Hints to be a better tanker

[Barber[FG]]

- Don't camp at spawn or "Spawn Hill" as Soviets on Gumrak. You won't win in a long range cannon duel with the Panzer Iv. I don't know if it's by design, or the damage models aren't final, but the T-34 easily goes up with 1 shot, while the Panzer IV's seem to require multiple shots most of the time. What compounds this is the Panzer IV has a dedicated gunner that can either be very accurate AI aiming, or insta-hot switch from a player, which is faster than the T-34 commander / gunner going to the gun from an unbuttoned position.

It is absolutely intended that the Panzer Iv will win the slugfest at long range due to its thicker frontal armor and better gun. The other issue is that T-34 players often foolishly allow their driver hatches to be exposed when they camp; ignoring the advantages of having sloped armor, lower profile and overall better speed.

My biggest advice is, do not play the T-34 as you would play the Panzer IV. The T-34 is far better at moving around and staying low profile to deliver punishing flanking attacks. On Gumrak, in a T-34 I always drive along the edge of the map, and then dart for the sides of the un-suspecting Panzer IV

 

[Mormegil]

Looks like the latest update has fixed a lot of issues.

The Panzer IV can now rotate the turret from the commander's position, like the T-34 could.

The armor values have been tweaked so the PTRS can't penetrate frontally, and they fall better in line (T-34 survivability has increased).

And there's the whole changelog section for the vehicles.

Spoiler!

AI Improvements and Refinements
Vehicle functionality and vehicle crew AI, particularly hull mg and main cannon AI, have gone through a major overhaul with a goal of greatly improving playability and creating a system that players will find useful and enjoyable.
Completely new AI configurability system with robust configurability including webadmin options. The system includes all new tank AI functionality with "player ordered AI gunnery only" as the default setup. With this new system, Tank AI will do nothing if the human player is in a tank, unless the human player orders the AI to do something. For example, if the human player orders the AI to attack an enemy, the AI will use the hull MG and the main cannon to attack the enemy for a short time. Then after a short time the AI will stop firing. In addition to this new default functionality the server admin can also run in several different configurations including turning off all vehicle AI gunnery, selecting full autonomous AI gunner, selecting player ordered gunnery only (the default), or individually turn off/on AI gunner for the hull mg and tank cannon. We highly recommend all admins try out the new player ordered AI gunnery system as it is a vast improvement over the original system.
Completely revised AI gunnery model. This system has been tuned to be very forgiving and to not quite play as well as a human player would. With that said it will also be useful enough for players to want to use the system, but without completely destroying human players unrealistically like it was before. This system includes functionality that makes the AI less accurate based on many factors such as distance from the tank, movement state of the enemy (walking, sprinting, etc), as well as making the tank AI much less accurate if the tank is moving. Some elements of this system were already in the codebase, but not functioning due to a bug.
Added some tank AI configuration elements based off of Ducky's Tank AI mutator

You can now rotate the turret of the Panzer IV from the commander cuppola position by looking in a direction and pressing the fire button (you could already do it from the interior gunner position of the Panzer IV and the gunner/commander position of the T34)
Implemented new vehicle accessibility functionality. This functionality allows servers to specify if different parts/crew in the tank can receive full damage, reduced functionality, or no part damage (vehicle itself still takes damage)
Mobility - Treads, breaks, engine
Destroyed - The parts can be damaged and fully destroyed and disabled
Damaged - The parts can be damaged and have reduced functionality, but not destroyed
No Damage - The parts can not take damage

Main Turret and Cannon - Main Gun, Turret Traverse, Loader
Destroyed - The parts can be damaged and fully destroyed and disabled
Damaged - The parts can be damaged and have reduced functionality, but not destroyed
No Damage - The parts can not take damage

Crew - Driver, Main Gunner, Hull Machine Gunner, Commander
Full Interior and Exterior Damage - The crew can be killed while exposed, and from penetrating rounds as well as the internal damage they cause (shrapnel)
Exterior Damage - The crew can only be killed while exposed
No Damage - The crew will not take any damage

