if you want an FPS that involves mostly infantry combat, go play CoD. i want to fight on a realistic sci-fi battlefield where we have to hide from things like tanks. it makes the game more fun for us in the infantry. i repspect a skilled tanker. i respect a good dropship pilot. however, the one thing i do agree with you on is the militia tank issue. either raise their price to some large amount (like 100k isk per tank, especially since they are pre-fitted) or ditch them. they are too much power for one person who hasnt put SP into tanks to have. LP tanks are another story though. i dont mind them as much cuz they r nothing more than a big thank-you for fighting for our faction. kinda like how EVE players get special things with LP too.

all-in-all, tanks and dropships should be as powerful as they are right now. just adapt. no matter what you say, CCP wont change vehicles back to their original state. vehicles wont stay this way though. CCP promised that the vehicles in their current state are just a template that will be tweaked and added upon.

If AI tanks are so useless, then why all the complaints? If they are a non factor then nobody would miss them.

Of course some maps render them less than useful, that's not the point. The tragedy is they don't have a unique role of their own. They compete directly with infantry and are either far superior or they can't participate at all.

Rework blasters as AV, and nearly all the tank QQ will disappear.

And the need for tanks will also go away.

Also to whoever said that tanks need to be just as easily killable as infantry if they are to be competing against infantry with infantry kills: tanks can already be one shot killed by infantry, blasters cannot one shot any infantry. Just stahp.

There is no way to balance vehicles when they compete for the same role as a dropsuit. All versions of a role need to be equally powerful or you need to use the best one to be competitive. Right now blaster tanks are the best fitting for slaying infantry. Try an Ambush match if you still require convincing. MLT Somas cost about what any other ADV suits cost, are more powerful than any PRO suit, and require zero SP. STD HAVs bump the price, SP, and power level. That's why ADV and PRO vehicles are totally unthinkable. You can't balance these two as long as they are sharing the same role.

It's not just tanks though, dropships need to stop competing with infantry for kills and start assisting infantry make assaults. I've said it many times before, but it bears repeating. The best weapon a dropship has is a squad of mercs armed to the teeth.

Differentiation is a good idea.

Why does a game get boring? Because it doesn't have enough challenges to master. DUST has one basic game mode and one way to achieve it. Slay infantry by shooting face with the highest DPS available. Fun for a while, but it pales after a few months. Give vehicles new roles of their own and you vastly expand a players options for fun AND make combat more complex and fun for everyone.

It's going to require game development.

Without destructible environments tanks won't have much to do. Defenders need to be in possession of fortifications at he start of a match to give them a reason to blow stuff up and breach walls.

Communication will need to be improved before a dropship pilot can entice and load assault squad for an effective drop, especially in public matches.

We will need new game modes that either require or benefit greatly from vehicle use. We need infantry rooting for vehicles on their side, not cursing them for hogging all the kills.

You will know when you have gotten it right because you will be able to lift all artificial vehicle limits.

You won't find six tanks in Ambush and you may find none, simply because players won't have much to do in one. In other modes you will find a natural balance as players decide for themselves that there are already enough of some type of vehicle for the job and they would find slim pickings if they called in another.

CCP, please acknowledge you understand this vital point.