Please improve tank gameplay in BF6
Tanks need improvements to primary weapon splash damage, survivability vs RPGs, and slower head buildups on HMGs.
I am a skilled armor player and have leveled up my MBT and IFV to over 30. I can routinely get over 20 kills in a life and have invested a lot of time in map strategies. What I am trying to raise attention to is not due to skill issue. The game needs improvement to armor gameplay so it can be a relevant, competitive aspect of the game.
- Primary Splash Damage -- The problem I've encountered is, after having tried all ammo types (HEMP, HEAT, and CAN), the splash damage of all of these rounds is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes I can lay down effective fire and help push objectives. Sometimes, though, I'll have 4 or more players in the rocks far above the main road on Liberation Peak firing at me, and despite having a perfect spot to fire splash damage into, I struggle to hit infantry at all. Even at closer ranges, it seems like you have to directly hit an enemy player in order to reliably kill them from your tank. I can fire at the ground just behind a truck someone is hiding behind and it'll do no damage (yes they're still there). The HEMP round is advertised for its large splash and anti-infantry effectiveness, but these results just aren't consistent from match to match. Please rework the splash damage mechanic so tank players can actually be relevant and contribute to the game.
- Tank Survivability vs RPGs -- I feel like the devs are far more concerned about tanks potentially being over-powered than the actuality that it is far too easy to just bombard tanks with constant RPG attacks that force them out of the game before they can even start. A good game should allow both tanks and engineers to fight competitively with each other. I want to suggest two solutions:
- Slightly reduce rocket damage: real-life tanks can survive a dozen rocket hits. I understand this is a shooter game and we're not striving for that level of exacting realism, but a compromise between 2-4 rockets and 12+ should be plenty easy to achieve. Give engineers an extra rocket so they don't get underpowered, but make it take longer to kill tanks so they actually have reliable chance to affect the game and use skilled performances to counter anti-armor engineers. Right now in a lot of games, tanks just get spammed to death in under a minute. Fixing splash damage (above) would greatly help tank survivability because they can actually take out and suppress rocket launchers, but slightly nerfing RPG damage should be done as well. That or slow down reload speed.
- Increase tank health: I'm less keen to see this change implemented just because it would be more invasive to BF6 mechanics. But, this would be another way to allow tanks to take more hits and to stay in combat longer, thus enabling them to fight for their own survival and try to help the team.
- HMG Heat Buildup -- The HMG is really inconvenient to use because you can only kill 1-2 players max before you have to wait for it to cooldown. It should be more usable in mid-range combat; right now, it is more of a DMR. It fires slow (fine) and is best at range, but you can fire so little before you have to "reload" that it's difficult to kill much of anything, especially as the driver. The gunner doesn't need to worry about moving or firing the main gun so it's easier for them. But even still, it can be hard to help keep the tank alive. Please add just 1-2 seconds of firing time for the HMG so it is more competitive with the LMG while still allowing both the LMG and HMG to keep their intended roles.
- IFV Note: Similarly, please increase IFV gun capacity from 12 to 14-16. It places too much constraint on the driver and makes the vehicle too slow to play for it to really stay relevant against constant rocket attacks in the current game state.
Vehicles need improvement to splash damage, armor vs RPGs, and weapon capacity/cooldown in order to stay relevant and competitive within games, lest they just be suppressed and forced to stay back at spawn the whole game (or survive for 20-60 seconds with minimal kills/score). The biggest change I want to see is the splash damage being fixed for HEMP and HEAT ammo because that would allow tank players to fight back. Then consider how to improve rocket damage tables.