Sappers & Minefields [includes logistics!]

This suggestion is about land mines and mine fields and trucks. It includes logistics (warehouses, trains... ).

The suggestion includes poll, which is placed here. You can express your opinion in the survey. You can see the results here.


Introduction

 

I will try to answer these questions:

- would the mines be annoying?
- what is the purpose of mines in game?

- mine cost (similar to buying bombs you would buy mines but in game).
- mine types
- rating

- /there needs to be some limitations/ - how many mines should be used / minefields could be placed, forbidden area
- where to get mines? (warehouses, bunkers or caches)
- how to transport mines etc.
- how to install mines

1) Would the mines be annoying?

Not necessary. They can be made visible and you can have tools like warning signs for your team, informations drawn into maps.

One solution is that the mines shouldn't be placed on routes and rails!

Size of map is significant factor. If the map would be very large you would have plenty of time to install minefields but the enemy would no need to get to the area where the mines are. Especially light tanks could move very quickly and if they would go out of route they would probably not check the track until they go on the mine so they would exploded. They would need to go slowly so see the mine and have time to stop. On the other hand if the mine was found then you can mark it on a special map and other tanks will be warned in the special map. The marking of the area would be done automatically.

If the size of the map would be too small so you would have mines everywhere and you couldnt move. But this wouldn't happen immediately because as you can see bellow in my suggestion,

THERE WOULD BE MANY LIMITATIONS TO USE MINES:

- no tanks could install (Anti Tank) mines
- you need sappers truck to install mines
- there would be limited number of suppers truck simultaneously (probably 2)
- you couldn't place mines deep inside your team territory. You would need to go more to front in places which are not that much save. You would need to locate enemies first to start creating mine fields.
- update: nice would be prediction system which is able to calculate frequent path of your team ground vehicles: so called "safe paths" and save areas based on a team track map. There would be forbidden areas where it is not possible to lay AT mines. There would be limited areas where you could place AT mines
- you need to go to warehouse to buy mines - it costs some time- it takes some time to install mines
- sappers truck is vulnerable: it can be blown to air when it will go out of route, fast and over a mine
- sappers truck can be hit by your enemies or even by friends (the second should be punished!)
- team players can replace your mines or remove the mines (stealing) if they have sappers truck
- you would need to park your truck near enemies (about 3-4 km) to start put the mines
- you need to die first before you can get sappers truck
- not everybody will take sappers truck but the weak players would like them (the good players will prefer have tanks)
- there should be bombers and possibly mortars which could shoot on the minefield
Currently you have artillery and so you could tell your artillery to shoot on the mine field too!!!
AND THERE WOULD BE AT LEAST 3 WAYS TO INFORM YOU ABOUT MINE(S) LOCATION

So there are lots of negatives and reasons why players could prefer not to use sappers, but also lots of reasons why they could use them. If you will destroy tank with mine which you installed you will be receive points.

Having mines in game means you are not just mindlessly running in front and shooting everywhere like fool but making the game more realistic. You would gave choice to add some strategy, tactic, realism to the game. Players who are bored from tanks and dying, could try luck with sappers truck.
Yes, it can be frustrating for those weak personalities when they are killed by enemy tank or mine or bomb or anything. Frustration is not about mines but about your character...

MORE WAYS TO USE MINES

The use of mines could be general, but I would expect some historical maps where they could be used to create defence lines. This could be suited for World War mode or maybe for some new mode in future something like Historical Battles which would precisely create maps according history. This would mean to have clear new concept which could be realized one day. Such maps would need to create scenario of larger size at least 12x12 km or greater (as suggested for World War mode). They could have more spawn locations so the team could be divided into more groups defending certain part of the map or attacking. The role of the players would depend on the history facts. Once you would have more places to spawn you don't need to travel from the bottom of the map to the the top but you could play in your quadrant. Most likely players would have more lives, but limited count like 10 or 20. More players would be in game like 32 or 64 for team. Then the players could use mines to fortify the defence lines like here:

Russians used defensive line like this.

