Direct fire (machine-gun and alike) Very simple and works well with high rate of fire Dodging is not an issue due to short time of flight Overkill might occur due to time of flight Range is limited by TTL * projectile speed Prerequisites: High projectile speed Line of sight Target must be unit, groundtargeting leads to unexpected results Projectile has low TTL Possible variations: Spread for decreased hit ratio vs single target Spread in launch timing precision to balance the use vs fast moving and stationary targets Piercing and overkill, projectile is not stopped on (first) hit Implementation issues: LoS test should be performed before shooting. Time to live must be low for direct fire projectiles or the lacking impact of gravity becomes noticeable. Homing missile Reliable targeting Impossible to dodge Range is hard limited by TTL * projectile speed, soft limited by the requirement of additional approaches and turning Prerequisites: Projectile speed must exceed targets movement speed by at least factor sqrt(2) Periodic course corrections required Possible variations: Splash damage Detonation on approach Implementation issues: Course correction system needs to stateful. There is not only two (approaching and detonating), but actually three(!) states which needs to be implemented for a reliable targeting. Approach target Rocket is on course to target. Normal course corrections are applied. If TTL < 0 Then Detonate If distance(target, missile) < splash radius Then Detonate If distance(target, missile) < 2 * turn radius AND dot(missile movement vector, target - missile) <= 0 Then Missed target Missed target Rocket has MISSED the target and needs to move away from target for a new approach. If TTL < 0 Then Detonate If distance(target, missile) > 2 * turn radius Then Approach target Detonate Self explaining. Missile won't leave this state. If the second state is not implemented, rockets will start flying in endless cycles around their target (missile will go into orbit). Rocket Splash on impact or approach Range is limited by TTL * projectile speed Prerequisites: Line of sight to target location or target unit Time of flight must be low enough not to allow dodging Possible variations: --- None --- Implementation issues: LoS test should be performed before shooting. When shooting at ground based targets, always the ground should be targeted, not the center of mass. Time to live must be low for direct fire projectiles or the lacking impact of gravity becomes noticeable. This is especially true for PA since stray rockets become more noticeable due to the curvature of the planet. Indirect fire (and other arced weapons) Projectile is fired at high arc High time of flight Range is limited by projectile velocity only Prerequisites: Trajectory equation must be solvable Only ground target is possible Possible variations: Large AoE splash damage Clustering / multiple, spreaded projectiles Spread in launch timing precision to balance the use vs fast moving and stationary targets Implementation issues: Trajectory equation has at least TWO possible solutions, one above 45° (high arc) and one below 45°(direct fire). In case of PA there are even more than 2 solutions due to the fact that gravity is not a linear field. Direct fire mode can only be used if LoS test on target is successful, otherwise high arc must be chosen. Also limited by unit design, not every unit is capable of targeting at low arcs. High arc is vulnerable to dodging, rendering target unit invulnerable by the use of micro. Linear prediction of target movement is insufficient to overcome this issue as it will fail for non-linear movement, it will actually worsen things if target changes direction and allow exploiting. To my understanding, there is only a single valid solution to the issue of dodging: Large area splash damage or clustering. The effect radius must be sufficient to catch all units which were at the target location at the moment the projectile was fired. There are three different ways to achieve this: Splash damage with sufficient AoE radius Clustering, where the projectile splits when approaching the target Multiple projectiles which high spread If only high arc is valid for the firing unit, all 3 options are acceptable. Long range units can not use the 3rd option as it decreases accuracy beyond reason. Short range units which can also use low arc should use 3rd option as it grant improved accuracy in direct fire mode. In case dodging is actually impossible due to high projectile speed, but desired, a random spread can be introduced on the launch timing in order to introduce a miss chance against moving targets despite a perfect movement prediction. The resulting miss chance is independent from projectile speed. The unit must to be able to reduce projectile velocity in case the trajectory equation has NO solution for >45° due to the projectile exceeding escape velocity. Projectile velocity must also be reduced if direct fire solution is <0° (target is below and very close). The choice between the use of low and high arc must either be made by the user or based on an LoS test. (Unless low arc is disabled for the given unit type.) In case switching between low and high arc would cost more time than the time between two shots, the user should always be able to decide, automatic behavior is acceptable and preferable otherwise. Beam Only instant-hit weapon type Range is either hard coded (spherical) or damage degrades with range Prerequisites: Line of Sight on target Target must be unit, ground targeting not useful Possible variations: Damage over time, target is damaged in repetive intervals as long as it intersects with the beam Piercing, beam hits multiple targets until stopped by terrain Intensity scaling, damage is reduced with range until cut of distance Implementation issues: Line of sight test is essential. Contact listeners need to be triggered continuously, not only on initial impact.
I would have gone with direct fire, lobbed and arc'd weapons, but this list is just as good. If you might, provide some examples of units that fire in a particular way to give people an idea of what that actually looks like in a game. For instance the Peewee as a Direct fire, a Stumpy (T1 tank in TA, ARM) for indirect fire and diplomat (T2 TML, ARM?) for rocket fire.
I would say that indirect shooting units like the Hammer "artillery" kbot for TA http://totalannihilation.wikia.com/wiki/Hammer Were extremely effective combat units in spite of their indirect fire method due to projectile speed and relatively short range (Thus reducing the ability to move out of a shells range) making them very effective assault units due to the ability to arc shells over dragons teeth wall segments when compared to the direct fire peewee with it's bullets or the rocko with its direct fire rocket launcher.
