RA "sector smoke" ability & unlock

[sgtToni95]

I know i've already come up with this subject, tho i really think this ability, for its price and effect, is really something that is way far from being useful and used in any pvp game.

Smoke cloud appearing for those 100 ammo is, imo, quite too small to save any tank, since as soon as it moves it pretty much loses any cover coming from smoke. Infantry might still be fine since it's smaller and sneakyer, tho to keep that safe you just need to retreat your squad without wasting 100 ammo.

My suggestions would be:

1) leave activation time as it is, but give it back the old mechanic which kept sending smoke on units even while moving, creating a thick smoke courtain that will surely keep units safe (this might still have its drawbacks since rushing units might exploit the covered area). Maybe decreasing its price to 70/75 ammo would make this worth the use.

2) make it become an unlock that allows arty scouts, officers, and Recce to drop some decent amount of smoke (or line smoke barrage like command cromwell) on an area inside a certain unit range, which might be wider than their viewrange. Give it some ammo cost (20/30), i wouldn't make it too high since CP will still keep this not too inviting to get.

3) make it become an unlock that gives howitzers smoke salvo or smoke line barrage ability, might have a price similar to Def 105s (if they have such).


First suggestion would still mainly be for a defensive purpose, still usable on own and allied units, with a great support effect.
Second and third could work defensively, but mainly offensively, supporting assaulting units and giving them some protection while pushing forward, making such ability surely worth it in a cooperation game.

[kwok]

Or maybe instead of sector smoke, give the ability more precision of area smoke. Basically a regular off map barrage but for smoke and a bigger area. This allows for more tactical use of the ability and removing the dependency on sector/map specific constraints. Plenty of other mods provide this option and end up being used quite frequently. I think to EIRR and even vcoh2

[MarKr]

I like Toni's points 2) and 3). Kwok's idea is not bad either.

Which one would you preffer? It could be even some combination - e.g. with the unlock static howitzers get smoke barrage ability + player will get off-map smoke barrage option too.

[sgtToni95]

Which one would you preffer? It could be even some combination - e.g. with the unlock static howitzers get smoke barrage ability + player will get off-map smoke barrage option too.

both of them would be great i think.

[kwok]

I'm bias to my own idea and giving howitzers the smoke ability seems common across all field guns already so I lean towards giving it to the 25pdrs as well. It's not like smoke is exactly "abuseable" in the current meta...