Artillery strike - feedback needed

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  • Offline AgentRev
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Artillery strike - feedback needed

« posted: Jan 14, 2018, 12:14 AM »
EDIT: Work in progress.
---
I had an idea for a new item, but before working on it, I wanted to see first if there is any interest.

Basically, 1 outta 10 mission crates would contain one Artillery Strike, which would appear in the Player Menu once taken. On use, it would display a map where you click to select the target. On confirmation, 15 powerful artillery shells would be shot at random within a 50m radius of the target. It would take about 30 seconds after confirmation for the strike to begin, and each shot would be spaced by about 2 seconds, for a total strike duration of about 30 seconds.

On strike confirmation, the Artillery Strike item would be deleted, and a 1-hour cooldown would be imposed to the player before he can use another strike, should he have another one at his disposal. The cooldown would apply within the specific server where used, and would remain on player rejoin, but reset on server restart.

The item would save with the player inventory like other items. The player would only be able to carry one Artillery Strike, which cannot be stored back in a crate once taken out, and would drop on death like other items. The dropped item would be "Land_Tablet_02_F" (Rugged Tablet). Untaken strikes would remain in crates and save alongside them across restarts.

It could not be purchased, but could be traded-in at general stores (or sold with the parent crate) for a high price, probably like $100k. Strikes would not be allowed within 150m of gunstores, but could target other stores and everywhere else.

The crate odds, number of shells, strike radius, and cooldown would be customizable by admins. Is this something that would be interesting? It would be fairly easy for me to make. You can test it in the editor with the debug console:

Code: [Select]
player allowDamage false;
0 spawn
{
_pos = getpos player;
for "_i" from 1 to 15 do
{
_npos = _pos vectorAdd ([[random 50,0,200], random 360] call BIS_fnc_rotateVector2D);
_shell = createVehicle ["ModuleOrdnanceHowitzer_F_ammo", _npos, [], 0, "NONE"];
_shell setVelocity [0,0,-150];
sleep (1 + random 2);
};
};

Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #1 posted: Jan 14, 2018, 06:23 AM »
Sounds interesting, especially for a combined arms server like mine. But how well will it work with the kill attribution system?
  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #2 posted: Jan 14, 2018, 06:30 AM »

Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #3 posted: Jan 14, 2018, 10:01 AM »
What will
Code: [Select]
FAR_killerWeapon contains when a player is injured by the artillery strike?
  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #4 posted: Jan 14, 2018, 10:06 AM »
Well in its current state it would be empty; do you need it to be anything else?

Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #5 posted: Jan 14, 2018, 10:52 AM »
I'm using a kill info script to show the victim who the killer is, what weapon was used and how far he was away. If nothing shows up. Players might think they were killed by a hacker.

Such hack was experienced in my server before: http://forums.a3wasteland.com/index.php?topic=3412

Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #6 posted: Jan 14, 2018, 11:22 AM »
Well .. you told about the technics and how it would be scripted etc.
The more important question for me: why should be this implemented?

Most servers I'd been visiting, had the Scorcher & Sandstorm disabled, for good reasons. I see the difference, sure. But same way, I don't see any effort for the gameplay. *headscratch

Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #7 posted: Jan 14, 2018, 11:58 AM »
We have the Sandstorm enabled. Why not? It's just a M4A1 chassis with 12 HE rockets. One salvo can't even flatten a small town like Charkia. The Scorcher is much more powerful. Players on my server have been requesting for it for a long time. But it can deploy mine clusters, which are way too OP. One single shot is enough to make a large town a ghost town.
  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #8 posted: Jan 14, 2018, 12:20 PM »
I'm using a kill info script to show the victim who the killer is, what weapon was used and how far he was away.

Then you would have to adapt your script to come up with something appropriate, e.g. if FAR_killerAmmo == "ModuleOrdnanceHowitzer_F_ammo" then _displayName = "Artillery Strike"

On a side note, the reason why I don't show that info in vanilla is because I like to keep an air of mystery about kills. "Where did that come from? Is that a sniper? A fresh spawn? A drone?" - an authentic feeling that is part of all survival games.

Well .. you told about the technics and how it would be scripted etc.
The more important question for me: why should be this implemented?

Most servers I'd been visiting, had the Scorcher & Sandstorm disabled, for good reasons. I see the difference, sure. But same way, I don't see any effort for the gameplay. *headscratch

Because it would add an interesting element of randomness with a rare, expensive, and powerful item that is easily lost or stolen.

Any group of veteran shitlords could camp a base with an artillery tank + resupply truck and proceed to bomb the shit outta everywhere, that's why the Scorcher and Sandstorm are not present in my vanilla mission. I guess you could simply make the prices very high, but it would give an additional edge to rich players, which IMHO is undesirable.

