Thank you for your feedback!
Thermal smoke should be your lock on counter regardless of whether it comes from the ground or air. I have tested it in portal against air threats and it performed excellent. There is the bug with Sundance nades that needs to be fixed as well as the fact that if the missiles are launched too close they will still hit (but that is WIT) but outside of those scenarios it *should* be working properly. I have heard of issues though so If you have video evidence otherwise please share so I can try to replicate it.
Agreed that it should be the default unlock but at least people can use portal/SP to grind out the unlock.
Traverse speeds (with the exception of the Wildcat AA) I'm okay with as their exaggerated slowness is intentional to help emphasize that they are meant to be vulnerable up close to give other vehicles an opportunity to exploit them from behind. It should also be noted that the addition of the weapon pod seat gives you a significant boost to firepower so you still have some recourse. Players have been whining about tanks sitting back and camping forever. Never mind that many do so even if you've stopped for just a moment to take a shot or that it is suicide to move forward until conditions are more favorable. Or there will be 5 vehicles operating aggressively and 1 less so and they base their assessment on the one rather than the five.
Ultimately, tanks are not meant as the primary choice to cap flags - their ideal engagement range is from ~75m or greater so while that can cap in a pinch they are typically better suited to engage right outside the flag area. All of the supporting weapons have utility and the HMG is extremely effective - only the LMG appears to be lagging and that is addressed in my proposal. My assessment is that tanks already have enough tools to operate effectively at short range.
Tanks already have the best armor in the game so I don't perceive them as lacking in defense. Reactive armor is, in effect, already represented in the game via auto repair. APS could be added as an alternative to System Repair but have a much longer cooldown (something like 60 seconds) seeing as you would be getting two countermeasures. I think this would be a fair sacrifice as System repair is pretty critical in many circumstances. In the same train of thought FLIR could also be added as an alternative to system repair with the same sort of tradeoffs in play.
C5 drone spam will be addressed - Either by removing the ability to place C5 on drones, making a C5 drone perma spotted on minimap or some other method.
The splash on the MPAT cannon feels largely sufficient to me and has good velocity and you have the option of using the HEAT round if you want more splash. The proposal calls for increasing its effectiveness against anything sub MBT/MAV as I feel its damage profile is overly punitive vs other vehicles - it already suffers a lower velocity than MPAT so aside from MBT/MAV it should do the same damage vs other vehicles.
AA Missile dodging without CM is a big no no and one I will absolutely go not just to mat, but to the planetary core for. CM's are in effect your missile dodges. You don't even have to maneuver when using them - you can simply deploy them and go about your business all of which is fine. What is not fine though is being able to negate, largely at will, the damage that should be inflicted from a properly employed locking/homing weapon. There is no mandate for this and it smacks of false elitism whereby players feel entitled to damage negation because of their indisputably incorrect understanding that this is not a tactical game - it very much is as evidenced by the amount of gadgetry and tack involved. If you have failed to manage your CM's correctly then that is a failing on your part - you do not get to dictate the terms at which damage is inflicted upon you. I would very much hope that after watching some of the videos where AH's have fired many IR missiles at Nightbirds only to have them dodged through a simple mechanic which I have detailed that you would agree that this situation is absurd and unjust.
Allowing for lock on weapons that can be circumvented creates traps for new players as they are acting in good faith trying to support their team by choosing and employing the correct weapon in the game towards the appropriate threat with no notice that their weapons are virtually useless against their targets.
This is a game set in 2042 where lock on weaponry is relevant and should work as intended in the context of the game. I never once uttered a request for lock on weapons to be included in BF1 and BFV and my expectation is that people don't ask for their removal or gimping here. If someone doesn't like them they are more than able to create a portal game with their own house rules.
***
I think we are attempting to answer two different questions. My focus is on balance and you seem largely intent on advocating for tank dominance. Not blatant over the top tank dominance granted, but dominance nonetheless. Nonetheless I again thank you for your feedback and contributions to the discussion.
@rainkloudGreat posts as usual!
I am just a simple tank man and there are 3 issues I see from a tankers POV against potential threats.
1. C5 drones, no explanation necessary.
2. Instant repair, many many times it will not replenish health. You activate it, and nothing happens, the health bar doesn't move.
It works everytime when fixing a part but not triggering health replenishment. Maybe I'm missing something?
3. Jet homing missiles vs tanks
Tank chemical smoke only protects against the first missile, the follow up missile within seconds of the first always hits my tank.
I have tried not moving and just sitting in my smoke to see if that helps but it doesn't. I vaguely remember having to stop moving when using APS against jets and choppers in BF4 to ensure it worked.
What this leads to is either dead tanks because the jet loops back twice and gets you before your smoke cooldown is over or having to spend the entire round playing near an underpass to escape from the jet.
The other day I upset some chopper players so much on Kaleidoscope 64 player when I took out a few of their attack choppers and scouts whilst marauding over the RU side of the map that one of them decided to grab a jet and then the rest of the round I had to spend near the entrance of the underpass to keep escaping to or die.
Are you saying that tank chemical smoke is working as intended by only stopping the first missile?
I don't use jets or choppers so have no idea how long they have to wait before firing their second missile however the time from my POV between first and second missile is mere seconds.
If you want video proof I will record what happens.
Cheers
Thank you!
1) Agreed and my understanding is devs are well aware and working on a fix which we all eagerly await!
2) This one is a bit of mystery. In Portal it restores I believe 24 HP for each use. In MP it restores ~3HP. I believe the latter is correct and the 24 HP is a bug. Being able to restore ~1/4 health is extremely powerful and there is nothing in the in game description that would lead me to believe that it is supposed to do anything more then restore broken parts like turret and engine. Quick HP recovery made more sense in BFV since you didn't have auto health regen. In 2042 that is not the case an I believe 1/4 health restores are going to too quickly negate sustained damage and diminish the value of the repair tool.
3) My position has always been that any bugs in Thermal Smoke should be fixed. When I say that stopping the first missile is WAI I mean that in theory the Thermal smoke should deflect any incoming missiles (save for ones that are already super close to impact) then they should prevent firing of further missiles for 6 seconds and then once that has expired then subsequent missiles should hit since the protection time has concluded.
In my original findings about a month or so ago I found Thermal smoke to work perfectly. I tested again tonight and found some replicable flaws and can now conclude that Thermal Package is indeed broken. I created a video to show my findings here: https://youtu.be/hoeSvJFsivg
First shot in each of the two scenes is Thermal countermeasures deployed almost immediately after the missile is launched. When this happens the CM fails to deflect the missile and damage is sustained. Second shot in each scene is Thermal CM deployed about two seconds into flight. When deployed in this manner the CM's correctly deflect the missile. The Thermal smoke should work in both scenarios yet it only works in the latter.
Conclusion: Thermal Smoke package counter-measure is broken
During my first tests I believe the flaw in my method was I was floating too close to the ground and when the missile is fired from low to the ground the CM's work perfectly regardless of when you deploy CM.
Once this and the Sundance Nade bug is fixed tanks will be in a much better position as they will be able to reliably deflect missiles and enjoy 6 seconds of lock on immunity.
