[OPINION] New command for artillery

[Heimdall]

Hi all

I suggest adding either a new command or a new unit stance for all artillery units that feature secondary weapons, namely the captured Leman Russ, the Defiler and the Prism Tank.
This command or unit stance should cause the unit to use it´s secondary weapons only, NOT it´s primary artillery weapon.

Let me explain why:
When playing Orcs I start getting fond of the Leman Russ because of it´s versaility. It´s not only an artillery platform, but also a great support vehicle. It can take quite a beating while it´s heavy bolters put lots of metal in the air. I like to keep it close to my boyz as they charge in to provide the heavy ranged firepower Orcs need badly.
This is where trouble starts: While the Leman Russ is great at cutting down infantry at range with it´s bolters, it keeps firing it´s main gun too, usually hitting my own boyz who are engaged in melee combat. If I put the vehicle into passive stance, my boyz may not get hurt, but the bolters stop firing as well. Only by moving the tank I can make it use it´s automatic weapons only (it can´t fire it´s main gun while moving), however this isn´t really a sollution.

I haven´t played around with Defilers or Prisms yet, but I suppose they tend to hit friendly troops engaged in melee combat as well, forcing the player to either keep them out of combat or set them to passive, which renders the secondary weapons useless.
The Whirlwind doens´t need this option since it doesn´t have any secondary weapons.

Thanks for reading,
Heimdall

[ilia1986]

Solution: Send the tank to the front lines, and order it to target distant targets.

[-_Phoenix_-]

Not a good solution, what if there is no distant targets, or you don't want to fire at them. I think a simple artillery on/off switch would be good.

[ilia1986]

First, they need this game not to lag insanely at big battles.. Then they can add as many switches as they want.

[Heimdall]

Agreed, a lag free game is highest priority! [however I know retail games that have far worse multiplayer stability than this beta, way to go devs, DoW will be great! :-)]

Still I think this button is a nice addition since it would make micromanagement a bit easier once the "big gunz" enter the game.

[Vileblood]

this is really only the problem with the l russ

the fire prisms main gun does not knockback friendlies causes it ultra accurate.

the defiler has this problem but if you put him on melee mode he'll walk to the targets using cannon sometimes but the CC flame and gun.

[FluxX]

It needs to be "smart" targeting then?

[CrusadingAngel]

Really, a simple on/off toggle would be quite nice.. I quite often find myself moving my Leman Russes around just so they won't fire the battlecannon and throw my melee units all around.

[MiltantPacfist]

I understand that it would be optimum to do this but maybe we should think about it for a second. With this feature arty would be essential risk free. just turn it on when u need it and turn it off but keep shootin senondaries when ya don't. to me this would basicaly create a tank whoose only weekness would be it's armour. Would it be convinient yes...woud it be fun to go against 4 tanks that rush in, bolters blazing then arty for a minutes then continue slaughtering infantry without risk(wow that was quite a long statement) NO

[Mirage Knight]

Consider the fact that the "looted" Russ is an Ork repaired / remanufactured vehicle.

Think about it, whenever the main gun fires the tank jerks back violently means that tank has been tweaked beyond regular specs - the Orks don't care just so long as the Big Gun makes a big bang ;)

While the effect in game is that of a shot going wild on occassion and hitting friendlies - which sucks a bit, but consider that this is pretty much in keeping with Ork fluff. It really gives the race character. If you think about it, it's a miracle that ANYTHING of theirs works AT ALL :D

[Amaron]

Oh please this is one of the most logical feature requests I've ever seen. It's totally obvious and some of your are trying to act like Orks shelling there own team is an intended side effect of even "owning" a russ.

Clearly it's only supposed to be a side effect of using the artillery. It actually is a problem for defilers too really. If I have like 5 defilers and I tell them to move into melee they start firing the artillery and blowing themselves up.

An artillery on/off button is a must have I feel awfully stupid for not even thinking to ask.

[dd77]

This is a really good idea. Can't be that hard to implement quickly either

[Sconc]

It would most likey solve all the AI scripting that would be needed to make sure that it doesnt fire its main gun if Friend's are in range lol.

I vote for the on / off switch ^_^

[Timil]

I'm using them to bolterise the poor dude in front of him and fire the artillery BEHIND the ennemy line to cut in little ribbons the poor ones who flee from my orkish hord.

Of course, a On/Off may be usefull, but I won't ever use it as I'm mainly unsing the LR to fire the second line when the bolter slaughter the first one (without bothering my orks at all).

[CrimsonAngel]

Real ORK´s dont fear Big cannons.
Big Cannons Fear ORK´s

[Dragnarr]

Okey as much as it would be fun to have on/off switch for artillery, for me it really doesn't describe the feeling of war, cannons NEED to shoot and people must fly :D , instead I would like the Artillery AI enchanted so if there's more friendlies then enemies in that ground it won't shoot there and it goes picking another target, this shouldn't be so hard to do since there's already auto-shoot, it just needs to be modified for the artillery. I noticed that my Wartruck with the artillery add-on made more damage to my own troops .... shooting single guardian in the middle of my orks........ that wasn't fun. Better AI and it's fixed