The idea with the Strike would be to allow one lucky person to obliterate a precise location with extreme prejudice, in similar fashion to Hero Tokens in Star Wars Battlefront.

We have the Sandstorm enabled. Why not? It's just a M4A1 chassis with 12 HE rockets. One salvo can't even flatten a small town like Charkia. The Scorcher is much more powerful. Players on my server have been requesting for it for a long time. But it can deploy mine clusters, which are way too OP. One single shot is enough to make a large town a ghost town.

Sandstorm missiles inflict 6 times as much splash damage as regular Scorcher shells (although they have the same blast radius of 30 m) and nearly as much direct damage as Scalpels. They are by all means the most destructive vanilla ammo (aircraft bombs are a bit more powerful, but have a radius of 15 m)

Scorchers can easily be customized via vehicleLoadouts.sqf to remove cluster mags.

Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #9 posted: Jan 14, 2018, 01:54 PM »
ok, got it  8)

Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #10 posted: Jan 14, 2018, 04:11 PM »
Then you would have to adapt your script to come up with something appropriate, e.g. if FAR_killerAmmo == "ModuleOrdnanceHowitzer_F_ammo" then _displayName = "Artillery Strike"

Problem solved, then.

On a side note, the reason why I don't show that info in vanilla is because I like to keep an air of mystery about kills. "Where did that come from? Is that a sniper? A fresh spawn? A drone?" - an authentic feeling that is part of all survival games.

I was desperate to add this feature because sometimes people have no idea how they get killed, especially when armed vehicles are involved. Back in 2014 when I first started my server I liked to hover in the mi-48 3000 feet above the ground killing players at long range using the 30mm gun. It is impossible to find me even using binoculars. A lot of players who got killed accused me of cheating, which made them left.

Sandstorm missiles inflict 6 times as much splash damage as regular Scorcher shells (although they have the same blast radius of 30 m) and nearly as much direct damage as Scalpels. They are by all means the most destructive vanilla ammo (aircraft bombs are a bit more powerful, but have a radius of 15 m)

It weird that players in my server are reporting Sandstorm rockets not as powerful. Maybe it's due to its high dispersion. Need to test more.

Scorchers can easily be customized via vehicleLoadouts.sqf to remove cluster mags.
Thanks for the tips. In case anyone wants the code:
Code: [Select]
case (_class isKindOf "B_MBT_01_arty_F"):
{
_mags =
[
["6Rnd_155mm_Mo_smoke", [0]],
["2Rnd_155mm_Mo_guided", [0]],
["2Rnd_155mm_Mo_LG", [0]],
["2Rnd_155mm_Mo_Cluster", [0]],
["500Rnd_127x99_mag_Tracer_Red", [0,0]],
["96Rnd_40mm_G_belt", [0,0]],
["SmokeLauncherMag", [0,0]]
];
_weapons =
[
["mortar_155mm_AMOS", [0]],
["HMG_127_APC", [0,0]],
["GMG_40mm", [0,0]],
["SmokeLauncher", [0,0]]
];
};

  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #11 posted: Jan 14, 2018, 09:20 PM »
It weird that players in my server are reporting Sandstorm rockets not as powerful. Maybe it's due to its high dispersion. Need to test more.

The thing about them is that splash damage has poor penetration, so if you're hiding behind concrete, you won't be damaged at all. They explode on contact, so if they're shot inside a town then it won't cause much player damage. If they were airburst, you'd get a lot more complaints.
  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #12 posted: Jan 16, 2018, 03:59 AM »
So I'm (almost) already done, I just need to do some extra testing to make sure everything works as intended, should be released by end of week.

https://i.imgur.com/RpMfzyM.png
Artillery strike - feedback needed

Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #13 posted: Jan 16, 2018, 03:37 PM »
The thing about them is that splash damage has poor penetration, so if you're hiding behind concrete, you won't be damaged at all. They explode on contact, so if they're shot inside a town then it won't cause much player damage. If they were airburst, you'd get a lot more complaints.

Is it possible to make the rockets explode in the air by scripting?

So I'm (almost) already done, I just need to do some extra testing to make sure everything works as intended, should be released by end of week.

https://i.imgur.com/RpMfzyM.png
Artillery strike - feedback needed

Nice. I was planning to update the server tomorrow. But I think I'll wait till this weekend.
  • Offline AgentRev
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Re: Artillery strike - feedback needed

« Reply #14 posted: Jan 16, 2018, 05:17 PM »
Is it possible to make the rockets explode in the air by scripting?

I don't think so... if you call setDamage 1 on the rocket it simply disappears. I've looked at the Drongos Artillery mod that claims to add airburst capability, but all it does is delete the projectile then spawn an HelicopterExploBig and shoot 50cal ammo everywhere.