Tank 101 - Your guide build tanks!

This is a Working In Progress tutorial to help new players and the community itself to build tanks. I will talk about some tank theories, how to build one (with images!), explain some methods people use to build tanks, and some other tips and tricks.

Introduction

Welcome to Tank 101 Tutorial, I'm Razgriz and I will be talking about how to build a tank and (hopefully) answer most of your questions.

In this guide I will explain about:

• Basic Tank Theory
  
• How Power Wheels works
  
• Complex Controller vs AI
  
• How to build a tank with power wheels only (Appling basic tank theory)
  
• How to build a tank with jets
  
• How to build a amphibious tank
  
• Some general tips and tricks
  
• A FAQ with some usual questions
  
• Some links with basic tanks for you to learn and use as example

I may add or remove some of those contents along the development of this guide, but for now that's my base plan for this tutorial.

Extra Note: It will have some gammar mistakes. My english isn't as good as I want it to be and I would be glad for any help to improve this guide.

Basic Theory

Basic Tank Theory

Have you ever wondered how tanks can turn without a turning wheel?

Tanks have two tracks, one each side, and both of them can only go foward and back without any kind of turning device. They will turn appling force in just one side, and will reduce speed or stop the other side, making one side pushes foward and creating a circle. A similar effect occours when you draw a circle with a compass: You will have a fixed point and the other side moving in circles.

To build a tank, we will need to simulate that, and I will be explaining how to do it with power wheels. And talking about them...

Power Wheels

If you never used one, is a block, 1x1x1, in "Air" menu at Top Right corner. These wheels can (like tracks) only go foward and backward. For building a tank, 3 things are important about wheels. First of them is engine power, a power wheel won't get any faster with more engine power than his max power use; Second, each wheel applies 150 max. force, so more wheels, more speed and turning; And third, with more weight, slower they will be.

AI and Complex Controller

I see a lot of people when someone ask about "how to do a tank" saying to use a complex controller and in fact you can do it with complex controllers. But if that was enough, why isn't this tutorial "How to add a complex controller to your tank"? That's because AI doesn't recognize complex controller commands, so we need to get around that. Gladly, AI "pushes" buttons as same as we do, so for example if I turn right with "I" key, AI will do the same.
Not just that, even if a AI is in a vehicle that doesn't have a feature, for this example a turning wheel, it will still press I to try to turn. This is the catch of why the ACBs method works.

Power Wheels-Only Tank

Finally we will start building a tank, or at least its chassis.

Tip

Sometimes people get an annoying bug on "Land Editor" before building something that recognize vehicles as fortress and disable wheels. To fix that, use New object -> Vehicle, and start building your tank from there.

First, the concept: This tank is a ground only tank moved by power wheels and turn just with them, without a turning wheel or any other device, simulating tracks.

+Pros:

+Easy to build, easy to drive and is dirt cheap.
+Works well in Ashes of the Empire Campaign
+Can handle a lot of weight
+Turn stable and without rolling (if done properly)
+Low consuption of engine power and fuel

-Cons:

-Ground only
-Land AI doesn't really works
-Can look uglier
-Has problems with non-flat terrain

How to build it?

-First step is simple, make a base plataform for your tank and use mirror mode to add power wheels, make them looks foward always and symetrical. remember that the lower your center of gravity, better you will turn and less you will roll. Add 4 to 6 wheels each side for this tutorial, but you can use as much as you want.

Tip

When you mirror mode from the left, the "suspension" part will be inside, but if you mirror it from the right the "suspension" will show outside the tank. That can be used for asthetics purposes.


-Press Interact Key (Default "Q") in every left wheel and make green the "I" key and red the "Y" key. That will make the "Compass Effect" and make AI use properly ACBs later. Then press Interact Key (Default "Q") in every right wheel and make green the "Y" key and red the "I" key.

Tip

If all wheels are togheter and touching, you can press "Spread to all touching similar components" at your bottom right in "Advanced Options" to make a entire line of wheels share the same configuration. That might save you some minutes.



Now we need to make the wheels working, so let's add some blocks:

1- A mainframe, card slot and a Naval AI (Land AI doesn't work as well as was supposed to)
2- 2x ACBs
3- A Chair and a Vehicle Controler set to Water (Optional)
4- A engine with a engine block, a cilinder, a injector and a fuel tank.


