Ditching & Tanks

[bloom25]

I think that you should not be able to ditch a tank.  Bail yes, but ditch, NO!  I lost at least 5 kills tonight after landing 2 -3 hits because the other tank ditched.  I don't blame that person, they are just using what the game provides.  (Pretty dumb though if you ask me.)  The general reasoning I heard was, "You killed my turret and treads, so I ditched to get a new tank."  That maybe so, but they also stole a hard earned kill away from me.  (Not to mention 20 rds of AP ammo.)  Is it possible to add the option to bail from a tank, but take away the ditch option?  After all, how do you ditch a tank in the first place?  

To me it is very frustrating to drive for 15 minutes, target the enemy tank, finally land hits, disable him and lock on target, only to have him ditch right when the killing shell is in the air.  I think other people agree with me as well.

Just my $.02 on the subject anyway.

 

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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[Greg 'wmutt' Cook]

I think we have to be able to exit the tank when we need to.  Say you hit a building or a plane knocks out a tread and then flies off into the sunset leaving you there to starve to death.  On the other hand we need a way to award a kill to a person that makes someone ditch for damage reasons.  I guess if you had to "bail" out of your tank before returning to the tower it could award the kill like the planes do....
But then how would you exit after a sucessfull mission.... Ugh! Dingoboy confused...    I don't know.  All I can promise is that I'll stick it out till I'm dead, I win, or you go away, after all I do go out there looking for a fight  


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Greg 'wmutt' Cook
332nd Flying Mongrels

[bloom25]

I see your point, but ditching during battle is dweeby at best.  You can successfully land (LOL land a tank) by clicking tower when stopped on a runway or inside a vehicle hangar.  Bailing would work fine, if you could bail from a tank.  Just like ditching you would ditch if no one had damaged you, and anyone who hit you would get proper credit for a kill if they did hit you.



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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[leonid]

I agree with bloom.  Ditching should not be an option for ground vehicles, only bailing.  In fact, since players can now bail out of ditched/landed aircraft, I might even suggest that ditching, as a specific command, be done away with.  This does create some problems with the game scoring, however, and I'm not too sure what final result a player bailing from a ditched aircraft would create.  Nonetheless, for ground vehicles there really is no reason for ditching.  A 'bail', followed by <.ef> should be the rule.

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leonid, Komandir
5 GIAP VVS RKKA

"Our cause is just.  The enemy will be crushed.  Victory will be ours."

[Ghosth]

Well I see this as a result of no penalty for ditching period.  Doesn't matter if it's land or air, if you damaged another player seriously enough that he has to ditch thats one vehicle out of commision (likely for good) and one pilot (or tank driver) out of  commision for a while.

You should get 75% of a kill at least.



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Maj Ghosth
XO 332nd Flying Mongrels

[Dinger]

Well, having both stated my opinion on this UBB before, and being the object of Bloom's ire in the arena, I'll weigh in again:

First: exiting a tank with no treads and no turret isn't dweeby.  It's along the same lines as ditching a plane with no engine and no ammo.  I'm not going to sit in a tin coffin and wait for more shells to come in just so someone can get their kills.

Second: .ef/tower button should only work in "landing areas".  Outside of that, bailout should be enabled.  If you leave a tank, it's a bail.  If you leave one with damage, someone should get the kill.

Finally, another issue that came out of our little tank battles (which were great fun), which I'll post elsewhere as well: icons.
vehicles are the only things on the ground with icons, and they're above the vehicle.  with tanks, which have handy ranging hashmarks, icons are a great, indeed, excessive help.  So, heck, I'm in favor of reducing enemy vehicle icon range to 1000 yards.

One advantage of such a reduction was suggested by one of those battles.
Bloom and a colleague were in the flats, and I ducked behind a hill, and proceeded to climb out of visual range to a hull-down position.  Unfortunately, although my tank was not visible, my icon (and range) was.  So while I'm in 2nd gear clawing to a hull-down solution, bloom and I are exchanging BVR shells.  In this, I'm hampered as, on a bank, the hash marks in the gunsight are not 100% accurate.  His are. At 1,800 yards, he (in an admittedly admirable shot) lobs one over the ridge and kills me.
What good are any sort of tank tactics when you've got this huge billboard above you?

[bloom25]

I won't beat the proverbial "dead horse" any more about ditching a tank.  Both opinions have been stated and it is now other's turn to add their $.02 on the subject.

Dinger, I somewhat agree with you on icons.  Since the icons always pop up at 3.3k, the first tank to stop and sight in generally wins.  If we simply reduced the range of the icons across the board their wouldn't really be much of a change.  What I would like to see is a variable range icon that takes into account how visible a tank would be at the time.  For example, if a tank wasn't moving it would be MUCH harder to spot.  To simulate this, reduce it's icon range.  On the other hand a tank that is moving would be very easy to spot, even at a very long range.  (A mile or more if a cloud of dust was kicked up.)  In this case the range that other tanks get an icon for the moving tank should be much greater.  In addition, a moving tank would have a harder time spotting another tank than a tank that was sitting still.  If implemented correctly this could add a sort of strategy to tank battles.  It would also give tanks a potential way to improve their chances of hiding from aircraft by sitting motionless.

Tanks, when in battle, often moved in short dashes to cover to avoid detection.  They would then sit camoflauged waiting to ambush any enemy tanks that crossed their paths.  By taking into account whether a tank is moving or not when icons appear, we can better simulate real tank tactics.  I for one think this would be a lot of fun.  



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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[funked]

If the guy gets out of a tank after you have damaged it, you should get a kill.