New Gameplay Mechanics

This page describes a set of new mechanics/changes in current mechanics

Ammunition Sharing

This proposal can be implemented independently in other ground battle game modes

Vehicles that have at least 1 type of ammunition in common can share ammunitions between each other through a non-intrusive process:

• A specific icon will be above some teammates to indicate that you can share ammunitions with them

• To initiate an outgoing transfer, the player needs to stand still next to their teammate and hold Repair Key (F by default) for 3 seconds

• Repairing or helping a teammate to repair takes priority, a tank may not both repair and share ammunitions at the same time

• After the 3 seconds, the teammate will be notified that you want to share ammunitions, along with the amount and type of ammunitions you want to share

• To start the transfer, they will have 10 seconds to stop next to the player and stand still

• The player cannot move while waiting for their teammate to stand still and while transferring

• If the teammate does not stand still next to the player after 10 seconds, then they probably don't want it and the transfer will be cancelled

• A new radio message "I need ammunitions" may be introduced

• While the player cannot, the teammate can move during the process, but it will however abort the transfer

• The time required to do the transfer will be proportional to the amount of ammunitions shared and their individual weight, the base being 1 second for a 3kg shell

• The amount of lions awarded to the player would also be proportional to the amount and weight, the base being 100 lions for a 3kg shell

Outgoing Transfer

Outgoing Transfer Interface

Incoming Transfer

Scouting Mechanics

While very similar to scouting in GRB , there are a few differences, some for convenience and others to represent intel quality

• Similarly to how it currently works, light tanks would have to use their binoculars and press V while the target is in the center of their crosshair to scout it. The margin of error would be a radius of ~3 meters around each vehicle to account for ping and other issues that would decrease accuracy and wrongly result in a failed scouting

• Each successful scouting gives a 10 seconds cooldown to the scout before it can uses scouting again. A failed scouting also only gives a 10 seconds cooldown to account for bugs or cases where the target gets destroyed just before the scout uses their scouting ability. However, to prevent abuse, each consecutive failed scouting is an additional 15 seconds on top of the initial 10 seconds

• Scouting has no maximum range but in practice gets increasingly harder as it becomes more and more difficult to accurately put your crosshair on a far away vehicle

• Like currently, scouted targets are no longer marked after 30 seconds, at which point they have to be scouted again

• The quality of the intelligence depends on the distance:

Intelligence Quality Range Formula

$$baseValue + (baseValue \times (\frac{opticsMaxZoom}{100}))$$

Where baseValue is the base range for each quality stages in meters

Where opticsMaxZoom is the maximum zoom the vehicle's optics can do

Example:

$$500 + (500 \times (\frac{30}{100})) \mapsto 500 + 500 \times 0.30 \mapsto 500 + 150 = 650$$

Where 500 is the base range value for the 4th quality stage

Base Range per Quality Stage

• While the reward when a scouted vehicle is damaged/destroyed is static, the smaller reward when scouting a vehicle is proportional to the quality of the gathered intelligence:

Scouting Reward Formula

$$baseReward + (baseReward \times \frac{20 \times qualityStage}{100})$$

Where baseReward is the base silver lions reward when scouting a vehicle

Where qualityStage is the stage of the intelligence's quality

This is to encourage scouts to gather better intelligence rather than keeping a large safe distance from enemy units

Live Example

Respawn Beacons

The goal of this mechanic is to give even more of a support role to light tanks, reduce spawn-killing and finally reduce the time needed for tanks to get to the battlefield, especially considering the size of the maps in Frontline

The idea is based on Battlefield V's spawn beacon mechanic and on sepulcher's Domination++ game mode suggestion but still works in a relatively different way:

However, a number of restrictions apply to make the mechanic somewhat more realistic and more importantly balanced:

• Setting up a spawn beacon requires the light tank to be immobilized for 30 seconds

• A light tank may only setup a spawn beacon every 3 minutes at most

• Spawn beacons have a physical, medium-profile appearance that can easily be recognized. Because of this, light tanks will have to research more secure spots than a flat corn field to setup a beacon

