Gameplay: Ground Based Artillery Tank

[Bobbunny]

Pretty simple idea IMO. Either a new vehicle, or a wide-ish cert train.

You get increased range, and a fancy new firing screen, complete with little drop bars. You also have access to a secondary range finder, that doubles as a UAV. Park the Artillery a kilometer away and send out the UAV. UAV can spot (See any spotting thread really), but can mainly laze an area for bombardment. After coming back or scraping it, you are then given a little arc shown on the screen. You can use that, plus any modification you may need to make, to be as effective as you can. This also features a Co-pilot seat for using the UAV, and a co-axial turret for someone to use. Can be interchanged from a standard .50 HMG, to an AA flak cannon.

Pros
- Lack of Air superiority still allows strikes from a range
- More openings for tactics (Pre-Battle bombard on a base)
- Variety in your armor

Cons
- Could be easily overused if not balanced correctly
- Possibly confusing for new players
- Could also be very well useless given the lack of need for mortars and the like.

[Sirisian]

Did you by any chance search and view the other artillery threads? More. There's tons of idea threads which don't involve a player sitting back away from combat.

Also be aware of the current status on OS within the game. We have faction specific orbital strikes now apparently so one of those is already artillery. The developers have not hinted at any artillery platform or vehicle yet.

That said your implementation sounds boring. We had a vehicle in Planetside 1 called the Flail and it sounds similar to your implementation but without a secondary gunner. The developers are more focused on keeping players in the combat also so keep that in mind.

[Saifoda]

^ that.


Also, no lazing. Gives a very unfair advantage to the arty guys (they can decimate targets without being exposed to return/counter fires) and no secondary gun. Artillery is a very powerful strategic asset, it needs to have some serious counters to it (weak-to-no armor, exposed crew, blind-firing [no lazing] -- these are the only ways to really give it good counters for balance)