greetings.
now that some time has passed, and i collectively had a better feeling with all APC of all factions, i would like to give my 2 cents and ask for certain improvements, and fixes that both classes needs.
especially since those are my favorite, and i see alot of potential with those.
with that being said, here are some changes that i picked from various threads, had on my own a while back, and so on ( forgive me if i couldn’t find the correct names )
anyway, i’ll start with the ““easier”” ones:
Riders
bikes are great, and above all, fun to use. generally a solid pick depending on few factors.
it’s a bit of a shame that japan and the USSR do not have any for those who would like one ( or more ).
therefore, would be great if the soviets get the: Dnepr M-72 - Wikipedia
and japan the Rikuo Type 97 - Мотомир Вячеслава Шеянова | Motorworld by V. Sheyanov
perhaps at the cost of needing an animation to get in, and out / drawn out the weapon. so, when the driver is in that state, he cannot drive but he can defend him self. opposed as having to switch to the gunner seat
( perhaps, deweaponized variants as a trade off ? )
okey, this one is a bit… hard for me to explain, but what i currently don’t like is that, if i tell my ai to wait on the bike, even if he is the driver or gunner, the engine will shut off ( which it’s correct. it conceil your location ) but as soon players hops in alone in the driver or the gunner, the bike will start emitting noises. despite being driverless. ( i hope it makes sense )
what i’m talking about, it’s that when you use the bike, they tend to be twitchy and not very stable. i’m not talking about the bikes steering more toward the right or left, but the actual stability of the vehicle when being stationary. they bounce all over the place despite not moving at all.
( for more info and details, check this post: Make Bikes Customizable )
due to being somewhat of a fragile class, would be great if the radioman could ask for smoke or bombers to aid as a support role the team rather than being just a funny bike or vehicle with an mg.
countless time i find my self in tunisia or the pacific flipping my bike because of some rock ( yes, i am a bad driver, i’ll be the first one to admit it ) but then i lose my bike for the rest of the game because i can’t move it or flip it.
which the boats do have this feature:
would be great to have it for bikes too
i know i might be perhaps the only one, but i hate the fact that, despite me owning both premium and default bikes, i never have enough combination for the situation i find my self into.
and additionally, for the same reason
lastly,
what i mean by this, is that i think riders can be useful and different from APCs.
by making them able to have armored scout cars and what not.
to be some sort of fast response team while not " stealing " APC job ( or the other way around )
and i truly believe this class could shine with the introduction of new vehicles for this class such as:
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japanese type 92
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USSR Ba 64
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m3 scout car ( for USSR and US )
- german 8 rad
or why not, become the class for anti Air / anti infantry.
and give options such as the:
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as 42
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german 222
etc. many more could be added. just to give an idea and make this class slighlty more interesting.
next, we’ll get to the a bit in lenghty part of this suggestion…
APCs
so, there’s quite a lot to unpack here, therefore, i’ll start with bugs and errors that needs to be fixed
( yes, those have been already covered over the CBR. but it’s good to keep it as a reminder )
Bugs
loosing speed and power in the process
( from Japan APC )
now, i do love the fact that they can shoot, but they should elevate them selves from an upstanding position rather than… defie hard physic and clip right through the sides of the wall.
so… i was really disappointed by the way halftracks were currently implemented in first person.
like, the idea was so cool, but the implement has been… debatable at best.
which, it would be great being able to fire correctly like AI do but not having to clip or… aiming at hard surfices that makes it hard to see where you are aiming at.
overhal, the whole areas of being able to shoot and not, should be reworked.
what i mean by this, is, the gun is visually an mg42, but acts, works and Sounds like an mg34.
which i’m not sure why that’s the case.
so… either visually change the machinegun to be an mg34 or change how it function to correlate to it’s visual depiction.
and, enough with the bugs, let’s cover the rework.
