I played a 4v4 tmm game on Syrtis Assault. A player made an arty fire base on one of the hilly tops in the middle of the map. I attempted to counter the arty base with my own arty spam down in the valley of the map, south of his arty's. Despite having a far greater capacity to out produce his arty's - arty for arty - this proved completely useless, since my arty's would not fire up to his arty's, but he could fire down on to mine. He effectively killed at least a dozen of my arty's with just 3 or so of his own. Pretty broken gameplay.
T2 arty's are a bit broken
That’s a map issue and why you don’t want to give up the plateau control without some level of compensation elsewhere.
@ftxcommando said in T2 arty's are a bit broken:
That’s a map issue and why you don’t want to give up the plateau control without some level of compensation elsewhere.
It doesn't make sense though, why can't my arty's still fire up to his since they were well within sight. Can they not just fire up and arch over the lip of the hill?
And the game was fairly busted by this point admittedly. The arty fire base maker was not my direct opponent, and 2 of my teammates had just died. Had I been able to stop the arty base though I could of held on longer.
@cortana It stands to reason that high-ground increases the range and firing arc of artillery shells.
I understand that this effect is restricted in supreme commander with a hard-limit on range... So it's nowhere near as major as it is in real-life, but it can still be a factor in specific positions.
Was your artillery on lower ground than the enemy?
Also, I'm assuming you ere surrounding your artillery with power, to increase their firing speed?
(And, obviously, shields to protect to from incoming fire, etc)
@cortana In case this better-explains it - the blue shot in this picture is behind fired with less than half the power of the purple shot, (and less than half the angle!)
I know the heights are extreme. I'm using them to demonstrate that even when the range between 2 points is the same, elevation can make a massive difference to the maximum power or angle of the shots in order to allow a hit.
Supreme commander often results in shots blocked by terrain. This might well be the reason your artillery isn't hitting the enemies - assuming you were on lower ground)
@sylph_ said in T2 arty's are a bit broken:
@cortana In case this better-explains it - the blue shot in this picture is behind fired with less than half the power of the purple shot, (and less than half the angle!)
I know the heights are extreme. I'm using them to demonstrate that even when the range between 2 points is the same, elevation can make a massive difference to the maximum power or angle of the shots in order to allow a hit.
Supreme commander often results in shots blocked by terrain. This might well be the reason your artillery isn't hitting the enemies - assuming you were on lower ground)
I like this illustration, but I don't think it applies to my case. In my case, my artillery was at least a couple inches, maybe more, further back than the pink line here. The arty's weren't even attempting to fire up.
Going by your illustration, if you had artillery placed further back, I can see a trajectory for the projectile shooting up and over the edge of the hill here, and hitting their target.
@sylph_ said in T2 arty's are a bit broken:
@cortana It stands to reason that high-ground increases the range and firing arc of artillery shells.
I understand that this effect is restricted in supreme commander with a hard-limit on range... So it's nowhere near as major as it is in real-life, but it can still be a factor in specific positions.Was your artillery on lower ground than the enemy?
Also, I'm assuming you ere surrounding your artillery with power, to increase their firing speed?
(And, obviously, shields to protect to from incoming fire, etc)
My artillery was on lower ground yes. I wasn't using pgens for adjacency bonus no, no shields. I wasn't making a fire base to counter, I was merely spamming the arty's all around in a vaguely south-easterly fashion in order to try and null the hilltop arty base. Since 2 of my northern teammates had just been obliterated, I inherited their meagre economies, which also consisted of many t2 engineers. This allowed me to spam the arty's in such a manner. It was futile in the end anyway.
@jip said in T2 arty's are a bit broken:
Do you have a replay for us?
https://replay.faforever.com/20887336
I'm about to watch the replay back for myself too.
@jip said in T2 arty's are a bit broken:
Do you have a replay for us?
Around 26:22 is when I start the arty's
i think badlands plateaus are also infamous for (either or both static t2 and/or mobile t3) artillery to be unable to shoot up them, whilst being able to shoot down
Not sure what to do about it yet, but this is the situation 
A work of art is never finished, merely abandoned
@jip said in T2 arty's are a bit broken:
Not sure what to do about it yet, but this is the situation
Yes! It seems like the bottom arty's could definitely shoot up to some of those structures there, especially that forward arty right on the edge.
