A few comments and ideas

[NaxShaleChan]

Ok, I guess by now at least a few people have noticed my rantings about the lackings of WZ's weapons systems etc... I think... Anyway, here's what I want to say. (Not in order of priority/preference/importance... whatever)

1) On Artillery... For the missile-battery based artillery, specifically ripple fire type weapons like the Archangel missiles and the Ripple rockets, it'd be interesting if they could be made to have different fire patterns against different targets. In skirmish, I have a habit of setting up a batteries of rockets, but when they lock onto a target, I wind up having five, eight, even 10 different batteries from across the map firing on ONE tank in a group. Or worse, one BORG in a group. It'd be nice if they wouldn't just lock onto one, but have different targeting patterns against different targets. Against a group of cyborgs, for instance, the rockets would spread to cover an area, perhaps a two or more tile wide radius depending on how many batteries are being launched at the one spot. This way, launches aren't wasted immolating a single cyborg when there are ten more behind it.

2) Similar concept for VTOLs... I've noticed that some AIs have a tendency to cluster up units while they amass them for an attack. When I come in with a wave of VTOLs carrying cluster-type weapons or incendiary weapons, both of which are supposed to cover a wide area, the all of the bombs fall on a single point, instead of taking down the entire mass of units. Again, it'd be nice to have a spread type bombing run, where bombs are dropped across a wider or longer swath.

3) A question... Indirect artillery assigned to a commander, or a sensor turret with arty assigned to a commander. How does this work? My arty has an annoying tendency to stay close to the commander, rather than hanging back and letting the commander, or sensor attached to commander, do the targeting.

Eh, I guess that's all for now. Thanks for listening to my rant.

[Nyme]

On 1, this would definitely be a good idea. I'd prefer that each battery checked before firing that if some batteries are already targeting the same target, they would switch to a different target. But I'm not sure if this can be coded without a huge revamp of the targeting system. The same goes for your idea of varying the accuracy of the rocket/missile salvos.

A possible semi-solution for this is to stagger your artillery by placing some of them further back from your defensive line. As such, the first batteries will destroy one unit and will be reloading while the other batteries destroy a second unit.

On 2, if you're willing to use your group keys for this, put a couple of VTOLs in each group. Thus you can select up to 10 different targets by a bit of number pressing.

On 3, there should be a "fire support" button in the commander menu. Never used it so I can't tell much more about it.

Edit: team keys -> group keys

[NaxShaleChan]

On 1, KK, thanks.

On 2, yeah, I've tried that, but unlike with commanders, when VTOLs degroup, they degroup. Not return to group, degroup. It's also annoying if I try to make more than one group, each with different types of VTOLs... D'you know how hard it is to click on a flying VTOL? lol, It's a pain.

On 3, yep, I know about the button, I'm wondering why my indirect arty stays so close to the commander. It's INDIRECT arty, not direct fire. They should hang back at optimum ranges from the commander, not where the commander is. That's the whole purpose of INDIRECT arty fire. I wonder, could I link arty to a sensor, and the sensor to the commander, would that work the right way?

[truckspin]

Hello,

with a lot of effort and micromanagement it is possible in the game to prevent the slow artillery from "syncing up" to the same phase by avoiding that they are ever idle. Against the computer the problem is that by saving and loading they all sync up. A few days ago I had an absolutely clearly winning position against the AI (1v7, standard AI), and simply by saving and loading I got a completely different position and lost. My artillery synced up in the loading process and became almost useless.

But maybe it is good that Hellstorm, which is hard to get compared to ripple rockets, has at least this advantage over it. Zarel is already considering changes to make attacks against an artillery-turtler easier, and taking advantage of the firing phase is one of the few chances that an attacker has right now.

[GiGaBaNE]

1) On Artillery... For the missile-battery based artillery, specifically ripple fire type weapons like the Archangel missiles and the Ripple rockets, it'd be interesting if they could be made to have different fire patterns against different targets. In skirmish, I have a habit of setting up a batteries of rockets, but when they lock onto a target, I wind up having five, eight, even 10 different batteries from across the map firing on ONE tank in a group.

target lock is dictated by sensors, afaik the nearest sensor to both the enemy and the arty is the one used for targeting. taken to an extreme for example sake, if the entire south edge of the map was a line of arty, and you had wide spec sensors at NW, N, NE compas points, then suddenly 3 enemies appeared, 1 at each sensor. the arty would indeed fire in 3 volleys mid line would go north, SW bunch of arty would fire at NW enemy and likewise for the SE arty against NE enemy.
in short, placing sensors at correct ranges from each other and the arty dictates fire patterns.

2) Similar concept for VTOLs... I've noticed that some AIs have a tendency to cluster up units while they amass them for an attack. When I come in with a wave of VTOLs carrying cluster-type weapons or incendiary weapons, both of which are supposed to cover a wide area, the all of the bombs fall on a single point, instead of taking down the entire mass of units. Again, it'd be nice to have a spread type bombing run, where bombs are dropped across a wider or longer swath.

simplest solution for this issue is to use vtols with high ammo count when assigning them to vtol radars. not what you wanted exactly, but does the job.
alternativly spread your vtols to radars lined up horizontal to the enemy attack run, this will help spread the groups aim.

3) A question... Indirect artillery assigned to a commander, or a sensor turret with arty assigned to a commander. How does this work? My arty has an annoying tendency to stay close to the commander, rather than hanging back and letting the commander, or sensor attached to commander, do the targeting.

mobile arty doesnt really work as you want it to with commanders, they like to follow the comm and thats about that...indirect via commander is best done using fixed arty, and an awsome sight it is!