15 replies to this topic

[C12AZyED]

My assertion is that Artillery and Air strikes have an almost laughable execution in real gameplay. Not only do they do poor damage, the feedback given to the player to let them be aware that the strike in inbound, and poor production values, make the consumables very boring indeed.

Now that we have 12v12 we also earn less cbills and have 4 more mechs to destroy, yet the cost of these consumables has remained the same. Needs major adjustment.

[MrZakalwe]

Don't think anybody is going to argue

[Alistair Winter]

Even if they were free, I would not get the airstrike or artillery strike at the moment. Other modules are far more valuable.

For them to add anything to the game, they need a buff, countered by an in-game nerf (e.g. requires command console), not a meta-game nerf (e.g. higher C-bill cost, which doesn't really affect the people out there with tens or hundreds of millions of C-bills).

Right now, they offer a very tiny in-game advantage (barely do damage), off-set by a moderate in-game disadvantage (you lose 1 module slot) and a massive meta-game disadvantage.

Edited by Alistair Winter, 19 August 2013 - 06:37 AM.

[Shazarad]

Id say the loss of a module slot makes all the difference.

[Roadbuster]

Remove consumables from modules and add a seperate section for consumables for every mech.
Reduce cost by 50% and either create some graphic effect (like some airplanes flying over the area and firing missiles/dropping bombs) or at least some voice confirmation of incomming artillery fire, both with a noticable explosion and soundeffect.

It would also be nice to make them more different.
For example Artillery Strike could be 1 big impact damaging everything in a certain radius with high damage in its center (40 points in a 10m radius?) and lower damage the further the target is away (30 damage in a 20m, 20 damage in a 30m and 10 damage up to a radius of 50m?).
And Air Strike could be an attack in a line instead of a point. Just select the starting point and the direction of the strike on the map and the planes will drop bombs in a line, dealing 10 damage to everything on that line (40m wide and 150m long?).

Just my 2 cent.

Edited by Roadbuster, 19 August 2013 - 07:03 AM.

[A banana in the tailpipe]

NARC should require a module slot so it can be buffed, and move consumables to your hardpoints.

[Homeless Bill]

A third of my income for **** damage with a warning or wallhacks for free? Hmm now this sounds like a tough choice...

[Karl Marlow]

I've been trying to use them. less so now with the Cbill nerf. I gave up on the airstrike early. It's impossible to predict where the bombs will fall. The Artillery strike Is marginally useful. It's very hard to target the thing and really only does damage if the enemy is clumped. As it has been noted the warninr is a bit much. Although I generally only use the Arty strike now to disrupt the enemy movments. Whenever they see red smoke they will instinctivly move away from it even though the odds of them actually getting hit are low and the damage is crap.

This is usefulish in very rare situations though and nowhere near worth 40k with the new economy. For the record I did get the enhanced artillery buff so I drop 10 bombs instead of 6 with all of this teasting. Ill be damned if I'm going to sacrifice yet another module slot to make the grouping tighter. Hell With as much advanced warning as people get the last thing I want is a tight grouping.

[Corvus Antaka]

yeah. Still sucks. Bigger AOE perhaps. But then..hmm..I never really use it. Too expensive.

[Tezcatli]

Change them into modules instead of consumables. Give them a reusable cooldown so they can be used more then once in a battle. And honestly they could use a more interesting visual effect. You can barely even tell anything happened : /

[YueFei]

They should make it a larger area, longer shelling duration, with no warning beforehand. That way, it still does damage, but it isn't too much burst damage, because the shells take awhile to land, giving mechs a chance to maneuver clear after they start to get hit.

Artillery and airstrikes should also be call-able by Battlegrid, with no LOS requirement.

[Profiteer]

Artillery should saturate a wide area for 20-25 seconds to deny the enemy access to it (such as your base, or a sniper point).

Airstrike should launch a precision munition at 1 enemy mech. Perhaps you should have to have a TAG and keep it on the mech to guide the munition to target.

[Deathlike]

Did you guys know you can buy a "supplementary" module upgrade (taking another precious slot IIRC) to make artillery and airstrikes better (I don't mean the 15k upgrade, I'm talking about the 5K one)?

Sometimes, I wonder if the devs are trying to be too cute or too clever for their own good when they designed this.

Edited by Deathlike, 19 August 2013 - 10:38 PM.

[SirLANsalot]

Arty and Airstrike both need a damage buff....and a big one at that. The AoE they have already got buffed once and is quite good, but the damage they deal is still quite **** poor.

Damage at the center (direct hit to 5m) needs to be 40 or even 50 damage MINIMUM if not higher, these are basically very large HE rounds being lobbed/dropped on your mech, it NEEDS to hurt. Falloff from that can be 2 damage per a meater drop till it reaches its range. So that even being NEAR these things is still going to mess you up some.

Then these things would be quite useful indeed.

[OneEyed Jack]

Deathlike, on 19 August 2013 - 10:38 PM, said:

Did you guys know you can buy a "supplementary" module upgrade (taking another precious slot IIRC) to make artillery and airstrikes better (I don't mean the 15k upgrade, I'm talking about the 5K one)?

Sometimes, I wonder if the devs are trying to be too cute or too clever for their own good when they designed this.

Module upgrades do not take more slots.

[Kensaisama]

Hmmm do you think adding splash damage would make them more effective and worth the cost?