At the moment light tanks become obsolete in later games and researching any type of weapon before you have a better chasis is completely worthless.. One of the greatest lackings wiht lights is their limits in holding weapons. In fact, meds cant use anything other than the standard weapons. I was thinking a research in mechanical engineering, "weapon swapping". This research would allow lights (and possbile meds to) to remove one(two?) type of weapon slot, and add another type of weapon slot. For instance: A light could sacrifice his mg slot and add a extra ml slot allowing him to use bio/guided missiles. This would open up for some new strategies where you gear up your light tanks for early map controll, at the cost of losing time in researching. Pros: There would be an alternative to research meds or heavies to be able to use some better weapons. Lights would be more useful late game. Cons: The LT is unbalanced vs the AFV so this would be a straight up buff for NF Might result in meds rarely getting researched.
Hmm... I think maybe what you could do is make it so that when meds are researched, lights get an extra missile and cannon slot, and when heavies are researched, meds get an extra missile and cannon slot. So when you have meds, you get lights being able to mount bigger guns but meds still have more armor and weight capacity, and when heavies are researched, meds have the ability to mount heavy killing weaponry but heavies still have the advantage of armor and weight capacity. That would help scale tanks a bit better.
wait ... that means i can sacrify 1 mg slot and 1 cannonslot for 2 mlslots? NukeLights ... fine i like that idea =)
Light Tanks can be remarkably capable against even Heavy Tanks, more so than Mediums. The only problem is they can't kill the Heavy very easily, though in groups they can swarm it and chase it down when it tries to run away. Any map with restrained spaces also spells doom for Light Tanks.
I was thinking that you would only be able to swap one slot, nuke or rail lights would defiently make meds obsolete.
Dont worry, a light driver would have to put negative plates of armor and no engine on his LT to make it able to mount a nuke. Those things are HEAVY.
Well even mods have some kind of production time table. Like aircraft are coming next along with a massively expanded battlefield. Then ships? It seems it will take another four years at the very least before the mod can be anything called Completely Finished, and it might die before then... Its something I'm wondering about. Like many other mods, will there be some kind of complete graphical overhaul (besides the one already confirmed for infantry), or will there be any entire re-working of existing systems, like infantry? Or is it those kind of things that you do as required as you go along? Anyways, on the topic. Personally I think there should be like three different Light Chassis and they can all be used for various purposes, but each have different weapon slots and different numbers of seats.
Honestly, you know what Empires really needs, more than any of that? Better maps. I know our mappers have worked hard, and it's not their fault (many of the maps were initially planned and made when the game hadn't been around for long, after all, so there was limited experience. Plus, unlike a commercial game, we lack sophisticated playtesting and design by paid professionals for a core set of maps that other people can base theirs off of.) But with that said... most of Empires' maps have issues. Seriously, can you think of one 'perfect' Empires map, one that exemplifies everything good about the game? The closest to a perfect map, in my mind, is probably Cyclopean, but that's just one map. Canyon and Duststorm are all right, too, if a bit dull visually. Escort is all right, but it's an infantry map. I'd say all the other maps -- while they can certainly be fun -- have serious problems of one sort or another, either in balance, in obvious win-button strategies that get used every time, or horrible chokepoints that keep recurring in most games on them. Empires needs more people working on mapping, and more servers running those maps. That's what I'm saying.
Yes! But it is called 'emp_bigflat', a big flat open area. With no textures. Right now I am waiting for the larger maps so I can make it even bigger (and even flatter). I think it will be the best map ever. ...maybe I should work on emp_rocketsnipe instead. The two CVs are on tiny floating islands with short walls so they can't drive off. Each team's rax is on a nearby, slightly larger floating island, just large enough for people to step out of the raxes and walk around them (but not go anywhere, not even to the CV.) There is no cover. Outside each rax is an ammo crate. The objective is to rocketsnipe the enemy CV to death before they rocketsnipe your CV to death (alternatively, you can rocketsnipe their rax.) It will be awesome. My only worry is that it will be so good that it will be impossible to find a server running any other map.
lol nice. I have an alternative to that map. it's called "BigFlat with ridges protecting the starting base. After that one is done, I'm gonna move on to "Big flat with a lake near the middle." And then "big flat in the mountains." ^_^
Isn't it kinda the point that you use bigger and better tanks in late game? Otherwise all upgrades should just be for the LT.
Yes, but meds woulds still have greater weight capacity, max armor limits and weapon slots than lights, and this would allow to use some better weapons without going for a bigger chasis.
