[Edfishy]

This is just me personally so take it for what it's worth, but I've never found Planetside 2's tank combat fun to play compared to other games. They're tanks, and they're there, but they aren't fun. On the other hand, I've found World of Tanks tank combat to be plenty of fun. Why is PS2's tank gameplay not fun?

A) Shooting Tank vs Tank isn't fun.
In World of Tanks, the third person overhead view in WoT allows me clearly see the surrounding terrain and just point and click the guy. In Planetside 2, pixel-hunting the bad guy in a first-person view with terribly slippy movement and bad terrain is murder, and so I'll just play sniper vs. sniper instead to get the cat & mouse gameplay I'm looking for.

B) Vs. Infantry blows.
When I spawn a tank (as NC or TR), I feel nine times out of ten I'll lose my tank to infantry within minutes. Sit still for anywhere too long, C-4'ed. Get too close to a base? Rocketed. SOE was aiming for battlefield, I know, but I don't know if the BF infantry vs. tank combat translates as well in an MMO where vehicles are so painful to lose.

C) Terrible terrain for tanks.
Nowhere to roam, too much of my geometry exposed to infantry no matter what I hide behind, and tanks that have zero traction (My God, they're freakin' TANKS!). Poor traction is likely an effort by the coders to minimize friction/torque physics checks, so there's not likely to be a change, but jeeeeeze.

D) No objectives for tanks.
Add a "Vehicle Control Point" that's off the beaten path away from bases, only vehicles can capture, and influences the worldspace in a different way than normal. Move the ammunition depots into more locations away from bases so that you need to capture the linked Vehicle Control Points to activate it for your empire. Throw in the new energy bridges Clegger's working on for Amerish as an additional vehicle-only capturable objective. Boom, done. Capture the V.C.P. and three linked bridges / three ammo depots / three gates are converted to your empire, etc.

E) Drivers and gunners should be seperated for MBT's. (Or add a rear-view mirror button!)
I remember the engine limitations that prevented this, but it has to be fixed at some point. In a heavy armor column, I'll have to move forward and backward to avoid rockets and tankshells, but I can't see behind me and I have to turn my main cannon around to make sure I don't run into my allies. Makes for pathetic tank combat.



In the meantime I'll just avoid tanks and go Harasser, which atleast has a functional "Tank Crew" and better mobility. =P