Mammoth Tank
1) Movement Speed up from 50 to 55.
2) Turn Speed down from 5 to 4.
3) Turret Rotation Speed up from 2 to 3.
4) Missiles *reworked, will now use them against everything.
5) Now uses primary turret fire against infantry as well.
6) Build duration down to 30 sec (cost is the same, 2000 credits).
7) Primary turret range increased from 4.75 to 5.75.
8 ) Can no longer crush Concrete Walls.
* = The new MammothTusk weapon:
A) Attack launch range down from 8 to 6.75 cells (same follow distance, 9.6 cells).
B) Better accuracy (projectile inaccuracy value down from 128 to 48 ).
C) Larger initial outwards launch angle compared to the front direction of the tank's turret. Has slightly better HorizontalRateOfTurn (from 15 to 16).
D) Changed missile from "direct launch type" to those kinds that get thrown out of their tubes and then ignites on their own, whatever those types of missiles are called.
E) Mammoth can now lock on to targets with its missiles twice as fast as the primary cannon (missiles are launched by an invisible independent turret able to rotate twice as fast as the cannons).
F) Missile reload time increased by circa 333%, from 60 to 400. Vanilla: 24 missile bursts (48 missiles) in 1 minute. Overhaul: 8 missile bursts (16 missiles) in 1 minute.
G) Damage per missile and damage spread (AOE) has been reworked.
Motivations:
I'd like to begin by saying that Mammoth Tank has been buffed vs vehicles and buildings, nerfed vs infantry and air. I know Mammoths have been built a little bit more lately but I still don't think their worth are proportional to the high Tech Level you need in order to build them (they need a lot more investment than just the final 2k credits per unit).
1) This is because movement speed matters so much in RTS games (I've mentioned it a lot in my later posts but it needs to be said). Slow moving things are always such a downer simply because it takes forever to transport them to the battle, you could have the most powerful unit ever but if it takes too long to deploy it most players will rather build weaker things with more mobility. Five extra movement speed is not too much but it's still a 10% change so it definitely has a positive effect on the manoeuvrability of the Mammoth Tank. It still is slower than infantry default speed (56), which I think is the most important thing. Now it won't lag behind your infantry blob (maybe just a little).
2) Ever noticed that despite its slow movement speed the Mammoth Tank can do a 180 pretty quickly? In overhaul the turn speed has been lowered to better reflect its slow move speed.
3) To be blunt the turret is too slow in vanilla, the Mammoth doesn't shoot so hard that it warrants taking an extremely long time to change target (basically making it impossible to fire at a fast enemy passing by behind the Mammoth). There available directions in the .shp animation makes it look pretty stiff when turning as well.
The tank still ignores the laws of physics in overhaul though; the turret still rotates slower than the body that its attached to so that when doing a 180 the turret will still lag behind the body. Idea: A "EnableRealism: True/False"-property could be added to the Turreted trait, which would apply the body's rotation to all attached turrets whenever the body turns. It would make the turrets feel less floaty/detached if desired.
4) The missiles are right there and they aren't strictly surface-to-air missiles, so might as well use them to make the Mammoth Tank more balanced. If they can attack a Rocket Soldier on the other side of a Concrete Wall why shouldn't they be able to do the same against a Tesla Coil that is walled in?
5) The Mammoth's cannons still do damage vs infantry, why wouldn't it use them in addition to the missiles? If nothing else they make sure the infantry is pinned (prones) and can't run away until the missiles do fire so they serve an important purpose just by that (especially in overhaul when the missiles take much longer to reload).
6) This is part of the overhaul's general push towards making all high tech units more worth while to build, having both a high price and a long build queue blocking is too steep in my opinion when you've already invested so much time and credits in reaching high tech level. See "Training/production time limit" on page 3 for more on this.
7) This makes it so that Light Tank has 4.0 reach, Medium Tank/Heavy Tank has 4.75 reach and Mammoth Tank has 5.75 reach with its cannon and 6.75 reach with its reworked missiles. Due to the slight delay and travel time of the missiles they will hit the target roughly at the same time as its ballistics.
8 ) This is due to the overall wall rework and reworked purpose of Engineer (can crumble walls), see "Sandbags, Barbed Wire and Concrete Wall" and "Engineer" for more info (both on page 1).
A) The range of the missiles have been nerfed, meaning that you dare to fly closer to the Mammoth Tank and you can get closer to it with Rocket Soldiers before it starts attacking them.
B) This helped me to balance the impact power of the missiles vs infantry (in vanilla the damage output is all over the place). Helps ensuring that the damage vs aircrafts are more consistent as well. Prevents missiles from going into the water sometimes when launched at moving/turning Destroyers or Gunboats (deals 0 damage from near-misses into the water).
C) What can I say other than I think it just looks cooler.
The +1 in HorizontalRateOfTurn compensates for the larger outwards launch angle, it ensures that the missiles will hit their target even if it's just 1 cell away (right in front of the tank), otherwise they might end up spinning around the infantry without ever hitting it.
Sometimes it could still happen so I might increase the HorizontalRateOfTurn by one more if I make a new version of overhaul.
D) This is mainly to make the Mammoth Tank missiles more unique, both by sound and appearance. First you'll get two smoke puffs as the missiles are thrown out of their tubes and then after a small delay both ignite at the same time and rush towards the target. Not only is it satisfying as hell when both hit at the same time
but it also reworks them in a way that nerfs and buffs at the same time. On the buff side any fast targets won't have the chance to move further away before the second missile is launched, potentially outrunning the later missile, so you'll always hit with both or none. On the nerf side your mammoth can't split them on several close Rocket Soldiers. The buff is bigger than the nerf though since usually in vanilla the first missile won't have reached its target before the second is launched.
