Designated Artillery Outfits?

Will Ion Cannons damage Infantry/Vehicles to an extent other than just being Anti SkyWall tools

I've always considered making an Artillery Outfit, when ever there would be physical Artillery. But now that we know that its happening I can see People making Outfits Solly for this particular role.

As long as it fires like this I'm good

Oh damn! another low skill/no skill explosive AoE weapon planned for the game, on top of infantry being killed by lolpods, 'nade spam, RLs and C4?

Non twitch features always make the twitch players scream.
As a NON TWITCH player..I say enough already.

Did I miss a Wreldit post that said it was happening or something? I feel like if it was confirmed there would have been more activity here about it.

Well developers did say someting about artilery being buildable only in player build bases, with 500m max range.

However they also said that the artilery takes time to charge and it needs cortium, also the cannon is shown to everyone in the map so if we would have artilery outfits, we would also have Anti-Artilery outfits...

(now dont take my word for it, i only head this from CAMIKAZE79 video and he propably watched the Dev-stream where this was told by the devs.)

Not as bad as you'd think. It can only be build in player build bases. Designed to bring down skyshields. Can probably 1 hit infantry IF directly hit by the shell. Cannot be accurately aimed. Will do low damage to armour or buildings. Only gets a 500m range.

Although this is way off isn't 500meters less than half a hex?

Depends on the size of the hex. But about 1,6 times the render range of infantry.

Still beyond render range spamability. As to what it is intended for - that doesn't count for so much as what it is used for. C4 probably wasan't intended to be a super powerful AI grenade but tell that to the C4 faeries.

Still, these are developments in content and that is to be welcomed generally

Dont forget, if you have AV weapons - rocket launchers, AMR etc, then you render further out than normal infantry.
Ive literally seen infantry sat on the crown airpads from cross roads.

500m is also:
less than the max effective range of a lancer / vortex.
less than the max effective range of all tank cannons
less than the max effective range of the GK, Enf, Saron & Halberd

I believe its also less than the width of a warpgate, but id have to double check that ingame.



I think the idea of this artillery (if you can call it that at 500m range....) is to have bases fighting other bases across a stretch of land that seperates them. Not sure where exactly the devs intend this to be used but that does seem to be the intent.
I could of course be completely wrong, but i can imagine setting up a small artillery base near a serverly shielded enemy base and dropping the shields just long enough for the rest of my squad to valk drop the HIVE.
There are a few places on the game where you can build a base completely covered by the shield, this arti would be useful in those situations.

Well, MAXes and Engineer AV turrets are rendered from further away. Rocket Launchers not afaik. ML are just limited by their range itself (lockon distance, effective firing range, flight distance for the Phoenix)

Im sure i remember the patch notes saying anyone carrying AV renders further out.
I would look it up to find out 1 way or the other, if i wasnt so lazy lol.

Yes because artillery couldn't possibly be created in such a way that it can't be skilled.
Except for all the ways I've already listed in a dozen other threads that I know you already read. Why this completely and irrational fear that it must be low skill and large AOE?

You're right, I remember it as well, but I've seen it enough that I can confirm that people carrying long range weapons have render priority. If you can hit me with an AV mana turret you can be sure an AP round will be inbound on your position. (thank you awareness implant). The only time it doesn't render is with ultra long range weapons such as Spears and lancer esque weapons but thats because of ridiculous range on those weapons they will also render at a farther range than your standard infantry as well however. I've never been hit by a mana turret I couldn't see/fire back.

Hear hear, someone who understands.

I never heard anything about artillery being planned...

But anyway, I would appreaciate it.
Not only is artillery a core part of warfare in reality, but it might be able to break up the core gameplay that currently consists of:
Join a horde/zerg go where it goes and retreat to find a new horde at a different place when you get stopped by an enemy horde.
If it is capable of shelling roads, preferred Sundy-deploy points (that are not garages) etc. of course.

Everything that might animate people to communicate and try a different playstyle than "Zerg zombie horde mode" is a good thing imo.

Just cynical old me. and my exerience of the (perfectly legal) ways in which an intended use gets turned into something else....plus looking at how many times I get killed by explosive spam of one sort or another compared to shooting (again, perfectly legal but a irritating nonetheless, like being killed by an exploded aircraft that falls on you out of the sky although that particular ball ache is relatively rare). It's also a bit of a reaction to the obvious affection of many forumsiders for even more of this sort of thing - looking at the number of calls for bombs and orbital strikes and suchlike.

I've no objection to a weapon for use against fortifications. My angst is about whether it might become another infantry farming tool in the hands of some imaginative users. I'm reasonably sure SOE and then DBG didn't really forsee C4 being an air launched anti infantry grenade, or delivered by being strapped to a Flash. Or guys doing suicide runs clutching AI mines. These are all legit techniques - some of them even quite imaginative. I accept that things that go bang are part of the game. It saddens me somewhat that at certain times on the EU servers this seems to be the dominant style of play.

Tbh 'nade spam and getting cherry picked by a guy with a rocket launcher are irritating but at least they are usually within range for a chance to hit back at them

But the advantage here is huge, the things you name were unintended... While we are going to build up an artillery system from the ground while knowing all the things we absolutely do not want to happen.

• We don't want people to be capable of deploying a vehicle somewhere, aim "just here" at the sky and let it rain death on enemies.
• We don't want map-clicking artillery with AOE's. It might work with tiny AOE's and lots of warning for the players on the ground (big lights on shell, smoke trails, warning sound when it's approaching, HUD indicators designating the shell's direction, HUD alarms telling you you are close to the shell's tracjectory and thus impact zone)
• Most people don't want artillery that can't be retaliated against. Solution: Artillery is a support weapon that you fire with a short-ranged targeting laser. Players can kill the player with the laser to prevent the artillery from firing. Look at the OP's video for instance for an idea how that could work but with shorter range. You could even add a risk for the player with the target laser: They have to buy the target laser at the artillery and then move up to the enemy. Since it's a relatively close-range weapon they would have to travel far and wide to get to the enemy. You can also beat render-ranges by using the render range of the player using the target laser instead of the artilleries render range.
• We don't want players to be killed without them being able to defend themselves. Again the list of warnings for players on the ground can solve that with the addition of a slow enough shell so that players have the time to get into cover.

If I could create artillery for PS2 it would really be a support weapon. Capable of doing things like downing the air-shields or forcing enemies to move to a new position, allowing people to get stand-offs moving and create openings in enemy defenses/attacks.

But the question is which class would be given the Target Laser?

Every class. Especially if the target laser can be bought at the artillery itself.

Would that be OP? No. Imagine the Infiltrator having one of these. I can hear people gasp already, "a stealth guy who can get close to you any way he likes can use one of these! Oh the OPness!"
But think again: The weapon has a short range, so the infil needs to be close before he can use it increasing chance of discovery. The target laser itself can be extremely visible, the player using it can be shown on the radar, the laserbeam itself can make a sound (same like the Vanu Plasma makes a sound). Then there's all the ways the artillery shell can be telegraphed with all the sound, slow muzzle velocity, trails, lights, HUD alarms etc that can help with that.

Now keep in mind that if you actually used every single balancing feature I named that the artillery would be mostly useless. So the balanced feature lies somewhere in the middle: Enough warnings and jingle bells to make sure people can't complain what's happening (more so since a rocketpod ESF can kill you with less warning and more success) but not too much so that the weapon can actually have an effect.