The pre-warning before artillery strikes seriously needs to be removed

Suggestions
41

This is not something I’m saying, but which I have noticed it is happening. The strikes don’t kill nearly any enemies, but they do kill friendlies, when they are taking the point, because they have to go take the point, that is why they willingly enter the circle.

And figure, you’re on point taking it and a team-mate calls an artillery strike on the point. You have 25 seconds to leave the point, but do you leave it? No, you will try to take it. Besides, points are the spots on the map that see the most intense fighting, so it is very hard to evacuate the point once you’re there and you’re very likely to get shot in the back if you run away.

Yes, ideally, one would call an artillery strike on the enemy position (either the point or defended areas), right after taking a point & the strike would hit immediately, while your team was still far-away from the point. What happens with the delay is that, after taking an enemy point, people call it on the next point, but the delay is so long that your team-mates often arrive to take the point before the artillery hits, causing the many friendly-fire incidents we see on this game.

Again, what is at fault for the inbalance and lack of realism are the delays, not artillery per se.

42

sound as a warning is more than enough !
arty is overnerfed too much… nobody uses it now… what is not so bad tho lol

43

The warning was already there - they extended the time by 5 seconds.

44

My main concern is the risk vs reward. Radio operators are prone to become noninteractive playstyle, if the arty strikes are too good. The way you play it, sounds like you can keep a squad alive like that forever.

That kinda brings up another problem; A lot of people want realism, but never address the gamemode. The absolute best way to play (from a winning perspective - can get higher score with vehicles), is to swarm the points with automatic weapons. Always. Any soldiers you keep back, are soldiers missing from the capture point. Team needs maybe 1 plane to take care of enemy tanks, but besides that, all you really want on a team is more assault. Might make a thread about it sometime.

45

imagine crying this hard over hitting 7 and click on a map for free kills.

46

Don’t know man, i still get a lot of kills with it, theres always a blind guy running into them (more than one actually) so i can’t see the issue here, but maybe delay the circle warning, or like Ravennight said “…the artillery indication should not pop up until the first shell hits the ground…” so i can get even more kills :wink:

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47

smh you should’ve seen arty 1-2 months ago

48

You can make a call for fire in the field at any time when you are in the Arty’s net. That call for fire can include Artillery, Air support, Mortars, even tank or SP barrage. A new one is a Rocket battery.

In WW2 it wasn’t that different then it was today. The one main difference was that it was usually the squad leader or FO, not the RTO that would make the call for fire. They also didn’t have GPS, laser tracking or even the modern grid system on the map though they did have it’s beginnings, the Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system (IE 297684). and they had a watch and compass…

FOs would normally NOT engage the enemy directly. They would use binocs, make a call for fire, and adjust fire as needed.

You guys are talking about Regimental bombardment, something that battle planners would call for before a battle. Though it was common, it is NOT the kind of call for fire we are making here.

Getting back on topic, the current system is brutal for beginners, but it also is a bit silly in that the enemy is warned far in advance of the barrage. That needs to be corrected.

49

In WW2 is was completely diffferent - artillery was called by dedicated observers in most armies AFAIK - not by squad, platooon or even company officers.

Here’s a lengthy document on Royal Artillery methods - Royal Artillery Methods in World War 2
The section “Basic procedures for impromptu targets” is particularly relevant: Royal Artillery Methods in World War 2

For US artillery see U.S. and German Field Artillery in World War II: A Comparison – The Campaign for the National Museum of the United States Army - although not as detailed it also emphasises teh role of observers.

50

Thanks. I did mention FOs by the way. It stands for Forward Observer.

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51

As I’ve said before, the warning was already there, but it made sense back then when there could be up to 10 strikes/moment (& it was factually needed, even if it was absurdly unrealistic, as you wouldn’t know what hit you otherwise). With the single-shot limitation the warning just makes sure that single shot is innefective (& highlights just how absurd was the mechanic, which was intended and only ever applied for 10 strikes, not 1). The added delay, as I’ve extensively discussed here, just put the final nail in the coffin.

With the 1-strike limitation that will never happen. We need artillery to be minimally efficient though for gameplay purposes & to remove the absurdity of the instant pre-warning for the single-shot.

Plus the Radio Operator Squad has been completely removed from the game and from having any efficiency & any justification to be used. Something should be done there, maybe add more options unique for radio operator squads, maybe give the ability to call different types of artillery - rocket artillery, incendiary, even smokescreens etc.

Another traumatized person… as I’ve mentioned. The artillery onslaught before the patch is no justification for sticking with a (as I’ve shown) completely broken mechanic just because people are scared of changes to artillery.

In game-terms, when you call the artillery there is the map in which you call it (with all possible markings). That would only be possible with said spotter, so this is included, as an abstraction, in the whole artillery calling process.

Imagine being triggered enough to keep giving such obvious bait replies at people discussing a game mechanic. I think you’re the one crying about dying from artillery, thus you spam every thread with bs like that, because you’re scared if artillery is even in game, it might kill you. “No effort”, yeah that is a common loser’s cry.

Camping w/ a tank overlooking the enemy point & getting >50 kills with HE shells by just clicking the same spot… takes no effort. Pounding enemy positions w/ 40 mortar shells 200m behind… takes no effort. Squad-wiping & killing >20 people in a single bombing run before suicide… takes no effort.

Lots of ways to kill enemies that require little to no effort. I bet you would cry if you ever fought as infantry… because the guy from your squad at the machine-gun position killed dozens of people “for no effort” while you in the field had to take a lot of effort to pin down and kill 1 enemy. Think artillery is ‘no effort kills’? Then go play a game without it & stop cluttering discussions over a fundamental mechanic of this game.

52

are you okay?

53

With the 1-strike limitation that will never happen.

I disagree. The cooldown is still low enough that this is 100% possible, and people do bring radio squads to do this. It has not been “removed from the game.” More options for the squad would be nice though, since it’s on the weaker side now.

As for artillery efficiency, it could probably be a bit higher - But it’s a very fine balance before we return to the old “sit in corner and wait for cooldown” strategy to be a problem (again). Like I said, people still do it now. Nerfing the warning could be ok, but it won’t take much before we’re back to “extremely frustrating repeated deaths you can’t avoid, from spawncampers you can’t kill” like it used to be.

Arty is currently zero risk, small reward. If you want high reward, mechanics would need to change, to put your radio operator in some semblance of danger. Nobody should be able to engage the enemy both safely and efficiently. If arty strikes are made stronger, I would like to see a corresponding further increase in cooldown.

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