Not sure if this is a bug or if its just the way the developers want it to be but the tanks seem to shoot their 50 cal guns and their explosives way to fast and accurately. Im currently playing single player and i was fighting a tank from the top of a hill while it was at the bottom and the second i peaked from the top of the hill the tank managed to shoot me in my head 3 times with the 50 cal gun taking me to extremely low health(I only peaked for maybe 4 - 6 seconds and i barley was able to see the robot myself). They also seem to be able to shoot at ridiculous ranges with extremely good accuracy making it impossible to run. The developers also seem to forget that you are also probably gonna have to fight the other robots in the area that will be attracted by the explosions and gunshots thus making it even more difficult to kill tanks in some cases. I get that this game i supposed to be hard and i like that but the tanks are simply to powerful for single players to fight alone. Not to mention you cant even use explosives to kill them as there is currently a bug that will most likely only do 1-4 damage when hit with explosives
Those ranges are nothing compared to what real combat vehicles can do. Tanks are meant to be the largest and toughest machine we face, and it’s to be expected that they’re tough as nails to take down. Engaging a Tank takes planning and tactics, especially the FNIX (tier 3) ones but it’s fully possible to do it on your own. And like you said, other machines may join the fray so planning ahead is important.
All that being said, the June update that’s coming soon will correct the explosive damage done to Machines so our grenade launchers become useful again, and the loot tables on the Tanks will also be improved as well so it’s more worth to take them on 
It’s way more satisfying to fight, and beat hard oponent, then engaging a horde of brainless and aimless stormtroopers 
Playing alone is very challenging, especially with barely working explosives.
Right now keeping your distance, strafing and using environment as cover is the key.
Avoid engaging tanks in open areas.
I also enjoy the challenge but I didn’t always. I remember feeling woefully over powered. With tanks… don’t stand still. I tend to run in a constant circle around them while shooting bullets and flares.
I do feel that the lower the tier the less accurate the robot should be.
At the minute it only seems to be reaction time which differs (and in the case of tanks maybe aggressiveness)
I would also appreciate it if they actually had an ammo quota because they can shoot forever and then drop next to nothing (even before the May update.)
I wouldn’t mind receiving nothing if the I survived long enough for it to run out of ammo, especially if it had to run for base (or a Harvester) to resupply
This would get a nice balance because I gun it down in relative safety could using a lot of my ammo gunning but get little to loot in return.
Or I could have a plan and kill it early and get a big payoff
I do kinda agree with the current range, the real problem for me now is the fact that they do not seem to loose accuracy the further away you are, at least from what i have noticed. Making these changes will give the ability of single players to fight from far away and be able to dodge shots easier. another balance that cta102 recommended was that the lower the tier robot, the less accurate they should be and that would defiantly make playing this game much better for new players. I’ve also found a bug where the binoculars do not tell you the correct health of the robot as i have killed robots that the binoculars said had 70% health with one AP 50 cal shot. But it only seems to be a problem with the bigger bots from my experience.
I also think that the devs absolutely need to put ammo caps on robots because it is way to unrealistic that they can shoot you forever and then just drop useless loot like a single smoke round. They should also make it where robots have high amounts of ammo and as they shoot it decreases thus if the player wants alot of loot then they need to quickly deal with the robots.
Side note: The devs created a world with the highly advanced robots that we cant even build in 2019 yet, so why no advanced weapons for players to use to fight against robots like maybe an energy based weapon that is powered by fuel cells that would be found in robots that would deplete as you use it?
I do agree that it would make sense for the Tank’s machineguns to lose accuracy over great ranges. It’s a balancing issue, which can be hard to perfect. The Prototype machines carry similar weaponry to that of the Military ones, but they have a lot less armour and are easier to defeat. As long as you avoid it’s line of sight they will lose you after a little while, and you gain an opportunity to strike again.
I’m guessing, the only reason why the machines don’t seem to have an ammo cap is because of gameplay. It’s less realistic sure, but it makes battles a bit more exciting. I reiterate; loot table changes are coming with the June patch so Tanks will drop better stuff. As far as equipment drops go, machine parts like infrared sights, EMP batteries, lures etc are dependant on how you take them out, if you damage a Seeker’s speakers, you’re unable to pick them up later, etc. So that works, just not with ammo.
