So with the new implants, it seems like they could throw in vehicle-focused implants. With the current implants, a few are shared by vehicles and infantry, like Ammo Printer. But most of them (Vampire, Catlike, Safefall to name a few) are pretty much exclusive to infantry. In order to be fair (and to promote combined arms), vehicles should gain access to vehicle-only implants. A few suggestions: Vehicle Shield- Vehicles gain a rechargeable shield similar to infantry. Probably 1,000 HP for the shield. Only one per vehicle (does not stack with other Vehicle Shield implants). The downside to this implant (unlike infantry implants which have no downside) is that the user of the Vehicle Shield implant has no personal shields. Fire Control System- Vehicles gain a targeting computer which automatically calculates and adjusts for ballistic drop. Essentially this removes the drop from vehicle weapons, allowing them to more precisely hit their targets. FCS implant only applies to the specific gun that is in use, not all weapons of the vehicle. The downside is a slight decrease in the rate of fire as the FCS implant calculates a firing solution. Explosive Ordinance Disposal- Unlike the earlier EOD implant which really didn't do anything to actually dispose of explosives, this implant will automatically detonate any hostile explosive at a safe distance from the vehicle. This not only includes AT mines and C4 packages, but also will detonate incoming infantry rockets, missiles, and grenades. It will also detonate AT mines and C4 if they are held (but not yet deployed) by enemy infantry. This implant operates on a cooldown so it cannot defend against multiple explosives simultaneously. Another downside is that the user of the implant cannot carry any explosives/explosive weapons themselves. Vehicle Cloaking- Like minor cloaking, vehicles who remain stationary for several seconds will conceal themselves with an individual cloaking field. Significant movement or the firing of weapons will disrupt the cloak, and for a few seconds afterwards the vehicle will still be unable to fire as power is rerouted to the weapon systems. Due to re-engineering the power systems of the vehicle, top speed is slightly reduced. High Velocity Round- Improves the muzzle velocity of fired weapons by a significant amount, allowing for the easier placement of shots. Increases damage done by a marginal amount because of the higher velocity of impact. Due to greater complication in loading modified rounds, reloading of the weapon is increased by a certain amount. Impact Repulsors- Reduces or eliminates vehicle damage taken from crashing into objects, depending on the speed of the impact. Bumps or minor falls are harmless, and higher speed crashes may be survivable. Great for pilots in training to avoid significant damage from slow brushes against trees. The downside to this implant is that the object that was crashed into, say an enemy infantryman or aircraft, will also suffer reduced damage. Real Threat Detection- Enemy units that pose the greatest risk to the user vehicle will be highlighted for all occupants of that vehicle if they are within range (sort of like the bounty icon). For example, tank threats include AP tanks, C4 infantry, or Liberators. Air threats include AA MAXes, SAM infantry, Skyguards, ESFs, etc. These high threat units will be marked on the minimap and the standard UI. Because such advanced threat identification systems generate a lot of signals, the user vehicle will have an extended autodetect radius for the enemy (unless nullified by Stealth). Preventative Maintenance- Due to proper preparation of the vehicle, it is somewhat more sturdy and less likely to suffer from accidents. This reduces the risk of on-board fires until the vehicle is severely damaged and very near destruction. The vehicle also gains a small bonus to armour against all sources. The downside is that more maintenance results in a higher nanite cost for deploying the vehicle. Non Explosive Reactive Armour- By bolting on plates of armour, high-damage incidents can be avoided with the armour absorbing the impact and being destroyed instead of the vehicle. Any single source of damage that would have done more than 30% of the vehicle's HP is negated. After the damage is prevented, the NERA is disabled until a significant cooldown expires. The downside is that the pilot/crew's infantry HP is reduced by a very significant amount. Vehicle Ammo Printer- An advanced version of the Ammo Printer implant that only benefits vehicles. It resupplies vehicles at a much faster rate, but only for the weapon that is being used. It will, however, also resupply identical weapons from nearby vehicles as well (for example, two AP Prowlers next to each other will resupply, but an AP Lightning will not). The disadvantage is that the user's infantry ammunition load is reduced by a very significant amount. Safety Tether- Players can now directly spawn into vehicles that they own. For example, if a tank crew had to dismount to fight on foot, they can quickly return to their vehicle parked at the edge of the base. Or a pilot who was sniped while repairing her aircraft can simply choose to respawn into their vehicle. The downside to this is that users of the implant cannot spawn into any base spawnpoint for the hex that they are in (if they die in their vehicle then they must respawn at a different base or a Sunderer). In general, vehicle-specific implants are meant to make vehicles more effective, but always at a cost. Often times that cost would be reduced effectiveness as infantry, a decreased vehicle capability elsewhere, or increased cost. Most of them come from ideas about tanking, but I'm sure a few of them might be useful for aircraft as well. Vehicles ought to have as effective and interesting implants as infantry get. That's only fair.