The mines would be before the antitank obstacles.

Later in 1943 Russians used this defence.

The mines are between the antitank-ditch and barb wire.

To destroy most of the obstacles bombers could be used.

 

As far as I know Gaijin is planning to implement some mode called World War. So they could think about this as one way of using mines and hopefully artillery too. Bombers then could attack in bigger formations/squadrons and lots of fighters could obtain task to protect bombers. As a reward for a team would be some nice bonus if they will manage to protect bombers (in opposite situation ... if they would  manage to protect their front lines, defensive lines).

PLEASE DO NOT VOTE UNTIL YOU READ THIS ARTICLE COMPLETELY

You shouldn't criticizes or refuse something what you don't read or bother to understand. Goal of this suggestion is to have a choice to use mines occasionally, so that the mines won't be everywhere. Also it depends on possibility to have bombers, mortars or both in tank battles. It also would be possible to use sappers in Air Battles if you would like to trap enemy AI tanks.

2) Types of mines

Suitable for game: Anti-vehicle mines

For the beginning, Gajin could create very simple mines, but later they could add various kinds of mines depending on nation and type of use.

WWI

 - British high explosive shells or mortar with its fuse upright

 - German Flachmine 17 - 4.6 kg / 3,6kg explosive; 30x20x5 cm; wooden box packed with explosives and triggered either remotely or by a pressure fuze

Later

- Soviet Union - EZ mine - 1920-1924; 1kg charge (could break the tracks of contemporary tanks).
- German  Tellermine 29 - since 1929;6kg/4,5kg explosive, 25cm diameter,18cm height; activation pressure 125 kg,  was a disc shaped device approximately 30 cm across filled with 4,5kg of high explosive TNT.
- German Tellermine 35 -1935; weight 31,8cm; 7,6cm height; 5,5kg TNT; trigger weight 90-180kg;
There is a underwater verison too.

WWII

- German Tellermine - Some variants were of a rectangular shape, but in all cases the outer casing served only as container for the explosives and fuze, without being used to destructive effect
- German Topfmine - circular blast mine often used since 1944 ; 9-10kg/6 kg explosives - Operating pressure 150kg
- German Riegel mine 43 - 1943 - 1945 ; 9,3kg/4 kg TNT ; 80x9,5x12 cm; Operating pressure: Variable - 360 kg at the centre, 180 kg at the ends.
- Italian B-2 mine - These were long mines designed to increase the probability of a vehicle triggering it, the B2 consisted of multiple small shaped-charge explosive charges along its length designed to ensure a mobility kill against enemy vehicles by destroying their tracks.
- Hohl-Sprung mine 4672- image here - rarely used.
- British Hawkins mine - 15x 7,5 cm, and contained approximately 0.45 kg of explosive - t was used by the British Army and the United States Army, with the former using it until 1955

3) Permitted locations

It would be forbidden to place mine fields on hills, roads, rails, bridges, ditches, trenches, etc. You could  locate mines on wider areas of (almost) flat surfaces like grass, beach, desert and similar. The surfaces could be skewed. This is mainly because it would be hard to play if mines would be everywhere.

You couldn't place mines deep inside your team territory. You would need to go more to front in places which are not that much save. You would need to locate enemies first to start creating mine fields.

4) How to transport mines

You would need to start a game as a sapper unit having truck vehicle reserved for sappers.

5) Where to get mines (warehouses)

There would be places on map where you should go to get mines. Possible objects:

Warehouse building, bunker, caches in trenches, train station with a train - you would locate the wag with ammo and would take it from the wagon.

Warehouses location on map

Central warehouse should be placed more back in safe, but not aside.

Warehouse(s) by train station should be placed aside (not in the middle of map but rather on left or right side of the map or both sides when 2 train stations would be present).

The warehouses on train station could look like on the image. They could be protected by team vehicles. Once lost the team would have some problem because the ammo couldn't be stored. You probably would need to go and look around the train station to find some ammo.

