[HereticusXZ]

Tanks have absolutely no benefit at all with the new vehicle spawning mechanic.


Let me either be the first or loudest to say that the new vehicle spawning mechanic without a doubt is a fun experience and a convenient tool... But with that said it has brought a imbalance to Planetside 2. Tanks have no use whatsoever anymore.

Allow me to explain... A Galaxy pilot can fly at the flight ceiling and either hover still, Vulture Orbit, or Strafe-drop players allowing it's squad to halo-drop with pinpoint accuracy right ontop of a Objective, ignoring walls and field battles. It's only significant threat at such altitude is other aircraft, It might be tagged by a occasional Skyguard but Aircraft can easily drift left or right and use natural terrain to block the ground based AA line-of-sight.


Now my point is what roles do Tanks serve with this new mechanic?

There's exceptions to the rule but largely the Tanks primary role was to hard-counter enemy armor, Destroy the ever important Sunderer AMS, and to protect your own Sunderer while providing Overwatch to the Infantry assault. All of this can be done cheaper, faster, and better by Infantry or Aircraft.


Outside of Indar where base-design still allows Tanks to impact the fight, the new Esamire base designs with massive black walls completely denying all tanks any participation and I assume the new Amerish & Hossin base designs likewise will strictly keep Tanks to field battles while the majority drop via Galaxy straight into these ever more constant Infantry Only fights.


Adding to my frustration is the fact that I come from a competitive Outfit... Do tanks serve in any capacity in the Competitive scene where speed in the form of Re-Deploys and Infantry objectives are valued higher then spawning Tanks?


My outlook on armored combat is very bleak, grim, and taken to the extreme... of course there will be exceptions to the rule in which the defensive air-net will be to thick and a Sunderer might be used, assuming SL/PL chooses to continue a attack on this well-defended position or choose to hit the enemy somewhere else? If they do commit to the attack then my beloved Tank might see use. But on average beyond pulling a Tank for the warm and fuzzy feeling of driving a tank... There's no point to spawn a tank.


Planetside 2 is suppose to be a combined arms game. The growing fascination with Infantry only facilities and Infantry only mechanics is disrupting and in some cases ruining that combined arms experience.


So I'm not just complaining, Here are my suggestions...

Most all objectives in the game should rightfully be only captured by Infantry, But there does need to be some objectives that Players inside of Vehicles can capture... These objectives need to be set-up outside of bases, like in the Field... This can range from capturing the Ammo-Tower as a objective, to the Sunderer Garage.

This could even be added into the long demanded Vehicle-Depot that lets vehicles drive into and equip a different loadout without having to spawn a brand new vehicle. You can add this unique structure as a attachment to pre-existing facilities and slap a Objective point onto it.

Expand on this and add flying Sky-Platforms/hangars or even Hovering Gun-Platforms that the aircraft can capture. PS2 is set in the year 2845, Why can't Pillbox emplacements hover in the sky?

You still have the option to capture all these new objectives with Infantry, but creating Objectives that vehicles can capture expands and compliments the Combined Arms that PS2 is suppose to be.


Finally there's the Loadstar cargo craft that you can load up X amount of ground-vehicles into and fly them across the Continent to a battle. There's a HUGE problem in the fact that the rest of the Squad/Platoon can re-deploy across the continent without penalty (excluding the MAX). Tanks cannot redeploy without a heavy CD and Resource cost. Tanks are also slow so by the time they get to the fight the Squad/Platoon has already moved on. The Loadstar would allow Tanks to redeploy faster and keep up with the Competitive redeployment.

With the loadstar is the concern that Players would just drop Tanks inside of there beloved Infantry-Only facilities which is a valid concern, one of which I counter with the fact that Infantry-Only facilities have no room for Tanks to maneuver or even move at all, they become static turrets that will just choke a lane and end up as free XP for a Light-Assault. Anyone who drops a Tank into a infantry only facility and gets stuck deserves to become free XP for any opportunistic Tank-Hunter.

If SOE even wants they can reinvent the wheel and add some brand new method of transporting Vehicles so that they can keep up with the redeploying of Infantry.


TL/DR - New Esamire inspired base design adopted into new Amerish & Hossin Base design with Vehicle Spawning is the Nail-in-the-Coffin for Tank combat. I think there's no point at all in spawning Tanks, I ask the question what purpose if any is there for Tanks in Competitive gameplay and lastly propose recommended solutions to help fix this combined arms problem.


I hope this thread brings to light the dillema of the Tanker in Planetside 2 and gets the discussion snow-balling on Tanks.