantry targets, dealing full damage as AOA that affects infantry & light vehicles.
Maxes take reduced damage from the AOA, as do Harrasers, and ESFs.
(Flashes take Full damage, but they themselves do not trigger the Shell even when piloted.)
* By proximity, I mean in-flight detonation, akin to Flak but with less range obviously.


- HESH
Shell explodes within 50 feet of an enemy vehicle (not flash, nor ESF) into 4 smaller rockets that lock onto the target for 3 seconds with different arcing paths from the shell's center-point towards the target.
If the shell finds no vehicle target, or hits a solid surface before detection, it explodes for light AOA at 1/2 of the full damage.
* These rockets each hold a 4th of the shell's damage, and have no AOA themselves.
Shell gains additional velocity, but at increased gravity & less damage.

And indeed I have suggested in the past as a simple chassis upgrade. But done right it could also be a simple passive ability.

The ablation armor wouldn't necessarily have to hurt teammates as well. If you electrify your armor enough that it zaps mines far enough to reduce the damage, then your armor would just unload all it's energy into the ground the moment you press the button. So just imagine some story about a guided beam. The tank recognizes things without a friendly IFF at a short distance, creates a channel in the air and zaps some electricity through it.
And it depends on it's damage output how effective it is. Although against tanks this would mean the terrible habit of approaching them first.

Rail shot's effectiveness would depend on what it can penetrate. If it can penetrate the environment you would be able to shoot at the spawntubes or at vehicles hidden behind terrain. But that's not what I initially said. I said that you would be able to penetrate one enemy target. IE infantry, vehicles, aircraft, and hit someone behind that target. Shooting through the environment would need some severe limitations if we do it at all. For example: The shell can travel a maximum distance after penetrating some terrain feature, say 5m (half a Sunderer). And if it enters a painfield the shell doesn't penetrate at all to prevent easy spawnkilling. That would mean that most Sunderers in Garages would be safe, and only vehicles that are parked too close to thin obstacles would be hittable. Also consider that this ability isn't constantly on. So while it can seriously mess up some infantry behind cover, the Vanguard won't be able to constantly do that.




Other idea's:
Mortar rack. A group of small mortars with small AOE are mounted on the back of the Vanguard. Good for some extra damage, but unlikely to kill infantry in a single volley. When firing the mortars it simply goes to where the crosshair is aiming. The COF could be unique: Normally the COF has the crosshair in it's center. Now the crosshair could be at the very edge of the COF, with the COF facing away from the player. That would mean that if you aim at a vehicle or some small cover, the mortars would (try to) land on the target, rather than about 50% landing on the target and 50% landing in front of the target. Longer range means more spread. The longer the range the more horizontal the mortars will approach and have a higher likelyhood of hitting cover instead of their target.

So this would be great for finishing off infantry that ducks behind cover after damage, or flushing infantry out of their position, or for damaging vehicles behind cover or some extra damage when engaging a vehicle out in the open.


Missile rack. Fires a single guided missile the same way the AV turret does but with more range. The NC is about lots of big weapons and alpha damage. So why shouldn't it have another weapon mounted as an ability?

How about "Not be worst tank"? That would be cool.

It's the slowest, least maneuverable, lowest-DPS tank in the game (yes, even lower DPS than the AP lightning), and only has a tiny bit of extra armor and a shield that's really only good for running away, and can only be used once every 60s, to compensate.

And now it's losing the armor advantage, and the shield is basically getting deleted.

FFS.

Decimation - Upon activation kills every tenth friendly within 250m

Pretty sure it already has that passive...

What if for the Railgun idea, it would instead be a passive. It keep your default shots normal, but maybe if you *cringe* held down the fire button, it would increase your damage (2.5x max?) The overall dps would still be better with not charging your shots, but you could possibly open up an engagement with a high alpha shot.

It works differently - it reduces damage instead of giving flat 2k HP for 6 seconds. If we'll be able to activate/deactivate it when we need it, then it would be ok.

*your Vanguard's cannon not big enough? Cant compensate everything? We researchers from the New Conglomerate are always looking for the next big thing! 150mm Guns are for sissies from now on! Introducing the 40.000mm OS canon, get yours today!*

More seriously:
Guided mode: deploy the Vanguard. It will now fire guided missiles instead of shells. Great for long- range shots but also a drawback. The missile agility can change if its too easy/hard to hit something.

EMP shot. Rather than an EMP blast around the tank you get to fire it. Great for taking down explosives, weakening infantry and can have some effects on vehicles as well to give it that AV oomph.

Co-ax Guns. NC is about Guns and bigger Guns. Being the first team to weld armor and Guns on MAX's, theres plenty of reasons that Vanguards get a set of co-ax Guns at there disposal.

Artillery strike. What do you do when your gun isnt big enough? Call in someone elses gun! A missile/shell strike hits your crosshair shortly after activating the ability. If its a missile strike then it might be guidable to offset the time it takes before it arrives.