This expects bigger maps, not like 4x4km, because the train station should be placed kinda aside, not directly in center of your team base! Because the central warehouse should be placed in the back of your team. A realistic map would be bigger size because it would be best if there would be two villages and in every one there would be one train station and warehouse(s).

You should protect your warehouses because enemy could destroy it and get nice reward for such destruction!

6) Limits per storage of mines (warehouses)

Every cache would have its limits. For example

Such small cache:



Can contain only for mines total.

This one:


Could have 16 total (1 per player).

A bunker could have 32 total (2 mines per player).

A central/main warehouse could have 1280 (80 mines per player total*).


Train station warehouse(s) could have much bigger capacity, lets say one million total.

*Warning - "per player" does not mean that the player can take 80 mines!

7) Replenishment of reserves (logistics)

If your nation would run out of reserves you would need to go with your truck to cargo train and get next mines reserves from there. It could be either train station on your side or any location where any cargo train is.

Although we do not have winter maps for tank battles, this screenshot looks jealously!  We would like to have such beautiful things like train stations and train machines :-) You would protect them because there are warehouses near the train station. So this is location where your sappers truck should come to get reserves.

There could be also train stations for cargo.


There should be warehouse on the train station too to unload the ammo from cargo train. If the warehouse would be destroyed by enemies, then you will have no place to store the ammo from train so the train would leave the ammo on the station.

The train could bring ammo and some AI tanks or possibly backup vehicles (it could be nice bonus).

Calculation of how much you can take mines (see the next point too)

If there are 6 Brits in game, then you could buy max. 6 x 80 x cost = 480 x cost. You could buy for example 480x5kg=2400 SL and then you would go to the warehouse, where you would sell the mines, so you would get a reward of 2x your cost. You would get 4800SL is you sell them all. Or you can buy only 20 mines and then go to battlefield to install them. Or you could buy 480 mines and sell 460 of them, so then you calculate how much you would got SL.

When the reserves are back in the Warehouse, any Brits can take British mines. It is your choice whether you risk to buy the mines. If you met enemy tank he can destroy your vehicle and you have nothing. If the game would suddenly be finished the mines would stay until you will play another game where you could sell them to warehouse.

Another possibility is that some enemy tank could destroy your central (main) warehouse. In that case you would need to go to train station for reserves.

In Air battles AI units could take the reserves from train station, train or warehouse there or from central warehouse.


8) Prices of mines

Depending on amount of explosive and amount of mines this would cost you SL.

1kg charge cost 1 SL per mine 
3,6 kg explosive 4 SL per mine
4,5 kg explosive 5 SL per mine
5,5 kg explosive 6 SL per mine
6 kg explosive 7 SL per mine

You could choose only from the mines of your nation

9) Steeling mines (trains)

It there would be trains implemented and bombers would stop train by destroying machine or by derailment of the wagon, you could take the mines which didn't exploded. You could steal the ammo from enemy train, wags; you could could destroy enemy warehouse (not steal from it); you could steal any ammo which you can use. You couldn't steal from warehouse.

Derailed train of enemy could be robbed.

10) Destroying enemy mines on ground (warehouses, trains)

You could destroy enemy warehouses which can contain mines. Depending on amount of explosive total the warehouse would create huge explosion.

You could destroy enemy trains or wags with ammo. It could be made so that some wagon would contain mines, some ammo for tanks, some bullets etc. So depending on amount of explosive the wag could explode.

If the wag would turn over the load would shed. The ammo found on ground could be used or destroyed by fire.

11) Mine fields

You would load sappers truck and go to front. You would locate some enemies (it could be on distance 3-4km). Find good flat area where you could place your mines. Suitable area near roads, around river, wide flat surfaces etc.

a) you would press a key to install mine field
b) you would press a key to specify mine type if you have more types
c) then you would set two dimensions of the area you want to install.
d) then you would set amount of the mines which should be placed
e) you would set a grid which defines area where the mines should be placed (mouse likely )
f) you would find the location where the grid should be placed (watch the animation in the beginning of this suggestion). Then mouse click to start installing of mines.

