Before I begin writing this, I know I am going to become all nostalgic for what I loved about tanking in RO1, and as a result it will sound like I am flaming RO2, but that is not the reason for the post.
I represent the <AKA> gaming clan. My in game name is <AKA>Ricky. <AKA> won the Red Tide tanking tournament and we like to think we know our RO1 tanking pretty well. We in <AKA> loved the tanking in RO1. We were so looking forward to RO2 tanking, especially after the previews of what TWI were going to do with the tanks. I honestly thought they were going to do something amazing with the tanks, and to an extent they have. The problem is that TWI havent made a game that is about tanking at all. The models look great, but thats about all that the tanks are good for. They look great, nothing more.
Tanking is atrocious in RO2. There is no skill in engagements. It does not feel like there are any sweet spots where I can aim for, which require skill and cunning and tactics to get the kill, at any range, on the horrendous tank map that TWI have provided us with. It doesnt seem to matter where I hit any tank, the thing will randomly blow up or stay intact. It doesnt appear to matter at what angle I am at to the enemy, I will randomly explode when hit. Basically there is no skill required to tank in RO. It feels like I am just a big hit box, with a certain amount of damage Hitpoints, and some random Chance generator that gives a possibility of me blowing up no matter how many hitpoints I have.
Now I dont care if RO1 was a dumbed down model that was not realisitic. The best day of tanking I had on RO1 was taking hits from 58 shells before I died on Moz's BlackdayJuly. To stay alive for that long was down in part to my skill at angling, and also down to luck that other players didnt attack me from the correct angle. It is also down to having a game engine that actually accepted that it was first and foremost a game. It was fun with accepted game mechanics that it worked within.
I remember many a time when I had the chance to play Orel on the FK server, and I was sitting in the company of all those fantastic tanker players that you mentioned. It is amongst that type of company that I truly came to appreciate the tanks in RO, and for what TWI achieved with the game model. It was the first game I had played where the tanking actually worked.
I had to be a master of angling, not only towards who I was shooting at, but also at the right angle towards any other enemy who may be about to shoot at me, while also then moving my tank to get the best position to shoot at the other enemy tank that I was in a personal duel with, because their skills were just as good as mine, and it was all down to my decision and risk taking and the batte of wills with the other tank. I loved dancing with other tanks in RO1, Maneuver, reload, fire, maneuver, choose not to fire so that I could take a risky maneuver to get a better position? Wonderful gaming moments. Memorable gaming time that made RO1 stand out above EVERY other game that was released for 5 years. Nothing matched RO1 for fun. I have plenty of other games that I have played in that time, but RO1 was above them all, because it had something that other games didnt. Fun.
And the respect that I had for those other tanker players? The reputation that many of those players had in the game. Not just from me and my clan but in the tanking community? That is all part of what made RO1 so unique. Kirby34 as he was known when I first battled with him was an incredible tanker. He was a devious little sod too, which is what made me admire his gaming skillz all the more. He brought everything to the battle. Skill, Cunning, Tactics, Deviousness, Movement, Organisation, Teamwork, Inspiration, Respectfulness. And of course, the one thing that tankers in RO1 regularly used to do? They gave public recognition of when they were bettered by another tanker who had achieved a skilled kill during an engagement.
None of these things happen in RO2. And that is not because of the change in the type of players. Maybe TWI didnt play Orel with us, for any length of time, to appreciate just how much of an amazing game they had managed to make for us fools that loved RO1 tanking. I dont recall ever playing tanks with or against an RO developer. Is it ironic that they may have made the greatest tanking game, but never played it enough to know what they were missing out on? And then of course, they managed to ruin tanking after one of their patches by screwing up the whole tank damage modelling so that angling didnt work so well.
RO2 is not failing because of TWI lack of technical abilities. They have plenty of people that are capable. RO1 , KF and RO2 all prove that they have technically competent people. They are failing because they don't seem to understand what they provided gamers in RO1. They provided an environment where a persons skill and their willingness to improve their own skill is what made the game a unique and satisfying experience. The game was fun and addictive like no other game has managed to achieve for me.
I hope they get rid of all that level-up crap which rewards a player with improvement achievements which are earned purely by being willing to put in time on the game, as opposed to learning and improving through their own skill. I also dont give a damn if the tanking is realisitc. I know that if a tank gets hit a 100 times, and manages to rebound the shells because of the angle that I am at, that in real life that tank should already be dead. But this is a game, and it is there for enjoyment. Enjoyment is gained by a feeling of personal achievement, and I have no feeling in this game that my skill ever matters as to whether I die or survive. Get the code put together to give me a 3 degree margin of having the perfect angle against an enemy tank shell whereby I wont blow up instantly, and tanking in this game will again be about tactics and maneuvers. It will be about skill, and skill is something that TWI cant put iin the game for us. It is not something that they can give is. That is something that we bring, and we are grateful for it.
Blackday July is a masterpiece of map design. I started making my own maps for RO, because of what Moz managed to create. Prior to the RO2 game release, I had every intention of making a tanking map for RO2. Now that I have seen the way the tanks play however, I am not interested in committing my time to the SDK. I can only hope that another soul has the willingness to make a great tank map, and that TWI somehow find it in themselves to recognise what made RO1 great.
I live in hope that tanking will be great in RO2, but I doubt if TWI will spend the resources on sorting the tanks, especially considering the huge amount of problems they have created for themslves due to the design decisions in relation to the infantry side of the game.
We live in hope I reckon
