A new feature in Battlefield 3 where tanks can heal themselves over time is just plain out insane.

If your tank is damaged and you take the tank out of combat for awhile, it will heal itself without the help of engineer. Yup, your mechanical tank is now able to just say “hey, wth I can heal myself since I’m not taking any damage”.

Here is DICE explaining the new feature:

Imagine that your tank is hit by an RPG in Battlefield 3. As the first warnings go off, this is your time as Commander of the tank to assess the danger of the situation – do you push on towards your goal regardless, or do you abort and take evasive action? If you back up and take cover, you give yourself a chance to let the vehicle armor recover, just like your soldier heals up when going into cover.

This is a new feature in Battlefield 3 where lightly damaged vehicles recover their armor after a set amount of time (if kept away from enemy fire). Instead of promoting a gung-ho attitude at all times, this means that the driver who keeps his cool and adapts to any given situation will also be able to keep his vehicle in working order for longer. It is basically our way of giving smart non-Engineers a fighting chance to keep his vehicle in the battle.

Past a certain damage threshold, vehicles will not recover armor. And with heavy damage comes the horrifying and adrenaline-inducing experience of having one’s vehicle disabled. In the case of the tank, it would slow to a crawl. Fire and smoke would signal that it is in dire need of manual repairs, and that it is only a matter of time before it explodes. But here’s the beauty of the new system: Its weapons will still be functioning, turning this into a high risk situation that can play out in a number of ways.

This feature might cause a stir in those Battlefield fans that want the game to more realistic, but at the end of the day Battlefield 3 is just a game. Now we just need to wait till the tank can transform into a helicopter.