Project Reality Forums

I like a lot tanking, and I think you guys did a great work implementing stuff, but there's one thing I'd definitely like to see changed are rangefinders. I'm sure most of you already know how does a real rangefinder work, I'm posting what I know for those who don't.

How does a tank rangefinder work?
1) The gunner activates it.
2) The rangefinder measures the distance from the target and sends all of the data to the ballistic computer.
3) The ballistic computer calculates the correct trajectory and raises\lowers consequently the main gun.
4) The gunner fires.
The whole process takes usually less than 3 seconds on most advanced tanks.

Ok, this is what happens on most tanks IRL. Now let's see how may it work in the game.

I'd set this to the right mouse button, and move the MG to a dedicated weapon slot. It stays active for the time the player holds down the button and the main gun gets raised to the last measured distance. Getting targeted by rangefinders may trigger the "lock-on warning" you hear when getting targeted by AT weapons.

This could be a very nice addition to tanking in the game, and it could give a much more realistic feeling.

would mean that a tank whore is even less skilled than he is now.....

Its a nice idea, but this would make it really easy

Yes, the tank would be VERY easy to use.

Id personally leave it as it is.

Au contraire. There already are rangefinders at the current state, but are simulated like this: Bullet drop on tank shells = 0 plus an (unnecessary) indicator that tells you the current distance from the target. With my idea it would be a lot harder for tankers to bring down choppers or even planes (yeah, I shot down MIGs with ma abrams. ) or to shoot down anything else. Plus the warning given by the laser would open up for far more tactics.

With the engagement distances most of the time being no more than 200 meters at the moment and the sabot round having a muzzle velocity of more than 1500 m/sec, I don't think there is much more to tanking at the moment than there is to using a railgun in Quake 2. It's just point and click.

And, if I understand the purpose of the mod correct, it is to achieve a greater degree of reality

Yeah. You have to keep the balance between reality and fun/balanced gameplay.

Erhmmm, without saying that I know the muzzle velocity of the Sabot round used ingame, but based on a muzzle velocity of 1500 m/sec (which is too low in reality) my calculations says that it would lose less than 10cm in height over 200 meters if fired from a horizontal position. Less than 10cm is in terms of BF2 the same as nothing, meaning that at the moment there is absolutely no skill involved in shooting and hitting with a tank at the moment. Therefore I think that not involving range finders because it will become too easy to hit with a tank is kind of an odd argument. But then again, I do not know what the actual muzzle velocity used by the devs is

It would be better if the armourment was manned by a seperate person and the driver gets 'assistant points'.

Pence wrote:It would be better if the armourment was manned by a seperate person and the driver gets 'assistant points'.

definatly

in that case, this brings a new challenge.

it's nice and all to have the 2 person team tag for the tank crews, but as anyone who have tried using the .50 cal in humvee while another person driving would know, shooting while the vehicle is moving with it's own mind is quite hard.

modern MBT have something that solves this problem (not that they ever move without the commander not knowing it) in the form of the automated gun stabilizer that automatically keep the gun stable as the tank go through bumps, turns, climb (up to certain degree), and so on.

at the moment in BF2, the gun system in the tanks are directly influenced by the tank's main body movement. So here's what i suggest instead, bind the Right Mouse Button to a FCS assisted mode. Once in this mode, the gun remains stable to where u point it at, no matter what ur tank do (so u can be speeding along, turning like road maniac and what not and the gun will try to remain pointed at where u point it at) unless the target point is beyond the turret elevation.