5 replies to this topic

[JimboFBX]

At the current price and effectiveness, artillery/airstrike is still too expensive. As an example, I dropped some artillery near me then ran through it to try to lose a pursuer with my under-armored spider and got hit by my own shell. My armor turned a little yellow, but that's it. Mind you, this is a spider with 21 CT / 15 side armor.

I tried a bunch of games with artillery and found that seemed to make a negligible difference in the outcome of the game, despite typically having at least one hit. Considering you need a minimum of 2 module slots to make use of airstrike and artillery accuracy, they are still effectively useless modules due to what you have to give up to use them.

My suggestions:

Reduce the cost of airstike/artillery to $15k in it's current state.
Change the airstrike/artillery accuracy modules to "airstrike/artillery support". These modules would then provide a free airstrike/artillery, which can be doubled up by purchasing a consumable. They would also provide the current 20% increase in accuracy. If the user purchased and stocked a premium version of artillery or airstrike, then the free version would be used first.

[Dunne]

I see artillery (and some air strike) getting used all the time. When used CORRECTLY (saturation bombing of tight enemy groups) its devastating, increasing your Damage per Match by 100-300 in some cases.

The way you used it is really kinda a waste. Anything that could be caught by the Artillery the way you used it you should be able to get away from with no problem in a Spider. Anything that can keep up with you will be able to avoid the smoke and blast radius.

And cost you 40,000cb for no net gain.

Try flanking and dropping it just behind some big boys who are clustered up sniping your team, and watch your C-Bill count soar.

[JeffGoldblum]

I was playing on Terra Therma earlier this week and remember getting shelled by an artillery strike, the entire screen shook like I was in an earthquake and all of my armor (Legs, Arms, Torsos, and Head) all went dark yellow but not quite orange. I believe the damage % was something around 5-6%. Which is pretty considerable in the scheme of things. Maybe I got hit by more than 1 shell, I'm not sure as I wasn't moving through the shelling and was idle. But it definitely made me take notice of it, unlike the previous versions that were doing as much damage as me accidentally bumping into a teammate.

[Nehkrosis]

I think its pretty devastating when you use it effectively, although i prefer the Airstrike due to the predictive nation of the bombs.

[JimboFBX]

Nehkrosis, on 08 November 2013 - 04:52 PM, said:

I think its pretty devastating when you use it effectively get really lucky, although i prefer the Airstrike due to the predictive nation of the bombs.

Fixed. The premise that I use it wrong is incorrect, it is simply more likely that someone will move out of the way of your smoke or not get more than a glancing blow than you are to hit someone standing next to your smoke. I haven't tried using the accuracy module.

I think someone pointed out that explosions have their damage distributed across the chassis of the mech, so 40 damage across the CT, LT, RT, LA, RA, LL, RL is 40 / 7 = 5.7 damage each. Due to the spread out nature of the artillery drop, you are very unlikely to hit a single mech with more than 1 shell. I think the only exception to this is that a direct hit will actually damage whatever it hits but I'm not positive on that. I swear when they changed the artillery damage it used to blow off things but lately I've only seen it spook people more than anything.

I'm not saying 5.7 damage is bad, because if you imagine a team dropping several at once this could be quite effective at changing the game. However, in the random team environment that doesn't happen, and given that 5.7 damage to the CT is probably a 1 - 2% increase in your chances of winning it just doesn't make sense to spend approx. half your earnings on the module.

edit: forgot about the shared team timer. So actually a team can't drop a bunch of these at once...

Edited by JimboFBX, 08 November 2013 - 11:30 PM.

[Nehkrosis]

timer isnt working properly either, btw.