Artillery Ammo Allotment Issue

[c3k]

Gents,

Okay, another in my series of posts to try to get a better user interface for support assets in the next set of games.

Slight spoilers follow (not much though - if you play as Brit, NO spoiler).

I started the CMBF battle "To the Bank". In it, there are two artillery assets, each with a dedicated spotter (for the Brits.). Here are two screenshots showing what you start with, and HOW MUCH ammo they get:

Mortar Screenie:

AS-90 (155mm SPA) Screenie:

Okay, please note that they BOTH have a full ammo bar. What does that mean? Well, I found out...

It means the mortar has less than 2 minutes of fire and the AS-90 has over 15 minutes of firing. Not very intuitive and it wasn't what I expected in the battle. So, I ran a test after I finished the battle. I placed an at-start artillery request from both batteries and counted every single impact. Here's what I found...

The mortar, firing medium for maximum duration with 3 tubes, fired 84 rounds.

The AS-90, firing medium for maximum duration with 2 tubes, fired 96 rounds.

So, the round count is similar.

However, the mortar fired 33 rounds the first minute (delay due to start of mission), and 51 rounds in the second minute. (It ran out of ammo before the second minute finished.)

The AS-90 fired at a slower rate. It took 19 minutes to exhaust its 96 rounds. It fired 4 rounds the 1st minute, then averaged 6.75 rds/min. the next 8 minutes. Starting at minute 10, it slowed to 4 rds/min. which it maintained until it ran out.

Conclusion: full ammo bars do NOT tell the player how long the battery can provide support.

Is there ANY way of including information like that to the player???

(Note that after the mission has started, there is a line which states how long the mission will continue, i.e., "< 1 minute", etc.)

Thanks,

Ken

[birdstrike]

How about this:

depending on our selections for the duration and intensity of the fire mission, we are presented with two numbers, the first showing the time the mission is planned to last (for example 5 minutes) and the second showing the time the mission will last in reality, depending on # of rounds available and chosen intensity of the barrage (for example 2 minutes for a heavy, but 3 minutes for a light barrage).

Then the player could either confirm the mission or select a different duration or intensity or both.

I don't know, I guess we'd still not know how much ammo would be left afterwards.

[Pvt. Ryan]

I don't see why the quantity of rounds should indicate the duration of fire. It should only indicate the number of rounds available. The duration of the mission would dictate the duration of the fire mission, to the extent there are rounds remaining.

[c3k]

Yeah, but you DON'T know the duration of the mission until it's already underway. In a WeGo game, that can cripple your arty use. You either use it all up in the first turn - ooops. Or, to avoid using it up, you're TOO parsimonious with it, and end up with a full ammo bar at the end of an hour long scenario.

My "gripe" is that an FO would KNOW how much arty support he's got. This interface does not give that information to the player.

Ken

[birdstrike]

No, I think my post was misleading to a degree, what I meant to say was that the number of rounds remaining and the intensity would be used together to determine the maximum time a barrage would last.

If that number is smaller than the planned duration then you know that you will run out of ammo before the fire mission is finished.

And if that number is greater than the planned duration then you know that you will have some ammo left when the mission is finished.

You could also tell that you have enough ammo for 2 similar fire missions, if the max time is twice the planned time.