The Danger area

After the installation is done the grid and the mines will partially disappear (visibility depends on distance). Installed mines are underground - bombers cannot see them! Other players do not see where you're installing bombs, but if they would come too close they could see red blinking cross and the the boards of warning sign to indicate danger area. Yet the presence of the sappers truck is warning sign if the deck doors are open! I think that if they would go over the installed mines it could kill them, but if they would go into the area where you plan to install, either the driver would refuse to continue to go there or you couldn't finish the installation.

If somebody would kill you during installation, the current mines are installed but not the rest.

First locate flat surface out of road.

 Locate the grid and press left mouse button

 After two minutes 40 mines is installed

Limits

Sappers unit should have:
- maximum capacity of the truck: 40 mines.
- maximum 80 mines which can be set in one game
- maximum 4 minefields of bigger size (area greater than 40 squares in the grid) or maximum 6 minefields of small size
- maximum 10 individually installed mines which are not part of the minefield


Installation time of mines
- 40 mines should be installed after 2 minutes
- 20 mines should be installed after 1 minute
- 10 mines should be installed after 30 seconds
- 5 mines should be installed after 15 seconds
- 4 mines should be installed after 12 seconds
- 3 mines should be installed after 10 seconds
- 2 mines should be installed after 7 seconds
- 1 mine should be installed after 5 seconds (not a mine field)

Notes:
In the above example (see animation and images above) I used grid of dimensions 16 x 12 and maximum count of 40 mines. The mines should be auto spread on the minefield. If I would select smaller area with same count of mines, it would be more dense but more prone to be simply destroyed during bombing. More shapes of grid could be selected (probably dragged by mouse):

 

Notes 2:  the calculation of the mines count I used - max. count is 40. 3 mines per raw x 16 wouldn't fit to 40 mines. So I use 8x2 mines and 8x3 mines to get sum 40. ... 40 = 8x2 + 8x3
Where 2 are 2 mines in the row of 12 squares and 3 are 3 mines in the row of 12 squares.

12) Important details

Warning signs and vision distance

The warning signs should be installed on the side where the sappers truck stopped. The opposite side is enemy expected. It should be automatically detected which side is from a team, so if there would be team players by the side of the minefield the boards should be added on that side too, except cases, that there is enemy too. It should be detected where the enemy is and if it is safe zone, but the opposite side should be automatically detected as enemy zone.

Enemy ground units could see the mine on very short distance just as it is currently in the game. Note: Last months I don't play tanks because I play Tank Battles but when I played I have seen mine there (idk who installed it and how) which destroyed my tracks. It was a good trap on my I have to admit. I have seen it but I was not sure what it was so this is why I wanted to test it so this is how my tracks were damaged by a mine.

Enemy bombers shouldn't see the mines from air, they are under ground! They will be informed in maps where bombs exist.

Tactical maps could contain the blue tracks where the team tanks went. The track would disappear after some time (e.g. 2 minutes). Please see the next section and check the images.

Another security feature could be added if there would be Tactical maps or just Special map of your current location. This could reflect

How much the mines are dangerous?

As far as you watch where you are going, the mines are not a danger for you. If you make the grid too much big, than the minefields would be sparse and enemy could go through it!

How can bomber detect mines? How can they be destroyed? This question will explain the following points.

13) Forbidden areas / Dynamic zones of permission
(updated: 11/01/2015)

NO_DRAGON:

And the main problem wouldn't even be how mines look or not look like. First, they take to much pace out the game, tanker want to care about enemy tanks, Planes are by most still seen as annoyance. now You wanna make there life even harder with one or more minefields, best layed by players on free to choose places.

I have received valuable critique as reaction to my post in WT forum. Some players could block some important paths. This could make disadvantage for team who needs to perform attack instead keeping defensive stances. Solution here comes:

Gaijin can create zones or areas where it is allowed to place mines. These zones would change depending on current situation. This would be dynamic.

