Yes we do need adv/proto vehicles

Infantry will scream no and also tiercide but tiercide would mean that std tanks would have to stand upto proto AV and they do now but infantry is screaming OP on that also

If we have basic/adv/proto hulls with basic/adv/proto turrets and basic/adv/proto mods its means it can be balanced with basic/adv/proto dropsuits with basic/adv/proto AV weapons and basic/adv/proto mods

Infantry has proto everything, why cant pilots? double standards from infantry while they protostomp

Frankly we need them but infantry keep screaming no but god forbid if we said no to proto dropsuits, there would be uproar and mass quittings on the forums and the world would end while CCP has to sticky suicide helpline numbers to GD

It seems to me that DUST's suit / vehicle selection (analogous to EVE's ship selection) incorrectly focuses on depth rather than width.

EVE has an extremely wide ship selection. Racial Frigate 1 will unlock 6 frigates of that respective race. Slighty more skilling into Frigate skills will unlock more potent Navy and Pirate frigates, and much more skilling into Frigate and other support skills will unlock access to T2 ships. To improve your ship you level up your skills. EVE's ships selection is rather shallow, though. The progression (from SP invested) is T1 -> Navy / Pirate -> T2. The selection is wide because there are man frigates to choose from.

In contrast, DUST has an fairly deep selection of suits / vehicles. The system progress from MLT to PRO, and you unlock them by leveling up skills. Cost aside, higher tiers are strictly better than lower. DUST's ship selection is very narrow though. Skilling into the respective light suit skill only unlocks one light suit. Skilling into the respective Scout skill only unlocks on light suit.

This is another case where DUST needs to be more like EVE. DUST needs more width (add more suits / vehicles of each size that fill roles similar to EVE) and less depth (get rid of tiers; there are no meta variants of ships, only T1, Navy / Pirate, T2, and for cruisers, T3,. Restructure the Dropsuit and Vehicle Command skill trees to more closely resemble EVE.)

I wouldn't remind removing the HAV MLT tier. It'd certainly reduce the spam of Maddy's and Gunlogi, if the more powerful HAV required more ISK, not too much more, and another SP sink.

MLT HAV- Gone
STD HAV- Sica + Soma
ADV HAV- Madrugar and Gunlogi

PRO HAV-

We have 3 types each representing an aspect or two of the 3 aspects of modern tank design.

Enforcer- Fire Power, Mobility
Black Ops- Mobility, Armour
Marauder- Armour, Fire Power

Each with a weakness in their respect field. Enforcer= Fast and powerful but the lightest armoured HAV, Marauder= Armoured and with good firepower, but slowest and least mobile, Black Ops= Fastest, well armoured, but lacking any real fire power assets.

I was thinking this...but visual cloaking would be ridiculous..... I would prefer a mini map cloaking.

Making sure all other HAV appear on the minimaps like they should due to their design, whereas the Black Ops can scan cloak itself. Perhaps not against dedicated scanners but against most passive and basic scanners.

Well frankly speaking the Enforcer would, under this model, be better designed for that...