POE 2 Artillery

[Heavy552 AWG]

I played the POE mod today for the first full day with all the rotation of maps in the SOW server at 72.36.185.26

The artillery is a wonderful unit. I like everything about the game.

Except....

No one uses binoculars to spot for arty. You would think that there is a constant stream of target spots when the enemy resistance is too stubborn and needs a little help from the arty.

I might see 2 firemissions engaging bona-fide binocular spotted targets. Usually from my own Clan on ventrillo describing to me the target, base location etc. I can figure out the ranges myself. I use about 3 shots or less to find target and then fire constantly until either enemy is dead, friendlys are too close or the satellite spot runs out of time.

Back in Novalogic with thier mortor, we used a spin map up to a certain range and right clicked the spot we wished to mortor. The shells fall within a radius and was pretty helpful. We also had the grenade boats lobbing grenades all day.

what does this have to do with POE arty you ask? Lots.

I learned to sit 500 yards -/+ 30 yards and shell a enemy base using a certain position of the cannon relation to the enemy base flag on my seated gunner sight. I get a few kills and it somewhat is effective in disrupting an enemy base. The artillery oliberates enemy tanks with one shot kills in a variety of situations at up to 200-300 yards. It is the "Daddy" of armor when escorted by tanks.

But this Daddy is not properly used in the direct anti armor role.

The artillery unit needs some kind of self contained range sighting because all artillery units know how far a shell will travel for any given elevation.

The binoculars are nice and helpful but they are a waste of the arty's resources as you sit and spam "ARTILLERY READY" every few seconds. Finally you give up and roll into the village with tanks around blasting single infantry at 20 yards.

So how about it? Give the arty a self contained ranging sight that uses the spin map or main map for distance. It can be as simple as a slider indicator similar to sniper rifles in the game and the cannon hydraulics can take care of the range you dial in.

If we are going to enjoy artillery it needs to be updated with such a system.

[Tren]

--Moved to PoE2 Mod Discussion--

[tekkyy]

hm...range finder would be good

its in other mods too

[DrunkenPirate]

Nice post but I'm afraid it smells of the "my team mates have no fkn clue what teamwork is so I want poe to patch it"

[chipscheesdogfro]

Poe is a big mod!

[pYura]

I love arty, just play as commander , you dont need a spotter. I had 15-0 last round :D

[tekkyy]

why would you say that?
its just another interface thing
I don't think a range finder would remove teamwork
its not BF2 arty

if it does, then all the other "high-tech" weapons also remove teamwork
player guided missiles, self guided missiles, etc

[Heavy552 AWG]

Nice post but I'm afraid it smells of the "my team mates have no fkn clue what teamwork is so I want poe to patch it"

There is SOME teamwork. The artillery needs something other than "Pixel" shooting or killing infantry at 20 yards.

I point to the lack of binocular shooting by people. I spent several games and had 2 players who were not clan mates dedicating themselves to learning how to spot and typing to me what the fire effect is like.

I also observed that I would spot a target and have the friendly arty fire immediately from road march with the turrent pointing ahead and the gun level in travel position instead of taking the few precious moments to stop, turn towards the target and raise the barrell for the 500+ yard shooting.

Also by the time some players got the arty up and pointed the right way the spot time is up... kind of like a 20 cent peep show that turns off just when it is going well.

Too much time lost referring to the map, gun elevation, hunting the shot correction and getting the range in the 15 seconds allowed by the spot.

Me? I am usually sitting within 600 yards of most of the targets in a quiet place behind a hill safe from all but the most zealous enemy bomber or heli constantly monitoring the field map and spamming ARTILLERY READY! every 20 seconds.

It would be nice to try and encourage minor changes to improve the artillery experience and provide some level of self-targeting that is able to deal with a range of battlesituations like "ENEMY SPOTTED!" with the flashing icon presented to teammates.

I am not whining about lack of teamwork. Not after that Infantry only map where I saw proper tatics being used by both sides moving from base to base. Im not whining about patching the artillery.

BUT I AM POINTING OUT SOME THINGS that can be improved because the version of the POE mod as it stands removes artillery from the game and leaves the one or two people (And commander) with nothing to do but accrue hours sitting in a armored box singing campfire songs and waiting for that precious 15 seconds of binocuular spotted targets which wont be hit anyway.

Im an old trucker and have the patience to sit all map deployed and ready to shoot at the moments notice at enemy targets. Many of the younger folks they dont have that virtue.

Regarding some of the toys I found on other vehicles, the adaptation of the helicopter guided missiles to ground vehicles capable of being guided with a few clicks straight to the target really discriminates against the big bad arty that is casterated and neutered in this current version of POE.

What is even more sobering about the use of ARTY is that evey shell has the potential to cause -6 against the gunner for teamkill if it should arrive at a target area with a teammate underneath.

In view of such immense potential to get oneself kicked or banned from a good server in light of all the potential teamkills, the gunner in the ARTY should have some of the best tools for the trade.

And if he or she cannot shoot or use arty effectively then...

remove the gawd dayum artillery from the game and save the wasted game resources for something else. Before it turns into the biggest portable sniper rifle in the game best at 20 yards in town and 200 yards against anything that moves. The forums will probably fill with the words "Gunwhore" in addition to other degraditory terms anyway.

I have already seen tanks that are with me assaulting a town defended by tanks go somewhere else to get kills because when this artillery daddy shows up that enemy tank is dead, I get the kill credits and our teammates in their tanks have nothing to do.

So, let's put a range device into the arty and give it some reasonable accuracy say 50 yards plus or minus. The slipping ground, recoil, latency and travel time of the shot already introduces some inaccuracy into the engagement.

For those of you who think I dont know how to support my teammates with the binos I spent two whole maps doing nothing but spamming binocular spots only to hear "ARTILLERY READY" and texting back and forth to the poor newbie gunner in the arty who wants to shoot something but have no idea what to do with it.

That REALLY distracts the teammates holding artillery school and the gunner's hand for 30 minutes.

I had several comments from other team members "IF you cannot shoot that arty get out!" similar to the old noob pilot cannot fly thing.

I expect within a few months that this artillery unit will be used in the direct fire anti anything within 100 yards and as spamming sholls at certain "Pixels" of the maps that are learned to have enemy bases with targets of value. It's best to do this as a commander so you have a resupply to yourself and up to 300 rounds reloads over 30 minutes of a regular game.

[Sanman62]

I only tried the Arty for about a half hour yesterday. No one would spot for me so I just drove it into a tank battle and went to town. Got pwned pretty fast but got a coupel of kills.

I have the patience to sit there and wait for the targets. I only wish I didn't have to, I wish I could pound a target until I see my team advancing and then stop, sure it will take a little bit to figure out the distance and such.

Everyone talks about team work this and team work that BUT people forget that the MAJORITY of players don't play in clans or tournments. I used to play for 21CW and loved it but I just coulnd't dedicate the time any more. Now I play pub servers and I understand what that means. Adding a range finder would make things a little easier and might stop people from taking such a great assest directly into a tank battle.

Sure, it's not 100% accurate (arty in real life needs cooridnates called in) and maybe I missed it where POE is all about accuracy but this is a game and this small piece would make it a little more fun to use ARTY.

If people get kicked for team killing with the arty then they should learn to stop shooting when there team is trying to cap.

Cheers

[Heavy552 AWG]

Well, I guess it's going downtown to get a few kills here and there then.

[ebag]

it is a good anti tank cannon