General Tank Changes
Made damage and armor tweaks with the T34 to get it more in balance with the Panzer IV. A battle between the two tanks should now be a much more even fight, while still retaining their realistic strengths and weaknesses.
T34 - gun mantlet changed to account for the heavily curved shape, also improving its resistance
Fixed a bug with the Panzer for main cannon mantlet that essentially prevented rounds from penetrating it at any range
Changed the T34 ammo count to give it more AP rounds and less HE rounds for armor-heavy engagements

Added proper localized text messages for many events occurring inside the tank

Tweaked up tank movement voice commands to reduce voice command spam

And I highly suggest checking out the official tank weak spot diagrams.

 

[Mormegil]

Been a while since this has been updated.

Since the GOTY patch, the Panzer IV has had the bugs in the armor fixed, so it's no longer made of adamantium in some places. So engaging frontally is now a decent tactic. In the T-34 I typically aim just below the driver hatch to hit the ammo box.

The Panzer IV still has the edge on long range due to the better optics.


One BIG thing to mention is the AI no longer fires by default, has been reduced in accuracy so it's not so frustrating as infantry. I think this is a good thing. But now, as a tanker you must remember to remind your tank AI to "fire at will" or he won't take out that AT infantry making a bee-line to you from the front when you have your turret at 1 or 11 o'clock.

Do this with the "B" command key, and select "Fire at Will." Make sure you are commanding your tank when you do this (if you're a platoon tank commander or squad tank commander). In the Panzer IV this will also get your gunner to fire if you're in the commander / cupola position.

 

[Mike_Nomad]

Actually the changes made to the PZ4 RUINED Tanking for many. I await the neccessry fixes to bring tanking back. It behaves more like a PZIII.

The T-34/76 behaves like a T-34/85. Sadly, the PZ4 dies more often than not with two shots from the T-34. The instant spawns for crew members in the T-34 and the shuffling around inside the PZ4 is also a joke.... while the PZ4 crew shuffles positions, the T-34 lays the parting shot into the PZ4 and its all over. Tanking now suxs for the Germans in RO2.

 

[Tig Ol Bitties]

Has Tripwire ever OFFICIALLY confirmed the supposed "weak spots" on Russian and German tanks? You'll get an earful of advice from virtually every player in this game who THINKS he's good at tanks but they vary from "hit the turret" to "hit the left hand side" to "hit the engine at the back."

In my experience, the results of tank vs tank battles (when exchanging blow for blow) is complete randomness. I hit tanks in the same spot from the same distance and get many one shot kills and then in other (virtually identical) scenarios, I seemingly need to hit it six or seven times before it explodes.

Tripwire, if you're reading this, can you confirm that the game is actually well coded for tank vulnerabilities in specific areas of the tank or should strategy instead focus on positioning and other factors and we can basically take a guess at which tank shell will actually get the kill?

 

[Moskeeto]

Has Tripwire ever OFFICIALLY confirmed the supposed "weak spots" on Russian and German tanks? You'll get an earful of advice from virtually every player in this game who THINKS he's good at tanks but they vary from "hit the turret" to "hit the left hand side" to "hit the engine at the back."

In my experience, the results of tank vs tank battles (when exchanging blow for blow) is complete randomness. I hit tanks in the same spot from the same distance and get many one shot kills and then in other (virtually identical) scenarios, I seemingly need to hit it six or seven times before it explodes.

Tripwire, if you're reading this, can you confirm that the game is actually well coded for tank vulnerabilities in specific areas of the tank or should strategy instead focus on positioning and other factors and we can basically take a guess at which tank shell will actually get the kill?

http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=79101&highlight=tank+heads

 

[Tig Ol Bitties]

Thanks. Penetration calculation and its complexity would probably explain the inconsistent results.

 

[Mekhazzio]

Tripwire, if you're reading this, can you confirm that the game is actually well coded for tank vulnerabilities in specific areas of the tank or should strategy instead focus on positioning and other factors and we can basically take a guess at which tank shell will actually get the kill?

