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

[{WP}SnakeEye]

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.

moving with clan mates in any kind of a military formation=death from above.

its forces rambo play

[BLNKY]

The artillery also breaks up those temporary, squadlike formations that sometimes form when several small groups move towards the same target (something I really like). Getting your own squad back together is easy compared to that.

I guess we just have to decide if artillery is good or bad for the gameplay. Sure, there are ways to deal with it (like with pretty much everything else in the game) but in the end, I play this game to have fun and I assume the rest of you do too. Given a choice between realism or fun, I know which one I prefer (the latter). Given a choice between camping the enemy main the entire round or fighting over flags, I also know which one I prefer..

...though....maybe.....if they give Spec Ops the ability to give a wedgie, I promise I'll stop whining about artillery...one wedgied commander (it should all be displayed in bullet time ala Matrix) would be worth at least 100 arty strikes...

[HowieMandel]

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.

Very good post. Agree with all. As it is now, players can call in strikes. But usually a call is from a dork that wants you to bombard friendlies. lol.
Love this post though and it makes sense.

[Throxx]

For those of you who don’t like arty….too bad. It’s in the game. Get used to it or don’t play BF2.

For those of you who say it’s unrealistic….so is pretty much every aspect of this game, from the flight dynamics of the jets to the ability to bail out of an attack helicopter.

Artillery is still relied upon heavily by the modern army as was mentioned earlier.

The modern armies retain artillery for the simple reason that the guns are fiendishly good at what they’re designed to do. And the systems designed to replace the ‘tube’ artillery have – so far – had more technical restrictions or tactical limitations than the guns themselves – aircraft can’t bomb in foul weather, multiple-launch rockets have a ‘firing signature’ visible from the moon!

Like most modern weaponry, the guns have become full ‘weapons systems’ relying upon a separate communications network, target acquisition technologies, and tactical fire control systems. Thus, artillery is now able to take advantage of targeting data gleaned from satellite imaging or sideways-looking radar matched with precise GPS locating and computerized ballistics tables run on lap-tops. However, even if the high-tech gizmos get shut down, the guns can keep firing!

[HowieMandel]

moving with clan mates in any kind of a military formation=death from above.

its forces rambo play

Exactly. Which is why i like the other post i quoted. The arty does tend to go against the grain, of Dice's ideas of teamwork.
Obviously you can go blow it up. Problem is its not really fun, to spend 10 minutes sneaking to the arty. Blowing it up. Not having enough c4 to cover all the arty...and worse yet, not recieving the God almight points for it. Course thats about to change. Not sure i like that idea either. But all the commander has to do is put a box on the arty and its fixed. Its just equally as frustrating = not fun, to destroy the crap, as it is being killed by it.

[Devlyn]

I can see where its place is. But it is very frustrating because I always seem to be hit by the first missile in the strike, and am the only one who dies from it. I think that they shouldn't be able to be fixed if they are blown up on certain maps.

I hear ya, I will be in a clusterf*ck of about 10 guys... i'm the only one that dies

*sigh* just my luck really.

Ever shot at an enemy just to have a teammate spawn right in front of you.. you kill him, he punishes you. *sigh* happend to me

[=[AOD]=Ken]

Ever shot at an enemy just to have a teammate spawn right in front of you.. you kill him, he punishes you. *sigh* happend to me

Yup, just as I was letting off an A-T Rocket, ouch, that had to hurt! :p Of course I got a punish, blah. And yeah the tank killed me before I could reload, double blah. Oh well. :hmm:

[18Zulukiller]

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.

Thats just realy stupid no offence mate but the commander sees everything a squad leader only sees whats in front of him allowing just squad leaders to call for artillary is a big mistake espeacialy if they not all over the map. What i do think needs changeing is the way the tk system works with artillay if you drop artillary on 5 of your guys becouse theres a dozen enemys there you should get punished and i mean severly punished (-10 points for each tk down to the guys that get tkd though). Were as if you send artillary into an area were there are no freindles and then some super onemanarmy noob comes driveing in thinking he can take out everyone there and not get tk'd shouldnt be able to punished but be punished there selfs for being completely stupid . Another thing i would like to see in the next patch is the commander getting points for kills with artillary if sf get them for takeing stuff out commanders should get them for kills .

[MidnightRider]

I would really like the artillery more if it counted more when the Spec. Ops blows it up. At the beginning of playing BF2 I loved blowing it up. But after a while it wasn't worth the trip.

[powersmoker]

QUOTE
Being on the receiving end of an artillery strike is about much fun as when BF2 crashes - you say **** **** **** and then restart/respawn. Where's the fun it that?
QUOTE


But think about it this way: see it from the perspective of the attacking side! If you are helped out by artillery so you can easily capture a base you will appreciate the help, it's great fun being helped by your commander.

If it's used on your side, and used well, it makes up for the frustration of being killed by it.

The same holds true for planes and helo's.

[Wreck0]

Does artillery seem more annoying on 16-player than 64? I aways play 64, and I think artillery's great. Maybe on 16-player maps it really does destroy the little fights.

You could change the recharge timing based on number of players.

[Tokus Pokus]

They made artillery in this game so you can shoot that sniper that no one can see. That's why.

[powersmoker]

QUOTE
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.
QUOTE

Now that would be a major improvement. Very clever!

Dice, are you guys reading? :p

[schneider707]

I think artillary is great. It stops smacktards from grouping up and it helps extend the game rounds. I mean think about it this way. All you need is to completly destroy the other persons air power, then you can go for the tanks...then its game over because you own the battlefield. And plus, you gotta just deal with it....its the same reason why everyone hates the snipers...not becase they are a waste of "resources", its because they cant fight back at what they can't see (i.e the sniper).

Just suck it up and be a man about it =P

[jordo2323]

You want to talk about checks and balances? What do you do to the sniper lying near the boundaries who wont be seen the whole game, stays in one place, picks off soldiers from a far like a little pu$$y? Artillery. Second, you are warned that an artillery strike is in your area; so beware. If you are in the middle of a battle, and you are alerted to an artillery strike....do the smart thing....run and hide. Plus, I have been in the middle of many artillery strikes and survived by clinging to a concrete wall or going prone in a safe place. Think of it like what you would do if there were a tornado.