Interesting discussion. I see a few options that are, in my opinion, viable solutions to limiting the effectiveness of suicide tactics, however, they each have a dark side, and possibly more negative effects than those that struck me as readily apparent. Anyway, some ideas are:
More ack. Lots of it. (side effect is increased numbers of people hiding in the ack, which means less fighting, and lots more deaths to AI. Possibly fix that by making all of the additional positions mannable guns, and not AI ack)
Limited availability of ordnance. (Either through perking [not popular], or a layer of additional targets in the strat system [probably a lot more coding]. Negative side effect of even more porking, which would mean the damage system might possibly need tweaking, to limit the effectiveness of guns-only porking, which seems to be terribly unpopular with those that enjoy blowing **** up. Also, see below.)
Changes to the damage model, ie, limiting the effectiveness of, or ability to take strategic and tactical targets down with just guns. (obvious side effect of requiring a helluva lotta coding. probably the least popular idea with HTC and company.)
The idea of making targets harder has some merit, but also a lot of side effects, several of which have been mentioned all ready. A CV that requires a low yield tactical nook to sink it might be fun for a furball, but would make a legitimate defense of a field against an attacking CV unbearably difficult. Bad for the low numbers side)
So, moving on, what are the pros and cons of these ideas that you folks see? What are some other alternatives that seem possible, and would have more positive effects than negative? Discuss amongst yourselves.
