Don't use artillery

[CrunkRabbit]

The same people who say this are always on the teams that lose.

[FrankyFourFingers]

If you use it sparingly and at the right time, it's pretty helpful. But if you are the idiot that wastes team munition bombarding a point the team hasn't prepared an attack for, then yeah you probably shouldn't be using it.

[CrunkRabbit]

Lol. Yes coordinating with the team, with the squad leaders, with the commander is essential.

Right at the start of the match though declarations are made. If you get on artillery you will be team killed or kicked. This has been the current trend over the past couple weeks among the more popular servers.

The excuse: you are wasting resources.

Reality: not a single person builds a single node the entire match.

I can see why you have no resources...it has nothing to do with arty.

[Jeff Epstein]

50+ kills is easy with good arty marks

[Kersch]

Wish they would add an artillery section with a forward observer role whose sole job is to coordinate and correct artillery fire onto targets.

[Stryker]

Originally posted by Mr. Noob:

The same people who say this are always on the teams that lose.

It's the players that jump on Arty when there's 10 munitions left and just spam shots every min and waste the munitions as they are gained that are a problem.

Ton of times as a Commander I've had people jump on Arty thinking it's some magical win condition and spam arty, when I need munitions for a bombing run or supply drops and they are draining every last bit of munitions.

Arty is important, but it's also something that needs to be used sparingly, and not just so some guy can get 50+ kills and brag about it.

[Barley_Mob]

Originally posted by Meyer:

Wish they would add an artillery section with a forward observer role whose sole job is to coordinate and correct artillery fire onto targets.

They do. It's called an infantry squad (SL sits on the front lines, 1+ guys back on the guns).

Originally posted by James T. Kirk:

I love playing as arty. Though my favorite part is when I tell SLs where I'm artying and the SLs fail to communicate it to their squad or their squad is ignoring them. Then I watch as SLs and troops push into that area, get teamkilled, and then get mad at me. When you're on arty, you often don't have time to type out everywhere you're firing at, which is why I relay it to SLs in command chat and its up to SLs to ensure their troops avoid it.

Kirk, the amount of times I've been SL going on an aggressive push and been killed by unmentioned friendly arty are too many to count (Yes, I have also heard and ignored/thought I'd be OK, that's 100% on me, if squaddies don't listen, that's on them). But when you've all but cleared a point, about to set up a garry and hear nothing except for the incoming round, that sucks.

PSA: CHECK YOUR MAP before you rain down hell...it also isn't enough to say "Hey, shelling the point" once in command chat...with all of the voice channels, it's very easy to miss as an SL. Go through the commander...Check your map, find that one SL close to the point who is clearly assaulting, and call them out individually. Claiming, "I said it once in Command chat" isn't enough...it's just as much your responsibility to not kill your own guys and potentially scupper a friendly capture, then it is to kill the baddies.

Also, when you are reloading, you don't have time to type SHELLING BARN...something that could take at max, an extra 5 seconds and save friendly lives...really dude?

[Pak0tac]

The team is loosing that is why no arty allowed
not "not arty allowed so the team is loosing" you ignorant lemming
learn to look at your map, specifically the resources tab

[Depraved]

Points from this conversation:

> Arty isn't just another gun you choose.
> You don't tell SLs where you are dropping arty. They tell you.
> You won't be threatened with a TK if arty is asked for by SLs and approved by command
> Arty at the beginning of a match is a waste so no need to jump on it anyway.
> One requires a spotter (SL, Commander) to coordinate arty
> Arty certainly uses resources that Command might be waiting on for a bomb drop, supply drop, etc.

Here in lies the problem - thinking one role is more of an asset than they are. Ironically, this is almost always accompanied with a desire for a more kills rather than high defense or combat scores. By definition, NOT a team player. It's a COD thing.
How many times have you asked, "Is that ours or theirs?" because command and SLs aren't part of the arty decision.

Arty can be a game changer when used appropriately but its abuse is representative of much of the COD "kills are king" mentality that has made this game less and less fun the more it develops.

My advise to the exclusively arty player is try joining a squad as the support guy and actually know you are helping the team then go to arty only when requested.

[Jeff Epstein]

I do arty by myself. There is no need with the ping system to have any other player call in arty. If A cap is being contested or you know where large concentrations are then fire the arty.
Artillery is a powerful weapon and is great for hitting enemy garrisons.


