Make T2 Arty Use High Firing Arcs

Whenever you fire at something, you have a choice of two firing angles. A high arc (red) and a low arc (green)

The high arc is above 45° while the low arc is below 45°.

Unlike every other artillery piece in the game which uses high firing arcs, T2 artillery uses low firing arcs for some reason.

These two are firing at the same target, but look where the T2 arty is pointing and where the T3 mobile arty is pointing.

So I'm proposing we do a bit of a...

Benefits

• Longer time to impact
  • In my testing a high firing arc at max range gives an 8 second time to impact while a low firing arc gives one around 4.5 seconds.
  • This nerfs it against mobile units as it has to predict their movement further ahead and also gives them more time to dodge.
  • It can even be extended further by increasing the projectile speed, so that it fires even more vertically.
• Fixes inability to fire at certain elevations
  • Currently T2 arty can have issues aiming at higher ground. See this thread for an example
• Consistency with other artillery pieces

Link to Discord discussion

For something as simple as just giving it the BallisticArc = "RULEUBA_HighArc" over BallisticArc = "RULEUBA_LowArc" models may have to be adjusted but should do what you're aiming for

It sounds as though this might make them less prone to clever terrain strategy...
(ie this discussion: https://forum.faforever.com/topic/6556/t2-arty-s-are-a-bit-broken?_=1697624940164 )

T3 mobile art is already not very useful, now T2 is taking their jobs!

Might help a bit v fatboy

Strong in favor. Some thoughts:

1. High/low arc is an option for some units in Spring RTS and it worked well.
2. I'd assume high arc also reduces accuracy*.
3. Conversely, adding low arc to other artillery pieces is a big buff and probably shouldn't be done.
4. Option could be added to an existing order button (as a right click, like snipe mode), added under the fire state toggle menu, or added as a new order button entirely.

*Need to test this to establish that firing randomness is angular, not positional.

Technical considerations:

• I'd assume the toggle could be accomplished with a buff blueprint (I say assume because I've looked at buff blueprints for accomplishing about a hundred different things but haven't executed on any of them).

@sylph_ said in Make T2 Arty Use High Firing Arcs:

It sounds as though this might make them less prone to clever terrain strategy...
(ie this discussion: https://forum.faforever.com/topic/6556/t2-arty-s-are-a-bit-broken?_=1697624940164 )

Just having memorized which terrain areas are too high to shoot up onto is less "clever" and more bad game mechanics imo. If there was some way to know by looking at it, that would be a different story.

Anything nerfing t2 arty is bad so long as snipers exist in their current form.

I would agree with high arc T2 artillery. It might require a buff to projectile velocity, however. Generally, it would be a small buff, but most of all it would make the behavior more consistent.

@deribus said in Make T2 Arty Use High Firing Arcs:

Fixes inability to fire at certain elevations

Are you sure that is the case? If the arty was firing at close to 45 degrees then changing the firing arc does nothing to increase where it can reach. Only increasing the projectile speed would help

@blackyps it depends why. If it doesn't have the projectile speed yes it wouldn't reach either way. It will help in other scenarios though.

(R8 my art skills)

There was literally a thread about T2 arty not firing because it was targeting high ground and could not hit it.

Yes, so the reason was too low projectile speed and not hitting the cliff. So changing the firing arc wouldn't have helped in that case

The specific example Deribus pointed to in that thread is not relevant, but the overall point he's making is correct. Let's all try to go with god here.

you can also then increase the projectile speed without having an overall lower flight time due to the higher trajectory.

Also something to consider, is the fact that t2 arty is now an option to hold off a naval attack on your base. When the arc is higher and the shells have more difficulty in hitting the mobile ships, the arties get less utility in this scenario..
Especially for a faction like Cybran, who doesnt have hover, that can be especially bad.

Allowing the arc to be adjusted with a toggle would allow t2 arty behind hills to shoot at ships while being protected from them.