- Yes
- No
I want to revisit the idea of adding workable headlights/tail lights into war thunder.
The reason why I want to revisit the idea is because when this was originally talked about, the context behind it was to add headlights to help players see other players during night battles, but an argument was made that if you had your headlights on during a night battle all the enemies you easily see you, but I’m not saying to add headlights to solve a problem, I’m saying to add it for atmosphere purposes, to add it for people that want to make night cinematic’s or people that want to take screenshots of their favourite tanks at night with their headlights on, think of it as another in game mechanic like “Drivers Camera” or “Transmission mode” Things that are not super useful immediately, but are fun to have nevertheless.
But how should they be implemented?
Well of course, If a player wants to turn on their headlights, they will go into their control’s menu, the key bind to turn it on would not be bound to any key, so the player can choose what key they want, once bounded, the player would push the headlight button which would turn them on, push it again, and they turn off, for Cold War tanks and Modern MBTS that have tail lights, it would work the same, once you turn on your headlights your tail lights will also turn on, and of course if you start to brake, the tail lights will get brighter and if you reverse your reverse lights will pop on. Although all of that is obvious, there are additional questions to be asked, like, “Would brightness be different among different tanks?” “What about tanks that have brights and tanks that don’t?” “What about Tanks like the M-51 (W), or M728 CEV that have giant lights?” or “What about shaped lights like on German WW2 tanks?”
To start,
all tanks should just have the same brightness, from the T-34 to the T-90, it should be all the same, if there are tanks with brights (Which would probably be all modern MBTS) When you turn on your headlights it would be a bit brighter than a normal tank without brights just by just a little, Tanks like the M-51(W) or M728 would probably have a bigger light coverage but not brighter lights, and of course if a headlight is shaped differently like German WW2 tanks that only have a slit then once on, the light would look different once on, and also if someone shoots your headlight or headlights they won’t work any more.
Now,
it is very important to note that there SHOULD NOT be a battle advantage if you were to turn on your headlights, to my knowledge I don’t think headlights blind thermals or NVD, but if they do in real life, it should not be replicated in war thunder, and headlights should not be able to blind players during night battles or day battles whatsoever as this would be added as a fun game mechanic.
In conclusion,
Headlights in war thunder would be an atmosphere mechanic that would be used to add atmosphere to a cool photo you want to take of your tank or to make night cinematic with, the only time it would be remotely useful would be in night battles which, you can only get into a night battle in vehicles that already have NVD or Thermals, and it is optional to be in a night battle anyway.
Adding headlights is something I wanted in war thunder for a bit now, and it would be cool to have them, adding just a bit more character to your vehicles!