T2 Artillery

[Karottenrambo]

Currently the t2 artillery is not used at all, that has 2 main reasons imo:
1. They are really expensive, mass costs go from 1680 for cybran to 2079 for aeon.
2. You really need a plenty of them to let them work reliable.

I would suggest a complete balance rework, lower costs and more reliability. I would also bring in more faction diversity, for example:
sera: high rate of fire, low damage, low splash
cybran: generally weaker than the others, but stuns
uef: the good old default artillery
aeon: low rate of fire, high damage, high splash

The main goals of a t2 arty should be to defend you against t2 naval and maybe mmls.

[FunkOff]

There was a cost reduction of about 20%, I think, from 3599 but I agree that's not enough... there are simply too many downsides to make them an effective siege weapon anywhere but winter duel:

High cost: They only slightly more DPS than the T3 mobile versions, and for the price of 2 of them you can just upgrade your T2 land factory to T3, so there's not a whole lot of point of ever building them.
High operations cost: The energy use is staggering at over 1000 energy a shot when other arty doesn't cost anything.
Low range: Against TMLs, the range is pitiable.
Low accuracy: You can shoot at something all day and barely hit it. Only large targets like factories and bubble shields can reliably be hit.
Easily stopped by shields: Less DPS than shields have regen, and shields are cheaper.

I think the best idea is the reduce firing randomness slightly, by 25%, and to reduce mass/energy cost by an additional 20% from all the arty. I think this would make them useful on maps other than WD.

[Gowerly]

a matrix of t2 arty and t1 power can be quite strong. They have exponential returns, too. You hit a critical mass and they roll over everything. They're like t3 mobile arty, though.
In supcom they had the same range and tmls, in FA they do not. I wouldn't be against upping their range, but that would be it.

[FunkOff]

Gowerly, a range increase instead of a cost decrease is fair, in my mind, and I could do that. I'd still like to see the firing randomness lowered slightly, however: They can barely hit anything as it stands, and firing randomness makes accuracy worse the further away targets are. TMLs track location, however, and are therefor 100% pin-point accurate.

[lebensnebel]

I also like the idea of range increase much more than a cost decrease again. I don't think the current version is old enough to have a solid feel for the balance of t2 arty, as people are not used to using it.

regarding (missing) faction diverstity, I think the Aeon is the only one with damage over time.
Also plz consider if you reduce the firing randomness it will absolutely pwn t2 navy. Currently it's already good against navy on ranoakes for example.

[Zock]

against range increase and less firing randomness, they arent made to be accurate or against single targets. Maybe cost cecrease. Better turnspeed, yes! If you start at bottom you have a disadvantage when you make an arty and it needs ages to turn.

[Gunseng]

Range increase would be nice if cost stays the same. Leave firing randomness. Or decrease the mass cost and possibly up the e-drain maybe?

Well Better turnspeed would increase it's tracking capability if turnspeed is increased then I propose a charge up before they shoot like with oblivion cannons.

[Karottenrambo]

What would the arty do with an increased range? I dont think that t2 arty is ingame to bombard the enemy base, t2 arty is defensive weapon, not an offensive like tmls.

[uberge3k]

Random thought...

What if T2 arty were designed to be shield breakers?

Currently, there's few good counters to massed shields, and breaking a heavily shielded (fire)base can be quite difficult as there is only one dedicated anti-shield unit (which is made almost useless thanks to it's short range... and faction exclusivity).

So, keep T2 arty as they are now, but give them a sizable DPS boost vs all forms of shields. Given that arties are stationary and a hefty investment, I don't think they could be abused - but would serve a useful, but niche, purpose.

[Karottenrambo]

I always thought mobile t3 arty has the job to bombard the enemy base, break shields and stuff...