I think techweb nuke being replaced with techweb tank would be sick, first of all. It’d reduce stalemates much better than the nuke does. Current nuke encourages cade hugging, and causes stalemates where xenos are too weak to push fob, and marines are too scared to push comms. Tank would allow a final battle into caves, the hive holding off the marines the best they could, and the marines winning after a long fought two hours. I know it needs some sort of decryption equivalent, so perhaps make the frame sent down by req, in a crate, and have to be assembled with a ton of plasteel and metal. This would allow xenos time to come counter it, a good minigame for the fobbits to play while bored, and when complete, would end the stalemate and allow a fun and rare ending to play out, much more interesting and interactive than nuke.
Edit: meant to add that the tank should be buffed for this, a truly round ending weapon.
This seems like a much better option than the nuke, one reason being is that the tank is only stopped by caves, but its also destroyable. Unlike the nuke that can be placed anywhere on the map, and then barricaded by 15 cadelines just to be broken through by a single burrower main.
The nuke is intended as a way to eliminate a stalemate that is in favour of the marines. In those rare circumstances, it does work. But there are several major issues I find that often makes the nuke either unavailable or unviable.
You need a huge investment in intel to get access to the nuke. Meaning you need to meta commit to not spending any intel on anything BUT the nuke. AND you need goo IO’s. If you have bad IOs, or you don’t save your intel, you will never get a nuke.
You need Marines to secure both comms towers. However the typical fact that they are both very far out of the way from the FOB, and it is much easier for the Xenos to murderball a force big enough to destroy 1 comms tower, often means it is practically impossible for the marines to hold both comms until they have defeated the xenos.
What this means is that most of the time I see a nuke deploying, it is because the Marines have virtually won but there are less than a dozen xenos camping the caves. The alternative is that the round has dragged on for 3 to 5 hours and the admins give the Marines a bone with a admin nuke.
The deployment of a tank as a earlier “reward” for the Marines in doing well might be interesting as a way to help speed up the end. It does have some issues I can forsee.
Who is going to drive the tank? VC? Do people need to go to lobby for this? Is it drawn from ghosts? What is stopping XX-PVT marine from taking the tank and crashing it?
What is the criteria for the tank deploying? Just hold out for two hours? If that is the case what is stopping marines just hunking down till the tank deploys? Secure both comms towers? Then why not just get a nuke while you are at it?
Perhaps the issues with stagnating rounds will end once Morrow gets around to giving the Xenos their own anti-siege weapon caste. The re-addition of the tank would be nice imo but I don’t know if ti will solve the issue of stalemates.
Part of the idea to have nuke implemented is actually to force Xenos to push the Marines (which does happen). A tank can still end up with a stalemate where the Tank is stuck outside caves and Xenos are just dominating caves and any marines that try to enter. The nuke simply forces an ultimatum scenario of Xenos bonking against cades and dying or breaking through and decimating most marines before they evac. Of course, there are some rare cases where the marines end up evacuating. Regardless, the ideal scenario that the devs wanted has been achieved by adding the nuke. Tank will prolong the round, which is not what development is aiming for. Also, what’re you gonna do if you end up with one crewman? You’re practically screwed.
Nuke is supposed to end the game. Tank with LTB just means marines park in front of the caves and the game lasts a few hours longer. Without LTB it’s not strong enough to end the game - Its not a valid game ender solution at all.
If anything it could (without LTB) replace foxtrot or be added as an alternative to revitalize a boring round - marines are more likely to push out of fob with the mobile cade acting as an anti fear RP totem.
I like the tank! It’s cool and epic and suitably attention grabbing, and I enjoyed my coveted few VC rounds.
The issue here of course being the same as it ever was: you are betting the entire outcome of the op on someone who may be behind the controls of this for the first time ever, or feels entitled to be coddled and praised for their good timing/RNG.
We also have the historical precedent for vehicle rounds that included
Dedicated FOB construction to accommodate it,
Not taking certain dropship upgrades so it would fit,
Bringing tons of explosives or bullets to take down colony walls for it,
Xenos making hard resin blocks to just stall it even longer.
The tank is awesome. Long live the tank. I hope I never see the tank without significant consideration ever again.
Adding the tank as a replacement for the nuke doesn’t quite fit with the overall goal of the nuke. The nuke is meant to reward effective but stalemated marines with either:
Forcing the xenoes to push out into defended positions
Ending the round with a successful nuke
The nuke’s goal (as well as a xeno equivalent, Soon™) is to reduce the amount of 3+ hour hellrounds.
Meanwhile, the tank achieves none of these. It is regularly as big a hinderance to the marines as it is to the xenoes, while not adding enough firepower to replace the literal round ender. Overall, while the tank is fun, it has a lot of issues that don’t make it good for a nuke replacement, or even just regular inclusion at all.
I feel the only way we’d ever see the tank re-enter into regular gameplay is if it was intended for a map that is specifically designed to account for it, even then I don’t know.
It’s cool, and I will forever love to see it during the rare HvH event, but I think the sounds of the Panzer Elite will remain at rest for the far future.
The nuke has its own issues but I don’t think a tank will resolve any of them.