A scratch or plan for programmers:
Let's have a table/array which would be based on the list of subsquares of the map. For example if the map of size 10000x10000m would be divided into 1000x1000 squares, so every square would contain information for 10x10m of playing area. The table/array should include 2x timestamp (for blue and red) so you know when ground vehicle was in the square.
Program should refresh the square when vehicle goes into new location. Will find the square and write the timestamp. If the track data is older than 5 minutes (possibly to change this according size of map) you would reset the record to NULL (data deleted). The harder thing is to find out the locations where it is allowed to place the mines. Some clever alghoritm to calculate location of high acumulation of free space needed.

The computer can see places of accumulation of ground vehicles and where the vehicles are used to go. It is possible to draw the area (on map) where it is suitable to lay mines. Instead of placing mines between enemy tanks and our tanks, it is logical to place the mines on places which are not protected - on flanks / sides or on places which are not visited often. It is possible to calculate direction from where the enemy is expected, so the middle of our base won't be possible to lay mines also the back should stay free.

I have done one more photo of the red and blue tracks. I guessed the areas on diagram here - the red circles for red areas mines permit, the green for blue areas mines permit. The closer the area is to outer bounds of playing area the bigger the circle can be. The closer it is to the team paths the smaller it must be. In that case its better to leave space between the minefields so no one can really block important paths. If we would place mines to flanks, so enemy which would attack us from flanks would be concentrated on one narrower space. This would be more realistic because in war nobody wants to fight on wide front. You try to use minefields to create some defence line but you don't have the minefields everywhere because when you need to attack you need to have space. Also if somebody likes some path and some location where he sees some advantage, nobody could allow to lay mines there. Only if he would not visit the zone for long time (e.g. 5 minutes).

Nobody can lay mines on route, railways.

Diagram (not a map), see bellow.
.
The paths/tracks are forbidden zones. Blue team cannot place mines there.
The zones of permission to lay mines for blue team are displayed green.
The zones of permission to lay mines for red team are displayed red.

Once again, the big advantage would be that the area would always be differently placed and different size especially for bigger maps. This would depend on the players where they want to play and nobody to lay down there. Every time the team changes strategy, the paths are changing and the zones are replaced or changed.

14) Task Maps and Special Maps

The current map is insufficient because the amount of mines and minefields would create huge red/orange mishmash!

TACTICAL MAPS

Tactical Maps could contain the blue tracks where the team tanks went. The track would disappear after some time (e.g. 2 minutes). It would start to fade slowly. So you would see the save paths where the vehicles are going. Blue would see blue tracks whilst red would see red tracks. It is clear visible on the gray image:

Also I would suggest to keep the image stationary like map, no rotating. Yet you should see your current location. Barely visible lines could mean the vehicle went that way 100 seconds ago.

SPECIAL MAPS, TASK MAPS

I strongly suggest to improve the way Map works. It would be great if there would be added more maps (I will write new suggestion for this). I will explain shortly now.

The current map uses only one color to mark enemy units. One color for all types of enemy units. It is not such big problem, but the map area is relatively small and the symbols are not that clear as if you have symbols of clear meaning.

There could be special maps which would be auto-generated in more detail / zoomed and gray. There would be few symbols which are very clear and very good visible (they are bigger because they mark bigger area. Here is an example:

 

The symbol could be possible to hide or show. 

The symbols meaning is very clear from the look and no extra explanation needed.

You see the red marks of enemy mines just before anti tank ditch. The bomber when sees the mines on map should know that he can bomb the minefield. He sees where the location is and he can drop the bombs there.

He could obtain it as a task too and in that case he would see the red crosses on the area to bomb.

The idea is based on the fact that you would have:
1) Task map like this one where you see the area and situation around the target; this map shouldn't be updated, it should reflect the state of game when the task was created. The map shouldn't rotate
2) The Special Detailed map similar to the above, but not the red crosses there. You could watch this map when you select some target. At the image there is artillery cannon selected, highlighted with dark brown soft border and you see information around the icon.

