Quantum_Ranger

Now in-game global chat has been disabled ... hmmm. Thank goodness for the forum. QR

Last BP I felt OK pre-ordering because I needed stuff for Storyline from the shop... so there was an objective. This time, not so much. Seems like BP vehicle restrictions will force participants to play low tier, which is painful after 0.37. The AW battle doctrine is now thoroughly confused - it used to be that MBT were front line vehicles to soak up damage, and squishies were scouting from the back with superior vision. Now we have AC which are less effective at distance, forcing TD to work in close, and the TR85M1 which seems custom-designed for camping? I think some of these re-turreted vehicles might have been good contract rewards (like the Burlak), but aren't really at the level of BP prizes. One side effect of re-balancing is that instead of the power-creep prone scenario of having OP vehicles that everyone wants and grinds for, we have lots and lots of meh vehicles where if you own one, there's not much incentive to get another, unless you are a collector. Hats off to SS for engineering the storyline content... the need to help the team is good motivation and emphasizes the social component of the game that is supposed to be valuable. For those of us with finite bandwidth, there's just not enough grinding hours in the day to do Storyline + BP + Raid. I think I will sit this BP out.... still recovering from the last BP and Storyline Episode 1. QR

“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.” — Heraclitus (535-475 BC)

Kudos to SS for actually playing the game and having a feel for the end product. I wish there were more on the team who would follow his example. QR

Welcome - the community here is very supportive. And feel free to ping if you are on STO, FWIW.

BP is when I grind most of my progression vehicles nowadays... I agree it's more satisfying to grind towards a vehicle that gives you more capability, as opposed to much of the progression grinds, where you grind towards a stock vehicle that performs less well than the one you are driving. Commander grind is indeed a huge endeavor.... even with Heroics. For me, the rewards for leveling up a commander are not that noticeable, so it's more of a secondary objective. QR

Unfortunately, as of a couple of months ago, there were not any additional progression vehicles planned... I think folks were working hard on 0.37.... Generally the trend has been to focus more on premium vehicles (and skins) because they bring better revenue. Things like Storyline Campaign are probably designed to keep folks playing after they have the content they want. I'm kind of at that point - I have some T10s but am not a collector, so there needs to be some element beyond just grinding for the next progression vehicle to keep me interested. DVC, QR

Skin meets lootbox. A celestial match if there ever was one. We have made so much progress in the year since the 5th anniversary event! QR

Oh, so whales are attracted to octopus skins. I get it now.... Plus it explains why Raid is essentially a giant gold-sink. One would think that skins would buff your stats better than the 5% you get from the free camos... otherwise from a functional perspective, there's not much reason to sink $$$k BC on them in the BP shop. QR

What seems hypocritical is in this era of "all-time expensive development costs" we still have artists dedicated to make sure the correct nuts and bolts are torqued on the tank exterior (at a resolution well beyond my modest graphics card) but there aren't resources available to promote realism on the tank stats. And if the glowing squid-ghost tank skin was so successful, why don't I ever see it in game?? DVC, QR

Have been grinding T72B to get to T90 for SC.... last upgrade to unlock was the Refleks ATGM. Now it appears the T72B ATGM is unlocked (oooh) but you can't equip any in the ammo menu (boo). So I am left wondering whether deletion of the ATGM from the T72B is intentional or not. No mention of this in patchnotes, AFAIK. QR Hmm... maybe they are saving the T7-10 re-rebalance for 0.39?? To "freshen" the game for the "casual players" who are unbiased by reality? QR

Much appreciation to Haswell, Seb, and the other Lab Rats for organizing the marathons.... still had 17 missions to go when the AN clock ran out, but completion next week is still realistically possible thanks to you guys. Hopefully we can reach critical mass for NA players... like @knutliott the workday Friday extends into the SpecOps window. DVC, QR

This is much better. The original deadline would have been a real squeeze on NA players due to the timezone difference and the cooldown clock. This also allows folks who hadn't started the SLEP event at launch (before the Episode 1 missions were posted!) to have a shot at completing the Reinforcements mission. DVC, QR

Yeah, discovered that York now has 50-round belts, with a ~1.5 reload time between belts. So now one must hit the C key between targets to ensure that you don't have a reload while engaging. I am left wondering why they didn't include this change in the patch notes. Even with the HESH pen it feels like most current MBTs have to be attacked from the rear.... so now York is principally effective against squishies. Fortunately with Storyline I can enjoy unfettered dakka dakka in BMPT-2017. York was fun while it lasted... but it's definitely less efficient for headhunting now. QR

Very useful. So my York gets a buff if I switch from AP to HESH. Dakka dakka! I suspect we will also see a lot of ATGM spam. DVC, QR