I just double checked - they do not have to be set up in order for them to retreat. It's just that the chance is pretty low at 10% per round. Even if all 8 shells drop on an AT gun, the chances of them triggering a retreat are at about 56%.
I do agree that if this ability was present in more popular commanders, it would likely be fixed in some way. Fear Artillery dropped by Commissar from NKVD Rifle Disruption is identical in the effects it causes, but that commander isn't exactly meta (fun to use though!).
this (and your previous posts on this) is quite interesting! as far as i'm concerned, the ability to force mgs and even at guns to retreat is the main selling point for propaganda arty. i guess the randomness, especially with team weapons as you mentioned, is what keeps it more or less balanced. a guaranteed AoE retreat of a pair of at guns for some 80 mun would be quite game-breaking obviously. would be interesting to know how exactly you'd brush it up.
I couldn't test it on your mode, as the missiles didn't appear to be fully displayed.
about the last rocket, I was wrong, it has a good spread, but here is the first one.
yeah something seems to have broken the mod, it's not working anymore for me either since i published it. sorry about that.
anyway, while i'm sure that multiple rockets fired into the first scatter box scatter randomly as they should, your video seems to indicate the very first rocket fired may behave somewhat oddly. honestly i still think it does behave as it should and you've just been incredibly unlucky (or lucky?) in your tests.
that being said, i'd also not be too surprised if there is indeed some weird glitch in how the scatter of the first shell in a creeping barrage is calculated, as that would not be the only instance where the description in the editor does not really match the actual in-game implementation (for example the real length of the scatter box is 48 m instead of the 40 m defined in the editor).
to either debunk or confirm this once and for all, the easiest would probably be to mod the width of the scatter box (currently 8 m) to be very large (maybe 10x of that), so it is easier to discern visually if the rocket always hits the center or scatters normally.
i'll give this a try later...
[...]
9. OST/OKW (multiple docs) LeFH "Counter Barrage" replaced with something else. The amount of damage this does with zero user input is a bit much. Perhaps replacing it with something like a "precision barrage", where it fires 1-2 rounds (with more delay between them), but with half the scatter (and a shared cooldown).
[...]
although i'd be in favor of tweaking counter barrage (e.g. cooldown, damage) instead of outright replacing it, a precision strike ability would make for a nice alternative (or a good vet 1 ability for the ml-20).
however, i'd implement it in a different form (akin to zeroing artillery) where the first couple of shells have regular, or increased scatter with regards to the normal barrage, but scatter is reduced with each consecutive shot until the last shell hits almost pin point accurate. this would make it strong against immobile targets but give anything with legs or wheels enough time to relocate.
Pretty easy to look at commanders and if you click on any ability it shows all commanders with that skill/unit.
wow, that's awesome, never knew those existed.
on topic:
apart from the obvious changes to team game meta commanders i'd really wish that tank hunter tactics gets another revision.
the tank hunter package feels a bit lackluster already in live, but with the upcoming changes to penal ptrs it will be even more redundant. if performance tweaks turn out to be out of scope, i'd at least hope to see it merged with those light vehicle mines noone ever builds to free up a slot for something more useful.
oh, and also +1 to whoever proposed to swap the ml20 with the b4. i know this thing currently sits in only one doctrine for a reason, but it would fit so much better thematically than the regular howie.
Well, easy fix, play in arranged teams, or play in smaller game modes, which tend to suffer a little less from that.
People are not playing differently.. there are just more players, mostly inexperienced ones..
If all you are worried about in this pandemic is the quality of your online games, trust me you are doing really well.
Think how many people are losing loved ones, with out being able to see them, often not seeing them for months before they pass.
Anyone with children is having a pretty tough time, its not healthy at all being couped up together and its damaging families and mental health (I know, I have 2 year old twins... lockdown is HARD).
I would dream to not have commitments in this pandemic and just sit back enjoying online gaming.
Ok went back into the editor and made a small mod to test the creeping barrage scatter again. And I'm quite confident to say that it does work as intended, i.e. first and last rockets scatter in the same way as all the other rockets in the middle do.
You can test it out yourself if you're so inclined via this small mod:
All it does is increase the number of rockets fired into the first and last box (the ones with the X in your pic) to 100 and remove the explosion/crater effects in order to make it easier to see where exactly the rockets impact.
So you say "I know this won't happen" and then proceed to suggest it. Making threads only for the sake of making threads? What is the actual point if you know this won't happen? Circlejerk it? Cuming on each other's ideas and LARPing?
dude, chill ffs! this is a forum, a place where you present and discuss ideas. just like what the OP did here. and given the fact that w/o this disclaimer one of the first posts would have been about how astronomically slim the chances are of something like this ever to happen, it doesn't even feel out of place.
in fact the only questionable thing is why this was posted in the balance section.
that's interesting, thanks for the video. still, when i tested it the first and last shot did land in a randomized spot in their respective scatter box, just as any of the other rockets, as opposed to being almost pin-point accurate like in your example. now this could just be an artifact of low sample size, but given your in-game experience i assume you've seen more actual live stuka barrages than i ever will. so maybe this is some strange behavior that just doesn't occur in my test setup (stuka spawned via cheatcommands mod and using the test range map). guess i'll test it again more thoroughly and see if there's really something odd going on.
projectiles that fly to the center sometimes fall next to each other (randomly), but the first and last always fall at these points(if there is a spread, then it is not visible)
and also, I tried firing in the patch, and the projectile fell into the area painted over at the end(if fired at close range )
then it looks like it is indeed working as intended.
from what i tested in the live version a while ago, the indicator and the scatter box should align roughly like this:
so every rocket falls into a separate square rougly 3 chevrons wide and as you showed already in your image, no rocket will land in the area around the first 3 chevrons.
i guess the indicator could be shortened at the beginning to better match the scatter pattern, but i think it is already quite accurate otherwise?
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