It makes the game much less fun to play if players with ####### names become invisible when they're tanks.

Tanks are ridiculously powerful in bomb-the-carrier games, and if they can be invisible as well there is no way to fight players who choose such names.

I was in a game just now, with dentinhead and some others, and had loaded a bomb, checked that everything was ok, and headed towards the enemy base when our hangars started to explode. There was no red arrow, no nothing!

Only when I got close to our base did I see a tank doing quick circles around the buildings. He won the game single-handedly in a short time. The only way I could know it was ######## were the announcements on screen that he had "bombed" hangars.

Is there no way to fix this?

It's important, because tanks are so colossally popular that all tricks that can be played with tanks spread like wildfire.

Is it really impossible to restrict names to only normal characters or numbers? It would exclude no-one. Oriental sign-language computers have numbers on their keyboards too!

Or if nothing can be done about the name cheating itself, perhaps tanks could be marked in a similar way to what squads are, with the word "TANK" above them?

The ####s used to be invisible for planes too. They were the original no names. The same thing just needs to be applied to tanks as was to planes.

Yep It happened. No arrow. and boom boom boom. When I got close he was still hard to see.

Hmmm.... Goin to sleep, huh dent?

yep this just happened to me

CalvinIsAwesome wrote: Hmmm.... Goin to sleep, huh dent?

heh heh laptop was still on. You shooting me down so much made me tired . Went Beddybye just after that post.

I must be in the minority as I could do without tanks entirely. As you say they are ridiculously powerful in carrier and you are essentially being rewarded with a potential strategic advantage by getting shot down. I shot down three airplanes and then headed for the carrier to bomb. I thought my teammates would get the tanks but they didn't and boom boom boom the game was over. Now whenever I shot down a tank I have to circle back and waste time shooting so I'm not really rewarded for my good work by heading straight for what should be a vulnerable carrier.

I could do without tanks too, because its bad enough we have to lose because of a laggy tank in bomb the base. And when u kill a plane near the carrier, they shoot carrier and then sink.

I like tanks......

Tanks may be good for beginners, perhaps. They are entry-level machines that may make you feel less helpless when you use the game the first times.

It takes no skill to just drive a tank, though evading bullets does. Sometimes when there is a buzy dogfight going on, you can drive around for a long time in a tank without being noticed.

In the dogfight game scenario tanks are used only for spawnkilling and for tank duels.

The dogfight mode used to be fine also for tank practise, but spawnkilling has made people very aware of tanks heading towards the bases, and all experienced players nowadays try to keep a wakeful eye on tanks even in the dogfight-mode games.

Then there is this new sabotage method which is used by tanks both in dogfight- and bomb-the-carrier mode:

No, it doesnt take any skill to just drive a tank, but it doesnt take any skill to just fly a plane, either. It takes skill to USE a tank, just as it takes skill to use a plane. Dodging bullets takes skill. Killing tanks takes skill. Killing planes takes a TON of skill.

Well put! I subscribe to almost all of what you say.

I have yet to be shot in flight by a tank. It obviously takes a lot of practise to do that.

But driving a tank is still easy compared with flying. Aspirant pilots sometimes crash so often they even get in the way when you try to take off.

Really? Play me sometime, I'll do my best to change that. It's a bit of a shock when it happens. You kinda just suddenly explode.

Yeah, it is pretty easy compared to flying. Im sure if we spent as much time in tanks as we did planes, wed all be shooting planes down.

I know it's not the smartest thing to do, but it happens I fly straight towards tanks heading in my direction. Of course they shoot, but even if I throttle down and glide slowly towards them they have always missed so far.

veidar2 wrote: Then there is this new sabotage method which is used by tanks both in dogfight- and bomb-the-carrier mode:

I mean parking a tank right in front of the spawning point of the enemy base, as you see these two players are talking about. It's extremely irritating, but it gives an obvious tactical advantage to your team in a bomb-the-carrier game. In that way it's different to tank- and walking-soldier spawn killing in dogfight games, because you help your team, not only yourself.

I have made the names of the two players (almost) illegible, since they describe a method that is hated by many.

Very annoying, I agree. It does help the team, but, seriously, man up and fight. (Not you, Veidar, the guy with the tank. )