There is none, at least not in the mechanics used. But there are two solutions to the trajectory equation, one looks like the projectile was lobbed (>45°) and the other looks more like a classic "shot", although clearly arced (<45°). A unit is not necessarily capable of performing both.
Well yeah, lobbed is up to 45 degrees and arc'd is from 45 degrees and up. One with less travel time, low hight when travelling. and one with lots of travel time but a very large height when travelling.
The problem is that most mobile artillery in supcom games fires at a greater angle then 45 degrees. And that is really, really bad at hitting units because of the travel time. Tanks like the UEF T1 tank fired a kind of lobbed shell, and so artillery for some reason had to have a much higher angle to make their shots different or whatever, and this made them useless because kiting was really effective against them due to projectile travel time. If mobile artillery fired at an angle similar to normal tanks, but with greater range then they would be much more effective at hitting troops, and would be very difficult to dodge.
Using the low arc is only one possible solution. The other is to use AoE splash damage ONLY for artillery, do away with the bonus damage on the location of impact. Or just give the artillery a spread, that works too. (Spread equals larger AoE radius if observed over time.) That discourages sniping AND removes dodging.
If the AoE is huge enough: Yes. WITHOUT the use of linear prediction, the AoE radius just needs to be as big as maximum movement speed of target unit * time of flight. With linear prediction active it actually gets worse, as you would suddenly need an AoE radius which is twice as large.
There's always the rocket artillery with high arc. (Diplomat from TA) Its a two stage rocket that shoots straight up, target acquisition happens when the missile is at its zenit and its capable of small course corrections on its way downwards so it can still hit fast units. Which is different to a ballistic missile that follows a parabolic course. Also, high arc artillery being worse against mobile units and better against stationary ones (base defenses) is an easy way to have different artillery types. Anyway, artillery with over 45° is imo more of a mortar or howitzer anyway. Thus I don't think artillery should be able to switch between both firing modes. Specialising is the key to a diverse unit set. Having gun artillery (with low arc) and howitzer (or lobbers; with high arc) being seperate is more interesting then having a jack of all trades.
I won't argue on the fact, that units should be specialized. There are at least 3 different roles for artillery-like units: - "Sniper" type unit, like the Diplomat from TA (which would actually be a ground-ground homing missile) - "Classic" artillery with low arc - Mortar for indirect AoE effects The sniper and the classic version are unproblematic, they both hit their targets quite well whereby the sniper version has the benefits of high arc, while the classic version is "simpler". One sounds like a bot, the other sounds like a vehicle based weapon to me. Issue are units with a mortar like firing arc when NOT combined with large area AoE effects. They try to act like the sniper type, but their targeting is ... unreliable. Their mechanics won't always work as supposed and tend to get easily broken. Not in regular gameplay, but when their targeting gets exploited. So the issue actually originates from the attempt to create a hybrid unit.... It's really nice to see how the design flaws slowly unfold
This is also an issue right now. Take the commander as an example, it is supposed to have a very low weapon range, but missed shots still travel around the planet with a TTL of at least 5 seconds. Combined with the "friendly fire passes right through" configuration we have right now, effective range is only limited by LoS and the curvature of the planet.
I feel like sniper artillery is best used as anti-building and anti-ship weapons. As for classic and mortar, It would be good to have both for small army more mobile use and one for more large scale anti-army purposes. As for the deployment and use of these weapon/projectile types I am uncertain. I feel like the mortar would be the better defensive artillery type, and the classic would be the best mobile artillery type.
Best used, but not limited to. Sniper works best against expensive targets since the overkill factor and slow rate of fire would be wasted against smaller targets, but it would still be able to hit, thats the important point. If necessary, it can even do anti air vs. single targets. Mortar isn't something used for defense, it's clearly an offensive weapon which works best against a large crowd of low armor units - like your enemies power plant farm. Or against factories, nothing is more efficient than to destroy units while under construction and possibly taking out assisting engineers too. There is only one legit scenario where it can be put to defensive use too, and that is to set up an ambuch. AoE radius ensures its efficiency vs. bases and dense formations. It is not suited versus single targets or loose formations on the move, while it will hit, it will do only insufficient damage due to hitting not enough targets at the same time. For defensive purpose, only low arc, direct fire or beam weapons work. Your enemy is on the move, so if you don't wanna waste homing weapons, you need projectiles with low time of flight. AoE or not, thats your personal choice, both works quite well.
I see your points. As to the mortar weapons, could fire rate be used to supplement a aoe attack? So instead of a large aoe, the weapon might use multiple small aoe attacks over an inaccurate area.
See initial post, that has the very same effect. Cluster, spread or large splash, all three options make it AoE. Personal opinion: While it works just as well, it can cause frustration, both for the target and for the attacker. Replacing splash by spread leads to a statistical variance, which means that it is longer deterministic which can easily be interpreted as "lucky shot" or "useless", depending which event occurs. Using splash eliminates the luck factor, for both sides.
Why is using a high arc a problem? As in why is not being able to hit moving units a problem? My point is that there are often obvious ways to make a unit more powerful/flexible but powerful units is not the point of the game. Units aren't designed to be optimal, they are designed to be balanced. Travel time "allows" the unit to be better in other areas and such diversity in unit strengths will make the game interesting. I think it is fine for a unit to only reliably hit stationary things.
That's ok in a anti-building unit, like a TML, but for mobile artillery who need to hit moving troops that's kinda unacceptable to have such a poor effect.
