Arty is Tops

[Ham]

Arty rules. That's it. All other tanks are just spotters for arty. Hopefully AW will smarten up and put the damage from arty shells back up to where it should be. We shouldn't have to hit a tank 5 times or more to kill it or severely mess it up, not with the ridiculous reload time and accuracy (what accuracy, lol?).

Right now a stupid missile from a Tier 3 tank damages you more than a T6 or higher arty shell. Not really how it works in the real world, then again this isn't real. I realize that in the real world one penetrating tank shot totally disables any other tank and AW is set up so this doesn't happen (the battles would be quite interesting though wouldn't they?) however, making arty so puny as a default is hardly fair. They ought to make reload times much shorter so an arty can hit you 5 times in the same amount of time any other tank can.

Another option they could try is to make arty shells devastating, virtually one-shotting anything it hits and with a large damage radius. To keep it fair though, arty should not be able to "See" any enemy tanks in it's sights or on the mini map, other than TD mode or <50m away. Other team members would have to tell arty where the enemy tanks are by grid position (which would be increased by 10, so grid squares were about 1/2 the size). So a message like "Arty enemy tank at M14 back of square" or some such thing would be all arty aims by. Would be a whole lot more like calling in arty shots in the real world wouldn't it?



Ham
(Forced to play crappy tank types by AW)

[Blacksails]

We'll have to disagree on this one.

Gameplay mechanics need to do away with certain aspects of reality to produce an enjoyable that is both simple and easy to learn yet offer deep and rewarding gameplay for the dedicated player.

Arty in that other game is fundamentally broken as a mechanic. An arty player spends the entire match out of harm's way and safe from virtually all harm while spitting out significant damage to any player who leaves hard cover. It serves to slow the game down, punish good players, force all players into hard cover, and encourage camping rather than deterring it.

Arty in AW does away with the 1000+ damage hits and opts for a more sensible 100-200 damage per hit at T4 and less module damage. Arty players may feel that is too low for their tastes, but consider that the only players who can harm them during the opening stages of gameplay is other arty if their not focusing on also damaging other tanks, it becomes readily apparent the current system is far better for all involved.

If you want the ability to hurt other players with little to no recourse across the map from anywhere else on the map, the tradeoff is that the other player gets a warning, and you do little damage each time.

If you want to deal 500+ damage per shot, then it'd only make sense from a gameplay perspective to force the arty players into the fray proper where they can be shot at in return by all from the get go. But at that point, you're basically describing most TD's.

Now, alternatively, the mechanic for arty from a little known mech shooter on Xbox called ChromeHounds had a grid square system where a friendly would spot and report the square of the enemy. You would then guess the range and elevate your guns to approximately that range and fire. You had huge splash and a decent reload and moderate damage, but you'd spend a few shots just bracketing the target. More skill based and team dependent, so likely not a good candidate for a game revolving around random match-making.

Mandatory disclaimer; I still dislike arty as a mechanic, but this incarnation is leagues above WoT's system. Most arty players on the forums and in game seem to agree as well as damage is less RNG dependent, and arty's victims are happier with reduced single shot damage and the incoming warning.

I feel the current system is about as close to perfect as I could hope for. The exception being that perhaps they could use a buff to exp/credit earning, just due to the way its currently calculated has a reduced rate for arty as they don't self-spot their targets.

[Ham]

Yeah, that might all be meaningful in that other game, but with all the missile launchers out there in AW, about 50% of the tanks are actually arty as well (if they want to be), except they have mobility and armor.

Just stop penalizing arty players because people are whiners is all I ask.

[Blacksails]

Missiles require line of sight and to be exposed to the enemy to fire, not to mention the time exposed guiding the missile, plus the multitude of armor types that essentially defeat missiles until tandem missiles.

Not really comparable.

What arty needs is a rep/credit gain boost. Their current damage dealt (alpha and dpm) is fine and most people are quite happy with the system.

Its the necessary balance to a class that can deal damage reliably without having to expose themselves to return fire.

[flying__finn]

I have found arty to be a vast improvement in AW over WoT. The credit/rep rewards are seemingly too low. It almost seems like the same calculation is used for arty as is for the other classes. Arty cannot get the spotting and damage that the other classes get since they rely so much on spots. With the low damage per shell but good splash some damage is almost guaranteed.

I really enjoy playing arty again. The ping on the map once you fire is a nice feature since it forces you to actually play rather than 'kemp boosh'.

[Ham]

OK, I admit it is pretty good, except for the XP and credit rewards. What do you think of my 2nd suggestion for arty in the game? Will the lack of teamwork make it a waste of time, or would it improve teamwork significantly (those doing it well would have a large advantage over those who do not)?

2nd suggestion:
Another option they could try is to make arty shells devastating, virtually one-shotting anything it hits and with a large damage radius. To keep it fair though, arty should not be able to "See" any enemy tanks in it's sights or on the mini map, other than TD mode or <50m away. Other team members would have to tell arty where the enemy tanks are by grid position (which would be increased by 10, so grid squares were about 1/2 the size). So a message like "Arty enemy tank at M14 back of square" or some such thing would be all arty aims by. Would be a whole lot more like calling in arty shots in the real world wouldn't it?

[Blacksails]

It would certainly be more skill intensive and require (too much) teamwork, which for competitive team based gaming would work, but not for the likes of pubs. Chromehounds had a similar system, which also had an element of guessing the range based on grid squares and elevating your guns to approximately that range on your rangefinder. There was a multiplayer element in the game, so maybe I'll try and dig up some vids if they exist of what a multiplayer match looked like for arty.

[flying__finn]

Given the crappy attitude of the pubbies I doubt option 2 would work at all. For example, I was running my doubles on medium missions last night. A platoon with a PBKAC member was in one game. One of the platoon, in a t5 tank yolo'd and died early. I ended up 3rd in damage in and all these jerks would do was say things like.

"No one wants arty in their gmames"
"Why don't you go away and die"
"Why don't you do what real men do and free xp through arty"

So with the toxic WoT attitudes coming over and becoming more prevalent I doubt that anyone in arty relying on a pubbie team to tell them anything other than improper info would work. Also, the reason arty in WoT is so hated is the ability to one shot just about anything on the battlefield.