-In one ACB, config it to input: "Activated when control received to yaw left", that will make every time you or AI tries to turn left the ACB will do something. Then select Affected "Control", and the number 25. ACB "control" will activate a complex control even without it, forcing AI to turn wheels, and 25 is the number of "Y" key, standard yaw key.
-Then in the other ACB, config it to input: "Activated when control received to yaw right" and select Affected "Control" to the number "9" ("I" key)

Tip

You can use any other key that complex controler understand, but standard controls to Yaw are Y and I, so that would make easier for anyone to drive it.

-The last step is config the AI. There is two things that's really important for your tank:

• Nominal Broadside Angle: That's the angle you tank will try to engage your enemy. My personal favorite value is 60º, but 0º can be useful for ramming tanks or tanks without a turret.
  
• Turning Circle: The guy who makes your tanks roll. Smaller the circle, more chance to roll in high speeds, but will turn faster. Larger number will make your tank travel long and open curves to try to find his enemy. Larger your tank, less problem you will have with rolls. Even less if you keep the center of mass as low as possible. 60 works well for me

And done! You should have a proper tank chassi now! Customize it at your own taste and have fun.

Jet Tanks - Let's Put A Rocket In This Tank

Ah, jet tanks! The oldest way to build a ground vehicle (In FtD), and use most of things Power Wheels-Only Tank use. In this tutorial, I will apply Aerial AI to teach how to configurate Aerial AI for ground vehicles.

Alright, let's talk about some pros and cons

+Pros
+Doesn't need to touch ground to work
+Good for irregular terrain
+Can be faster than wheels
+Can be used with wheels
+Don't need wheels to work

-Cons
-Jets have heat signature
-Expensive
-Use a lot of engine power
-Can overheat you cilinders
-Need more power to move heavy tanks

Most of steps will be the same of building a Wheeled Tank, but for those who are reading this tutorial for this kind of tank I will say step for step again. It's a little boring, I know, but this time will be shorter.

There is two variations about jet tanks: All jets in one direction and tank with turning jets. I will explain both, but turning jets are dispensable.

-Ok, no more cheap talk and let's build this tank. First of all, remember to create a new vehicle from New Object menu and create a good and width base. I used a 7x16 with 4m lead blocks in this tutorial with rubber blocks on each side.

Tip

Rubber Block vs Wheels: In fact, both are useful for a jet tank, but both have some characteristics that can be useful if used right. Wheels and Rubber Blocks doesn't take collision damage, wheels can provide speed and have more health and armor, but uses engine power to run and generate a lot of drag. Rubber Blocks are more stealth against radars, generate less drag than a wheel and don't need power to work, but don't provide speed and are a little more fragile. It's up to you to decide which one is better.

Now with our base done, we need to add a AI, control, engine and of course our jets.

Important!

Always place your jets in line with your center of mass. Lighter tanks can literally fly if you place them too low.

1-AI with Mainframe, cardslot and Aerial AI
2-Turning Jets, optional
3-2x ACBs
4-Chair and Vehicle Controller
5-A engine with a fuel engine generator, a cylinder, 2x injectors, a exhaust and a Fuel Tank.
6-2x jets each side. It's important for "compass effect" the placement on each side.



ACBs and Jets configuration is the same as ACBs and power wheels from power wheels-only tank.

-Press Interact Key (Default "Q") in every left jet (except those optional) and make green the "I" key and red the "Y" key. That will make the "Compass Effect" and make AI use properly ACBs later. Then press Interact Key (Default "Q") in every right jet (except those optional) and make green the "Y" key and red the "I" key.



-In one ACB, config it to input: "Activated when control received to yaw left", that will make every time you or AI tries to turn left the ACB will do something. Then select Affected "Control", and the number 25. ACB "control" will activate a complex control even without it, forcing AI to turn wheels, and 25 is the number of "Y" key, standard yaw key.
-Then in the other ACB, config it to input: "Activated when control received to yaw right" and select Affected "Control" to the number "9" ("I" key)

Important!

There is a last touch before configurate the aerial AI. Enter build mode and press "V". Click on "Jet used in air and water mode", that will make your jets works both with air AI and naval AI and you will control in both modes too.


