New USF Tank crews and tank balance

Disclaimer
First off, the topic i would like to address now its closely related to USF faction design and besides I like a lot playing USF I dont consider myself a pro. More experienced player opinion is gratefully accepted.

The crews
Tank crews are iconic of USF, no one argues against that.
The first time I saw that ability and noticed that crewmembers gained experience and it could be transfered to another vehicle, hence rewarding the player to keep crewmembers alive and also providing a way to give late game units a boost in experience.
I loved such mechanic, but later with experience i could see no one uses crewmembers that way, because of several reasons, fist one being the abandoned tank becomes a "free tank" to enemies around it. Second reason is tanks has its own separate experience and sometimes that offsets a good crew rescue play. Lastly crewmembers usually die when any tank explodes (makes sense to a point) but that usually ends the crew mechanic being special.

Some background
Now before continuing i want to add some historic of ww2 facts from what i know that are relevant.
USF tanks werent known for being the strongest or most feared tanks, at least compared to axis armour, but they do have an edge in crew survival rates and escape designs. And thats why (oversimplyfing a lot of things in between) USF could gather vital information about their enemies and how to beat them. Basically the machine body was replaced but the mind that commanded it kept going on.

The game
Tank crews surviving is only half implemented for USF and the other half its some "we won ww2 by raw power " BS that i dont really buy. Americans were tough, brave, very well organised and had awsome logistics but they won the war by learning from it, not because of thompsons auto fire rush or Tank Destroyers superiority, leave that crap of CoD franchises and volks/riflemen outside the thread please.
Being said that i want to bring a spotlight into USF and make it shine by what it does best, that is keep fighting.
Yeah, riflemen are not as strong as they were and now barfinders, cav wipemen and assengies are added into the mix to add flavour to the available tactics and openings and thats fine.
I thought that would be awsome if vet5 system were part of the USF faction, this way both XP retain and reward system could sinergyse, but that last one is a longshot and will break in shatter whats left of the WFA faction design.
I apologise if my words were harsh to american people, I dont mean to offend no one but to speak as frontally as i can, from what i am able to know.

I want to raise 3 ideas of simple changes/revamps for USF

-1) Force crewmembers to abandon the tank when its going to explode:
The tank blows up, but the crewman escapes alive.
This mechanic should be only implemented on tanks to limit WC51 crews into jackson abuses, and if the player really wants, he can micro them out of LVs without much problem.
This mechanic is the hardest to implement since i dont know if its possible to force a "instantly decrew" on a tank about to blow up.
Some damage on the crew could be added as a risk factor, some RNG to decide if all 4 can exit alive or 2 or 3 of them.
Crewmember could be forced to retreat to help the player with the micro and to avoid last stand fighters.

-2) Tweak crewmembers stats/abilities:
This is the most controversial. Reduce Crewmembers received accuracy to help them in the retreat but also reduce some of their HP, this way an escaping crew needs some luck to get out alive, makes sense and can be very intense to counter, logic says automatic fire should deal more easily with running soldiers and RNG backs that up because more shots = more chances to get a hit.
Now To kill USF tanks AI is needed along with good AT.
As i intent this new mechanic it should be an indirect buff to USF overall, so i dont expect to "balance" things yet. But still, if this ends up being OP this is the tweaking bar, nerf RA, reduce repair speeds, you name it.
Its worth saying that exploding tanks creat a little "smoke" that can effectively cover their retreat.
Also, USF generalist tanks price could get a buff or fuel discount to put some extra value to the crew rather the tank itself.

-3) Tweak/remove crew/tank XP offsets:
This is the hardest to tweak and the one i know the least. AFAIK crewmember have the same vet as their original vehicle but when they jump into a new one roughly 60% of the XP is shared with the vehicle. Changing this number to be always 100% is a more transparent mechanic for the player and puts extra value on Vet3 crewmembers.
Along with this change, tanks vets could get buffed but also its vet requeriments, maybe starting with doctrinal ones, suchs as E8s or M10s. This is an convenient indirect buff to those units without making them roflstompers. Some wide angle perspective about USF tanks experience requeriments must be applied to keep crewmembers xp transfer consistent. It all resumes to some %values that end up having the same results as they currently are, but with the adition of extra power vet tanks.
Even if people really want to, a hardcore approach can be used aswell, double XP reqs but double also vet bonuses. Dont judge me about that last sentence, im trying to show the potential of this last idea.

