I like it! Let's see the dev team implementation before we go whining and trying to change it, though.
But if we whine now, we dont have to whine later! People will whine at some point, I doubt anyone will ever get weapons balanced when there first implemented, no matter who they are.
That was my first concern. But if implimented well field guns would fill their own unique role, and not simply fall into the "cure1, cure2" pattern.
aircraft arn't neccessary. neither are boats neccessary. having more than one gun is not neccessary. but if the point of games is entertainment, and these are HIGHLY entertaining (:D), then...
would they be limited to vehicle powered pulling or could you get infantry lugging them to some extent? what i'm probably asking is how big the things are going to be, will it be like the fairly small ones (ha small ish, 12 pounders maybe?) they used on the royal tournament (or whatever it used to be before it was cancelled) where they ran them over an obstacle course before reassembling or will they be big fat ww1 or 2 style things which would be more armoured (including a nice big metal plate to stop people shooting back as much). as a plus side to using these rather than having spare tanks to leave everywhere you'd have: size (potentially) as smaller means easier to hide; price; durability maybe as theres no engine to blow up and should the gun be destroyed then no reason to damage its user (unless you have the seperate magazine idea - blowing that up would be nasty). err i cant think of many more. i dont know if it'd have much of a place really but it'd be nice in a way. maybe if we could regress the tech a bit for 10min at the start it'd be worth it (it'd scare the other side's horses for a start maybe).
Maybe both. make them towable, but at the cost of your stamina dropping like hell as you push, you can move them. Maybe make it kill your stamina all together, and then you just push slowly.
I picture them at least having a metal plate to cover the people firing the weapon from small arms fire.
It seems to me like the debate is over whether this should be artillery or an anti-tank weapon. If it's going to be an anti-tank weapon I think that the reloading scheme would make it useless as such. You'd get one shot off and then the guy would drive around you, hop out of his tank and shoot you. As fun as that sounds it wouldn't make it very useful as an anti-tank weapon, it would be much easier just to turret farm in that situation. As an Anti-Tank Weapon I say, make it shoot as fast as the tank cannons can, and give it the same amount of ammo. I certainly like this as an anti-tank weapon because as others mentioned it means tanks wouldn't be able to dominate the map so quickly. It's appealing as an area denial weapon for tanks early in the game I think. It would be a counter to the rushing strategy and allow commanders to "dig in" more easily at the start of the game. Later on it could be easily taken out by arty just like turrets. I'd say it should cost just a little bit more than turrets, maybe like 100 res, especially if it's field of fire is less than 180 degrees. Remember, it will still have hit points and can be killed so it's not like tanks would be helpless against it. It would just be something to make them think twice about running past a blockade of level 1 turrets and going straight for the base, because with one of these there they might not make it. Plus someone actually has to man the thing so unlike automated turrets that's one less engineer building stuff, or guy driving a tank, or scout sabotaging a base Since it has to take on tanks, and many tanks and APC's have machine guns it would be a gun idea to include some protection for the operator. Remember that it can't move while firing so it would be an easy target for tanks and APC's. The thing doesn't have to be invincible but it should be able to withstand a couple of shots from a light tank at least, and the operators shouldn't get hit from the front. Otherwise it would be pretty useless, they'd just machine gun the guy operating the thing rather than having to kill it. Make it customizable like a vehicle. It should also be upgradeable, maybe with two cannon slots so it can use plasma, HE, or extended range cannons (maybe even three slots for a rail gun). But this would of course cost more, and make sure the maximum weight for weapons is 100 so it can't carry 3 regular cannons, then a team could just throw down two of these and there's no way in hell you'd get through being bashed by six cannons all at once. You should have a choice of armor, and the armor would pretty much only be on the front, making it vulnerable to attack from behind, but keeping the number of plates down and thus, still cheap even with good armor. The advantage with these over tanks is that they'd be dirt cheap in comparison. The cons is that they'd be immovable making them an easier target to