What exactly are tanks supposed to be used for?

It seems like tanks are just in the game as an optional vehicle rather than for effectiveness. I guess maybe I'm missing the point and tanks are made to destroy sunderers and in the right situation overpower infantry but it seems like they should have a bigger role in capturing and defending bases. I don't want to turn this into a "buff tanks" thread but yeah I do kind of think tanks should be a little more durable and genrally more useful even though I rarely drive tanks and usually pull a MAX instead in most situations. Or maybe that's the point if tanks were too effective MAX's would get alot less play. Without actually saying "buff tanks" I will say that tanks should feel more threatening on the ground,like to the point where fighting tanks as infantry feels like a serious endeavor and something that you don't want to do rather than "Oh there's a tank,let me just pull a heavy assault or a LA with C4.) That should not be the best most cost efficient counter to tank's,the tank game needs to be more like "Oh $%^# there's a tank I better pull a tank too If I want to fight it." Tanks should feel like the most powerful thing on the ground rather than a mobile shell that you can cruise around in if you want to but isn't really good for much except for farming infantry until a battle gets too big in which case it turns to sunderer>air>infantry when it should feel more like base>sunderer>tanks=air>infantry.

There here for fun ... because they actually do make fun to use. This is pretty much their only intended use so far. For every other role or purpose on the battlefield there are similar or better solutions out there ...

Hopefully with the recourse revamp we'll see ANTs, and that will finally make the tank a little more than a spawn-camping novelty.

Tanks exist to fight other tanks, although you could argue they're not even the best tool for that job either.

Besides that, I refer to Aesir's post.

What exactly are we supposed to be doing in PS2?


If 'capping bases' is your answer, then only infantry are necessary. PS2 needs a proper meta-game before we can discuss specific roles. This applies to both ground, air and support.

Cert farming spawn rooms.. you only need 2 Liberators and a galaxy gunship to cap a base.

These. Also if they re-work transportation (No more teleport across map to small bases, instant action all over) transport convoys will become a thing, carrying troops, supplies and of course the vehicles that defend and scout ahead for said convoy, or seek to destroy them.

What exactly would a MBT bring that a force of Libs/ESF could not do better against an ANT (Sunderer as it currently stands, ugh)? Short of it spawning with a Air bubble of no damage like a Bio Lab the fastest way to chase (and kill) the ANT will be a handful of ESF zooming in at 200+ an hour covering more ground and dishing out more damage then any armor column you manage to sneak in could.

If ants will be anything like Sunderers, air won't be that effective against them. Sunderers have a 70% damage resist against rocket pods, 95% resist against most noseguns, and 70% against AI-specific noseguns (Air Hammer, Banshee and Light PPA). If anything, Liberators would end up stealing the ANT-buster role from tanks thanks to the Dalton, although that weapon could simply be placed on a new resist type that does little damage against ANTs, or the ANT could even get its own 70% additional resist to all air damage.

Imo we just need a proper counter to libs. Low RoF high damage 180 degree dome of traverse MBT turret for anti-Air to destroy battle-gals and libs if unchecked.

The point was more that with how sunderers are faster than the MBTs, in order to hunt down the ANTs air is better. ESF, Lib, that's just the finer details. In the end .... even ANTs won't really be the game-altering change the MBTs need to make the leap from guilty pleasure to a stable of the overall combined arms meta.

Today I killed and stopped two armour pushes almost singles handed. Parked up prowler at around 500 meters from one of our bases, deployed in hard to spot place. Killed 14 mag riders, 5 lightning and 6 sunderers. Nothing wrong with tanks, just the people using them.

That's true if you're trying to chase down an ANT in an MBT, but you could always intercept or blockade.

Tanks should be there to break a base defense. But there's nothing worth mentioning to be a decent base defense in this game. Even the base can be shelled straight inside more often than not.

So, what is the use for tanks right now?

Farm infantry and kill a parked sundy every once in a while. But killing the sundy would cut the cert revenue.

So until the day the devs decide to put in place some valuable, effective base defenses, tanks will have a that role instead of walls breaching.

To kill infantry and sunderers if you can't fly - which not many people can because this game does less to teach people flying basics than ARMA 3.

And that is part of the problem.
If you're going to base their use as a blockade, you run into two problems:

1. Infantry tools are arguably better in every situation.
2. Infantry tools don't have to cost resources, and when they do they're way cheaper.

So you're left with a vehicle that doesn't really do anything to justify it's existence besides as a guilty pleasure for a few players.

Not to mention that the bases are too close together to successfully stage an ambush on the convoy. Pretty much tanks are almost always going to be within range of some infantryperson.

Mm.

There gotta be plcaes to take and defend out in the field, not just in bases. Also tanks could use a kobalt added to the turret for a 3rd crew member.

there was a thread about reducing the number of bases.. thus the remaining bases would be farther away from each other, forcing convoys of ground vehicles ...

bases are not just too close to each other, there are too many of them.. too many smaller insignificant bases without any purpose..

Remove 20% of bases , increases the travel distance between the remaining ones, won't allow a tower AA turret to give cover for the nearby biolab.. etc.. "getting there" would add strategy and logistics.. make ground vehicles more important.. then we would see how important tanks could become..


It could change the whole game, for the better. Thoughts?