Plotting of the minefields into Special map or Task map would be done only if they are found by ground units. The unit must come very close to see the mines or be damaged by the mine. The solitary mines could be drawn in the Special maps of the tanks but not of the bombers. So the bomber should see only the minefields in the map, but not to see the solitary mines because any tank can go around such mine so it is not needed to bomb them.

It shouldn't be possible to select the mines with mouse. But in the case that you obtain a task, you would have some red cross to locate the area. You could see the red cross in radar and in bombardier view. Otherwise no.

Waiting for a task should be advantage, in opposite case the bombers could very simply destroy the minefields and would get lots of points on it.

I believe that this shouldn't be hard to develop. This is just about images and adding text to the symbol of selected task. I also would like to see bigger size of the map not the small window like today.

More details about my map suggestions you can read here: Anti tank ditches, Special detailed map

15) Destroying mines by bombers

Bomber could see solitary mines in Special Detailed map if it was found by ground units.
Also bomber could see the minefields in Special Detailed map if they were found  by ground units.
In the bombardier view you could see a cross to indicate the area where the minefield is. This cross should disappear in the moment when you are going to press the key to drop bombs down. Until the white cross is near the mine field you can see it. Then it would disappear and you press the key to release bombs.

Just go over and drop the bombs. I think that 1 250lb bomb could have effect on 9 squares of the mine grid. So if you would make your minefield really dense, then enemy can destroy up to 9 mines with one small bomb. 500lb up to 23 mines. 1000 lb mine I think the big part of the minefield would be destroyed.

There is problem with artillery which must be solved before bombers can bomb the mine fields. They simply couldn't bomb them if the players would removed the mine field with artillery. It would be more simple to remove them this way so the bomber would lost the target. Artillery shouldn't be able to destroy minefield on direct fire and indirect fire should not be supported or would be much inaccurate. Also the artillery units should be on map and players should be able to destroy them.

16) Bombers & Awards for bombing mines

In tank battles

You could be invited to fly with bomber. The invitation could happen in the time when your team have found a minefield. You should have at least 10-15 seconds to read Task map / Special Map or Tactical Map - to locate your target and fly to appropriate position. You should be able to select your bomber if you have some. I would welcome to drive British bomber even that my tank crew is American (I have no US bombers). The limit of the bombs could be limited.

Then enemy team would receive invitation to fly with fighter (he also should select his favorite aircraft, but this fighter should be have similar Battle Rating as the bomber in game. If he will not managed to shot him down because the bomber will kill him, then another player would be invited to kill the bomber. There could be time limit for the bomber so other players will have opportunity to fly and bomb minefields. The time limit depends on location of the minefields (how long time it takes to get to position). The time limit which was for aircrafts in tank battles was too short. I would suggest to make it 3x-4x so longer!

In Air Battles
The AI sappers would install mine fields, but you could have a choice to drive a sappers car. See "21) Where to get sappers truck?".

Rewards for bombers

1 mine - 10 SL ; 2 mines - 20 SL ; 3 mines - 50 SL ; 4 mines - 100 SL
5 mines - 200 SL ; 6-10 mines - 400 SL  ; 11-20 mines - 600 SL
40 mines - 1200SL

17) Sappers removing mines / rewards

Sappers could remove mines; team mines and enemy mines.

- If you installed the mine and you disable it you won't have get/lose anything
- If you remove enemy mine and then put it in central warehouse, you get reward which is the cost of the mine; removing a mine would take the same time as installing it
- You could install the mine on different location. Well it is not nice you steal your team players mines! But it is just game.
- If you remove mine of team player, you will pay the cost of the mine, but you can get the SL back if you get the mines back to warehouse!

18) Sappers truck

I would prefer to have normal sappers truck which is covered but I found only this truck, so I used it. Notice that during installation of the mines on the minefields the boxes disappear as they were used. There could be more trucks depended on nation.

There could be also some sappers in the truck, but they wouldn't be displayed while installing mines.