Recon drone. We had a recon drone on the PTS once. The Vanguard could use it to scout around. Potentially you could have it passively follow the Vanguard and spot nearby enemies until destroyed.
Alternatively you could deploy the Vanguard and use it as artillery guided by the drone. A cooldown after use/destruction prevents easy farming as does a slow velocity of the shell. Additionally to prevent it being a cheap farming tool it could have a distinct sound to warn of its approach, bright tracers, an indication similar to grenades but at longer range and shells that can be shot down similar to how the phoenix missile can be shot down, aside from the fact that you can shoot the drone ofcourse.

Armor relocation.
Use the numpad Keys to alter where the armor is strong, it takes a total amount of armor from the other sides.
Example: you are flanked from the left. You press numpad 4 to improve the armor on that side. You add 12% armor on your left, and 3% of armor is taken from the front, top, back and right. Pressing numpad 0 will reset it to normal. Each side would have a maximum you can allocate.
This ones a stretch, but could be fun.

Remote detonation shells. For a time your shells deal a low amount of damage on hit, and detonate when the player presses the ability again. This allows the player to make enemies misjudge the amount of damage they got and detonate the shell when they move behind cover for repairs, or create AOE traps that you can detonate when infantry is nearby.
When detonated it'll deal the remaining direct and indirect damage accordingly as if it was a normal hit.

Deployable barrier.
Delpoys a shield barrier for temporary cover. Vehicles and infantry can pass it. Great for some quick repairs or protecting your flank. Large and high enough to protect the Vanguard flank completely.

i think the current version is fine,
does it allow vanny to absolutely wreck idiots who try to CQC faceroll against vanny? yup!
is it EASILY counterplayed by anyone with half a brain? yup!

the PTS version is horrible.

That sounds very fun

It really really......doesnt.....

How do you aim your cannon, and use your right hand to press numpad keys?

This isnt a turn based game, or some space sim, its an ever changing fast paced shooter.
This would never ever work.

Technically the Magrider is slower and does lower damage per second at the moment.

DPS for the tanks goes like this

Locked down Prowler
Prowler unlocked
AP Lightning
Vanguard
Magrider

Oh and if we add secondary guns the situation is the same except the Lightning goes to last place (unless there's another lightning to make up the 2nd player).

So right now the Vanguard does more damage per shot, has more effective health, has the I win shield does more DPS then the Mag, oh and is faster then the most maneuverable tank. Also the Vanguard technically strafes quicker as to do so you turn the body of the tank whilst maintaining lock with the turret and go either forwards or backwards. The only downside is the reload speed and the slow acceleration.

The Mag can in theory dodge shots but only from 230m away, as the mag goes x speed sideways per second and the Vanguard shell goes y speed per second.

Co Axial guns are only useful if the driver drives and the gunner guns rather then driver gets the main gun and the gunner gets the pea shooter which is what we have at the moment.

Ah, you're right about DPS, could've sworn it was the other way around.

However, Magrider is definitely not the slowest tank, thanks to Magburner, as well as its overall fantastic maneuverability (remember, it can move in two directions at the same time, as well as change movement direction without turning its chassis).

If you'd ever tried 'strafing' in a Vanguard, you'd know it's almost completely ineffective. First, your acceleration/deceleration speed is from forwards-to-backwards is very slow. Secondly, when turning sideways, you're exposing your long side-profile, which means you'd have to strafe a very long distance back and forth to be effective, else your enemy can simply aim for your center (and some part of your tank will always be there). Not to mention you are now taking more damage, since the sides have weaker armor than the front. Furthermore, unlike the magrider, movement causes turret aim to bounce about wildly, making aiming incredibly difficult while moving.

A majority of tank fights happen at ranges beyond 230m (just think of the bases where vehicle fights are prevalent). Magrider's dodging ability is extremely effective here.

Finally, the "i-win" shield is really more of a "get out of jail free" shield. Popping the shield does not prevent the enemy tank from moving behind cover, and thus does not make the user win. The only time it's an "i win" is if the tanks are literally face-to-face. And the other tank shouldn't have engaged the VG in extreme CQC combat, because that's the one thing the VG is good at.

But the shield is quite similar to the magburner in most cases. Can't win the engagement? Pop the shield and get to cover. Can't win the engagement? Turn and burn to cover.

Don't worry, the Magrider will be in second once the patch goes live, Demigan ran the numbers just a short while ago.

Here is the link to the thread

Basically, the new order will be is Prowler (no surprise), Magrider, Vanguard.

Granted, he did not do the lightning's dps calculations, but i'm pretty sure they would be below all the MBT's dps.

Not with a Halberd/Enforcer gunner, it isn't. And let's face it: You should NOT be using a Vanguard (or any MBT for that matter) without a gunner.

You know the Halberd is a faction-agnostic weapon, right? And the Enforcer is no better than the Vulcan or Aphelion.