Okay, i've commed a few times before and thought I knew how to go. I was wrong. heres some real information that I learned from the wiki and tested on a server: NF: Reactive armor and 3 phase is the way to go. Reactive is IN FACT strong against High Velocity Projectiles, but weak against missiles and DUMG. It is not AS weak against missiles as absorbant. It is actually just a tad bit worse than composite. As far as missiles go. Salvo missiles do 35 damage, but have low heat. With 3phase, heat is not as much a problem, so go for UPGRADED GUIDED MISSILES. They reload at a decent speed and are less heat than homing missiles. Salvo missiles fire 4 regular missiles in one go, without and bonuses. Just a lot of heat. Upgraded ML's will take down around 1.7 layers of armor in 1 hit, and can kill a 6 layers heavy tank in 7-8 missiles well placed. If your team has trouble shooting at enemy tanks, get them upgraded homing missiles. Both do the SAME damage. 80. which is 5 more damage than HE shells (nothing big) and 30 more damage than rails do per shot (dual Guided will do 160 as opposed to a dual rail tanks 100, only difference is that rails fire a little faster, but guided is easier to hit at a distance.) Overall, to beat a heavy tank rush with rails, you should rush Guided or homing with your own heavy tanks, and take three phase rather than adv. coolant, at least until later. Upgraded ML mediums should be able to compete with enemy heavy tanks when you attack in groups. HE shells shouldn't be a first priority, nor should you waste time getting both guided and homing. Mines: Mines will do more damage when layed separately or in groups of 2. Mines have tremendous force, so using just enough to flip the tank is the key here. 2 mines in a stack can flip a heavy, use 3 if you must. Never stack more than 4 mines in a stack because after 3, the force is so great, you get blown away from the mines before they all do damage to you. I have tested and confirmed this. With 8 mines, I lost 3.5 layers of front armor and 1.5 layers on my back armor from getting hit while I was flipping. 8 separate mines took down all of my tanks armor, on the other hand. Grenadiers: Always use your mowtar whenever possible. Unless you have a lvl 3 RPG, mowtar is the best. 1 mowtar can take down 1.5-2 layers or most types of armor in a single shot with direct hits. As far as BE is concerned: Physics is the way to go. Reflective armor is strong against missiles, and can cut down the hits from missiles boats to 17 damage per hit if it is salvo launchers or 40 damage per hit if it is Upgraded ML's. Just make sure your drivers drive at angles as much as possible. This armor has particular strength against missiles because they almost always hit at an angle and because it says so in the wiki. Grab extended ranged cannon. and why not? second most powerful cannon, and a damn good cannon for medium tanks. They shoot straight and fast, making them great for sniping across the map. they shoot at about half the speed of rails, so when you get heavies you might want to go for electrical, but definitely a good gun overall. Clip size of 40 is also a blessing. Fission engine is an okay grab while you are in the research tree as well, but don't grab nukes please. These are just my suggestions on research, and I try to give as much reason for it all as I can. I ask that any com please give some input for other people wanting to try it out. My last bit of advice is this: if you don't want your team to have it, dont' research it. If you grab homing and guided, but your team is horrible with homing or grabs homing salvos, you shouldn't have grabbed homing salvos. Don't build artillery tanks until you have destroyed the enemies res supply, and all of their existing tanks. Once you have crippled the enemy, but are down to dealing with walls and turrets, then artillery is good. before then, and you lose your edge to a bunch of weak tanks that can turn their turret. Many teams have lost horribly because they researched artillery, spammed it, and lost their edge. Nukes are great, but you can accomplish more with a plasma MG and some upgraded guided missiles. Now, there are many other strategies to use, and I encourage anyone to try them out, or share their own successful strategies. But if those rush strats fail, this type of research often follows, and many people spend time researching unnecessary things that cost much needed time. Comp is great armor, but not for 3 minutes when the other team can have great armor in less than half that time. the above listed ideas are very streamlined in the tree and great for most teams.
Also, get DUMGs. One game, it was a bunch of heavy DUMGS on APCs versus toms of medium tanks from a VF jsut a little ways across the map, and the APCs won.
DUMGs are good but only if the APC drivers know what they are doing (eg. turn your good side towards enemy tanks)
DUMGs are good until the enemy builds lvl3 turrets I hate guided missiles. Maybe they do a good amount of damage, but they're honestly a pain to use. Homing's also a pain, but only because it takes so long to lock on.
