I can't understand why there's artillery in this game...

[Paas]

Man, it seems like I have to always show up with the most simplistic solutions to everything. Otherwise, problems just don't get solved (Cocky Someone?)

...anyways. A(Some) simple solution(s) to the Arty. problem is as follows;

1. Force the Reload of Arty to have to be a player controlled ability, and limit this ability to Engineers. Points could be distributed as 1/4th a point for loading the Arty, and a damage-kill assist everytime the commander manages to get a kill with it. No teamwork, no Arty.

2. Instead of forcing the reload of the weapons, one could fall back on the BF:V'esc system. Allow the Arty. Guns to be a pilotable vehicles, the commander can designate a trajectory to the gunner, in which he would have to then direct the weapon manually.

To go along with this concept, do NOT allow the Commander to designate actual Strikes. Instead, give this feature to the squad leaders. If a SL sees that a targets needs shelling, he should be able to request such a strike. The commander should only have a a clarification role.

...I could type a paragraph and go into extreme detail, but, most inviduals on Forums don't like to read. SO! I'll sum up my ideas.

1. Force Arty. to become a team based asset. Distribute the power of this destructive force through-out the team The use of Arty should flow down the CoC that's very apparent in the game. TM's point out Enemy activity to their SL, SL's radio in for a Strike, the Commander verifies or vetos the call, the Engineers load and fire the weapons. (This would also stop the very retarded action of wasting Arty on a SINGLE sniper; when an small FT would do just fine)

2. All reloading or Arty to be in the hands of Engineers and Engineers alone. It can still be a commander controlled objective, but, some level of teamwork would be required to keep it functional.

..heck, that's about it. Simple, obvious, and very reasonable. Almost makes me wonder why EA didn't think of this?

[Legli]

Anything that slows down my death rate is would be nice. It seems no matter where I am I always get hit first, and so artillery causes me a great deal of annoyance. I'm bad enough against enemies I can kill but something that just whipes me out? Urgh.

Had to laugh in a level where the americans had been pushed to their carrier (I'm on the USMC) and an artillery strike hits and kills only me, the guy furthest away from the huge group of 31 other people trying to get off the ship. I'm an arty magnet.

By the way what is the actual cooldown on it just now? Sometimes it feels non stop on my head others it never seems to drop.

[Umi.Ryuuzaki]

Artillary cool down is like...20-30 secs if i recall.

Use the artillary in a serious 8vs8 or 12vs12 match...its a different story there. Its like I fear it cause when i'm defending a point and i hear stuff fall from the skies, I RUN LIKE A MOFO and try to hide. But I love it when its used defensely if things are looking blink or we just want to give the enemy the "white light" lol!

didnt anyone remember that in a sense, BF2 is built for serious competition at times?

[Halious]

Artillery is exactly one use per minute. The moment you launch the artillery, it takes fifteen seconds for the shells to hit their location and then another fourty-five for the rest of the Artillery timer to recharge.

Even though Artillery is absolutely fine the way it is, a "fix" would/could be:
(in relation to a previous post by Paas)

Make "reloading" the artillery a manual effort in the means of self-damage. When the Artillery finishes firing, it becomes damaged to the point a grenade could do away with it, so an engineer is required to repair it, otherwise the cannon will blow up on the next shot. That way, the Engy will get points for keeping "maintenance" on the cannons.

If there's a dedicated commander or ally engineer, that won't change the frequency of shellings. But hell, an inaccurate area effect that takes fifteen seconds to kick in and a minute to use again is rather limited already.

[Kenny 10 Bellys]

I personally think the artillery is a great addition, as is the Battlefield Commander role when he is actually played by someone adult.

Perhaps the reload time could be extended a little, but I accept arty as a normal weapon used extensively in all battles since at least the 1700s and I dont think there's any reason to cry about it now. If I'm getting blasted a lot the first thing I do is change to Spec-Ops and go blow the sodding things up. At least after the 1.3 patch I'll get the credit for it. When I'm in a squad and defending a flag I always tell the guyss to disperse and get hard cover so we dont attract artillery or if we do, it wont take us all out. Common sense.

[Rustman{UK}]

I think the artillery has a place in the game as it can help a squad take a well defended flag. However, I would appreciate some ranked servers that DON'T have it, if only to provide a more realistic urban conflict rather than the sort of tactics employed by a well-equipped army prior to going into a warzone. Think Shock & Awe.

I had hoped that the game would feature less aircraft bombing and artillery from nowhere and more one on one good squad tactics.

[pugpug]

Both sides have it so it shouldn't be annoying? It's part of the game? It's a challenge?

