All is Very Good!

[Shirkon]

GShock wrote:

Got the figures of this quick test which lasted about 25 minutes of game time.

Mac Map, Div-Div combat, Attack. OOB Brig-Div Day 1, CSA Side (Pender)

Artillery units
Wyatt: 0
Graham: 0
Ward: 0
Brooke: -39 (One gun routed)

Total score 1415 (I won routing USA easily).

So that's about it, I checked every arty unit performance in the OOB in the debriefing screen and I can confirm in 20 minutes (5 to get to firing position) they shot constantly but killed 0. All guns were set to shoot on the infantry and despite several targets being blocked, the guns shot from the beginning to the end of the engagement, killing 0 as I said.

Houston we have a problem.

(By the way, the prtscn function doesn't work so it looks like I'm gonna have to use Fraps so next time I'll show you the SS regarding what I say) to post SS

Actually you don't have a problem. I checked in that oob and the experience of those batteries isn't all that great. Wyatt's is 4 which equates to Volunteer, Graham's is 5 which equates to Seasoned, Ward's is only 1 which equates to Conscript and Brooke is 3 which equates to Militia, accuracy for any of these batteries would be poor at best. Highest experience they can have is 9 which equates to EliteVeteran.

What does all this mean?

Wyatt is equipped with 12 lb howitzers. With their experience level under optimum conditions firing a 10 shot group at 100 yds, the diameter of that group would be approx. 12.6 yds. The size of the group would increase as the range increases. The best battery you had was Grahams armed with 12 lb Napoleon's. With their Seasoned experience their group at 100 yds would be approx. 4.7 yds in diameter, again increase the range and increase the size of the group diameter. Poor Ward's group is approx. 8.1 yds in diameter and Brooke's is 6.4 yds. You may wonder where the data to calculate this came from, the NSSA cannon target tests were used for them plus extensive research from the historical records. If there had been any rifled cannon the accuracy would have been much greater. If Graham for example had 3 in Ordance rifles instead of the 12 lb Napoleon's, the group would have been approx. 2.33 yds at a range of 100 yds.

[GShock]

The shrapnel round doesn't need to be exactly accurate to cause damage even though timed fuses were quite defective at that point in time.

The enemy regiments, however, were engaged and stationary at between 500 and 800 yds distance and ***16 guns could not achieve a single kill in a div-div combat in 30 minutes***.
This includes the seasoned Captain Graham's guns.

If this arty can't hit a 300-man stationary regiment at such distance, I wonder how it can ever hit another battery in counterbattery fire at all.

Your explanation makes perfect sense, Shirkon but I am sure this arty should be beefed up to really be worthy of this game.

I'm not asking for a killer Arty but you must admit 0 kills in 30 minutes is a bit less than any child throwing rocks in the front line would be able to do. You can't say there's no problem... according to me, there is.

[ADukes]

For taking screenshots try the F4 key.

[GShock]

Taken several new tests, unfortunately I am dissatisfied with the poor arty performance. Probably it all derives from the master files (artyammo.csv i suppose) and I can't wait for the sdk to be released. The rest is doing just wonderful it's just this little thing with artillery being totally ineffective that spoils the perfect game to my eyes.

I am not sure the unit experience modding or the projectiles are the problem, i think it's a mix of the many files because of course, the musket to musket engagements also last a lot longer than I think they should so it's all the weapons not just the arty but wiith the arty it is much more visible because the scores are really in proximity of the 0 and you have no losses on the unit.

This means cannoning for long and hitting nothing which doesn't have to be a bug, it might also be intended because of the super manouvering it takes to beat an efficient artillery at long range.

I really really can't wait to see the SKD and besides I am curious, what is the changelog of this first coming patch?

[Paladin]

Greetings all

I have to admit that the arty discussion that was ongoing here did slow my decision to purchase the title for a bit but now that I have it I am more then a little surprised and well pleased with what I see.As for the arty question...sorry GShoch but I am not seeing what you are....not even close. At long range 800 to a 1000 yards I am finding the arty effectiveness to be dependent on the angle of the battery to the target as it should be.with Shrapnel blowing huge holes through the opponents lines at ranges of 200 yards and below.

[GShock]

Paladin below 200yds you're shooting cannister, not shrapnel, that's why you kill the enemy.

I don't understand what you mean with your angle to the angle of the target... it shouldn't make any difference but I do remind you that arty effectiveness changes according to the unit experience and, I *suppose*, difficulty level.

My last test on tutorial 4, major victory, 1400 kills in total, 4 guns the whole battle scored 18 ( i relocated it on the objective so I could test the non-cannister efficiency). Says it all.

[Paladin]

LOL....Ok I see the problem with mt Shrapnel comment...the manual and the in game gui are giving different names to the same icon...manual is calling it canister and the in game gui is calling it shrapnel.



As for my reference to angle...one of the reasons the line formation was created was to minimize the affects of artillery fire mainly round shot but case shot was affected as well....much more so then grape or canister. Consider the Napoleon 12 pounder as an example . A 4.62 inch ball of iron fired from 600 plus yards away against an enemy in line formation two rows deep parallel to your own line. You ain't killing many bad guys that way ,now move that battery to were you can fire into that same formations flanks or in other words enfilade fire and it becomes a whole different situation. In situations where I repositioned my batteries to get enfilade fire it was effective, so its not as much a mater of ineffective arty as it is battery placement from my point of view.

[Shirkon]

We have identified what we feel sure caused all the problems and it's been fixed and will be in the next patch. We have done extensive testing to first verify there was a problem and to identify what it was and we believe we have found and fixed it. I'm in the process now of retesting the artillery to verify that this problem has been resolved.

Basically in one of our files the columns for shrapnel and solid shor were swapped. So when you thought you were firing shrapnel you were in fact firing solid shot and when you thought you were firing solid shot you were firing shrapnel. The problem for USA guns wasn't nearly as bad as it was for CSA guns due to the reduced hit chance due to the CSA faulty fuses. Like I said we have this fixed now so the problem should be resolved.