Suggestion: Open or closed commanders hatch
 

Just as with the helicopters, where you have the options of either having them flying at low or high altitude, I'm suggesting to have the option of open or closed commander's hatches for tanks and non-open topped tank destroyers, APCs and AVFs.

This would of cause effect several things, such as vulnerability in artillery fire (shrapnel), vulnerability regarding handgrenates (penetration or not?), vulnerability regarding sniper and machinegun fire (hitting the crew / tank commander or not?) and of cause field of vision.

-Artillery fire: The chances of an artillery shell destroying a tank aren't that great, unless it hits it directly, but if the crew / tank commander is sticking his head out of the hatch, than he might get killed by shrapnel.

-Handgrenades: The armour of a tank is thick. I've personally had the benefit if acually touching a StuG III with my own hands and just opening the driver's and radio operator's hatches was difficult, and the hatches themselves were at least 25 mm thick. So unless a hatch is open, the chances of a handgrenade destroying tank are very slim.

-Sniper / Machine gun fire: Goes without saying, a sniper or machine gun crew can't destroy a tank, but if the crew / tank commander is visable, they could very well take him out.

-Field of vision: Just looking through the periscopes of the tank commander's position only tell half the story. I've acually been inside a real T-34/85 tank and let me tell you that you couldn't really see anyting through the periscopes and an infantry man hiding would have had a very easy time to knock out the tank with a Panzerfaust without ever being spotted. But with the head sticking out of the hatch the chances of discovering him would have been much greater.

One could implement the closed / open commander's hatch in this manner: If the hatch is open and he is facing either shrapnel or sniper / machine gun fire, then the commander automaticly closes his hatch, thus staying out of danger.

This is just a suggestion of mine, of how SPWW2 could be improved with the next patch.

Cheers and many thanks for a great game!

Taskforce

Re: Suggestion: Open or closed commanders hatch
 

Cant really be done a unit cant really have 2 different states so sets of information in that way. If it could there would be many options available, limbered guns for example comes to mind. I agree the concept of risk vs reward is a good one but would tip the balance even more in the players favour against the AI.
If you really wanted I suppose you could set up a separate unit type for early tanks that would be considered unbuttoned most of the time due to having no radios & therefore having to keep the lead tank in sight & watch for flag signals but this would be very hard to represent.
Best way at the moment is to buy them as one big formation to represent lack of C & C.

Re: Suggestion: Open or closed commanders hatch
 

Are you aware that there is already a "buttoned up" suppression status for vehicles, that sort of represents this - when the vehicle is buttoned up, the hatches are closed and the spotting ability of the vehicle is heavily hindered, movement is slowed down and the vehicle probably becomes more vulnerable to close assaults.