So are you saying that you think bikes would be most useful when the territories have been expanded to a "county" stage of instances? One of the future advantages of bikes will be to rapidly re-locate to critical locations such as an Outpost, it undoubtedly would be more useful to be able to cross the open territories, where their effectiveness in gunning down foot sloggers en route, and a gang of bikers could wear down a lone Rhino with just sustained Heavy Bolter fire, and though an armoured division of Predators would almost certainly wipe the floor with them, they'd be valuable as spotters. However, just because these capacities won't be as apparent until the territory is expanded does not mean that they won't be viable(though probably more difficult) in a smaller scale battle. My other point being that the exact size of the instance matters. I mean think about it, a "big" map on your average multiplayer arena isn't really all that big. Now a big shooter, like MAG, which seems to be the new initial scale for this game (actually, I think MAG is now my go-to comparison) did have the map size that a Warbike could still be useful. Now. Ranking its importance is a different matter. One of the clamors is "well Terminators first" to which I respond, well duh. Terminators are made for smaller spaces, so naturally the devs should get them finished first. However, that does not mean that other things are also important, and to me personally Warbikes rank at least top 10.
Praefectus Malgoreth HofDeimos Yea to me even the smaller maps could benefit from Bikes at the initial start, I watched the Q&A 20 an they were playing on a map an stated that "this is were the vehicles push up" that may be AI controlled "like a scriped ingame event" that progresses as the players push or player controlled I don't know, that said Rhinos are good for long drives where troops don't have the option for sitting in bikes or land speeder storm, cause with out support they are little more then a coffin on tracks a RazorBack would be the next smallest for a troop transport, and most comparable to a lot of other factions troop transport, in terms of fire power. The Eldar LOVE there Jet bikes, with out that maneuverability on the battle field, they loose a lot of tactical control of the battle space. Please don't deprive them of that, its one of the few things I like about Eldar Next up id have to say Orks HAVE to have there mobility a lot like Eldar with out that speed they are little more then green cannon fodder with weak ranged ballistic skills, "Bos Wiz pantin It red Cuz Red Goz Fasta Rught, UF Corze you Git Wiz U At it Pant Dem Storm Boyz Red Tu. Orks". With out the Red buggies an Trucks are just not Orks to me. Some of the other factions don't have single seat bikes at all, they instead exchange for fast infantry or light vehicles like the Tau Parana is equal to a Attack bike, but either as Anti infantry or as Anti armor, this is unfortunate but as long as they match up to there equal no one should be calling OP. Hopefully, races that don't have the option for Single seat, fast transport like the Tau can make use of Deep strike, like terminators, gah termys with out a Heavy transport like a Land raider or Storm raven they are Never going to make it any were in time for the fight, WHY SINGLE SEAT, a lot of people like my self don't always want to be a rider in some one else's coffin, that and its a lot harder to shoot 20 land speeders then 5 land raiders, before you can over run the enemy.
I just want them. All of them. Especially if I could be a White Scar I was about to make a topic about ideas on how to hanlde loadout options when it comes to bikes, but I'll post them here. I hope the following can be understood; it's not easy to explain. There's a sum up at the end. In the TT, bikes are each a single entity: bike + rider. This means that when a bike is spawned -more or less like on Planetside 2 (use a public vehicle terminal), or as on DUST 514 (you get your vehicle deployed from orbit on your position)- you would no longer be whatever class you were, turning into a rider (with his own wargear) mounted on a bike. This would mean that, if you dismount, you would be still wearing rider wargear. However, that wargear can easily be the same one than that faction's basic class (Tactical, Guardian...). For example, for space marines, the rider wargear is the same one than the Tactical one: power armor, rifle or pistol&one-handed-melee. In the TT, LSM bikes have a bolt pistol, but can trade it for plasma pistol, grav pistol, plasma gun, meltagun, grav gun, chainsword, power sword or power fist. All of those can be standard, unlockable weapons for Tacticals and Assaults, which could mean that if you already unlocked those weapons for the Tactical class, you could have them on your bike. The only difference is that when mounted you can only use one of those weapons: if you have a pistol and a sword, you can only use one of them at a given time. About other wargear: if you unlocked a certain power armor, you could have that one too when on your bike. About bike-mounted guns, I would treat them just like any other weapon. You mount your bike: your twin-linked bolters are selected, move your mouse and click to aim and shoot them on a limited forward arc. Press the "Change Weapon" key: you switch to your next weapon (pistol, gun or melee), aim and click in the same way, although arc is now wider. Bike itself is controlled via WASD. Attack bikes would work the same way, excepting now there's another player in another seat. That player can only use the sponsor-mounted weapon, but he keeps his Tactical wargear too. Sum up: - When spawning a bike, you mount it with your basic class gear: Tactical, Guardian, Boy. Equipped wargear is kept while riding and after dismounting, but only one of your weapons can be used at a time while riding. Unlocking wargear for that class allows you to use it when riding. - Hero/Elite classes that can ride bikes could also keep their wargear while riding, as long as it's the appropiate type of armor. - To ease up managing loadouts, Bike Rider loadouts could be managed and saved separately, so if you spawn a bike, you inmediatly change to that loadout without having to change armor, etc. - While riding the bike, you can only use one weapon at a time: you swap them with your usual "Change Weapon" key. This includes bike-mounted guns, such as twin-linked bolters. - Gunners on Attack Bikes would also keep their wargear -as long as the armor is compatible- but can only use the fixed gun while on the bike. I think most of this could be applied for other vehicles too, such as Land Speeders. EDIT: for the motivation!
They had motion capture for bikes, and the assault bike is in the Rogue Trader. I need me a bike - considering my Ork is going to be mad-max inspired, he has to have his personal transport.
Bikes and fast attack vehicles would rock but only if there are ways to utilize their strengths in taking objectives. Not as just a quicker way to get to where your going. The strengths of these kinds of vehicles may not be apparent until the open world aspects of the game are implemented. Which is a ways away compared to the early matchmaking model.
