2
Any numbers or stats mentioned are purely speculative and would not likely resemble final balance of any system developed but instead intend to convey the core of my ideas.
As we now have working turrets in game i would go out on a limb and say
Battle tanks are just turrets that can move.
I am sure its a lot more complicated than that however the base work is there to build upon and the turrets track, lock and fire on enemy mechs.
Thus i propose some upgrades to Conquest in the same vein that Assault got turrets.
But instead of Turrets we use TANKS!
Having tanks roll around the battle zone would make Conquest feel a lot more like a struggle for control over terrain instead of skirmish with optional objectives.
Fielding Tanks
The starting node in conquest would act as the primary base.
Every 3mins a new wave of tanks would spawn from the primary base.
(a dropship or hanger nearby would act as the spawner)
Each wave would consist of
1 tank per player.
2 tanks per owned node.
2 tanks per player dead on spawning team.
At spawn tanks would advance towards the highest priority target within detection range.
If the primary base is lost, tanks will not spawn, the spawn timer will count to zero and pause.
When the primary node is re-captured the timer will resume and tanks spawn again.
A player cannot spawn a Tank that is in a bigger weight class than their own mech.
Tank Life
contrary to BT Lore, tanks should be fairly soft, not quite as fragile as MW4 ground units but close.
making tanks easy to kill but dangerous if ignored would create a more powerful “mechs are powerful” experience for players
Light.........HP15 (death from 3x Medium laser hits)
Medium....HP25 (death from 5x Medium laser hits)
Heavy.......HP35 (death from 7x Medium laser hits)
Assault.....HP45 (death from 9x Medium laser hits)
Keep in mind these units will often be encountered in groups and while it will not take much to bring them down, they will carry the same grade weapons that mechs carry making the damage add up to very significant values over short periods of time.
Tank Behavior
Tanks would operate fairly independently for the most part with players able to herd them in certain situations
Tanks will detect objects within a set radius of their current position and are always lured towards the highest value object in detection range.
Hostile node......900m.....(Priority 1)
Enemy units......800m.....(Priority 2)
Neutral node.....650m.....(Priority 3)
Allied units........840m.....(Priority 4)
Allied node.......1200m....(Priority 5)
Enemy nodes would be prioritized over allies so a tank or tank group would follow allies until they found a node.
This would allow player to lead groups of tanks to unusual parts of the map for special tactics.
A Hostile node would be prioritized over a neutral or friendly node.
when a tank is within in range of multiple objects of equal priority it will choose one at random to follow
If a tank gets separated from the mech it was following it would travel towards the primary node, searching for new allies or enemy nodes along the way.
Separation includes death of the mech, loss of sensors(ecm), powering down and similar situations.
Combat
killing tanks would provide XP/CB just like turrets.
Tanks can neutralize and capture nodes.
Tanks target the closest enemy unit.
If the tank is equipped with LRM then they would prioritize targets that are narc'd or tagged first followed by closest enemy (in case of multi tagged units)
Tanks would receive targeting data from all allied units but not provide it unless they are have advanced sensors.
There are many tank units within the BT universe.
So the default tank unit should be something simple like the Scorpion.
This allows for a whole new set of modules and consumables that can revolve around tank upgrades.
Tank modules
Blitz
Upgrade tank spawn to 2 instead of 1 per wave when counting this player. Dead player counter is also increased by 1
Invaders
Tanks spawned by player will prioritize allied players over nodes, specifically the owner, allied player detection range increased to 1300m.
Guardians
Tanks spawned by player will patrol between all owned nodes and not follow players at all. If a node is being captured by enemy forces guardian tanks will set the under attack node as their next waypoint(after the one they are currently on route to).
Skirmishers
Tanks spawned by player will roam towards an enemy node, after firing 2 or 3 times it will retreat to the nearest friendly node and wait for 20-30 seconds before roaming again.
Skirmishers will follow players for the duration of their wait period unless they are within 500m of the retreat from node.
Scout
Tanks spawned by player will be from the scout variants of allowed weight class.
Scout units relay enemy target data just like players. example(light), example(heavy)
Scout units will attempt to avoid combat by not advancing closer than 700m towards enemy units.
Medium tank
Tanks spawned by player are selected from the medium weight class.
Changes weapon load out and armor stats. example
Heavy tank
Tanks spawned by player are selected from the heavy weight class.
Changes weapon load out and armor stats. example
Assault tank
Tanks spawned by player are selected from the Assault weight class.
Changes weapon load out and armor stats. example
Wheels
Tanks spawned by player are selected from the wheel variants of allowed weight class.
Changes movement type, weapon load out and armor stats. example
Hover
Tanks spawned by player are selected from the hover variants of allowed weight class.
Changes movement type, weapon load out and armor stats. example
LRM carriers
Changes weapon load out and armor stats. Does NOT change weight class or movement type.example
can be combined with movement type mods
PPC carriers
Changes weapon load out and armor stats. Does NOT change weight class or movement type. example
can be combined with movement type mods
Deep Strike
spawns 2 tanks with the player on any game mode, these tanks will exclusively follow their owner.
*EDIT*
i had originally designed this with purely conquest in mind
however it would work very well on all game modes
even skirmish would benefit as players who take modules for tank units would be given a once off spawn of units that follow them
this way should you be decked out with support modules for your tanks you would not be completely screwed when something other than conq rolled around or you take that mech into Community Warfare
Edited by Naduk, 30 November 2014 - 04:27 PM.
