[Suggestion] The Ultimate Combined Arms Gameplay Thread

You couldn't be more wrong, read the whole thread and it is way more reasonable. Trust me it's a good read, and not a giant Cryaboutwhatkilledyouside2 thread.

Current Tanks won't even be like current tanks after this change. Tanks are receiving a defensive buff against all damage, not an AA specific offensive/defensive buff.

But you want a combined arms game yes ? So you would be running with your own infantry ( one would hope ) .. Leaving you to concentrate on enemy armour while they deal with the infantry .. The only way a suggestion like this would work is if it is fairly balanced so no one demographic gains a huge advantage over another .. or we are back to square one

Edit: Personally I would leave AV weapons as is , but make tank's 3/3 and increase their HP/defenses to take that extra crew into consideration ... See how it goes then if need be lower AV weapon damage until a balance is found

A good point, but at the same time I don't want 4 LA's, or a bunch of engineers constantly trying to fly/run past infantry over and over again to blow me up with tankmines and C4 while I face that armor only to then face a long spawn timer for me and my two gunners. Also keep in mind dumb fire style rockets would be free. Tanks will be fighting each other more now, so this leaves much less time for farming situations that all infantry hate. Personally I find shooting at a spawn door over and over again incredibly boring, as most dedicated tankers do, and most cert farming zerg tankers will now be gone and a thing of the past.

IF THE MBTS HAD TO BE REMADE INTO CREWED TANKS:

Vanguard:
Fairly easy, driver gets to drive, gunner gets the current Cannon + a Coaxial machinegun to deal with infantry

Prowler:
Driver gets to drive, gunner gets the turret, but...
...ANCHOR MODE makes a turret appear for the driver, since he can't drive anymore.
The turret could be any of the current Prowler turrets.

Magrider:
Driver gets access to the main gun, and the gunner a turret.
The main gun has:
-No splash damage
-1/2 the power of other tank guns vs armor

The turret has:
-Decent splash damage
-1/2 the power of other tank guns vs armor

It's like putting the Saron on the main gun and the main gun on the turret while giving balanced damage among both guns to avoid 1/2 Magrider spam being efficient. It's very hard to think of the Magrider without the main gun, so while it keeps its gun, the combined damage of both guns should not go beyond a Vanguard or Prowler.







The big pro would be a asymetrical balance while keeping a stable 2-man crew among all MBTs. The idea of "adding more crew for armor and firepower" is just weird; and as long as we keep [1/2] tank spamming there WILL be a problem. Let the lonewolves use a lightning.

It's very rough but a quick prototype that could work on paper

I have lost a lot of fair in the devs, i feel like they have ignored a lot of threads like this giving a lot of good info.

How about leaving things as they are atm

But

For every extra crew member you have you receive a HP/armour buff .. Solo tanker's could still run around but compared to a fully crewed MTB they would be paper thin and at a disadvantage .. So rather than forcing the issue you are leaving the choices in the player's hands ( Something I prefer in a Sand boxy game)

Really creative Idea, and I really like your dedication, however it would be way easier to field a bunch of 2/2 tanks than 3/3 tanks. Tank spam would likely still be an issue since it only cuts tank spam maybe 50% rather than by 2/3rds or more with my alternatives. I also have no idea how to rearrange all my damage, resource, cool down timers, and defensive buffs that would make this work. It took me a month's worth of feedback collecting , researching, a lot of gameplay experience from both me and the people I had help me to come up with my final ideas.

Still would allow for 1 manned MBT's and lots of tank spam which this game desperately needs not to have. I also have no idea how the game would lag when trying to give these bonuses as people jumped in and out of their tanks in the middle of a huge battle.

Adding a "3rd seat" does not necessarily mean people will use it.

Think of it as:
If I want every tank to be 3/3 to cut down the spam by 2/3rds, how do I make two of those three seats MANDATORY to operate the tank ?

The driver/gunner combo is very simple. But forcing a 3/3 ?
Unless you put in some kind of error message saying "this tank does not have enough members in it, engine will not start"...

Go with the 2/2 setup.
Then arrange the resources.

I don't think you can do a whole lot better than that with overly complicating the thing.
There's already an asymetrical issue:
What does a Prowler driver do when deployed ? Get out and repair ?

Regardless of what we do with passenger numbers, the ONE BIG FACTOR that determines 90% of the tank spam is having a Tech plant or not.
No MBT spawns outside of warpgate = No tank zerg.

The way I already laid out every aspect of my tank ideas, pretty much literally, makes it very easy to implement. It will not force 3/3, because 2/3 still gets a turret and a single gunner. However, since tanks will always be rare on the battlefield this means people who see dedicated tanker's tanks they will always want to hop in. This will also make giant pushes by outfits much less tank spammy and a nice mix of MBT's and Lightnings. We need a Strong 3/3 MBT that takes damage like a tank. With XP sharing between all seats this will make all 3 seats a good idea for anyone in a tank.

Well the buff could be on a timer , for example 30 second's .. So when the Engi jump's out to repair the buff isn't automatically lost but the timer start's .
And yes would allow 1 man MBT but they would be getting destroyed like they are now and even more so when facing "buffed" MBT's , while said buffed ones are not.

Just an opinion I'm a firm believer in giving player's the option's and then having them live or die by the choices they make, rather than things being forced upon them

Yes, it could somehow work.

But as said above, I believe those changes are unsignificant compared to taking out MBT spawns in medium outposts. Playing on Esamir lately, you clearly notice how a single Tech plant changes the game. There is no MBT zerg; only fragile lightnings.

I'd really like to ask SOE for hard stats on this regard.

I'm the same way Hades, which is why I want option C, the all of the above option, as suggested in my 3/3 MBT design section. If players still want to operate a tank all by themselves the Lightning will be waiting for them for 200 less resources and smaller cooldown time.

I would like detailed Stats as well. I'm also very well aware of the bad state of MBT's in the game. They need to be a lot stronger and less common to be fun, not a little bit stronger and a little less common. When infantry see a 3/3 V 3/3 MBT battle they should all pause, even if for only a moment, to go.

Basically, PS1 MBT set-ups. I agree.

The prowler however had to have 3 operators. One driver, one turret gunner, one machine-gunner. And as far as I remember, one cannon on the Magrider was anti-infantry, and the other was anti-tank. Would be interesting to see how they would function in PS2.

That's actually great idea. The whole dart thing. They should probably make a new tool specifically designed for that, but my main problem is with rocket launchers being spammed against infantry. For example, biolab fights can often become rocket spam fests. That's where rockets costing resources would help a lot.

It was a nice read and points for the effort.

You repeated yourself toooooooooooooooo often, that killed all the epicness out of this.

With posts of this length you need to repeat key points or people will often forget them by the end. It's okay though, I think lots of people still find this epic regardless.

Biolabs are EVERYTHING spam-fests though.

I think they should introduce very strong flinching when looking down RL sights; too often I've been guarding my Sundy with the Kobalt turret, some HA just popped out, shot, hit, and got away with a sliver of health.

A SINGLE bullet should completly throw off the aim, should work.