QoL suggestion for halftracks

With the recent nerf to moving accuracy inside a halftrack, I think halftracks could use some functional improvements to compensate. Feel free to vote which ideas you like:

1. Handbrake mode

This seems the easiest to implement. When parking your halftrack next to an enemy squad to maximize dps, the front gunner makes the halftrack rotate to target individual models. This rotating applies the moving accuracy penalty to the squad inside the halftrack, lowering their accuracy by 60%. Crucial when that squad has high dps like Cavalry Riflemen or Panzergrenadiers. The only way to stop this is to spam the halt command, which is ofcourse not ideal. A handbrake like the M15 halftrack could solve this.

2. Allow squad targeting inside halftrack

A big weakness of halftracks is the inability to tell the squad inside who to shoot. You have to drive out of range or move behind a shotblocker to allow the squad to retarget. This can be detrimental when chasing a sniper for example, with only the gunner firing on the sniper, while the squad inside prefers to shoot at another irrelevant target instead. Letting the squad inside fire on the same target you right click on would be a simple solution or perhaps there could be a unique button on the command bar to allow squad targeting.

3. Vehicle prioritization for AT rocket infantry

This goes beyond just AT squads inside a halftrack. Rockets barely ever hit infantry and if they do hit, the damage is negligible. A perfectly timed flank on a light vehicle with a halftrack can be ruined by the squad inside unloading their rocket salvo on a squad that showed up a split second before the enemy vehicle was in range, possibly resulting in the halftrack being hunted down and destroyed by said vehicle.

4. Death crit reworked to damage crit

This is not really a QoL suggestion, but I feel it would improve the game. The current crit system when a halftrack blows up is either too harsh or too forgiving, with each model having a 50% chance to die or escape unscathed. This leads to extreme results, especially with small squads, and is thus not an RNG element that positively adds to the game in my opinion.

I think something like each model getting between 1 to 79 HP damage when the halftrack gets blown up would be better. The average damage a full health squad would take would still be ~50%, so nothing changes there. Models can still die if they have already taken damage before, so the halftrack player is punished when he overextends and doesn't exit in time. Lone mines will never be able to instagib the whole squad inside.

The Ambulance could do with Handbrake too. Make the aura automatic when it's not moving, and use the Handbrake to lock it in place.

+1 to all

The crew damage point was good, but imo there hast to be a reward to micro the units out of the vehicle more worth than not being damaged. Id like units that were crewing the HT to be suppressed when they abandon the exploding HT

I like distrfofifi s idea

3. Vehicle prioritization for AT rocket infantry

This goes beyond just AT squads inside a halftrack. Rockets barely ever hit infantry and if they do hit, the damage is negligible. A perfectly timed flank on a light vehicle with a halftrack can be ruined by the squad inside unloading their rocket salvo on a squad that showed up a split second before the enemy vehicle was in range, possibly resulting in the halftrack being hunted down and destroyed by said vehicle.

When Mr. Smith was in charge, somebody asked the same thing. Mr. Smith said this:

It is possible to add a permanently-on prioritise-vehicles thing for models that carry AT weapons. However that thing stops working the moment stuff garrisons buildings.

However, if we could give an ability to the open-top halftracks to do precisely that, this might fix things. I haven't tried. Unfortunately this requires too much testing, and I don't think we can include this just yet

1. Handbrake mode

This seems the easiest to implement. When parking your halftrack next to an enemy squad to maximize dps, the front gunner makes the halftrack rotate to target individual models. This rotating applies the moving accuracy penalty to the squad inside the halftrack, lowering their accuracy by 60%. Crucial when that squad has high dps like Cavalry Riflemen or Panzergrenadiers. The only way to stop this is to spam the halt command, which is ofcourse not ideal. A handbrake like the M15 halftrack could solve this.

Last time I checked, many months ago, there -was- a handbrake mode for halftracks. You click it, and the halftrack stops rotating to face the enemy. Or at least it works that way most of the time.

For best results, you hit stop, and the toggle should be obeyed.

2. Allow squad targeting inside halftrack

A big weakness of halftracks is the inability to tell the squad inside who to shoot. You have to drive out of range or move behind a shotblocker to allow the squad to retarget. This can be detrimental when chasing a sniper for example, with only the gunner firing on the sniper, while the squad inside prefers to shoot at another irrelevant target instead. Letting the squad inside fire on the same target you right click on would be a simple solution or perhaps there could be a unique button on the command bar to allow squad targeting.

