Delay on Arty shell or Half Dmg to units.

I think the artillery damage is fine. The only thing about artillery in Empires that differs from other games is that the armor is really strong. Take a look at some real-time strategy games and you'll see that artillery can plow through a great number of unarmored men but yet take heavy damage to just about anything.

Edit: After reading page 2 of this thread... the mobility of artillery does kick ass... a little bit too much ass...

 

yeah, it should be able to destroy a tank, but the chance of scoring a direct hit should be so low as to make it an unfeasible option for anti-tank needs

 

I still say just 50% to units is a quick easy fix until the developers have time to finely tune the artillery.

 

id rather the devs did it right instead of making quick fixes, like someone already said, that would mess up the balance, which is a big part of perfecting the game.

 

maybe having it so the arty needs to deploy itself with a right click would be cool. Alot of rts games require the arty to go into a mode in which it is anchored down then can fire. Give like a 5 second deploy time and a 5 second undeploy time. Making the arty being able to swivle to some extent but unable to move or retreat without undeploying it.

 

5 seconds is much too long. At most, 3 second deploy and retract as I said before. Think about it, next time you're being shelled by enemy tanks, count one one thousand two one thousand etc. With a speed and agility decrease, arty still needs to have a chance to get away.

 

Arty is fine as it is, only those who can't use it, whine at it. It should destroy anything that is nearby. Also it is one of the last tanks reasearched if the com prefers heavy tank.

 

very true

its really, really not. there are way too many people, including staunch arty users that say it needs weakening in some way. the games will benefit and people will stop bitching about it.

 

You know how long it takes, to become driver of a HE arty? It takes ages.
And if you face medium tanks, can't escape backwards, you are screwed.
If arty is weakened, anything else will be overpowered and ppl start to complain again. It is powerful, thats like it is in reality, so why make ubersoldiers, who can stand a HE hit?

The only solution might be to district 3phase and other crap for arty, so it doesn't become a hit and run tank.

 

I guess this shows your ignorance. Many people agree that it's way too easy to use artillery, not only those who "can't use it." I've easily gotten 80+ kills without any backup whatsoever. I could just shoot, destroy everything, and run away. The point of this game is teamwork, and it doesn't take any to use artillery. You actually can backup and run, and it doesn't take long at all to get artillery. Looks like you have the reasoning of a whiny 10 year old whose parents let them play videogames and ruin it for everyone. You also say we should "district" phase 3 engines......................................ok what?

 

Bold and colour for emphasis.
FlightcranK instantly fails.

 

Artillery needs a freaking minimum *DETONATION* range. If you get a slope or a wall, it can kill a heavy tank in 1 hit, taking no damage w/s/e itself, which is just screwed up beyond belief. If its capable of blowing something up at close range, then the least they could do is make it take double damage from its own shells so people are mutually destroyed as opposed to the system now...

 

Rofl.

Ok let me take this poll serious for a moment.

Lower Damage versus units by 40-60%

A grenadier shoots a rocket at my arty from anywhere. Bam 1st hit. I try to locate him, so i have to turn around. Next rocket is flying towards me, bam 2nd hit. Now i got his location and drive my arty in position to fire. First arty hit takes him down to 60%, same time his rocket flys to me, bam 3rd hit. He runs a bit, so i have to move also. Don't forget my delay on shooting. Now i shoot him for a 2nd time, he is down to 20%. The 4th rocket is that time on his way, bam got me. Now i am already deep red on my health or blinking. So do i take the shot to kill him or do i eat the next and last rocket or will both be killed?

This scenario might be the most uncommon, cause there are 36 people on the map, many turrets, a lot of tanks. Pretty hard to evade on this situation. don't forget, a fully equipped arty costs 1920 credits if you loose it, a kill by the arty only some seconds spawntime, if you don't get revived instantly.

So its harder to loose that arty or to loose on life?

Place a delay on the detonation of shells on impact

I shoot. The enemy: "Oh whats that?" His mate: "Its an arty HE shell!" The enemy: "What does it do?" His mate:"Exploding in uhmmm 5 seconds." The enemy: "Ok lets take a walk out of here."

There are 2 kinds of shells, those who make big holes into buildings and those who detonate on contact. So why should an arty shoot shell with a timer? It isnt a grenade launcher, it is the most destructive tank that you can build.

So don't think if anyone drives out with an arty, the opponent team already says "GG". On close combat you can do nothing with it, just drive away.

 

so you think its unfair if a guy with a rocket launcher takes you down, in 5 shots. i dont see a problem with that, you're going to have support and if not, maybe you should lose, its a team game. not that im saying they should reduce firepower, im agaisnt that. i think that they should give infantry greater ability to find cover and such. i agree with you, but not with your reasoning or argument

 

I don't think its unfair, but a single guy can't be stronger than a tank who shoots 3 times in your face.

Lets wait for aircarft, then the game has more balancing. I'm sure someone will whine again, because he can't stand 3 bombs.

 

true true, ive been saying wait for aircraft for a while now, and three hits is a lot, even two should be enough.

 

Look, killing buildings should be what arty is for. Right now arty is overpowered because it can kill anything at any range. It should be a building killer from behind the hill, and shuldn't be able to kill any infantry or tanks. This game is about balance, and an all-range, armored anti-everything is not the definitinon of artillary. You can kill a base from behind a hill with a few arty tanks, you can kill a base with tanks up close, and you can kill a base with infantry. You can kill a few infantry men with a tank, a tank with a few men, and a tank with a tank. You can kill people with people, and bases are not hard to destroy unless there are people there. You can't kill a base with people with people, but with tanks, people, and persistance you can crush a base. Arty can help by killing a base's barracks and turrents. That is how it works.
If you can kill people with a close-up tank, thats fine; But arty is base killing only. If you have one person with an rl, then the arty's toast. Arty is ment to be behind the fighting, not up front. It is ment to be vunerable. It is very good agenst buildings, but should it be able to kill a tank?

 

Most of the time you die from 1 arty shell, so you were probably playing on a customised server or just made it up and never played as infantry.
Arty whore.

 

I have survived about 2 or 3 artie blasts as infantry on the foficial server when they were landing nearby.

The only problemw ith artie currently is that it's range is too short to do anything but line of sight shooting, unless you take the long range artillery

The artie's damage adn radius on things should be left alone but the minimum angle should raise and the firing power should go up.

 

At aaaaaa50:

Arty should be able to kill anything. THAT is what artillery is for. But it should NOT be able to hit at close range. Or maybe even medium range. The reason that artillery is so USEFUL against buildings is because buildings don't move. I DON'T want this to be a rock-paper-scissors rts. I hate those.

Ideally, artillery will have to "shoot blind", as in shoot at things out of their line of sight. This will limit their effectiveness against mobile targets.

Now, off topic, but: What about a "Stalin's Organ" type of artillery launcher?