hit, and they would only be able to attack within a certain field of view rather than 360 degrees. Good for choke points, but not on the open field of battle unless arranged in groups. It could also be artillery, and I propose one of two how this could be implemented... Shorter Range Cheap Version, Towable Mortar Available early in the game. Not very powerful artillery cannon. Reload time of a few seconds (maybe like 3 or 4 seconds). Shoots significantly farther than the Grenadier mortar though. Operators are subject to enemy fire and field gun itself doesn't have much armor. Can fire with a high arc (to go over hills and obstacles). This would be good for a surprise attack on an enemy base from a small forward outpost early on in the game. It'd be like primitive artillery. You have to ask though. Does this fulfill a role that couldn't just be replaced by a Grenadier's Mortar or an engineer sneaking around behind and making fireworks? Long Range Expensive Version, Firebase Would still be mobile but takes some time to set up and break down for transport again. Available later in the game, comes with arty research. Fires farther than anything else in the game, and with the extended range cannon it goes practically all the way across the map on cyclopean. Extremely long reload time (15-20 seconds). Very vulnerable but since it can fire so far it can be kept well within safe territory. Would be more like arty strike on BF2, but with people actually aiming the cannons (use the grenadier arty feedback to find out where it's landing). Can be sabotaged by scout. More like a building that can be moved. You could set up a group of these in your base and then commence with the arty strikes from afar. As a Heavy Machine Gun Here's another idea. Give it two or three slots for machine guns. Then as more powerful machine guns are used it could serve in an anti-tank role (and a pretty powerful one at that). Or you could use it against infantry if you like (or both if you have the space). It would still be vulnerable to artillery and from behind, and have a narrow field of fire. The disadvantage to this is that it wouldn't be immediately useful early on in the game except that it would be far more effective against infantry than level 1 MG turrets. I am much more in favor of the anti-tank role simply because it makes for better defense than crappy level 1 turrets. I think games where people can defend better last much longer because it buys them time to do research. I tend to favor sort of an empire building strategy as being more fun rather than an all out assault right in the beginning. The shorter games are just not very fun. Hardly anything gets researched, and there aren't many huge battles if at all. This would mean that at the very least if one team rushed then the other would be entrenched for a while until they get bigger tanks and arty. But most of all I think it would be cool to have a defense structure that can be upgraded with different kinds of weapons.
the heavy machinegun and mortar were things that were, from what i know, either to be purchased from the armoury and carried by a rifleman and grenadier respectively, or they would be sqaud skills: the squad commander would call one in. the idea of a field gun as an anti tank weapon being customised is a really cool idea, i like that. I think it was origionally designed that the armour at it's front made it almost invincible to shells and stuff (like walls are), but that if any infantry got to it they could deconstruct / destroy it with small arms pretty quickly. with armour peircing shells (that do damage straight to the hull), i don't think it would be too bad against vehicles. ----------- finally: firebase, i don't like. if you've ever been seiged, you'll know it's not fun; so more seige equipement is not what we need.
I'm gonna have to support this mainly on the 'it's cool' point. I also reckon that the idea of a large weapon that can be attacked by infantry is an interesting one, perhaps you could even capture enemy AT guns?
One thing AzureDrake left out: Antiaircraft Guns These shouldn't be able to hit ground targets at all. These are also onlywhen aircraft come out. (Far future) Two options: 20mm Flakvierling-esque mount, say, four rapid-fire barrels which shoot small explosive shells (HEMG-like) Vehicle: See ZSU-23 This one can shoot ground targets? SAM mount Surface-to-air missile rack, say, three large or six small homing AA missiles. Vehicle: See SA-6
i just love how the thing is titled... it makes me want to argue points as such: Pro: They're awesome Con: You suck
what about givin the scout a laser marker that when attached to the artillary crew he can hold on buildings and taks ect shows up on the crews mini-map the target and its co-ordinatets then they can zero in and BOOM the only downside is that the scout must keeo the dot on the target permantly other wise the target fades from the mini-map?:D
