I'm so disappointed in tank combat this game has to offer.
RO1 was almost perfect. Sure, there were things like extreme overexaggeration of armor angeling and damaging was too straight-forward, but this game is much,
much worse. There's absolutely nothing enjoyable or good about tank combat as of now...
First problem I've had since I bought the game from the recent sales are the controls. I am really not used to rotating my turret with a mouse. I understand that it was done so because the WASD keys need to be used for the bot commands inside the tank, but that's another issue. It's just so tedious to control the turret with a mouse, but I guess with more time I'll get used to it.
Well prior to RO1, the Mod used the mouse to aim and control the turret and I liked that... when RO1 came out and used the movement keys to move the turret, it was clunky, bulky, slow and a pain in the arse when trying to get an accurate shot at long distance.
I personally hated the switch and I'm glad the turret movement is back to the way it was in the mod..... but certainly wouldn't be opposed to it being an option to choose between mouse and keyboard.
Now for the tank voice commands themselves. Why there's not a seperate menu for voice commands when you're inside the tank? How am I supposed to have HUMAN players actually understand my orders? Typing takes way too much time and can barely put in practice when I'm in a heat of a battle, and I don't use VOIP at all. Maybe I'm just being thick right here, but I've scrolled down and up the control binding list and could not find anything relating to this. And yet they wonder why other tank commanders lock their tanks from player access...I've made big mistakes before by allowing them to enter and be completely useless (left hand doesn't know what the right is doing, sort of), but no more.
Well you would be wise to start using a mic, especially when in a tank with other players..... but there is also the command pop up which by default selects all squads and gives you the generic commands, but if you click in the centre of the radial, it will toggle to tank-crew commands.
Now goes the tank balance itself. I won't say much about how utterly disgusted I am, but I will give you a hint. When a player in a PZ4 with a self-awareness of a rock gets a couple of shots in his rear or side, turns his turret at me and somehow 1 shots T-34 to hell, there's obviously something seriously wrong.
Back in RO1 is was reversed, where all the Panzers would blow up in one shot from any other tank, especially when not angled.
The main reason why the T34 blows up so easily is because of the death of the commander. People aim for the turret of the T34 the most, because the Panzer and AT-Rifle rounds go right through and kill the commander standing in the Turret.... when the commander is killed (the human player), the tank automatically blows up before you get a chance to switch to another AI character in the tank...... this happens to both tanks, but happens way more often with the T34.
Even I would like this addressed. The rest of the tank can usually handle a couple of shots or more, but this gimmick of blowing up the tank simply because the human player/commander was killed inside the tank (when the tank was still usable) makes things a bit silly and feels almost like an exploit against the Russians, as it is more difficult to do the same thing to the Panzer.
In regards to blowing up a Panzer in one hit.... it's still possible.... when you see the set of wheels positioned above the tracks on the side of the Panzer, aim for the front wheel. That seems to be a very good sweet spot that blows them up real good.
No wonder the tank servers are almost dead...No wonder...
Actually most players don't like the AI Machine Gunner, which aimbots other players way too easily.
I don't have an issue with it.... when I see the front of a tank coming at me, I run like I probably would do in real life, but it's too easy for someone to park their tank at an intersection and just let the AI MG'er mow down kills for them.
Make the AI Bots Passive in the Tank, make it so the tanks don't automatically blow up when one player in the tank is killed, and I think a lot of major issues with the tanks would be resolved (at least it'd be a start)
But I still enjoy using the tanks, they just need some tweaks.
Also, there has to be something done about the ammo select thing. You can't just choose AP or HE when there's a round in the chamber.
Last time I played RO1, it was the same, only it wouldn't allow you to toggle between the rounds until the round was loaded..... once the round was loaded, you could continually switch back and forth without having to reload.
What exists in RO2 isn't much different except that it allows you to toggle while reloading.
While we're at it, how about neutral steer, smoke grenades, riders on tanks and the spent casing being ejected from the breech (with its accompianing "BONG!" when it hits the turret floor?
Not too sure what you mean about neutral steering..... one map I played a few days back had smoke grenades available as a round (forget what server and map it was though).... riders on tanks would be an interesting feature, but won't matter to me if it was in or out of the game..... and that extra sound effect would be nice.
And traverse speed; was the PzIV or T-34 faster? Seems they are both the same speed now.
The T34 is faster, although slightly, and from my observation, I believe the Panzer has a slower acceleration.
On a positive note, they look great and I like the new crunchy sounds that the tracks make. The animations for the loader and crew are really nice. All the hard work TWI put into those vehicles really shows and I'm looking forward to the new ones as they are released.
As am I.