Reworks
so, there are a couple of reworks that i think are needed.
first and fore most:
but i cannot describe the dissapointment of seeing the promotional material just to not see any camofualge or whatever. majority if not all premium vehicle squads comes with at least pre bought cosmetics from the selection, or unique uniforms. yet the APC squad has none.
not even as the first pre merge premium squad where they will land in most campaigns.
they have nothing going for it. and it was 40€
so please, give them unique uniforms.
you can pick presets from here:
more can be found here Submission thread for a cosmetics uniform's change of the premium APC units ( and possibly, options for future APC squads ) - #12 by ErikaKalkbrenner
so… they are halftracks, supposed to " survive " from small arm fires, yet the M3 can die from Mg42s and 34s in the engine deck:
not only it’s unrealistic, but less than optimal. i’m sorry, but no right minded would expose and risk to get get shot by going in active war zone with hatches down. so i made a working version which it’s closed over my " battle of foy " ( i still have to release it… sorry for the waiting but it shouldn’t take long after this thread 1 week or two at max ):
( don’t forget the view ports )
here is how it behaves in default ( which it’s terrible )
and here is a modded and realistic version that i made in the editor:
this one is the 251 vanilla ( which lacks gun elevation despite having planty of room ):
this one, is my modded version
- for the 251:
i find inconsistent the fact that the bike does not have ( rightfully so ) overheat mechanic. yet for some reason the halftrack does.
therefore, my suggestion is, remove the overheat from the 251. completely.
and reduce the ammo to be realistic ( from 250 down to 75 rounds ) as it has the drum magazine.
therefore, work similarly to the K750 rider bike.
- for the M3
reduce slighlty the overheat.
either remove it, or slighlty reduce it.
as much i understand the overheat was more designed for the m2 high caliber machinegun to balance it out, right now it’s just excessive.
the ammo can stay the same, and the reload can stay the same. but the overheat should be changed. as after all, halftracks were used for supressive / covering fire.
none of the halftracks we have can do that.
and, we get to the last part.
Features / addition Needed
as a support vehicle, i believe the ability to call smoke could really benefit the class and somewhat increase the sales for it as it would be an additional perk.
not gonna lie, i was Extremely disappointed. the update merge allowed AI to use default machineguns placed around the map, yet for some reason they cannot operate the base machinegun.
which i would have greatly used halftracks with AI machiguns in my mods.
now, i’ll admit, this is more of a niche feature that i would mostly use for my upcoming PVES and what not. but i do think halftracks could and should play an important support role. and that would be, the ability to allow and select specific " specialization " to assign to halftracks. perhaps the not weaponized ones. and that would be, being able to choose between Engineer halftracks / truck that will aid at the front by providing engineer points, or, ammunitions specialization, that will allow to refill ammunition for small and heavy caliber weapons ( as long there’s a cooldown ), another for medkits and the ability to refill syringes for medics, and so on. perhaps, to make it balance, sacrifice the rally point perhaps? or add it as a side " box " for people to interact with ( similar to what i did in my mods )
or, using the previous point of being able to tow something, the ability to spawn with a towed weapon for one spawn. or… lose the ability to respawn with a rally.
anything really. up to devs.
but you get the idea.
kinda option really.
similar to the m18.
as… they kinda stick out. and… it wasn’t unreleastic for soldiers to duck when reloading.
( granted, this would more benefit the 251 for the gun shield. but considering the gun isn’t equal, nor the angle compared to the m3 ( that should have in theory a 360° angle / view ) i think it could benefit from the gunner being able to duck and reload )
the additions for this class can be countless, and i truly believe in their support role.
as such, i think it would also be great to get more models of trucks, halftracks, and what have you.
therefore:
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Ha-ho [ Japan ]
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Opel blitz with tent [ Axis ]
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gmc truck with tent [ Allies ]
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nissan 80 with tent
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british Bedford QL
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italian Fiat 626 truck
and, perhaps, few sperimentations ( perhaps as premium )
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US amphibious Lvt 4
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japanese ka-chi without sponsons as APC
( it … could be considered powered, but it cannot go in the water. and still is… weak against anti tank rifles but… up to devs really )
and last but not least,
and that’s about it.
if i find anything else, or people have some other suggestions let me know and i’ll might add them.
cheers for listening to me. hope the effort was worthed as it took me quite some time to compile this pile of suggestions and improvements.