Do not completely underestimate the value of nukes. I played a game once where we went with Reflective armor, Bio Diesal and Nukes and we absolutely destroyed them. We would run in, spray them with nukes, then floor it out after we overheated (because of the bio). The game had been a slow game for about 45 minutes, we were losing, and we turned it around and won within 45 minutes.
I dont like how when you research reactive armor you can't have a chain gun and cn without sacrificing LT side armor to 1 plate
I've noticed people complain about speed, saying it's not a neccesary concern, but it is, because as NF it allows you to close fast and get your rockets off at point blank, maximising damage, while as BE it allows you to keep away from the NF trying to do that.
The wiki is out of date, but I used the description there and in the vehicle factory as a base to test each description listed. Reactive and absorbant do take nearly (only noticeable when taking damage to the 2nd or 3rd plate) the same amount of damage from rails. Damage and heat rate/other stuff is all same in game as it is in wiki. Absorbant is horrible against mines. 1 mine takes down 2 layers of armor. A full 8 mines in one spot is almost useless, because it blasts the tank away before the damage takes effect. This is tested and confirmed, as the rear of the tank took damage as well as the front. Overall, there was a 3 front plate difference between all 8 mines at once and 8 individual mines. As chris said, speed is really nice. I like guided because you can pop off enemy tanks from a great distance with it, or at least keep heavies at bay if they are trying to rush on, say, money. A group of 4-5 skilled guided missile shooters can really pack a punch. I would like to stress that UPGRADED ML's are the way to go. Salvos are just shooting 4 regular missiles at once. Upgraded missiles are generally around 2 times as powerful, and easier to hit targets with. As far as nukes go: They are very very powerful when used correctly. That used correctly part is important. APC with grens and plasma MG and a couple nuke tanks can really decimate anything with overheat, and the only way to counter is bio diesel. Obviously, DUMG is powerful and if used correctly can destroy just about any team. But I've also seen people rush dual artillery small shells, ram into enemies and unload into the bottom of them. Arty tanks small shells do 100 damage a piece. So it's like ramming a nuke up someones rear. Again, variable strategies work, but These main strats are mostly for new coms who aren't sure what research actually does for the team, or how to organize their research into the proper order. I prefer engines first to armor personally, but if armor isn't in a sub level, and engines are, I'll grab the armor. (reactive I'll get before 3 phase, but fission or adv. coolant would be my first choice in chem and physics.) I also wanted to stress that HE cannons are time consuming if you don't want to get absorbant armor first (you don't). Abs armor is very weak against most early phase weapons, aka, slow moving objects. mines are particularly hard on them. On the other hand, a reactive armor rush will be obliterated by reflective and then heavy caliber machine gun. So, in here are measures you should take, and measures that beat those measures, showing that you shouldn't do the same thing every game. Take a quick view of your team and what they are doing. Do they rush right for refineries? do they wonder aimlessly? do they demand this and that? Each team type will have it's own particular style, which require different modes of research to suit their personalities. A strong commander can influence their behavior, and those few great coms can control it completely, getting whatever they want done done.
Okay, i compared the current 2.12 release files (Vehicle txt files in the scripts folder) and confirmed that the wiki is updated with latest armor and weapons stats.
I agree getting absorbant first is bad since it's only good against cannons. I think it's a misconception that abs is only good against rails. It good against high velocity projectiles, which applies to all cannon since the cannon shell speed goes from 3000 for std to 3600 for rail. Meaning damage from most cannon are cut in half.
Remember that you don't have to wait for the missiles to lock; you can just dumbfire them in a pinch or when the enemy is easy to hit. I think forgetting that that's one of the biggest problems people have when using them. And why don't we update the wiki with all this, if it's so out of date?
in a tank on tank fight, UML's are stronger than homing. that's appauling really. given that homing is s*** against buildings and UML's are great, homing should do a lot more damage per hit against the enemy tank. homing should be a killer anti tank weapon.
Also, it's worth pointing out that homing missiles are probably going to be repurposed into a weapon for anti-air tanks when aircraft are in. I'm just guessing here, but it seems logical, doesn't it? The whole idea of homing in on a tank from another tank is kinda silly, while using it to / from aircraft makes a lot more sense (although it will probably need a faster lock depending on how fast aircraft move.)
it would be nice if a tank spotted by a scout or showing up on the radar has reduced Lock on speed. In fact, i will post that into the Suggestions forum. ^_^
