To give credit where credit is due, the PRTL has the opportunity to be the most unique of the BeNeLux ground additions so far, but I agree that:
it appears that BeNeLux additions have been mostly focused on what can be added with the least effort; and
that adding something at ~8.3 is one of the least effective ways of addressing the French 6.3-8.7 SPAA gap
At the end of the day there are plenty of French platforms that would just need a new turret to be added that should be in the same order of magnitude of modeling effort as the PRTL, and it’s disappointing we’ve not seen any movement in that direction for years
Given the status quo in the British tech tree, which is still yet to receive a single British light tank between the BRs of 3.0 and 7.7, or a single British SPAA between the BRs of 4.0 and 8.3 (both gaps that have been filled by sub nation content), it is impossible to believe that the addition of sub-nation content doesn’t significantly delay the addition of domestic content.
Nobody here believes that Gaijin are rubbing their hands together in some kind of evil lair saying ‘mwahaha we can add this Benelux vehicle instead of this french vehicle and never add any french vehicles ever again’. But the proven track record is that once a gap is addressed with sub-nation content, the addition of domestic content that fills the same role is then worst case completely absent or at least significantly delayed.
Between the AMX-30 and Leopard chasis based SPAAs, this is very minimal and haddly of any impact to the gameplay of either.
As a unique Dutch variant, it has differences both visually and with its radar. This offers both a unique Dutch modification to the sub tree and something new gameplay wise to the French tree overall they do not currently have.
This is a unique domestic variant vehicle for the Netherlands. Precisely why we are adding it. Others are under consideration for the future too.
I agree. Again, I do generally support the addition of the BeNeLux subtree, I will definitely research and play the PRTL, and I do think the subtree has huge potential. I just think it’s a bit wasted, sadly.
Do you not see how there is a difference between a Dutch-modified Gepard with no functional difference to the Gepard already in-game, and the completely Belgian-designed and produced Cobra 90, for example, with a domestic Belgian gun and ammunition? (yes, I know an SPAA is not the same as a 90mm light tank)
Yes, the PRTL is Dutch-modified and thus ‘unique’, but it’s not the same level of ‘unique’ as an actual Dutch / Belgian-designed and domestically-produced vehicle that isn’t just a variant of a pre-existing vehicle.
You are really stretching the definition of copypaste not gonna lie.
Plenty of vehicles across the entire game have very similar gameplay, there are only so many ways you can use any given platform.
Whether it’s corner camping the meta spots on Advance To The Rhine after winning the initial engagement, fighting for the A hill on Carpathians, or fighting for B on Mozdok, you’ll be doing very similar things in nominally very different vehicles.
End of the day, it’s a calibre of AA that France lacks as to my knowledge they don’t use 35mm, and it’ll be competitive.
We’ve had several examples of both British Light tanks and SPAAs outside of these BRs.
The main consideration here is, the British community have a lot of differing requests. Not simply just light tanks and SPAAs. But vehicles from the commonwealth and other types too. Which we have been introducing over the last few years.
So we have several areas of consideration and community feedback to consider.
We haven’t started any dev blogs yet. All of the announcements and teases we had to share were within the news post itself. It seemed like that was pretty clear.
Nobody claimed there was no differences between the two. However they serve two entirely different purposes for the game and do not replace one another.
The issue was the very much overdone use of “copy paste”, when this vehicle is not.
My point was that calling a vehicle, based on a pre-existing vehicle, unique because it has a different 3D model and a different radar (that means little in-game) is stretching the meaning of ‘unique’ a little.
Well this I 100% agree with. A lot of people will scream “copy paste” at vehicles that just aren’t copy-paste. I for one do support actual copy-paste when necessary, and also minimally-modified vehicles (again, when necessary). But that doesn’t mean there aren’t different levels of uniqueness, and the PRTL sits lower than actual domestically-designed BeNeLux vehicles.
Not at all. Sadly its just become commonplace these days to bundle everything that isn’t an entirely new vehicle outright as “copy paste” to write it off.
Many vehicles are based on or variants of preexisting vehicles. Including some of the suggested vehicles discussed in this conversation of French origin too. That doesnt mean they are all “copy paste” because they are combinations of existing hulls or turrets.
It was disapointing wen they added the pancake because is just another USA CAS of course with 2 Big bombs but pancake is better wen they add cool tanks like the long Tog II or the KV-7 or the sturmtiger sadly I coudnt get the Tog and sturmtiger
