Something happened on the WaW public server I'd be interested in getting the community's take on. Bit of a long read, so sorry about that:
Playing Cobra, about 53 or 54 people online. I'm SL on Allied, and we're attacking Watermill. My plan was to fill up my Greyhound and try a Hail Mary around the lake to attack Watermill from behind, disrupting as much of the resistance as I could, and to keep zooming around (for my squad mates to respawn). There were some tanks defending, naturally, and a squad mate mentioned a Panzer IV in the field north of the flag. I went to check it out.
The Panzer IV was on fire, and one shot to his ass finished him off, but there was also a Panther there. I shot him in the tracks 3 times, and he was smoking badly, but he turned and finished me off. I respawned with the Greyhound and the Panther (fully repaired now) was in the same spot, so I decided to try to do something I'd wanted to do since my first days of FH2 in late 2011 - kill a Panther with a Greyhound.
I approached from behind and sent one shot into his rear hull, and pulled up behind him at a 90-degree angle, the thinking being that whichever way his turret started to turn, I'd either hit the gas or go into reverse to move the opposite way. Whatever happened, my intention was to circle around the Panther, hopefully avoid his main gun long enough to get in the 4-5 shots required to kill him. After the first hit, I drove around the opposite way his gun was turning and hit him in the wheels. At this point, he turned the tank around and began driving away (westwards), all the while dropping smoke. I pursued, and after 3 more shots to the rear hull, I killed him.
This, apparently, was an 'exploit'. The guy in the Panther was sheikyourbouti. I guess he has a bit of a reputation around here, but I happen to agree with most of what he says on here and in game, but I was gobsmacked that anyone could possibly consider what I did an exploit. He said it was a 'noob tactic' (circling enemy tanks in the Greyhound or Puma) and that he couldn't wait until it was removed. He was in the best tank on the map, and I wasn't even in a tank at all. His view from what I gathered was that the turret speed on the Panther has been nerfed. I want to be careful because I had a crash to desktop shortly after this and inexplicably the map took over 10 minutes to load again, so I don't know all of what was said, but from a short discussion afterwards a few other players were chiming in, some considering it a-okay to do what I did, some thinking it was cheap, and so on.
What do you all think of this? I was completely at a loss as to in what world this could be considering unfair play, but seeing as I've often been wrong about this kind of thing I don't know what exactly to think. Another player (not sheik) chimed in that Greyhounds were never used for tank hunting, which is fine, but there are a thousand common uses for weapons in FH2 that have no real-world counterpart. You might as well call S-mining an enemy AT gun an exploit, or throwing a smoke grenade at a wounded enemy to finish him off cheating. I could see a case if I had my mouse sensitivity zapped up, but I have it set for 0.20 in all vehicles (default is 0.50), for the purposes of getting into the habit of turning my tank to face an enemy, and more stable aiming.
Thoughts? I don't really know what to make of this. I know Sheik reads these parts so I don't want him to think I'm having a go or something, this is as fair an account as I can give, but it had never occurred to me that tank hunting in the Greyhound was anything even approaching unfair and I'd be interested to know if anyone feels the same way he does.
