Lack of Tank Defensive Capabilities

Hello forum, long time no chat!

A little bit of background on myself, I've been an active battlefield player since BF1942, and generally focused on (when it existed) Engineer type game play or of course, tanks. I played competitively in a bunch of LAN's back when BF2 was still hot off the presses for and ol CAV clan (and I had to switch me name :c), and switched back to being your casual but irritating tanker throughout the other installments. 

So this brings us to the current game, I've only been playing 2042 for about maybe 2 weeks now, gotten use to the quirks of the vehicles and how they handle, learning the maps, and best places to try and deny my enemies to help the team out. All n all tank game play has been fairly decent, they have a good feel to them and have distinct things they are weak at, which they should. But this is more so about the defensive capability, or rather lack there of, of both the M1A5 and the T28 (COUGH T14)

Holes in the armor:

Not literally of course, but as a tanker there are several things which stood out to me and will hopefully be addressed. And of course I'll go into detail and even give examples of things I've experienced.

Like other BF games these would be choices you make that best fit your play style, environment and what you see as the most active threat.

Active protective system -

With the ability for players to spam AT weapons while keeping 90% of their kit intact makes the lack of some sort of mitigation system feels pretty bad, while leaving you with few options. This one doesn't just apply to tanks, but other vehicles as well and makes it more of a chore to pull something from the spawn menu, kill someones squad mate, then suddenly have 3 other people spawn with rocket launchers, EMP's etc with little resource investment compared to the wait time of a vehicle respawn timer.

Often times you are completely overwhelmed by the power projection of squad spawning. With the combination of your main guns reload time, the shell type you happen to have, your top gunners ability and the over heating mechanics, breaking away from combat just long enough to respawn another member of a squad who brings the right tools suddenly to deal with your situation is quite possible. In combination with micro terrain, buildings, inclines, etc give plenty of cover to allow this to happen, you kill one squad member, the other 2 who just spawned also likely have rockets, and their downed mate is going to be coming back soon with fresh rockets with your name on it.

The standard coax machine gun takes quite a few hits to kill an infantrymen, a near direct hit with the standard shell which has minimum splash damage also adds to the amount of time it takes to down enemy infantry. So in cases like this, you hit the reverse key and simply go away or get swarmed.

The amount of rocket spam can get pretty wild (and this is just 1 squad in mind this isnt including all the other squads and helos and jets), an active protective system in this case would at least cut down on some of the projectiles from vengeful squad mates thrown at a tank, while giving the tanker some options besides just run and hope you dont hit a rock and get stuck.

An example would be the well known trophy system, and in this case lets say it can react to things at the front, and sides of the tank leaving the rear exposed to be punished 👿

Capacity and all that would have to be balanced of course and activation method/reload time/cooldown would obviously be a thing but for now we are talking concepts.

Also whatever that multi launching lock on rocket is, IT GOES THROUGH THE GROUND -happened to me about 2 hours ago-

Explosive Reactive Armor-

Reactive armor was in a previous BF game, it pretty much allowed a free hit from a tank shell or shoulder fired rocket and would destroy the armor panel on whichever side was hit. This option is rather iffy for a few reasons. If its locked behind a large pool of kills this could feel rather unfair for newer tankers who don't have this unlocked, but if it was standard it would grant a bit more sustainability against shoulder fired AT weapons and prolong tank fights but at the same time I feel this would hurt smaller scale encounters making the fight very unfair for infantry players who happen to get caught out without a bunch of people around them, so probably not a great option. Tanks are supposed to be scary, not invincible.

I''ve changed my stance on ERA after talking with a few folks! With the added power projection, and constant threats from all elements, and with some of the very close quarter designs of some maps (looking at you Manifest) the need to be able to mitigate some damage from projectiles in the form of rockets (and even that weird sniper rifle) are needed, vehicles can not play most capture points because they are stuck within close quarters which is their bane, and being able to peek, fire and duck behind cover again prevents most retaliation. If ERA is standard across all heavy armored vehicles and not locked behind a kill pool I feel this would be healthy for tanks in general while also giving them a way to soak some damage, leave the tracks vulnerable and you have options to make plays against this.

Smokes breaking locks from shoulder fired weapons and aircraft-

This one really struck me as odd, the lack of a lock-on countermeasure up until -I'm assuming since I haven't unlocked it yet- the thermal smoke? Which is locked behind a decently large kill pool being the last utility unlock. This one by far is the most frustrating, Having a jet or helo be able to kill you in one pass without being able to do anything in response besides listen to the "incoming missile" sound and wait to explode. In a setting of over exaggerated electronic warfare why do air assets get to keep their flare systems while ground vehicles have no form of mitigation? Previously -if I remember right- in other games smoke screens were capable of breaking locks from weapons allowing for a chance to either escape or try and fight back if an opportunity presented itself, but currently you get tagged with a barrage of rockets with no way to counter or mitigate the damage. Let it be in the form of active jamming or smoke which isnt locked so deeply behind a kill pool but having no chance to even explore options to deal with a situation is simply not fun. Like all the other countermeasures put a cooldown on it etc.

My experience pretty much boils down to: Spawn tank, roll about 50 feet, get a weapons lock alert from a jet or helo and have nowhere to hide.

EMP/Hacking mitigation-

I will be the first to say I am not a fan of not being able to shoot especially when it seems this skill is on a pretty spammable cooldown, a better way to approach this would probably be slower turret turning, reduced reload speed, decreased engine performance or all, but not being able to shoot while someone can then just simply walk up and throw explosives on your vehicle seems pretty cheesy.

But as for a choice in mitigation, hardened electronics, this would probably be a choice between say an active protection system and electronic protection, some things might be reduced still, like minimap being scrambled or unable to call out or spot, but this one is pretty open ended and simple.

These are all that I could currently think of at 5am. Feedback and suggestions welcomed, again these are just concepts and ideas.

Also 3 tank shells for a transport helo kill..... really......really.......