Artillery and dispersion

[roirraw]

Hi, I would like to ask for another option when using artillery. Right now you have two aim choices, corrected shot or normal. Sometimes when I'm using 352/2nd ID I find myself really wanting to continue firing the normal shot with a wide dispersion even after my recon has vision on the target and my dispersion circle drops by half. The reason for this is suppression.

Can there be an option for us to chose between corrected or normal shot when we have sight?

 

[Kaziglu]

One existing mechanic that could perhaps be modified is when Shift-clicking an artillery unit to give it a succession of targets; that it would change its operation to only shoot one or two shots per click? For when you might want dispersion over a targeted salvo. This way it would not require a new hotkey mechanic to be added.

 

[Gilmund]

One existing mechanic that could perhaps be modified is when Shift-clicking an artillery unit to give it a succession of targets; that it would change its operation to only shoot one or two shots per click? For when you might want dispersion over a targeted salvo. This way it would not require a new hotkey mechanic to be added.

I was going to say something similar. Actually new ways to do precise number of shots when you shit click would be nice too.
Like a "one-shot" button, a "five-shot" button, a "ten-shot" button. You could then shift click a one shot, then shift click five shots in another location, get back to do one shot in the previous location, ten more in a third location.
Something like that would be a way to stop unneccesary fire with the fire-area button and would demand more micro cause there would be more than 2 ways of using arty (direct hit and fire-area). It would also allow some arty strats, one of your pieces doing direct hits on treelines, some other doing shit-clicked precise shots in retreat paths...

Like what was done with arty in reality in ww2 (five shells on this location, ten others in this one, etc).

 

[Hidden Gunman]

This situation of two patterns of artillery fire doesn't actually make sense.

A battery firing will land its' shells in the same pattern within the same impact zone dimensions, regardless of range, or whether the target location is under visibility. All things being equal, either the entire shoot is off location, or it is not...the actual impact zone does not expand or contract.

It's currently a gamey mechanic, might as well make it more game-able.

 

[roirraw]

One existing mechanic that could perhaps be modified is when Shift-clicking an artillery unit to give it a succession of targets; that it would change its operation to only shoot one or two shots per click? For when you might want dispersion over a targeted salvo. This way it would not require a new hotkey mechanic to be added.

I do this but it gets cumbersome when you have to select each single gun after the first command, unless you give each gun a different group and do it that way. Again, it's pretty cumbersome to reach across the keyboard 1-0 for units like that. Having the ability to fire a regular, uncorrected shot would be helpful for suppression purposes.

 

[roirraw]

This situation of two patterns of artillery fire doesn't actually make sense.

A battery firing will land its' shells in the same pattern within the same impact zone dimensions, regardless of range, or whether the target location is under visibility. All things being equal, either the entire shoot is off location, or it is not...the actual impact zone does not expand or contract.

It's currently a gamey mechanic, might as well make it more game-able.

I see uncorrected shots as, "Hey, we just took fire somewhere in this town. Send rounds out all over this dispersion."

Corrected shots are eyes on target with coordinates and all that. I get what you are saying about the way guns work, but we are also talking about a time when even the charge strength wasn't always the same due to circumstances. Anyways, It would be helpful to have the ability to keep dispersion wide in my opinion. It might be gamey, but that's what we have to work with.

 

[Hidden Gunman]

I see uncorrected shots as, "Hey, we just took fire somewhere in this town. Send rounds out all over this dispersion."

Corrected shots are eyes on target with coordinates and all that. I get what you are saying about the way guns work, but we are also talking about a time when even the charge strength wasn't always the same due to circumstances. Anyways, It would be helpful to have the ability to keep dispersion wide in my opinion. It might be gamey, but that's what we have to work with.

I agree regarding what you are asking for, no issue with that...my personal view is that the basis of artillery in this game is the suppressive effect, otherwise we simply have the old 'hand of god artillery, end of game' mechanic. Wheeling in four or five artillery pieces now to get a decent kill effect is an investment in both time and points (notwithstanding that some are better than others, etc).

IRL, what you will find with worn barrels, dud propellant or simply mis-loaded propellant, isn't dispersed patterns, but shells well away from the intended impact zone or falling seriously short.

 

[roirraw]

The suppression is what I'm looking for here. From a balance sense, the total amount of rounds per minute stays the same, so it would have less of a chance to actually kill units due to dispersion being off. As to how the actual mechanics work with weapons, you are right that sub-par munitions won't give side-slip to rounds going out. It would be short/long.

I hope that the viability of this could be sorted out as it would be helpful for just about every unit with field guns, especially the slow aiming 19/14 Le FH or the new 105mm guns 716th gets.

 

[Hidden Gunman]

A potential solution 'mechanic' would be to be able to select 'X' guns, and then mouse-drag a zone into which they fire, the size of the zone being proportional to the number of tubes. You'd activate it by a specific button or hotkey, and it would be limited to weapons of the same type, and perhaps to offset balance problems, limit it to non-rocket artillery. That would also give you a side benefit of spreading fire over a longer but thinner zone laterally, or a thinner but deeper zone where you might want to make a push on a specific piece of land, like a town or forest, in depth.

The problem at the moment to maximise suppressive effect is being able to juggle what tubes fire where, if you want to cover a larger area than the current zone system.