3. Vehicle prioritization for AT rocket infantry

This goes beyond just AT squads inside a halftrack. Rockets barely ever hit infantry and if they do hit, the damage is negligible. A perfectly timed flank on a light vehicle with a halftrack can be ruined by the squad inside unloading their rocket salvo on a squad that showed up a split second before the enemy vehicle was in range, possibly resulting in the halftrack being hunted down and destroyed by said vehicle.

Both of those are amazing ideas, but they looked impossible to implement. Something about how garrisoning worked - something.

Last time I checked, many months ago, there -was- a handbrake mode for halftracks. You click it, and the halftrack stops rotating to face the enemy. Or at least it works that way most of the time.

For best results, you hit stop, and the toggle should be obeyed.

Thank you for letting me know, I've reported it as a bug. Apparently the Mech Assault and German Mech 250 didn't receive a handbrake like other halftracks.

Both of those are amazing ideas, but they looked impossible to implement. Something about how garrisoning worked - something.

Some halftracks have a hold fire mode, would it be possible for hold fire to affect the units inside too? It would be a crude way of controlling who the squad inside will shoot at (disable hold fire when a vehicle shows up or you're close to a sniper), but better than nothing.

Some halftracks have a hold fire mode, would it be possible for hold fire to affect the units inside too? It would be a crude way of controlling who the squad inside will shoot at (disable hold fire when a vehicle shows up or you're close to a sniper), but better than nothing.

The handbrake function on all the other halftracks is implemented as follows (iirc):
- For each halftrack, there's an invisible non-damaging gun. The sole purpose of that gun is to make the halftrack rotate to the destination if you are attacking the enemy.
- The handbrake is basically a hold-fire on the invisible weapon, to prevent the halftrack from turning involuntarily.

The 250 halftracks were given 360-degree invisible weapons, since they normally don't have any normal weapons mounted on them; hence there is no reason to have handbrake on them. That is, unless somebody added an LMG-weapon upgrade on them and forgot to implement the handbrake for them.

Then yes, somebody should tell Relic to fix it

Some halftracks have a hold fire mode, would it be possible for hold fire to affect the units inside too? It would be a crude way of controlling who the squad inside will shoot at (disable hold fire when a vehicle shows up or you're close to a sniper), but better than nothing.

This might be possible to do, but I'm not 100% sure.
I was toying with allowing snipers to mount m3 halftracks again, but disabling their fire while they are mounted, and this seemed to work (i.e., no firing while they're mounted). With some complicated logic with slot_items and what-was-it-called-passenger-actions, it might be possible to have a hold fire that affects passengers; or it might not be possible. I can't say for sure!

The handbrake function on all the other halftracks is implemented as follows (iirc):
- For each halftrack, there's an invisible non-damaging gun. The sole purpose of that gun is to make the halftrack rotate to the destination if you are attacking the enemy.
- The handbrake is basically a hold-fire on the invisible weapon, to prevent the halftrack from turning involuntarily.

Thank you for the information, always interested to know more about the inner mechanics of this game. Do other types of vehicles work with an invisible gun like this (like turrets in tanks)?

The 250 halftracks were given 360-degree invisible weapons, since they normally don't have any normal weapons mounted on them; hence there is no reason to have handbrake on them. That is, unless somebody added an LMG-weapon upgrade on them and forgot to implement the handbrake for them.

Then yes, somebody should tell Relic to fix it

This did happen, 250's are now armed and dangerous.

The handbrake wasn't actually forgotten, but only the 250 for the revamped Infantry Doctrine got it, not the 250's that were already in other doctrines.

This might be possible to do, but I'm not 100% sure.
I was toying with allowing snipers to mount m3 halftracks again, but disabling their fire while they are mounted, and this seemed to work (i.e., no firing while they're mounted). With some complicated logic with slot_items and what-was-it-called-passenger-actions, it might be possible to have a hold fire that affects passengers; or it might not be possible. I can't say for sure!

That gives some hope atleast, anything is better than what we have now (i.e. manipulating sight blockers and weapon range to have some control over who the squad inside fires at).

I hope the balance team can look into it.

Thank you for the information, always interested to know more about the inner mechanics of this game. Do other types of vehicles work with an invisible gun like this (like turrets in tanks)?

Tanks and other turreted vehicles do not require that sort of manipulation. The main gun (i.e., the turret) rotates at 360 degrees, thus the AI does not have to force the tank to rotate to allow the gun to fire.