Arty Tanks are Confusing: Why using every tank means misusing every tank

This is going to sound crazy, simple, and crazily simple, but it's possible to just remove them from the normal vehicle build menu and leave them in the comm vehicle build menu. The code for the commander build menu and the normal build menu is completely separate.

 

That's worth its own update.

 

Remove arty from both menus.

On a more serious note I think it would be awesome if there were com-only super apc's that cost like twice as much as a heavy but have like 8 plate armor and drive really slow but can act as mobile fortresses.

Awesome but horrible at the same time.

 

Every time you make a retarded and serious post, I feel like doing the complete opposite. Now I want to make it so that arty tanks can be built from anywhere and don't need to be researched.

 

I'm sorry that I don't find camping in a base on a very specific set of maps tailor made for arty very fun.

 

If we can find a way to make it abundantly clear that it's the only place you can build them, then I'm more than up for that. It just needs to be obvious to the Commander that he'll need to do that, then we're sorted.

So yeah, definitely happy with that.

 

There have been about 50 threads for this one suggestion, and all the devs have basically said it was impossible, but you're telling me it's not even that big of a deal?

I love you candles.

 

Well it's not the same thing exactly. We were talking about a separate system for commander restricting, but he's just talking about removing it from the vehicle menu for players who aren't the comm. It's not an idea solution but it'll certainly do the job.

 

Well, there's only two places where we could reasonably state that only the commander can make artillery. The first is the research item itself, and the second would be the vehicle build menu, but I can't think of how that could make it clear enough that the average player would notice it.

 

What everyone else wants is menu for the commander that he can use to put limits on certain chassis. That isn't going to happen without GUI work which is what makes it basically impossible. What I can do is just straight up remove the option to select artillery entirely in the normal vehicle build menu, so the only way to build them would be to be in the CV and use the build menu from it.

Now I could be wrong because I can't actually look at the code right now, being at work. Best case scenario, there's two menus and I just remove the option from the normal one. Worst case scenario, I'm entirely wrong and they're actually the same menu because my memory is shit. In that case, all I'd have to do is put a check in to see if the player is the commander, and if they aren't then not show the artillery chassis.

 

Just add (com only) next to the tank name and keep it in the V menu. Quite honestly, Its easy to get lost in the research progress, and just hitting V is a quick and efficient way of knowing what the options are.

 

Meh, either way sounds like a really beneficial fix. Then the comm won't have to restrict the VF if he researches arty.

 

Protip: Simple suggestions are far more likely to get implemented than complex ones.

 

Depending on what it is, changing a single pixel can be quite a feat.

 

What if research/res was a lot more individually tracked, but the com could place a beacon type thing for each squad and anyone in that squad got more wages/points for getting kills/destructions/flags in the vicinity of the beacon?

I guess com's could abuse it by placing beacons in useless spots for people they don't like but we already put com's in an easily griefable position anyway.

 

Empires is a relatively complicated and dynamic game. I want to say, "Yeah, the game could definitely be more intuitive for new players, so lets focus on doing that," but the fact is that it's hard to make Empires easier to get into while also keeping it as dynamic as it is. It really is a trial-by-fire type of game when it comes to learning. Which was fine when you often had 20v20 rounds because no one's going to care or notice that a few players are new and are toeing the water before really jumping into the game. Personally, I think the comm should be trying to do more with less, having a few specific jobs that are particularly in-depth, but it's a fact of the game that with low player counts, a commander has to do less with more, having many things to do and being unable to focus on the few commander-only jobs.

Honestly, if it was up to me and I had infinite time, energy and a large playerbase, it'd be nice to have an incredibly diverse game. Hell, I think the greatest thing possible would be 64v64 on a map five times the size of King with four commanders per team, aircraft, tanks, infantry, boats and research for every aspect of the game. Sadly, Empires is a game that eventually turned out to work really well for large numbers of players and poorly for small populations, throwing it into a negative-feedback loop.