Artillery random target selection

[+quack74]

Hello all. Is there a way to make an artillery object shoot at multiple targets rather than trying to constantly shoot at one target? I created a ground object (destroyed truck) that I placed in "No-Mans-Land" in First Eagles. I created a Gun in the Gundata.ini called "Active Artillery" for it that uses the same effects as an Artillery gun. But I deleted all the fire effects and sounds so when the "destroyed Truck" shoots all you see is the shells exploding in No-Mans-Land. No muzzle flash or cannon sounds. Technically I don't think I even need the .LOD for the "Destroyed Truck" but I figured I had to place something on the map. Anyway my Idea was to create the constant effect of artillery fire all over the Front without actually having to place artillery everywhere. I changed the accuracy of the new gun type and range so the explosions are kept within No-Mans-Land. I did place a few enemy targets around so my new "Artillery would have something to shoot at. It does work. As I fly over a location I can see random explosions on the ground (because accuracy is way off) without there being an actual battle. But my new Artillery seems to keep shooting at one target even though there are about 10 others near by.

Can an artillery object shoot once at a target then select another without destroying the first? Or is there a way to make the accuracy way off so the explosions are way off to the right or left of its intended target? Trying to make the ground explosions as randomly placed as possible.

Any ideas would be a big help. Thanks

[+whiteknight06604]

if you can't figure out a way to do it maybe you can add multiple guns with limited arcs of fire and ranges?

[+quack74]

if you can't figure out a way to do it maybe you can add multiple guns with limited arcs of fire and ranges?

That's a great idea! I can have one object with multiple guns that each have a min and max yaw different from the other. That way they would fire in all directions without overlapping. But would the guns still try to fire on one object? Only one gun would shoot at the target that was in its line of sight until the target is destroyed right? So I ask, can a ground object only engage one target at a time? I'll try it out for now.

Edited April 18, 2017 by quack74

[+whiteknight06604]

I don't know the answers unfortunately.with luck someone who knows will answer soon.

[+baffmeister]

I did quite a bit of artillery testing in SF2 and so far, I haven't seen the artillery engage tanks or other artillery that are directly placed as ground objects, just the tanks that get generated as part of the CAS mission. I was a bit surprised to see artillery engaging some directly placed objects on one of the FE2 terrains so I wonder if the coding might be a bit different between the two games, or maybe I'm not using the proper entries in the types ini for the directly placed objects. Regarding artillery accuracy, I was testing some quite low accuracy settings and it seemed to effect the range mostly, not much effect on azimuth. Also, it seems the artillery will engage the nearest target until it's destroyed then move on to the next nearest etc.

[+Wrench]

odd, because I've seen arty duels on both the ASW and one of the Isreal rebuilds (can't remember if it's IME or the Suez map).

 

on the ASW map, down at Brownsville, I placed batteries on both sides of the border, and they shoot at each other (mind you, there ARE "buildings" on both side for the "army base")

 

 

 

 

Also, it seems the artillery will engage the nearest target until it's destroyed then move on to the next nearest etc.

 

I believe this is how it works

[+baffmeister]

It might be that I didn't set things up quite right so will run some more tests. I expected the artillery to engage directly placed objects and have a vague recollection of that happening in the past, possibly with directly placed tanks engaging other objects.

[+baffmeister]

I actually saw some artillery engage some flak units on the Battle of the Bulge terrain and it was during a recon mission so it seems the artillery in SF2 must work in a similar fashion to FE2. The flak units were placed using the standard AAA set up in the types ini. I'm going to place some tanks, trucks and a ground target like a fuel tank or whatever to see what happens.

[+baffmeister]

I did a few more tests but still not sure whats going on with the artillery targeting. I directly placed a truck, tank, artillery piece, fuel tank and com building in range of some German artillery. The objects were all placed closer to the German artillery than an AAA piece and the artillery fired on the AAA piece. Tried blocking the view of the AAA with a building but that made no difference so I guess the only way to hide objects is using terrain. There's a chance the artillery is following some kind of priority list in the game engine but I've had enough with the testing. I might get a few more clues while targeting the Bulge terrain.