I'd much rather see new vehicles than more variations on the ones that are currently in the game. There are plenty of vehicles in CBT that have prime loadouts very similar to many of the variations we currently have. For example, the Goblin would make a great LBL tank. Clan has the Ares with its ERLBL and the Enyo with a LPL. There's stuff like the Alacorn with 3 x Gauss (with 3 x AC/10 and 2 x Heavy Gauss variants) and Schrek with 3 x PPC. There's plenty of stuff out there that could take the place of yet more variants of old designs. Of course, there's the problem of having the guys to model and texture and rig and animate them...
The thing is, it's waaaaaaaay easier to put new variants in a game than it is to make new assets altogether. As such... well, let's look at 3 different tanks with somewhat similar tonnages and firepower:
Brutus
Schrek
Zhukov
The Zhukov main config sports good armor, twin AC10s, and an SRM-6.
The Schrek has lesser armor, but sports 3 PPCs.
The Brutus has good armor, and sports 2 large lasers, an LRM-20, 2 SRM-6s and an SRM-2. It also has a popular twin PPC variant
All these mechs are of similar weight, have the same speed, and have roughly equivalent loadouts. The developers could either make all 3 of these, or make one of them (using the average of 75 tons, so call it a heavy MBT) and incorporate the general loadout ideas into several variants (so you'd have a dual AC10 + srms version, a PPC + lrms version, a large lasers + SRMs version, etc). Meanwhile, instead of developing 2 more similar vees, they can work on 2 drastically different assets to provide more variety. I'd rather have, say, a Brutus (+zhukov +schreck), a Myrmidon (+hetzer +main gauche), and a Saladin (+saracen +lightning) than a Brutus, a Zhukov, and a Schrek. Then, at later times (if someone feels like working on them) the 'similar' designs can be integrated and variants reshuffled.
Personally, I'd like to see the Partisan have less 'slightly different array of light autocannons' variants and integrate the armaments of a couple similarly weighted, armored, and powered IS tanks that aren't likely to get designed anytime soon. Examples:
Fury: 80 tons, tracked, faster than Partisan, 1 gauss rifle. Since the canon one is faster than the partisan, this could be reflected by giving Partisan extra weight appropriate firepower (such as gauss rifle + PPC)
Moltke Main Battle Tank: 75 tons, tracked, faster than Partisan | 2 light GR, 1 ERLL. Again, since this design is faster and slightly lighter than the Party van, it could also be given a firepower buff: 2 Light Gauss Rifles, 2 ERLLs
Just examples, of course... but seeing as we're not likely to see a Fury or a Moltke anytime soon, it'd make more sense to integrate the loadout ideas of these vees into similarly weighted tanks than just to say 'Partisan gets light autocannons and Demolisher gets big guns lololol' and have a distinct lack of variety in tank loadouts whilst we wait for the occasional new tank or two we get every other version.
