Sky Slammers can't hit ground units

1st noticed in a recent Gyle video, and now in my own game where they target very high above Auroras.

https://replay.faforever.com/19533740. 00:07:00. Right side of the map.

They aren't supposed to track nor even realistically hit half their missiles. It's mostly flavour thing so don't expect to hit anything small with them.

They're supposed to be an example of Cybran flexibility

They're supposed to be actually useful, even if it's only a small amount of DPS

The main uses would be on defense knocking down LABs and on offense killing engineers even though this wouldn't happen often

They should contribute some DPS to fights against t1 tanks like Auroras

There is no legitimate reason why their shots should fly over any T1 land unit. It's a bug and it should get fixed.

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Pls let arty target air. Like it can hit airplanes, right? So how does it make sense that you cant target air wirh arty??? Arty is supposed to showcase simulated nature of supreme commander forged alliance forever and yet such simple task as shooting planes is impossible???????

Skill issue

@xiaomao
Looking at the code, the sky slammer has 3 weapons:
1.

                        Damage = 9,
                        DamageType = 'Normal',
                        DisplayName = 'Nanodart Launcher',
                        FireTargetLayerCapsTable = {
                            Land = 'Land|Water|Seabed',
                        },
                        FiringRandomness = 1.5,
                        FiringTolerance = 2,
                        Label = 'GroundGun',
                        MaxRadius = 18,
                        Damage = 0,
                        DamageFriendly = false,
                        DamageType = 'Normal',
                        DisplayName = 'Targeting Laser',
                        FireTargetLayerCapsTable = {
                            Land = 'Air',
                        },
                        Label = 'TargetPainter',
                        MaxRadius = 32,
                        Damage = 16,
                        DamageType = 'Normal',
                        DisplayName = 'Nanodart Launcher',
                        FireTargetLayerCapsTable = {
                            Land = 'Air',
                        },
                        FiringRandomness = 1.5,
                        FiringTolerance = 2,
                        Label = 'AAGun',
                        MaxRadius = 32,

Since the unit was specifically given a weapon that's used against land and not air, and that weapon was labelled 'GroundGun', that was clearly intended. If they have a bug, it should clearly be fixed. It's really obnoxious for you to respond so flagrantly.

pfp credit to gieb

@penguin_ said in Sky Slammers can't hit ground units:

@xiaomao
Looking at the code, the sky slammer has 3 weapons:
1.

                        Damage = 9,
                        DamageType = 'Normal',
                        DisplayName = 'Nanodart Launcher',
                        FireTargetLayerCapsTable = {
                            Land = 'Land|Water|Seabed',
                        },
                        FiringRandomness = 1.5,
                        FiringTolerance = 2,
                        Label = 'GroundGun',
                        MaxRadius = 18,
                        Damage = 0,
                        DamageFriendly = false,
                        DamageType = 'Normal',
                        DisplayName = 'Targeting Laser',
                        FireTargetLayerCapsTable = {
                            Land = 'Air',
                        },
                        Label = 'TargetPainter',
                        MaxRadius = 32,
                        Damage = 16,
                        DamageType = 'Normal',
                        DisplayName = 'Nanodart Launcher',
                        FireTargetLayerCapsTable = {
                            Land = 'Air',
                        },
                        FiringRandomness = 1.5,
                        FiringTolerance = 2,
                        Label = 'AAGun',
                        MaxRadius = 32,

Since the unit was specifically given a weapon that's used against land and not air, and that weapon was labelled 'GroundGun', that was clearly intended. If they have a bug, it should clearly be fixed. It's really obnoxious for you to respond so flagrantly.

Maybe read what you just posted instead of going for an amazing GOTCHA moment?

The sky slammer originally had a toggle button to switch between being able to shoot air or being able to shoot ground units. So it was always intended to have some ability to fight enemy ground units. FAF changed that, as a quality of life improvement, so you don't have to mess around with a toggle switch to be able to hit both land & air units.

It was never supposed to be very good at killing ground units.

You're saying it is supposed to miss a lot of shots against ground units, that this is an intentional decision that sky slammer should miss some shots, and this way it has less DPS

I don't think so. I think it's supposed to hit most of its shots, just like most other ground units that hit most of the time they are shooting. So if it's missing a lot of shots, that's a bug and it should be fixed.

If the sky slammer is doing too much dps to ground units, the way to fix is to reduce the damage per shot. Not to make it miss more shots.

Having it miss shots would be bad because it would miss more against some units and miss less against other units. I don't just mean labs are able to dodge because they're nimble. I mean it sounds like it's better at hitting mantis than it is at hitting aurora. That would not be intended. It should generally do the same kind of DPS to all t1 tanks.

When sky slammer dps was applied reliably, they were literally better than mantis. It being inaccurate like this is an intentional fix.

@xiaomao
I am well aware of what I just posted. If there is a bug, it should be fixed. (If it just misses a lot due to its intended firing randomness value, I wouldn't consider that a bug. However, if, for example, they have an issue with their targeting where they consistently miss auroras by aiming way too high, maybe there's a bug...)

pfp credit to gieb

dawg the skyslammer missed most of its shots back when it was a toggle too

@arma473 said in Sky Slammers can't hit ground units:

I don't think so. I think it's supposed to hit most of its shots, just like most other ground units that hit most of the time they are shooting. So if it's missing a lot of shots, that's a bug and it should be fixed.

Very smart observation. All t1 artillery, hoplites, mongoose, mobile T3 artillery, fatboys and megaliths should have their firing randomness decreased to the point where they do not miss shots. It only makes sense for them to, because they are land units. In turn, their damage should be decreased. Can't believe balance team slept on this for so long.

profile picture credits to petric

People are aware a sky slammer is cheaper than a lab, right? While being able to shoot air? How much ground dps should they be applying, exactly?

@ftxcommando their point is for cyb maa to be more accurate but having its damage decreased, because it's firing pattern should not be random

profile picture credits to petric

I mean it's just a "who cares" sorta thing, you're not supposed to be relying on it for dps in terms of unit mix calculation. It's just a random, volatile emergency thing.

Was wrong about the cost actually, sky slammer costs about as much as a tank since all maa got doubled in cost + dps years ago.