I would like to mantain some degree of order and seriousness along the thread for devs to use it as a useful feedback or geniune suggestions. Keep trolling outside of discussions if you really want the new mechanic to see some light. All balance aspects discussions are welcome.

Crew survival rates were high but sadly not all could jump out in time. So a 60 or maybe more % chance of the crew jumping out before the tank explodes would be sort of realistic especially if the vehicle was "out of control".

are u sure they lose vet ? i always thought that they just had higher vet requirement, so they would not be the same vet as other tanks, have u tried moving a vet 2 tank crew in a LV ?

are u sure they lose vet ? i always thought that they just had higher vet requirement, so they would not be the same vet as other tanks, have u tried moving a vet 2 tank crew in a LV ?

Pretty sure, but it was a while ago. I remember how excited i was i could retrieve the vet3 crew from a sherman and made them hop up into a jackson, it turned vet 2 and i was like. Aww man!

Anyone here that can/want to try it and debunk is welcome since i wont be able try myself for the whole week.

Anyone here that can/want to try it and debunk is welcome since i wont be able try myself for the whole week.

To 3) The assumption is incorrect. There is no veterancy offset. A vehicle crew of a vet 3 Sherman abandoning that tank and then entering another Sherman will make the sherman vet 3. Different vehicles have however different veterancy requirements - the amount of veterancy that needs to be accumulated. A Jackson, for example, requires 8640 experience points to reach vet 3, a Sherman requires 8080. So, if your Sherman just reached vet 3 and you transfer the crew to the Jackson, you'll end up with a vet 2 Jackson. Crews are able to accumulate vet even above the requirements of their current vehicle and if the crew has gained enough experience points within the Sherman they can also turn the Jackson into a vet 3 Jackson.
Vehicle crews also vet up a lot faster, in terms of the veterancy level displayed (as stars), than their vehicle. A vet 3 vehicle crew is no indication of what the veterancy level will be of the entered tank as the crew reaches vet 3 after 2600 experience points and just keeps accumulating experience after that.

To 2) Making the crews more vulnerable is problematic since you'd nerf for example armour company's Thompson upgrade on tank crews and basically make vehicle crews not viable as infantry units, which they are not already but at least they can be used as such in certain situations. You also make the m20 crew with the zook more vulnerable and thereby make them worse as an early soft counter to light vehicles.

I would propose a different approach. I am not sure if this is possible with the mod tools:

1) Remove abandon as it is now as a mechanic. If the crew is told to jump out spawn a vehicle crew with the veterancy of the tank and completely disable the tank (similar to how Soviet vehicle crew repair training disables the tank). This way the constant discussion around pop cap abuse finally seizes. The popcap of vehicle crews would have to be lowered. With this the tank still fully adds to the pop cap. The tank is re-enabled when either the crew or another usf unit enters it.

2) Have crews automatically abandon and have a 50% chance for each model to survive, similar to how it works for clown cars and units inside them. No automatic retreat, the player should have to react in order to save their crew and there has to be some risk. This is in my opinion a better approach than to lower the survivability of crews and thereby nerf a lot of other applications as mentioned above.

3) Send home option: With crews abandoning tanks and the chance to survive, you'll inevitably end up with a crew that you do not need or do not want. The option gives you the possibility to send the crew "home" when in base and gain a 100 mp refund (or something more appropriate).

(Optional) 4) "Fix" radio net:
Show Spoiler

Pretty sure, but it was a while ago. I remember how excited i was i could retrieve the vet3 crew from a sherman and made them hop up into a jackson, it turned vet 2 and i was like. Aww man!

Anyone here that can/want to try it and debunk is welcome since i wont be able try myself for the whole week.

well jackson has higher vet requirement than sherman, the crew just had the max of the sherman