• The beacon is physical for one reason: Being destructible; A main caliber shell is enough to destroy it, allowing light tanks to flank to actively disturb the opposite team's deployment

• A beacon CAN be setup mostly anywhere within the friendly controlled zone (henceforth, the **assumed** controlled zone) but will however become inactive if too close to the frontline OR not anymore in the controlled zone at all. HOWEVER, if the enemy team fails to locate/take care of the respawn beacon and your team gets back the control of the zone and its surroundings, the beacon will become active again

• If an enemy tank gets close to an active respawn beacon, the team will be notified of "hostile activity nearby" but without giving away the position or recalculating the frontline. Because of that, and the 10 seconds of invincibility players get when they spawn (regardless of if they're moving), it is in the enemy tank's best interests to destroy the respawn beacon on sight

• Due to their nature, planes are the best at hunting hostile beacons, however they won't be able to destroy them that easily as beacons aren't *that* weak. A beacon could be considered to have the survivability of a T-34-85, thus regular machine guns and cannons will have limited efficiency. The fastest way for planes to deal with beacons would be either be bombs, missiles, or powerful rockets

• Setting up a respawn beacon does not give any reward in itself, but gives a 300 silver lions reward for each teammate who used it, encouraging light tanks to place their beacons where it's actually useful for the team, not just for them

Respawn Beacon Example (ignore my poor photoshop skills kthx)

Definition of "Light Tank"/"Scout Vehicle"

However to go further we need to clearly state what kind of tanks gets the scouting and respawn beacon abilities. Rather than basing it on a tank's historical role, we'll base it on the in-game characteristics and meta of the vehicles to be sure it fits well in the game, so, to be considered a "light tank", a vehicle should typically have the following characteristics:

• Relatively high speed (>40km/h)

• Relatively low profile

• Relatively low/moderate firepower (based on shell penetration capacity and damage capacity)

• Weak armor

Here's a list of vehicles i made that fits this profile, or that are the best candidates to fill a gap of dedicated light tanks

Germany

Terminology

• LT: Light Tank

• MT: Medium Tank

• HT: Heavy Tank

• TD: Tank Destroyer

• SPAA: Self Propelled Anti Air

Vehicle	BR (RB)	OG Class	Rear Support
Pz.II.C (DAK)	1.0	LT
Sd.Kfz.221	1.3	LT
Aufklärungspanzer 38(t)	1.3	LT
Sd.Kfz.234/3 aka "Puma"	1.7	TD
Pz.Sfl.Ic	2.3	LT
Sd.Kfz.234/2 aka "Puma"	2.7	LT
Sd.Kfz.234/4 aka "Puma"	3.0	TD
Ersatz M10	5.7	MT	Yes
Ru 251	6.7	LT
mKPz M47 G aka "Bulldog"	7.3	MT	Yes
Leopard I	7.7	MT
Begleitpanzer 57	8.3	LT
Tanque Argentino Mediano aka "TAM"	8.7	LT
Leopard 2K	9.7	MT

Rear Support Scout Vehicles

Rear support light tanks/scout vehicles in this post refers to vehicles to which the "light tank" abilities are given but it's generally to fill a lack of dedicated light tanks around the vehicle's BR.

As such, they shouldn't actively scout and flank, but rather should passively scout for friendly tank destroyers, help in repairs and setup and defend spawn beacons

• Ersatz M10: Chosen for its speed to fill the huge lack of dedicated german light tanks from 2.7 to 6.7, though the fact that it is an exclusive vehicle limits its impact on the battle and therefore shouldn't be over-powered

• mKPz M47 G: Chosen for its speed to fill the lack of dedicated high-tier german light tanks, as it is an exclusive vehicle as well, it shouldn't impact the meta

Special Scout Vehicles

You may notice vehicles that get the light tanks abilities while other vehicles with very similar characteristics don't get them.