Both. Here's a sample of the vehicle hit location data for the Panzer 4:

	VehHitZones(0)=(ZoneName=ENGINEBLOCK,DamageMultiplier=1.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Engine,ZoneHealth=100,VisibleFrom=14)
	VehHitZones(1)=(ZoneName=ENGINECORE,DamageMultiplier=1.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Engine,ZoneHealth=300,VisibleFrom=14)
	VehHitZones(2)=(ZoneName=AMMOSTOREONE,DamageMultiplier=100.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Ammo,ZoneHealth=10,KillPercentage=0.4,VisibleFrom=5)
	VehHitZones(3)=(ZoneName=AMMOSTORETWO,DamageMultiplier=100.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Ammo,ZoneHealth=10,KillPercentage=0.3,VisibleFrom=9)
	VehHitZones(4)=(ZoneName=AMMOSTORETHREE,DamageMultiplier=100.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Ammo,ZoneHealth=10,KillPercentage=0.3,VisibleFrom=10)
	VehHitZones(5)=(ZoneName=AMMOSTOREFOUR,DamageMultiplier=100.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Ammo,ZoneHealth=10,KillPercentage=0.3,VisibleFrom=10)
	VehHitZones(6)=(ZoneName=AMMOSTOREFIVE,DamageMultiplier=100.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Ammo,ZoneHealth=10,KillPercentage=0.3,VisibleFrom=6)
	VehHitZones(7)=(ZoneName=AMMOSTORESIX,DamageMultiplier=100.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Ammo,ZoneHealth=10,KillPercentage=0.3,VisibleFrom=5)
	VehHitZones(8)=(ZoneName=FUELTANK,DamageMultiplier=10.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Fuel,ZoneHealth=200,KillPercentage=0.3,VisibleFrom=15)
	VehHitZones(9)=(ZoneName=GEARBOX,DamageMultiplier=1.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Mechanicals,ZoneHealth=100,VisibleFrom=1)
	VehHitZones(10)=(ZoneName=GEARBOXCORE,DamageMultiplier=1.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Mechanicals,ZoneHealth=200,VisibleFrom=1)
	VehHitZones(11)=(ZoneName=LEFTBRAKES,DamageMultiplier=1.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Mechanicals,ZoneHealth=25,VisibleFrom=5)
	VehHitZones(12)=(ZoneName=RIGHTBRAKES,DamageMultiplier=1.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Mechanicals,ZoneHealth=25,VisibleFrom=9)
	VehHitZones(13)=(ZoneName=TRAVERSEMOTOR,DamageMultiplier=1.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Mechanicals,ZoneHealth=15)
	VehHitZones(14)=(ZoneName=TURRETRINGONE,DamageMultiplier=1.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Mechanicals,ZoneHealth=10,VisibleFrom=13)
	VehHitZones(15)=(ZoneName=TURRETRINGTWO,DamageMultiplier=1.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Mechanicals,ZoneHealth=10,VisibleFrom=9)
	VehHitZones(16)=(ZoneName=TURRETRINGTHREE,DamageMultiplier=1.0,VehicleHitZoneType=VHT_Mechanicals,ZoneHealth=10,VisibleFrom=10)

That's only 1/3rd of them. There are also 47 armor plates and 58 armor hit zones.

What happens when you hit the zones isn't set in stone, though. A hit to an ammo store, as you can see up there, has a 30% chance to multiply the damage (which, on an ammo store, will destroy the tank outright) so even hitting the weak point isn't a sure thing...unless, of course, you can line up the shot through multiple ammo stores and roll for each one

 

[Mormegil]

Has Tripwire ever OFFICIALLY confirmed the supposed "weak spots" on Russian and German tanks? You'll get an earful of advice from virtually every player in this game who THINKS he's good at tanks but they vary from "hit the turret" to "hit the left hand side" to "hit the engine at the back."

Don't forget about the official ammo and engine locations.