21 replies to this topic

[Victor Morson]

It's been a while since I've done a Strike review, for the Air Strike and Artillery Strike. I've made two of these in the past, and I do a re-review of the modules with each buff. So let's look at the most recent changes:

Quote

Air/Artillery Strike

Radius of Artillery strike increased from 50m to 60m.
Radius of explosive shell increased from 25m to 30m.
Radius of Air Strike explosive shell increased from 25 to 30m.

Upgrades: 2/10 -While certainly no buff will go turned down with the artillery strikes, raising the per-shell hit radius is likely a good idea of a place to start. However, 5m has done little more than to increase damage on targets you successfully land the Strike on, which is still almost impossible against even a target entering shutdown.

Tactics: 0/10 - Artillery & Airstrikes continue to operate as "teleporting grenades" that you can summon to a location, and after a long fuse, will explode. There's no area denial or tactical consideration other than "beam grenade to this location." This makes the idea of support powers disappointing. The artillery strike & airstrike also operate identically, with no consideration between them. Finally, because the majority of shots show up in a rapid cluster, they both are "one big shot and done" weapons.

Damage: 3/10 - With the combination of the damage increase last time, and the new radius, I've awarded another point to damage. They both do reasonable damage, but it's more akin to what I would expect from one shell, not dozens.

Accuracy: 0/10 - With a long call down time even on the improved version, it is still nearly impossible to hit a target without relying on them making a massive mistake, or having too little experience to notice what the smoke means. You cannot rely on these weapons to hit the target, which is rough for a one shot item.

Graphics: 0/10 - I've still yet to see the plane, the air strike graphic continues to look incredibly weak, the artillery shells continue to be recycled autocannon graphics. They are very lack luster visually.

Sound: 1/10 - It's nice Betty announces the Strike readiness, but there's still a massive lack of explosions, firey blasts, whistling of falling shells, etc. You can barely tell the weapons are in use and they often land with a PLINK! as the only sound you hear.

Upgrades: -1/10 - Accuracy Upgrades still reduce the radius your shells land in, with the intent of increasing damage. In practice this makes targets even more impossible to hit and ends up hurting the strike user 99% of the time. There's no way to turn them off!

--

What would I like to see? Slow, heavy hitting barrages over wide areas, kicking up tons of dirt and such. Yes, this requires a new particle effect, but it should have one from the start. Also, it'd be nice if the fighter model could actually be seen (I know it's supposed to be there but I've not met a single person who's caught it), and if the airstrike did something other than just plop damage down in a small cluster. Maybe setting the area alight and making it burn for a while, causing heat and blocking visibility? Something?

I really don't want these weapons to be Call of Duty style support powers. In fact in an ideal world the artillery would take too long to ever hit an alert target, but would also make staying in something akin to a 600m area dangerous, thus making it useful to lodge campers out of position and such. That's what artillery should be doing IMO in a game like this!

Also, the upgrades should be increasing the duration/range or something. Having them decrease the radius will not work unless they shorten the "fuse" to about a second.

Conclusion

I'd still like to see Artillery Strikes slowed down to a big radius and a long duration of scattered explosions to act as a tactical area denial weapon (i.e. if your area is targeted, you have time to withdraw but if you stay you'll be facing serious damage risk), but most of all, I'd like these to be in some way useful.

As they stand right now they require a full redesign to evolve into actual support powers worth taking opposed to weak grenades. I rarely say this, but they are also one of the very few items in MW:O that needs a visual redesign as well; they don't live up to the visual quality presented by the rest of the weapon systems.

Edited by Victor Morson, 05 August 2013 - 12:52 PM.

[Khobai]

Artillery strike is 100% stupid. Just give us longtoms and let us employ our own artillery.

Airstrikes are okay and fit with the general theme of battletech, however airstrikes need to do way more damage, and they need to do damage in a large area. Also you should be able to place the airstrike on the battlegrid and choose the direction the airstrike comes from.

[Pater Mors]

In an ideal world:

Artillery = High damage, wide area, reasonable duration, very slow delivery, area denial weapon. Possibly with a choice of different shells, default being HE. Smoke - quicker delivery, zero damage. Incendiary - heat damage.

Airstrike = Moderate damage, small area, very quick precision strike. Also with a choice of different payloads. Napalm = High heat, sticks to Mech for a few seconds. NARC drop = drops a super powered NARC beacon which automatically tags all enemies within a certain radius. Bunker Buster = Very high damage strike but exceptionally small area and slightly longer delivery time etc etc etc.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

Triple the duration of artillery strikes (with far more impressive sound effects and pyrotechnics). Turn it in to an area denial option.

Increase the damage of air strikes. Turn them into missiles that seek targets in the line of approach rather than shells that fall randomly. Make the air strike actually dangerous, but highly directional so cover becomes a big deal for mitigating it.

[Jabilo]

I think it would be nice to call down smoke artillery to cover your own position or cover an advance.

Also would be nice to call down a napalm / inferno strike that can set enemy mechs on fire.

If you set someone on fire you should hear them screaming from their cockpit as they burn to death.

In fact, they should scream authentically in the correct language depending upon what faction they are in.

For example if you drop a napalm strike on a Draconis Combine lance you will hear their horrible screams in Japanese over the comms.

However there should be a consequence to this action.

If you win the match you are tried for war crimes and may lose all C Bill reward.

