Let me start of saying I am new to the game, long time GW/40k player mind you. And yes, I suck... But its close enough to SpaceMarine to be fun, even if i do feel rather squishy. AAANNYWAYS I noticed that the Predator Tanks require an awful lot of crewing, One driver, Once Main gunner, Cupola, and one gunner for each of the sponson-mounts. When in reality it should only have a crew of 2, One Driver, One Gunner. Gunner handles the main cannon/secondary bolter, and the Driver would do the sponson mounted weapons. Why does it need 5? Pretty much negates the use of the Tank. Am I missing something? For reference http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Predator
How would you suppose a a gunner would control and aim multiple guns independently without power armor spinal implants? Thats how they explain in lore the pred only having a crew of two, the crew is hooked up to the tank through spinal implants and their power armor all matrix style. Generally when I drive a pred I want 1 gunner, maybe two. The gunner swaps between the main cannon and a side gun as they overheat to keep up near constant fire. Possibly an extra gunner on the stormbolter or the side gun and a dedicated main gunner. You will rarely be in a situation where you want both side guns firing just because they often can't hit the same target.
It is easy to implement. You aim and fire all the guns as if they were one, if they can't swivel to face the target, they do not shoot. It is clear that the current tank was intended for a bigger player population with Planetside 2 populations and battle sizes. But most battles have 15-20 players per side which is just not enough to crew it.
Even if it were made for larger player pop/game a crew of 5 isnt even lore. And if it were a crew of 5 it better be amazingly powerful. How do you implement it? Same way as Planetside does. Gunner has Main cannon, and cupola, LMB shoots, RMB scopes in, Mousewheel up or down changes active weapon to cupola bolter. Driver controls sponson-mounts. LMB fires left Sponson, RMB fires right Sponson. You can give up the cupola mounted weaoin if a palyer climbes into that slot.
I like the idea and even more since the lore says so. Reducing the needed crew to fully man it makes the pred more viable. I don't want to commit 1/3 - 1/4 of the team to fully man a predator. That's stupid. I'd even suggest to let the gunner fire all weapon (not at the same time of course) since a driver is supposed to drive and not to shoot. Let the gunner switch without delay between Maincannon, left HB, and right HB and fire the Stormbolter always, if the angle allows it. One could argue to let the gunner fire all weapons at the same time as long as they can aim for the target area (which would be like in the TT), but you would either need to make the gunner 3rd person as well or give him additional screens for the HB since he otherwise won't see shit next to the tank
Given that 90% of the time you see a tank used its 1 guy drives the thing to a spot then takes over the gunner seat, and spams autocannon, you'd encouraging this crap. Whereas this is what lets them be properly punished for their selfishness by letting a lone character roll up, strap a bomb to the tank and then rokkit/melta it into submission unless he gets out and fights. A tank with a dedicated driver and gunner though its a force to be reckoned with that needs at least that or serious AV coordination from the team to take down.
The MBC would need to be first person as it helps balance with flanking etc. I'd prefer the driver control the sponson guns, makes driving a bit more fun and not so helpless with 1 crew. Plus it allows the TT of all 3 guns being shot at once without any crazy balancing required with such a huge Alpha Strike. This would also allow for the vehicles to have a much larger influence, and have Vehicle combat be a real thing. Or an enemy tank, which is how it should be, there is plenty of cover for players to use and hide behind, and having a functioning tank to back up your advances would make the game play feel much more epic. What I don't know is can the Predator be repaired or be out fitted with other loadouts? I know there are no player Techmarines. Am I also right in seeing (I don't know for sure) but a SM/CSM can take a full round to the chest and not die?
I mentioned an enemy tank "At least that" Lorewise there are other setups for predators main cannons. You can take an autocannon to the chest and live. Barely. Problem is the second one is coming a fraction of a second later combined with netcode = git zogged.