19) Identification of trucks, warehouses & stations

The red mark of sappers truck which is displayed when you see enemy sappers should be visible on shorter distance. I suggest the distance to be about 100-150m because the truck is completely unarmed and unarmored, which is very big disadvantage. It would be too simple to find truck and destroy it when you would see it on radar. Hence you could identify the truck on distance 100 or 150m.

I suggest no display trucks on radar. Also the train station or warehouses should not be displayed in radar unless they are manually marked with mouse. The last two can be drawn in the Tactical map or in Task Map (which you could use anytime during game).

This thing already works in Air Battles. Fighters can see tanks, artillery and bunkers from long distance but the less important targets like unarmored vehicles can be visible (identified) on shorter distance. The difference is that the suggested objects would not be visible on radar unless they are selected.

This would better simulate real conditions. You cannot see truck when it is hidden over hill or trees. This will add more chance to the truck to live longer.

On the other hand the truck needs to see the tanks at least on distance of 4km, because the sappers need some time to lay mines (it could take 2 minutes) or just run away.

20) Artillery change needed!

Once again: "There is problem with artillery which must be solved before bombers can bomb the mine fields. Bombers simply couldn't bomb minefield if the players would removed the mine fields with artillery. It would be more simple to remove them this way so the bomber would lost the target. Artillery shouldn't be able to destroy minefields on direct fire, and indirect fire shouldn't be supported or would be much inaccurate. Also the artillery units should be on map and players should be able to destroy them."

Because artillery can destroy mine files, the artillery should exist like real units in the game. Artillery should be real objects in game, which can support you on your command. But the enemy should be able to attack artillery and destroy them. Currently it is too simple to destroy mine fields by artillery.

It would be best if the WT could evaluate if the artillery is able to hit the target or not. For instance if there is a house in the way, they should either destroy the house or not to fire.

There also could be some amount of independence for the artillery - they could shoot on targets which they see, when it stopped. The indirect fire could be made from howitzers as it seems to me that this is the current implementation (direct fire couldn't work when artillery has houses in trajectory of the round).

So it would be possible to attack artillery by the tanks. This depends on tactic. The artillery would be placed on side of the map somewhere on hills. So if you would want to go to destroy them you would
need to leave the central area so your fighting team will be weaker.

The size of map is on consideration. Gaijin should use bigger maps or just extend the current ones. This is because I don't see use for artillery on such small maps as now we have.

21) Map size factor

The minefields could be use on maps which are not too small. The size of map is on consideration. Also if the artillery could be used and supported, Gaijin should use bigger maps or just extend the current ones. This is because I don't see use for artillery on such small maps as now we have in tank battles. Gaijn wants to create bigger maps for World War mode.

22) Where to get sappers truck?

Well, this is the key point and here maybe you won't agree with me, but this would be my solution.

One thing which I don't like in current WT is that my game is too short. Sometimes I play only 5 minutes, sometimes 15. My maximum time was 20 in arcade battles. But I would like to enjoy it longer. I also like if I could control some ground units like cannons or war ships (move them or shoot from them; this ships could move in zig-zag motions or circular not straight when they are attacked!). This could be combined in the following solution:

If your crew died, you could select any extra ground unit (excluding tanks/aircrafts) to play one round.
Sappers truck is enough for the begin. You could use sappers truck only if it isn't in the game already (number of the sappers trucks allowed should be specified - depends on the size of the map and how often it would be used).

You could play with it until you die. You don't need to take sappers, but you could. You would have a choice either to go with sappers truck or to use next crew. So you wouldn't need any crew to play with sappers truck! This is something similar like you can fly with bomber when playing tank battles.

This is another solution - to have a choice during the game like currently is the
use of the bombers in tank battles. You could use sappers if you would be invited. This means you could use sappers more often. I personally do not like this solution especially if it would include time limit - I wish sappers truck which can furfil the logistics mechanism. The time to use bomber is very short and I do not want to use my tank crew for sappers but want to have extra life for this. If the second solution would be used I still have vulnerable tank parked somewhere and any enemy can hit him during that bomber fly or sappers operation. That would be problem because I cannot drive tank and sappers together.