Pfft that's a non argument. Only 2 people like arty - Commanders, and those internet tragedies who play bf in full army fatigues and will support a feature to the death, no matter how unbelievably annoying it is, because it's 'realistic'. Oh and those weirdos who like it because it's a 'challenge'. A challenge still sucks if it's annoying and detracts from the gameplay. Hey guys, why not email EA and tell them not to fix the crash bugs, I for one really enjoy the challenge of finishing a full map rotation without the game screwing up. Adds spice.

Artillery is stupid.

But nothing - NOTHING - compared to the auto team swap. OMFG E-RAGE E-RAAAAGE.

[Thelron]

If you don't like it, go blow it up. If you don't like the way they can just drop a crate and repair it, go get more c4 from the crate and blow it up again. Keep blowing it up.

Then your problem is solved, no more arty strikes.

What's that? You don't want to be the one to be blowing that stuff up all the time? Then either convince someone else to do it, or deal with the fact that it is not only in the game, but it is easily neutralized, easily avoided, and actually not very easy for the commander to use effectively unless he's up against a careless team (which is why a lot of comms are willing to use arty against a lone sniper (since nobody seems to kill 'em when you point them out even though everyone is *****ing about 'that damn sniper')).

I'm sorry if this one feature of the game is somehow so hard for you to get used to that it ruins your game experience, but there are a lot of us who think it is a nice touch (and much better than the arty tanks in 1942 in terms of actual usefulness) and who think that getting to see a lot of the people at an enemy CP who thought they were all safe and were going to kill you as you came in flying up into the air is worth the occasional arty death when we get careless.

[CritikalMASS]

Nothing is more fun than dodging incoming arty rounds. There is somewhat of a pattern in how they land so if you are caught in the open with no cover it is possible to avoid all the rounds about 80% of the time if you keep moving. Going prone in the middle of it won't help you.

Most of the time also it is the commander who is looking over his own assets, as an engineer you can just about bet he will not rush to repair if he knows you are still in the area. Nor will he stand much of a chance if you are hiding in the trees. As it stands camping assets won't get you points now, though you will be better off post patch. However, sometimes it isn't about points...if it bothers you, do something about it. Make sure as spec ops your commander sets up supplies for you to re-up at, place extra charges as a present for the engineer.

There are so many ways to get around arty, best of all is keeping the commander dead. Still, if a dozen of you line up in the open...you deserve it.

[=[AOD]=Ken]

Its part of the game, adjust or look up and catch arty with your face. :laugh:

There is a kit called Spec. Ops with C4, go take out your enemy’s commander’s eyes & then take out his arty when he tries to repair the UAV trailer with a supply drop or two guys could do it that much faster. :|:

[Nishidake]

Sorry if this opinion has been posted already, I didn't/don't have time to read throught the whole thread. Although I don't think arty should be removed or altered in any way, I really think DICE needs to make it possible for dead players to see where an opposing arty strike is currently taking place. I'm not looking for warnings from dead players about where the opponent is striking with arty, but if an X would pop up at the location enemy arty is CURRENTLY FALLING, that'd be nice.

I'm so tired to spawning into...

"BOOM *dead* BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!!"

I hate spawning under arty. I would have no problem with making it so dead players can't use chat or VOIP, therefor making sure no one can call out the location of an arty strike. However, so long as the identifier wouldn't be visiable until the arty actually starts to drop would take care of that problem.

[deathBOB]

Arty is fine as is. How it works is probably the most realistic aspect of the game.

[my2cents]

Arty sux, what about nuclear bomb? so u can hear

"nuclear bomb detected . . . " :P

[TGL|Badlizzard]

Arty goes against everything else that EA put into the game.

Every part of the game is to encourage teamwork, squads, etc. Such as support for ammo, medic for health, engineer for repair. A unit that works together can capture flags extremely fast.

The problem is, that you are better off to be a lone guy on a flag to capture it, because a squad capping a flag is too much for a commander to pass up. A single might get away with it.

The commander doesn't care about defending the flag, all he wants is to get mass kills. He will go after a cluster of players in a no cap, before he will drop arty on a single player taking down a flag.

There should not even be a kill count for a commander, they just love to rack up those kills even though they don't count towards his end score.

What if only squad leaders could call in an arty strike? Wouldn't that be better? All the commander would be able to do is say yes or no to the location. He would spend his time giving supplies and doing scans and helping the team.

This way squads that are defending a flag, wouldn't be caught off guard by a strike, and they could defend a flag and call in arty when they need it.

[solodude23]

The artillery is cheap, its unrealistic, it ruins the game, it dosn't require teamwork, and it screws up teamwork. Multiple times my squad is traveling together (which is kinda rare) and then a artillery strike lands righ on us, spreading us out, making some people leave the squad, etc. Ther more teamwork you use the more kills you rack up for the enemy commander.