Artillery Absolutely Useless

[Ichi the Blind]

Does anyone else feel the artillery was a cheap gimmick tacked on at the last second? It's as if Bethesda realized there was no insentive for people to build settlements and were like "wait, let's add a glitchy airstrike system that uses settlers to operate, that way it will make it seem like we've actually made something new AND given the settlements a tactical purpose".

My problem with the artillery is such:

1) There is no clear indcator to the range of the artillery.
There's already been plenty of threads discussing this and it bothers me too that there's no way to tell how far your artillery range covers. You just have to put a unit in every settlement and hope you have coverage whenever you need it.

2) Too few situations where it actually comes in handy.
I feel like there is no situation where the artillery could be used to it's full advantage and it wouldn't be easier and more efficient to use something like a missle launcher or fatman. Rarely do you see a group of enemies huddled together in an area outside where the artillery barrage would effectively cover. Most of the time they're spread out gaurding and area, or sitting around in shacks doing jet (which no matter how dilapidated the structure, it can block a nuke from hurting the occupant). Most of the time when I see a group of unsuspecting baddies I debate for a moment using the arty, but then I realize a well placed grenade or two would get the job done just as well.

3) THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SMOKE GRENADES
This reminds me of the game Mercenaries, where you could call in a fuel air bomb with a destructive radius of two square blocks, but you had to use a smoke grenade. Pull pin, throw, run like hell. Most of the time you were lucky to not get killed by your own bomb. It feels the same with the arty. The smoke grenade doesn't even have the throw range of a normal grenade. It goes a few feet through the air, hits and invisible wall, and falls to the ground just a few meters from you. Meaning you have to get close enough to use it that any chance of stealth is blown out the window. This, coupled with the fact it takes several minutes to fire, means that the enemy has usually spotted me and has started chasing me out of the kill zone, and the shells land harmlessly away from them while they beat me to death in a ditch.

To summarize my complaints, let me boil them all down in a single story that has just happened to me.
I'm on Spectacle Island, clearing out the Mirelurks. Oh looky here, a mirelurk queen and several lackies wandering around in an open area below me. Here we have a perfect once in a game moment to use the arty effectively. There's a large group of enemies in an open area, no cover to block the explosions, a stealthy high ground advantage, and we happen to be in range of the Castle's 5 arties (yes I put 5 down in each little alcove along the wall for immersion). Let's see how it goes.
1st attempt: I throw the smoke from high up on a ledge, radio freedom says they have it and prepare to fire..........5 hours later a single shot lands off target "CEASING FIRE". Wait what, I wait forever and I only get one shot, wtf? Let's try again.
2nd attempt: This time after waiting what seemed like eternity for the arty to reload (don't even get me started on the reload time), I get zero shots. Nothing lands. I hear "we see your smoke, preparing to fire" and after waiting a few minutes I get "ceasing fire" with nothing happening in between. After some digging I find out having multiple arty units in a settlement can cause issues, so I go back to base, remove them, and reset one down. I go back and try again.
3rd attempt: This time I get a full barrage of 5, and this is also where the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ starts. I was sitting up on a hill in my stealthboy equiped power armor. I am invisible the entire time this happens. I call in the strike and my rounds begin impacting, AND ALL THE MIRELURKS START CHARGING UP THE HILL AT ME. They leave the killzone and murder me while I sit there in shock. An invisble man calls in an artillery strike from a hill and somehow the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crabs know exactly where he is hiding, despite him being ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ INVISIBLE.
4th attempt: same as last except this time I leave the power armor behind, use an actual stealthboy to keep me hidden while I move, and as soon as I throw the smoke I retreat 100 yards up the hill and hide in the shack with the siren. I am crouched and invisible hiding in a shack hundreds of yards away from the target when the shells start landing. After the salvo is over and I get no exp for a confirmed kill I peek outside to see what the issue is. The Mirelurks (including the queen) had charged up the hill and awaited me outside the shack.

