Rework artillery - an idea

First of all: maybe this is a bad idea, but I'd like to throw it here so people can discuss.

Artillery is needed to prevent campy gameplay, but with its current design it's either hardly doing anything or insta wiping squads (or at least that's what relic made it to be in the past). So here is my proposal: give all artillery a rather big AoE with reduced damage, so it can't wipe squads (at least not 2 or 3 rockets) but give it supression / crew shock. This way arty wouldn't be a "oh you're capping one of my sectors - WIPE THAT SQUAD!"-tool but be helpful at supporting an assault at defensive positions, as you could damage and suppress the defending troops so your assaulting troops have an easier time.

If this change leads to arty not beeing able to handle bunkers / units in buildings etc., maybe give it an ability to shoot higher damage shells with massively reduced AoE so it can't be used to easily wipe squads and maybe require some munitions to use it.

So, what do you think?

Edit: Like Burts mentioned, the game would probably benefit if other long range weapons like mortars, ISU, etc. (all those AoR weapons capable of wiping squads) and mines would be changed accordingly.

Coh1 Nebelwerfers

I would also like this idea, mines, mortars , rocket ary, howitzers should all do suppresion.

I'd also like for the very big guns on tanks (IS-2, isu-152 - to also do suppresion to infantry)

Do we really want to play a game where a direct hit from a 152mm howitzer round or 300mm rocket doesn't turn infantry into blood mist?

Not a bad idea at all. I wouldn´t mind though if the ost/sov doctrinal howitzers were a bit more effective and/or cheaper too.

People were using artillery to blast opponent base buildings and relic did not want that so they changed it to less rounds that are supposed to be more accurate. This has made artillery very limited in utility. Plus the Ost stuka dive bomb and Sov precision bombing run 1 hit kill makes artillery even less desirable to make.

I think if relic want to make those units viable they might want to consider:

a) increasing the number of shells back to 6 and 8 like before
b) reducing the damage from 240 to 160 and from 160 to 120 or 80
c) giving more health to the gun so that it can survive 1 air hit while the crew die

Actually I like the idea. Bigger area effects but lower damage profiles would reduce the god damn squad wipes.

The suppression - if not exaggerated, so that the suppression lasts not as much as that from an mg - could really compensate for the squad wipe ability.

On the other hand the arty should still remain its oneshot ability in the center of the explosion. Wouldnt just be really fun to watch an artillery shell landing on a soldier without killing him


On the other hand: I didnt feel the artillery needed MUCH of a change atm. Maybe a faster ROE would help them become a little more used in 1v1 but the arti was nothing I was too concerned about.

Still theres allways room for discussion=)

greetz

Edit:

Abdul

Your point c was sth I very much would like to see.
The main point why artillery is underused is because it can be oneshotted. At least in 2v2 the probality that the enemy has drop weapons is very high. That combined with spy planes is a sure death for any arti at the moment.

[...]
On the other hand the arty should still remain its oneshot ability in the center of the explosion. Wouldnt just be really fun to watch an artillery shell landing on a soldier without killing him
[...]

You could try to make a higher inner AoE damage, but it would have to be very small. But thanks to gangbang-unit-AI, even this might not work (trying to prevent high health squad wipes). And....

Do we really want to play a game where a direct hit from a 152mm howitzer round or 300mm rocket doesn't turn infantry into blood mist?

... it's not like CoH2 is really realistic anyways. Pumas surviving a IS2 shell / Shermans surviving a Jagdtiger shell at these distances etc.? In a game where you have so few units and thus unit preservation is of such importance, you should not loose squads to RNG imo.

vCOH Nebel FTW

There was a similar post a while ago (with a bit more detail) and while it focused more on damage distribution rather than suppression I also agree here.

An artillery rework would be amazing

IMO, on map arty should be stronger than rocket arty. Things like the old buffed katyusha and current stuka outclass on map arty (and ALL arty, for that matter) by such a degree it's ridiculous

I don't think suppression as we know it is the right call. Suppression is very powerful, and I think it would be way too strong.

I like the idea of bigger AoE with less damage, but I think a stun element (like from stun grenades) fits better than suppression. Infantry would take damage, and be stunned, but wouldn't 100% force a retreat or guarantee losing a fight.

I would also like this idea, mines, mortars , rocket ary, howitzers should all do suppresion.

I'd also like for the very big guns on tanks (IS-2, isu-152 - to also do suppresion to infantry)

Great addition, this should really apply to all weapons potentially wiping full squads. I'd rather like to see e.g. the ISU supressing rather than just wiping stuff.

ugh, that's an awful idea

You guys might as well go play World of Tanks, because that's all this game would be if everything suppressed like that

[..]
I like the idea of bigger AoE with less damage, but I think a stun element (like from stun grenades) fits better than suppression. Infantry would take damage, and be stunned, but wouldn't 100% force a retreat or guarantee losing a fight.

Yes, it's not like it is supposed insta pin (is that the "red" one?! not playing english version) units. The exact effect can be discussed, but that's the general direction I'd like it to be changed (edit: Arty should be a combined arms support tool and not an untouchable killing machine in your base imo).