Mark artillery target of Canadian infantry

[MarKr]

Hi,
I heard an opinion/complaint that the ability to mark target for artillery for canadian infantry is not very useful because it triggers cooldown on all other abilities of the howitzer and so you have one howitzer unavailable for shooting while ofte not killing anything with the marked barrage itself (probably because the target retreats once the first shot lands anywhere near).

There is also the thing where target is market even when it retreats and so the ability can cause basebombing if the target retreats to HQ and the howitzer still has shots to fire. I think this could be prevented by removing the mark when a squad retreats but then it would lead to complaints that you pay for the ability and it does nothing.

We have several ideas about possible changes but don't know what would the community want the most.

1) remove the shared cooldown, so the ability would have it's own cooldown and not trigger cooldowns on other barrage abilities.
- This might however lead to "constant barrages" where you send the marked barrage and as soon as it finishes you use other barrage immediately.

2) make the ability shoot faster and/or more accurately but keep the shared cooldown
- this might lead to fast squad/vehicle wipes especially because it would mean a higher chance to land a direct with the first shot.

3) replace the ability with "Mortar VT" - same as the Captain has.
- this would require building the 3inch mortar emplacements instead of howitzers

4) something else (your suggestions)

5) keep it as it is (status quo option)

What would you prefer? Can you think of any other problems with suggested options? Do you have any other ideas in this matter that would be useful and fit thematically?

[Sukin-kot (SVT)]

I'd go with 1, haven't played Canadians too much, but that infinite cooldown for Priests after the marked barrage was really annoying.

[Warhawks97]

1. Thats the Situation we had when i started playing BK. The ability got always used when the normal one was in cooldown and vise versa. It was a crazy bombardment. However, at that time artillery cost just 35 per barrage while this ability was free i think and we had no upkeep. So it might be worth a try.

2. Would cause a lot of rage


4. The ability deactivates when the spotters retreat or die. It would just make sense since they are the once who keep calling the new position.
When you activate special AP rounds on your Tank but its main gun gets destroyed before you can fire any shot, the ammo you spend for it is wasted as well. We have countless such moments where the player carries the cost at the risk they never pay off.

[Krieger Blitzer]

Are we speaking about aimed salvo???

I just had a 3v3 game yesterday (1 hour 46 minutes) where i played RA doc and had 2 vet4 Priest.. despite i even didn't make use of my huge 3600 MP & 350 fuel storage throughout the most part of the game.. didn't know what units to deploy except some Crusaders & a couple of inf squads, since i am not that much of an arty player anyways.. yet, still managed to score crazy amount of kills using just 2 Priest, the whole game i just spammed spotters and killed stuff with my Priest... Got this game recorded too.

Aimed Salvo imo is one of the most OP abilities in the entire game.. as it turns the Priest into the old Grille with sniping shells, except it's also deadlier as it shoots more rounds.

If we really are talking about Aimed Salvo, please remove it.. it's super OP.


P.S
Noticed a glitch btw with Sten upgrade of Canadian inf.. when the squad loses members & reinforces soldiers, the Sten weapon would lose its front part (literally disappears) and sound also goes off for the weapon.. guess it's a model issue... I think their Sten can be replaced with the other Sten model with silencers installed, that one works fine with RE sappers & Commandos i think.

[Consti255]

i feel like it should just be removed entirely from Canadians. After the changes that they got bazookas they are more like your go to Inf sqaud (which they should be when the doc was renamed into canadian support). I feel like giving them more like a "combat" ability or even a passive thing. You got your spotters to mark targets.

Id go with the 1. solution so when tanks are marked by spotters you can go with the "better" aimed one, for that it should be removed from the canadians.
For exchange, you could give canadians the ability to throw maybe smoke grenades so they can make use with their sten guns?
Just brainstorming..