I know this has been brought up a couple of times, but I dont know if this particular point was addressed. Anyways, in FH, currently, those of us that dont pixelaim as we dont use artillery in EVERY round, we aim using the indirect aiming camera that a scout/officer provides, right? BF2 shows a distinct lack of this feature as a byproduct of it's distinct lack of artillery, dont mention BF2 arty, please, thats not artillery, its a joke. So, with the absence of this feature, any idea how Artillery will be aimed?
Both ways:Player AND commander controlled.
I hope that the crosshair is also removed from artillery to at least discourage "pixel aiming".
I dont know if a system is in place yet but heres an idea. Can the map be broken up into smaller grids? Then the spotter calls out the grid, artillery aims in that general direction and shoots by eye. Then the spotter calls out a correction.
How about a system where the commander gets to use artillery but only as long as there is one player using the artillery piece ( serving as reloader and gunner ). The commander would then have the exact same way of firing artillery as in Battlefield 2, with the exception that the number of shells is limited to the number of artillery placements ofcourse.
As a extra, weight and total amount of flight could be coded in the shells so you prevent the shells flying into the enemy mainbase.
I would suggest indirect or direct fire. Indirect when you fire without a spot from a scout, you aim where you estimated think the enemy is located. Direct is where you get a spot from a scout with usage of binoculars. This is essential to keep the Forgotten Hope mod as authentic as possible in my point of view. Forgotten Hope already has an extraordinary collection of vehicles and handweapons, lets keep it this way and make the artillery good from the start aswell.
Just fix the camera of the artillery so that it always points forward instead of following the barrel. It makes pixel-shooting nearly impossible (sorry Flippy, but that is the best way to do it).
I've been thinking up an idea for this; it's a little complicated, and I really dunno if it's possible, but what the heck, I'll put it down anyways.
My idea, is when a scout calls up artillery, the person within the artillery gets a marker on their minimap showing the general location of the target, and then must adjust height and angle of fire to try and hit the target, if it's within their range (indicated by a large circle on their map when they enter the gun). When they fire, it calls out a SINGLE SHOT artillery strike a la current Bf2.
The catch is, they only get a general idea of where that shot landed via another icon on their map. It's the job of the scout to communicate with the person firing, and try to give them the fine adjustments they need to hit the target perfectly.
Your thoughts?:feedback:
I developed a concept for a new artillery spotting system when i did the preliminary fh2 design(which hopefully we can make work)
Player controlled artillery can use the artillery map, which is simmilar to the commander's map in the fact that it shows enemy intel (enemy positions provided by scouts and other recon units). On this map the player's artillery is marked and provided with an aiming rig (a directional refrence and an angle refrence). Fired shells will be marked on the map as they hit, allowing the gunner to adjust fire. so basicly, you look at a big map and move this little rig around to adjust your fire until you start putting your little hit markers where you want them.
Spotters are still very important, as they let the gunner see what they are trying to hit, allowing them to be much more accurate. Zeroed in artillery should be very nasty, but not of the same volume of fire as in FH1.
so before you start shouting "but then wont artillery be super over powered?!", the difference between FH artillery and FH2 artillery is that player controlled artillery will likely be quite a bit less common, and wont be available in large batteries like in FH1. Large saturation shelling is done by commander controlled artillery, which has a long cool down, while player controlled artillery can be more accutrate, is not as heavy. with some skill and coordination, you shouldnt have any problems getting out of your base without getting the bajeezus constantly shelled out of you for the whole round. player controlled arty are kinda like super long range explosive snipers, but they shouldnt be able to cripple a team by themselves. commander controlled artillery batteries arnt very accurate, but they can pin down a large area for a while. So overall, it should even out.
I had a funky diagram drawn out for the aiming system, but i dont gots it on this computer.
If possible, perhaps configuring it so the spotter gets some credit for the arty kills would be wise. Just to give em incentive to do so.