First off in a lot of ways I dont really care a whole lot about arty one way or another but I have read a lot of complaints and can understand why. So having done a lot of thinking here are some of my ideas on how its currently implemented and how it might possibly be changed. Right now its extremely accurate and it can be spammed as long as you have the resources and the players to use it. In BF 42 the number of arty was limited as you only had so many spawns, not so in Empires. Plus you almost never saw Arty doing the horrible number of kills as you do here. Dont get me wrong some people were good enough but in my experience they were very rare. Big part of the problem is accuracy and thats caused by Arty feedback. Kinda hard to miss with this talent. Problem- Arty can shoot at tanks and/or infantry and run away at same time. Solution- Add a position for a driver as done in Bf42. You can either run away or you can shoot but not both. The one problem with this is someone can jump in your vehicle while you are shooting and run off with it. Problem- Accuracy. With Artillary feedback you get that diamond which shows on the mini map where your shot lands making almost anyone with half a ounce a skill power to be reckoned with. Solution- Instead of the diamond you get with Arty Feedback you get a circle of diameter(x) that shows where you shot landed BUT the shell can land anywhere in that circle. This would enable you to get a general idea where your shot lands but not the super accuracy attainable at this time. The skill could be further changed such that the more talent points in it the smaller the circle gets so that your accuracy could go up. Not sure if this is possible to program but its out there now as a idea. Solution 2- Do away with arty feedback altogether and goto a system like thats used in BF 42 where as you have a sight picture given to you by the scout and you have it for a set period of time or untill the scout dies or the scout changes target. The benifit of this system it plays even more towards what the scouts role should be. This system should drastically cut down the accuracy of Arty. Me and a friend before sitting next to each other at my house practiced arty. One person observing shot fall and the other shooting and I can tell you even with someone sitting next to you its not easy. It can be hard as the observer seeing exactly where the shell landed to tell the other person how to adjust. Can accuracy be obtained this way? Very much so but it does take a lot of practice unlike now. Problem- Artillary tank spam. In most other games you just cant have that many pieces of arty do due how the games set up. In Empires nothing stops a whole team from making Arty cept for resources and/or the com shutting off the ability to purchase vehicles. Possible Solutions- Make base arty much more resouce expensive. I dont really like this one cause more than likely the team that has the most rec is the one thats winning anyway. OR you could make the research take a lot longer or more expensive putting it farthur to the back of the game session. Limit the totall number of arty pieces available to build by coding it or as a map setting if at all possible. This could be further enhanced by adding it to the research tree allowing you to increase the totall number you are able to build. I like this last one the best as it really doesn't hinder the losing team and yet cuts down on the spam. Again this is one I dont know if its possible to code. I'm not gonna spend all night thinking up all the drawbacks and benifts of my ideas that I leave to everyone that frequents the boards. The ideas are now out there for people to toy with and that quite simply is my goal.
i like the circle of diameter idea, altho there is definitly something wrong with arty's right now, and group of arty's, I dont think any of the other ideas would actually help the game overall, it would definitly limit the fun (not that i see much fun in arty, except getting loads of kills and points). The maps are small right now, thats one of the things, and tbh I think turretspam has a lot to do with the arty problem right now. If there would be some kind of limit to turrets, it would be a lot easier to break trough defence and get the artys short range. What I have witnessed ingame right now is that there are arty's used as battle tanks (shooting straight up) and arty's used behind a big line of turretspam, which makes it impossible to kill them without being arty yourself. Which makes the only real counter against arty an arty lol, so that would mean that one of the better strategies would be going for research that gives you the most strenght: level3 turrets and arty. I find that very boring, I think a proper med tank should also be viable, and HE shells, or whatever different research scheme.
i prefer the spotting system they have currently. i say make the arty very weak in ways that have been suggested a million times before and all the other team will have to do in order to counter an arty attack is to use a wee bit of skill.
