What if the the Vanguard, Prowler and Lightning tank could be outfitted with wheels instead of treads? Wheels could improve the tanks top speed and change the handling to be like a sunderer. To compensate for the speed increase, the tanks turret options could be limited to a selection of smaller guns: lower damage, higher rof etc. As for the Magrider, give it a special thruster that improves top speed and armor at the cost of the ability to strafe. Perhaps my suggestions are not the best way to do this, but I think the core idea is great food for thought. It could add whole new vehicle experiences without SOE devs having to create all new vehicles.They can just take the current tanks and modify them; make them more customizable. There are only two chassis options for tanks. Certainly, there is room for a third.
If you gave a tank wheels and less powerful guns wouldn't it be filling the same role as the harasser? In which case what's the point. Tanks should stay as tanks.
It's not just about cannon recoil... the overall weight of heavy tank armor also means that wheels just wouldn't work. In fact you can throw on a 100mm gun on a wheeled chassis... like the Chinese PTL02: Though 120mm cannon (the ones you need to fight MBTs) generally need a tracked chassis: So you really can't throw wheels on a tank and expect it to work... unless you downgrade the armor significantly. In which case it wouldn't really be a tank anymore.
I'm no military expert but I know there are real tanks that can use treads and wheels. Not that that matters for a video game, however. Why bother? Because the harasser is different from what this change would bring. A wheeled tank would have more armor and firepower, only two seats, no rumble seat to repair from on the move and a higher resource cost. I harass as much as anyone. This would def be different: 2 guns instead of 1 If balance became an issue, the new main guns could be tweaked... or the tanks' armor could be lowered (due to wheels being less durable than treads...?)
or purely because the thought of an MBT that is being held and pulled up by rubber bubbles of air means it would have to shed some armor, maybe. What you're thinking of are APC's and things of that nature. Nowhere near the weight of a full blown fighting tank.
Uhhh... do you have examples? I'm just curious as to what modern MBTs go around using wheels instead of tracks? I mean in terms of basic physics, anything that weighs a lot can't realistically use wheels (or legs for that matter, which is why giant mechs are dumb). The more something weighs, the more you need to "spread out" that weight to prevent that vehicle from sinking into the ground. Just imagine if you were standing on a giant block of jello or something. If you stand straight up, all your weight is concentrated on the surface area of your feet. So you might sink into the jello. But if you lay down, your weight is spread out to the surface area of your entire body, so you may not sink. Tanks (which have heavy armor) work in the same way. A MBT on wheels would probably just sink into the ground and have its wheels buried in dirt and mud, because all the weight of the tank is concentrated on 6-8 points on wheels. As for why it matters for the game, this is because unrealistic things can affect immersion, which destroys the quality of the game. Same reason why some people are opposed to bright yellow or pink camouflage.
I think you're getting too caught up in "realism" nonsense. This game just isn't focused that way. A wheeled Vanguard may seem like it would be odd, but i know that with the right aesthetic treatments and values it could work well.
