TBH I have no idea what this is for. AFV is getting a remodel to be significantly smaller so it is on par with an LT, so there is no unbalance in the first place. If you are suggesting it more for this PoS version, then all infantry weapons except en-mass mines, are useless against tanks. Even then, say we get just 3 people in each AFV, and, miraculously, this is somehow on par with an LT. say there are 15 people on each team, biggish map, nice resource flow. BE could field 4 useful tanks, whereas NF can field whatever their res allows for, if each team has around 2k when they begin to get vehicles, perfectly reasonable, that means around 6 tanks. OFC there are even more discrepancies with this, because 2 tanks is more than twice as good as 1. So NF is still on a massive benefit. That is making the mother of all fuck ups (being assumption) and saying that yes, people will actually use this feature, simply because it gives them an advantage.
early game, grenadier rockets do good amount of damage against tanks. Not to mention if you had a rifleman with stickies riding along, LTs that do the normal ram on the side and blast with everything would get stickied. late game, yes they become less effective, but by then (with a decent comm) they should have other vehicles. the point of this feature isn't just to make the two sides mirror of each other. It is quite evident in how the BE APC has that awesome 2nd hatch great for nade-spamming and whatnot, while the NF lt is currectly vastly superior in a 1 vs 1 tank battle to an equivalent AFV. Given the bulk and the extra seating of the AFV, it is apparent it wasn't meant to go solo, but rather with a team of soldiers by it's side. Rather it was to take a squad of four to the front-lines where the infantry can start taking down buildings and building defense while the AFV distract the LTs or fire behind a wall. Obviously this rarely (or never) happens ingame because: 1) people don't bring infantry to the front lines even if some wants transport 2) LT usually just end up ramming the AFV, running down the infantry along the way so why not give people an incentive to use the extra seating? A vehicle where drivers can feel relatively safe with three infantry protecting it. A vehicle where passengers can not only hitch a ride, but one where drivers would be incline to wait for them to get in. A vehicle that the NF would see as a high value target because of the points they can get from taking a fully loaded one down. But also the same vehicle that NF cannot simply ram against for an instant win, but instead must fight with caution. That in my mind is how an AFV should be. Not as a metal coffin we know it as today, but as a symbol of teamwork
Um... Still would be unbalanced. You're saying you NEED 3 people if not 4 to match a LT. You know, both teams have these amazing things that can hold 8 (YES, THAT MANY!!) people!! A co-ordinated team will get all those people in that tank and rumble into the enemy base and cause utter havok! This tank... its name is APC. Not AFV. And what about say the majority of matches where you have the majority of people not comunicating or working together?! You havn't balanced the AFV and the LT, you've just given the AFV a little bit more hope in very specific situations.
ah, yes the APC. remember back in the day when people actually use them driving around yelling in the mic to spawn in their APC? no sarcasm, that was teamwork. Of course, when spawn points are researchable, we don't see them much anymore. Even if we do, without spawn points we hardly see them with more than one person anyways. my point i'm driving across is that with different incentives, you can change people's behavior. Right now the idea is ridicules to expect four people load into an AFV, just like it is ridicules to except a full APC without spawn points. But what happens when spawn points are researched? What do you know, suddenly that APC in the frontline now has more infantry spawning to it. In a way, this idea promotes teamwork through a different incentive. Why just be an infantry walking from base to the frontlines only to be killed along the way? Why not hitch a ride? Well in the current empires what driver would wait for passengers in a normal game? What rider would ride along if they can't shoot when under fire (they rather get their own tank)? But what if the driver knows that every seat in the AFV can fire? Well he would be willing to wait those few extra seconds to bring a friend or more. A rider would want to find an AFV near, because it's going to the same frontlines. Perhaps you are worried that people would not even change and the AFV would still be driven around by a single driver with no support. Perhaps when the feature is first released yes that would happen. But given a res crunch on BE, suddenly people would start using it, and find that they can be more effective this way. Then it can get picked up in a later game as a viable strategy. And so the idea spreads. Who knows, maybe you too will come to like this idea when you're on BE. Rather than everyone running off in more or less their own direction, some1 gets an AFV with three passengers to the front line. Everyone is grouped together, they can work together. If this feature can make that happen, then the AFV is no longer the fail vehicle.
Maybe I'll like the idea of a smaller and ballanced AFV. You seem to refuse to answer the point about the quantity of people required. You also seem very hopeful that people will wait for any amount of time when tbh they just want to go shoot some shit. A team that is co-ordinated enough to get more than 2 full AFVs will be co-ordinated to do an APC rush with AFV support. To the teams that can't, well they'll fail just as much and the imbalance will be just as prevelant. remember that empires should be balanced in a game full of complete newbies and a game of a high level scrim.
Only issue I see is that people would rush the CV in the butt, dropping mines from the other seats. Not really an issue.
Yeah this would be nice, but i feel just giving the AFV ammo restock ability would get the effect, if people on the BE team are stupid and don't realise that they use the AFV effectivly if they cooperate they deserv to lose. Yan can already in game do this effetivly, small force wiht an AFV is deadly just that people are to stupid to utilise it.