You already can use backup planes or tanks but this is rarely when you get a bonus reward. Why not to add more lives for the user to play in different role than tank/aircraft? This would be extra life after the crew died, so the player could try any other AI objects / units which are on the map or some extra created object.

You could play with the units which are normally controlled by AI, but only after your crew died. So if you have 5 crews so you could play 10 times total, but only if you use this extra opportunity. If you won't use the opportunities 4x times but only once then you would play 6 times total. When your extra life would run out then you can drive your next vehicle. I do no consider backup lives, but 1 crew = 2 lives = 1 life for your vehicle + 1 life for extra vehicle from the map.

Better would be to play as long until you fulfill the target or opponents lost all points or all enemy players are dead.

23) Vote best visibility of mine warning icon

The poll is here.
 
The visibility of mine icon depends on the distance from tank.

In the poll you can vote what is the best distance and visibility of the icon.
The first image is scenario 0 (0A) (The mines are visible too far)

A means this is big distance when you can see the mine. Not realistic at all when you are warned.
B and C is short distance, you cannot see the mines which are more far from the tank
Difference between B and C is that at B you can see mines on closer distance than C. C has better visibility than B.

In the scenarios 1-4 the icons are fading (less visibility/opacity).

PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE IT SHARP
Press ESC to go back

Scenario 0

0A

Too much simple. You can see mines everywhere.

0B

Your sight is limited to near of your tank.

0C

Your sight is still limited but a you see a bit more far than at B. The icons are well visible.

Scenario 1

1A

You can see on medium distance, but you can see also the mines which are more far if they are not on grass.

1B

Here the sight is limited but you have less visibility than at scenario 0. The mines are still good visible.

1C

Here the sight is limited but you have less visibility than at scenario 0. The mines are yet a bit more visible then in the previous scenario 1B. I think this is too much visible and you shouldn't see so clearly so far. It is not bad, but it is an option...

Scenario 2

2A

Here the mines are still visible on bigger distance but only if they are not in the grass.

2B

2C

Scenario 3

3A

You can see the which are more far from tank but they are hardly visible. This is good one.

3B

Here you won't see the mines which are more far from tank, same visibility as in previous scenario.

3C

I have shifted the mines more far from tank so you have better visibility in this scenario.

Scenario 4

4A

4B

4C

Here is better visibility than on the previous image. Also the distance when you can see the mines is bigger than at the previous scenario.



Compare again:

0B

0C

 

1B

1C

2B

2C

 3B

 3C
 
 

4B

 
4C

So I see this as 4B-C very hard, 3B good option. What is your option?

Finally you can vote about red warning sign

Red warning sign is bigger and better visible than the green mine icon. This sign will be create on the place when any team mate would see the enemy mine. This mean if the mine would be too far or would be too barely visible, this one shouldn't be marked with the red warning sigh. Only those mines will be marked which are closer to the tank are well visible. He just couldn't mark the mine if it is too fat. Also not need to add warning boards/signs everywhere.

Please select the best scenario from bellow.  This time the scenarios are alpha, beta, gamma, delta. Applied on the 3 images which I choosed.

Alpha

Alpha 3B

Alpha 4B

Alpha 4C

Beta

Beta 3B

Beta 4B

Beta 4C

Gamma

Gamma 3B

Gamma 4B

Gamma 4C

Delta

Delta 3B

Delta 4B

Delta 4C

Best visible is Alpha and Beta, they are bigger, Alpha is more red. I think these are too big and not needed so big board. I would prefer Gamma or Delta what about you? Gamma is better visible than delta.

You can clearly see that when the mines are marked red, you couldn't worry that you wouldn't see the mine even that your mines sight is shot and barely visible.

Notice that the last solution with character C has the advantage, that the Board is located more close to the mine! While Delta B and Gamma B there are the mines before the board so you still must be careful. Hence I think Delta 4C is best solution - the red color won't disturb you from playing and you are warned before you find the mine. Of sure, if you are the first one who found the mine, you are not warned by red sign.