I came here planning to give this a good look and discuss each of your proposals in detail, but you know what? The new implant system has me so disheartened I can't even bring myself to log in, let alone discuss theoretical pipe-dreams that will never be. Sorry mate. I'll try again later.
Honestly, they can't balance the game with what they have, this is interesting but it should never happen.
I like the concept. Your implants, not so much. Shield: Sounds fancy. Fire-Control-System, that basically makes long-range shooting simple. Like with a massive *** cannon, that can fire HE rounds. Also, not gonna affect TR Much, but would nuke NC's firing rate. Explosive-Ordnance Disposal. Basically, it prevents you from being hit at all, every time it works. Your downside is useless: When was the last time you cared to carry C-4 or a rocket-launcher in your Tank? Cloaking. A bloody vehicle. A vehicle unlike an infantryman, is a quite more dangerous foe: IE it can't be simply killed in the time it takes to decloak. Like say with a bloody tank. Add in your EOD, and it's immune to the first explosive in the first place, allowing it to easily fire without a problem. High-Velocity-Round Interesting, but literally with a straight damage upgrade, it's a must have in the Anti-tank job right? And again, reload is the worst, given NC will be screwed, TR barely noticing, and Vanu debating on it. Impact, that's clever. Real Threat: That's quite nice. Question about it however: C-4 in hand, or C-4 Equipped? "Non Explosive Reactive Armour- By bolting on plates of armour, high-damage incidents can be avoided with the armour absorbing the impact and being destroyed instead of the vehicle. Any single source of damage that would have done more than 30% of the vehicle's HP is negated. After the damage is prevented, the NERA is disabled until a significant cooldown expires. The downside is that the pilot/crew's infantry HP is reduced by a very significant amount." This entire thing is damn scary. Long-Range Shooting, and Peek-a-boo tanks would be immune to the heaviest shot that hits them. And whom gets out of their tank all that often? Those ejecting usually only, IE about to die anyway. I agree that Vehicles need some love. But some of these, as mentioned, are damn scary in the implications, and uses. One literally blocks any Anti-vehicle weapon, another blocks a weapon that deals 30%> health, and another cloaks...a..tank. Most costs as well, are ineffective as costs, unless the user isn't using the vehicle... which would be rare for said implants to be active, and not in one. Others, just have no real value: No rockets for being immune to a rocket strike?
I'm not sure the infantry implants give anyone additional armour, more accurate weapons, higher damage weapons or auto clearing of explosives. Other than that, I've nothing against vehicle implants as a concept.
I'm pretty happy with Sweeper 5 and Ammo Printer 5. The extra 10m (35m) mine auto spot over EOD hud 4 is a straight buff to vehicles. I didn't die to mines in 3 hours of tanking and there were plenty around. Ammo printer let me mag for an hour straight without having to circle back for a tower - and I was killing stuff non stop. Deep stealth trips into enemy territory can be maintained indefinitely. The only change I'd like is if counter intelligence fully worked in a vehicle (auto spot the spotter). With the thermal nurf it's not as OP as it would have been otherwise.