At last, our AI need to be set properly. There is some important parameters to be look at.

• Angle deviation before turn started: Your tank will only turn if your angle to your target is greater than this value. 20º should be enough for any tank.
  
• Angle deviation before we roll to turn: As a tank, you don't want to roll it, and 180 will disable roll.
  
• The most extreme roll we aim to facilitate a roll-based turn: If you disable roll you shouldn't care about this value, but if you set this to 0 your tank won't roll too.
  
• Cruising Altitude and Minimum Altitude: For a ground vehicle you will probably use your tank as close as 0 as possible, so set it to 0.

About optional jets in the sides: You don't need to config them because AI already recognize them as turning devices and if you use them they will help to turn. I suggest to use them in your tank's front, because it will turn faster and easier there.

About wheels and jets: One can (and some people argue that they should) complement each other, making your tanks faster and easier to manuver. It might sounds ugly or unrealistic (and it is) but is really helpfull.

Amphibious Tanks - A Very Situational Tank

Inregular Terrain vs Tanks

I know, it took some time for another update, but FtD land based vehicles still somehow in "alpha" stage, and Offroad (or "for inregular terrain") vehicles are kind... Bugged. There isn't a proper suspension for wheels and sometimes tanks just stuck there, so I was researching about it. Why? Amphibious tanks are all about offroad.

Let me explain it a little better: When you enter in a river/lake/sea, you will face some inregular terrain, that will slow down or even stuck your tank. This problem is even worse getting out of a river, because you will be climbing, in a inregular terrain, a beach. Jet works wonders on inregular terrains but they aren't suited for water. I still need to try ion, but to be honest that would be too expensive and unreliable.

So, after researching a lot about it, I got a fairly good design for new players and I will be teaching about it

Amphibious Tanks, why should I build one?

Something I was wondering: If build a amphibious tank is so hard, why a player should build one? There is two answers for it, the short one I will give to you here, the long one will be in my "Combined Arms" section.
I don't know if you already look at Ashes of the Empire map, but there is (SPOILER ALERT) two rivers that you will need to cross, and if you decide to build in a standard naval campaing tanks, amphibious tanks will be needed.

Of course that small boats helicopters would be a better option, but for sake of imersion and for people who want to build one, I finally will teach how to build it.

As ever, let's go for some pros and cons

+Pros
+Can cross water with easy
+Can return fire while crossing a river
+Can fight/travel both water and land

-Cons
-I my rumble opnion, it's the ugliest of all tanks
-Can fight in the water, but won't exceed at this
-It's naturally more expensive than a land tank
-Inregular terrain is hard to deal with
-Jets won't be as useful as would be in a land tank

This time I will use Light Alloy for this chassis. Why? Buoyancy. Every single aspect of creating a ship is aplied in a amphibious tank, because it will traverse water.

Straight to the point, let's build it.

First we will build a base, I color coded it in red to be easier to see. I used in this tutorial a 5x16 base with light alloy blocks and 6 wheels each side.


Next we will do another layer above the base, I color coded it in blue. it is another 5x16 alloy rectangle with 1x16 4m Lead Blocks each side (For weight).


Done? So let's delete every Light Alloy in red. There is a bug (or a feature, I don't really know) that make your wheels to still be attched if there is something touching it. This tank will need to be higher because that will help (a lot) on inregular terrain.


After that, we will build around the base just to be our hull. it will help for bouyancy and you can (and should) make it higher. I color coded it in green.


As we already added our wheels, it's time to add our propellers and rudder. I used 4 small propellers each side and a rudder in the middle. remember to place the rudder above wheels to help on inregular terrain.


With our base finished, we need to add everything else:

1-AI with mainframe, naval ai and card slot
2-2x ACBs
3-Vehicle Controler and Chair
4-2x Air Pump (Yellow color coded)
5-A engine with a engine block, a cilinder, two injectors, a exhaust and a fuel tank.


Every configuration I used the same as my power wheels-only tank. For sake of remove backtracking I will add (again) all configuration screenshots.

ACBs

Naval AI

And one last touch: Press E and set your vehicle as All-Terrain Vehicle just for sake of AI pathfinding.


