[Sarafan]

You people spend too much time talking about ships, destroyers here, cruisers there, figthers over here, bombers over there. But you know what?

Not anymore!

Here's a tank.

Why?

Because I could, because I'm a rebel, because I'm not going to conform to this ship-centric site anymore.












And also because I have nowhere else to post...

Made this for what I hope someday will be a total conversion of Earth 2140, well, a man can dream...

[Nuke]

nothing wrong with wanting some tanks (i always wanted to design a mech myself). i figure with the right kind of scripting you can make tanks stick to the ground.

[Alex Heartnet]

Maybe some criminal organization managed to steal a shipment of armored vehicles, and decided to use them as improvised weapon platforms.  I can just hear the radio chatter...

"TANKS!  They got ****** tanks!"

[Nuke]

if you have magnetized treads, an engine which can run in a vaccume and a sealed crew cab with life support. you could stick a bunch of em to a ship and use em for extra turrets.

[Alex Heartnet]

Any tank that is meant to operate on a planet that is not Earth will no doubt have life support and an engine that can run in a thin/nonexistent atmosphere anyway.

[Rodo]

If the lawnmower can fly, the tank can be the new replacement for the Ursa.
Yes, fu** the Boanerges.

[Alex Heartnet]

If the lawnmower can fly, the tank can be the new replacement for the Ursa.
Yes, fu** the Boanerges.

In other words, something even bigger and meaner then the Ursa, so big and mean that it becomes a bomber target itself?

Tanks in real life are artillery platforms.  In Freespace terms, this would mean bombarding stuff from outside the range of bomber warheads and point defense lasers, without having to commit a major warship asset and without being the glass cannon that beam platforms are.

[Nuke]

i modeled a ship like that a long long time ago. it had 2 turrets and a pair of 105mm gatling guns.

[z64555]

Hey, that's an Ontos Mk. 3. 

[mobcdmoc3]

You people spend too much time talking about ships, destroyers here, cruisers there, figthers over here, bombers over there. But you know what?

Not anymore!

Here's a tank.

Have a tank. Love how casually put that was.

But in all seriousness, that's a fairly interesting (and intimidating) tank design. For some odd reason I thought that thing was the size of a large mansion at first glance though.

[Nuke]

Hey, that's an Ontos Mk. 3. 

i was refering to this one (howitzer caliber gatling guns not shown).
http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/GTB_Maelstrom

it is in dire need of some serious htling. the hexagonal stealth armor is screaming normal map me. the ship sucks cause it dates back to the retail days of modding (and its definately not my best work). 500 polies was considered overkill back then. this kind of reflecting makes me realize how far the engine has come since then.

[Thaeris]

It's fairly slab-sided, though I am noting the significant amount of firepower you've bestowed upon it. By the configuration and the armament, It seems to be an anti-aircraft platform.

However, if it is AA, and the main weapons (outboard guns) are also for AA, can they get to high angles of traverse while the turret is moved off-center? Inability to do so would really inhibit the operational effectiveness of the vehicle.

[--Steve-O--]

All taxis in new york should be built to this standard. no more traffic jams.
you know something like this would make for a pretty interesting close air support mission.

[z64555]

It might make a bit more visual sense if the turret looked more regular (as in a regular polygon, think hexagonal or octagonal for the bits that are not covered by weaponry or sensors.)

Looking at it, I can see that it has two rocket launchers, 4 coaxial machine guns (presumably .50cal or similar), and 4 105mm/120mm caliber recoil-less cannons (or alternatively laser cannon... but in that case they'd have to be chemical, or have an uber micro-reactor  )

Hexagonal plates look more like modern add-on ceramic plates, although possible superior in strength. May look good highly mirrored if you want to go with the "stealth plate" look..

[Dragon]

I like it. The only other tanks in FS were from 158th (quite good ones, but a bit dated). The recently released SoL dump also contains one (very un-FSish) tank. We need a lot more ground units.

[Sarafan]

Hey, that's an Ontos Mk. 3. 

It has only four lasers.

It's fairly slab-sided, though I am noting the significant amount of firepower you've bestowed upon it. By the configuration and the armament, It seems to be an anti-aircraft platform.

However, if it is AA, and the main weapons (outboard guns) are also for AA, can they get to high angles of traverse while the turret is moved off-center? Inability to do so would really inhibit the operational effectiveness of the vehicle.

It might make a bit more visual sense if the turret looked more regular (as in a regular polygon, think hexagonal or octagonal for the bits that are not covered by weaponry or sensors.)

Looking at it, I can see that it has two rocket launchers, 4 coaxial machine guns (presumably .50cal or similar), and 4 105mm/120mm caliber recoil-less cannons (or alternatively laser cannon... but in that case they'd have to be chemical, or have an uber micro-reactor  )

Hexagonal plates look more like modern add-on ceramic plates, although possible superior in strength. May look good highly mirrored if you want to go with the "stealth plate" look..

Actually, its a unit from Earth 2140 called Heavy Tank 30 Crusher, its armed with four laser cannons and two rocket launchers in the game but I added the machine guns for anti-infantry purpose, its an all around tank if a bit short ranged in the game, there's two more units based on it in the game, the HT 33 R and HT 34, the first is a heavy missile variant and the other is armed with a ion cannon. Maybe I'll post them later.

For AAA, I did another smaller tank for that, I figured a tank this big would definitely be slow (and they are in the game) and wouldnt be able to move quickly to defend places.  As for the plates, they are based on armour plates I've seen on modern tanks, particurlaly the russian tanks.

[Al-Rik]

I like it. The only other tanks in FS were from 158th (quite good ones, but a bit dated). The recently released SoL dump also contains one (very un-FSish) tank. We need a lot more ground units.

Yeah, the whole Space Fighter Concept works only if Space Fighters are also used for ground support.

Even without Missions there the player can engage ground targets Tanks would be nice.
For example as additional turrets on a space station, or imagine a Mission set in a High-Atmosphere environment, with Freighters dropping tanks while the Player has to defend them.

[Sarafan]

I like it. The only other tanks in FS were from 158th (quite good ones, but a bit dated). The recently released SoL dump also contains one (very un-FSish) tank. We need a lot more ground units.

If you want more, just say it, I got more.

[z64555]

Hey, that's an Ontos Mk. 3.

It has only four lasers.

Yes, but it has 2x rocket launchers + 4x lasers = 6 guns.

(Nevermind the 4x .50cals, they don't count!. )

It might make a bit more visual sense if the turret looked more regular (as in a regular polygon, think hexagonal or octagonal for the bits that are not covered by weaponry or sensors.)

Actually, its a unit from Earth 2140 called Heavy Tank 30 Crusher, its armed with four laser cannons and two rocket launchers in the game but I added the machine guns for anti-infantry purpose, its an all around tank if a bit short ranged in the game, there's two more units based on it in the game, the HT 33 R and HT 34, the first is a heavy missile variant and the other is armed with a ion cannon. Maybe I'll post them later.

Well the comment about making the turret more regular/rounded was in observation of modern tank turrets. They try to make the plateing circular or regular N-gonal so that it can deflect incoming fire from all directions without taking the full force of the munitions. Since you have to have a pivot arm for the cannons, the front side of the turret can't really be sloped outward (because that would deflect the munition towards the barrel of the cannons). The back side of the turret however, could probably be circular or regular N-gonal.

Just an engineer's point of view.

Edit: Just noticed that the machine guns have no aparent way of inclining (going up/down). This is not a good thing if it where a real tank.

[Scourge of Ages]

Those armor panels look like they could be ablative or reactive armor systems. I like it.