Artillery Support

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by cashfoyogash

LOS on artillery defeats what artillery is... its behind the lines support indirect fire...

Hence why I added the /accessible

The problem with the flail was that it could fire from too far. It could spam a door/vterm while sitting somewhere that might be unassailable.

Having artillery firing from somewhere like the Nzame hill I mentioned, or the forests of Kisin/Tore/Leza/Dagda, or the mountain at Girru, or the ridge around Caer etc. etc.

These are all places I can imagine artillery being useful, while remaining vulnerable. That sort of range would seem about right to me.

[cashfoyogash]

I was responding to the guy who said artillery should be line of sight only, which would be mortars only and on the front lines. I agree with what you have said. I dont believe PS2 artillery should be able to fire as far as the flail can but still be able to be relatively safe behind the front lines but still accessible to enemy raids on artillery positions so therefor artillery should only be able to be deployed in areas where all other vehicles are able to access.

In my mind a self propelled artillery vehicle should be slow like an ams and when deployed its stationary like the siege tank in starcraft 2. Also it should have relatively light armor which would allow raids on the positions to be more successfully. I wouldnt want the artillery to be unstoppable, i just want it to be a tool used in war fare as it is today. Like in bridge crossing or widely used road intersections or used to keep the enemy from taking position on an elevated hill.

[Warruz]

Artillery i really want in this game but it must be player driven and part of keeping it balanced is having other players marking for you.

Part of balancing long range artillery should be in its placement, pushing it requires multiple people or a vehicle.

Shorter the range the less in the requirement in functioning/moving/power.

So Long Range Artillery= 3 people to move or one vehicle(must be atleast a buggie), longest range, largest impact, requires spotter for accuracy.

Mid Range(think howitzer)= 2 people to move or vehicle(ATV), ,mid ranger,Medium Impact, no spotter needed

Short Range(Morter) = 1 person/Portable, Short range, Small Impact, guess and check.

[Aractain]

The problem with spotter/shooter gameplay is that its slow and boring for the majority of people that want to do it. And "balancing" something by making it not very fun is... dumb.

All squads should have the ability to setup a artiliery waypoint which auto locks in the fireing solution and gives a good camera view of the area.

On thier own artilery should be able to fire a floating camera that lats for 3 minuets or so. It has more of a top down angle with a limited field of view and not great zoom length. Aiming would be realativly slow, not mouse response - much slower.

Accuracy would be bad enough there was no way to accuratly hit a vehicle but not so bad you miss the zoomed in view completly.

Getting kills would be rare - would need some other way to award XP and make them feel like they are making a difference.

[Entertain Me]

I would love to be part of an artillery group or something of that sort, maybe we would only be allowed to fire our weapons after someone designated the target area from the frontlines? This would eliminate the possibility of spam-artillery.

Or maybe it could be done similarly to BF2 where AI artillery is shared by the commanders and can be taken out by the enemy and be repaired by friendlies. Commanders can only use it once every few minutes.

[exLupo]

Originally Posted by Aractain

The problem with spotter/shooter gameplay is that its slow and boring for the majority of people that want to do it. And "balancing" something by making it not very fun is... dumb.

Laze and mortar gameplay got a lot of love in Tribes. Using "needs teamwork to be effective" is the same argument people use against the prowler. However, that only applies to that unit because its two analogues require less coordination.

When lazing becomes a requirement, you get people who enjoy doing it because then they're a critical component in a shortly inbound deathbomb. Some people (see: medics in TF2 or Gal specialists in PS1) enjoy support roles. Balancing game components around teamplay is not a bad thing. Arguably, the lack of teamwork-necessary components was a problem in PS1 that, with the skill/class system, seems to be being rectified in PS2.

[DxC]

Im quite sure that Artillery is a nice idea but if anything PS1 taught us was that the flail was quite franky the most anoying thing on the field countless times seeing the shots coming in moving out of the way and still getting hit by it /sigh

However artillery would be a nice idea for the game shaking up the defenders before or during tank battles etc nice idea.