"all available planes are already en route"... art

(bani) #1

…since when are planes related to artillery? :???:

Need a new voice for that…

(senator) #2

yeah, annoying, especially if a FieldOps gets out in the open to order an artillery strike only to hear this message and gets shot dead for nothing ;(

It would be a lot better to include a countdown counter only visible for FiledOps which counts to zero and once it reached zero gives an ‘artillery ready’ message. Than the FieldOps know that they can now order anytime an artillery strike which resets the countdown (to 60 sec ?).

Same should be included for air strikes.

(BoltyBoy) #3

ah the “all available planes” must obviously be spotter planes that identify your artillery smoke to co-ordinate the artillery strike - right?

(Dawg) #4

“Yeeeah, that’s the ticket!”

I would prefer something more accurate, but I can accept that explanation. But I do like the idea of a timer or something to give the fieldOps some sort of clue as to when the next airstrike or arty barrage is available. But it may be by design that this is not included. One could argue that the fieldOps is not sitting on the phone waiting for a message stating its available so it shouldn’t be so obvious. If that is the case, the note could be located on the map overlay so the fieldOps has to check the map to see if the arty/airstrike is available.

Dawg

(Dr. Rosenrosen) #5

I’m not entirely sure why they added this feature when the airstrikes in RTCW work fine without it. Perhaps lots of level 4 Field Ops would get out of hand without some restriction. What is the restriction? How many airstrikes can be called in within what time period before all the planes are used up?

One other point. I don’t mind this with arty strikes, since it doesn’t actually use up energy points and you can just retry a little later. However with the airstrikes (smoke grenades), it uses up your energy and then tells you that all of the planes are used up. This is very frustrating. I can understand using up the energy on an aborted strike if the smoke lands somewhere where the plane can’t see it. That is the players fault at least. But when the toss is good and the strike doesn’t come, I don’t think it should drain your energy points!!!

Dr. Rosenrosen

(blagger) #6

exactly. where else does the arty strike smoke come from but from planes above? with an air strike the can gives out smoke. with an arty strike you locate a position with your binocs and air support provides the smoke.
:drink:

(bani) #7

exactly. where else does the arty strike smoke come from but from planes above? with an air strike the can gives out smoke. with an arty strike you locate a position with your binocs and air support provides the smoke.
:drink:[/quote]

its called a white phosphorous (or smoke) spotter round. it’s fired by artillery – not a plane. :banghead:

if you are near the spotter round you hear… artillery fire, not planes! :bash:

lt calls in a spotter round from artillery. if the spotter round is on target then the lt radios in a “fire for effect” and artillery lets the target have it

(blagger) #8

The Field Op refers to a Forward Air Controller who, after acquiring the target, fires a white phosphorus rocket. The artillery strike is aimed according to this white phosphorus smoke.

Just as in RTCW, you can only request targets which can be acquired from directly above. If you try to target under cover or to some point obstructed from directly above, you will get the message “Aborting, can’t see target” i.e. you need a PLANE to SEE the target or they will abort.

The sound when the smoke lands is the rocket fired from the FAC. The reason you don’t hear the plane is because it is a light aircraft.

Remember, it’s just a GAME, and doesn’t have to reflect EXACTLY what happens in reality. :banghead: (in reality, fo’s can’t carry infinite supplies of ammo, soldiers can sprint with 4 panzafausts in their pockets (and they’re not reloadable), medics can’t revive the dead and once you’re dead you can’t respawn…let’s hope they don’t make it too realistic).

I agree about the timer though…it’s frustrating not knowing when you can order a strike.

(bani) #9

you’re thinking of vietnam, where they used light aircraft to mark positions for airstrikes.

in ww2 (and afaict, still the case today), spotter rounds are fired by artillery or mortar.

the only coordination the FAC would have is radioing back to artillery if their spotter round was long or short. because quite often artillery dont have line of sight to their target (eg over mountains, or simply they are just too far away)

they were also used to warn aircraft that artillery barrage would soon be arriving in that area :smiley:

these days spotter rounds have GPS in them so they can track drift from atmospheric conditions etc :smiley:

(blagger) #10

i’m thinking of rtcw :moo:

(DG) #11

who frickin’ cares :stuck_out_tongue: its a game and gameplay is soverign :wink:

the repetitive spamming of “all planes are already in use” is meant to have been fixed, but there does need to be some indication when there is a FFE available. ive lost count of the times ive popped out of an unseen+safe place to drop arty on the tank, heard “all planes are already in use” and then got killed. there’s just no way of knowing if arty is available until you try.

btw the limit comes from the g_heavyweaponrestriction ~
http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=7543#7543