Alternate idea for APC-specific weapon.

Just something that came to me while eating food. Why not make a new weapon that fits in the Grenade Launcher slot on the APC?

Specifically I'm thinking a modified version of the Mortar Grenadiers get, that way there is a form of early-game vehicle based artillery, it would encourage the APC operator to stay back to remain effective. Among other reasons for this idea I believe that its implementation would require only minor tweaking of the APC mortar itself to balance, it has only a short range, and if damage against buildings is reduced on the APC version, it would only be effective against what the APC is already intended to counter (infantry). An additional thing to balance it out should be to make the weight of the APC mortar too high to mount in addition to any other weapons other than the standard MG.

But overall this isn't as deliberately thought out as most suggestions (yeah, right), and I would really like to hear people's opinions and maybe their own ideas concerning APC armament.

 

A pretty cool idea; I would love to see it do reduced damage but bigger splash when compared to the mortar...

 

Would be a nice pinning weapon while the rest of your team get organised (would be best with the large splash idea) :D

 

How would this encourage the APC to stay back to remain effective?
Currently you have a grenade, which does fuck all in a lot of cases, it doesn't exactly encourage the apc to go knee deep into the enemy base, atleast the grenade doesn't. It's the other feature, the one where you can spawn and stuff that makes them go knee deep in there, which would still remain if you could equip whatever you suggested. It sounds like a weapon that is more powerful than the grenade, if artillery was the correct word to describe it. Nothing in your suggestion screams backup, instead it screams lol more damage, rush in there and fuck em over.

 

BE can already do this. Just get a grenadier in the second seat and he can shoot out mortars till the cows come home.:D

 

O lawd Dubee with armor.

 

So, you want a cannon on your APC? Banordis already have an APC with a cannon, the AFV. See, they had to take out much of the seats and remove the respawn thingy to have a cannon and rocket launcher. Good trade, kinda, though they coulda just made a new vehicle that doesnt get eaten by LTs and mistaken for the more useful APC sometimes.

 

I'm saying let the APC be able to act as light support artillery, a mortar round moves much slower than cannon shot and has a minimum range. If there are tanks that get killed by mortars, they tend to be bad tank drivers.

 

That part was pretty clear.
What I wonder is though, whats the purpose of having support artillery early game? What hole would this fill. You haven't really explained why this would be needed,

You also didn't mention how this would not be used in conjunction with apc rushing. Lets say, we take the small artillery, it's damage and explosion force, but with half the range, how would you suggest on stopping arty's from rushing straight into the base with spawning grens and riflemens with sticky, then use the light arty as a support from melee range to rape completely everything 1 minute ingame. How would you stop people from using it like that? You know, throwing it straight into the rax and things. Also there is no way to distinguish damage done to infantry and damage done to buildings, so how is this more geared towards inf?

It just sounds OP as hell, I also can't see any reason why you would really need light artillery early game, there is enough at that stage of the game to fulfill that role, as you pretty much said yourself, the grenadiers mortar. I'd say the way APC is currently being used should be counted heavily towards the verdict of this being a improvement to the game or not.

 

I was thinking about autocannons again and I wondered if the APC might not get a gun which is sort of a super high-calibre HEMG without the explosive effect.

It would be balanced to have an accuracy level high enough to hit vehicles, but infantry would be hard to hit at range, although the extreme power of the cannon against infantry (assuming you could hit them) would encourage any infantry being shot at to keep their heads down, as one shot could easily kill them.

The fire rate would make it no more lethal than the regular 50 cal HMG, but the power would mean you could use it to suppress infantry, as at the moment the only reason an infantry unit wouldn't peek out of cover would be if he was low on health and could be killed by a stray shot.

The cannon would make that so regardless of the health of the infantry, and it would also give the APC a general purpose weapon to combat both tanks and infantry in the late game, which it currently lacks. You could put it in the area of the railgun to ensure it's researched.

I don't think it would be overpowered because to guarantee a hit you'd have to be very close, which means you'd have difficulty depressing the gun enough to hit, and at that range you are also very open to attack, so I see it as being used as an infantry suppresion weapon as well as a light anti vehicle weapon.

 

I wonder if aircraft are in, the APC could be fitted with a sloppily autotargetting AA turret you'd only have to press a button to gun down on the go. Naturally, when I say sloppily I mean the gun to have a wide spread, so downing aircraft doesn't become the easiest thing ever.

 

When aircraft are implemented, we will probably see more slots on vehicles so they have a fighting chance.

 

I just hope they don't have an -even- chance, because admittably I would completely despise it if vehicles against aircraft had a 1/1 ratio. Should be more like... taking 3 or 4 vehicles to take down a craft completely.

 

But if veichles have AA wepaons, the don't have any AT weapons, so they are screwed any way :p

 

Well, if I recall correctly the Heavy Tank will have an AA missile tube set.

 

The APC is not an artillery unit.

 

really all u need is DU-HMG and lights get p'wnd

 

But you would think that the weight restriction will only allow for an AA loadout or an AT loadout... Otherwise you would get theese mega pwning machines of doom...

 

just improve the upg. GL to fire much further and people will actually research it to aid their apc effectiveness. dmg is good, just increase range.

 

IMO APC are currently the best vehicle to take out buildings with. The Tripple Grenade load-out AKA Engi Bus takes out buildings in no time, has low cost and can poop out infantry.

I think a mortar would be a great idea. I agree about the game play advantages. If it was like the grenades with double/tripple the range, but took up two slots or was very heavy, that would keep it meagerly affective. Some how sneak it into the Bio or Mechanic tree.

OR just do this...