It’s been in the talks to add more weapons in the future, so who knows? Priority one is to fix the most prevalent bugs with the June update, then start working on content.
The damage threshold on particular components matters, if you have the schematics for that particular model.
That’s why shooting off the .50 cal on a hunter will make it incredibly vulnerable to a few more well placed shots (say on the shoulder mount weapon.)
The ordinary view just shows the general health.
I do agree on the rockets part though because on the wiki it tells everyone that the “rockets have a slow reload” meaning that the tanks should only shoot rockets about every minute or so.
I was using the binoculars (which I have now broadly abandoned) and after twenty minutes fight, it said that a tank had 82% health and three rounds later it fell over. So discouraging that I stopped bothering to carry binoculars - just blocking up a square and giving nothing back. Cost me two poxy skill points, too!
The skill can only determine the overall health of the machine. If you have the blueprint you could see that each component has it’s own health, such as armor, rocket pods, etc. Therefore you can sometimes manage to destroy critical parts of the machine and bring it down, without having to lower the average to zero percent.
Yeees, but the binos don’t tell you that, so for damage they are next to useless. My big problem is that it is impossible (with one big eye) to judge distance, and therefore what weapon to use, and how much to allow for bullet drop. For instance, the 7.62 round weapons are generally set on 300, and are fine at closer distances. There’s little drop from a high-velocity round at that range, though low velocity rounds (like the SMGs) will drop noticeably… At 500 you notice it, which should be simple for a hunting/sniper rifle.
What we need is a little range-finder, with a cross-hair - whatever you set the cross-hair onto gives you a read-out of the range. So you can set it on a house in the distance and know how far away it is (or a machine of course). They certainly had golf-course range-finders in those days, but what you are really doing is compensating for the lack of stereo vision, which normally gives you a good idea.
With a high-velocity round (7.62. 2.45, 2.70, 50cal) and a sniper scope, you should easily hit a hunter or bigger in the centre of mass at 500 yards/metres, even with a suppressor, though at that range you don’t really need one - the bullet passing makes a cracking sound (the sound barrier being broken) as it goes by and the boom of the shot is relatively tiny and gets lost in the echoes. You can tell that it’s somewhere in the 50 yard arc, but not closer…
For example, 7.62 tracer burn-out is 1200 metres (or was in those days) and that big old bullet is still going like a train - fast enough to go through you and about five of your friends…
What we need is a little range-finder, with a cross-hair - whatever you set the cross-hair onto gives you a read-out of the range. So you can set it on a house in the distance and know how far away it is (or a machine of course). They certainly had golf-course range-finders in those days, but what you are really doing is compensating for the lack of stereo vision, which normally gives you a good idea.
Agreed, the whole targeting system is kind of crap. A real rangefinder in the scopes would be wonderful (I’d love to get a PSO-1 for my Älgstudsare), and realistic accuracy would be nice too (it seems to get close with the high powered scopes when you’re scoped in, but it’s still a bit ridiculous how bad it is at times).
2.45, 2.70
Minor nit pick, but it’s .243 and .270, not 2.45 and 2.70. The .270 is more specifically .270 Winchester (cartridge dimensions are 7x84mm, though I can’t seem to find an official CIP designation). Not sure about what exactly the .243 is, but I suspect it’s .243 Winchester (time period, usage, and apparent cartridge dimensions match up), also known as 6x52mm in CIP terms.
For example, 7.62 tracer burn-out is 1200 metres (or was in those days) and that big old bullet is still going like a train - fast enough to go through you and about five of your friends…
It’s not without reason that H&K G3’s, FN FAL’s, and US M14’s are still used as DMR’s by many militarizes throughout the world…
If you have the skill (“inquisitive mind” I think it is), and have picked up the blueprint of the robot, then you can see the health of every single part of the robot with the binoculars. Quite handy when slowly sniping a tank to death.
Can’t get them all! With all that is recommended, I’d need another twelve points or something - and I have one and a half waiting around, which I’ll decide on when I’ve got two of them…
Yes, lazy, sorry! Couldn’t be bothered to look them up…
I want a rangefinder because I am IRL good at judging range, and in the game, with one big eye, I overestimate madly.