I didn't think you could make the new implants even more unbalanced but here we are in this thread turning that up to 100.
Does ammo printer refills secondary gun in vehicles too? Another one, being a gunner with Ammo Printer restocks ammo for the vehicle/weapon you are using? I sooo can't wait to try those new implants for longer I think I'm gonna quit job to get in game sooner
I'm sure that the actual numbers can be tuned based on whatever vehicle or weapon it's paired with. That would be more reasonable, so that say a Vulcan wouldn't be affected in the exact same way as an Enforcer. The goal of this implant is to prevent solo infantry from easily destroying tanks. Infantry would be required to use teamwork. Not that it would be too difficult to pull off. It's quite a common tanking tactic to carry AT mines with you. It allows you to prevent flanking, or you can prevent the enemy from pursuing you. Tanking Engineers also often employ the AV MANA turret, so that option would be disabled as well. Why can't a vehicle cloak? We already have cloaking ANTs and Sunderers. It should be far easier to cloak a vehicle (with the ability to carry a heavier generator and power supply) than a half-naked infantryman. As for the delay, that's mostly to allow time to get away. You're not supposed to kill the vehicle before it fires... just maybe to scramble to cover. Maybe. In-hand. While it would be amusing to drive up enemy infantry and watch them explode as the C4 brick in their backpack detonated, that would be too mean. Theoretically, this means that a LA could perform a suicide charge by getting really close to the tank empty-handed, and instantly detonate when pulling out the C4. C4 detonated in-hand would count against that infantryman's nanites. I haven't run the hard numbers, but most hits would still do damage. Only things like C4, AT Mines, or heavy hits to the rear would be blocked by NERA. Unlike EOD, NERA is designed to protect against singular, heavily damaging hits. Pretty much vehicle operators are made much more vulnerable outside of their vehicle. Sometimes this can happen if the crew is ordered to dismount and fight as infantry (happens more than you think, especially with a mixed squad). More frequently, this is when the crew jumps out to do repairs. Increased vulnerability during all those times is a very significant downside indeed. Infantry implants also don't have any drawbacks. These vehicle implants do, so their effect ought to be much more than what infantry get. Furthermore vehicles are supposed to be superior to individual infantry, so there's that as well.
If the solo infantry can destroy your tank; They bloody earned it. You have a main cannon that can one shot them, a Top-gun that either one-shots them or kills them in a fraction of the time that infantryman could kill another infantry man. You take multiple direct hits from their heaviest slowest firing, slowest reloading weapon, that has one shot. C-4 costs nanites per throw, and guess what: You'd be immune to the first of two C-4, as a tank. Also means, that the tactic thrown around about Rocklet-Rifles with C-4 becomes useless: 1 C-4 + a full mag. Team work. It's already a requirement unless the vehicle operator is a moron. In which case, Why in hell do they need a literal perfect shield against explosives of all kinds? Like dear lord: Run the infantry man over, have some aim, have a top gunner, use the top gun yourself, get out & use your own damn gun, have the Top Gunner get out. Like Jesus. Add in the radar, and You already know they are coming, have some thoughts about it perhaps? Prevents flanking if the other vehicle is an idiot. And the Top Gunner's explosives & Turret? Likely still there, making your debuff literally useless again. A cloaked Sunderer is stationary, holds two small weapons, and dies faster than a MBT. A Cloaked flash is fragile as all hell. An Ant uses Cortium, and is ******** as it is with a cloak. And you want to let an MBT, cloak itself. Yeah, as obviously, a Tank unlike an Infil shouldn't to worry about needing to fire first, and only the enemy needs to run. What in ****. Just needs to be there, and break all lock-on weaponry, survive any attack while cloaked, and still get kills. Infils don't have the ability to withstand damn rocket launchers, and other AOA weapons, nor wield them. In-hand, so that anyone braced to deliver the C-4 simply dies before they get the chance to even try the C-4 Drop. If an infantryman manages to get within the Detonation range of C-4 to deal damage to your tank, without death. They deserved to place it, as You failed hard. So basically, remove the weak-point of the Tank for any Lucky, or first-strike attacks on the Tank. Allowing them to easily survive surprise attacks, flanking or similar. ******* glorious. Yeah, but they don't add damage, add armor, add counter-measures to the only weapons that damage them, nor literally kill opponents for them. Infantry are fragile. The benefits to the vehicle, outweigh the literal few times the enemy could get close enough to deal damage to the operators, before they re-enter the vehicle, unless the operator is an idiot, and doesn't move a bit, or exit without some kind of cover. As well, what are the odds the Top Gunner \ Gunners will use the same implant? Will it only use the Driver's? Will the Gunner's implants augment the vehicle too? Do the effects stack? Does exiting the vehicle provide the shared debufs? If not, one could exit without the disadvantage of the other, countering the entire weakness. Vehicles are superior to infantry. If you die to a single infantryman while in a Tank, generally that is since you failed, and they worked for it.
