Tanks?

[ghost]

I'm actually surprised there are no tanks in this game. They'd spawn in military areas, and would have a rocket launcher turret (currently nonexistent) and a machine gun turret, and be completely hard plated. WAY OP, and very rare. Of course, we'd have to worry about treads, and those little viewing holes that would have to be added separately. Still, it's a nice idea. Comments?

[esavier]

definitely overpowered, first of all there will be problem with fuel, older tanks have about 45L engines, newer ones have high tech 56L turbines, those monsters have fuel consumption like 300L per 100Km (7L/100Km/1ton of weight) think about feeding them. Secondly, where will you find ammo for those? At most it will help you survive like metal bunker because i don't see the way anything could destroy thatm moreover 1 person can not operate a tank ( drive, shoot, and load ) effectively. So far i don't see the point in hardocoding a tank, and there are a lot of other things to do atm. Maybe something like tank wreck static object that will allow you to recover some things like scrap metal, electronics or some kind of stuff for crafting ammo or explosives

[ianestrachan]

The viewing holes are easy enough, just make every side of the tank opaque except a slot at the front. Boards (and maybe plating? I've never actually put any plating on) are opaque and block sight.

As mentioned, tanks require a 3-man crew. You might be able to drive it, but you wouldn't be able to shoot it. Then again, this is 20 Minutes Into The Future, there could be automated tanks. Or, for an easier solution, you have to let go of the controls and go shoot and load it yourself. It'd be such a convoluted process that it would be of little use to do anything but flatten fungal blooms.

Tanks also take longer to start up - you can't just hop in and drive off like with a car.

Plus, you enter a tank from the top, not the side.

Tank treads also don't exist yet. They'd have to be multi-square vehicle parts, and I don't think those are really supported.

Tanks as a static object -would- be quite interesting, though. Treat it as a special piece of terrain, totally indestructible as far as zombies are concerned, a good hiding spot, but difficult to get out ouf.

[KA101]

Last I knew, the M1 Abrams, etc have the driver in the front and the rest of the crew in the turret. Switching from Drive to Shoot isn't just letting go of the driving controls, but getting out of the tank, climbing up and into the turret, then grabbing the gun controls.

As a super/multi turret, yeah, they could be interesting. (Remember machine guns! tanks tend to have a few.)

[ghost]

Well, with the upcoming Z-levels, there might be floating tanks? IDK. Anyhow, what about something lighter, like an armored vehicle? Four-wheel drive, steel plating, automatic machine gun turret. It's like any car a mid-game player would have, just pre-build and placed in a military area.

[esavier]

not sure about abrams stuff, I am european and not saw those with my own eyes but i saw Zerrar(iraq?), sprut(RUS), CV and stritsvagen (swedish), challenger (GB) and PT (Pol), series of tanks and nowadays they have crew in rear not in front, The construction will expose block engine to protect crew from head hit. Also newer tanks tend to have hatches in rear for crew and transport.

about MG, its usually integrated with turret (so also immobile, controlled by shooter and connected with turret sight and require running engine to turn) unless have EEMP ( extended electronic mounting point, still it require electric energy or running engine to turn) or is independent like in old sherman tanks but you need to half get out from vehicle to operate it (like in marsoc HMMWV)

KA101:

1. loading tank cannon manually takes about 2-4min for skilled operator, bad reloaded round tend to destroy canon, and driving tracked vehicle also isn't easy. 2. MG yes, but recoverable imo

Dimensionmancer:

1. floating? you mean amphibious vehicles?
2. There are already mechanisms allowing you to mount MG or flamethrower on vehicle, build yourself a jeep with MG. Name it light infantry vehicles ( BTR/BMP/amtrac/LVT call it as you want) are almost same as tanks..
3. still whats the point, AI is as far as stupid as possible, you don't need anything special as far for smashing zombies. any car will do if you are worried about your car just plate your front bumper and its enough.

[ghost]

1. Have you seen those sci-fi tanks that just float through the air? I'm sure you've heard that they will be making z-levels in the future, and depending on how many feet up each z-level is, you could make a vehicle that moves on level 1 because of an anti-gravity unit, sniping zed from above. It's just speculation. 2 & 3. The point is so you won't go through the trouble of finding both a vehicle and a gun. It's the same concept as the solar powered cars littered throughout the streets - you don't need to harvest their solar panels, because you can find them in garages and stuff, but it's much more convenient.

I'm not making these suggestions to increase player livability. It's just that these additions would make life more convenient, like the newly implemented naturally-spawning RV's that were merged earlier.

[esavier]

Ok yes, i am voting that light vehicles with mounted weapons should be spawned randomly near military outpost or bunkers but not too much. I am weighted more like there should be more wreckages of different cars around as static objects.

yeah i know what you mean by hovering tanks, but think about energy needed by those things. Look-> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225 this is currently biggest available aircraft so far, and it will lift at most 4 abrams up. hovering vehicle is just too unrealistic as for me. Also game when you can acquire hovering tank and sniping things from above would be too easy and just doesn't have sense at all. Its a survival sandbox not Metal Gear Solid japan fantasy,

[ghost]

Awww, but far-out stuff is fun. :3 Anyways, yeah, free mounted weapons are very OP, and need to be rare. Should I start working on them?

[esavier]

you have a lot of good ideas so far, i can tell you that, Be prepared that others may not be happy about outcome and you will need to change it few times for balance but yeah, why not :) In worst case your stuff wont get pulled.

[ghost]

Well, I'm scrapping tanks. Bad idea. Here's armored cars: #2594