I have a problem with the plasma cannon. Plasma should be the total anti-infantry weapon. Its like throwing small suns at the enemy. You can imagine what it would do to a human if plasma would work more realistic. I mean realistic in terms of water melts at 1 degree celsius and fire is hot. Or just rename it so its not so confusing. I think thats why so many new players put plasma on their tank on Escort. If i had no clue about that mod and I want a anti infantry weapon on my tank i would buy plasma. I post this in the gameplay forum and not in the suggestion forum because i want to debate about that.
I had a suggestion a while back to add a "Burn" damage to plasma cannons; so in a way they are the "Poor Man's bio" The only diffrence being that bio lasts WAY longer compared to bio, and deals alot more damage overtime... I wouldnt mid if a burn effect was added to plasma; so that if you get a cluster of infantry with it; they will all either set on fire or just get hurt with a burning sound for a little bit; certanly not enough to get killed with 1 direct hit; but enough to make them run back to the health crate...
I wish it would do more damage or heat to vehicles. It's not much more powerful than standard cannon but overheats you before it does the enemy =/
In all the games of Empires ive played ive only encounterd plasma agenst me once and that was on EMP_Slautered. Plasma is underpowerd big time it needs more of a function in the game like sujested it could be a Win agnst infantey. Plasma cannon + Inf = 1 shot kill...lol did I say kill i mean obliteration.:p It could seriously dampen down APC rush + Inf rush at bigging of game. Could do with a 1 slot version though.
If the person you are fighting against is using 3 phase, adv. coolant, gas turbine or standard, then yes it is quite useful. It will overheat them, and they will stall.
but you overheat at the same time, so you stall. what's the point in driving around them in circles with biodesiel while they're stalled? the difference is when that happens is that they have a damaging weapon to fire every time they get a bit of heat back and you have... plasma
But you can go to 2nd slot and shoot your well aimed rpg! Or crappy grenade. You will only need like 10-20 grenades, so keep shooting plasma!
Just rename the cannon to EMP cannon. It assaults the motor with electromagentricicity and makes it heat up and stall. No need to change anything else, it already has an EMPy explosion.
Exactly! Tanks HATE blue, so shooting blue at it makes it so angry it stops everything and turns red.
Electromagnetic forces don't heat stuff up, if anything, it would cause 3 phase engines to stop working or even reverse (or break), but it could disconnect one phase and cause heat buildup in the engine due to increased power requirements. But then again, a weapon that only works against one engine, even a popular engine, is quite useless.
Gas turbines need spark plugs to work (I'm guessing that means Gasoline, with you Americans and your funny spellings), I would imagine the plain would as well. I don't see why Coolant wouldn't not have them as well.
That would require that you find someone who is actually using fission. Anyhow, I can see how plasma is very difficult to balance. The fact is, if it overheated your opponent without overheating you too much, you could just use it to keep someone totally helpless and beat them easily. Making it effective as an anti-infantry weapon might be a good start. Also, why not make it work on turrets? Make it so any turret hit with it 'overheats', too, getting stunned like by a scout's concussion grenade.
What we really need to do with plasma is up the damage somewhat, and slightly lower the heat for the user. In my opinion, it should do a little bit more damage than HE, but the lack of splash damage and the heat cost for both tanks would help to balance that out. After all, a cannon is meant to destroy stuff, right? I'm all with the burning thing for a second or two after an infantry is hit with it. That gives me an idea. Why not do the same thing for tanks you hit? It'll be essentially a bio cannon, except it lasts for a smaller period of time, but also heats up the enemy tank.
Could it add a certain percentage of heat to the enemy tank? Like each time you hit them it fills (for example) 50% of their empty heat bar. The first couple shots would add significant heat, but actually stalling them would require them to continue shooting, or you to have someone else shooting at them with some other weapon. It would make it a powerful support weapon, especially in big tank fights but couldn't be used to just keep someone stalled. One on one it just wouldn't output enough damage or heat to be a good primary choice. As it is plasma is just a standard cannon that you have to research. The only times I have ever actually seen it used were on escort, which is a completely separate issue...