If vehicles are superior to infantry, why do more people play only infantry instead of maining vehicles? The rest of the post was literally a list of things vehicles can do, well infantry have more spawn options, a room they can almost never die to enemy fire in, use jumppads, have a small hitbox, have a larger variety of weapons, is one of the few (Two) units that has access to fire and forget lockons, has higher resistance buffs than other counterparts (Like how max flak armor only stops indirect, infantry stops both direct and indirect, they can self respawn indefinitely, have the access to the fastest healing and are able to revive themselves, also infinite ammo that they can resupply themselves with and resupply in two locations at once (Something ammo sundis can only dream of), they are also the only units that can cap bases, that can use the most powerful explosive in the game (which is pretty ******* ironic if you ask me). Also your vehicle "facts" are off, cloaked sunderers still have a 45% round damage resistance, MBTs have a 30% on the ***, this leads to tanks actually dying faster compared to sunderers. Sunderers also take less damage from FAR more resistance types than tanks do, leading to tanks actually being more fragile than sunderers, which is also pretty messed up, the only weapon that sunderers take MORE DAMAGE THAN TANKS FROM is the archer. That's an accomplishment right? Eh, I'm not gonna bother with the rest. The point is, your statement is just wrong, in fact no part of the definition of the word superior would describe tanks, we need infantry far more than we need tanks in this game, considering the original premise was combined arms, ideally, all parts of vehicles have a role, if I can do anything and everything with just a group of infantry, then why do I need a vehicle?
As vehicles can't cap a base for one thing. Vehicles cost nanites. Vehicles often require a different skill set. But those vehicles basically win fights by themselves. If the only way in your mind is to make vehicles superior, is to make them superior in every single way, You aren't ever going to be happy till You can't use infantry. Infantry die faster than Vehicles. Infantry have less powerful weaponry than vehicles. Infantry are slower than vehicles. Infantry are required to be massed. This isn't a game of "It's not superior, unless it is everything & more"; He acted like a single infantryman can win against a tank with it being in the infantryman's favor some how. He used the word first, I simply stated how they already are, in the very engagements he spoke of. Dear lord. A cloaked Sundy is less dangerous than an MBT in general, specifically in the situations presented. A cloaked Tank would be far more dangerous than a Sundy, no? And yeah the armor values on a lot of vehicles is ******. A single vehicle can kill a group of infantry. The OP gave literally the ability to become immune to first shots from Vehicles, infantry, any surprise attack, and forced any attack on such a vehicle to require half the attackers be meat shields to start damaging the Higher health target. I found it excessive.
I really don't know why leg peasants insist on leg peasanting, but they're acceptable sources of certs, so I'll just let 'em carry on. I'd like a crosshair in third person implant, or alternatively a "cannon shoots at center of screen again" implant.