There is one or two things I want to talk about this tank:

• Jets can be used above waterline, but they won't work underwater.
  In this kind of tank, try to make it as deeper as possible to the water. Waterline can provide cover against shots.
  
• Center of mass is importante as every other tank, but as a "ship" try to mantain it as closer of its center as possible. Unbalanced tanks will roll.
  
• As I said, there isn't a suspension in this game, so a higher chassi will help with some of bumps and hills that you might try to pass through.
  
• This chassi is really fast in land, when you start to build your own design of amphibious tank remember to add weight to it. It will help with mobility and minimize rolls.
  
• It isn't as fast at water as it is in land. Reduce drag will help with speed at water but remember that wheels create a lot of drag.

Combined Arms - The most important improvement of modern warfare

It wasn't nukes, radio, computers, gps or any other tech, but combined arms. But you might wondering: "why?", so before answer that I will explain what is a combined arms.

Combined arms is, a mixed group of units that one complement each other, achieving maximum efficiency of each unit. How this is achieved? Let me give you an example: Imagine you have one heavy armored and slow tank, one light fast tank and a plane as your enemy. CRAMs can destroy slow tanks, but they will have a hard time killing the plane and the fast tank. In other hand, advanced cannons can do wonders against planes and fast enemies, but won't do as many damage as CRAMs. So, you can have a tank with a CRAM and a tank with a Advanced Cannon, and they will destroy each other weakness. Most of time is something like "rock, paper and scissors" in scale, it isn't "defend/attack against everything", but have a variety of units that exceed in some role. I will talk about every single role of tanks later on, so don't worry.

For now, just think about "it's better a pretty good tank against X enemy with support than a ultra expensive tank that is a weak all-arounder."

WIP - Stay Tuned

Next time: Some explanation of which kind of tanks that is used in real life that can help you to create your might army. And, as a bonus, I will talk some tips about armor. While I'm working on it I would be glad if you guys help me to fix some problems in this guide. I hope you enjoyed this and stay tuned for future updates!

[rojogames371]

how do you build a tank gun? i can't build an advanced cannon that's worth anything. ;-;

[TheAngryReaper AU]

@epicgamer, no its actually a turning wheel lol. hes not discussing a control method, hes discussing the wheels in FtD that can actually change their direction, called turning wheels.

[JeWxGuy]

will you release a update for this? i can get tracks to work manually myself put when i try with the AI it drives in the other direction of the waypoint and turns back and forth the whole time....

[epicgamer]

you're welcome! i'm not that experienced myself, so i cant really help there. i don't even understand how to make things fly yet!

[Not Erik]

Thank you for the feedback!
This is a pretty outdated tutorial and I need to improve it, but I don't build tanks for ages. I would need to relearn a few things like the new suspension system. In the next version I will fix it all

[epicgamer]

wheel*, not "where". not sure how that slipped in

[epicgamer]

so, you said your english is not that good? its actually fairly easy to read! here is some help on more minor issues, though! its not "your guide build tanks." it's your guide TO build tanks". for the description:

This is a Work (remove the -ing) In Progress tutorial to help new players and the community itself to build tanks. I will talk about some tank theories, how to build one (with images!), explain some methods people use to build tanks, and some other tips and tricks. the rest seems good enough.

another, more minor issue i have found
"Have you ever wondered how tanks can turn without a turning wheel?"
it may just be based on where yow grew up in, but i usually refer to it as a "steering" wheel, not a turning where.

i hope this helped!

[Nutty31]

I'm trying to build a tank but I'm having a problem where the wheels are turning on their own without any input. It is making it impossible to keep it still and I can't figure out why this is happening. This is even happening without any control surfaces, AI present or even assigned controls by pressing "Q".

[Alcates]

@Axebeard High angle just means a high arcing shot, which are nearly useless. An AA cannon firing above 45 degrees is actually not considered high angle in this context. An AA gun that prefers high angle would simply try to get it's shots to go above the target and land on top of them. The only time you ever would want to use prefer high arc is if making tactical artillery that can shoot over mountains and suchlike.

[Axebeard]

I found one huge problem with ALL turrets, if you set them to Prefer High Angle firing, they'll basically refuse to fire most of the time. Low Angle is the way to go, even for AA.