I suspect that the reason is that the artillery either can't line up the barrel in the needed angle or the projectile is too slow to reach the target. In both cases the weapon can't physically shoot the target, so it consequently doesn't even attempt it
I've done some testing and I think it's just an issue of T2 arty not having the projectile speed to hit something that high up.
At default gravity (4.9) these are the arty that can hit the plateau. 
Lowering gravity just slightly to 4.8 means all of these can fire. 
And raising it to 5 means none of them can hit the plateau.
It's not an aiming issue, Sera T2 arty has a pitch of anywhere from 0° to 90°. It just barely has the muzzle velocity to fire up there, and only in those very specific placements.
@jip I'm not sure there should be a solution...
The simulation already allows artillery to fire at whatever angle it wants, with as much projectile power as it wants, yes?
That alone is a massive advantage compared to real-world physics: where the range of artillery is restricted by the power it can throw a shell out with.
Supreme commander 'fakes' the limit with arbitrary ranges, removing 95% of the advantage that high-ground gives an artillery device.
Do people really want to remove that final remaining 5%, too? 
[edit: After seeing deribus's reply, it appears I was wrong, and SupCom artillery ARE limited in firing power. This is good by me.
I realise that they are held back by the forced 'range circle' more often than their maximum projectile speed, but it's good to have it confirmed that high ground offers a slight advantage in artillery vs artillery wars, and it's not just some buggy trajectory calculation! ]
@cortana said in T2 arty's are a bit broken:
Going by your illustration, if you had artillery placed further back, I can see a trajectory for the projectile shooting up and over the edge of the hill here, and hitting their target.
In a world where artillery can fire with as much power, and at any angle, that they possibly want, I think there's nothing they can't hit (well, maybe not underground!)
Ie. there will always be a trajectory we can draw for the projectile.
The point of that diagram was to illustrate that the shot speed from high ground is massively lower than the lower artillery shot needs to use - as is the angle.
(We all played 'tanks' as kids, right? )
@sylph_ said in T2 arty's are a bit broken:
The simulation already allows artillery to fire at whatever angle it wants, with as much projectile power as it wants, yes?
No.
Units are limited to firing at an angle either above or below 45° depending on which firing arc they're set to use. For example T1 tanks are set to use low firing arcs (below 45°) while T1 arty is set to use high (above 45°).
The muzzle velocity is also set in the unit blueprint. Units have no capability to vary their muzzle velocity up or down. For T2 arty that value is 26.13
I think muzzle velocity can vary, but only downwards from the bp value.
Also let me add this (t2 arty not being able to shoot as far uphill) appears to be working exactly as intended, and something would have gone terribly wrong in the engine if that weren't the case.
https://replay.faforever.com/20899466
Minute 40, dark red guy building t2 arty in a ditch. The arty's a placed with several feet of the wall and arch of the hill to the base. How is this possible, but the arty's I made in the Syrtis game not possible.
@deribus said in T2 arty's are a bit broken:
I've done some testing and I think it's just an issue of T2 arty not having the projectile speed to hit something that high up.
At default gravity (4.9) these are the arty that can hit the plateau.
Lowering gravity just slightly to 4.8 means all of these can fire.
And raising it to 5 means none of them can hit the plateau.
It's not an aiming issue, Sera T2 arty has a pitch of anywhere from 0° to 90°. It just barely has the muzzle velocity to fire up there, and only in those very specific placements.
So due to the in game gravity mechanics, and the muzzle velocity of t2 artillery pieces, an arty fire base on a hill will have an advantage over an arty base down the hill. Or on a hilltop vs in a valley etc..
I mean it stands to reason. Having the high ground in battle tends to serve as an advantage generally speaking. It's just pretty hard to deal with in a game such as this. If the arty fire base is well protected, there's not a right lot you can do about it, except take the loss of everything within range of it.