AT Rocket teams and loading time

[YankeeDog]

Setting the side for the moment the debates regarding at what range rocket AT teams should be opening up on targets, and whether they should be so keen to use small arms on armor prior to firing their AT rockets, I note another aspect of these weapons that could use some attention in a patch:

Right now, with 2-man AT rocket teams (either Zooks or Shrecks), both members of the AT team will fire their small arms until just a few seconds before launching an AT rocket. The rocketeer usually "hot swaps" to the rocket tube just a few seconds before firing, and the loader will actually fire his personal firearm right through the firing of the rocket weapon, pretty much without interrupt.

Loading a Zook or a Shreck was a 2-man operation, requiring the complete attention of both the rocketeer and the loader for a good 8-10 seconds. These rocket weapons were also generally only loaded immediately prior to firing, for various reasons (among other things, on the zook especially, the rocket wasn't really held into the tube by anything, and could fall out very easily).

It's technically possible for one man to load and fire these weapons by himself, but this is not easy and this was only done solo when absolutely necessary.

Really, once the 2-man AT team "decides" to fire an AT rocket and dedicates themselves to this task, neither member of the team should use their firearm until after the rocket is launched. And if the AI decides to immediately launch another rocket after the first, there shouldn't be a continuing fusillade of small arms fire coming from the loader; he should be focused on reloading the rocket tube.

BTS, fix er do sumfink, yadda, yadda, yadda....

[Vanir Ausf B]

+1

I'm guessing the reason it's a one man job in the game is the animation would be complicated.

But shooting small arms at the tank first to warn it of the incoming rocket is surely something that could be fixed.

[hoolaman]

Animation aside it is a good point.

The assistant to a MG has his weapon shouldered all the time the weapon is firing, maybe that can be implemented for shrecks and zooks?

EDIT: I've posted this to the beta forum. It is a borderline bug and there seems to be behaviour in the game already that could be leveraged to fix it. Fingers crossed.

[YankeeDog]

Thanks for kicking this up the chain, Hoolaman; that's all I can ask.

While a specfic 2-man loading animation for rocket weapons would be very nice, getting such an animation is much lower priority for me; I'd be very happy if the behavior is adjusted, but the animations stay more or less as they are.