Indirect fire support

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by CharlieGrim, May 22, 2016.

  1. Demigan

    Yeah, and there are absolutely no ways around that!
    Except for:
    • Making shells work server-side similar to mines
    • Making shells count as vehicles, which use the victims client to determine a hit or not. Clientside is used to prevent players feeling cheated when their shot misses even though on their screen it hit, but seeing that you are using non-LOS weapons and that everyone else in the area see's the latency shot there's no reason to use victim-side. The 'vehicle' can easily have a hitbox, we know that your personal vehicle can kill/crash even when you are at the other end of the map (just redeploy from your aircraft at max height at the other end of the continent and move to your warpgate, it can still hit and kill people and crash to death)
    • Making all artillery an automatic support weapon. Just deploy it, get out and someone can fire it off with some gizmo or doodad (possibly acquired at the artillery itself). The one doing the firing would be required to be within a certain distance of the target, so the shell can use that player's render range and count as his shell. The one that deployed the artillery would gain support XP (unless he's the one firing it).
  2. ShootMeThankYou

    I'd make it as HA's weapon, like rocket launchers. Max range 100m, gives whistle sound as it comes, takes time to deploy, makes HA watch sky like skyguard type of aim, and.. someone who can laser targets for deployed HAs. Which would show up on HA's deployed mortar's hud, so he'd know where to aim.
  3. EPIC389

    I'm not truly sure about the position of artillery and how it would affect the game, but I'd like to use World of Tanks as an example

    Artillery are a type of tank that utilizes indirect fire.

    In this game artillery have multiple problems

    RNG based accuracy

    Extreme damage when it hits

    Extremely long reload times


    This itself is a problem

    When the arty hits, which often it doesn't it either cripples or outright kills that tank.

    In that game, we refer to them as clickers

    The general opinion of artillery is that players barely move at all, and just sit there shelling everything they can see


    How does this relate to Planetside?

    The biggest problem with an indirect fire is how frustrating it is on the receiving end. You can't really see whats shooting at you. This is what's frustrating about artillery.

    If arty was implemented, I'd like to see it like this

    Very Accurate

    Low Damage, only enough to kill infantry with one hit

    Low splash dmg and area

    Quick Reload Speed

    Relatively slow velocity and the shell has to travel on a high arc. This requires leading to moving targets

    Victims get a notice they are being targeted if they are say, within a box of a certain distance of that aiming point
  4. Demigan

    I already mentioned a bunch of stuff on the first page to make sure players can react to shells.
    Sound warnings (whistling of the shell, an alarm in your suit) and light warnings (a light trail on the shell, a warning similar to grenades on your HUD to indicate direction and position). You can also add things like slow shell velocity, capability to shoot the shell to destroy it/cause it to go off-course, give the artillery user a tough time determining the enemy position and making it hard to accurately shoot them (which would be especially problematic if the weapon actually has high accuracy and low COF!) etc.
    I think personally artillery shouldn't be manually fired. Artillery should be a support weapon. You deploy it somewhere, you buy a laser designator or something at the artillery (thanks to Movoza for that idea) and then drive/walk up to the target. The laser designator has a limited range, forcing you to be within a certain distance. This eliminates the whole "but you can't retaliate!" crap because you can kill the player with the laser designator (which he would have to buy all over again and move towards you again to use).
    That way artillery could actually be a pretty powerful weapon... But give enemies more than enough time to react to it. Considering it would be a support power, there's no reason it should be a killer. By firing artillery you could push enemy vehicles or infantry zergs away with the threat "if you stay there you'll get obliterated". The long telegraph of your attack (first a visible laser from your designator, then the shells with all the warnings) means the likelyhood of killing anything is small, but the goal has already been reached.

    Your idea's are pretty neat. Highly accurate, low damage, low AOE, quick reload. I usually swap out the quick reload with firing a magazine with recoil. If you want to stay accurate: Readjust your aim after each shot. If you want to work as area denial: fire volleys, then reload. This also means that players getting shot at can move in-between salvo's, rather than be fearful of a constant barrage.
  5. SixNineFour

    When AA guns and not even AAA guns work, you need to get AAAAA.
    Liberator, the Air to Air Anti Aircraft Artillery Gunship
  6. EvilWarLord

    I think i prefer direct with say a radius of HE rounds

    Say it takes 3 hits to take out heavily armored vehicles (I.E. MBT'S, SAM-S,) and 1-2 hits for Flashes, Lightnings and Harassers.

    Example ETQW, When the hammer or Dark matter cannon was fired and notification would appear going
    "HAMMER LAUNCHER FIRED"
    Now there were 2 ways to deal with Fire Support in ETQW
    A - Destroy with Timed explosives or V-TOL
    B - Counter Incoming Rounds with an Interceptor Turret

    Planetside would be no different, If its a Stationary deploy-able Libs and MBT's can easily destroy or disable them, if the Artillery is mobile (Example MCP carrying an SSM Payload) can be outright destroyed.)