So here's me thinking.... Artillery is powerful, albeit underused. I've often seen games won by strategic use of artillery. And when on the receiving end, often the team is clueless as to what to do about it. Artillery are fearsome weapons when in the right hands, and the biggest resource drain when in the wrong ones. But what to do when the enemy turn up with artillery? How is best to counter them? Discuss!
By the time artillery is being used, you are most likely going to lose anyway. Best way to counter it is to get tanks in the back or do an armored push because they now have people who WOULD be in tanks (Usually competent people as well) now in arty.
Arty is so strong on some maps simply because they are behind a ton of tanks in tiny choke points. I don't think I have ever seen arty used on a map like dust or mvalley, and if it ever did make an appearance it was usually when team is stuck in last base with no real way to push out. So point is there's no good counter to arty except maybe more arty, or a sneaky rifle/gren to take them out. I think it might be a nice change if we can never get chassis locks to make arty much much cheaper, just a tad more then a light, but make them not as powerful either. It's main strength is indirect fire after all, not exactly it's huge damage output. It just has that to justify how expensive it is.
at least i agree on that arty needs a small nerf - and balanced cost but not that much lazybum suggests! - remember, you effectivly take 1 player out of direct combat - meaning that the remaining players have to face more enemy's theo.! so at a 16vs16 match with 1 com per team and 5 arty at one team you have a 10vs15 battle! - arty needs to made up for it with raw power, in return they are already weak to destroy - counter artillery at some maps still the only chance to kill them :-(
Well, if we had aircraaaaft . . . lel Here is another far stretched idea. Combat Drones. Remotely guided little tiny planes that can easily avoid tank fire and attack artillery. You could either make them fire rockets or make them attach on an arty and destroy it, like sabbing a tank. If the damage should be instant or over time I don't know in this case. Should the arty be repairable when the drone is inside it or is it a lost cause. If it is a lost cause it might as well die instantly. Sounds OP so it should perhaps only be lethal against arty and be destroyable by all kinds of projectiles. Homing ML would have one more use, and infantry would be also be more important for defending tanks. I am not against buffing arty but there should be a way to counter arty other than raw force. Something that lets you exploit a tiny weakness of the enemy.
Million dollar question : Is Arty OP? No. Hell no. "They got Arty, gg we win", sounds familiar? Arty was known as a griefing research for years(if not since 1.0.0), even on maps like Slaughtered and Money, until recently. Arty is just useful now. But yes, I do agree that we need better(and tactical) ways to counter arty. We can learn from World Of Tanks, in WoT there are two effective ways to counter arty. 1: Another arty. Their arty view is basically the same as our comm view, plus you can see enemy arty's trajectory. So if enemy arty driver is dumb and doesn't move, you can just fire at the spot "where the cannon left". But it's a huge ass work to give arty "comm view". Here's my suggestion : Upon firing, make arty visible on minimap to enemy for a short period of time. 2: Other tanks. In WoT, if an arty meets enemy tank, it's basically dead(not always). This is even more true in Empires because you can't fire "horizontally" with your arty. One more arty => one less heavy tank, use this.
Spoiler: Ranger if were getting them anytime, then hopefully mapspecific! (some maps are just not suited for aircraft - just like with arty on some maps) i like your idea of bomb drones, but they should be a very special asset! - another idea is to give the scout a skill that allows him to carry 1 "charge" of artillery strike on his binoculars - that can be refreshed by armory's but if possible not engineer ammo crates! - if not maybe only trough barracks! also should have some cooldown! Spoiler: Sgt. Security can be, if used properbly! (if enemy team blocks you on reaching it its op! - deepence on map, thats why i dislike some of them because you can easaly block the few ways exist without much effort! -.-#) i love your idea of a flashing arty icon on map at shot! but we don't need extra arty view - press "M" ;-) (open large map)
