I’ve been toying with and working on this idea quite a bit recently, as posts on other topics have hinted at. And having figured out how mod dependencies, I can use what’ll be a Blazemod-dependant mod.
You want tanks? We got tanks.
But first, some Fun notes:
Note Number 1: MOST of the vehicle guns in this mod are manual ONLY. Blaze’s mod does this too where default mounted guns are manual, and I know this trips a lot of people up, so I’ll say it here. Go to whatever seat the weapon is mounted on, unwield whatever weapon you might be holding, then hit the "f"ire key. The only vehicle turrets in this mod to use the vanilla automated function are the M2 turret on the atomic light tank, and the main gun on the automated gun system.
2. Tanks are a tad annoying to render as a 2D vehicle plan, especially lacking hatches at the top. For this reason the tanks take the general idea of the Israeli Merkava tank, mainly with their rear entry hatches.
3. Hauling something as heavy as a tank takes either a seriously hefty engine, or multiple ones. Due to a need to keep the mod easier to test and merge, going with multiple engines instead of modding in bigger ones. The results still have comparable speed and higher acceleration as my original idea, but with higher fuel consumption.
4. Tanks are complex things, and operating one alone is impractical at best. Manning the turret requires leaving the driver’s position (with one exception). That said, there’s nothing stopping you from moving controls to the gunner’s position, except for the mechanics skill required.
5. Yes, you can yank the main gun out of a tank. No, you can’t use it as a personal weapon.
Due to PR bloat, it was merged in 3 parts. Series 4-5 were then merged.
Additions and Changes:
Vehicle Additions:
- Three different types of tank. There’s the atomic mini-tank, the light tank, and the main battle tank.
- Three not-quite tanks. Self-propelled howitzer, mobile gun system, and infantry fighting vehicle.
- Two bandit-modded vehicles. A technical (truck, plus M60, plus makeshift armor equals Fun) and a modified tractor bulldozer (with a flamethrower, for extra demolition ability).
- Two civilian vehicles. Forklifts are basic electric vehicles, and the forks are built as being sorta pointy while able to hold items. Farm tractors are the basic agricultural tracked vehicle. Currently forklifts are dummied out due to depending on mapgen hax.
- Tanks and other AFVs spawn, somewhat rarely, in the same vehicle groups that APCs use. Bandit-ified vehciles and tractors are uncommon spawn on roads and highways.
Item Additions and Tweaks:
- 120mm cannons. Rather than messing with the debug-only tankgun on the off change it’s used for something, I instead made variants with the desired properties. Both are bulky, heavy, and must be mounted to use. You have a single-shot version, and one with a built-in autoloading mechanism. In practice this is reflected in how much volume for shells the mounted gun has. In addition to finding them on tanks, dismantling a tank drone will now yield the autoloading version.
- The Remote Weapon Station is now upgraded to a 120mm version, functioning like a turret.
- 155mm howitzer is now the odd gun out, being the only tank gun not in 120mm.
- 120mm shells are available in a rare few item groups, and from its most notable user. Aside from no longer using the insanely-high price debug items use, they also gain a whopping 10 volume. They’re now actually a separate item from the tankbot shells, in order to fix the ammo type’s name so that I can add types beside HEAT at a later date.
- 155mm shells are also available, more rarely, in the same item groups as 120mm.
- And now, 30mm autocannon.
- Two variants of anti-tank guided missile launcher. One manual and usable as a personal weapon (like the heavy machineguns), the other a turret version.
- Ability to handload crude ammo for the 30mm, 120mm, and 155mm shells. Uses casings, fresh electric primers, and plenty of gunpowder plus lead. Your options are shot (for 120mm and 155mm) or slug (all 3). 120mm and 155mm slugs in particular need additional tools to cast the projectiles, as they are far beyond the abilities of the hand press and die set.
- A launcher skill book. Also needed to craft the handloads, and for jury-rigging an ATGM turret in true Blazemod fashion.
Monster tweaks:
- Tankbots will drop at least a single 120mm shell on destruction, in addition to its usual spawns. Good luck farming them, it’s hardly a sustainable way to get more ammo.
- As already mentioned, dismantling a broken tankbot will yield a 120mm cannon.
Mapgen tweaks have been dummied out due to bugs.
Let me know what you think. I do suspect that the atomic tank, while using a less available power source and with less redundant walls of steel, may be removed if it’s determined to be too silly an idea. Do note that it is quite rare on the vehicle group list compared to the other tank models.
