Commander artillery idea

[HadrianBT]

I've heard many people complaining about the commander duty in FH2.

Some say it is too powerfull with its off-bounds artillery, while some say that the arty is too weak (mortar barrage on some maps), which makes the command duty quite boring and non-rewarding.

So I've got this idea, which I would like to introduce here and see what you guys think about it:

Give the commander the ability to have a barrage, which effectively fires not a shell, but a spotting projectile. Therefore friendly arty would use the spot and rack up some kills, while the commander would get his "spotting assist points", whithout using some godly atry out of his pocket. The "arty" would also depend on the arty pieces manned currently, so it could be a mortar barrage, an arty barrage or both.

Moreover, this would encourage teamwork, as any team member at any time could ask the commander to "place the arty marker over those houses behind the hill". Of course, to avoid abuse, the new arty projectile should be rather infrequent (like it is currently with normal commander artillery). Also, the spot should last only a limited amount of time, obviously.

Additionally, the arty would drop several spotting projectiles (four in a square? three in a triangle?) so that arty gunners could choose a better one.

I fully understand that the implementation of this idea would require quite some time by the devs, but if they would really see it as promising...

[Lobo]

There is nothing godly in the commander artillery, it's pure WW2: "arty crew, level the coordinate xyz, fire!".
But some guys love to whine, there is no coding solution for that, I am afraid.

[Kubador]

I think that this idea tackles grater problem IMHO, namely the commander class itself. Right now he's good for two things: arty and supply where mortar artillery is a mockery of it's name (nerf it! wrar!). I think that commander should be more of a logistic helper. Distributing certain gear in control points as pick up kits or anti tank guns (all in previously defined proximity). Also a squad managing to fulfill commander's order should get points for that (squad, not its members) to encourage cooperation with commander thus within the team.

On topic: I'm not so sure about the suggestion posted by thread opener. Mainly becouse it would kick spotters out their job so team with good scout/snipers would loose their cutting edge advantage. And all that targetting asist code would be in vain.

[HadrianBT]

I agree with Kubador... on both points, unfortunately.

Yes, the biggest disadvantage I see from implementing such a system would be ruining the value of those spotters, who sacrifice their fun of "run&gun" for the better of the whole team. Those people should be praised!

On the other hand, as has also been correctly noticed, the "logistic helper" idea should be more elaborated. Currently, very few squads on public servers (ok,ok, "hslan" actually) listen to commander's commands, which, to start with, are very rarely issued.

The biggest advantage of a commander should be the ability to see the whole battlefield, i.e. see where all his "minions". Right now, everybody can be a self-commander, as everybody has this particular ability, namely the "map", where you see all alive friendlies. In vanilla BF2 the commander at least had the advantage of seeing who is dead or still alive/wounded (remember the 15s, during which the soldier's marker stays on the map until he is revived or dies/killed permanently). In FH2 he does not. Hence the obvious idea which 99% of all players in FH2 have: "Heck, why should I go there, I know everything the commander knows plus I see the actual sector with my own eyes!"
And that is true. So a very radical idea would be to implement the "empty map" for everybody else except commander and squad members, who would only see their own squad (I have heard somewhere something like that was done in PR, but I have no idea as I never player it). However, this would create a great deal of resentment among most players, so I strongly doubt this will ever be implemented.

EDIT:
To Lobo:

Yes, this is exactly how this was done in WW2. But the commander arty is too precise right now, i.e. it falls exactly where it was targeted. In WW2 there were common cases where the arty shelled friendlies, as the targeting was incorrect at times. But this cannot be realized in FH2. And currently no matter how many times I ask squadleaders (when I am commanding) to request an arty barrage, usually nobody ever answers. My initial suggestion was to have a little more cooperation between teammembers on public servers.
And, actually, the idea still beary the said formula:

"arty crew, level the coordinate xyz, fire!"

[Lobo]

well Hadrian, our commander arti is not that acurate, yeah, it rains in the selected area but spread out (more than in vanila). Obviously it doesn't miss by half a mile, I concede you that.

In any case with our time limits I can't see any logic reason to complain, see, yesterday we were testing a map, I was killed one or two times by comm arti, to whine about this would be insane...and yet some dudes do: "noob weapon!"...there are no noob weapons in war games (if they are coded right)

[HadrianBT]

I personally like the commander arty - currently the only reason to have smb in commander's place.

I have been killed by commander arty ~2 times (so no reason to dislike it )but I'm always envious when an enemy team has a dedicated commander, who doesn't get bored quickly. Right now I can only command if I'm having my breakfast at the same time.

And some quirks could only be added if FH somehow goes PR-style (at least what I have heard of it), and so much realizm could harm the great gameplay we have right now. So, unfortunately, you are right and the best way is to keep the current variant as the average of all posibilities.

Thanks for comments, though.

[Knitschi]

One vote for "commander needs more power"

and support of Kubadors post!