Suggestion: Shell range indicator for artillery

[Spoon!]

This is a rather simple suggestion really. In Gettysburg you could tell your guns what shells they should fire, or leave it on auto and have them pick it themselves. It didn't add that much extra value to be able to manually select it, (so I don't mind it that in Civil War the crew just auto picks the shells they fire.) but at least it gave you an indication on how close you'd want your guns to be. (In Gettysburg that mostly meant using them as giant shotguns but hey)

The issue in Civil war is that the player can't get an accurate idea on what range the guns will use what shell types, and thus how close you want you guns to be to the front. Personally I almost never want my artillery to be so far away they fire solid shots because that does jack all. So ideally I'd want them to be close enough to at least fire exploding shells.

So I was thinking it would be really handy if you have a artillery piece selected, its range cone would be segmented in 3 ranges. Basically just 2 extra lines in the cone. So you can see at a glance if the gun is going to be firing solid shot, shells or grape at the selected target.

[CrashToDesktop]

This would be really, really useful. Especially when your guns run out of ammo in the longer battles and are forced to make your guns hold fire and wait for the enemy to get into Canister range. Or, at least, what you think is Cannister range and instead the crew fire shells instead.

[Kolakhan]

I wish the range indicator was a different color! The black is hard to pick up.

[Harconn]

+1!

[Solar Maximus]

Yes I agree. It's not very easy to see the not-very-dark black lines used currently. Either Bold Black or simply red colored so they stand out.

[Sir Clavius]

+1

[Spoon!]

bump for visibility

[ThanksGivingTitty]

I agree... we need to see a lighted cone or something so we can tell where our cannons can fire.

[GeneralPITA]

+1 to this

Do all guns fire three types of ammo? Most fire either round shot or canister. 10pdr ordnance fires shells I think.

[MaGicBush]

+1 from me to. I didnt even notice there was a range indicator till last night lol. Im on my 5th battle as CSA. Looked a little closer and noticed there is one but its very hard to see.

[Kolakhan]

Red, yellow, white anything but black.

[edwardstoner]

I like this idea, too ... of showing range indications for the range your battery can fire, by shell type. ...... surely my officer in charge of the battery would know this, so I as his Commander should know this too!

😍🍷😎🌴

[MrMaximgun]

I have to agree with this, It is simply too easy to under or over estimate the range for the different types of shot

[danloveschrista]

+10! Would love to know what is "canister range" visually? It's devastating when you get it, but where is it when I'm moving my arty into position? I'd love the 3-zone range indicator. 1 for devastating, 1 for OK accuracy, 1 for "you can shoot, but you ain't hitting nothing here". While we're at it, how about being able to turn off that ammo-wasting max range if you want?

[Half life Expert]

YES! The artillery arcs should be easier to see, and I love the idea of having extra lines showing Shell and Canister Range. That would be exceptionally useful for placing my guns to attack fortifications so that I know how close I need to get to use shells.

[Spoon!]

One last bump before release. Surely the devs can see the value of this?