E) The primary turrets' rotation speed was buffed but it still takes 1.5-2.0 sec before the ballistics will land on their target if the turret has to do a 180 to fire. In vanilla this makes it practically impossible to attack fast targets that are running by the Mammoth Tank (APC/Ranger/Yak); the missiles won't launch until the tank points towards them and its Turret Rotation Speed of 2 simply can't make it before they are long gone. Overhaul's 3 still won't make it but the missiles now have their own (hidden) turret with a rotation speed of 6 so the missiles have the time to launch most of the time. This increases the overall threat of the Mammoth since it now can reach even fast units, you have to respect its presence. This is why the missile range got reduced, it is shorter but will almost always be able to launch now. The slight delay before missile ignition means you might still be able to outrun the missiles though if you react quickly.
C, D, and (mainly) E is inspired by how the tusk missiles work in the original Tiberian Dawn game. When you attack an enemy behind you the Mammoth Tank would launch its missiles when the turret had reached half way towards the target. You can't mimick this exact behaviour in OpenRA's engine (the turret has to point towards its target) but I did manage to mimick it close-enough. The missiles will indeed be fired when the primary turret is half-way towards its target.
F) Here's a big change, instead of the Mammoth being able to spam missiles against infantry and aircraft it can now use it against everything but only in moderation. It creates a rather big opening after they have been fired, which opens up strategic gameplay possibilities for skilled players (send in a Rifle Infantry to trigger the missiles and then move in with Rocket Soldiers or aircraft). In vanilla it's impossible for two Longbows to win against a Mammoth Tank but in overhaul they will not only win - both helicopters will survive. And why shouldn't they, 4000 credits is twice as much as a Mammoth Tank and they are on the same Tech Level.
A single Mammoth shouldn't be a mobile SAM site, Soviet has Mobile Flak for that. Likewise a single Mammoth shouldn't be able to win against a big infantry blob, there are other units for that purpose. Instead a Mammoth Tank should be a great unit against everything, not superior in any one field. They are still very strong in a group but not so string that Rocket Soldiers or aircraft of equal value wouldn't be able to take them on. Or other types of tanks for that matter.
G) Overall the missiles are nerfed against big infantry blobs. The Rocket Soldiers will have enough time to take down the Mammoths before thay can fire their missiles again. Against smaller infantry numbers however they are buffed or nerfed depending on formation, meaning there's now strategy involved in formation when attacking a Mammoth. When missiles are fired the Mammoth Will always take out the Rocket Soldier it is aiming at, however it has greater splash now so if the infantry are close together more than one are likely to be taken out from two tusk missiles. I've adjusted the splash and damage so that it usually take out 2 or 3 Rocket Soldiers that stand next to each other. Sometimes still only one gets killed, though the added 25% chance for Rocket Soldiers to explode helps to get my intended average of 2. Micro-managing players can increase the odds by manually trying to attack the middle Rocket Soldier in a stack of 5.
1 missile burst (2 missiles) will destroy a Light Hind/Hind/Heavy Hind as well as both a Mig and a Yak. It takes 2 missile bursts to destroy a Chinook or Longbow. Keep in mind that Mig has longer attack range with their Maverick missiles so with a little bit of micro-management you can easily take out a Mammoth Tank with a Mig without it being able to fire back at you (and if it do manage to fire at you chances are you'll be able to fly away from the tusk missiles before they can catch up with the Mig).
Against buildings (wood armor) a missile burst (2 missiles) will do the same amount of damage as 1 of the Mammoth's ballistic attacks. So every 8 seconds it'll be as if the Mammoth fires three ballistics on the structure instead of two. This brings it into the same ballpark as the rest of the tanks, 5 Medium Tanks (4250 credits) will still destroy a War Factory faster 2 Mammoth Tanks (4000 credits).
Same goes for tanks or defense structures (heavy armor), a missile burst does the same amount of damage as 1 ballistic attack. 5 Medium Tanks will still win against 2 Mammoth Tanks (with 2 survivors). 3 Heavy Tanks (3450 credits) will win against 2 Mammoth Tanks (4000 credits), though it was close.
It's against Light Armor such as V2 Rocket or Ranger that the new Mammoth Tank really shines. Being able to lock seeking missiles on them means not even the fastest vehicles can stroll by unscathed. The burst doesn't mean instant death though, 2 missiles will bring a Ranger down to 25% HP and a V2 Rocket to 50% HP. Artillery will of course die from it, as it dies from pretty much anything. So Light Armored vehicles should definitely use their movement speed to stay clear of Mammoth Tanks.
In regards to Tanya I've made sure a single Mammoth Tank needs two missile bursts in order to kill her, as long as she is moving. This gives her eight seconds to crawl to that building with C4 even when pinned by a Mammoth Tank.
Btw, if you're worried about Mammoth Tanks as an allied player remember that the Radar Jammer neutralizes the tusk missiles and will severly gimp the Mammoth Tank back into vanilla territory. Keeping the jammer out of range of the Mammoth's cannons is easier now since it has greatly increase movement speed.
I don't think these changes makes the unit unbalanced, it makes it stronger in some areas where it was weak before while making it more vulnerable in other areas where it was stronger before. The Mammoth Tanks isn't the solution to everything but is nice to have in your army mixture, I'd say it's now worth to tech up just to gain access to the them. The 10% increased movement speed makes it able to keep up with your infantry army and the quicker missile response makes it able to do something even vs fast enemies zooming by. Using the primary turret vs infantry makes it able to pin the units and maybe even kill one of them inbetween missile bursts. Using missiles vs everything brings the damage output into the same range as the other tanks and makes it possible to fire over the now uncrushable walls.