If you lose the match you are punished appropriately by the other side (again depending upon what faction they were).

In our above example the Combine field commander would ceremonially decapitate you with his Katana.

Steiner would give you quick bullet to the head.

Davion would send you to a comfy federal prison where you would be given psychological help and medical discharge.

Do not ask what the Capellans would do to you in gulag. You do not want to know. It would be bad.

If you are going to start burning Capellans you had better get all the bas***** and make sure there are no survivors.

[BlackIronTarkus]

I shake my head when I read stuff like that, its almost depressing. It is so placeholder its not even funny... But the thing that annoy me the most is that there is a whole item ingame right now, that doesnt do ANYTHING AT ALL. Namely the command station.

The simple fact that they keep this item ingame despite it having zero use what so ever is really depressing. Its a money sink! Thats it!

[BP Raven]

Air strike with laser guided bomb ... use tag laser to direct hit to target mech?

Too much lostech?

[Sybreed]

artillery/air strike feel like last second attempt to create a new money sink for the game. They'll need to completely rework them for them to be worthwhile...

[Corvus Antaka]

more damage.

[Deathlike]

These things hurt mechs?

They are the equivalent of a tickling feather to other robots. Bender would rather drink to your terrible idea.

[MustrumRidcully]

Maybe instead or in addition to more damage, air strike and artillery strike should create more shaking (but that would reuqire them to last longer, too). That would make them a good crowd control effect, potentially.

[Victor Morson]

Pater Mors, on 05 August 2013 - 01:22 PM, said:

In an ideal world:

Artillery = High damage, wide area, reasonable duration, very slow delivery, area denial weapon. Possibly with a choice of different shells, default being HE. Smoke - quicker delivery, zero damage. Incendiary - heat damage.

Airstrike = Moderate damage, small area, very quick precision strike. Also with a choice of different payloads. Napalm = High heat, sticks to Mech for a few seconds. NARC drop = drops a super powered NARC beacon which automatically tags all enemies within a certain radius. Bunker Buster = Very high damage strike but exceptionally small area and slightly longer delivery time etc etc etc.

+1 to all of this.

[MaddMaxx]

Remove the "here I come" smoke signal already.

[Victor Morson]

MaddMaxx, on 06 August 2013 - 07:25 AM, said:

Remove the "here I come" smoke signal already.

Yes, this absolutely has to go if they do not plan to expand these weapons to something other than a grenade, but it's still my hope that they might revisit them from the ground up. Few things in the game I'd say "throw it out, start over" with and the strikes are one of them.

[xengk]

With 12v12 Im finally get to see someone use them.
Especially in River City when the enemy is entrenched in upper base and refuse to come out or Forest Colony against bunch up mechs near the tanker wreckage.
However, damage is still ignorable.

I would like to see the following simple changes:
Artillery
Bombard a circular area with 50 shots of AC/5 shells, lasting roughly 5 seconds.
- Add 10 more shells with pilot skill upgrade.
- Reduce "incoming smoke" time with priority module.

Airstrike
Bombard a line area with 10 missile, dealing 10 damage each on direct hit and 5 splash damage in 30m radius.
Bombarded area become high heat for the next 10 seconds.
- Replace with Arrow IV missile that deal 2x damage for direct hit and splash with pilot skill upgrade.
- Reduce "incoming smoke" time with priority module.

[Dimento Graven]

Under "Do the Strikes require a total overhaul?" can we have "I'm not sure" and "I don't care" options?

I'm not sure. I don't use them as it feels just too much of a P2W option even though currently they're probably mostly ineffectual.

[Victor Morson]

Dimento Graven, on 14 August 2013 - 12:05 PM, said:

I'm not sure. I don't use them as it feels just too much of a P2W option even though currently they're probably mostly ineffectual.

Given that you can buy the top level strikes for free, of all their sins, being P2W is not one of them. I bought all mine, with upgrades, through GXP earned from games.

.... worst GXP I ever spent. Teach me to buy them at the 0 hour.

[Dreamslave]

The fact that they even wasted time, money and resources on these strikes still rustles my jimmies. That was time/money/resources that could have been MUCH better spent, giving that we are one single month away from the worst launch of a game since Diablo III.

[Shifty Eyes]

The Battlefield series has used artillery strikes nicely, and I think that those kinds of support powers belong in Battlefield-esque games, where there's more coordination, strategy and a single commander makes the artillery/air strike decisions. I feel that COD employed these abilities poorly.

I think it's extremely out of place in the game right now. When (if) MWO becomes more strategic than 12v12 slugfests over different terrain (don't get me wrong, slugfests are super fun), then I think it'll be more appropriate. A more dynamic battle would make it more appropriate, something like MW:LL had, something with more or less discernible boundaries that move as the battle progresses. I'm not sure that PGI has that sort of vision for MWO.

Not that they should... it's just... yeah. Strikes feel very out of place in the current game state.

Edited by Shifty Eyes, 14 August 2013 - 02:55 PM.

[Johnny Marek Summers]

Please remember that this is something that is in beta and sort of works... badly. They need your feedback.

As it is now, it does sound bad and unnecessary. However, they are planning to expand the game so something like this needs to be worked on so that it can be better when it counts.

Like instead of an actual aerospace fighter flying overhead, you could see a shadow of one racing along the ground during its flyby. Or maybe both.