Change it, Make it so that if you have this skill your vehicle weapons will do 15% damage to the enemies hull. And rename it to "AP Projectiles"
I think this skill is still pretty useless usually it takes 2-3 shots to finish a shield less vehicle. 15% of hull is going to take about 14 shots to kill... They'll die of direct damage before AP even goes red
OH, GEE, I WONDER WHERE YOU GOT THE IDEA FOR THIS POST! YOU BE BITING MY STYLES ALL UP IN THIS FORUM! Seriously though. Jesus christ is it useless. For those who are too lazy to lurk, here is my (and Satanchild's) evidence: 2007 poll about the skill 2008 poll 2009 poll NO ONE USES THE SKILL. BECAUSE IT SUCKS.
People might use it if it was moved to the gren or engie. Its in a class that is just not suited for vehicle driving.
every class is actually quite dynamic, they can all do anything in the right situation (excluding scout, which isn't real). except the roflman has no advantage in tanks, which seems odd. also, hull takes bloody ages to heal. in like, 7 std cannons it would reach half, as well as a lot of armour off. So the engi now has to repair for 20 seconds without armour. Well, it would be more helpful than now at least. Also nukes would be funny with this (taking a 1/4 off everyones hull in one hit = winrar).
There's more skills that need looking at, some more desperately than others. This skill in particular isn't really thought out very well. At 15% extra damage it gives a little less than 1 free hit per 7 hits, that's negligible, 1 free hit per 4 shots would be useful for a light tank in the beginning, especially when taking down a rax on standard engine. So it would help, but honestly, at the moment mines make any choice of class for a driver for an attacking vehicle rather moot, it's either grenadier or you go boom around the first corner in enemy territory. For another class to be useful in that role either mines need to do reduced damage to vehicles so you can take a few hits, or defuse needs to become a general skill and I think either would hurt a teams ability to stop vehicles too much. It's really more a matter of the soldier not being a vehicle class and that's O-K, classes can't overlap too much or the point of different classes becomes muddied. +25% damage would give it a niche to work with, like how the scout's radar stealth and speed boost make it the class of choice for APC rushing and the repair ability makes the engineer a shoe-in for longer range APC support and driving around capping refs. Otherwise, stick to grenadier. Here's some other skills that needs help: general: regenerate - +1 hp every 2 seconds, compared to the other skills in "general" this comes in dead last and then some in EVERY situation. engineer: healing upgrade - only useful on maps where turrets are locked or on escort as BE (NF can use it but it's not as good as speed for running to your buddies) engineer: vehicle cooling - is awesome in a tank or arty with advanced coolant, but if you drive those as engie you are essentially griefing your team. Engines that are slow to cool don't get much better if you add 10% cooling so it's no good for standard light tank rushing.
I like this armor piercing idea. it always made me sad that I couldn't run circles around enemy tanks to kill them, even though it took a good deal of driving skill to pull off. it never worked because I would always have the same side showing to them, and I would always be firing at a different side. now with armor piercing, I can finally out maneuver my enemies and have it work to my advantage.
Armor piercing is also good because it stops someone from running away and repairing the armor quickly before running back. Lots of little things make for a useful skill.
Naturally, a rifleman driving a tank wants to pulverize his foe so that they exit the vehicle and vengeance can be laid upon thee.
