Indirect Auto-Fire vs. Ost

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2 Jun 2019, 20:25 PMDoomlord52

Sorry, somehow missed the comment regarding the scott/pak.

Anyway, as for the other indirect fire units - yes, they all need addressing in order to keep things 'fair' between the factions. My original post suggests this, but also points out that because of OST's 4-man, high cost squads, they are currently the most affected by this issue.

"Currently affected most by this issue" ?

As said before the mortars have already been nerfed and the squad formations were already improved. The problem that you describe has already been solved. It seems like you are playing several patches in the past.

I honestly can not agree about indirect fire units in general being OP. Pak Howi and Scott yes, the rest is balanced or even underwhelming.

Posts: 5279

The problem with autofire indirect will always be a problem unless they are changed from the roots up. You could have a mortar have a scatter of 25 and only fire one shell every minute on auto fire and it could STILL land a wipe that the other player couldn't possibly save and swing the balance of power with no input. Scatter and ROF will gut the unit and reduce the frequency of the problem but not fix it. You need to reduce the potency without simply making the dice roll harder, because in the end its still a dice roll.

To fix it there needs to be some form of damage limiter when auto firing. There is no alternative to that if you want to address this issue. The question needs to how to keep the unit relevant despite that change and what specifically that change needs to be.

Posts: 2358

I imagine auto attack being an active ability, that forces the mortar to stay put for xx seconds. Can't be cancelled and can't move until timer ends. Now everytime you want to auto attack you force yourself to hold ground and needs a manual input. Useful for stalled positions, not so useful to combat.
Barrages keep their way of being, fast, short, aoe aimed.

Either that or just remove auto attack. Only UKF will still remain since mortar puts are unable to move

Mortars ht should be revised too, their main advantage is mobility

Posts: 351

I enjoy indirect fire units for the aesthetic and they are invaluable at times for breaking up defensive positions, but the feast or famine nature can be frustrating at times for both the sheller and the shelled.

One way I’ve always imagined mortars and field guns to be more satisfying all around, would be to keep the auto fire, but reduce the rof significantly. Then, make the rounds do full damage within the entire aoe area (no fall off) but decrease that damage down to like a third of what it is now. Finally, make barrages fire like 10 shells all in fairly quick succession so that they land one after another with about a second between impacts.

In this way, you get more consistent damage with fewer bs squad wipes; you have a tool that can more consistently saturate an area without relying on rng as much; and you have a weapon that is less effective without user input, but potentially more effective with it.

The values would have to be tweaked with testing obviously but I find this conceptually interesting.