Red Alert Artillery a viable alternative

[dzine]

Red Alert Artillery a viable alternative

There is no doubt that the original artillery unit was naff beyond comprehension. Its woefully shortrange a joke.




My alternative to the current openRA artillery this has been extensively playtested and made my final edit.

Equip the artillery with the same gun as the cruiser. A realy long range yes but inaccurate fire, and fires at a lower rate. The damage is greater but more wide spread. Reduce the speed of the artillery but increase its armount of armour to compensate.

Why does this work so well ? Innacuracy is the key. Half a dozen artillery pounding your base from afar is annoying as hell and forces you to go out and meet the enemy which is firing 6 inches away. Because the rate of fire is slower than current and innacurate then buildings can usualy be repaired. The damage spread over a far wider area than the current artillery.

If the artillery fire was both long range and accurate and rapid then it would obviously be overpowered. The main advantage comes from the increased styles of gameplay that the long range (but innacurate & slow) fire gives.


Statline for you to try out

Price $1100
Speed half current
Armour double current
Primary weapon cruiser gun (single round of course, same slow rate of fire as the cruiser but +2 range )
Explodes yes

Pros
You need less artillery
Far less unit churn
Far more tactical offensive AND defensive options
Reduces Turtling without being overpowered
A heavy barrage will force the defender to meet you some way outside their base.
A single artillery wont destroy much but is guaranteed to bait your opponent (in a good way)
4x artillery does the same damage as one cruiser, but the area effected tends to be wider & feels more realistic to both parties because it is !
Firing further across ridges or at naval targets extends tactics and strategies.
Infantry have a bit more chance of reaching enemy artillery than they currently do, thats a good thing
Last but not least, it adds a missing X factor to the game


Cons

None i can think off (long range artillery are less effective as a chrono weapon due to their lower rate of fire, but do more damage when thier shells do hit something)


NOTE :I did experiment with medium range artillery in my playtests, ie artillery similiar to the current openRA artillery but the long range (slow & inacurate fire) is far more in keeping with reality and importantly far more fun to impose upon the enemy whilst giving the enemy more time to counter your barrage...better gameplay, better game dynamics.



Overview

Original short range artillery = Naff
Current medium range openRA artillery = OK
My long range artillery = FTW

...see the pattern !

[newwe]

I like your enthusiasm dzine, this is way too big of a nerf though imo, not sure one is even necessary.

[dzine]

Its not an artillery nerf (reduction) its a range & unit armour (improvement) + 2range just to clarify things
With cost raised and unit speed and ROF (rate of fire) lowered so they are not OP (overpowered)


I tested 101 different artillery variations the one above = most fun ( the longer the range the more innacurate, this stops it being OP)

Overall Battle effectivness is about the same as the current artillery...with the bonus of artillery now acting like real artillery, rather than a wimpy armoured tank with a long range gun

have a mess about with the Yaml files and try them out yourself

[scorp]

Its not an artillery nerf (reduction) its a range & unit armour (improvement)
With cost raised and unit speed and ROF (rate of fire) lowered so they are not OP (overpowered)


I tested 101 differnt artillery variations the one above = most fun

Overall Battle effectivness is about the same as the current artillery...with the bonus of artillery now acting like real artillery, rather than a wimpy armoured tank with a long range gun (for a tank)

have a mess about with the Yaml files and try them out yourself

coincidentially, i'm currently using a custom "Heavy Artillery" unit for my own little mod that uses precisely the rules dzine has described. One-barreled cruiser. I use it in addition to the standard arty though, not as a replacement. I think it works well... Needs different counters than "normal" arty, but a Player also gets some more time to deal with it due to inaccuracy.

[dzine]

ref Needs different counters than "normal" arty, but a Player also gets some more time to deal with it due to inaccuracy.

Yup thats the win for me to!

The vibe to pick up here is that you would be surprised just how much you can increase the range without breaking the game or the original spirit of the game. Would be interesting to see how the artillery variants fare side by side...all about finding the sweetest spot stat wise


Minium and maximum playable artilleryrange ? -2 to + 8 over standard openRA artilery anymore than +8 over current gets silly on smaller maps.

[newwe]

Its not an artillery nerf (reduction) its a range & unit armour (improvement) + 2range just to clarify things
With cost raised and unit speed and ROF (rate of fire) lowered so they are not OP (overpowered)


I tested 101 different artillery variations the one above = most fun ( the longer the range the more innacurate, this stops it being OP)

Overall Battle effectivness is about the same as the current artillery...with the bonus of artillery now acting like real artillery, rather than a wimpy armoured tank with a long range gun

have a mess about with the Yaml files and try them out yourself

All I know is cruisers seem absurdly inaccurate, so quartering their attack for an increased cost seems like a nerf to me. Most of what people don't like about them is the long range, so this doesn't help that "concern" either. That and adding slow units doesn't help the fun factor either imo.

[PersianImmortal]

This guy lol

[dzine]

Longer range artillery would help counter cruisers, see my OP

The accuracy / range trade off is just part of real life

*Cruisers are nasty enuf as is, maps are too small to give cruisers longer range. Maps with sea obviusly have less land...and the proportion of that land that is out of range of cruisers is smaller still.

openRA is primarily a land based game, a shoot out between cruisers and artillery is always going to see artillery lose....cruisers have huge armour, a massive amount considering thier cost.

[newwe]

Longer range artillery would help counter cruisers, see my OP

The accuracy / range trade off is just part of real life

*Cruisers are nasty enuf as is, maps are too small to give cruisers longer range. Maps with sea obviusly have less land...and the proportion of that land that is out of range of cruisers is smaller still.

openRA is primarily a land based game, a shoot out between cruisers and artillery is always going to see artillery lose....cruisers have huge armour, a massive amount considering thier cost.

I wasn't talking about doing anything to cruisers, just saying cruisers aren't all that strong, so making a unit that has 1/4 the firepower for half the price seems bad.