This isn't a random choice, it's usually to address specific cases like when only the "mainstream" vehicles of a nation are worthy of getting light tank abilities but are already too common and powerful to be balanced

• Leopard 2K: Chosen to fill the lack of dedicated light tanks at 9.0-10.0 because it has the thinnest armor of all the Leopards in the 8.7-10.0 range, making it the best candidate to be the dedicated light tank

Conclusion

Germany suffers from a severe lack of "light tanks" at medium tiers despite my best efforts to fill the gap (If you don't count the rare premium tanks, Germany has literally no light tank in the 4.0-6.3 BR range) and doesn't have too much of them at high tiers either.

Because of that, Germany at medium to top tiers will have to rely on other nations to do most of the scouting and supporting work.

USSR

USA

France / Vichy F / Free F

Great Britain

Japan

Italy

You probably noticed that low-BR tanks are listed, despite the fact that tanks under rank 2 don't get scouting abilities in RB and that this game mode is not meant to be available at low BR in the first place. The reason behind that is the excellent job they can do; Light tanks don't necessarily have to engage and kill enemy tanks, in fact, they shouldn't even engage unless necessary.

The main job of light tanks in Frontline is to gather intelligence for the rest of the team, actively scout enemy movements and their strategic assets (respawn beacons). On top of that, they are meant to support the heavy and medium tanks at the frontline by helping to repair, providing smoke or acting as diversion. But they are also meant to support tank destroyers in their defense of controlled areas by passively scouting for them.

The slower, bigger "rear support light tanks" are best at fulfilling the last two jobs, while the dedicated low-profile and high-speed light tanks are best at active scouting through flanking and deep penetration of the enemy lines. Most low-BR light tanks can do this extremely well thanks to their extremely low profile and as such are a relevant option.

Two Line-up Mechanic

While not all battles throughout WWII and smaller scale confrontations throughout the Cold War had Air presence, Close Air Support (CAS) played an instrumental, key role during WWII and proved to the world that controlling the airs means controlling everything. Frontline is meant to represent Combined Warfare, not specifically ground battles.

For that reason, i wanted to change the current "tanker first, pilot second" rule: Now it is "tanker first, pilot second" OR "pilot first, tanker second".

Players can select two line-ups before entering the matchmaking queue: A ground line-up and a air line-up.

What line-up the player decides to use for their first spawn will be their main line-up:

• A main line-up doesn't require any spawn points to use a vehicle, but each can only be used a limited amount of times (2)

• Actions on the battlefield however still generate spawn points, destined for the player's secondary line-up (if they didn't select any, it defaults to reserve vehicles)

• The player can decide to spawn in a vehicle of their secondary line-up if they have enough spawn points, though they can only generate spawn points by playing their main line-up

The limited amount of aircraft slots only applies at the beginning of the battle, tankers can spawn in a plane regardless of how much are already deployed. And of course, pilots can spawn in a tank anytime they want as well (assuming both have enough spawn points of course)

However the bombers slots limit of 3 still applies , and neither pilots nor tankers can spawn in a bomber if 3 are already up.

Squad Plans

This proposal can be implemented independently in other game modes

It's often difficult to discuss battle-plans with your squad, this idea aims to fix that by allowing squadmates to draw on the minimap:

Minimap drawing at the right and "clear" button top-left

The drawings will of course only display on the minimap of your squadmates, and they'll be able to clear them from their map anytime by pressing the clear button the top-left.

Noise Reduction

Larger-scale battles inevitably means more information, but not necessarily information that is useful to everyone. This idea is meant to only give information that matters to each player rather than giving them everything.

To do that, the client can use either the default map grid, or the new diagonal areas grid:

• The farther the grid square a voice message from a teammate originates from, the lower the volume of the voice message becomes.

• As such, a teammate within your grid square saying "Thanks" will sound just like it does currently, but a teammate in a grid square that is literally at the other side of the map will sound very low

• Though i don't think everyone will prefer this, and thus it should be in the settings so players can change the behavior towards noise (none of this require server-side changes anyway)