♥♥♥♥ it, I'm done. This is the last time I will use the artillery.

tl;dr arty sucks

[leadmecca]

The entire settlement system sucks imo.

[Itchy]

Haven't it used it yet myself. Also, only used the power armor once, other than when you first get it, to go see Virgil.

[Wurm65]

I love the Artillery. Then again I have all the settlements unlocked with it installed, so I can use it just about anywhere I want. I've blown up some pretty nasty ♥♥♥♥ with it too. I've also used it to kill a single bloatfly.

*edit* And I wiped the spectacle mirklurks out with it including the queen with no issue. Do you have the drop agro when you crouch perk?

[ragtopbob]

Wonder if the arty will fire on itself....hmmm... :/ Next time at the Castle I'll drop a smoke....

[Itchy]

Are you making a Spectacle of yourself?

Which perk is that?

[veryinky]

Range of artillery is 5 map squares. Look at your map in the pipboy, zoom in, see squares, count 5 squares, that's how far artillery can shoot. Castle to Airport.

[Dr.Ded]

I still havent been successful with artillery grenades...but I think you might be actively looking for ways to diss the game if you're complaining about such a small aspect of the game

[Itchy]

If you build it, they will come DIE!

[Xander Tyrann]

i wiped out hangmans ally using arty. i also find it useful when luring enemies into a chokepoint. just remember they will run through the arty. i've used it more than flare guns and mini nukes anyway.

[State Line Crosser]

Originally posted by Dr.Ded:

I still havent been successful with artillery grenades...but I think you might be actively looking for ways to diss the game if you're complaining about such a small aspect of the game

lol. Every time.

[Dave1029]

This is a two-fold problem. First of all, artillery sucks, second of all, stealth sucks. Enemies somehow magically know where shots or grenades are coming from, even if they never spot you! Now, if I were sniping with a plasma sniper or gauss rifle, this could make sense. As even though those are quieter weapons, they leave a trail behind. So feasibly someone could deduce the direction the shots are being fired from. No excuse for me to be half a mile away sniping with a .50 cal silenced rifle and have the enemies know where the shots are coming from. It's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[HeraldOfDoom]

they should have implemented different types of flares for the flaregun to call in minutemen/ arty-barrage and vertibird

to call in minutemen/ vertibird just pop a flare in the air, to designate a target for barrage -load the appropiate ammo and pop one right into the raider camp and then the smoke goes up

[Dave1029]

Originally posted by heraldsofdoom:

they should have implemented different types of flares for the flaregun to call in minutemen/ arty-barrage and vertibird

to call in minutemen/ vertibird just pop a flare in the air, to designate a target for barrage -load the appropiate ammo and pop one right into the raider camp and then the smoke goes up

This would have been clutch.

[KhanIndustries]

I threw a smoke grenade once at the Gunner HQ. Then I feel asleep, woke back up and ate a bowl of cereal. Decided to just simply snipe the enemies as usual which took like 4 seconds on Legendary (survival, god I keep calling it lengendary arghh)...... then the shells started to finally land.

Huh, how nice. I then went back and scrapped every single artillery piece I ever built. That's just me though.

[ghpstage]

The entire settlement system is poorly thought out, with a half arsed implementaion, being game breakingly overpowered when used with any intent to get an advantage from them, and are chock full of idiotic bugs.

As for the artillery, the lack of a range indicator is annoying, but at least can be guesstimated, but the invisible grenade wall and multi gun bugs on the other hand are extremely fustrating. Nevertheless, I have got some good use from it for attacking groups containing skull and legendary enemies, particularly in and around destroyed buildings, and I haven't seen anyone magically find me after the shots start.

The choice between smoke grenades and missile/fatman should come down to weight and ammo rarity/cost vs accuracy and reliability, but the arty will need to be fixed before its genuinely useful. But hey, at least its better than the flaregun!