I’ve noticed through extensive playtime in Pacific that the balance of support fire capabilities is really unbalanced currently.
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Artillery fire: given how a lot of the points are laid out, artillery fire is too effective, especially when its upgraded and can hit every 60 seconds. I’ve been in numerous games where there are two teammates just calling it in back to back, never getting into the actual fight, just pressing a button and getting tons of kills every 60 seconds. At the very least, reduce the speed up perk for Pacific. Every 2 minutes rather than every minute. (I would actually like to see how it would work if standard artillery were taken out entirely, only allowing smoke on support radiomen.)
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Bomber support:
It’s cool in theory, and can be useful in restricting enemy movements when it gets close to dropping, but it seems to actually be lacking the firepower that it should have. Mid and high grade tanks are completely unphased by it, and it usually doesn’t even kill people out of windows. On the flip side, AAA guns, AA tanks, and fighters should be given more effectiveness against the bomber planes. An overall increase to risk/reward needs to be implemented on these. -
Aircraft:
Outside of one axis plane, most aircraft are borderline useless. Bombs are barely effective due to terrain (I’ve stood behind a palm tree and it saved me from a blast), and the MGs are the only remotely useful part of them. You CAN shoot through structures, but usually can’t obtain enough altitude to make an effective pass.
The resupply point is way too far away, given how ineffective they are to begin with. Lastly, as I mentioned above, they should be more capable of taking out bomber planes called in by radiomen. -
Mortars:
They are effective, as they should be. It would be nice if there was a way to implement assist points to players that dropped a mark near enemies that a mortar then killed. If artillery were nerfed or removed, these would me more of a go-to for fire support.
If some of these were addressed, I think the Pacific campaign has a lot of potential for more entertaining fights, rather than a couple radio operators sitting on the hill eating popcorn.