A lot of noobs use arty and have no clue what they are doing. If you suck at arty and cant hit a ping or read a map to see where your guys are then dont use arty. If the vote kick system worked properly then we could kick them.

If im SL and you go as arty I will tk you and kick you from the squad. What a stupid suggestion

[Depraved]

You must have misunderstood. I never suggested that. I guess I need to say it again but more clearly - arty should not be an individual player nor an individual squad decision. A fire mission is requested, not spammed. Arty is on standby until needed and looking at the map is a poor substitute for integrating tactics with a strategy. That and the rest of the previous post supports my points to a T. Arty is tactical. Leadership sets the strategy.

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest way to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."
Art of War

"HLL without COD players eventually ruining it is unlikely"
Me

[Kersch]

Originally posted by Ambient:

The team is loosing that is why no arty allowed
not "not arty allowed so the team is loosing" you ignorant lemming
learn to look at your map, specifically the resources tab

A section is about delegation of responsibility so that not all infantry men are hopping on as they please, shooting off all the ammunition and getting away with it because they are in an infantry section and come and go as they please. Having to be in an artillery section with a section leader makes it just slightly more difficult for people to abuse, and maybe they can make it so you have to have a leader in the section to operate the weapons as well.

[Alec White]

It's easy. If your commander tells you to stop using artillery. You stop using it.

Originally posted by Mr. Noob:

The excuse: you are wasting resources.

Reality: not a single person builds a single node the entire match.

I can see why you have no resources...it has nothing to do with arty.

You can build resource nodes by yourself.
If you want to play arty, the first thing you do is make sure to have nodes, so you don't single handedly cripple your team.
Don't blame the rest of the team for not building nodes when you, yourself don't want to do it but still take advantage of it.

Originally posted by Stryker:

It's the players that jump on Arty when there's 10 munitions left and just spam shots every min and waste the munitions as they are gained that are a problem.

Ton of times as a Commander I've had people jump on Arty thinking it's some magical win condition and spam arty, when I need munitions for a bombing run or supply drops and they are draining every last bit of munitions.

Arty is important, but it's also something that needs to be used sparingly, and not just so some guy can get 50+ kills and brag about it.

I saw a ton of games being lost because the Commander couldn't drop supplies to recons because we had some selfish guys at the arty pieces wasting every single round. Same with AT pieces.
And no, it isn't a problem of communication by part of the Commander if he is repeatedly asking to all SLs to tell their squad mates to stop using artillery. Then some hothead decides to do a few TKs to the arty spammers that refuse to stop and then is all Drama Let Loose.

Commanders should be able to ration ammunition for artillery and AT emplacements.

[Jeff Epstein]

Ive seen games go south cuz of arty too

A couple of ideas
arty squad which I think is what some people are suggesting. perhaps patched to a recon squad or a spotter

Request of use. kind of like a vote kick but it sends a request to use artillery to the commander which he can accept or decline

A separate node for artillery ammo

A pre allocated amount of artillery shells

[CrunkRabbit]

So just read the comments. Majority of the matches I've been in over the past couple of weeks never had anyone on arty. Artillery sat there empty the entire match either because no one knew how to shoot it or didnt want to shoot it.

I agree with prioritization of targets. Static tanks, spawn points, directed defensive fire, and directed artillery to soften an objective are qualified uses of artillery. For me those are the only reasons.

The problem falls on squad leaders being incompetent, incapable, or too casual to mark said targets or coordinate with artillery. (Words too strong, admittedly)

It is a great tool.

I can agree with not using artillery at the beginning of a match.

I cant agree with artillery should build nodes if they want to use artillery. That's silly.

Commander should build nodes then if commander wants to call in air strikes. Tanks should build nodes if they want to go boom. Etc..

The initial part of a campaign should include one squad designating itself to be the node builder. Another squad should be focused on building fall back garrisons along the way, and another squad should be focused on defending the previous obj.

What happens at the beginning of every match? Zerg, and steam roll as the enemy team caps original objective point and has their team sitting on your objective waiting for the back cap on a defenseless position.

Game mechanics definitely need work. As the game gets fleshed out these issues will probably go away.

However, hearing command chat laugh and cuss and send someone to shoot me in the face for using artillery instead of asking me to get off it is toxic af.

What's worse is later in the match they decided to ask someone else to get off who had jumped on it. I chimed in. "Just go shoot him in the face" to which they all suddenly didnt think that was such a great idea and thought I was a ♥♥♥♥ for suggesting it. Really??

Looking forward to vehicles though.